I was calculating my returns in my cryptocurrency portfolio. Something wasn't quite adding up though. I couldn't reconcile the amount of Bitcoin that I'd bought in total with the amount of Bitcoin that I had in my three Bitcoin wallets. I thought maybe I'd put some in another wallet that I couldn't remember having. Uh oh. I went through every transaction. All purchases. All transfers. All switches into other altcoins. I was still 0.05 BTC out. Then it dawned on me. These must be the fees I've paid to move Bitcoin around. 0.05 BTC!! Even 6 months ago, at those prices for a Bitcoin, it works out as a large sum of money. At USD 2,000/BTC, …
Cryptocurrencies
Profile and resources on Olaf Carlson-Wee, Founder of Polychain Capital
One of the most well-known investors in the cryptocurrency space is Olaf Carlson-Wee, the founder of crypto-hedge fund Polychain Capital. The first video I watched about him was a podcast from Y Combinator, between Aaron Harris and Olaf Carlson-Wee: In this video (posted on 19 July 2017): [02:25] Olaf talks about how hard it is to use traditional hedge fund strategies such as Long/Short and techniques such as margin trading when it comes to cryptocurrencies/digital assets (Olaf prefers the term 'digital assets' over 'cryptocurrencies' because he thinks that the blockchain technology has many more applications than just storing value and as …
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Essential advice to my friends and family asking about Bitcoin (BTC)
I've had quite a few conversations about Bitcoin in the last few days with friends and family, and not surprisingly. "Is it too late to get in?" Absolutely not. Yes it's around USD 10,000 right now but you would have asked the same question when BTC was at USD 5,000 or USD 7,000. In my opinion, Bitcoin's possible price moves from here could be huge. It's not a stretch to think that Bitcoin could get to USD 25,000 at some point next year. "Won't it all just crash?" Perhaps. There's some possible headwinds ahead. If the project lost trust (say through a huge hack like Mt. Gox in 2013), then sentiment would turn from positive to negative. So …
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This Wired article shows how difficult it can be to store your Bitcoins securely
I read this great Wired article by Mark Frauenfelder which was linked to from Autonomous NEXT's superb newsletter. The article is a cautionary tale of how hard it is to store large amounts of Bitcoin safely. It highlights one of the main differences between traditional fiat currencies and cryptocurrencies. In traditional finance, if you lost access to USD 30,000, then you would contact your bank and they would verify that it really was you and give you back access to your money. In cryptocurrencies however, you and you alone are responsible for your cryptocurrencies. If you lose access to them or they're stolen or whatever, then you have …
The 3 best Bitcoin wallets for storing your bitcoin (BTC)
Having the right Bitcoin wallet is absolutely fundamental to getting involved in Bitcoin. Without one, you can't send your purchased Bitcoins to a Bitcoin address. In which case, you can't buy Bitcoin. A Bitcoin address is like a bank account, except you hold the keys to that account, whether on your phone, on your desktop or on a hardware wallet. We talked before about the important factors in choosing a wallet. In this post, I'm going to tell you about the three best Bitcoin wallets and these are the three that I use personally myself. I actively use three wallets. This is because I don't want to put all of my eggs in one basket. I …
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$7,300 and rising. Will Bitcoin keep going up?
I've been asked by quite a few people recently whether it's too late to get into Bitcoin. "Surely it's going to crash soon?" they say. I said in a recent post that Bitcoin could get to USD 10,000 by the end of 2017. And I stand by that. What's behind the upwards momentum? Why is Bitcoin's rise seemingly relentless? Simply put, there are fewer sellers of Bitcoin who are willing to sell for less than USD 7,300 per Bitcoin at the moment. A month ago, sellers were willing to sell a Bitcoin for less than they are today. At that time, they were willing to sell at USD 5,500. Today, no one would sell a Bitcoin for USD 5,500. They would part with …
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This is my understanding of how Bitcoin works (simple)
Bitcoin is hard to understand. Maybe that's why there hasn't been mass adoption. So how does Bitcoin work? I'm a big believer in the adage 'if you can't explain something in a simple way, then you don't really understand it yourself'. So here's my simple understanding of how Bitcoin works. (Disclosure: I bought some Bitcoin before I actually understood it. I don't think that not understanding it means that you can't invest a bit into Bitcoin but that's the speculator in me!) Before we get into how Bitcoin works, first think about how traditional currency works Take the UK Pound Sterling. Physically: If I want to give you £10, then I go to …
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