bitcoin - What We're Reading - StockBuz2024-03-29T12:02:04Zhttp://stockbuz.ning.com/articles/feed/tag/bitcoinBitcoins Crash vs. The Pasthttp://stockbuz.ning.com/articles/bitcoins-crash-vs-the-past2021-05-25T00:46:01.000Z2021-05-25T00:46:01.000ZStockBuzhttp://stockbuz.ning.com/members/1t2xbcvddkrir<div><h2><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/8969455067?profile=RESIZE_1200x" target="_blank"><img class="align-left" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/8969455067?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="710" alt="8969455067?profile=RESIZE_710x" /></a>Bitcoin’s Latest Crash: Not the First, Not the Last</h2>
<p>While bitcoin has been one of the world’s best performing assets over the past 10 years, the cryptocurrency has had its fair share of volatility and price corrections.</p>
<p>Using data from <a href="https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/bitcoin/" target="_blank">CoinMarketCap</a>, this graphic looks at bitcoin’s historical price corrections from all-time highs.</p>
<p>With bitcoin already down <strong>~15%</strong> from its all-time high, Elon Musk’s tweet announcing Tesla would stop accepting bitcoin for purchases helped send the cryptocurrency down more than <strong>50%</strong> from the top, dipping into the $30,000 price area.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Tesla has suspended vehicle purchases using Bitcoin. We are concerned about rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels for Bitcoin mining and transactions, especially coal, which has the worst emissions of any fuel.”<br /> <cite>– <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk" target="_blank"><em>@Elonmusk</em></a></cite></p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Crypto Cycle Top or Bull Run Pullback?</h2>
<p>It’s far too early to draw any conclusions from bitcoin’s latest drop despite 30-40% pullbacks being common pit stops across bitcoin’s various bull runs.</p>
<p>While this drop fell a bit more from high to low than the usual bull run pullback, bitcoin’s price has since recovered and is hovering around $39,000, about a 40% drop from the top.</p>
<p>Whether or not this is the beginning of a new downtrend or the ultimate dip-buying opportunity, there has been a clear change in sentiment (and price) after Elon Musk tweeted about bitcoin’s sustainability concerns.</p>
<h2>The Decoupling: Blockchain, not Bitcoin</h2>
<p>Bitcoin and its energy intensive consensus protocol “proof-of-work” has come under scrutiny for the <a href="https://www.visualcapitalist.com/visualizing-the-power-consumption-of-bitcoin-mining/" target="_blank">129 terawatt-hours</a> it consumes annually for its network functions.</p>
<p>Some other cryptocurrencies already use less energy-intensive consensus protocols, like Cardano’s proof-of-stake, Solana’s proof-of-history, or Nyzo’s proof-of-diversity. With the second largest cryptocurrency, <a href="https://www.visualcapitalist.com/mapping-major-ethereum-forks/" target="_blank">Ethereum</a>, also preparing to shift away from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake, this latest bitcoin drop could mark a potential decoupling in the cryptocurrency market.</p>
<p>In just the past two months, bitcoin’s dominance in the crypto ecosystem has fallen from over <strong>70%</strong> to <strong>43%</strong>.</p>
<table id="tablepress-1627" class="tablepress tablepress-id-1627">
<thead>
<tr class="row-1 odd">
<th class="column-1">Date</th>
<th class="column-2">Bitcoin Dominance</th>
<th class="column-3">Ethereum Dominance</th>
<th class="column-4">Other Cryptocurrency</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody class="row-hover">
<tr class="row-2 even">
<td class="column-1">End of 2020</td>
<td class="column-2">70.98%</td>
<td class="column-3">11.09%</td>
<td class="column-4">17.93%</td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-3 odd">
<td class="column-1">January</td>
<td class="column-2">63.09%</td>
<td class="column-3">15.39%</td>
<td class="column-4">21.52%</td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-4 even">
<td class="column-1">February</td>
<td class="column-2">61.73%</td>
<td class="column-3">11.96%</td>
<td class="column-4">26.31%</td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-5 odd">
<td class="column-1">March</td>
<td class="column-2">60.19%</td>
<td class="column-3">12.14%</td>
<td class="column-4">27.67%</td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-6 even">
<td class="column-1">April</td>
<td class="column-2">50.18%</td>
<td class="column-3">14.92%</td>
<td class="column-4">34.90%</td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-7 odd">
<td class="column-1">May</td>
<td class="column-2">43.25%</td>
<td class="column-3">18.59%</td>
<td class="column-4">38.16%</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p><span style="font-size:14px;"><em>Source: <a href="https://www.tradingview.com/symbols/CRYPTOCAP-BTC.D/" target="_blank">TradingView</a></em></span></p>
<p>While the decoupling narrative has grown alongside Ethereum’s popularity as it powers NFTs and decentralized finance applications, it’s worth noting that the last time bitcoin suffered such a steep drop in dominance was the crypto market’s last cycle top in early 2018.</p>
<p>For now, the entire crypto market has pulled back, with the total cryptocurrency space’s market cap going from a high of $2.56T to today’s $1.76T (a 30% decline).</p>
<p>While the panic selling seems to have finished, the next few weeks will define whether this was just another dip to buy, or the beginning of a steeper decline.</p>
<p>Courtesy of <a href="https://www.visualcapitalist.com/bitcoin-historical-corrections-from-all-time-highs/" target="_blank">Visualcapitalist</a></p></div>Market Predictions For 2018? Bring 'Em On!http://stockbuz.ning.com/articles/market-predictions-for-2018-bring-em-on2017-12-12T19:13:54.000Z2017-12-12T19:13:54.000ZStockBuzhttp://stockbuz.ning.com/members/1t2xbcvddkrir<div><h2 id="ae-body">Saxo Bank has a few</h2>
<p><img title="" class="cms-png img-responsive" src="http://az705044.vo.msecnd.net/20171212/2017-12-12_10-26-20.png" /></p>
<p>Naturally, predictions like this are more for bank PR than education but they have some value.</p>
<p>For one, they're a reminder that unexpected, huge and unpredictable moves happen in markets. And they happen far more often than we expect.</p>
<p>The thing is, they usually happen somewhere you least expect.</p>
<p>As for this set of predictions, let's hope this trader is you (from the report):</p>
<p>"World markets are increasingly full of signs and wonders, and the collapse of volatility seen across asset classes in 2017 was no exception. The historic lows in the VIX and MOVE indices are matched by record highs in stocks and real estate, and the result is a powder keg that is set to blow sky-high as the S&P 500 loses 25% of its value in a rapid, spectacular, one-off move reminiscent of 1987. A whole swathe of short volatility funds are completely wiped out and a formerly unknown long volatility trader realises a 1000% gain and instantly becomes a legend."</p>
<p>Courtesy of <a href="http://www.forexlive.com/news/!/who-wants-some-outrageous-predictions-for-2018-20171212" target="_blank">ForexLive</a></p>
</div>All of the World’s Money and Marketshttp://stockbuz.ning.com/articles/all-of-the-world-s-money-and-markets2017-10-26T20:47:14.000Z2017-10-26T20:47:14.000ZStockBuzhttp://stockbuz.ning.com/members/1t2xbcvddkrir<div><p>When we talk about the giant size of Apple, the fortune of Warren Buffett, or the massive amount of global debt accumulated – all of these things sound large, but they are actually extremely different in magnitude.</p>
<p>That’s why visualizing things spatially can give us a better perspective on money and markets.</p>
<h2 style="margin-top: 0;">How Much Money Exists?</h2>
<p>This infographic was initially created to show how much money exists in its different forms. For example, to highlight how much physical cash there is in comparison to broader measures of money which include saving and checking account deposits.</p>
<p>Interestingly, what is considered “money” depends on who you are asking.</p>
<p>Are the abstractions created by Central Banks really money? What about gold, bitcoins, or other hard assets?</p>
<h2 style="margin-top: 0;">A New Meaning</h2>
<p>However, since we first released this infographic in 2015, “All the World’s Money and Markets” has taken on a different meaning to us and many others. It’s a way of simplifying a complex universe of currencies, assets, and other financial instruments in a way that people can understand.</p>
<p>Numbers represented in the data visualization range from the size of the above-ground silver market ($17 billion) to the notional value of all derivatives ($1.2 quadrillion as a high-end estimate). In between those two extremes, we’ve added many other familiar measures, such as the GDP of California, the value of equities, the real estate market, along with different money supply metrics to give perspective.</p>
<p>The end result? A visually pleasing, but enlightening new way to understand the vast universe of global assets.</p>
<div style="clear: both;"><a href="http://www.visualcapitalist.com/worlds-money-markets-one-visualization-2017/"><img src="http://2oqz471sa19h3vbwa53m33yj.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/all-the-worlds-money-infographic.png" border="0" /></a></div>
<div>Courtesy of: <a href="http://www.visualcapitalist.com">Visual Capitalist</a></div>
</div>What Ideas Are Trending Among Tech’s Biggest Influencers?http://stockbuz.ning.com/articles/what-ideas-are-trending-among-tech-s-biggest-influencers2017-06-18T21:04:59.000Z2017-06-18T21:04:59.000ZStockBuzhttp://stockbuz.ning.com/members/1t2xbcvddkrir<div><p>Y Combinator, one of best-known Silicon Valley accelerators, has an impressive track record of success. With well-timed investments in Dropbox, Stripe, and Airbnb, the startups in the company’s portfolio are now worth an aggregate of $600 billion in market capitalization.</p>
<p>While Y Combinator has made a clear impact on the tech sector, the company also launched an internal side project in 2007 that would end up becoming highly influential in a different and surprising way.</p>
<p>Its user-powered news aggregator called <a href="http://news.ycombinator.com">Hacker News</a>, which is now visited by 20 million people per month, has become a mainstay for entrepreneurs, tech professionals, and venture capitalists around the world. Using a Reddit-like interface, users can upvote and downvote articles that they think have the most relevance to trends and issues affecting the tech sector.</p>
<h2 style="margin-top: 0;">Data Mining For Trends</h2>
<p>Today’s charts come to us from <a href="http://varianceexplained.org/r/hn-trends/">Variance Explained</a>, and they help to paint a picture of what topics have been trending on Hacker News over the last 3.5 years.</p>
<p>Using data from over 1 million subject lines, we can see which topics are being mentioned with increasing frequency by the site’s community of technology influencers.</p>
<p><img src="http://2oqz471sa19h3vbwa53m33yj.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/trending-up-hacker-news.png" alt="="The" /></p>
<p>As you can see, words like “AI”, “artificial”, “bot”, “deep”, “neural”, and “learning” are key terms that have growing interest within the community. It shows that the buzz around AI and deep learning is widespread and happening on multiple fronts.</p>
<p>Donald Trump was also a hot topic of debate in Hacker News, as evidenced by the increase in mentions.</p>
<h2 style="margin-top: 0;">Cooling Off</h2>
<p>Here are some of the words in the community used with decreasing frequency over the same 3.5 year timeframe:</p>
<p><img src="http://2oqz471sa19h3vbwa53m33yj.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/trending-down-hacker-news.png" alt="The fastest-declining words in Hacker News titles" /></p>
<p>Over time, as the rubber hits the road, we get to see which ideas have staying power.</p>
<p>Google Glass, as cool as it was, ended up not directly revolutionizing how we use augmented reality. Likewise, Edward Snowden’s revelations about the NSA and surveillance seemed to have also dropped out of discussion.</p>
<p>On the flipside, some of these concepts also seem to have transitioned to the mainstream. Bitcoin and other altcoins, for example, are now more popular than ever before with a market capitalization of over <a href="http://www.visualcapitalist.com/chart-coin-universe-keeps-expanding/">$100 billion</a>. Likewise, iPads, Gmail, and Kickstarter are pretty ubiquitous, but it could be argued that discussion on these topics is now pretty staid for the idea-hungry folks that frequent Hacker News.</p>
<h2 style="margin-top: 0;">Blockchain vs. Bitcoin</h2>
<p>It’s also interesting to see the contrasting popularity of two related terms among Hacker News participants.</p>
<p>Bitcoin-related talk, at least on Hacker News, was hot in late-2013 after the price skyrocketed for the first time. The blockchain, on the other hand, took some time to pick up steam among influencers.</p>
<p><img src="http://2oqz471sa19h3vbwa53m33yj.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/bitcoin-blockchain.png" alt="The popularity of Blockchain vs. Bitcoin on Hacker News" /></p>
<p></p>
<p>Fast-forward to today, and the concept of the blockchain is much more fleshed out.</p>
<p>It took time, but the blockchain is now considered to be a foundational technology that is affecting everything from how <a href="http://www.visualcapitalist.com/blockchain-backbone-stock-market/">how stock markets work</a>, to the proof of ownership for digital assets.</p>
<p>Courtesy of <a href="http://www.visualcapitalist.com/trending-techs-biggest-influencers/" target="_blank">VisualCapitalist</a></p>
</div>