| July 15, 2018 | Read in Browser |
 QUOTE OF THE DAY  |
| “Nothing's ever simple. I just don't want you to ignore possibilities out of fear. Sometimes you have to take a leap of faith, believing that somebody's going to catch you.” - Nadia Lee |
Happy Sunday! It's also the day of the final World Cup match so cheers to all our football fans. Remember, our giveaway is still happening so make sure to follow the rules to enter!
Cheers,
Blockchain Brew Team
| MARKETS |
| COIN | PRICE | 24H |
| | ||
| BTC | $6,356.30 | +1.59% |
| | ||
| ETH | $446.301 | +2.39% |
| | ||
| XRP | $0.444466 | +1.68% |
| | ||
| BCH | $718.87 | +3.13% |
| | ||
| EOS | $7.12654 | +2.35% |
| | ||
*Information as of 9:30 AM EST
| NEWS |
CEO of Polychain Capital Seeing 'Absolute Exodus' of Talent From Tech to Crypto
HIGH CONFIDENCE
- Yesterday, CEO of Polychain Capital Olaf Carlson-Wee exuded confidence about cryptocurrencies to Fortune despite the massive decline in value in the first half of 2018
- Carlson-Wee he chooses to focus on the long-term growth in his fund and isn't worried about the short-term bears
- His reason for this perspective comes from a positive outlook on the development progress in crypto outside of price
When asked whether the "crushing" of the current crypto markets is worrying, Carlson-Wee explained why he remains confident:
"Not at all. Having been in this full-time since 2011, I think it’s hard to communicate how much growth we’ve seen since then… what I pay attention to is not the month-to-month market price of these assets but rather the developer momentum around building novel applications – and today what we’re seeing is an absolute exodus from many of these major tech giants, Facebook, Google Linkedin Snapchat of really high-quality talent now starting cryptocurrency startups."
USE CASE HYPE?
- In addition to telling Fortune about why he remains confident in the market, Carlson-Wee also explained that scams aren't the only challenge with initial coin offerings (ICO)
- Though ICO scams are a huge issue with a recent report stating that 80% of all 2017 ICOs launched were scams, Carlson-Wee believes identifying ICOs with unique use cases is trickier
Carlson-Wee told Fortune about the ICO challenge outside of spotting scams:
"It's usually pretty easy to spot things that are outright fraudulent…the trickier thing is that among the top 5%, or even top 1% of projects out there – [it is] determining which architectures could be the best suited for new use cases. So a lot of what we think about is what really can be enabled in a novel manner through this technology, what are the novel, new behaviours a technology might enable."
| RESEARCH |
New Research Finds That Hodl May Not Be The Best Strategy
HODL MYTH
- The Hodl meme is extremely popular, people of the crypto world are constantly urging others to never sell their bags
- New research from Shrimpy indicates that if you are listening to the crowd and Hodling, you probably aren't getting the best returns
REBALANCE & DIVERSIFY
- Shrimpy's research shows that instead of Hodling your favorite coin it is best to rebalance and diversify your holdings
- Not only should you rebalance your portfolio, you should do it as often as possible
- Shrimpy also found that your portfolio's performance increases on average as the number of assets in it increase, so it is better to hold many assets than just your favorite
The results of their research is summarized in this table:
The median performance demonstrates that the higher the rebalance period with the higher number of assets presents the highest gains for rebalancing. Each value represents a percent increase OVER buy and hold. That means a value of 18 means the median of that group performed 18 percent BETTER than buy and hold. This demonstrates, even the absolute worst case performs better than by and hold, even after considering taxes.
| RESEARCH |
United States Ranks as 'Most Favorable' Country For ICOs, Report Finds
U.S. RANKED FIRST
- According to new research conducted by analysts associated with Crypto Finance Conference, the United States was ranked as the most favorable country to launch an initial coin offering (ICO)
- To decide the rankings, the researchers considered the top 100 ICOs in terms of funds raised
- Each country was then ranked by the number of projects that have been launched in each country
TOP 5 COUNTRIES
Below is a list of the top 5 countries with the most projects that appear in the top 100 ICOs in terms of funds raised:
- United States - 30 ICOs
- Switzerland - 15 ICOs
- Singapore - 11 ICOs
- Russia - 6 ICOs
- U.K., China, Cayman Islands - 4 ICOs
LOOKING FORWARD
- Though these rankings account for the success of ICOs launched in each country, it does not take into account regulations
- Currently, ICOs operating in the United States are being reviewed to see if they pass the Howey Test, a test to determine if the ICOs qualify as "investment contracts"
- With a heavy hammer weighing down on United States ICOs, many ICOs may plan to launch in a crypto safe haven instead to alleviate the legal headaches
| Q&A |
Q&A with Niffler.co
WEBSITE | TWITTER | TELEGRAM What is the story behind the founding of Niffler.co?
As traders ourselves and like everyone else playing in the space we've seen a huge uptick in the last year or so of friends and the general public looking to get into cryptocurrencies and crypto trading, but not knowing where to start. Most newbies are a little skittish to drop money into an exchange right away without having a clue what they're doing.
On the flip side, we also wanted a place where traders like us, your core audience of readers and other experienced traders could make money on a Patreon type model helping others learn as well and in that sense we like to think of Niffler.co as Coinbase meets Patreon, without the risk......
What is Niffler’s main mission and how is Niffler attempting to achieve this?
Great question...Mission wise, we truly believe that through gamification and rewards based education in a sandbox type environment comes mass adoption. How we achieve this is a two fold answer:
W/ newbies we allow them access to a live and real time simulated exchange while providing them with $100k in play money to trade with. This negates the risk of using their own capital on a real world exchange while still learning and possibly losing more then they are prepared to lose. Once they get good at it, they can rise to the status of a "trader" and get paid teaching and helping other newbies learn.
W/ experienced traders, the Niffler.co platform not only allows you to make money as well by helping others (view your trades, upload TA's, Trading View screenshots, links to your YouTube Channel etc etc), but also use their Niffler.co profile, ranking on the leaderboard, and their earned badges as a calling card to invite and monetize their followers on other channels they are on ie Reddit, YouTube, Twitter etc. Niffler also allows experienced traders the opportunity get a second opinion on their real world trades from other top traders by following their trades in real time as well allowing them to hone their skills, risk thresholds via comparison tracking etc. Experienced traders can also challenge each other 1v1, lay money on the line to see who's truly top dog.
What significant upcoming milestones should Niffler users be aware of?
The team is ramping up as we speak and we're currently taking pre-registers. Pre-registered users will get early Beta access, the ability to reserve their preferred trading handle, as well as getting an early adopter badge in their profile. Closed beta launch and invites will be sent out roughly around the last 2 weeks of August.
Launch is scheduled for the 1st week of September and our first "Top The Leaderboard Trader Challenge" for $1k starts October 1st, so get in early!
What are the toughest challenges your team has encountered so far?
The platform is fairly large and has a lot of moving parts as you can imagine. A big challenge surprisingly was Stripe integration in terms of allowing for the Patreon type model as well as some other unique custom payment solutions that make sure experienced traders as well as up and coming newbies who make it to the status of traders helping others get paid and get paid on a recurring basis. It's all sorted out now, but wasn't as easy as one thinks. We seriously owe one to some really great friends at Stripe for working on this with us.
Where do you see the crypto industry as a whole in 5 years and what role does Niffler play in that scenario?
We are all in and all firm believers in crypto and the good it can do for the world. In 5 years we would love to see more people having a deeper understanding of crypto than what we currently have at the moment. To get there, we feel that we have to do our part in achieving mass adoption through education. We know not every user on Niffler will want to become a top trader, however we do want to give our users the motivation to learn about crypto and be able to do that without risking their capital while also allowing the hard working, risk taking experienced traders an avenue to make money by sharing their knowledge.
To stay updated on Niffler.co and pre-register for their platform, click here.
| GIVEAWAY |
IT'S GIVEAWAY TIME!
That's right. It's giveaway time. This time we are giving away 3 copies of @cointradernik's newest book An Altcoin Trader's Handbook!
HOW TO ENTER:
- Click the 'Win Your Copy' button above
- Forward the Blockchain Brew newsletter to 3 new people
That's it! We will be tracking the results and announcing winners in the Friday, July 20th newsletter.
P.S. Don't miss this opportunity...this may be the easiest way to get a free book in your lifetime:)
| MORE BREWING |
- What Crypto Really Thinks About Litecoin's Banking Ambitions
- First Bitcoin Two-Way ATM Installed, Malta’s Digital Transformation on the Go
- Greek Court Rules to Extradite Alexander Vinnik, Accused of Laundering $4 Billion in Bitcoin
| TODAY IN CRYPTO |
Today in Crypto is powered by coinmarketcal.com
| COIN OF THE DAY |
 |
| Mainframe (MFT) |
|---|
| Mainframe is the platform for decentralized applications. Resistant to censorship, surveillance, and disruption, the Mainframe network enables any application to send data, store files, manage payments, run tasks, and more. With the exception of a catastrophic asteroid event or an aggressive alien invasion, the Mainframe network is simply unstoppable. |
| WEBSITE | TWITTER | REDDIT |
| MEME |
| SUBSCRIBE | FEEDBACK | ADVERTISE |
   |
| The above is not intended to be investment advice. |
| 1317 8th Street SE, Minneapolis, MN 55414. |
| If you don't absolutely love us, drop us, click here. |
| Copyright © 2018 Blockchain Brew, All rights reserved. |
