CryptocurrencyScripts

Tag: bitcoin

Bitcoin is stronger with its ‘Taproot’

A couple of weeks ago; you could simply describe bitcoin as ‘a sophisticated payment technology’ and still make a whole lot of sense. Very reasonable when you consider the fact that the bitcoin blockchain which powers the alpha cryptocurrency is built to simplify peer-to-peer financial transactions while employing some very clever tokenomics and economic principles. Bitcoin maxis would easily frown when you describe their beloved investment this way; but yeah, I’m no maxi.

This description categorizes bitcoin as a payment technology. Sorry, but you can shake that idea off now.

Hello Ethereum! Not so soon anyways…guess I got too stoned by the thought of what can be achieved with bitcoin following its latest upgrade. More private transactions, increased efficiency, and of course smart…

Hey, before going further, have you Followed us on Twitter?

In case you missed the news; at block 709,632 the bitcoin taproot upgrade went live. Bringing into life what has been described as the biggest bitcoin upgrade since its inception the Taproot upgrade is the bitcoin blockchain’s first upgrade in the last four years. Over five months of thorough testing and optimization, the Taproot finally grows!

And if you’re still wondering how big this is for bitcoin and cryptocurrency, it is HUGE.

In addition to the current “Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm” (ECDSA), the Taproot upgrade introduces the “Schnorr signatures”. ECDSA creates a signature from the private key that controls a bitcoin wallet and ensures that bitcoin can only be spent by the rightful owner. When used to sign multiple-signature transactions, the Schnorr signature algorithm adds a privacy layer to multi-signature transactions.

‘Privacy layer’ might sound too complicated for what the Schnorr signature actually does. The Schnorr signature combines the signatories of a multiple-signature transaction into one signature. The individual signatories in this transaction are a little bit more ‘hidden’ as the transaction is represented with only one signature.

In addition to improved privacy for multi-sig transactions, the Schnorr signature can be used to significantly reduce the size of multi-sig payments and other multi-sig-related transactions, for example, lightning channel transactions. It not only makes these transactions more private and secure; but trimming the size of the transactions’ data makes for more efficiency in execution.

Smart contracts? Arguably the most important feature of the Taproot upgrade…

I’d say the Schnorr Signature is the real game-changer. Currently, smart contracts can be created on bitcoin’s core protocol layer and also on the Lightning Network. The lightning network is a payment platform built on bitcoin, it improves bitcoin transaction speed and enables almost instant transactions. Smart contracts on the Lightning Network are notably faster and less costly when compared to smart contracts on the bitcoin core blockchain.

By compressing multiple signatures into a single signature and greatly reducing the size of multiple signature transactions, the Taproot upgrade is set to add a whole new level of efficiency and speed to smart contracts on the bitcoin core blockchain and the lightning network as well.

An efficient smart contract platform with privacy features for multi-sig transactions unlocks more possibilities for the bitcoin blockchain. In a blink, you could think about a handful of new applications this could power.

With a ‘Taproot’; the bitcoin blockchain is stronger than it has ever been. Technologically this is a huge step forward. Bitcoin to 100k EOY? Well, ‘effect on price’ is not a yardstick for measuring technological breakthroughs. If it was, bitcoin climbing past $0.1 million would be an understatement.

02/01/2023
The 2022 Scripts: CryptocurrencyScripts Annual report!

You read through our content while we watched the charts and wrote even more. Not sure what the charts felt like, for you, but it’s generally not fun to watch the whole space weaken against a band of the worst financial news you ever heard. We could go on and on about how 2022 was a year to forget for the cryptocurrency markets, but since “it’s not about the money”, we will put that aside and detail you on how we fared this year!

Well, if the coffee hits the right spot, we might put out a 2022 summary. Hint: The title will be “Death to 2022”

CryptocurrencyScripts is “keeping up”; keeping up with events, with the bankruptcy, and hooking you up with these events in the most fun way, if you missed any of your 2022 publications, you can get to them here.

Closing in on what has been another amazing year for us, we did a couple of plausible stuff, and here’s a spoiler, We didn’t go bankrupt…at least not yet.

In 2022 we:

Didn’t stop writing

You know that popular where condition writers run out of ideas? We can’t really get the proper word for that but that’s because we didn’t experience it in 2022. One sentence after the other and we built quite a good number of words and put them out, one content after the other. We literally discussed crypto and wrote some nice scripts…they all played out!

Collaborated with other projects

CryptocurrencyScripts is powered by writers, as individual writers, and as a collective team, we have been involved in quite a reasonable number of projects. CryptocurrencyScripts in 2022 delivered content for cryptocurrency startups like Inocyx, Mosdex, Sleefi, CoinLore, MetaApes, and a few more. Affiliated writers have taken up writing roles at reputable cryptocurrency projects like CoinGecko, Gate exchange, Citizen (CTZN), OKX exchange, Tokenguard, and even more. We are excited to share our skills with other brilliant projects in the space!

Launched our official blog!

Yeah, have you seen this? The cryptocurrencyScripts blog is officially live! We are progressing with our goal of gaining a bigger internet presence and reaching out to even more readers with our content. As part of this goal, an official website has been added to our list of outlets. We will simultaneously maintain these channels and make additions and removals as the need may be. Visit and bookmark our official website!

Watched the charts

Like the space, we watched the charts. Unfortunately, we witnessed many meteorites fall. In fact, the whole charts look like fallen stars making their way to the center of the earth. The gravitational pull was fierce. Anyways, if Mr. Sam could post that $250 million bail, then he might also come back to save FTX and the whole space. He just needs 100X more.

Spent Quality time with you!

We develop our content like discussions, open opinions calling for arguments and criticisms and each time we post them, we get just what we want! A good number of readers raising their arguments in the comment sections and interacting with other readers; that’s exactly the plan! We spent a good time replying to the comments directed at us and reading the interaction! Time well-spent!

Awesome year! I heard you say that, but we are not relenting in our mission to keep you refreshed in a space that makes sure you don’t get any refreshments. Moving into another positive year, we hope to do better.

So, in 2023, we will:

Continue writing

As long as this space continues to welcome new developments every second, our pen will continue to flow. Even when we run out of ideas, the next pump or dump is already a good way to start. We promised to keep price talks at the minimum though. Nevermind, you won’t need to worry about our articles telling you about “the Next 1000X”. We will continue writing, you can count on that!

Continue to grow

In 2022, we saw a significant increase in external collaborations, as a team and individual writers. This is a positive development for our growth. We are exploring ways to disperse our services and grow the project itself. In 2023, we hope to come up with solutions and implement them. In addition, we are also ruminating on ways to improve readers’ experience and be even more resourceful to our audience. These we hope to tackle in the coming year.

Love to work with you

One of the main goals of CryptocurrencyScripts is to build around itself, a community. A community of people who wish to discuss cryptocurrency and not only “get rich quick” schemes. We hope to welcome our readers to our Telegram channel and grow as a discussion community without necessarily issuing tokens or going deep into monetization. Stay hooked with us and let us how we can improve on this!

What more can we say? Thank you! we are just a class of clueless writers building words on the internet. Our time in the space has been a beautiful one, this is only possible because you are devoted to giving us your attention. If you spent the whole year shorting cryptocurrencies, then you must be reading this from your Tesla Model Y, else, the public buses are still a fun thing…pun intended. Notwithstanding, we appreciate your contributions and see you in 2023!

Here’s a list of our outlets!

25/12/2022
Just like bitcoin, Ethereum is not an Altcoin.

Every cryptocurrency enthusiast holds bitcoin in high esteem. The market placed Ethereum just below it, can’t say the same for a majority of cryptocurrency investors. Despite occupying the second position, a wide gap exists between Bitcoin and Ethereum, in terms of market capitalization. Not considering ‘First to market privilege’, bitcoin’s prestige and the portion of the market it controls are quite justifiable. Revolutionary technology, a devoted community, and a long list of ‘copies. Furnishing the whole space, it has created a major ecosystem and every other cryptocurrency project benefit from its relevance; Speaking of which spreads across disciplines and school of thought. Politics, finance, governance, mathematics…the list is continuous.

Bitcoin’s breakthrough set off a spiral; exact copies and slightly modified copies of bitcoin’s code and functionality soon emerged. Just like the recent DeFi boom, these copies were simply bitcoin with a different name and tokenomics (probably). The term “Altcoin” was invented to accord these alternatives a more generalized name. A proper name in my opinion. An even funnier name — Shitcoin was invented by a growing community of bitcoin maximalists as a better definition of these bitcoin offspring. This group still exists and believes in the nothingness of every other cryptocurrency/blockchain project; a notion I disagree with but wouldn’t combat. Well; if we are being fair, the majority of altcoins fit perfectly into the ‘shitcoin’ description.

If you tried paying the least attention to Ethereum, the above story is familiar. Tons of ‘killers’; copying Ethereum exact code (almost) and running different consensus algorithms. These alternative projects have survived mainly off the fact that they offer a faster and cheaper platform than Ethereum’s Layer-1. Ethereum has resisted these competitions to remain the most used and ‘copied’ blockchain project. Apart from enjoying the ‘first to market’ benefits, Ethereum’s resistance to these competitions is majorly thanks to its brilliance, originality, the fact that it houses the most reputable projects pronounced instability of alternative projects; and thanks to a strong maximalist community.

“Originator of many things”, countless ‘copies’ and a strong maximalist community; these terms are peculiar to bitcoin and Ethereum…only. Both are in a league of their own; bitcoin controls a market capitalization of almost double Ethereum’s, but in terms of technological relevance, it is a close duel. Ethereum’s technological advancement is a level above bitcoin’s. OG bitcoiners would disagree, but even the recent tap root upgrade adopts some of Ethereum’s technology.

An alternative should share tangible similarities to the originator and improve on its core technology. This is the case with the numerous forks and copies of bitcoin. Pretty much ‘re-invented wheels’. This is the same with the uncountable Ethereum copies as well. Ethereum itself is a huge improvement and many steps away from bitcoin’s P2P technology.

Apart from recreating bitcoin’s decentralized value exchange system; Ethereum built a proper platform on the blockchain. A versatile platform of limitless potential. Smart contract and Decentralized application technology are novel and brainchild of Vitalik Buterin and his team of founders. Several projects have emerged separately to improve on this; basically working on improvements to the functionality and not the core technology itself. Even more, projects have been built directly on the Ethereum blockchain. Ethereum boasts the largest and most diverse blockchain ecosystem.

A personal opinion but bitcoin and Ethereum are the two most prestigious blockchain projects. Bitcoin has championed the political and economic revolution, a major factor keeping it afloat. Ethereum represents the biggest advancement in blockchain technology in terms of proper technology. Bitcoin maximalists frown at calling the orange coin ‘a cryptocurrency’; but placing Ethereum in the rank of an altcoin is an even bigger sin. Bitcoiners disagree; a big delusion.

25/12/2022
Greed will catalyze the next bull run

“Bull run comes around once in four years or just after a bitcoin halving”; I have my calendar set to July 2024; but just like my early morning alarms, I’m likely to miss it. Apart from the halving, the 2021 bull run was thought to be triggered by institutional adoption of bitcoin and cryptocurrency…at least that’s what they said. That’s not wrong anyways; Elon Musk dipped some of his Tesla money into bitcoin and spent most hours of his early 2021 days shouting “to the moon”. He’s deep in losses if he still holds on to those bitcoins. I hope DogeCoin is still very much around when his son grows up. He has a huge stash of some Dog coins to inherit…I heard. Not just the rocket man, even Tim cook applauded bitcoin at some point. If there’s anything like ‘Tech leaders’; these two guys should be somewhere up the list with Satoshi Nakamoto and Vitalik Buterin…of course. A worthy mention; Charles Hoskinson; you disagree…I know.

On speculations of institutional adoption of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology, a handful of enterprise-level cryptocurrency projects grew to sky-levels in just six months… or less. Social media did its bit, the hype was many levels above the propaganda. DeFi, GameFi, (and ‘MemeFi’) were the rave. Mark Zuckerberg was destined to have a huge influence on the crypto space. Despite failing with his ambitious Diem project, his Metaverse ambitions have been championed by pump-and-dump cryptocurrency projects. Elon Musk pioneered dog-themed shitcoins; Mark introduced a popular prefix for the next generation of Hype projects. Hats off to Elon though; billion-dollar projects came to life thanks to Dog tags.

For a bull run that was “catalyzed’ by institutional adoption”, even the most innovative cryptocurrencies struggled to make the top search lists in some of the world’s most technologically advanced nations. Bitcoin’s record-setting $67,500 price was just about 3 times its previous record. $100,000 was meant to be a deserved price. That didn’t happen, not when the ‘OGs’ were busy throwing their money on some moon and ‘inu’ tokens and the newbies were struggling to survive the rampant rug pulls. Clean, rinse, repeat; even Hwang Dong-hyuk ‘s Squid game birthed some notable cryptocurrency projects. You can find them languishing in almost zero trading volume while their creators make a living off those funds pulled off the rug.

Simply put, the previous bull run was triggered by Greed. No, not ‘institutional investors’. Elon Musk and Jack Dorsey have always been pro-bitcoin and never hid their appreciation for the technology. Micheal Saylor has always channeled that MicroStrategy money into the orange coin and JP Morgan didn’t start talking about cryptocurrencies two years ago. The halving cycle and the institutional investors’ propaganda only triggered human greed which subsequently caused a hurricane of ‘dumb money’ thrown at everything that runs on a blockchain.

Once it runs on a blockchain, then it’s the future. It was that simple, yet funny. Even the blue-chip projects had huge loopholes in their technology and management. But it’s hard to care one bit when you have a moon flight to catch. DogeCoin raced to $0.7 per coin despite over 130 billion coins in circulation. This wasn’t because it “had a better economy than bitcoin” but because this exact statement was made by the richest man on earth and a lifelong fan of the fun token. Calling the tenth biggest cryptocurrency a ‘fun token’ feels odd anyways.

Like a beast unleashed, the whole space ran haywire. Frequent rug pulls couldn’t quench the raging greed from a horde of investors. When one 1000X project crashes, another is born. It only takes one popular influencer or music star and the gains start to roll in.

An almost exact scenario as the 2017 bull run. We thought that won’t repeat itself; it did…even worse. Taking a look at the 2017 raves that were short-lived, 2017 investors had way less greed. Investors were supposed to be more informed with time; turns out this wasn’t the case. The crypto space is a field of emotions; greed being the principal emotion. The ‘Bigger fool’ theory works here; no doubt.

The next bull run? Not sure the exact time that will come, but it will come when there is enough greed. If there are any handy metrics to watch, it’s the greed and fear index; not the halving or institutional investments…if that was ever a thing.

25/12/2022
2022 Bear market: The ‘Big players’ ruined the game.

“Your last chance to buy bitcoin at $30K” may sound like a failed prediction, but on a second and deeper thought, your favorite influencer and ‘trader’ might be right. Judging from recent events, bitcoin at 30k is a huge target and is growing further every day. “Plan B” might have gotten his $100,000 bitcoin prediction wrong, but he’ll have more issues if he actually followed his own analysis and bought through them. Most influencers are too clever to follow their own predictions anyways. No jibe about his brilliance anyways, his analyses are still reasonable. Unfortunately, the crypto market hardly follows ‘fundamentals’

Bitcoin was close to some historic values. $69,000 would have been an orgasmic figure, things like that don’t happen too often…naturally. A slow and rather disappointing regression followed; hitting lower points and breaking downward resistances, bitcoin’s off-brake downtrend pulled the rest of the crypto market into a great depression. The bull market looked all synthetic; the market always looked programmed, but this time it was close to obvious. A total market capitalization of $5 trillion was realistic. If bitcoin reached the $100,000 target, that would have been easily possible…

Everyone is a hero in a bull market. Billion-dollar meme coin projects, tons of high-profile airdrops, invincible traders, and ‘rich folks’. The buzz was felt worldwide; Peter Schiff tried to warn everyone and squeeze in his gold superiority arguments along the line. Wasn’t a really good time for him; can’t say the same about the current situation.

Under the flourishing market, a number of projects rose to absolute fame and reveled in bitcoin’s glory to create wealth…and a little bit of utility. Corny developers had their feast and quickly filled the space with tons of projects built in the shortest time by a team of rookies who joined the space when Elon Musk was riding his doge to the moon. Heard he’s got a court case to attend to in that respect. Well, the dogefather went from moon to court, not a bad move…at all. I’m certain he has enough wits to pull that one off, easily.

Elon’s SNL session marked the absolute top for bitcoin and dogeCoin. I’m forever skeptical about the “to the moon” slogan. Things gradually went from bright to dim and the bandwagon of mainstream artists claiming to have adopted blockchain technology quickly began to disperse. Lil Yachty and Soulja Boy made more from their shills than they ever made from jumping in and out of the booth. Making money has never been so easy. ‘Lil Boat’ never bothered to release an album since then. I wouldn’t blame him though, his last one was forgotten too quickly and he certainly has more people listening to his shills than his mumble raps.

Do Kwon at the peak of his wealth might be worth a few billion, but his ego was worth many times that figure. It’s logical anyways, USDC was meant to die by his hands; the reverse was the case but he did put up a good fight. Unfortunately, LUNA investors took all the hit while he was left to worry about a strange knock on his door. The Luna2.0 incentive must have saved him from more strange knocks. Airdrop recipients who managed to sell at launch probably made some of their money back. Can’t say the same about those who held on. The new Luna is 90% down already, and the old Luna…you’ll need a stick to count the zeros. All good, it was fun while it lasted.

A few friends were comfortably living off the returns they got on the bitcoin they locked on Celsius’ lending platform. The temperature quickly got too hot and it was all close to melting. Don’t know the exact degree but somewhere above the boiling point of water. Celsius claimed to be decentralized, but just like my bank, users’ funds were locked when the market conditions became ‘unfavorable’. Alright, they offered more returns than my bank anyways, so I’d still stick to the juicier offer, even if it means risking being liquidated along with the rest of the market.

3AC? A very long story I’d love to skip…

While traders’ and investors’ greed rose to its highest levels; developers’ and project teams’ egos and arrogance also grew to similar levels. You could get the coldest replies for suggesting a fix for some discovered bugs. Who cares about bugs and fixes when prices are going haywire and investors are rugged slowly and swiftly? The big players in the space basked in the health market to fill up their pockets and cared less about the feasibility of their solutions and the sustainability of their strategies.

The real argument is if they had any strategy at all. LUNA and UST’s collapse probably clouded a lot of events, but a few other stablecoins got pretty unstable. Justin Sun mastered the act of following the trend; USDD was basically born in an attempt to bring the Luna sort of price growth to the Tron ecosystem. USDD was in no way an improvement from UST. Just another copy facing the same issue. In Mr. Sun’s case, $600 million is an easier war to fight. USDD stays de-pegged for a number of days now. His Excellency will ultimately do something when his stablecoin gets to the same price as Cardano.

It’s another situation where I find enough reason to justify bitcoin maximalists’ stand on altcoins and any other thing apart from bitcoin. The orange coin’s tragic fall to $17,000 is a result of these irregularities from ‘shitcoin’ projects. that name has never been more proper. Microstrategy will have to bear their losses for now while Elon Musk gets himself a lawyer, there are a few hundred billion on the line. The rest of the space will have to hope we don’t fall into a proper “great depression”

25/12/2022
Newbie to “crypto rich”: 4 tips for your journey.

You know those ‘zero to crypto rich’ stories? Yeah, they are very common in the crypto space. A couple of them are obviously bloated and there’s more to the story. Growing your portfolio is not rocket science anyways and through clever strategies, one can go from zero to ‘crypto rich’. How fast this happens is, however, dependent on a number of factors without one point of control.

Whether you’re here for the technology or for the ‘riches’; one thing for sure is; you’ll surely be gladdened by an improved position in the few projects you’re invested in. Regardless of how much you wish to diversify your portfolio, missing out on tons of brilliant projects is inevitable. Well, you only need to get it right with your few investments. Over-diversification hasn’t really worked anyways.

First, a start, then improvements and growth. The first step is to make your move into the crypto space. You’ll be amazed by the number of enticing projects that greets you. Depending on factors personal to you, you can only invest in just a few of them.

And do you really need capital to start? If you consider time as an important resource, then yes. Else, time and dedication are all it takes to make a head start.

Financially buoyant investors can simply go ahead to seed cash on any crypto that impresses them enough; otherwise, here are four tips to grow your cryptocurrency portfolio with little or no capital.

Invest your skill and knowledge.

Unlike more other investment spheres, the crypto space is home to unimaginable opportunities. Like a world of its own, there’s room for almost anything and anyone. One way to hasten your growth is to get involved. Putting your skills to work can avail you of opportunities to earn even more cryptocurrencies. From crypto-earning blogging platforms like hive, steem, and publish0x to freelancing and full-time opportunities. It’s a whole new zone, you should explore and improve your positions at the same time.

Airdrops can be life-changing.

Apart from the infamous lucrative DAO airdrops, cryptocurrency airdrops might seem uninteresting to most. $20 worth of tokens as a reward for performing a basket of social activities. Before airdrops became ‘free’ and instantly life-changing, this was the state of things. But this kind of airdrop can still be worthwhile regardless. The majority of them fail to make it out, but in some cases, they grow to very profitable heights. Participating in ‘promising’ airdrops is something you should consider giving a try.

Embrace passive income opportunities.

Leaving your tokens in your wallet is a safe practice, but for someone looking to grow their stakes, this, in fact, defeats the goal. Most cryptocurrency projects give holders a chance to benefit from the emissions and grow their stash regardless of the price. Staking programs and liquidity mining are popular passive income opportunities in cryptocurrency and DeFi. At least one of these is worth a try. Decide which passive income opportunity is best suited for you and put your investments to work. Cryptocurrency lending platforms are also good passive income opportunities.

Preserve your capital.

Risk management is also an essential skill. Cryptocurrency prices are prone to rapid fluctuations, accidents are common too. Ensuring that you don’t run into grave losses is important. As a micro investor with a ‘small bag’, your risk threshold is very little and any tangible loss is a huge setback. Try and preserve your profit and be slow to take uncalculated risks.

Your route to cryptocurrency wealth will be well simplified by following these pretty easy tips. Human behavior is somewhat erratic and cryptocurrency itself is hardly predictable, varying conditions might make it hard to adhere to some of these. Most importantly, always do your research.

25/12/2022
Admit it; you’re doing crypto the wrong way!

Like a merchant, you’ve repeatedly bought and sold a number of cryptocurrencies. It’s fascinating, digital assets have created a space of equal access to objects of financial improvement. Regardless of your social caste and financial hierarchy, there is only a little barrier between you and your next cryptocurrency purchase…or sale. Millions have trooped in and in only a decade, the number of cryptocurrency investors has grown as fast as bitcoin’s price. In the right sense, it’s a bit faster.

Buzzwords apart, cryptocurrency and blockchain are both impressive stuff. The solutions and how everything is structured are welcoming. Well, crypto Twitter can be toxic but isn’t it the same with social media as a whole?

You’ve been fortunate enough and your net cryptocurrency investment has been greatly profitable for you. Congratulations, if there’s anything the past month has thought us, it’s that making profits in crypto isn’t as easy as it seems.

As long as you make profits, the conviction is that you’re doing it right. That’s exactly how it looks. If it’s the other way around; you feel you’re not getting it right, in short term. Investors who have mastered the art of ‘flipping’ can relate to swinging profits for profits…sometimes.
But if you can relate to any of these, then you are doing crypto wrongly. Regardless if you’re in profits or not.

Doing any of these is in fact the wrong way:

Fear of missing out [FOMO]

So, you just heard that this project is about to announce a ‘huge’ partnership; maybe they already did. Price is going haywire and the Twitter thread is going in the same direction. You’re scared, scared to miss out on the next 1000x. you’re not alone, we are all in this together.

The most ridiculous cryptocurrency price rages are fueled by investors jumping in with little or no resistance. The DYOR rule is quickly forgotten and the dumb money keeps flowing in. sometimes this works. Other times, the dumb money becomes exit liquidity for earlier investors, and bag holders are made. Well; someone needs to take the shot, “scared money makes no money” anyways.

Buy high, sell low.

Alright, you just aped in. the Fear of missing out won. Now you’re sitting on a bag of a token whose price keeps dropping. Sometimes the price is only stagnant and it’s easy to get impatient when those long green candles aren’t coming. What’s the move? Time to move on? I guess so; unto the next ‘gem’. This move is common and sometimes could save your investment, other times…well, the bloodbath continues.

Cryptocurrency investments require well-thought patience and deliberation. Good research should also influence your decision to move on and test different water.

Fear of getting stuck [FOGS]

Pretty much like the above; you simply don’t want to be the last holder of this token. The charts aren’t looking great and most importantly, the community isn’t looking impressed anymore. The most anticipated move is more dumps. Price is already down, you’re probably in loss or reduced profits. Without due research, holding on to your bags doesn’t feel like the right thing to do. Cryptocurrency is ‘cruel’ and getting stuck is a very possible situation. Oh well, if your fears win, you take the dump otherwise, bagholding will continue. Whichever one, you’re probably not wrong.

Living on delusions

For some memecoins, a $50 purchase gets you millions or even billions of tokens. For some investors, this is a sure bet to the millions. If the token ever hits a dollar, you’ll be on the same list as Jeff Greene. Delusional, a popular hopium. For a project with over a trillion tokens, reaching one-tenth of a cent is a face-melting move. As face melting as that of dogecoin and Shiba Inu. Well, many Shiba Inu holders are waiting on the dollar mark to cash in on their millions.

It’s risky to use the word ‘impossible’ in crypto but some outrageous expectations are simply not thoughtful and wrong. Who doesn’t wish to turn 50 into a million? If $8,000 could grow into over $5 billion, then anything can happen. But accepting reality is more relaxing than living in delusions.

Admit it, you can relate to at least one of the above. Fortunately, investing in cryptocurrency doesn’t have any known formulae. The only thing that exists are tactics that work most of the time. In the real sense, even the cleverest strategies could fail and the dumbest ones could end in mind-blowing success.

25/12/2022
Next Five years in the crypto space.

What are your wildest guesses for crypto and blockchain technology in the next 5 years? what will the next five years in the crypto space look like? I’ve got two ‘mild’ ones. A fully functional Cardano blockchain and a completely stable Solana blockchain. No pun intended. Cardano and Solana, are certainly up there on my list of high-throughput Layer-1 blockchains. Just in case, Vitalik and his team couldn’t get the Ethereum blockchain to work properly; Charles’ brainchild can make a perfect fix…or alternative. Well, I just made three guesses.

There’s hardly a sector as fast-progressing as the crypto space. Twelve years since bitcoin’s historic emergence, a couple of ‘powerful’ people have taken sides on the idea of a decentralized back-end and financial platform. As powerful as Peter Schiff and Nancy Pelosi. Despite the pull sideways (not from those two anyways); cryptocurrency has progressed rapidly and dog-themed coins are worth more than the global pet market…not just pet dogs. Depending on how famous or lucky you are; you could sell your selfies for a couple of thousand dollars. Of course, the price will depend on how rare or adult-specific they are. Or how strong your hype-marketing game is. Just a heads up anyways.

For the technology; instead of Western Union, you can simply move your funds through Ethereum blockchain. On the worst days, that might cost you as much as $70, but that’s fine, considering how many more you have in your wallet. Lazslo Hanyeczs pizza deal didn’t just trigger a $3 trillion move, it set off a period of “on-chain” technological advancement. Even though these solutions are barely used by the majority, they are still worth more than their mainstream alternatives…some, not all of them anyways.

The past twelve years have been lots of fun, literally. The memes and their accompanying coins made sure of that. The future looks even more interesting, both ways. Not trying to make some oracular statements, but the next few years will be one to behold and are very important to the future of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology; the technology and the politics…sorry, market.

Government influence, decentralized applications, stablecoins, graphic stores of value…you name them. The next 5 years are already being shaped by the preceding years. If Mr. Schiff and rest of the gold community fail to prove the inferiority of bitcoin or the supremacy of their precious metal; bitcoin will be on the course to cement its place as a turbo-proofed store of value. Despite being held back by the bear market currently, it’s still bullish heading into the future. The next halving is barely two years away…

The US and UAE governments announced their plans to regulate digital assets and tasked designated arms with putting their nations at the forefront of digital asset growth. I’d say those announcements came when the bearish sentiments already kicked in; would have been enough to push bitcoin past $100, 000. Nevertheless, positive impacts from central governments will be instrumental to the growth of bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in the next 5 years. Trusting the central government to come up with positive plans for decentralized technologies is a bit double-edged anyway. This could go either way, of course. Cryptocurrency and blockchain technology have survived over a decade of rough paths with central governments, the next few years should be easier.

If Celsius hadn’t hit a rock, DeFi would have stood a chance of penetrating mainstream financial support systems. I guess they’ll have to fix their leaking roof before that. Albeit these negative events, the future still looks great for decentralized finance, Celsius inclusive. Cryptocurrency communities are evolving to truly fancy the idea of decentralization. The world outside the crypto space suffers much from centralized financial systems. DeFi, if done well, will take up this opportunity and offer a solution. A seamless and community-owned financial system.

Luna developers failed in their attempt to build an efficient algorithmic stable coin that follows the laws of demand and supply. USDC was meant to “die in the hands” of UST. Unfortunately, that didn’t go as planned and Do Kwon will have to deal with strangers knocking on his doors and the billion-dollar fraud allegations first before putting USDC to eternal rest. That sounds easier than it really is. The failure of Terra’s UST casts a shade on the growth of algorithmic stablecoins; but before this event, this concept was growing and was on track to pose a huge challenge for stablecoins backed by air and efficient printers. Algorithmic stablecoins still have a place in the crypto space and still have good chances of being the preferred medium of value preservation in the crypto space. If not for any reason, the fact that they are backed by the same concept that powers the whole space — logic, makes them more traditional.

NFTs might not sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars in the next five years, but they will still be a part of the space. Any celebrity selling some “rare behind the scene” pictures might have to settle for less than they charge for a feature as royalties for their NFT drops. Signatures of those arts are forever etched on the blockchain, so, they will always be there…just that they could cost (way) less.

More on the future? Maybe a brand-new hype idea? Metaverse is already building a huge hype, the next bull run could see many Meta pumps and dumps emerge. Ethereum 2.0 will probably be finally delivered before then; interesting to imagine what could happen over the years. What’s your wild guess?

25/12/2022
Should the cryptocurrency community reward Laszlo Hanyecs for his Bitcoin pizza trade?

Not until Laszlo completed that deal to swap 10,000 bitcoins for “two big pizzas”; bitcoin was basically another complicated technology with an incredible whitepaper, a blurry founder, and a community of nerds and dreamers. You guessed right; Laszlo had a ton of worthless virtual coins sitting in software on his computer screen. Thanks to a lower hash rate, earning new ones was even easier.

He could go on playing the nerd game for as long as he wanted but then he made this announcement instead:

Well, Laszlo had a pretty basic taste for a bitcoiner!

It will be hard to predict exactly what was going on in his mind when he made this announcement, but I’m sure he was surprised anyone bought into his wager and sent him some pizza in exchange for 10,000 bitcoins.

In one move, he showed just how feasible Satoshi’s theories were and gave bitcoin value. Just like Sirius would say; “a great milestone”. Anyway, they made great Pizzas then and Laszlo didn’t care about giving up five-figure bitcoins for them. It’s incredible he chose pizza for this trade. I’d have said he showed bitcoiners what could be achieved with their funny nerdy coins, but the fact is; many believed that would be the last time bitcoin would be exchanged for something reasonable…including Laszlo, probably.

Laszlo’s happiness didn’t last for so long as his deal sparked off a cascade of bitcoin to real commodity trade. Fast forward to a few years later, bitcoin has become a global topic and the biggest economic disruption of the past two decades. It has given birth to an ecosystem and has become a revolution.

Laszlo’s 10,000 bitcoins would go on to be worth even more pizzas and eventually turn into a staggering figure. While bitcoin got way more popular, Laszlo Hanyecs’ story got popular as well. The 10,000 bitcoin deal has a reserved date for remembrance…and fun poking. You can make an endless list of how many things you could buy with a tenth of the fee Laszlo paid for his pizza. A few sources would even rank Laszlo’s deal as one of the dumbest deals of our lifetime… this is wrong in every way.

Laszlo will undoubtedly not get tired of being asked if he regrets his pizza trade but one thing is; considering the reputation of bitcoin at the time of this deal, Laszlo made a good choice. Unarguably, it is contemporarily unthinkable. But a look at the history of bitcoin, Laszlo Hanyecz’s deal with Jeremy Sturdivant is still worth it. Even with over two hundred and fifty-million-dollar worth of bitcoins at stake. The end justifies the means. If that’s what it takes to steer bitcoin and cryptocurrency into making a remarkable upset in the global economy, then certainly anyone will do the same. And Laszlo Hanyecz is easily one of bitcoin’s biggest heroes, just behind Satoshi Nakamoto.

Here’s the logic; Satoshi created bitcoin, and Laszlo gave it a value. Satoshi lost his identity while Laszlo paid an ultimate prize of whatever 10,000 bitcoin might be worth by the time you consider this. For a concept that went from worthless to over a trillion dollars at some point; it was well worth it.

Unfortunately, these two figures aren’t the biggest gainers from their actions. Satoshi might never come back to lay claims on his bitcoins and probably didn’t make a dime from his invention. He might be the brain behind those old bitcoin wallets coming back to life recently though.

But, do you think the cryptocurrency community should reward Laszlo for kicking off cryptocurrency trading and giving out that huge stash in the process?

Alright, I get it; he certainly made a good meal out of those two pizzas and even went on to receive more pizzas and some add-ons which includes a $500 store credit…a fair trade considering bitcoin’s reputation at that time. You’d find it pointless rewarding anyone for fair trade, that’s not wrong too. Regardless, this situation is a bit different, and looking at the role it played in the history of bitcoin; it’s reasonable to say that we are all enjoying the benefits of his 10,000 bitcoin ‘sacrifice’ and should reward him for it. Not necessarily by donating another 10,000 bitcoin to him anyways…

20/12/2022
In crypto, the impatient wins.

“Patient dog eats the fattest bone”… sounds like an African proverb. I’m not sure of the origin anyways, I’m not sure about its validity either. It was probably more correct a couple of years ago. Regardless, patience is a virtue; not always…, especially in crypto.

Bagholders are a special set of people in this space, the most valuable set of investors. Everyone bagholds, at least once in a while. Holding on to a ‘poorly’ performing asset is a struggle between patience and hope…‘hopium’. Or a struggle between patience and greed when the asset is performing considerably well. Whenever you hold back from hitting that ‘buy’ or ‘sell’ button, any one of these wins. Well, patience is the base word.

That works, in a few cases; some other times, it just doesn’t. A fast-moving space like the one we have in crypto is one of those few instances where holding on turns out to be the wrong move most times. Gains or losses, it could come at any time; unfortunately, these two can happen in (very) quick succession. Anyways, if you are here for the technology, profit or loss might matter a little to you. Making a few quick bucks doesn’t sound bad either.

The popular preaching is to ‘hold on for dear life’. Let’s face the fact, most times this doesn’t really work. The path to bagholding is an easy one. Waiting for the millions and settling for a few thousand or hundreds is a quick turn of events here. The greed index is volatile, which in turn results in price volatility. Normal price movements are in response to human behavior. Apart from this, a space as unregulated as crypto might require you to “take what you can, when you can”. There’s hardly an assurance. The extent to which this happens depends largely on the nature of the project.

Highly speculative projects are prone to sharp price movements. They are prone to ‘accidents’ as well. Most times, these accidents are deliberate and investors are left to mourn grave to mild losses. Well, ‘patient’ investors. Impatient ones probably took all or part of their profits already; in this case, they win. This case is becoming more prevalent. The lack of regulation in the space gives way to the speculative short-lived project. Huge pumps, ridiculous dumps. Investors are easily taken unaware by the quick turn of events. Patience fails them here, unfortunately.

A rather clever move is putting patience to a halt and taking your capital out when a speculative project moves tangibly. The remainder can run along. If the dump strikes, your capital is preserved and a little profit if you’re impatient enough to take profits.

This is not financial advice anyways, just a piece from individual experiences. Holding on to relevant projects for the long term could be very rewarding. Finding these projects from grass root could be a very tedious task though.

20/12/2022