Cryptocurrency has many attractive features as a direct form of charitable giving, however successfully claiming tax benefits for cryptocurrency donations can be difficult and, under current regulations, will require an appraisal letter from an industry professional.  Read More

Can you ever recover lost keys or can your private keys be hacked through some amazing and secretive advance in computing power?  If you’ve been learning about cryptocurrencies for a while, you’ve probably seen a discussion of this.  Unfortunately, the talk of key security was probably an incomprehensible blast of the expert and esoteric language of things like elliptic curve cryptography, lost pr...  Read More

If you entered the space of cryptoassets in 2017, the year where investors could basically do no wrong, 2018 must seem like a nightmare.  Specifically, this nightmare might be something like a roller-coaster ride through an abattoir.  Regardless of how you’re positioned right now, however, everyone wants an answer to the trillion-dollar question.  When will it end?  I will discuss some good and ba...  Read More

The last year has seen a lot of discussion and effort put towards the goal of scaling cryptocurrency protocols.  I will review the reason and difficulties in scaling a crypto protocol and do a quick round-up of these efforts to date. The term “blockchain” can be thrown around in the non-technical press with a cachet as if it’s some sort of rocket science brain surgery non-linear quantum cryptograp...  Read More

Proof of Stake is hardly a battle-tested concept, few successful cryptoassets are native Proof of Stake.  Most notably, Ethereum’s impending hard fork to the Casper Protocol is the first time a large network-value asset will change from Proof of Work to a staking consensus mechanism.  However, instead of pricing in any risk associated with this, the impending hard fork seems to have triggered a ve...  Read More

Several lecturers and writers in the cryptocurrency space advise doing months and months of research before acquiring any cryptocurrency.  We present this under a different philosophy, that the best way to learn is by doing.  Also, we acknowledge human nature makes months of monk-like research while the price climbs higher somewhat unrealistic.  As such, here’s a bare-bones tutorial explaining how...  Read More

Writing about Bitcoin Cash even as recently as two weeks ago would have been more akin to giving play-by-play for a heavyweight prizefight than a sober and considered blog post about decentralized payment systems.  Now that the dust has settled a bit, however, we can evaluate the situation with some degree of clarity. Bitcoin Cash (BCH), henceforth “BCash,” is the cryptocurrency resulting from the...  Read More

Cryptocurrencies are a new asset class.  The last major new asset class, common stock in companies, existed for hundreds of years before Benjamin Graham fully elucidated metrics for their valuation. Likewise cryptos exist and have market prices established through very liquid markets, but one of the first questions on any newly interested party’s lips is “well, what should a Bitcoin be worth thoug...  Read More

Tether is a unique blockchain token that aims to maintain a peg to the United States Dollar.  That is, 1USDT (one Tether) is 1USD.  The claim is that they’re striving to bridge the world of fiat and crypto currencies by mapping the dollar onto a blockchain-based token.  In practice, the basic appeal to users is that you can use Tether as a haven of stability during (extra)...  Read More

Bitcoin is growing up.  Don’t cheer yet; what I mean is that the markets’ enfant terrible just got the financial equivalent of a Driver’s License …and, to push the metaphor, is also of legal drinking age.  Cryptocurrency derivatives have arrived.   LedgerX, a Bitcoin swap and options clearinghouse with CFTC approval, went live in what they’re terming a “soft launch” in which a few invited particip...  Read More

Admittedly, cryptocurrency ownership has some enervating aspects.  Depending on how much you like rollercoasters, one of those aspects might be the volatility. However, the irreversibility and the overall Code Is Law ethic of blockchain should inspire caution and respect.This is especially true if you’ve gotten complacent about centralized commercial services like credit cards giving almost painle...  Read More

“Bitcoin isn’t real!”  I’ve seen this objection in variants with up to three exclamation points, so it really must be self-evident.  Perhaps it’s only the crypto-zealots and those poor people who they momentarily beguile with mathematical proofs who are so lumpen as to not understand.Maybe if one just repeats “it’s not real” three times while clicking the heels of their loafers, they will be trans...  Read More