Bitcoin

The criteria for judging a good investment include the risk profile, time frame, and goals. How much of a trade-off are you willing to make for an uncertain outcome? We could define a perfect investment as giving you better returns than anything else. An investment that fits your needs maximizes your odds of getting the best returns. So is Bitcoin that investment for you? In just over a decade, the crypto world has grown exponentially. Bitcoin is the first crypto…

Since its inception, bitcoin has used Script- a smart contract development language. Script is an extensive non-Turing complete programming language. The language lets developers encode certain conditions that define the spending of coins. While Script has many capabilities, it's tough to implement, especially when complex smart contract conditions are involved. In addition, writing and verifying a complex contract is prone to human errors that don't go well with money at stake. To improve this, blockchain engineers Pieter Wuille, Andrew Poelstra,…

Since the introduction of Bitcoin in 2009, digital currency has seen a tremendous increase in its unit price. Crypto fanatics and investors, at times, try to predict the future unit prices of bitcoin, but it has proven to be an enormous task. In addition, investors want to understand the best time to invest in bitcoins. So, how do you predict the price of something so volatile?  The Stock-to-Flow model is quite effective at predicting bitcoin prices. Keep reading to see…

A Bitcoin retirement account could make you look like the coolest grandpa or grandma in town one day. However, there are benefits and downsides to Bitcoin pension plans, and today we break them down to find out how feasible cryptocurrency IRAs are. There are plenty of financial alternatives you can choose as savings account for the autumn of your life. We won't describe all of them, or you risk retiring before reading the entire article. Instead, we will focus on…

So far, Bitcoin is the top contender in the cryptocurrency market, with a net worth of approximately 350 billion USD. It has a robust network strengthened by its decentralized nature. Using a peer-to-peer network under cryptographic protocols enables the undertaking of transactions globally.  However, this crypto giant network has a few limitations that sidechains help solve. Some of these limitations are slow transactions per second, higher transaction costs, scalability issues, and slow network evolution compared to traditional transactions with fiat currency. Thanks…

For a broad definition, Financial futures refer to a financial instrument that specifies buying or selling a financial asset between two parties for a predetermined price and a precise date in the future. For example, bitcoin futures are futures contracts that enable traders to speculate on Bitcoin's price without actually owning bitcoin. Once a futures contract is set or agreed upon, counterparties are required to fulfill the terms of the agreement upon expiration, either by selling or buying the asset…

On the 4th of December, 2012, a paper was released by cryptographer, mathematician, and President of the Israeli Bitcoin Association, Mr. Meni Rosenfeld. The article was titled "Overview of Colored Coins," wherein Meni explained a mechanism to take advantage of Bitcoin's "fungibility" by segregating a certain number of coins from the rest for particular purposes. Meni argued that adding "specialty" to coins by segregating them from the rest could help form niche applications within the Bitcoin blockchain. By "coloring coins,"…

Predicting the price of cryptocurrencies is challenging, thanks to their volatile nature. For example, consider bitcoin's volatility, which has seen the coin fluctuate between $69000 - $16000 over the last two years. The uncertainty and volatility are perhaps significant reasons investors shy away from digital assets. Given the growing increase in digital assets investments, finding a solution is vital for Exchange-Traded Funds (EFTto s) to come in at this point and could be instrumental in crypto investing.  So, could ETFs…

Privacy coins are gaining traction as they fly the flag of financial privacy. Over the decade, digital currencies have seen their fair share of unjust scrutiny regarding their privacy policies. At one point or another, we've all heard of the "evil" that is its anonymity hallmark and how its primary users are criminals hiding behind it. However, no digital currency is disparaged for this particular feature as much as privacy coins are. Yes, blockchain-based cryptocurrencies allow users to use pseudonyms,…