Free Republic

Ethereum, the world’s second-most valuable digital currency by market capitalization, completed a long-awaited upgrade to its system on September 15. The move, known in the cryptocurrency community as “The Merge”, is expected to slash energy costs and lay the groundwork for more use of crypto technology in mainstream applications, including finance.Skip advertThe upgrade was one of the most eagerly anticipated events in crypto’s history. But the process is complicated. Here’s what to know about it.What is Ethereum?Ethereum is a blockchain – a publicly-viewable, distributed ledger that verifies and records all transactions on the network. The platform was conceived by Russian-born...

Gary Gensler is the current head of the SEC. He was formerly Hillary’s campaign CFO. He’s tied into the Durham investigation. The former Director of the SEC under President Trump, Bill Hinman was involved in what is now considered criminal activities related to cryptocurrency activities with China. These people are above the law. No agency is safe. They all seem to take advantage of their positions to make money and stomp on the little people. We noted previously that the current head of the SEC was Hillary’s attorney when millions of dollars were flowing around with some paying for the...

Call this “Nobody’s Everything.” Crytpocurrencies are getting clobbered. But then again, the S&P 500 is not doing so well. But crypto stalwarts Bitcoin and Ethereum have down even worse. At the dollar strengthens, Bitcoin has gotten pummeled. But at least Bitcoin rose this morning along with Bitcoin Cash. And XRP. But the others are getting clobbered. Microstrategy bonds are getting crushed.

It has not been a good few months from the crypto world. After rampaging higher during the middle of last year, cryptocurrencies have broadly speaking dropped around 40-50% since their November highs, and have become more and more correlated with the traditional financial system as long-duration, hyper-growth companies have seen their share prices decimated by the realization that 'this time is serious' from The Fed on their policy-tightening plans.And while 98-year-old curmudgeons are busily saying cryptos are "like some venereal disease ... I just regard it as beneath contempt," the rest of the tech world is beavering away envisioning -...

Inflation is the highest in 40 years. There used to be a lot of discussion about hedging against inflation in the 1970s and 1980s, but discussion subsided as inflation cooled in the US. But now it is roaring back as Fed monetary stimulus continues unabated and The Federal government continues to spends like crazy. So, how do we protect ourselves against inflation caused by Federal government policies (or follicies)? How about cryptocurrencies like Ethereum? Ethereum really started to take off as US inflation took off. Not a perfect fit (or hedge), but on average Ethereum has kept up with inflation....

Going on to explain why the move to legalise cryptocurrencies is a good option for Panama, the 32-year-old congressman listed the enhancement of job creation, the support for innovation, government transparency, the emergence of new businesses or ventures, decentralisation, and the expansion of what the country’s financial services industry currently offers. “Today, we present the Crypto Law. We seek to make Panama a country compatible with the blockchain, crypto assets, and the internet. This has the potential to create thousands of jobs, attract investment and make the government transparent,” the lawmaker said based on the translation of his tweet.... The...

Your sustainment is in Me, Come to the Garden of plenty, Gethsemane is here and now for you, Enter into the promises I have for you to view, Hear My waters speak, My presence is your treat, Come stand in My waterfall, It's here for one and all, Feel the mist and droplets spray, My morning dew for you all day, Enjoy The rays from The Father and Son, Come and Abide in Kingdom come, Its all here for you right now, Shedding your flesh is how, Arrive to the place you should always be, Just you and Me, Hebrews...

There is a lot of noise about cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum being hedges against inflation. Here is Bitcoin against core PCE prices YoY. Only if inflation is truly transitory and declines. Ethereum as a hedge against inflation? Ethereum started its run-up after Q1’s inflation report. And has experienced extraordinary volatility, not inflation-hedging mojo. If, however, one’s risk scenario is of the Thunderdome variant characterized by the simultaneous collapse of a currency and its payments system, then there is no better hedge than private, digital money. In short, Bitcoin’s and Ethereum’s inflation hedging mojo isn’t working. At best, it’s muddy.

The Ethereum market cap briefly topped $500 billion for a new all-time high. This officially made the network more valuable than Visa. While the Ethereum market cap has dropped back slightly to $496 billion at the time of press, it’s still $2 billion ahead of Visa. Ethereum also managed to jump the market caps of both Walmart and the Wall Street banking giant JP Morgan Chase earlier this week. Ethereum is currently up 9% on the day and is trading at $4,310. Bullish trends for Ethereum and altcoins This past Monday morning Ethereum soared to a new all-time high, surpassing...

Ethereum, the next largest cryptocurrency behind Bitcoin, has endured price stagnation for about a month. That period was marked with erratic and unpleasant price movements, which lead to the so-called triangular shape on Ethereum price daily charts. However, a sudden increase in buy order has allowed Ethereum Price to escape from that pattern. By this recent data, ETH Price is projected to increase by 37 percent. If this projection comes out true, ETH price will hit an all-time high of $2560.

'Goldman Sachs said that Bitcoin’s 2021 returns had eclipsed that of the stock market’s best performing sector Investment bank Goldman Sachs revealed that it had started tracking Bitcoin’s performance at the beginning of the year, and so far, the leading cryptocurrency has outperformed the stock market. According to Goldman Sachs, Bitcoin’s year-to-date return is double that of Wall Street’s best performing sector. ... As of 4 March, the leading cryptocurrency’s year-to-date returns are around 70%. The ROI is double that of the energy sector (35%), which occupied the second position. Bitcoin (BTC) began the year close to the $30,000 mark...

Rich Dad Poor Dad author Robert Kiyosaki says he is racing to buy Bitcoin, Ethereum, and precious metals as the economy weakens. In a new Rich Dad Radio Show podcast episode, the best-selling author and entrepreneur says that while he does not wish to argue over which store of value asset is superior, he is currently scrambling to own as much BTC, ETH and gold as he can. “So I’m just grateful I have a lot of gold, silver, Bitcoin and Ethereum and I don’t get into the argument. Peter Schiff is always arguing about gold and silver and Max...

Deep-pocketed investors appear hungry for Coinbase equity ahead of the crypto exchange's long-awaited direct listing. As per data compiled by The Block, the average clearing price for shares on Nasdaq Private Market continues to tick higher since the first secondary sale four weeks ago. The most recent cleared price was $373 a share, which would imply a valuation of about $100 billion. That's an increase from the first average cleared price of $200 in January, according to data shared with The Block. Nasdaq enables secondary offerings for Coinbase stock, a process that allows ex-employees and investors of the crypto exchange...

If you're not familiar with the term "Bretton-Woods" and "Petrodollar", allow me to provide a brief summary. To help fund World War II, the US ratified the Bretton-Woods agreement, essentialy creating Fiat money (tying only a small fraction of Gold to the US Dollar). Since the US controlled 2/3 of the worlds gold, it placed the US Dollar as the world reserve currency and created the ability to print money on demand (then ultimately leading to a complete severing of gold and the beginning of the endless devaluation of the US Dollar) Bretton-Woods was terminated in 1971, and the Petrodollar...

Cryptocurrencies are a nascent asset class and could fall violently at any time, the founder of blockchain network Ethereum warned on Saturday. "Reminder: cryptocurrencies are still a new and hyper-volatile asset class, and could drop to near-zero at any time," Vitalik Buterin said on Twitter. "Don't put in more money than you can afford to lose."

Ripple briefly retook its place as the third-largest cryptocurrency, with a market value of $47 billion, a milestone it reached earlier this month.

Bitcoin broke 19,000k today for the first time. In the last week alone it's up just shy of $5,000. Even though the price was impressive what got my attention was that fact that investment banks Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and even the Bank of America are now getting in crypto currency. Today I see more and more companies accepting bitcoins than even a year ago. So I through I would throw some money that will not hurt me to lose to see what happens. For the record, had I invested 2K last January 2017 when bitcoin was $1k I would...

Landing a job in the world of cryptocurrency has become a lot easier over the past few months. Given the surge in the popularity of Bitcoin and most tokens, that is not necessarily surprising. As it turns out, there are two main reasons as to why the number of job openings in this industry has increased exponentially. Whether or not these trends will remain in place a year from now remains to be seen, though. 1. Initial Coin Offerings Although most people have no love lost for the ICO industry, no one can deny a lot of jobs are created...

While much of the media and public attention has been understandably focused on Bitcoin in recent months, a far more dramatic move has taken place in Bitcoin's less popular peer, Ethereum. To be sure, one month ago, when we noticed the first tangible move higher in ETH since last summer's dramatic plunge following a highly public hacking scandal which involved a "forking" in the blockchain, we mused if China's furious momentum chasers were turning their attention from bitcoin to ethereum. While the jury is still out on whether Chinese traders have shifted their attention to the less popular digital currency,...

Andrew Keys is the director of communications of ConsenSys and co-founding member of ConsenSys Enterprise, the consulting group within ConsenSys. Previously, Andrew worked for UBS in equities analysis. Here, he offers 16 predictions for the blockchain and decentralized technologies sector in 2016. 1. Many who used the terms 'blockchain' or 'distributed ledger' will learn they actually meant Ethereum Ethereum will begin to demonstrate its power as less effort is required on the protocol (given the successful version 1.0 release on 31st July, 2015), and more development is focused on decentralized applications. Moreover, Ethereum browsers like Meta Mask and Mist and...