It's been a rough time for cryptos over the past few weeks, IRS and PBOC (peoples bank of China) have been leading the way with the bad news.

However, It's all kinda irrelevant if you ask me and all it does is slow down the speculation. As we all know the main thing is adoption and the network effect that widespread usage will have. Anyway enough beating of the drums. This update is just bringing to your attention the 2 great new websites which I've found with short half reviews on both.

MintPal



This new crypto/crypto exchange has been around for a few months and somehow went under my radar. But it's not for a lack of quality. Ok so the orderbook and liquidity are not ginormous, but the site is clearly growing rapidly and the interface...... it's beautiful and so intuitive. It's been a while since I last got to grips with a site so quickly. I didn't see 2 factor authentcation but signup was a piece of cake, all I needed was a valid email address. They trade over 41 coins and have a clever voting section for the mobb to add new coins. Clean graphs, easy deposits and understandable wallets make this one site I can see myself using for months to come. Sounds like an advert but I promise you it isn't!

FollowtheCoin



I'm not really into the whole MTV generation and cool fast talking news shows. However, this content seems to get to the point really quickly and give viewers an overview of whats happening. The content does kinda assume you have a little knowledge about the crypto-currency movement, and is clearly aimed at the younger audience. Of course there was nothing in the weekly round-ups that I hadn't already read somewhere else, but then I am a paid professional. The only thing I found a little annoying was the over excitement the presenters seem to have for just about everrrrything. I guess thats just a sign of the times and I'm getting old! All in all a great site, and I'm sure they will build a big following among the younger audience soon.

And with that I must end another blog post, I hope you check out these two sites as they are well worth a few minutes of your time.

Don't forget to follow us on twitter @ https://twitter.com/Crypto_SI

It's been a rough time for cryptos over the past few weeks, IRS and PBOC (peoples bank of China) have been leading the way with the bad ...

Ok, It's been a while since my last blog, Quite a lot has changed....... My grammar is still terrible and Bitcoin is still awesome. I am blaming my absence on my new addiction to Raspberry Pi. It's just a great piece of kit, and along with meshnet will change the world, mark my words! :)

Anyway the topic of today's blog is HullCoin, The new crypto-currency which may well be backed by a local authority. At this point reports suggest that Hullcoin is still just an idea in it's infancy, and bearing this in mind all we can do is speculate to the effects it may or may not have on the local economy.

 Hull is well known to people in the U.K for being cold, wet and poor mostly and it's this poverty that has allegedly inspired HullCoin. So the basic premiss is this: people set about undertaking voluntary tasks and are paid with HullCoin which they can then use to exchange for hot meals. This is just the starting model as I understand it, obviously in time more places will accept HullCoin and people will be able to pay rent, taxes and buy fuel with it.

The most exciting thing about this concept is that it empowers Hull to create value with it's homeless and unemployed, and the possibilities are huge, the first thing that springs to mind is what if they start building solar panels or processing Biofuel, then use this energy to raise the standard of living for the local people, and even sell the energy to neighbouring towns. They could get people to work building semi-permanent fixtures like hexayurts, and because the money used is not the watered down pound which is suffering from Q.E by Mr Carney, people would possibly get value for their work.

Of course this is all very far fetched and relies heavily on the dream that central government will not shut the project down once they realise that a local currency is a lot like local independence.

On a social level, I initially thought that paying for voluntary work would hinder drug abuse, as drug dealers don't usually accept crypto currency for illicit drugs. I then thought about Silk road and realised that criminals will adapt and when they do, HullCoin may well be the only type of money a drug dealer can accept that has already laundered itself, a quick trip to LocalBitcoins.com and you have your pounds sterling. So it's not a positive but it's no less of a hinderance than cash is. If Hull university then start offering some online courses paid for with HullCoin then things will really get interesting.

All in all it's a very very good idea as far as I can see, I had toyed with the idea of BedfordCoin long before reading about Hullcoin, and think that it may only be a matter of time till all regions have their own coins.

What can I see in the future? A local area adopts 2 things simultaneously, 1: a cryptocurrenty and 2: a rule on every individual only owning 1 property in that area, or maybe 2 or 3. It will be easy to enforce with the nature of blockchains and will stop the current capital based bullying of the lower classes. China have already implemented these capital restrictions in some areas.

On another note, I was looking through an old post, and I predicted BTC to go down to around $400 before the next upturn, I cannot remember the exact reasons why I made the predictions, but we are nearing $400 so lets see if I was right or not.

Thanks for reading, and keep your eyes peeled because the Cryptosi website will be up and running soon.

Ok, It's been a while since my last blog, Quite a lot has changed....... My grammar is still terrible and Bitcoin is still awesome. I am...

OH DEAR, OH DEAR, OH DEAR!

Mt.gox, which is still being called a 'Major' exchange by some sources, has now stopped Bitcoin withdrawls.

Two things immediately spring to mind:
1. Are Mt.gox trying to play the good old fractional reserve dance made famous by the banks in the late 90's and early-mid and late 00's? This basically involves buying of Bitcoin with funds that they don't really own or some other simliar form of financial jiggery pokery. It's been well known for some time that something fishy is going on at Mt.gox, along with all their public fines they have had to restrict withdrawls for fiat for a while now, and had implemented long delays, but stopping Bitcoin withdrawls completely is something far more scary.
2. The second thing to spring to mind is: WHO was still using that platform? Surely only stuntmen, fighter pilots and base jumpers. I can't think of any other people who can live with this level of risk day in and day out



SO WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?

Not a lot really, prepare for a short sharp fall in price and then the inevitable correction, possibly down to $580 at the lowest, but it's difficult to predict as the true volume of mt.gox is not information I'm privy to. Of course any official reports could be false as that's how FR works.
Does it mean Bitcoin is any closer to failing? NOPE, mt.gox will be replaced, there are plenty of budding entrepreneurs planning to set up exchanges as you read this. also you can now buy Bitcoin for cash using zipzap at over 28,000 UK shops, and Scan computers also accept the currency so bit by bit the need to convert bitcoin back to fiat is becoming both easier and unneeded.

What should you do.
If you held bitcoin on Mt.gox, just write it off. There is a good chance you will get it back but, also a good chance it's gone. If you had more than 0.1 on there then SHAME on you! please remember only store in online wallets what you are prepared to lose at a moments notice. If you're not a stakeholder in mt.gox then sit back and watch this rollercoaster that those poor souls have gotten themselves wrapped up in.

So what are the alternatives?
We use Bitstamp, and btc-e. we are planning on testing out bit121 but haven't gotten around to it.

Please remember that Mt.gox was never intended to be as big as it has gotten, it was originally designed to trade collectible cards or something random like that, then Bitcoin came on the scene and things got very real for Mt.gox very quickly. The sooner this company gets out of the Bitcoin space the better really as they are probably not designed to intergrate with the growning AML(anti money laundering) pressure. They need to close down, take check and start again. They have been great for years but this last year or so things have gone from bad to worse.

In other news, I found a great video yesterday from Real London featuring Vinay Gupta, it's very interesting and well worth a watch, check it out here:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rys_saLiDA
it's about an hour long so get some snacks and turn your brain on.

OH DEAR, OH DEAR, OH DEAR! Mt.gox, which is still being called a 'Major' exchange by some sources, has now stopped Bitcoin withdra...

So, a few weeks back we highlighted our concerns with the new UK bitcoin exchange bit121. To our surprise we received a prompt reply from the bit121 CEO. Of course as it was a private email, we won't publish the contents of the email, however we will say this. We were very pleased with what we read, and it was good to hear from the horses mouth exactly what the difficulties are with running an exchange in the UK and the reasons why their KYC measures are so rigorous. 

Bit121, still resides hidden behind only an email address, but at least we now know that this email address is linked to the CEO and he has taken the time out of what must be an incredibly busy schedule to address our concerns, and we shall now take the plunge and give bit121 a go.



We will of course let you all know how we find the platform and also how quick the deposit and withdrawal methods are. A working bitcoin exchange in the UK will definitely be a big deal and with no competiton at the moment, we just hope that Jim Iddiols and his team are ready for the rush of traders.

Will this year be the year that hedge funds dip into Bitcoin and raise the market cap? If so will they add much needed liquidity to the Bitcoin economy?

So, a few weeks back we highlighted our concerns with the new UK bitcoin exchange bit121 . To our surprise we received a prompt reply from ...


So we were as excited as anyone else at the news of UK's newest exchange actually going live, with UK banking in the form of Barclays being touted as being involved according to early reports.

However before taking the plunge into dealing with the new bit121 exchange we decided to first do our due diligence and make sure everything was above board and that we wouldn't be simply plying money into a useless exchange. Despite what the title of this article says it's not all bad news from bit121 but they definitely do need to address a few issues.

Contact details

First and foremost any company you deal with needs to be contacted, if they are based abroad (outside UK) then of course a phone number isn't very practical, however bit121 are UK based apparently, however they don't have any address details or telephone numbers to be contacted on, the only point of contact is an email address which is simply not enough to inspire confidence. Having said that, we did email our concerns to bit121 and were very impressed to have a reply within hours albeit just a reply saying our message had been  "passed to our CEO", It's still a good start. We will wait until they have at least a contact number or office address so they cannot vanish into the night.
We did a little digging on the CEO and found he is quite an experienced businessman according to his linkedin profile, which was also good sign.


Verification

In filling bit121's verification requirements you are actually giving them enough information to access your bank account which we are quite uncomfortable with and falling victim to identity fraud is then decided by how secure they
keep people's personal information. They could easily remedy this by simply
having their customers scan and send 2 pieces of i.d. No need for
mothers maiden names or length of time at current address or even home
telephone number. We do however really applaud their thorough attempts at adhering to UK's draconian anti money-laundering regulations, as we all know t
hat if there is a falling point for UK exchanges it will be red tape that shuts them down.


PacNet services 

Though we had yet to hear of PacNet services, they seem to be the link to Barclays Bank and quite a tenuous link at that, They don't seem to be based in the UK either although payment to them is done through Barclays Bank, How much Barclays actually know about a crypto exchange is unclear at the moment. Our worry is that when the exchange gathers momentum as it quickly will, can PacNet keep up? PacNet does appear to be a very professional outfit. More to the point will Barclays Bank be the first to harbour the currency which some say will make banks obsolete (we do not share that view), Barclays are not exactly a bank of the people, (Libor scandal anyone?) It's highly unlikely they will endorse the Bitcoin unless they really had to. We would perhaps feel better if Barclays endorsed the exchange, evidence of this should be on the bit121 website.






All in all, as far as bit121 is concerned we are advising to approach with caution, much like all exchanges only leave in fiat what you are prepared to loose, and transfer Bitcoins out to your local/offline wallet after every session. If you are going to use an exchange bitstamp may have a rival in the UK, Although the £10 deposit and withdrawl fee are a bit steep, the minimum deposit has recently dropped from £500 to £50. Scouring the forums we are yet to find any reports on the exchange from users, which screams that it may not be very liquid as yet.


We really hope bit121 addresses these issues and grows to become a useful exchange. only time will tell, but we will keep an eye on them and when we feel safe enough we will use them and let you all know how it goes.


Good luck bit121 :)


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find bit121 exchange here: https://bit121.co.uk/

So we were as excited as anyone else at the news of UK's newest exchange actually going live, with UK banking in the form of Barclays...

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