Choices This guide is not intended to be a guide to trading, and if you want to trade cryptocurrencies, we assume that you are already a competent trader. If you do want to trade, by which we mean short-term speculation using a national currency as a base, your options are brokerage houses and online derivatives exchanges. At the time of writing, there are about 40 brokerages worldwide offering trading in cryptocurrencies. All of them offer Bitcoin, about half of them offer Ethereum and Litecoin, and about one-quarter offer either Ripple or Dash. This means that if you want to trade more than Bitcoin, your choices will probably be limited. Daily Forex publishes a list of selected brokerages offering trading in Cryptocurrencies. At the time of writing, eToro and MARKETS.COM are notable within this list for offering negative balance protection, meaning a trader cannot be liable for more money than they deposit no matter what happens. Leverage It has been said earlier in this guide that cryptocurrencies are extremely risky, and the value of any of them could fall to almost nothing in a moment. For this reason, the question of leverage is very important, and many brokers offer no leverage on Cryptocurrencies. About 40% offer leverage under 10 to 1, with just a few going as high as 20 or even 30 to 1. Please understand that if you trade cryptocurrency with leverage, unless your broker offers guaranteed negative balance protection or cast-iron guaranteed stops, you could end up being liable for far more than you deposit, and face legal proceedings for any debt. Long and Short One of the major advantages of trading is the ability to take both long and short positions in cryptocurrencies. You can profit from betting it will go up, and from betting it will go down. Spreads & Overnight Financing Charges As cryptocurrencies are very risky assets, spreads and commissions are usually very high compared to other, less risky assets. This means that short-term trading can be relatively costly if too many trades are taken. Spreads are high, typically more than $10, at current market prices representing a fee of approximately 0.24%, which is steep. Additionally, some brokers offer minimums as high as 10 Bitcoin, at which you cannot trade less than about $40,000 worth at current prices. At a typical maximum leverage of 10 to 1, you would need to deposit $4,000 to place a single minimum-sized trade. However, there are brokers offering minimums as low as 0.10 Bitcoin, worth about $420 unleveraged at the current market price, which is much more affordable. Overnight financing rates in contrast are often reasonable. A charge of 0.07% of the value of the position per day is currently typical. This means that if you opened a position of 0.10 Bitcoin worth $420, your account would be deducted a fee of 0.07% of that amount each day you kept the position open ($0.29). Fundamental Analysis We believe that while correct fundamental analysis can be a useful tool in profitable trading, it is far less important for cryptocurrency trading than technical analysis. Getting your technical analysis right is absolutely critical for cryptocurrency trading, but if you also get your fundamental analysis right, you could have the confidence to ride winning trades to large reward to risk ratios (assuming you make sure that you don’t get killed by letting overnight financing charges run too high by staying in the trade for too long). When it comes to cryptocurrencies, fundamental analysis is fairly limited – it is really only a call on whether the currency is likely to have a successful long-term future or not. There are not any simple and obvious metrics that can be used to justify that decision, other than perhaps the total number of owners, market capitalization, and the number of significant business which are accepting that currency as payment. Beyond these, it would be difficult for most people to make an informed judgement. If you have the capability to make such a judgement, then that is great, but if you don’t, it is not necessarily a major disadvantage. You can try to trade successfully with technical analysis alone, as many traders do. Technical Analysis Cryptocurrency Trading – Terms and TacticsThe good news for technical traders is that cryptocurrencies in general, and Bitcoin in particular, behave very technically, usually respecting obvious support and resistance levels and major trend lines. The respect for technical levels makes sense, as unlike major currencies which have real and disruptive order flows from the real economy, trading in cryptocurrencies is almost entirely speculative and will remain so until they become widely used means of exchange. Apart from hacks and hard forks, there are not going to be any external events which influence the price much, except for governments and banks announcing new rules on the legality or operation of cryptocurrencies. For this reason, we think that Bitcoin can be a technical analyst’s dream, and we have noticed, particularly over recent months, that Bitcoin’s price movements seem to be more clearly obvious after examining a chart of historical prices, than any other instruments in the Forex market. On a technical level, Bitcoin and Ethereum are usually the easiest cryptocurrencies to trade. In trading, it is usually preferable to trade only the most liquid instruments, and these two are by far the most liquid cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin can be traded successfully using support and resistance to determine the probable line of movement and candlestick price action to time the reversals. The typically very high volatility can be an issue as it requires large stops, but the subsequent movements are usually so large that it works out well. In the next article, we will look at some Bitcoin trading strategies.

  This is not an article about selling your bitcoin. Rather, we will be discussing profiteering or being an influencer in Bitcoin. At what point is it acceptable to make a profit for this type of work in Bitcoin? Not using the asset as a store of value, or as a currency like in El Salvador, but as a source for content or another service. We’re all familiar with the influencers pursuing recycled content, taken from someone else and rebranded as their own; dropping repetitive buzzwords around Bitcoin; or participating in the neverending echo chambers where rising pundits of social media despotism all desperately seek to get in a one liner that could garner them a greater following. You could say some of those activities apply to me as a writer in the space. But what about those who are truly making a difference? How do we separate simple profiteering from those who enact real change? First, we should discuss why it matters. A PROTOCOL OF PHILOSOPHY Inherently, Bitcoin is a resistance to controlled power and cults of personality. Centralization and leaders are subject to the single greatest weakness humanity faces: the human element. Bitcoin is the first solution to the problem of the human element. It is money written in programmatic code that cannot be controlled by anyone and only listens to the established rules accepted by the system. Attempts to resuscitate the human element back into the network are justifiably met by Bitcoin’s immune system. Bitcoin has an inherent resistance to influencer personalities and applications that do not practice the established ethos of Bitcoin. Why? Arguably, one might consider that much of the dogma within Bitcoin furthers many values, such as freedom, sovereignty, free markets and others. But it also represents a better future for humanity that is only achievable without centralized control of finance, which brings us to… THE FIRST INFLUENCER OF BITCOIN Satoshi Nakamoto. For those who don’t know, this is the pseudonym of the person or people who developed Bitcoin. The amount of bitcoin held in the wallet controlled by this pseudonymous creator is immense and has never been used. And that’s the point. But why has Satoshi’s Bitcoin largely gone unused? Because Satoshi left. They disappeared, and we haven’t heard as much as a peep in years. By now, the creator of this platform could have emerged in a stupendous exhibition of ego, shouting “I told you so!” from the mountains as they paraded the streets of Dubai with a receipt for purchasing Apple that they set on fire because they had enough money to do so. Not only did Satoshi leave, but no wallet holding that substantial amount of bitcoin has ever sold any of it. Satoshi never sold their bitcoin (at least not the majority). The first influencer of Bitcoin never attempted a claim to fame, never pursued their 15 minutes and allowed their bags of wealth to solidify a worldwide network, while Satoshi held those bags for everyone else. No credit. No podcast. No monetized blog. No YouTube channel making millions. Just the delivery of the only truly decentralized form of finance humanity will ever achieve because the creator walked away. If the creator of Bitcoin wouldn’t profit from their own name, why should we? BECAUSE SATOSHI BUILT IT INTO THE SYSTEM The Bitcoin protocol is maintained every second of the day without compensation for those who provide the single most crucial element of the entire ecosystem: the nodes. Nodes operate as validators for the network. They keep track of all of the transactions and agree on what consensus is for the entire blockchain. They are low cost to set up, and low cost to maintain. This is what allows decentralization, and simultaneously is what the “block wars” were about. Because the blocks of transactions are so small, a lot of people can afford to run a node. They are not compensated. Nodes are completely voluntary, and anyone can enter the system, but they are not compensated for the crucial importance of maintaining the network. Much like Satoshi before them, node operators seek the greater good of furthering the network without personal gain (though running a node does allow you to verify your own transactions). Does all of this mean that Satoshi never wanted anyone to profit? Not even close. They probably used a few bitcoin before vanishing. But we know the system wants people to profit. How? MINERS Nodes maintain the network by validating all of the transactions and giving the “proof” in a proof-of-work system. Miners provide the “work.” Miners are given a puzzle to solve at the beginning of each block, which comes about every 10 minutes. In a simplified explanation, if the miners can guess the “password” of the block, then they are given the block reward, which is bitcoin. The miner that solves the block is paid in bitcoin. This is very clearly a model for profit. Solve this puzzle, get paid. So, why did Satoshi believe that the miners should be compensated? Work, effort, resources. In the proof-of-work model, a necessary output of resources is needed to achieve the calculations that result in solving the block. This can result in heavy energy expenses for the miners, depending on how they acquire their energy, most of which is now clean and renewable. They are incentivized to find clean energy and get their costs as low as possible, allowing a greater margin when expending resources into mining Bitcoin. WHAT’S THE POINT? Understanding the mechanisms that allow Bitcoin to operate and understanding its origin allows us to see a very clear message: Profiting in Bitcoin is permissible when following proof of work. Resources need to be spent. Cost is associated with the efforts put into the craft associated with Bitcoin. Whether it is leading a course to teach people about Bitcoin, creating content in the form of podcasting or vlogging, creating a new hardware wallet, or even developing financial instruments built for institutions — we cannot say

  Green Bay Packers legend, quarterback Aaron Rodgers, announced today on Twitter that he has partnered with Cash App to take a portion of his NFL salary in bitcoin. Rodgers also shared that he’s giving out $1,000,000 in bitcoin to his fans in the comment section of his announcement. Rodgers did not share any details on how much of his salary he’s chosen to accept in bitcoin. According to Spotrac, he makes an average annual salary of $33,500,000. “I believe in bitcoin and the future is bright,” said the football superstar. Bitcoin offers Rodgers and his athlete companions a vehicle to store their wealth into the future without seeing their purchasing power decrease. Though Rodgers may make a lot more money than the average joe, he is still victim to the consequences of money printing and inflation. Since it is impossible to store wealth in fiat currency long term, athletes are moving to bitcoin as a solution. Rodgers is the latest NFL player to accept bitcoin as payment for his services on the field, following North Carolina Panther Russel Okung and free agent Sean Culkin who both took the leap in the past year. Athletes saving their wealth in bitcoin helps to assure their financial safety and independence as they get older. Since there will only ever be 21 million bitcoin created and no way to mine more, they sleep at night knowing that no government or person is devaluing their purchasing power by expanding the monetary supply. The famous quarterback has a very large reach on social media having built up a following on Twitter of over 4.4 million. This announcement is sure to make headlines all around the nation as he is just the latest big name star to begin the process of opting out of fiat currency for the financial revolution that is bitcoin. It is a post sure to grab the attention of many of his followers who are not already into bitcoin, and get them curious as to why he’s placing his hard-earned income into it. Moments like this are what really help lead the world towards mass adoption of bitcoin. 

  Venezuela is suffering one of the worst economic crises of modern times. President Nicolás Maduro’s beleaguered government is overseeing scarcities of food and medicine, soaring crime rates and the collapse of public services and the health system. But when it launched a new cryptocurrency, the Petro, in an Initial Coin Offering (or ICO) the virtually bankrupt country says it raised US$735m on the first day of the pre-sale. Read more: Explainer: what are initial coin offerings (ICOs) and why are investors flocking to them? Any rational investor would probably steer well clear of the 100m Petro made available. The ICO is obviously a way to raise money by getting around the sanctions against Venezuela, which prevent it from issuing bonds or securities in the regular financial system. It is in desperate need of US dollars, with inflation running into quadruple digits – which has made the Venezuelan bolívar worthless. Meanwhile, the production of oil, on which the country’s economy relies, has plummeted in the past year. An interesting experiment That said, the Petro certainly represents a very interesting experiment. It is the biggest ICO ever proposed and, if it hits its cap of around US$5 billion – which is highly debatable – that will represent about 5% of the total number of Ethereum cryptocurrency currently circulating and will equal more than a half of the entire revenues generated by ICOs up to 2017. For Venezuela this is a smart option. Rather than restructuring the whole economy and linking a new currency to the US dollar, launching a cryptocurrency is much easier in an effort to fund the government and keep it functioning. If anything, because the Petro does not lead to any interference in the domestic political economy by third-party bailing-out institutions such as the IMF. It is fair to assume that the millions of US dollars being spent on the Petro are not coming from the US and Europe, as Venezuela is under strict financial sanctions and so trading in the Petro could land you in trouble. So it is probably coming from Asia and Middle East – and could be anybody from drug dealers to individual retail investors fancying a punt. Having read the ICO documents it is unclear what the Venezuelan government plans to do with the money. More than half has been earmarked for a sovereign fund – which is yet to be created – and its exact purpose again looks quite blurry. It is also very unclear as to the pricing of the Petro, which the document says will be linked to the price of a barrel of oil (currently about US$60) and given a “discount factor”, without defining how that is effectively calculated. In that respect, although anchored to the price of oil, the price of the Petro will be virtually controlled by the government. This could certainly be used to its advantage. Not really a cryptocurrency Ironically, Petro’s connection to the government goes against the whole idea of cryptocurrencies. They were originally designed to be decentralised and free from any government or central bank control. In this sense the Petro is not really a cryptocurrency – it is a digital security or token, backed by oil reserves. You are not buying anything that can be freely mined and traded on open cryptocurrency exchanges. The mining is controlled by the government and, as explicitly mentioned in the ICO documents, it will decide what exchanges can trade the Petro. It is therefore simply a digital form of debt from a country with no financial credibility and that is badly mismanaging its economy. This is the last resort of a country with practically nowhere else to go. Any credible democracy can raise money in the usual ways through bonds and securities, so I can only see other countries in similar problems doing this. I wouldn’t be surprised if countries like Russia are next in line to take advantage of the hype surrounding cryptocurrencies as they are suffering under sanctions as well and have lots of oil. The Petro may be easy to buy in the pre-sale, where typically most, if not all, of the coins are sold in an ICO. Then the ICO carries on for an indefinite period until the Venezuelan government has sold the 100m Petros it is aiming for. That could take many weeks, if not months – and only then will investors be able to trade the Petro. Once trading starts, it’s hard to see the price volatility that we have seen in other cryptocurrencies, because the price is essentially controlled by the government. It is not linked to supply and demand. So anyone thinking of buying Petro should think: it might be easy to buy now, but will you be able to trade it after the ICO? So despite representing a milestone in the growth of the cryptocurrency market, the Petro should be seen as a last-ditch attempt of a defaulting and desperate government to make a quick buck. It’s something that should probably raise concerns among anyone thinking of investing in it.