Let's Talk About Charlie Lee

Charlie Lee has been playing a huge part in the cryptocurrency field for quite some time now.  He has a host of accomplishments and is generally well respected in the crypto community.

Charlie Lee is a former software engineer at Google and former director of engineering at the popular digital currency exchange Coinbase.

Most importantly, however, is Charlie Lee's success in creating the popular cryptocurrency known as Litecoin.

Litcoin is currently priced in the low $200 range with a market cap of $11.5 Billion and is the 5th largest cryptocurrency in terms of market cap.  Litecoin is also one of the oldest cryptocurrencies. It was released in 2011 when the cryptocurrency community was relatively small.

Obviously, Charlie Lee has done a lot to further the adoption of cryptocurrency.  However, he is not without scrutiny.

Charlie Lee sold all of his holdings in Litecoin this past December.  He also sold a portion while it was reaching all time high price levels of around $350 per coin.  Here is Lee explaining when he sold:

Charlie Lee has often been accused of manipulating the price of Litecoin through his tweets and public appearances. Furthermore, a lot of investors lost trust in the Litecoin project when the founder of the coin sold all of his stake. Not to long after Charlie Lee announced that he sold all of his coins, Litecoin lost half its value.

Lee also claimed that after he sold, he donated all of the profit to charity.  This is hard to verify, but if true, is very commendable of Lee.

All in all, I believe Charlie to be a positive force within the cryptocurrency community.  I hope he does not stray away too far from the Litecoin project or crypto community.

Here is a link directly to Lee's announcement on Reddit:

https://www.reddit.com/r/litecoin/comments/7kzw6q/litecoin_price_tweets_and_conflict_of_interest/

Here is a brief bio on Charlie Lee: https://medium.com/the-mission/brief-bio-on-charlie-lee-the-litecoin-creator-bb9e8df7e8fb

The Problem With Tron

Tron (TRX) currently has a market cap sitting slightly above $3 Billion.  It has a circulating supply of 65.7 Billion coins with each coin being worth about 4.7 cents. This could be a huge problem and before you start to scream "FUD" let me explain.

I once invested a small amount in Tron on an extremely speculative play because my room mate suggested that there would be a huge run up. That's exactly what happened.  The price ran up from 3 cents per coin to an insane 30 cents per coin before ultimately dropping back down.  If one were to capitalize on this gain it would be a 1000% return, which is absolutely insane.  Although this story sounds great, it really isn't supported by the fundamentals of the coin.

Here is my biggest issue with TRX:

Its White Paper is almost completely copied or extremely basic.  This coin is not bringing anything new to the cryptocurrency space yet it is ranked #14 and ahead of some cryptocurrencies that have strong potential such as VeChain.

My experience with TRX is that it is another coin that's susceptible to a pump and dump. Luckily, I was able to avoid holding a quickly depreciating asset when the inevitable dump occurred.

Maybe it will pump again but personally, I am not going to take that risk and I suggest everyone does their research before investing their hard earned money into TRX.

The general trend for cryptocurrencies has been in an upward trend and it may continue to bring TRX along with it.  However, I suggest looking at cryptocurrencies that have stronger fundamentals and better technology backing it.

Here is where I found the info graph above: https://www.trustnodes.com/2018/01/08/trons-whitepaper-copied-plagiarized

Check out this article on Tron: https://thenextweb.com/hardfork/2018/01/15/cryptocurrency-startup-tron-disaster/

Top 5 Cryptocurrencies of 2018

With the year still relatively young I wanted to list my top 5 cryptocurrencies that I believe have potential.  Heading into March, there are still 10 months in 2018 to make a solid profit for the year. So lets get to it.

1. VeChain (VEN)
2. Cardano (ADA)
3. Stellar (XLM)
4. Ethereum (ETH)
5. Dragonchain (DRGN)

I have already touched on VEN in a previous post which can be found here.

However, I will go over some of the positives here. The reason why VEN is ranked #1 on my list is because of the long list of partnerships that VEN has announced in their relatively short time.

Here is a list of the partnerships announced:

BMW was recently announced as well. I also recommend checking out their unofficial white pages here to learn more of the fundamentals of the project.

Cardano is one of my speculative plays.  What I really like about this coin is the security and privacy  aspect of the project.

XLM is another favorite of mine for the fast transaction speeds and low costs. This coin is similar to ripple but currently has a lower market cap giving it room to grow.

Ethereum is a proven coin and one of the most interesting projects in the cryptocurrency space. I believe it will have a solid year although it may not achieve the same growth rate as some smaller cap coins.

Dragonchain is another speculative favorite of mine.  Originally created by Disney, it has a strong backing that I think can prove to be valuable. It has a relatively low market cap at $383 Million.  This leaves it a huge amount of room to grow.

What are your top 5 cryptos for 2018?

Check out this article: https://medium.com/@realmarktaker/top-7-cryptocoins-to-watch-for-q2-2018-b661517f1026

The Mind of a Crypto Enthusiast

As I've mentioned before in my About Me page, I was first introduced to Bitcoin and cryptocurrency in general by my brother a few years ago. He has been involved in the space for much longer than I have.

I wanted to share some of his insights with the readers here at World of Crypto.

I asked him a few general and some specific questions and the knowledge he shared is valuable.

The first question: "What are some things that people commonly overlook when thinking about starting a crypto mining rig?"

Response: "A lot of people don't account or understand how power hungry and demanding these rigs really are, and the heat that they produce. Like right now your rig is consuming 12 AMPS on a 15 AMP line, and that's after a 30% reduction in tweaking the voltage on the cards."

The heat is something I can personally attest to.  A mining rig WILL heat up what ever room it is in. It is best to put it somewhere remote if you have the space for it. Definitely do not put it somewhere you will be spending a lot of time in. The heat will make it unenjoyable.

Second Question: "What are you holding?"

Response: "I have Bitcoin, Ethereum, Vechain, Stellar, and Nano. I want to add Litecoin to my portfolio really bad, and NEO. I'm just waiting to get in on a good dip but it (NEO) refuses to stop going up."

Follow up question: "At what price do you think you would buy NEO?"

Response: "I'm willing to be patient. Like if it hits $80 I'm in. I doubt it will though."

Check out this article on NEO: http://bitcoinist.com/why-invest-in-neo/

Critique of Roger Ver and Bitcoin Cash

Roger Ver is an interesting case when it comes to the Bitcoin and cryptocurrency community in general.  Roger Ver was initially hailed as "Bitcoin Jesus" and was largely a positive force for the adoption of Bitcoin. However, now things are quite different. Roger Ver is actively trying to undermine Bitcoin and push alternative coins that he helped hardfork off the original Bitcoin block-chain.

Essentially, Roger Ver is pushing for Bitcoin Cash to overtake Bitcoin. I will give credit, where credit is due. Roger Ver is a very good at marketing. He even got Coinbase to add Bitcoin Cash to their exchange. Coinbase is extremely selective with which cryptocurrencies they support. With Bitcoin Cash, they now support four cryptos in total.

Roger has also thrown his support among other potential hardfork alts such as Bitcoin Classic, Bitcoin XT, and Bitcoin Unlimited. Roger Ver is a big supporter of increasing the blocksize of Bitcoin. All of these hardfork attempts are attempts to undermine the original Bitcoin. Bitcoin Cash was his first successful attempt at hard forking Bitcoin.

Now, lets look into his shady history. In 2002 he was sentenced to 10 months in federal prison for selling and mailing explosives. In 2005 he moved to Japan and later denounced his US citizenship. In 2017, Roger teamed up with Calvin Ayre. Calvin has warrents out for his arrest for running some sort of gambling site called "Bodog."

This is what Calvin had to say about Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash:

With Roger Ver, I get the sense that he is doing something shady.

Check out this article on Roger Ver: https://medium.com/@WhalePanda/roger-ver-from-bitcoin-jesus-to-bitcoin-antichrist-69fc7a17c622

The 11 Things You'll Need to Start Mining Ethereum

Building a mining rig is surprisingly easy.  Anyone can do it with a little bit of learning.  In this post I'll be listing the most important pieces you will need to get started.

• A motherboard with multiple PCI-E slots.
• Multiple Graphics Cards (Up to how many your motherboard can support)
• A Power Supply
• PCI-Risers
• Ram
• WiFi Adapter
• SSD (Solid State Drive)
• A Processor
• Power Strip
• Mining Rig Frame
• Software (Linex or Windows)

Make sure you understand all the costs, risks, and rate of return before you start spending loads of cash on mining hardware.

Electricity will be one of the main variable costs in this investment.  If you live in an area with high electricity costs it might not be worth your time to spend thousands of dollars on setting up a mining rig.

Many miners take months to see their initial investment returned.  Everything after that is straight profit if done right.

When all is said and done it should look something like this:

While you're here, check out this awesome Ethereum mug:

https://www.cafepress.com/cryptoexpress.239694058

Also, Check out this article on ETH mining here: https://www.coindesk.com/information/how-to-mine-ethereum/

The Future of Bitcoin

The start of the 2018 has shown to be an extremely volatile and testing time for Bitcoin.  The largest cryptocurrency has seen it's value drop from $16,500 per coin all the way down to $6,000 before steadily climbing back up in the $8,000 range.

This is a very testing time for bitcoin with many questioning the value of bitcoin.

Bitcoin has some very serious issues that need to be resolved for it to remain the #1 cryptocurrency in the space. First, the community and developers need to decide on a consensus on what they want Bitcoin to become.

Is it a store of value or is it a currency made for daily transactions?

The argument that it is a store of value is a tough argument to make because of the large fluctuations in price in short periods of time.

The currency aspect of Bitcoin is being questioned as well with part of the community having enough support to create a fork, called Bitcoin Cash, that aims to be used for daily transactions.  Bitcoin also has huge transaction fees making it economically impractical to be used for small ticket items such as a cup of coffee.

The implementation of the Lightning Network may be able to solve this issue and pave a way for Bitcoin to continue it's growth.

Only time will tell where Bitcoin ends up.

Check out this article by Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2018/03/29/the-problems-with-bitcoin-and-the-future-of-blockchain/#548dc9ef68dc

About Me

ABOUT ME:

Hi my name is Robert Kik

I have been involved in the cryptocurrency space as an investor for a few years now.  I was first introduced to Bitcoin by my brother in 2016.  Since then I have been expanding my knowledge on cryptocurrencies and their impact on the world while simultaneously pursuing a degree in Business Administration and Human Resource Management at Illinois State University.  I have also expanded my cryptocurrency endeavors to include ethereum mining as well as investments into other lesser known coins.

The point of this blog is to help readers understand the world of cryptocurrencies, the potential, and the risks.  Topics will include an in depth analysis on the fundamentals of certain coins, mining, and other general knowledge.  I hope to share the knowledge I have accumulated from the past few years.  I have made many mistakes that have taught me valuable lessons.  Hopefully you can learn from my mistakes! My main goal is to provide my readers with a space to find and share beneficial cryptocurrency information.

Here is a picture of an ethereum mining rig that I am currently working on:

Here is a picture of me:

If you wish to contact me, feel free to do so here: