Happy Bitcoin Halving Everyone!

Now is a time great time to get excited about bitcoin. Rumors about how the price would go down after the halving have been pretty much defunct. This psychological idea, based on the notion that traders had built the price up in anticipation is over and now the simple math can take over and the price is bound to rise. 

Bitcoin miners will get half as many bitcoins for mining as they used to. It happens every 210,000 transaction blocks and it's a milestone for the network. The last time it happened, around 4 years ago, the price went up exponentially. Supply of new coins is reduced.

Whilst the Wall Street Journal does an article title "bitcoin miners get another pay cut" the reality of this is not as you might judge from this sentiment. The pay cut, is to a network which is in fact overblown. With more power than any other computer network by a factor of over one thousand fold. People don't need to feel regret for pulling back on this resource it is in-fact a conservation measure. Reducing the network incentive can also actually be a positive force of decentralisation. It can help little miners, the home miners, have long since given up on mining bitcoin, by shifting the balance in their favor. This can happen because of new efficient chip technologies are becoming available to the masses and existing miners are disrupted. Large miners with the current set ups will be stuck with their current equipment and may have to move from bitcoin into different crypto-currencies. In this way the bitcoin halving could also lead to a boom for other SHA256 crypto currencies. More decentralisation again.

Coins sharing the same mining algorithm as bitcoin tend not to be quite up to the standards of Litecoin and others that we are used to. It is a motley top 10, Zetacoin (ZET), Digitalcoin-SHA-256 (DGC), Mazacoin (MZC), Digitalcoin-SHA-256 (DGC), Terracoin (TRC), Titcoin (TIT), UniversalCurrency (UNIT), Curecoin (CURE), Freicoin (FRC), NeosCoin (NEOS), There are many more, I found 21 in total. They do have potential but it has been difficult to develop in this area due to risk of manipulation from powerful and unloyal bitcoin miners. They all have values that are a fraction of that of a bitcoin. If they are to gain a loyal mining base one of these coins now stand to become the second most powerful computer network in existence and along with it a significant currency.

As of now, price action seems pretty stable after the initial blip in bitcoin. This current relative stability is actually much like the last halving 4 years ago. the halving only lead to a huge price increase by building gradually over the following month. 

If the bitcoin price doesn't do the same again then surely some altcoins will benefit from some of the extra hash power moving to them. Altcoin prices haven't yet seen any action and If they are up to it or deserving, is another question. Who would you choose out of the top ten? Digitalcoin seems to be taking the first step forward and seems quite reputable. Others like Freicoin do have some deep thinking economic concepts at hand.

This will be a very interesting space to watch. There's always a countdown here. Happy Bitcoin halving! I'm looking forward to many more halving parties to come. Will our next halving party be for an altcoin?

75C Big Mac Standard

In 1976 a big mac cost 75c in New Zealand. Today that price is an average of $5.20. The economist did an interesting article on this which offers good insight into the value of currencies. As a crypto-currency fan I wanted to find out to find out what kind of inflation that equated to and how that compared to the official figures.

The example above equates to 5% annual compound inflation. This is quite high especially in current terms, however looking at the history of New Zealand inflation this may not be too far from the truth. There was so hectic hyper-inflation in the 80' as you can see on the government chart. But how does this compare in the USA? The Big Mac debuted at Delligatti's Uniontown, Pennsylvania restaurant in 1967, selling for 45 cents. Now a big mac costs $4.93, this also equates to a flat rate around 5% a number much further from the official rate. if we are to take the US numbers as accurate the mighty Big Mac should cost an average of $3.24 USD. This is a major difference! More than a buck fifty, a 50% increase.    

In July 2010, a Big Mac cost 6125 bitcoins in New Zealand. That year bitcoin gained parity with the USD and after a series of ups and downs, a Big Mac now costs less than half of one cent in bitcoin (0.0038 btc). That is one cheap sounding burger. And people using bitcoin to buy things now tend to talk in "bits" or "Satoshis" which are the terms for fractions of bitcoin cents. It seems like monetary time travel. For bitcoiners prices are going back in the future. 

McAffee: King of the North

Mr McAfee the man behind one of the worlds largest internet security firms is building a huge, hydro powered bitcoin mining operation in Wyoming. The technology will be used in there security systems. The software that you can't kill, McAfee, just took allegiance with cryto-currency. With so much hostility, brexit and terrorism in Turkey, world politics are starting to have a stark resemblance to those in Game of Thrones.  

Election Fears

Comparing Bitcoin to a Basket of Currencies

You may be aware that Chinese measure the Yuan against a basket of currencies. So why can't we measure bitcoin in the same way? Surely someone could programme an international digital basket measure and put it in a DAO. Speaking of such organisational baskets, soon the Yaun will be entering the IMF's global currencies basket club. China will be entering the group of currencies required to be held and part of the measure for rating the value of the elusive international currency we all forget about called the SDR.  The international monetary fund, IMF for short, have been talking about bitcoin too, even holding informative conferences. It makes you think, could one day Bitcoin join the IMF basket club?

International currencies are becoming more and more volatile. Right now a bitcoin is worth around $950 NZD or $677USD. In 2014 that comparison was more like $770 to $670. these are significant differences, so why do we continue to compare the price of our crypto currencies against them. Our local currencies like the USD the Yuan the GBP the EURO or the NZD hold great meaning to us in our day to day lives, but when thinking on an international level, as is the inclination with crypto-currencies, this makes less sense. We don't like the implications of things line the petro dollar. and we want to function as good global citizens. When global currencies are moving so much it might be best, as an international society, to compare bitcoin price against a basket of currencies.

If we measure bitcoin to a basket of currencies we find it appears less volatile. The same is true for the Yuan and there for bitcoin comparison to the yuan, can in some ways be more valid. But better than that, until the DAO is established, why not measure Bitcoin value against the SDR? Because the SDR is already based on a basket of currencies it should be very stable.

So after locating the SDR price in USD and that give us a bitcoin worth 481 SDR. Tell Mike that the heart is still beating!

#tothemoon

Can you hear the music? #bitcoinstarwars #tothemoon #deathstartakedown

BItcoin Fights Back and the Price Ramps Up

Bitcoin has been beaten down pretty badly over the last couple of years, but it seems like a comeback is in the making. This weekend the bitcoin price jumped 5% to over $550 USD. This is on top of a 5% gain the previous week. So there is a healthy upward facing curve on a scale bitcoiner's haven't seen over a year.

The digital village has been ravaged by the Empire, but it never died. Maybe we are now just battle hardened. Get ready for big things to happen.