Technology gives everyone the opportunity to trade cryptocurrency online.

When it comes to technology, it can often feel that by the time we hear about something, it’s already too late to get ourselves involved. Indeed, sometimes this can be true. Those who invested early in Bitcoin are now seeing huge payouts, sometimes 1000x what they invested. Whereas to get involved now wouldn’t be nearly as lucrative. But there are some trends in tech that are open at any time for anyone to get involved with. One of these is trading online. While the currencies you may trade and the companies’ stocks may have been around forever, each day is a new day in trading and could be the day that you make a name for yourself as a trader. But how can you be a good trader online at this stage?

Those who invested early in Bitcoin are now seeing huge payouts, sometimes 1000x what they invested. Whereas to get involved now wouldn’t be nearly as lucrative
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Do Your Research

Due diligence is the key to being a good trader. Spending hours poring over trading forecasts and past trading information could help you see patterns and anticipate what comes next. Even when the market throws you a curveball, it’s still better to be prepared to deal with it than to trade blindly. Researching the current climate of economics is also important. You don’t need to know the intricacies of every country’s currency, but you do need to be able to back up decisions you make in your trades. There is no such thing as having too much information when it comes to making trades or investments in general.

When the market throws you a curveball, it's better to be prepared to deal with it than to trade blindly
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Find a Platform

There are plenty of websites for those who are less familiar with trading and want to be guided more at the start. These kinds of platforms allow you to buy stocks and to view trading information, which is critical for embarking on any trade. While the future may be uncertain, we can definitely learn from the past, especially when it comes to seasonal trends in forex and stocks. Using a platform isn’t just for those who are beginning their trading journey as the services they offer are also suitable for more seasoned traders.

While the future may be uncertain, we can definitely learn from the past, especially when it comes to seasonal trends in forex and stocks
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Take a Chance

One of the best lessons you can learn when you begin trading is that sometimes you just have to take a chance. While research is good, focusing too much on what it tells you could lead to paralysis by analysis. The act of trading sometimes comes down to taking risks and hoping they pay off. While it’s important to have a plan in place to see how expensive your risks can be, most great traders will tell you that you can often learn better from mistakes or failures than through success. Indeed, trading is all about making decisions on information, but in the microsecond that the trade is made, the information could be out of date or incorrect. Sometimes just taking the risk and hoping it pays off is the best strategy.

While research is good, focusing too much on what it tells you could lead to paralysis by analysis
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It’s definitely not too late to get into the trend of trading and by doing your research, using the right platform, and being able to take risks, you’ll soon know whether you are cut out for the lifestyle that comes with being a trader.

Tom Atkinson is a Digital Producer & Photographer at R3Digital and Reviews & Dept. Editor at Tech Trends. Connect on LinkedIn and follow him on Twitter @R3Digital

The post Is It Too Late to Get Into Trading? appeared first on Tech Trends.

It has been a hectic year on the emerging crypto markets! This infographic looks back on the roller coaster ride

With any tech, any industry, and any product – there are fluctuations. Whether they’re positive or negative, every market has them. And of course, this can be said for the world of crypto in 2018. It’s been an eventful year in the crypto space. From dramatic price changes, forks and shifting market trends. In 2018, cryptocurrency markets continued to show growth in regions across the globe, showcasing the world’s desire to exercise more control over their finances.

With any tech, any industry, and any product - there are fluctuations. Whether they’re positive or negative, every market has them. And of course, this can be said for the world of crypto in 2018
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Since before the boom of December 2017, the crypto industry broke into the watchful, and sometimes cynical eye of the public. There’s been speculation, regulation changes, social media monitoring, and more in 2018. Here is a summary of some of the biggest crypto landmarks of the past 12 months by Magdalena Gołębiewska, Country Manager at Luno

There’s been Cryptocurrency speculation, regulation changes, social media monitoring, and more in 2018
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The first three months of 2018 are summarized below followed by the infographic for the whole year.

January 2018

The bull market of the holiday season came screaming to a halt as we entered 2018 Bitcoin lost 40% of its value over January.
This decline was due in part to new regulations in South Korea, as well as Facebook announcing they were starting to ban the advertising of cryptocurrencies and crypto exchanges.

February 2018

By February, nearly half of 2017’s ICOs failed to attract funding. Fortune reported that 142 ICOs failed before reaching their target, while another 276 failed after their fundraising ended. While some of these were actual token sales to raise money for would-be start-ups, a good number of these ICOs turned out to be scams, with the founders disappearing with the money raised. It’s always important to make sure you thoroughly research a company, its employees, and founders before deciding to buy their tokens.

March 2018

March brought with it better news for the cryptosphere. The G20’s Financial Stability Board comprising of 68 institutions such as banks and ministries of finance, who then prepare suggestions for global financial systems, stated they don’t believe crypto-assets pose a threat to global markets. The FSB Chairman, Mark Carney, wrote a letter to the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors, in which he expresses his concerns about the possible issues that will arise for consumers and investor protection. He noted, however, that the underlying cryptographic and blockchain technology has the potential to improve the inclusiveness of the financial system and the economy. The board delivered varying results for the world of crypto, but overall the sentiment was positive.

Tom Atkinson is a Digital Producer & Photographer at R3Digital and Reviews & Dept. Editor at Tech Trends. Connect on LinkedIn and follow him on Twitter @R3Digital

The post The 2018 Crypto Rollercoaster appeared first on Tech Trends.

Blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies are here to stay, but we’re yet to develop the systems we need to make them work on a global scale.

Blockchain technology will have a world-changing impact, in the same way the Internet did thirty years ago
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Cryptocurrencies have caused a bit of a stir recently but are rapidly recovering from the well-publicised slump early this year. Despite scepticism and some pointed criticisms from central banks and traditional investors, cryptos are attracting serious interest from global financial institutions.

Cryptos are set to continue to be a major disrupting force in the global financial system
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Cryptos are set to continue to be a major disrupting force in the global financial system, so Tech Trends met up with Francisco Portillejo Hoyos for an insider perspective on what to expect next. Hoyos is the CEO of Cryptalgo, a Swiss algotrading and crypto brokerage company, and he helps us make sense of the confusing cryptocurrency landscape and what will be filling our wallets, digital or otherwise, in the future.

While the dollar value of Bitcoin and other coins have depreciated from the January peak, prices have basically returned to their end of 2017 levels. Governments and Regulators are still learning how to best protect investors’ interests and introduce the right trading tools that will breed confidence among traders. Many believe that the leading financial jurisdictions, including the US, UK, South Korea, Japan, and China, will introduce regulatory schemes and frameworks that will remove the uncertainty and will fuel the crypto markets’ growth. He explained.

CEO of Cryptalgo – Francisco Portillejo Hoyos

Elysium Technology Group and Cryptalgo promises a solution to the problems of a fractured crypto market
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A major announcement of a new partnership between leading US innovators in foreign exchange and futures trading solutions, Elysium Technology Group and Cryptalgo promises a solution to the problems of a fractured crypto market and offers a one-stop shop and safe, easy access point into this emerging new world of finance.

Cryptalgo provides financial institutions with a swift entry into cryptocurrencies without the need to invest capital in developing their own secure and efficient platforms. From real-time quotes and aggregated liquidity, to best trade execution and global arbitrage algotrading, we are introducing a best in class, highly secure global cryptocurrency trading platform. All built to the exacting requirements and standards of financial institutions.

The combination of this ecosystem and a regulated environment will turn cryptocurrencies into a mainstream and fast-growing asset class
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Chairman of Elysium Technology Group, Andrew Siciliano also believes now is the time to begin offering crypto investment solutions to their established client base;

“New trading platforms like this promote confidence in these disruptive new markets, he says. “Cryptalgo has the knowhow, experience, and execution platform complementing the Elysium offering. The partnership will deliver a comprehensive, high-end cryptocurrency trading solution for our clients.”

We are witnessing significant investments made by very credible funds and companies into blockchain and crypto companies
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“The combination of this ecosystem and a regulated environment will turn cryptocurrencies into a mainstream and fast-growing asset class,” added Hoyos. “We are witnessing significant investments made by very credible funds and companies into blockchain and crypto companies, and we’re delighted that Elysium, the market leader in FX post-trading platforms, has chosen to partner with Cryptalgo as it looks to extend its offering into cryptocurrency trading.”

Tech Trends predicts we will start seeing more of a trickle-down effect where cryptocurrencies become a more viable option for ordinary people. OK, anyone can technically already buy cryptos such as Bitcoin and Ethereum and spend them at thousands of outlets on the web and even some physical stores, but I don’t think it is rude to say that, right now, only super-geeks and tech enthusiasts have really bought into the system properly. That’s changing fast though, and soon you too might be filling up the tank on Ethereum and grocery shopping with Bitcoin!

Current estimations predict that the value of the entire cryptocurrency market will reach $1 trillion in 2018
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Image by MichaelWuensch from Pixabay

Current estimations predict that the value of the entire cryptocurrency market will reach $1 trillion in 2018, with crypto the fastest growing asset class to date. However, it is a still a bit Wild West out there as Hoyos explained;

Despite the crypto ecosystem evolving at a rapid pace, it is still in its infancy. This nascent market has deep inefficiencies. The market participants are spread across the globe, fragmented, disconnected and lack standardization. If one or more coins emerge both as a reliable store of value (immune to hacking) and an efficient means of exchange (capable of handling very large transaction volumes in a very short time), then the banking sector as we know it will be fundamentally transformed.

In response to that problem, Cryptalgo has developed the ‘Galaxy’, a highly secure global backbone that interconnects with multiple exchanges. It’s an institutional-grade global infrastructure that interconnects with crypto exchanges via a network of global servers that are placed in proximity to the exchanges around the world.

Andrew expanded; Moneymaking opportunities come and go very quickly. We believe this will be the same in cryptocurrency trading. Institutions need trading solutions that they are familiar with; that feature “Best prices” and “Best Execution”. This cannot be achieved without speedy access to the entire global crypto market. Institutions not only need to get the best pricing on very large orders, but they also need methods for preventing market shifts when placing such orders. This means they cannot rely on a quote from a single crypto exchange or an execution of a trade transaction. They require strong compliance standards, stringent cyber-security measures and other high-end tools – all of which Cryptalgo is developing.

Institutions not only need to get the best pricing on very large orders, but methods for preventing market shifts when placing such orders
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Should you consider cryptocurrency as an investment vehicle?

Although there is no certainty about their future prices, cryptocurrencies are a new type of asset. The question is whether you should consider it for inclusion in your investment portfolio.

There are many reasons why Bitcoin may be a good investment. One of them is its deflationary model. Take the US dollar as an example; Its supply increases more and more every year. And although the same might be true of Bitcoin at the moment, there will be less of the cryptocurrency mined every 4 years, and its supply is actually finite – meaning that after all the Bitcoins are mined, the supply will remain fixed forever after.

There are many potential disadvantages to investing in cryptocurrency, the most important one being its volatility. Therefore, if you're looking to dip your toes in, make sure to start small.
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Stabilising and expanding the high-end of the crypto trading should hopefully provide increased stability for the currencies and global markets, nurturing and growing their potential while making them more secure for those using them day-to-day. Hoyos sees huge potential in decentralised crypto and a future where national currencies might disappear altogether.

It is possible that in twenty years’ time, bank accounts will have disappeared because we will be able to store our money in private wallets on the blockchain. Blockchain technology will have a world-changing impact, in the same way the Internet did thirty years ago. We believe that cryptocurrencies will be fully regulated and mainstream. They will be offered by all the financial institutions using their institutional-grade trading and investment tools, featuring tens of thousands of coins and with an aggregated market cap of trillions of dollars.

It is possible that in twenty years’ time, bank accounts will have disappeared because we will be able to store our money in private wallets on the blockchain
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Tom Atkinson is a Digital Producer & Photographer at R3Digital and Reviews & Dept. Editor at Tech Trends. Connect on LinkedIn and follow him on Twitter @R3Digital

The post A Crypto Future appeared first on Tech Trends.

Crypto currencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum continue to soar and interest in blockchain is at an all-time high, but can we regulate this brave new world?

By Alex Larsen CFIRM, Institute of Risk Management (IRM)

According to Reuters: “Japan’s financial regulator said on Friday it had ordered all cyrptocurrency exchanges to submit a report on their system risk management, following the hacking of over half a billion dollars of digital money from Coincheck.”

Crypto currency has been a booming market with increases in some major coins in the high 1000’s of percent over the last year
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Whilst the whole premise of blockchain technology and crypto currencies revolves around it being essentially unhackable, the exchanges that trade these currencies are vulnerable. The introduction of system risk management (which we assume to be risk management of the software/operating systems and servers) checks is a step forward for the cryptocurrency space although it only covers one area of exposure linked to the cryptocurrency market.

History of incidents

Crypto currency has been a booming market with increases in some major coins in the high 1000’s of percent over the last year. This rise, coupled with a lack of regulation, has seen the crypto currency world being hit with a number of negative incidents from Ponzi schemes to fraud, scams and hacking incidents.

Bitconnect, which as of writing of this article, is trading at roughly $8.60, a huge fall from its height of over $300 a month ago, is an example of a potential major Ponzi scheme which has lost $2.4 billion worth of value over 10 days.

Most banks and stock exchanges are required to hold a certain amount in reserves in order to survive any major downturn or crash. This should be the case for crypto currency exchanges too
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The subpoena by US regulators of crypto exchange Bitfinex and its relationship with Tether is another concern to the crypto currency market with many claiming Tether to be a scam. Tethers are tokens backed by US dollar deposits, with each tether always worth one dollar. These tokens should be backed by dollars but thus far the company has yet to provide evidence of its holdings to the public and has not had any successful audits as of yet.

There have also been a large number of Initial Coin Offerings (ICO’s), used to raise money for startups by issuing tokens/coins, which have raised vast sums of money only for the owners to disappear with all the money, whilst others have been less deliberate but have been just as devastating to investors. A cryptocurrency called Tezos, raised $232 million last year, but suffered internal power struggles which has left the project in disarray.

Tethers are tokens backed by US dollar deposits, with each tether always worth one dollar
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This brings us to the current concern in Japan of cyber attacks of exchange platforms. Cyber attacks and hacking attempts of exchanges have been frequent with Bitfinex, coinbase and kraken amongst others having been closed down for days at a time during 2017 due to a number of hacking attempts. It is the successful hacking incidents which are the most worrying however, with successful hacks such as MT Gox, which cost almost 350 million and two attacks on Youbit which led to it’s bankruptcy. The most recent coincheck hacking was worth 500 million, a record, and it is this which has caused Japan to act.

Cyber attacks and hacking attempts of exchanges have been frequent with Bitfinex, coinbase and kraken amongst others having been closed down for days at a time during 2017
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Regulation

Last year, China took a definitive stand on regulation on crypto currencies which sent shockwaves through the market. Some feel it was perhaps heavy handed with ICO’s being banned, bank accounts being frozen, bitcoin miners being kicked out and nationwide banning on the internet of cryptocurrency trading related sites. Others however believe that it has been a positive step, and has encouraged other governments to take regulation seriously and hopefully take a more balanced approach. It certainly isn’t in the interest of governments to stop ICO’s, which provide many positives including innovation, but they should certainly regulate them from a consumer protection, taxation and organised crime standpoint.

Last year, China took a definitive stand on regulation on crypto currencies which sent shockwaves through the market
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Implementing regulation also removes uncertainty for investors as well as the companies who are involved in ICO’s. Uncertainty is the source of many risks and often a negative certainty is better than uncertainty as it allows a focus within set parameters.

It’s important to remember that too little regulation doesn’t offer protection and too much stifles innovation.

How to regulate

There are a number of ways to regulate cryptocurrencies and the following are just some examples:

1)     Framework for ICOs

New ICO’s are currently not subject to much in terms of regulation globally. One of the problems is determining how they should be treated with some being considered securities. As a fund raising vehicle, there could certainly be a framework that lays out key requirements of an ICO such as a company needing to be registered in order to issue a token, transparency in terms of individual members of the registered company as well as perhaps introducing a few requirements that regular IPO’s require such as implementing risk management. Currently in USA, ICOs are expected to adhere to Anti Money Laundering (AML)/Know Your Customer (KYC) practices.

2)     Regulate exchanges

Exchanges, which is where much of the transactions take place in terms of trading coins, is a logical area of focus when it comes to regulations

South Korea’s financial services commission for example, has stated that trading of cryptocurrencies can only occur from real-name bank accounts. This ensures KYC and AML compliance. According to the FSC, the measures outlined were intended to “reduce room for cryptocurrency transactions to be exploited for illegal activities, such as crimes, money laundering and tax evasion,”

Regulators should focus on regulation that encourages transparency and minimises anonymity
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1)     Tax Laws

Clarity needs to be brought into the tax laws in terms of when investors should pay capital gains. The USA has been quite quick to ensure that crypto-to-crypto transactions are now taxable and not just crypto to Fiat currency transactions. This is not the case in the UK however, where things are less clear and will become even more so, once crypto currencies start to introduce dividend like behaviour.

2)     Reserve requirements of exchanges

Most banks and stock exchanges are required to hold a certain amount in reserves in order to survive any major downturn or crash. This should most certainly be the case for crypto currency exchanges too especially considering the volatility which sees crashes of 60% several times a year with some crypto currencies falling 90% before recovering. This is also known in part as systemic risk which could be what the Japanese financial regulator defines as system risk.

3)     System risk management

As we have seen from this Japan story, one way of ensuring more protection and reliability is by ensuring there is regulation around system risk management on exchanges. There should be minimum requirements protecting against hacking, phishing and other cyber related attacks. The requirements could be scaled against value of the exchange, number of users or number of daily transactions.

There are a number of ways to regulate cryptocurrencies
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It’s important to note that much is being done to reduce the risks of hacking incidents such as the concept of a decentralised exchange. This would essentially be a crypto currency exchange on the blockchain, much like the crypto currencies themselves. This would reduce hacking significantly and whilst it is not currently practical, it could be the standard of the future.

Self-Regulation

The Crypto Currency market gets a lot of negative publicity and much of this could be rectified if there was more self-regulation. It would also reduce volatility within the market and bring about positive change. This refers to both exchanges and ICO’s alike.

The Crypto Currency market gets a lot of negative publicity and much of this could be rectified if there was more self-regulation
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The Japan Blockchain Association (JBA) for example has established self-regulation standards which includes the use of cold wallets amongst its 15 crypto exchange members (of which Coincheck was one of them) and are now looking to strengthen the standards further following this recent incident.

Even the most optimistic investor should at least consider that cryptocurrencies are a speculative bubble that could burst
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Risk Management in the Crypto Currency Space

Risk Management, as with all organisation’s, plays a vital role in meeting and exceeding objectives whilst providing resilience and stakeholder confidence. Exchanges and companies that are raising/have raised ICO’s should ensure that Risk Management is part of their business. Identifying risks and opportunities, assessing them and implementing response plans should be standard. Cyber risks, reputational risks, operational risks, system risks and strategic risks should all be considered and prepared for, which would minimise market disruption and reduce the likelihood of financial ruin. At the very least they owe it to the investors who have funded them.

Exchanges and companies that are raising/have raised ICO’s should ensure that Risk Management is part of their business
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For investors, with volatility so high, the rewards are great but so are the risks. Investors should ensure that they only invest what they can afford to lose, do their due diligence on their investments which includes understanding the technology, the team and look for a prototype rather than a wild concept. Additionally, investors should always be on the lookout for phishing scams and suspicious emails.

Finally, even the most optimistic investor should at least consider that cryptocurrencies are a speculative bubble that could burst.

Find out more about IRM’s Strategic Insights into Cyber Risk Course and more here.

The post Expert View: Regulating Crypto Currency Markets appeared first on Tech Trends.