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Cryptocurrency Dash Team Schedules Free Conferences in Venezuela

The Dash network is sponsoring twelve free conferences in Venezuela from September through the end of the year. The goal of these events is to increase Venezuelans’ knowledge of virtual currencies in general, and Dash in particular. The nation’s worsening hyperinflation has caused the popularity of Bitcoin and Ethereum to soar as people turn to these currencies as a more effective store of value than the Venezuelan Bolivar.

The Dash plan

Representatives of the Dash team have been regulars at a number of key Bitcoin conferences around the world. Recently, Dash announced that it is hosting an entire conference dedicated to the virtual currency. The Dash Conference 2017 will be held in London this September, and the team has promised some major announcements.

Meanwhile, in Venezuela, each of the twelve free conferences is intended to introduce Venezuelans to the concept of Dash and familiarize them with its use. The Dash team hopes that the currency’s advanced features, such as instant transactions, will woo people away from Bitcoin’s slower network.

So far, about 200 people have signed up to attend the inaugural conference being held in Caracas on September 19. The Dash team will be fighting an uphill battle, because Venezuelans are largely unfamiliar with digital currencies other than Bitcoin and Ethereum.

State of cryptocurrencies in the country

The Venezuelan government has yet to impose laws to regulate the digital currency market in the country. The absence of such regulations makes the use of cryptocurrencies considerably easier as individuals and businesses need not worry about onerous anti-money laundering laws. While the government has not been keen to regulate the buying and selling of digital currencies, there has been some pushback concerning virtual currency mining.

CNBC says Bitcoin Rise Might Be Similar to Tech Bubble

Bitcoin's nearly five-fold climb in 2017 looks very similar to tech bubble surge

• CNBC always seems to have a negative twist towards the crytocurrency market place, please read this article with an open mind.
• David Ader, chief macro strategist at Informa Financial Intelligence, shows how bitcoin's gains resemble that of the Nasdaq Telecommunications Index before the tech bubble burst.
• Bitcoin has gained nearly 400 percent this year, helped by increased interest from institutional investors.
• However, digital currency expert Chris Burniske points out the market value of bitcoin is still a fraction of what stocks were during the dot-com boom.

Short seller Andrew Left targets Grayscale's Bitcoin trust  15 Hours Ago | 04:55

When charted, bitcoin's rapid gains resemble how stocks surged into the tech bubble before collapsing.

David Ader, chief macro strategist at Informa Financial Intelligence, matched a graph of the Nasdaq Telecommunications Index at its peak in 2000 to bitcoin's five-year run to all-time highs.

"This is the price chart for an overly frothy market, in my opinion. I just don't see anything quite as comparable to this in bubblelicious terms," said Ader, a former top-rated bond market strategist.

Bitcoin climbed more than 3.7 percent Thursday to a record of $4,802.74, up nearly five times in price this year and about 67 percent higher for August, according to CoinDesk.

Source: Informa Financial Intelligence

"I think it's going to come to a sorry ending," Ader said. "I don't know anybody who's actually used a bitcoin for any purpose legal or otherwise. This looks like an overly frothy market and frothy markets lose their froth."

Ader said he used the Nasdaq telecom index since many of those stocks led the Nasdaq composite's overall gains during the tech bubble. The Nasdaq telecom index shot up more than 700 percent from 1995 to 2000, before collapsing 90 percent in the next two years. The index remains about 75 percent below its record high.

Bitcoin's meteoric surge this year comes as many on Wall Street are becoming more interested in the digital currency and the blockchain technology behind it. New digital asset investment funds are rolling out and the Chicago Board Options Exchange is planning to launch bitcoin futures.

Many investors also bought bitcoin this month after it survived a relatively uneventful split on Aug. 1 into bitcoin and bitcoin cash, an alternative version supported by only a few developers. Bitcoin cash is up about 180 percent from its Aug. 1 low, to Thursday's price of $588, according to CoinMarketCap.

However, bitcoin could split again this fall because there's another upgrade proposal, and others have warned that the speculative forces behind bitcoin could quickly turn against it.

Here are a few of the alarm bells sounded this summer:

• The Elliott Wave Newsletter predicted bitcoin's surge from 6 cents in 2010, but in July said bitcoin's surge has surpassed the tulip mania of roughly 400 years ago and is now showing signs of nearing a sharp downturn.
• Later in July, widely followed Bank of America Merrill Lynch commodity and derivatives strategist Francisco Blanch concluded in a sweeping report that bitcoin still faces many challenges to becoming a globally accepted currency.
• Then about a week later, a New York University finance professor, Aswath Damodaran, said in a blog post that bitcoin may just be a "dangerous pricing game."

By percent change, analysis from Bespoke Investment Group shows how bitcoin's surge has already well surpassed that of any major stock market bubble.

Source: Bespoke Investment Group

That said, some well-respected names on Wall Street have also issued positive reports on the digital currency.

• In early July, Thomas Lee became the first major Wall Street strategist to issue a report on bitcoin. A former JPMorgan strategist who co-founded Fundstrat, Lee said bitcoin could reach $20,000 to $55,000 by 2022. On Aug. 18, he established a mid-2018 target of $6,000 for bitcoin.
• According to a mid-July Forbes report, investing legend Bill Miller put 1 percent of his net worth into bitcoin in 2014, and the digital currency is one of the top holdings in Miller's $120 million hedge fund.
• Stock analyst Ronnie Moas of Standpoint Research published a report in late July predicting bitcoin would rise nearly 80 percent to $5,000 in 2018. He then raised that target in mid-August to $7,500.

Lee and Moas both reason that bitcoin can climb to those levels if even a fraction of the trillions of dollars in gold or other traditional investments move into the digital currency.

Bitcoin has a market value of about $78 billion, and digital currencies overall are worth $170 billion, according to CoinMarketCap.

That makes the value of all digital currencies less than 5 percent of the more than $4 trillion inflation-adjusted value of stocks during the tech and telecom boom, said Chris Burniske, author of the upcoming book, "Cryptoassets: The Innovative Investor's Guide to Bitcoin and Beyond."

"If people think this is the 'big bubble,' then they don't have an appreciation for how big the idea of cryptoassets really is," he said.

Many digital currency enthusiasts agree there is speculation in the digital currency. But they note that, just like the dot-com bubble, companies that were able to utilize the underlying technology then became global giants.

11 Things You Need to Know About Bitcoin

Even the most tech savvy among us have a hard time wrapping their heads around Bitcoin. It's a hot topic and a frequent point of discussion among investors, entrepreneurs and stock traders, so you should want to know all about it.

For starters, here's an overly simplified explanation of Bitcoin: It's a digital currency (there are more than 800 now) that isn't controlled by a central authority such as a government or bank. It's created by "miners," who use computers and specialized hardware to process transactions, secure the currency's network and collect bitcoins in exchange. Supporters say it allows for more secure transactions over the internet. That's in part due to blockchain, a technology that records cryptocurrency transactions chronologically in a public digital ledger.

Bitcoin is only eight and a half years old, but it’s the oldest and most highly valued cryptocurrency out there. In such a short time, it’s had a rocky and controversial history, but it’s also attracted a fair share of high-profile supporters. Click through to read 11 bits about Bitcoin that will make you at least sound like you know what you're talking about next time it inevitably comes up.

The birth of Bitcoin

The origins of bitcoin trace back to 2008, when its creator, who went by the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto, published a proof of concept for Bitcoin. The proof was then published to a cryptocurrency mailing list in 2009. Nakamoto left the project in 2010 and disappeared, but other developers picked up the work. Bitcoin's birthday is Jan. 3, when Nakamoto mined the first 50 units of the currency.

3. Very expensive pizza

The first transaction involving bitcoin was reported on May 22, 2010, when a programmer identified as Laszlo Hanyecz said he "successfully traded 10,000 bitcoins for pizza." As of Aug. 28, 2017, 10,000 bitcoins are worth about $43 million.

4. You can spend bitcoins

While it may not seem like it, people continue to use bitcoins to buy stuff. The largest businesses to accept the cryptocurrency include Overstock.com, Expedia, Newegg and Dish.

5. Federal Bureau of Bitcoin

At one point, the U.S. government was one of the largest holders of bitcoin. In 2013, after the FBI shut down Silk Road, a darknet site where people could buy drugs and other illicit goods and services, it took over bitcoin wallets controlled by the site, one of which held 144,000 bitcoins. Investors have been making a killing by bidding on government-seized bitcoins.

6. A mountain-sized setback

In early 2014, Bitcoin suffered a devastating loss after the alleged hacking of Mt. Gox, a Japanese exchange. About $460 million of the currency (in 2014 value) was stolen. It was the largest loss of bitcoins ever and raised concerns about how secure the currency was.

7. The billionaires' takes

Warren Buffett, perhaps the most famous investor in the world, was not so keen on Bitcoin one of the only times he addressed the currency. "Stay away from it. It's a mirage, basically," he told CNBC. "The idea that it has some huge intrinsic value is a joke in my view." Fellow billionaire Mark Cuban has said its value is inflated, but he recently invested in cryptocurrency. Richard Branson, however, has spoken more optimistically about it.

8. Wealthy twins and a smart teen

Other notable investors in Bitcoin include Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss (the Harvard-educated twins who sued Mark Zuckerberg claiming that Facebook was based on an idea they'd had). They invested $11 million into Bitcoin in 2013, an amount said to be about 1 percent of all bitcoins in circulation at that time. The Winklevoss twins have been petitioning the SEC to create a bitcoin exchange traded fund. The agency rejected the idea earlier this year.

Another is investor and entrepreneur Erik Finman, who invested $1,000 into Bitcoin when he was 14 years old and is now a millionaire.

9. Celebrities want in

Celebrities have also expressed enthusiasm for the cryptocurrency. Actor and Goop founder Gwyneth Paltrow advises Abra, a Bitcoin wallet, and Ashton Kutcher, Nas and Floyd Mayweather have all invested in Bitcoin startups.

10. Support from a big financial institution

In August 2017, Fidelity Investments became a rare standout among financial institutions in embracing Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. The company allows its clients to use the Fidelity website to view their bitcoin holdings held through digital wallet provider Coinbase. "This is an experiment in the spirit of learning what these crypto assets are like and how our customers may want to interact with them," Hadley Stern, senior vice president and managing director at Fidelity Labs, told Reuters.

11. A hard fork

On Aug. 1, 2017, Bitcoin experienced what's being called a "hard fork" as a result of a few issues, including the limited number of transactions that can be processed per second. Essentially, the cryptocurrency split into two, with Bitcoin Cash debuting. Here's how Rob Marvin of PCMag explains the situation: "The Bitcoin fork speaks to a fundamental ideological rift over what's more important: preserving the decentralized nature and independent control of the Bitcoin network, or accelerating transaction speeds to make the cryptocurrency more viable for mainstream ecommerce and payments." Bitcoin Cash allows larger blocks of currency and more transactions per second.

In Context Bitcoin Has Risen To Record Highs

After a two-year long bear market, bitcoin came roaring back in 2016, and has been climbing ever since.

The digital currency reached a new all-time high above $4,650 on Tuesday, an increase of more than 350% year-to-date. The sheer intensity of its gains has inspired some comparisons to the digital currency's initial run-up, which ended with the collapse of bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox in early 2014, marking the end of the first bitcoin bull market.

Given bitcoin's torrid advance, analysts from Bespoke Investments attempted to put its gains in context in a chart. The results are striking: Compared with infamous asset bubbles like tech stocks in the 1990s, bitcoin has climbed much further in far less time. According to Bloomberg, “there’s almost no comparison” between bitcoin and the tech-stock bubble. 

“Bespoke Investment Group contrasted the rise in bitcoin with infamous bubbles such as the tech market in the late nineties. There’s almost no comparison. Tech stocks rose just over 1,000 percent over the entire course of their bubble, and bitcoin is already up more than twice that. Take a look.”

According to CoinTelegraph, bitcoin analysts expect the digital currency to finish the year around $5,000.

And some expect the digital currency to go much, much higher. According to the Wall Street Journal, early Snapchat investor Jeremy Liew expects Bitcoin will reach $500,000 by 2030. Security company founder and notable eccentric John McAfee believes it’ll take only three years.

Alistair Milne, a popular bitcoin analyst who has a large Twitter following, calculated earlier this month that bitcoin would already be worth more than $7,000 if the digital currency’s share of the overall crypto market would return to its pre-2017 levels. Bitcoin’s market capitalization now represents less than half of the total for the broader market crypto market, down from about 90% early this year. The drop is largely due to bitcoin rivals like Ethereum and Litecoin, which put bitcoin's YTD rise to shame.

e it was before the Bitcoin Unlimited/forking fears), the price would be ~$7000 today

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Bitcoin has made a habit out of routinely defying its most ardent skeptics. But the shadow of Mt. Gox still looms large over the digital currency market. And the risk of another bull-market-ending catalyst like a 51% attack on the bitcoin network or another major hack at one of the more mainstream exchanges could force out the week hands, sparking another precipitous drop.

Mining Bitcoin in Venezuela feeds families

Cryptocurrencies like bitcoin have long been seen as a risky investment, but in places like Venezuela, they can also be dangerous.
Thousands of Venezuelans have turned to secretly mining the digital currency for their economic survival, and for many that means risking jail time.
Venezuela was once the richest country in South America, but it's now in crisis. It stands at the brink of civil war. Deadly protests paralyze city centers. It's the world's most indebted country, and its GDP has collapsed. Food and basic necessities are scarce, people are rationing toothpaste and toilet paper, and there are even reports of hungry Venezuelans killing flamingos and anteaters for food.

Ronaldo Schemidt | AFP | Getty Images
View of damages in a supermarket in Valencia, Carabobo State, on May 5, 2017, the day after anti-government protesters looted stores, set fire to cars and clashed with police, leaving at least five people injured, and one dead after being hit in the head by a projectile.
The country's future economic picture looks just as bleak. It already has the highest inflation rate on the planet. The International Monetary Fund expects prices in Venezuela to rise more than 1,100 percent this year.
Venezuela's currency — the bolivar — is in free fall. Going against black market rates, it's lost 99.4 percent of its value since 2012. But bitcoin, ethereum and other cryptocurrencies are insulated from all that. They're fully decentralized so they're immune to what's happening in any one country — regardless of where they're mined. And that's why Venezuelans have turned to mining.

Venezuela's underground cryptocurrency miners
In the cryptocurrency world, miners use computers to do the bookkeeping for digital transactions, verifying them and adding them to a public ledger. When someone mines, they earn digital currency as a payment for their efforts. It's been a lifeline for people like "Brother," a nickname used by an individual who lives just outside Caracas, who only agreed to speak to CNBC on condition of anonymity.
The 29-year-old father initially got into mining because his $43 monthly salary from his government job wasn't enough to support the baby girl he and his wife had on the way. That's when he decided to start illegally using computers in his government office to mine. He has since quit his job and now mines using his own equipment from home.
"Because of my daughter, I didn't think of it as a risk to what could happen to me in the company. I have to take the risk for her. I have to do this for her," says Brother.

Source: CNBC
"Brother" is based just outside Caracas and only agreed to speak to CNBC under anonymity.
Brother's story is a familiar one. David Fernando Lopez has since fled the country, but he once ran a bitcoin mining farm out of Caracas for three years. He was 40-years-old and didn't have a job. Mining was the one thing that could take him out of poverty. "You can feed a family with one ether rig. It's a fact."
Lopez says that a lot of people are doing this right now. "Andrea Perez" is among them. CNBC is using an assumed name for her to protect her identity. Andrea works three jobs, yet mining bitcoin represents roughly 80 percent of her income, or around $120 per month. "For me, bitcoin has represented the ability to be able to support and feed my daughter in a very volatile environment."
With a drastic shortages of supplies, Lopez says the easiest way to get basic amenities is to use cryptocash on e-commerce site purse.io. He orders staples like soap, deodorant, and shampoo — then a courier from Miami will deliver the goods right to his office. Others use cryptocash to buy vital medicine, like insulin, from overseas.

"You can feed a family with one ether rig. It's a fact."-David Fernando López, Former bitcoin farm operator

The process of mining itself isn't all that intuitive, so many have turned to online forums and YouTube tutorials to learn how to do it. Randy Brito runs an online forum called Bitcoin Venezuela that teaches people how to mine. Brito operates remotely out of Spain, having fled Venezuela with his family when he was 14. What started as a community of 10 users has ballooned to nearly 10,000 people.

"People are barely making a living with their jobs there. Even if they're a professional, they are not able to work," Brito said. "So people are finding that mining is a way to make a predictable income for their families."

Though it's a vital source of income for many, he says the danger of mining is becoming more acute by the day. "People who mine bitcoin or crypto with mining rigs, they're usually doing it underground," said Brito.

Source: David Fernando López
David Fernando Lopez spent three years running a bitcoin mining farm.
Venezuela's crackdown on mining
Mining cryptocurrency is completely legal in Venezuela, yet police have been arresting miners.
It began with Valencia-based Joel Padron and Jose Perales. Local media reported both were arrested and detained for several months in 2016 on charges of energy theft and possession of contraband.
The number of arrests and raids has steadily grown since then. When asked about why authorities were cracking down so hard on bitcoin miners, a detective from the national police (CICPC) told CNBC that in many of these cases, suspects were "exploiting resources without documentation."

Source: David Fernando López
Lopez ran his mining farm out of Caracas.
However, some miners said the Venezuelan government views cryptocurrencies as a threat to the already weak bolivar and to its strict rules about capital flight. Government officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
One Reddit post by a Venezuelan bitcoin miner claimed that, "miners are getting jailed and accused of terrorism, money laundering, computer crimes and many other crimes. It's getting crazy here and I really don't want to waste my life for money."
"Miners are getting jailed and accused of terrorism, money laundering …"
A year ago, "Tego Sanchez" spent his life savings on mining hardware and taught himself to mine. It now accounts for 80 percent of his income. At ethereum's peak price, he earned roughly $20 daily. But the 23-year-old says he lives in constant fear of being caught after seeing his friends arrested in raids. He says that's a big reason Venezuela's crypto community largely runs on secret groups and encrypted messaging apps like Telegram. That's also why he uses an assumed identity.

Source: CNBC
"Tego Sanchez" spent his life savings on mining hardware.
"I haven't had any problems with national security forces because I don't talk about it. Not even my friends know what I do," he said. "My grandmother is the only person who knows because I live with her."
"Mateo Patino" also taught himself to mine back when the economy went sideways in 2012. At the height of bitcoin's value, he raked in up to $600 monthly, roughly three times the wage he earned as a journalist.
Patino says he was approached by the SEBIN, an acronym given to the country's intelligence service — the Servicio Bolivariano de Inteligencia Nacional. "They started to ask questions about why I was drawing so much power from my house. I actually turned off all my bitcoin miners, and I moved them to another secure location."

Source: David Fernando López
A friend of Lopez helped assemble his bitcoin mining farm back in 2013.
This is one way authorities track down miners. Venezuela has heavily state subsidized electricity. That keeps the price low, which is a major incentive, because mining for cryptocurrencies takes an enormous amount of electrical power. However, it also means police monitor power consumption all across the country. Miners said when authorities see that somebody is using too much electricity, they go after them.
That's why many arrests of miners are on charges of internet fraud and electricity theft. Earlier this year, four miners in Charallave were arrested for allegedly endangering the stability of the town's electrical service.
Brother said he not only protects his online identity; he also conceals his electrical footprint. He has split his mining equipment across three different locations, and pays his neighbors to use their electricity so he can spread his devices across multiple power grids.

Source: CNBC
National electricity transmission grid of Venezuela
But even using precautions, Patino said, mining for bitcoin, in particular, is a major gamble.
"Mining bitcoin became something out of a spy movie, because miners were getting arrested on false charges," Patino said. "Many bitcoin miners are being prosecuted. Many, they're scared, they're paranoid."
Lopez said he ultimately had to get out of the business entirely for his own safety. Though 99 percent of his net worth is still invested in bitcoin, Lopez said he now chooses to trade the cryptocurrency instead, a bystander as the danger of mining grows.

Source: David Fernando López
After getting out of the business of mining, Lopez ultimately fled Venezuela.
Venezuela is just one country in deep political and economic crisis, but it illustrates why digital currency alternatives like bitcoin are gaining in importance.
Joe Lubin, co-founder of the cryptocurrency ethereum, argues in challenging conditions where natural currencies are spiraling out of control, cryptocurrencies are integral to survival. "Yes, they're volatile. But they represent real lifesaving value to many people in many countries around the world."