Bitcoin is higher for a second straight day on Tuesday, trading up 5% at $1,093 a coin as of 10:33 a.m. ET. The tw0-day win streak has tacked on about 13%, rebounding from a slump over the weekend that followed a Wall Street Journal report that the cryptocurrency's developers were threatening to set up a "hard fork," or alternative marketplace for bitcoin.
The new platform would be incompatible with the current platform, thus creating a split and two versions of the currency. That news sent bitcoin crashing 20% over the weekend to about $950 a coin, its weakest since January.
2017 has been a volatile year for the cryptocurrency.
It gained 20% in the first week of the year after soaring 120% in 2016 to become the top-performing currency for the second year in a row.
Bitcoin then crashed 35% on news that China was going to consider clamping down on trading.
But it managed to rip higher by more than 50% even in the face of several pieces of bad news.
First, China's biggest bitcoin exchanges said they were going to start charging a 0.2% fee on all transactions (previously there was no fee). Then, China's biggest exchanges said they were going to block withdrawals from trading accounts.
Still, bitcoin put in a record high of $1,327 a coin on March 10 as traders piled in ahead of the US Securities and Exchange Commission's ruling on the Winklevoss twins' bitcoin exchange-traded fund. The SEC denied the ETF, sending the price crashing by 16%. Bitcoin, however, managed to quickly recover those losses.
Two more SEC rulings are on the way, the next being March 30. Neither one is expected to pass.
Bitcoin Price Can Climb Far Above $13,000: Factors & Trends
Clif High’s estimation that three ounces of gold would be equal to a Bitcoin in price by this time next year remains a bizarre proposition that is not impossible to achieve.
In a way, a predicted Bitcoin price rise from a meager $1180 to more than $13,000 seems attractive and the technicality of how that would be the case defies common understanding of the law of demand and supply. It could be a repeat of the 1979/1980 scenario.
This link to a historical event particularly fits in with the fact that High’s data sets have been proven accurate in other instances and his latest estimate show that Bitcoin price would be hinged on the rising price of gold – from $1206 today to about $4,800 by March next year, about a 300 percent increase.
Working it out
Between 1978 and 1979, the price of gold recorded more than 120 percent growth from $207 to $455, the highest in its history, due to high inflation because of strong oil prices, Soviet intervention in Afghanistan and the impact of the Iranian revolution, which prompted investors to move into the metal.
By January 1980, gold hits record high at $850 per ounce though for a while as investors seek safe haven – that’s a 310 percent increase between 1978 and January 1980.
Figuring out the total amount of gold that has ever been produced is hard. However, going by rough estimates, there are approximately six bln ounces of gold available – that is 375 ounces of gold to one Bitcoin in terms of production if we are to go by the fact that about 16 mln Bitcoins have been mined so far.
Its production rate does not necessarily translate to a higher price for either even though the number of ounces to be extracted later are unknown and it is certain that there could only be a finite 4.8 mln Bitcoins more to be mined in the next 123 years according to its whitepaper.
Other strengthening factors
One Bitcoin would be harder to get than an ounce of gold even as interest in the pricing arrangement of both commodities is increasing. Though they both show the potential to become more valuable with time, the catch-up Bitcoin played recently has cast doubt on the outlook for gold as the future’s main store of value. More so, until last year, the price of gold slide for the previous three years.
Somehow, the argument that either gold is overpriced or Bitcoin is undervalued is already adding a twist to the discussion. Different opinions are being formed as the common knowledge that Bitcoin’s value has been growing as well as the understanding of its usefulness has been improving among more people from various sectors.
Coupled with its thinning supply which has been influencing its price and the fact that it could be considered advantageous over gold in several ways including cutting out shady bank practices – though its reliance on electricity and the Internet is still a key argument that has been made against it, a sudden surge could not be overruled.
More of the growing millennials who choose to look in its direction are finding Bitcoin handy and easier to relate with more than gold despite its intrinsic value, its tangibility and its record centuries of existence.
Bitcoin is decentralized, easily moved, harder to counterfeit and gets increasingly difficult to mine over time. These basic features which have been spreading more, stand to favor Bitcoin even to make its price climb far above High’s estimate of $13,000 and its market cap correlatively increase to as much as $40 bln or more in a 12-month period.
Millionaires will be made.
Come join us as we build to make millionaires in this revolution. Check the calendar for weekly webinars. Join me in The Coin Club. It cost you nothing. You are only depositing your Bitcoin, (to withdraw later), watching the system grow your coin and the commissions you also receive when others deposit into the system below you. Pretty cool.
The Bitcoin community doesn’t seem to be bothered by the US Security Exchange Commission’s decision to disapprove the Winklevoss twins’ Bitcoin ETF COIN like many analysts expected. The market’s stability after the denial of the COIN ETF led to discussions on why Bitcoin didn’t need an ETF to begin with.
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Why SEC disapproved the ETF and why Bitcoin didn’t need it
Bitcoin is one of the only currencies or networks in existence which facilitates payments between two users with the absence of a mediator or a network administrator. Within Bitcoin, regulations are non-existent and manipulation-free transactions can be made, regardless of the amount or the size of the transaction.
While Bitcoin wasn’t necessarily designed to replace fiat money, it was introduced in 2009 to serve as an alternative to the global financial structure and ecosystem. Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of Bitcoin, wanted to present a cash-like settlement network in which users aren’t required to undergo impractical and inefficient settlement processes in order to send and receive money from one another.
Over time, Bitcoin as a decentralized technology evolved, with the work of the Bitcoin Core development team as well as Bitcoin’s global and open source development team of contributors. The Bitcoin network’s hash power began to secure the network from external attacks and welcome tens of millions of new users into the network.
As Bitcoin and security expert Andreas Antonopoulos notes, the truly decentralized, transparent and secure financial network of Bitcoin is beginning to replace the financial industry and provide the general public with a low-fee and faster financial network.
Before considering the fact that hundreds of millions of dollars and potentially billions of dollars could have been poured into Bitcoin as a result of the approval of the COIN ETF, it is important to ponder the purpose of Bitcoin as a financial network. Its real purpose within the global financial frame is to allow people to make peer-to-peer payments amongst each other, not to gather large investments within a highly and tightly regulated market.
Antonopoulos stated:
“If you measure Bitcoin's success by the approval of the incumbent and obsolete industry it replaces, you're doing it wrong.”
SEC’s disapproval is confirmation that Bitcoin is a decentralized network
Two main arguments presented by the SEC in their disapproval of the COIN ETF were that the SEC can’t protect investors from losses made while trading Bitcoin and that the Bitcoin network can’t be surveilled as easily as others.
Since the Bitcoin network completely eliminates the possibility of recovering transactions or refunding payments, it forces users to be more responsible. On PayPal for instance, a centralized financial network, users can ask network moderators if they mistakenly sent incorrect transactions or processed payments to the wrong receiver. Within the Bitcoin network, no such administrative team exists and users are solely responsible for their money and transactions.
If the SEC needs to guarantee investors and traders with an insurance policy, which basically means that when Bitcoins are lost or stolen or mistraded, the SEC should be responsible for protecting investors from any losses, it is highly unlikely that a Bitcoin ETF will never be approved by the SEC.
The official document of the SEC read:
"As discussed further below, the Commission is disapproving this proposed rule change because it does not find the proposal to be consistent with Section 6(b)(5) of the Exchange Act, which requires, among other things, that the rules of a national securities exchange be designed to prevent fraudulent and manipulative acts and practices and to protect investors and the public interest."
The SEC nor any other government organizations shouldn’t be responsible for protecting investors from making independent financial decisions. Also, it is almost impractical to introduce a highly regulated market to Bitcoin if Bitcoin was designed from the start to replace regulated markets and inefficient financial systems.
Millionaires will be made. Come join us as we build to make millionaires in this revolution. Check the calendar for weekly webinars. Join me in The Coin Club. It cost you nothing. You are only depositing your Bitcoin, (to withdraw later), watching the system grow your coin and the commissions you also receive when others deposit into the system below you. Pretty cool.
Yale Lecturer: Bitcoin is No Bubble, Long-Term Outlook is Bright
Is bitcoin’s historic rise headed for a major fall? Vikram Mansharamani, author of “Boombustology: Spotting Financial Bubbles Before They Burst” and a lecturer at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Yale University, analyzed the likelihood of a new bitcoin bubble in his LinkedIn post. Using five “lenses” he has developed, he concluded that bitcoin’s long-term outlook is positive.
Mansharamani noted behavioral and informational issues distort price at any point in time, but such distortions tend to disappear since supply and demand markets are basically efficient.
This might not always be the case, he observed. Higher prices could actually increase demand, according to George Soros’ Theory of Reflexivity. Soros holds that prices can trend away from equilibrium, creating booms and busts.
Higher Price Raising Demand?
At present it is not clear if a higher bitcoin price has brought more demand, Mansharamani observed. On one hand, rising interest tends to drive up prices. At the same time, bitcoin trade volume has not increased with prices. While trade volume is not a good demand indicator, it does reflect activity. Lense 1: half a point.
Another bubble sign is the presence of leverage pushing higher prices. It is not clear if bitcoin prices are bubbly. There is no sign of leverage driving prices. There are no futures contracts enabling large exposure with little collateral or options providing de factor leverage.
The amount of debt supporting fiat currencies is an indicator. Traditional currencies are getting debased worldwide. Cryptocurrency offers a non-printable currency like gold. Lense 2: zero.
Psychological Factors
Psychology is another factor. When people assume the belief that “it’s different this time,” it’s time for buyers to beware. Asset prices never increase indefinitely. Bitcoin is no different in this regard.
Agreement exists that cryptocurrencies are in vogue and offer freedom from authoritarian manipulation. Mansharamani noted Peter Thiel has acknowledged that PayPal did not create a new currency, but a new payment system, whereas bitcoin has provided a new currency.
Bitcoin has its dedicated advocates. Internet analyst Henry Blodget and CNBC commentator Brian Kelly have delivered highly optimistic forecasts for bitcoin’s value. Lense 3: check.
Political Considerations
Politics is yet another consideration, including both moral hazards and regulations. Regulations can distort prices of any asset by artificially raising or undermining supply or demand.
As an example, political considerations delivered regulations that encouraged people in the U.S. to buy houses. Buyers had Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac to fall back on.
Bu there are no artificial government interventions supporting bitcoin prices. Regulators, for their part, are trying to discourage bitcoin. Governments, however, can’t do much more than temporarily impact the price of bitcoin, as was the case when China recently tried to control bitcoin trading.
There are no signs of moral hazards surrounding bitcoin. The people who lost millions when Mt. Gox filed for bankruptcy did not get bailed out. Bitcoin market players are buying with open eyes and are aware of the risks. Lense 4: zero.
Bitcoin Not Yet Widely Held
In comparing investment hysteria to a spreading fever, the variables of concern include the infection rate, the removal rate and importantly, the portion of the population not yet affected. The last metric can be seen as the fuel available to keep the fever spreading. Once it runs out of victims, the fever’s over. New demand disappears and prices fall.
The number of potential bitcoin buyers is big. The market capitalization at $20 billion is minuscule compared to its potential. A recent Twitter poll found that 49% plan to buy bitcoin while 22% said they were “max long” on bitcoin or “curious.” Bitcoin is not as widely held as it could be. Lense 5: zero.
In reviewing all five factors above, Mansharamani said the likelihood of bitcoin being a certain bubble only registers 1.5 out of 5 possible points. The stage could be set for it to become a bubble, but it is not yet there.
Short-term price corrections are always possible, but the long-term outlook for blockchain enabled currencies is positive.
Millionaires will be made. Come join us as we build to make millionaires in this revolution. Check the calendar for weekly webinars. Join me in The Coin Club. It cost you nothing. You are only depositing Bitcoin, watching the system grow your coin and the commissions you also receive when others deposit into the system below you. Pretty cool.
Customer Centric will be the huge disrupter this year in the MLM marketplace. We all experience "The Hopes and Dreams" in the pitch. A new stunning product, backed up by anecdotal testimony, a patented new comp plan, etc. (hype) Designed to excite (swindle) you on how many distributors you can recruit.
The best of us and the struggling, all know too well, that a distributor based organization never lasts. Because those on your leading edge, are distributors not making money. If the product is truly wholesale and can be sold at a profit in the retail markets, then many just buy and sell, but that is another facet of being "Customer Centric" and rarely happens in the current state of affairs in MLM.
I know this. I have been there. But I have also experienced Customer oriented opportunity and that was and is going to again be Trivita.
When you can join a company and make money without recruiting more distributors, then that is a company the average human can embrace and experience success. And that is exactly what Trivita did and is preparing to do again, in a way bigger way.
Customer Acquisition is not just a term I toss around lightly. I am serious about the implications it will have on the MLM industry. Once a company really launches true customer centricity, it will be a total game changer. It will drive many MLMs into bankruptcy or at least obscurity. It will be the biggest phenomena and totally change the playing field.
If you are involved in building an income via an MLM company, are you at risk? Chances are you are. Ask yourself a few simple questions. Are you buying the product to be able to engage the opportunity? Do you have less than 50% (real) customers outside the opportunity? Are you on auto ship to receive commissions? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you are at risk.
Let me digress a bit here. The FTC has rules on the books and is getting serious about enforcing the customer distributor rule.
IE
Not all multilevel marketing plans are legitimate. If the money you make is based on your sales to the public, it may be a legitimate multilevel marketing plan. If the money you make is based on the number of people you recruit and your sales to them, it’s probably not. It could be a pyramid scheme. Pyramid schemes are illegal, and the vast majority of participants lose money. https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/business-center/guidance/multilevel-marketing
Kevin Thompson assesses the Herbalife FTC settlement.
Therefore if you cannot easily build a customer base, automated sample fulfillment from the back office, ability to just buy the customers the company produces with their own infomercial, based on a product retail customers want, producing at least an equal balance of customers to distributors, then that company is not only doomed, but is getting in line for the FTC to shut them down and throw the owners and leaders in jail.
Imagine how easy it will be to build a long term business that produces as much income as you want, by just buying customers. Imagine the reaction other potential distributors will display with a HUGE sigh of relief. Imagine health products that are “patented”, exclusive, double blind tested and compliant with the FDA. Imagine a leads program on top of the customer acquisition program that have been interviewed for health products, that respond positively to you were as you can easily send them samples, marketing material and follow ups via Trivita’s back office sample program.
This is the way it should be done and Trivita is going to turn the entire MLM industry UPSIDE DOWN.
I have been a “Distributor” with Trivita since 2001 and have earned over $1 million in commissions. Several years ago Trivita shut down the MAPS program (Where we used to buy customers for the B12 and Nopalea Juice). Trivita went about retooling and are now about to relaunch with state of the art marketing, customer acquisition, lead production and automated sample fulfillment. Many distributors are already preparing to invest several millions into the customer acquisition.
Do not miss this launch. This time around I will build a massive organization and we will all be able to have 6 figure incomes next year. PAY ATTENTION!
Is the boom of bitcoin a bubble that’s about to burst?
The rapidly rising price of bitcoin is leading many to question if the digital currency’s boom is about to bust. Strategist Peter Schiff, for instance, recently warned “today’s bitcoin could be tomorrow’s beanie babies.” As of this writing, bitcoin is up almost 30 percent in the past month and over 100 percent in the past year. It has been hitting new highs on an almost daily basis and recently crossed the $1,200 mark. So is there a bitcoin bubble about to burst?
As of this writing, bitcoin is up almost 30 percent in the past month and over 100 percent in the past year … So is there a bitcoin bubble about to burst?
To try to answer this question, let’s apply the framework for spotting bubbles that I articulated in my 2011 book, “Boombustology: Spotting Financial Bubbles Before They Burst.” The approach is based on the application of five lenses and generates a probabilistic assessment of a forthcoming bust.
Most mainstream economic theories utilize a supply and demand driven price determination model that generally results in prices tending toward equilibrium. I say “tending” because most serious scholars admit that behavioral and informational issues can distort the price at any one point in time, but there exists an overarching belief that such distortions are rapidly ironed out. Markets are, according to this view, basically efficient. Higher prices dampen demand, and lower prices disincentivize supply.
But what if that’s not true? What if higher prices increase demand? Such a dynamic might arise for many reasons, but one eloquent explanation is the “Theory of Reflexivity,” as proposed by George Soros. Although it has many subtleties beyond the “self-fulfilling” logic that many ascribe to it, the underlying implication is that prices can and do tend away from equilibrium. The result: booms and busts.
So has the higher bitcoin price been accompanied by higher demand? It’s unclear. The evidence is mixed. On the one hand, it sure seems that as news about and interest in bitcoin rises, so does its price. It’s been seen as a safe-haven asset during times of elevated geopolitical, financial or regulatory risk and may even attract price-insensitive buyers at those times. But on the other hand, the volume of trading has not gone up as prices have. And while volume is at best a crude proxy for demand, it tells us about the general activity level. Lens one: half-check.
Another telltale sign of a bubble is the presence of significant leverage supporting lofty prices. And while it’s unclear if bitcoin prices are bubbly or not, I don’t see any evidence that leverage is fueling the potentially elevated prices. There are no futures contracts that enable large exposures with minimal collateral. There are no options that provide de facto leverage. Sure, some investors may be utilizing other collateral to secure credit that is in turn used to buy bitcoin, but this is impossible to track.
Another telltale sign of a bubble is the presence of significant leverage supporting lofty prices.
But more importantly, perhaps, we can look at the amount of debt that has been holding up many of the countries that back traditional fiat currencies. (Hint: it’s not a small number!) In addition, the fact that printing presses around the world continue to print more and more money implies that traditional currencies are being debased at an alarming rate. With a fixed algorithmic release of additional bitcoins into the market and a cap on the total number that will ultimately be issued, the cryptocurrency represents a non-printable currency (similar in this respect to gold). Lens two: blank.
Overconfidence and new-era thinking are the hallmarks of my third lens, psychology. Whenever individuals develop a devout belief that “it’s different this time,” buyers beware. It is rarely different, and asset prices have never risen indefinitely. Rather, they generally go up and down, and in this regard, bitcoin prices are no different.
It’s also clear that there is increasing agreement that cryptocurrencies are the “new new thing” and offer the promise of freedom from authoritarian manipulation of monetary instruments. Even investor Peter Thiel noted the promise of bitcoin by highlighting his own failure: “Paypal had these goals of starting a new currency. We failed at that, and we just created a new payment system. I think bitcoin has succeeded on the level of new currency.”
And like gold bugs, bitcoin believers tend to exhibit religious conviction in the cryptocurrency’s ability to store value. They often go further, suggesting the amazing upside potential they exhibit. Internet analyst Henry Blodget has even suggested bitcoins could be worth $1 million per coin. In fact, CNBC’s Brian Kelly described bitcoin as “not just digital gold … it is a once-in-a-generation investment opportunity, similar to the internet, growing just as fast, if not faster … it’s the internet of money.” Lens three: check.
My fourth lens is politics, broadly defined to include both regulations and moral hazards. As with any asset, regulations can distort prices by either artificially increasing or dampening supply or demand.
Just think of what happened when political motivations to increase home ownership in the United States nudged more and more people into houses. Without the political incentives, prices may not have risen as handsomely as they did during the housing bubble. Further, the moral hazard endemic in the use of government sponsored mortgage finance enabled lenders to play a game of “heads I win, tails you lose.” If loans worked out, the lender profited. If it didn’t, Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac bore the losses.
When it comes to bitcoin, are there any artificial government interventions that are supporting bitcoin prices? No. On the contrary, regulators are trying to discourage interest in bitcoin. Just look to China, where its major bitcoin exchanges were effectively shut down last month by government officials. But as noted by Elaine Ou in Bloomberg View, “even China can’t kill bitcoin.” Bitcoin prices briefly fell upon the news, but quickly recovered and marched higher. They’re up more than 25 percent in the three weeks since China tried to control trading.
And when it comes to moral hazard, there are no signs of it in bitcoin land. No one bailed out those who lost millions when bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox filed for bankruptcy. No regulator prevented or intervened to manage the governance disputes that arose on the bitcoin algorithm. Many bitcoin market participants are transacting with open eyes, fully aware of the risks of doing so. There is no FDIC protection, no Federal Reserve put. Lens four: blank.
Kolin Burges, a self-styled cryptocurrency trader and former software engineer who came from London, holds a placard to protest against Mt. Gox. Tokyo-based Mt. Gox was a founding member and one of the three elected industry representatives on the board of the Bitcoin Foundation. Photo by Toru Hanai/Reuters
An application of epidemic logic to the study of financial bubbles can help gauge the relative maturity of manias. If we analogize an investment hysteria to a fever or flu spreading through a population, the variables of concern to us would include the infection rate, the removal rate, and perhaps most importantly, the percentage of the population not (yet) affected. The last metric can be thought of as the fuel available to keep the fire burning. Once we run out of people to infect, so to say, the party’s over. New demand will disappear. Prices will fall.
When it comes to bitcoin, the number of potential buyers (that is, those still vulnerable to infection) is very large indeed. To begin, it’s not particularly easy to buy bitcoin, and that’s deterred institutional investors. Specialized exchanges, online wallets and the need to protect private keys create huge friction in transactions, keeping many potential bitcoin buyers away. There isn’t an ETF, at least not yet. Stay tuned, however, as an ETF is in the works. And if approved (we’ll know more later this month), the Wall Street Journal notes it might generate a buying frenzy with up to $300 million of inflows during the first week alone, a volume that dwarfs the currently traded daily value of any bitcoin exchange.
And with a current market capitalization of around $20 billion, the bitcoin market is miniscule relative to its potential. Consider that the value of privately held gold is in the trillions of dollars or that the global remittances (a potential use for cryptocurrencies like bitcoin) currently tally into the hundreds of billions of dollars. The bottom line is that bitcoin just isn’t as widely held or used as it could be. There is still an enormous population of potential buyers waiting on the sidelines. And in a recent Twitter poll conducted by investor Mark Hart, only 22 percent of respondents indicated that they were “Max Long” bitcoin, with 49 percent “Planning to buy/add” or “Curious.” Lens 5: blank.
So on my five-point scale, with five being a “virtually certain bubble likely to burst imminently,” bitcoin only registers one and half points. On the margin, this means that the stage may be set for it to become a bubble, but it doesn’t appear to be one yet. It may one day become a full-blown bubble with high bursting risk, but the evidence doesn’t suggest we’re there yet. Recall that government attempts to contain bitcoin have failed, anointing the cryptocurrency with a “forbidden fruit” status and driving new demand. Or that the possibility of an ETF or other investment instrument may emerge to ease the frictions of purchasing bitcoin.
While short-term price corrections are always possible, there are compelling reasons to believe the long-term outlook for blockchain-enabled currencies like bitcoin is bright.
And the promise of smart contracts inspires visions of unprecedented demand for digital currencies. In fact, just yesterday, a collection of large companies including Microsoft and JP Morgan announced they would be forming the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance. Ethereum is a distributed computing platform based on blockchain technologies that features the ability to design smart contracts. The cryptocurrency native to Ethereum is ether, and it’s been called “the hottest new thing in digital currency.” As the standard-bearer for cryptocurrencies, bitcoin will benefit from any attention ether generates. (Full disclosure: I own both bitcoin and ether.)
While short-term price corrections are always possible, there are compelling reasons to believe the long-term outlook for blockchain-enabled currencies like bitcoin is bright. If you’re looking for beanie babies, you best look elsewhere.
And the promise of smart contracts inspires visions of unprecedented demand for digital currencies. In fact, just yesterday, a collection of large companies including Microsoft and JP Morgan announced they would be forming the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance. Ethereum is a distributed computing platform based on blockchain technologies that features the ability to design smart contracts. The cryptocurrency native to Ethereum is ether, and it’s been called “the hottest new thing in digital currency.” As the standard-bearer for cryptocurrencies, bitcoin will benefit from any attention ether generates. (Full disclosure: I own both bitcoin and ether.)
While short-term price corrections are always possible, there are compelling reasons to believe the long-term outlook for blockchain-enabled currencies like bitcoin is bright. If you’re looking for beanie babies, you best look elsewhere.
I have become a serious advocate of the Blockchain. Bitcoin is the leading edge and as it rises it will create a vacuum behind it. Look at Ethereum. It has risen exponentially right behind Bitcoin as well as almost all the crypto coins in the exchanges. This is why I promoted MCW (Now known as Infinity) because their technology is leaps and bounds above all other blockchains (and coins). It is only a matter of time for Infinity Coin (XIN) to start listing in the exchanges. As the Crypto blockchain advances and breaks into mainstream, huge fortunes will be made.
I am now invested in another tech op called "The Coin Club" where your Bitcoin deposits will easily receive greater growth by at least a factor of 10 than in traditional bank accounts (as well as the increased value on the open markets). And the system also rewards you with promoting the Coin Club with commissions from other new members that deposit Bitcoin into there.
I am promoting “The Coin Club” for many reasons. Awareness of Bitcoin has broken out of the exclusive club of engineers and Bitcoin culture and has recently entered into Main Stream awareness. Bitcoin is in another rally and with the potential assignment of the ETF to Gemini (Winklevoss twins) offers a solid speculation of Millions of massive investment into Bitcoin potentially doubling tripling or more the current value of Bitcoin.
Therefor I highly recommend setting up a Gemini account ASAP. Go to http://gemini.com. There are limits to territories they cover and other alternatives are the following:
Once you have Bitcoin or already have Bitcoin, then join “The Coin Club” were automated trading will increase your coin investment, where you will find your coin nest grow. Promote the system and receive additional Bitcoin commissions from your downline. Many people in The Coin Club are making 10-5- Bitcoins per mo9nth in commissions. Do not discount this system. There are many people I know who are moving millions of Bitcoins into the Coin Club because the trades represent substantial growth that5 eclipses traditional banks and investments.
Especially as Bitcoin climbs to numbers into the $10’s of 1000s, do not doubt it. 1000s of experts and pundits are convinced Bitcoin will reach 1 million dollars a coin within years.
Please do not hesitate. It sucks to not pay attention and regret not taking this serious.
Winklevoss Twins Await Imminent SEC Decision on Bitcoin ETF
They’re one of three groups vying to gain regulatory approval
A bitcoin ETF could attract $300 million in assets in a week
Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss will know within days whether they’ve won approval to begin offering their bitcoin-based exchange traded fund, with the digital currency’s record rally hanging in the balance.
Officials from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission met with the twins on Feb. 14 to discuss their proposal for an ETF based on the digital currency, according to a short notice of the meeting published on Feb. 22. A decision is due by March 11. The 35-year-old twins want to trade the security on the Bats BZX Exchange Inc.
An approved ETF would make bitcoin investing simple for small traders and institutions, while potentially boosting the digital currency just as it’s hitting new highs almost daily. Some $300 million could pour into a bitcoin ETF in its first week, Spencer Bogart, head of research at venture-capital investor Blockchain Capital, said in an interview.
“I’d be very surprised if it did anything but double from whatever levels it is at beforehand,” Bogart said.
Bitcoin rose as high as $1,263.49 on Thursday, an intraday record, passing the price of an ounce of gold. It has gained 28 percent this year, as investors worried about global uncertainties and speculated on a more relaxed regulatory environment for the currency under President Trump. Hopes for the ETF have been a factor as well.
The Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust is one of three such vehicles seeking regulatory approval — and the advantages that come with being first. The others are Bitcoin Investment Trust, a creation of Barry Silbert, who had previously built a market for selling shares in private companies, and SolidX Bitcoin Trust.
Digital Asset Services, the sponsor of the Winklevoss ETF, declined to comment. Silbert and Ivan Brightly, chief operating officer of SolidX, also wouldn’t comment. The Winklevoss twins may be best known for accusing Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg of stealing their idea for a social-media network, a case they ultimately settled.
Long-Term Edge?
SEC approval could give enormous power and riches to the winner for years to come. Just look at gold: SPDR Gold Shares ETF, started in 2004, has more than four times higher the market value of iShares Gold Trust ETF, started in 2005.
“This is the first-to-market race,” Chris Burniske, an analyst at Ark Investment Management LLC, said in an interview.
Trading bitcoin now is no easy thing. Investors have to open bitcoin wallet accounts, then purchase bitcoins via online exchanges. Or they can invest in Bitcoin Investment Trust, which trades over the counter, often at a hefty premium to the cryptocurrency. A last possibility is Ark, which operates an ETF with 5 percent exposure to blockchain — the database technology underlying bitcoin — and peer-to-peer computing.
With a publicly traded ETF, small investors could just call their brokers or buy shares online.
Approval is by no means certain. On BitMEX, a contract betting on approval of the Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust spiked to an all-time high of 70 percent on Feb. 28, before crashing to 53 percent on March 1. Neena Mishra, director of ETF Research at Zacks Investment Research, pegs the chances at 40 percent.
Regulatory Question
The biggest unknown is whether the regulators will conclude that bitcoin, a digital currency created on and managed by computers, lends itself to being a part of an ETF at all. Whether it’s secure enough, for example. Exchange Mt. Gox had many of its bitcoins stolen several years ago. Last summer, a project running on a blockchain technology similar to bitcoin’s got hacked and lost millions of dollars of investors’ funds.
Bitcoin has similarities to currencies, as well as commodities like gold — since there’s a limited number, it could be considered a scarce resource. What ultimately matters is how the SEC sees it.
“Bitcoin is not a stock, it’s not a bond, it’s not a hard asset like precious metal, it’s not a commodity future,” Ben Johnson, director of global ETF and passive strategies research at Morningstar Inc., said in an interview. “It’s a technology that’s very much in its infancy, and it’s not something that in my mind lends itself to being packaged as an ETF.”
An SEC rejection of the Winklevoss proposal could help one of the other bitcoin ETFs seeking regulatory approval.
“If the Winklevoss (ETF) gets rejected, they’ll get a brief explanation, which will help the other guys figure out how to get theirs through,” said Adam Wyatt, chief operating officer at BullBear Analytics, a researcher focused on bitcoin and other digital currencies. “If it’s approved, all the other guys copy that and do whatever needs to be done to get approved.”
Bitcoin Investment Trust, which filed in January to list on the NYSE Arca, already trades over the counter. Bank of New York Mellon is the trust’s transfer agent. And SolidX has a big differentiator: It promises to insure its bitcoins from loss — something that could boost its chances of approval, Zacks’ Mishra said.
The Winklevoss’s ETF, which first filed with the SEC in July of 2013, has amended its S-1 filing multiple times over the years to address regulators’ concerns. It’s represented by the law firm of Ropes & Gray. The twins have also secured State Street Bank & Trust Co. as the administrator of the trust. They already operate the Gemini cryptocurrency exchange, catering to institutional and retail investors.
“All that adds up,” Eric Balchunas, an ETF analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, said in an interview. “If they are going approve one, it’s going to be Winklevoss first. And they kind of deserve it.”
How to Build an Inbound Marketing Strategy in 24 Hours
"I'm active on social media."
"I'm blogging regularly."
"I'm using SEO best practices."
"I feel like I'm doing everything right, but I'm not seeing results."
Do any of these statements sound familiar? A lot of marketers and CEOs we talk to feel like they are doing all the right things. But, they aren't achieving their goals.
A recent survey from DM (Direct Marketing) News confirms this is common. 46% of the executives surveyed, stated that a "lack of an effective strategy" was the biggest obstacle in achieving their inbound marketing goals.
So why is everyone struggling? I'm not quite sure as to WHY, but in this blog, I'll show you HOW you can overcome this obstacle…and overcome it in the next 24 hours. Let's roll!
What is Strategy?
First, let's identify what strategy actually is. It really doesn't have to be that complicated. Strategy is simply a plan of action designed to achieve an expected goal. So, we need a goal to get started. For the purpose of this article, let's say that our goal is to generate 50 qualified leads per month for my sales goal.
A worthy goal.
Now, we need a plan of action that will get us there.
Note: You may have a different inbound marketing goal, so just apply this same framework in order to backtrack from your goal, to an activity plan.
Identify Audience
If we're going to generate 50 qualified leads per month for your sales quota, we need to define a "quality lead". Let's pretend we're a coffee distributor that provides energizing weight loss coffee for coffee drinkers, dieters, fitness, etc. If we can get a “Sample” Request, a pre enrolled lead, we consider that a quality lead.
Okay, so now we've got an audience and we know what a quality lead is. We're getting closer to being able to build our plan of action.
Action Steps for Identifying Your Audience:
Nail down your target market. Target Market Example: Diet sites located in the United States, health clubs that are doing between $500,000 and $20M in revenue annually.
Talk to the sales team and establish what a quality lead is. In this case, we know we need 50 Sample Requests and Pre Enrollments each month.
Time Estimate: 2 hours
Honestly, this should be something you already know (your target market).But give yourself an hour to talk to a few people inside your sphere, friend networks and groups, read through your messaging, and establish who you're really after.
Give yourself another hour to talk to a few reps or the sales people in your network. Or potentially, set up a conference and invite others in your network that is similar in their business to yours.
Identify Where Your Audience Lives Online
Once we know who our audience is and what our goal is, we need to locate our audience. Where are they online? You'll want to look at social media, blogs, websites, and forums. Make a big list! Here's what I might do if I were looking for vertical markets.
First, I'd dive into social media. I know LinkedIn is better for B2B, so I head there first. There are tons of various groups, so I started looking for groups full of my audience. A quick search for "dieters" brings up 978 different groups.
I will continue my search for "fitness", " coffee drinkers ", and "weight loss". After spending some time gathering a list, hopefully I've identified at least 500 solid groups that have my target audience.
Next, I'll explore other social media options to see if there is anything market specific. After spending some time on Google, I run across Over Coffee, a social network for coffee drinkers, marketers and socializers.
Still further, I'll spend some time on Google again looking for blogs, forums and other websites where I might find my audience. As an example, it is a pretty sure assumption the Fast Diet forum fits. https://thefastdiet.co.uk/forums/
Another excellent tip is searching for the topics in Discuss. Since Discuss has no search abilities, Google comes in handy. But you have to know the tricks to search. I made a little video here to explain how quickly.
At the end of this research process, you should easily have 500-1000 websites (forums, blogs and other websites), groups (on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook) and communities (on Google+) on your list. Now, we're getting somewhere! We're narrowing down the Web and locating the corners in which we want to spend our time and effort.
Action Steps for Finding Your Audience:
Spend time looking at social media, websites, blogs and forums for your target audience.
Create a master list with links to these places. Utilizing Markethive’s Backlink System, you can track backlinks, store login data, and manage campaigns easily.
Time Estimate: 4 hours
Don't shortchange yourself here.Put in the time to locate your audience.This step will serve you well for many inbound campaigns into the future, so spend about four hours doing your research.
Create the list in your MH backlinks as you go along.
Identify Pains, Problems, Questions
Ok, just to re-cap. We now know:
Our goal
Who we're targeting
Where they live online
Now, it's time to dig for pain. As you're doing your research and visiting groups, websites and blogs with your audience, start listening. What does that mean, really? How do you listen? What are you listening for?
What you want to do is listen to the problems that your audience is expressing. You want to write down the questions they are asking. Write down the things they are complaining about. You want to be able to speak their language.
You'll start to see different discussion questions, comments on blogs, or frustrations. Here are a few sample discussion topics I pulled from a LinkedIn Group full of dieters.
Obviously, you want to identify challenges and pains around the product or service you offer, but sometimes you can get some really powerful insight just by writing down any common questions or problems. You'll start to see some trends.
As you'll see in the next section, we want to use these questions, pains and problems in our content and messaging.
Action Steps for Identifying Pains, Problems and Questions:
Go to 10-20 places on your master list and start copying and pasting your audience's discussions and questions.
Time Estimate: 2 hours
This should take you about 2 hours, but don't be afraid to spend 3 or 4 if you feel you're not seeing any trends.
Create a Content Calendar
Alright, now we're ready to create a content calendar. Most people want to rush into this step because it feels like you're accomplishing something. However, this step won't be worth much if you haven't dedicated the time to your research.
There are articles that walk through this step in much more detail, so I'm not going to do that. This will be a high level overview.
Basically, now that we've got a sense for what our audience is dealing with, we can brainstorm some effective blog titles, maybe some webinar topics and definitely some e-book ideas. If we think back to our goal of 50 qualified leads per month, you might be asking, "How many blog articles should I be writing?" or "How many capture pages, do I need?"
You can make an educated guess, but this is always the unknown with strategy. (Strategy is a high level plan to achieve one or more goals under conditions of uncertainty) You make the best plan of action you can to achieve your goal, but you'll need to adjust your plan over time depending on how close you are getting to that goal.
Based on my experience, without knowing how much traffic this hypothetical website is getting or how many leads it's currently generating, you'll want to be creating 2-3 blog posts per week.
With your blog posts WordPress plugin, your Markethive blog system becomes a BlogCasting system.
The subscribing potential your blogs will have with other Markethive social members. Case in point the Proprietary subscribe system.
Blog Casting option that allows others to “plagiarize” your work with your permission thereby automatically taking an exact copy of your blog to their account
The Markethive Blogcasting Word Press plugin allows your blog articles massive syndication to other Markethive members Word Press blogs.
The SNAP plugin for Word Press then allows greater broadcasting to over 25 social networks and literally millions of LinkedIn, Facebook, Google+ groups and Twitter hash tagged directories.
The potential of just the “SNAP | Word Press | Markethive Broadcast” plugins can literally build reaches into the billions. We know because we have achieved this.
You'll also want to have at least two or three e-books that you can leverage to capture leads. This is not a difficult process. Spend some time writing your story, your perspective of the industry you are chasing. For instance I have written the following ebooks (7):
You also have Markethive to offer. It is a million dollar platform, offering a monthly service others charge $1000s for, with free membership. But if you are in a vertical market, like diets or coffee, you might want to offer ebooks, live webinars, samples, etc.
In addition to the e-books, you'll want to integrate the Markethive nurturing program that moves leads down the funnel towards the level of being joined to you as an Alpha Entrepreneur. Markethive’s lead nurturing system is a quantum leap from other so called lead nurturing when in reality they are nothing more than disguised email espionage.
Don’t know how to produce an ebook? No problem, I wrote a blog on how and why just for you.
Markethive uses Google’s calendar. It is available on all platforms, Droid, iPhone, Tablets, Laptops and Desktops. It integrates with other Google calendar accounts; it allows events, notes, hidden appointments and reminders, to do lists, and sharing with others who have set up a calendar. Like Markethive’s calendar.
Brainstorm blog topics, e-book and/or webinar topics.
Map out how many blog articles you'll need to create each week.
Plan your e-book creation.
Plan your lead nurturing sequences.
Time Estimate: 2 hours
Spend 1 hour brainstorming topics and titles.
15 minutes for mapping out your blog calendar.
20 minutes for planning out your e-books.
20 minutes mapping out your lead nurturing sequences.
Create a Promotions Plan
Your promotions plan is just as important, if not more important that your content plan and calendar. Most marketers feel like once they hit "publish", it's time to start working on the next piece. Not true! Once you hit publish, it's time to go to work promoting that article.
You spent time writing it, editing it, finding an amazing photo and placing a relevant call to action. Now, it's time to zero in on our audience and share that content with them. This is how we'll drive people back to your content, they'll click on your e-books, receive your emails and ultimately sign up for that demo, service or product!
Creating your promotional plan will be much easier now that you've got a master list of where your audience lives. You'll be able to share your blog articles as discussions in exactly the right Facebook Groups, Google Groups, LinkedIn Groups and Twitter automatically as you blog. (it is a SNAP)
You'll be able to comment on other websites and blogs and reference your content in a super relevant fashion because you know exactly what your audience’s challenges and pains are. You'll be able to craft blog titles that are irresistible to your audience because you studied their problems and pains.
Your promotions plan should basically be the time you spend promoting your article to all the places on your master list. It might look something like this:
Blog Title: Lose Weight with Coffee
Promotion:
Create a discussion in all 20 LinkedIn Groups and frame it with the question "What is your biggest weight lose challenge right now?"
Share article on Twitter using the hashtags #coffee diet #lose weight with coffee #healthy coffee. Rotate hashtags. Schedule 10-20 Tweets over the next 30 days. (Markethive automates this)
Jump into a couple of forums and find the discussions around coffee and diet. Add value to the discussion and add a link to the blog post as a reference point.
Find individual dieters on Facebook Groups or other websites and send a personal email with a link to the article.
Send out an email to all current leads in the database and share the article.
So, your promotions plan will have some activity that you'll do every time you create a blog post. Then, for specific topics, you may have additional activities you'll want to add that make sense based on the topic.
Action Steps for Content Calendar:
Write out all the possible promotional activities you might have for a specific blog post. Each time you publish, go to that list and execute as many as possible!
Time Estimate: 1 hour
Spend an hour brainstorming all the ways you could promote a blog post, e-book or piece of content.
Your Strategy
Phew! There's a lot of work there, but you can do it… and you can do it in less than 24 hours! The total time spent in this process totals 11 hours. Obviously, it would be a long work day to push through these activities, but you'll be setting yourself up for success over the next several months, if not years. If you can't block off an entire day to do this, spend a couple hours each day for a week and you'll be all set.
Your goals and strategy will change over time, but I wanted to break down a very simplistic way to create a strategy quickly and start moving forward.
Just to re-cap what you need to do:
What is your goal?
Who are you targeting?
Where do they live online?
Develop your content calendar.
Create a promotional list.
I'm curious… how much time do you spend on research before diving into content creation?
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How to Build an Inbound Marketing Strategy in 24 Hours
