Bitcoin live tracking flight
Cardano claims it will solve most of the issues that plague well-established cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. Bitcoin isn't flexible enough, and transactions on its network are currently slow and expensive due to protocol limitations and overwhelming demand.
Ethereum is far more flexible, but — as prominent Ethereum developer Vlad Zamfir recently put it — it's not safe or scalable yet. But Cardano, at least so it claims, has very secure code, peer-reviewed by experts and scientists.
It claims to be fast and scalable, thanks to its Ouroboros proof-of-stake technology. It's written in Haskell , a programming language that's typically used in critical systems in the banking and defense industries.
It provides interoperability between existing cryptocurrencies. And finally, it offers long-term sustainability, by using a sort of cryptocoin treasury that can fund projects long-term. Cardano has a very strong developer team. He now travels around the world to speak and educate on crypto and promote Cardano; as he moved between time zones, it took me two weeks to align with him and do a phone interview.
They saw the code, they saw all the progress, and they said holy moly, we missed this. Hoskinson refers to Bitcoin and Ethereum as the first- and second-generation cryptocurrencies. They were the first of their kind, and it was impossible for their development teams to prepare for all potential problems in advance.
Cardano has the benefit of knowing their history. And since all of it has been peer-reviewed by experts and scientists, he claims, it should be more reliable and secure than the code of most other cryptocurrencies. Hoskinson isn't just making claims out of thin air.
Cryptomiso , a site that ranks cryptocurrencies according to Github commits — changes in a project's code — currently ranks Cardano as the second most active project.
And this code has seen actual usage: Cardano's Oroborous proof-of-stake algorithm is live, and its Daedalus wallet is live. But Cardano consists of two layers: A settlement layer, which is similar to Bitcoin, and essentially only takes care of who has sent how much ADA to whom. The other is the control layer, which is similar to Ethereum and enables applications to run on the platform.
That part of the project is still undergoing testing. While reading up on Cardano, I've kept finding similar conclusions: It's very promising, but it's unclear whether it's moving fast enough, due to all the academic rigor involved in its development. A lot of the work that we did in and all throughout and we're still doing now is about building up to a point where we catch up completely with all of our competitors," Hoskinson says.
And the people reviewing these things are cryptographers, experts from universities such as Cornell. For example, Ethereum has been working on Casper, its proof-of-stake algorithm, for about three years, off and on. We've only been working on our PoS algorithm, Oroborous, for a year and a half. And despite the fact that we've followed a far more formal process Hoskinson has a deep history with Ethereum. He's a co-founder and has been the project's CEO from Dec. IOHK, the engineering company co-founded in by Hoskinson and Jeremy Wood, is best-known for building the main components of Cardano, but it also worked on Ethereum Classic, a fork of Ethereum.
However, throughout our chat, Hoskinson appears to be agnostic about his competitors. In the end, he claims, Cardano will be better than every other project out there, because it allows for interoperability between different projects. Hoskinson says the next version of Ouroborous, Shelley, will be done by Q2 of and Cardano's smart contract layer should be connected to it roughly in September of Once that happens, he claims, "pound for pound, we're better than Bitcoin, we're better than Ethereum.
These days, two arcane terms dominate the discussion on how cryptocurrencies need to move forward: These are incredibly hard tech problems that nearly every major cryptocurrency team is working on in some form of another. Proof-of-stake makes the energy-intensive cryptocurrency mining largely obsolete as transactions on the network are validated by owners of the coins — i. Sharding is a term that comes from database tech; in the context of blockchain technology, it splits the chain into smaller parts shards that makes the network faster.
Cardano's team says it has the proof-of-stake part solved, but here's the problem: The debate on which PoS approach is the best isn't quite settled. In a fascinating Twitter exchange from Aug. I can tell you everything I don't like about Ouroboros in exchange for the sauce ;. Hoskinson jabs at Zamfir about Ethereum code not being peer reviewed. Again, even though I buy and sell several Altcoins, at the end of the day my net worth is in Bitcoin. There are three reasons for this:. I earn more USD when the price of Bitcoin goes up against the dollar.
Why was it important to clear this up? Several things were on my mind the first time I had to do this. What if I sell my BTC now and the price shoots up tomorrow? Yes, but your bills will be paid. Sell now so you can pay your rent. You can always hold out for more, but at the same time you are risking a loss. After a few months I got better at trading.
I was earning more Bitcoin than I needed to cover my monthly expenses. At the end of the month I sold only what I needed, and kept the rest of my net worth in Bitcoin.
Around this time in my trading career it was getting to the point where I could have bought a Tesla or put a down payment on a house by selling my Bitcoin. Do you sell your Bitcoin to realize your profit in USD? I can live a nice middle class lifestyle in Los Angeles. Or I can drive a flashy car while I rent a crappy apartment in Los Angeles. It all comes down to your values. In fact, if i see a chart like this I almost always ignore it:.
The wild bull runs are hard to find, hard to time properly, and easy to go in the opposite direction where you lose a lot. Those gains are only exciting if you understand how far they can get you. Of course the numbers above assume you trade days per year. Not many people are willing to forego vacation and weekends to work as a full time crypto trader, even with numbers like that. Not only that but I also let my emotions control my trades. For example, I once purchased Stratis after the price dropped massively.
My assumption was that on such a sharp decrease in price, it had to rebound eventually. The price kept diving. I was constantly tuned into that chart waiting for an opportunity to sell back to Bitcoin. Now I have my strategy that I stick to without letting my emotions interfere.
I have a set of coins that I like trading so I only look at those charts. I have patterns and indicators that I look for on those charts so I can quickly flip through them. Within minutes I can set my orders, set alerts on my desired entry and exit prices, and walk away from the computer.
As the market cap of crypto increases, be sure that the IRS is going to find out how to get their slice. And they will look into the past. I am not a tax advisor. This is a simple overview of what I keep in mind as I trade. My accountant handles my taxes, and I advise you to get an accountant to do the same. Keep in mind that this is US-centric. You need to double check if this is the case in your country. The taxable event is when you sell your cryptocurrency for fiat.
How much tax you pay depends on how long you were holding the cryptocurrency. Buy crypto with fiat - no tax. Sell crypto for fiat - pay ordinary income tax.
Buy crypto with crypto - unclear, but does not seem to be a taxable event. This is where things get foggy. Consult your advisor, but as far as I know this is a like-kind exchange which is not taxable but must be reported to the IRS.
The exchange you use will output all of these transactions so you can hand them to your accountant. The IRS has clarified that a crypto to crypto exchange is not a like-kind exchange. The profit made from each transaction is taxed. If you are holding a currency for more than a year it is classified as long term capital gains. This is another reason why I like keeping my net worth in Bitcoin. At least not right now. Passive income is great. After you make an initial investment, you mostly sit back and watch the money roll in.
Most cryptocurrencies are mined. You invest in a very strong computer and the electricity to run it, and you are rewarded with crypto for contributing to the network as a node that confirms blockchain transactions. This is an alternative to mining that does not require vast amounts of electricity.
The idea is that you stake the cryptocurrency that you own over a wifi connection. That crypto that you stake is used to validate transactions on the blockchain, and you are rewarded more cryptocurrency for putting the currency you own in the pool.
In fact, I intend on staking Ethereum when it is possible. Here are some of the questions with my answers. BTC is my base currency right now because I believe in it as a store of value, and I believe that its value will keep increasing against fiat currencies.
I am emotionally invested in the success of Bitcoin and crypto in general. Now I take up to 8 positions in a trading day. I follow the charts. Fundamental analysis could give me a hint on which charts to look at, but at the end of the day my trades are based on technical indicators.
Let me know if you know of someone who does it. Get the course here.