Bitcoin Surges to New Highs

New York CNN —Bitcoin surged to an all-time high Tuesday, shaking off a more-than-two-year rut that had put the future of the entire crypto ecosystem in question.

Bitcoin, the world’s oldest — and by far the largest — digital currency, traded above $69,000 Tuesday morning, topping the previous record of $68,789 reached on November 10, 2021, according to CoinMarketCap.

Over the past several months, bitcoin’s rally has been turbocharged by US regulators’ approval of exchange-traded funds pegged to the digital asset, which created an on-ramp for more traditional investors to incorporate bitcoin into their portfolios.

That approval took years of lobbying by crypto firms, and was granted only grudgingly by the Securities and Exchange Commission after a court ruled the regulator’s reasons for rejecting bitcoin ETF applications were “arbitrary and capricious.”  READ MORE...

Bitcoin Is Up

Jan 14 (Reuters) - Bitcoin rose 5.58% to $21,044 at 2344 GMT on Saturday, adding $1,113 to its previous close.

Bitcoin, the world's biggest and best-known cryptocurrency, is up 27.6% from the year's low of $16,496 on Jan 1.

Ether , the coin linked to the ethereum blockchain network, surged 7% to $1,552.6 on Saturday, adding $101.6 to its previous close.

Blockchain Technology

A blockchain is a distributed database that is shared among the nodes of a computer network. As a database, a blockchain stores information electronically in digital format. Blockchains are best known for their crucial role in cryptocurrency systems, such as Bitcoin, for maintaining a secure and decentralized record of transactions. The innovation with a blockchain is that it guarantees the fidelity and security of a record of data and generates trust without the need for a trusted third party.

One key difference between a typical database and a blockchain is how the data is structured. A blockchain collects information together in groups, known as blocks, that hold sets of information. Blocks have certain storage capacities and, when filled, are closed and linked to the previously filled block, forming a chain of data known as the blockchain. All new information that follows that freshly added block is compiled into a newly formed block that will then also be added to the chain once filled.

A database usually structures its data into tables, whereas a blockchain, like its name implies, structures its data into chunks (blocks) that are strung together. This data structure inherently makes an irreversible time line of data when implemented in a decentralized nature. When a block is filled, it is set in stone and becomes a part of this time line. Each block in the chain is given an exact time stamp when it is added to the chain.

The goal of blockchain is to allow digital information to be recorded and distributed, but not edited. In this way, a blockchain is the foundation for immutable ledgers, or records of transactions that cannot be altered, deleted, or destroyed. This is why blockchains are also known as a distributed ledger technology (DLT).  TO READ MORE ABOUT THIS TECNOLOGY, CLICK HERE...

Bitcoin Explained

INTERESTING THOUGHT – EVERYTHING HAS A VALUE BASED ON CONFIDENCE – LOSE THE CONFIDENCE AND IT IS WORTH NOTHING

How Crypto Currency works... an analogy in Layman’s terms.


Not long ago a merchant found a lot of monkeys that lived near a certain Village .

One day he came to the Village saying he wanted to buy these monkeys !

He announced that he would buy the monkeys at $100 each.

The Villagers thought that this man must be crazy - How can somebody buy Stray Monkeys at $100 each ?

Still some People caught some monkeys and gave it to this merchant and he gave $100 for each monkey.

This News spread like wildfire and People caught monkeys and sold them to the merchant.

After a few days, the merchant announced that he will buy monkeys at $200 each.

The lazy villagers also ran around to catch the remaining monkeys!

They sold the remaining monkeys at $200 each.

The merchant then announced that he will buy monkeys for $500 each!

The villagers start to lose sleep!.....They caught six or seven monkeys, which was all that was left and got $500 each.

The Villagers were waiting anxiously for the next announcement.

Then the merchant announced that he is going on Holiday for a week, but when he returns, he will buy monkeys at $1000 each!

He also said that his employee will be in charge, and would take care of the monkeys he bought pending his return.

The Merchant went on holiday!

The Villagers were frantic and very sad as there were no more monkeys left for them to sell it at $1000 each as was promised by the Merchant.

Then the Merchant’s Employee contacted them and told them that he would secretly sell them some monkeys at $700 each.

The news spread like wildfire. As the Merchant promised on his return that he would buy monkeys at $1000 each, they would achieve a $300 profit for each monkey.

The next day The Villagers queued up near the Monkey Cage.

The Employee sold all the monkeys at $700 each. The Rich bought monkeys in large lots. The poor borrowed money from money lenders and bought the rest of the monkeys!

The Villagers took care of their monkeys & waited for the Merchant to return!

However nobody came ! ..... Then they ran to Find the Employee ....However he was not to be found!

The Villagers then realized that they have been duped buying the useless Stray monkeys at $700each, and were now unable to sell them!

This Monkey Business is now known as Bitcoin !

It will make a-lot of People bankrupt and a very few People filthy rich in this kind of Monkey Business.

US Bitcoin

China's share of global Bitcoin mining has fallen to effectively zero, research by the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index (CBECI) suggests.

In June China told banks to stop facilitating transactions, and issued bans on mining.

At its peak in Sept 2019 China accounted for over three quarters of all Bitcoin mining.

China's crackdown initially led to a 38% fall in mining globally CBECI said.

However this was partially offset by a 20% "bounceback" over July and August, "suggesting that some Chinese mining equipment has been successfully redeployed overseas", researchers said.

China has since declared all Bitcoin transactions illegal - though that occurred after the period covered by they Cambridge research.

Miners earn money by creating new Bitcoins, but the computing power needed to do it consumes large amounts of energy.

They audit Bitcoin transactions in exchange for an opportunity to acquire the digital currency.

Global mining requires enormous computing power, which in turn uses huge amounts of electricity, and consequently contributes significantly to global emissions.

The CBECI, which is produced by the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance, tracks the geographic distribution of computing power used for mining Bitcoin - receiving data from a number of commercial Bitcoin mining pools.  READ MORE...

Bitcoin and Paypal

PayPal customers in the UK will now be able to use the platform to buy, hold and sell cryptocurrency, with investments starting at £1.

But PayPal payments can still not be made in Bitcoin, for example, directly.

Instead, the cryptocurrency will have to be sold for traditional currency and its value then used to make a cash purchase.

PayPal is initially working with Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash.

But the currencies cannot be sent to friends or family or transferred to or from of any other digital wallet.

Entry point
PayPal launched its cryptocurrency service in the US, in October, hoping to make them more accessible to a wider audience.

But they remain volatile in value and unregulated - meaning investments are not protected by the authorities, if something goes wrong

"The tokens and coins have been around for a while but you had to be a relatively sophisticated user to be able to access that," a PayPal spokesman told CNBC.

"Having that on a platform like ours makes a really good entry point."  READ MORE

Just Me and My Thoughts

My thoughts appear out of nowhere or that is what they seem to be doing and yet I know that these thoughts must come from somewhere.  The generation of these thoughts is better in the morning for some reason and so it is in the morning that I have trained myself to write and reflect.  Upon reflection, I formulate ideas and once the idea hatches, my mind begins to control my consciousness openly and I put pen to paper and write...  or, in this case, I put fingers to keyboard and type...  however, I can actually write faster than I type and errors are easily scratched out, whereas with the keyboard, one must find and use the backspace key that I use all the time...

Nonetheless, I write in a notebook with a pen in hand, usually black and usually fine point as medium points smear...  and I write on blogs using a computer...  actually a laptop since the keyboard on a tablet is too small for my fat fingers.

And... mornings are the best for me as I drink coffee but also in the afternoons do I write my thoughts as I really have nothing else to do with my life now that I am retired...  although, I have taught some evening college classes in the past and have agreed to teach another one in the spring of 2021...  this class I taught many times before so I just need to update my syllabus a little and I am good to go...  Personal Financial Planning changes very little over the years...  and, as I think about it, I will be adding BITCOIN and CRYPTO CURRENCY to my list of topics.

Lesson From LinkedIn

LinkedIn is an American business and employment-oriented online service that operates via websites and mobile apps. Launched on May 5, 2003, it is mainly used for professional networking, including employers posting jobs and job seekers posting their CVs. Wikipedia

It was in the Fall of 2003 that a colleague at ITT Technical Institute convinced me to join the social media network.  It was just a bunch of people sharing with each other and oftentimes finding alternative jobs and other business opportunities as friendships and trust grew.

These days, it is still the same but it has leaned more towards Facebook in that it is more or a social network than it is a business  and professional networking platform and has become very conducive for sales people trying to get members to invest in bitcoin or foreign exchange.  And, these sales people do not take NO, NOT INTERESTED for an answer.

MOST but not ALL successful people are like these sales people, they do not take NO for an answer or to put it another way, they do not easily give up.  They have persistence and determination and an internal motivation desire that drives them even if there are other people around who are either "for" or "against" their efforts.

• Self Motivation
• Persistence
• Determination
• Not Quitting