Hey guys, I've been thinking about looking a bit more into cryptos and to understand what investing in them would mean for me in the future, at the current price of 11K is it now a bad time to invest as it's likely to go back down? I was watching it try to pass 10K for the last couple of months and since it's done so recently there's been a huge rally up to 11, I was wondering where you guys predict this number will stop before a good entry point to buy in again, I know that's nothing's certain and it could continue to just go up, or if holding for long term then it doesn't really matter where you purchase but are we going to see a drop in the near future?
Also, are there any book suggestions for someone trying to understand BTC and cryptos? thanks

Preface
Full disclosure here; I am heavily invested in this. I have picked up some real gems from here and was only in the position to buy so much of this because of you guys so I thought it was time to give back. I only invest in Utility Coins. These are coins that actually DO something, and provide new/build upon the crypto infrastructure to work towards the end goal that Bitcoin itself set out to achieve(financial independence from the fiat banking system). This way, I avoid 99% of the scams in crypto that are functionless vapourware, and if you only invest in things that have strong fundamentals in the long term you are much more likely to make money.
Introduction

Stakenet is a Lightning Network-ready open-source platform for decentralized applications with its native cryptocurrency – XSN. It is powered by a Proof of Stake blockchain with trustless cold staking and Masternodes. Its use case is to provide a highly secure cross-chain infrastructure for these decentralized applications, where individuals can easily operate with any blockchain simply by using Stakenet and its native currency XSN.

Ok... but what does it actually do and solve?
The moonshot here is the DEX (Decentralised Exchange) that they are building. This is a lightning-network DEX with interchain capabilities. That means you could trade BTC directly for ETH; securely, instantly, cheaply and privately.
Right now, most crypto is traded to and from Centralised Exchanges like Binance. To buy and sell on these exchanges, you have to send your crypto wallets on that exchange. That means the exchanges have your private keys, and they have control over your funds. When you use a centralised exchange, you are no longer in control of your assets, and depend on the trustworthiness of middlemen. We have in the past of course seen infamous exit scams by centralised exchanges like Mt. Gox.
The alternative? Decentralised Exchanges. DEX's have no central authority and most importantly, your private keys(your crypto) never leavesYOUR possession and are never in anyone else's possession. So you can trade peer-to-peer without any of the drawbacks of Centralised Exchanges.
The problem is that this technology has not been perfected yet, and the DEX's that we have available to us now are not providing cheap, private, quick trading on a decentralised medium because of their technological inadequacies. Take Uniswap for example. This DEX accounts for over 60% of all DEX volume and facilitates trading of ERC-20 tokens, over the Ethereum blockchain. The problem? Because of the huge amount of transaction that are occurring over the Ethereum network, this has lead to congestion(too many transaction for the network to handle at one time) so the fees have increased dramatically. Another big problem? It's only for Ethereum. You cant for example, Buy LINK with BTC. You must use ETH.
The solution? Layer 2 protocols. These are layers built ON TOP of existing blockchains, that are designed to solve the transaction and scaling difficulties that crypto as a whole is facing today(and ultimately stopping mass adoption) The developers at Stakenet have seen the big picture, and have decided to implement the lightning network(a layer 2 protocol) into its DEX from the ground up. This will facilitate the functionalities of a DEX without any of the drawbacks of the CEX's and the DEX's we have today.
Heres someone much more qualified than me, Andreas Antonopoulos, to explain this
https://streamable.com/kzpimj
'Once we have efficient, well designed DEX's on layer 2, there wont even be any DEX's on layer 1'
Progress
The Stakenet team were the first to envision this grand solution and have been working on it since its conception in June 2019. They have been making steady progress ever since and right now, the DEX is in an open beta stage where rigorous testing is constant by themselves and the public. For a project of this scale, stress testing is paramount. If the product were to launch with any bugs/errors that would result in the loss of a users funds, this would obviously be very damaging to Stakenet's reputation. So I believe that the developers conservative approach is wise.
As of now the only pairs tradeable on the DEX are XSN/BTC and LTC/BTC. The DEX has only just launched as a public beta and is not in its full public release stage yet. As development moves forward more lightning network and atomic swap compatible coins will be added to the DEX, and of course, the team are hard at work on Raiden Integration - this will allow ETH and tokens on the Ethereum blockchain to be traded on the DEX between separate blockchains(instantly, cheaply, privately) This is where Stakenet enters top 50 territory on CMC if successful and is the true value here. Raiden Integration is well underway is being tested in a closed public group on Linux.
The full public DEX with Raiden Integration is expected to release by the end of the year. Given the state of development so far and the rate of progress, this seems realistic.
Tokenomics
2.6 Metrics overview (from whitepaper)

• Name: Stakenet.
• Ticker: XSN. Currency type: Coin.
• Consensus: Minting Proof of Stake, Trustless Proof of Stake.
• Coinage: Enabled, 24 hours.
• Encryption Algorithm: X11.
• Block generation time: 60 seconds.
• Block size: 1-4 MB.
• Final block reward: 20 XSN.
• Block reward distribution: 45% Masternodes, 45% staking, 10% treasury.
• Masternode collateral: 15 000 XSN.
• Governance: Decentralized democracy.
• Funding: Decentralized treasury, no initial coin offering, no premine.
• Lightning Network: Activated on mainnet.
• On-chain scalability: 240 tx/s. On-chain transaction costs: ~0.00001 XSN/kB.
• Off-chain scalability: Theoretically infinite tx/s.
• Off-chain transaction costs: Virtually zero.
• Cross-chain interface: Lightning Swaps, Tokenization Swaps.

XSN is slightly inflationary, much like ETH as this is necessary for the economy to be adopted and work in the long term. There is however a deflationary mechanism in place - all trading fees on the DEX get converted to XSN and 10% of these fees are burned. This puts constant buying pressure on XSN and acts as a deflationary mechanism. XSN has inherent value because it makes up the infrastructure that the DEX will run off and as such Masternode operators and Stakers will see the fee's from the DEX.
Conclusion
We can clearly see that a layer 2 DEX is the future of crypto currency trading. It will facilitate secure, cheap, instant and private trading across all coins with lightning capabilities, thus solving the scaling and transaction issues that are holding back crypto today. I dont need to tell you the implications of this, and what it means for crypto as a whole. If Stakenet can launch a layer 2 DEX with Raiden Integration, It will become the primary DEX in terms of volume.
Stakenet DEX will most likely be the first layer 2 DEX(first mover advantage) and its blockchain is the infrastructure that will host this DEX and subsequently receive it's trading fee's. It is not difficult to envision a time in the next year when Stakenet DEX is functional and hosting hundreds of millions of dollars worth of trading every single day.
At $30 million market cap, I cant see any other potential investment right now with this much potential upside.
This post has merely served as in introduction and a heads up for this project, there is MUCH more to cover like vortex liquidity, masternodes, TOR integration... for now, here is some additional reading. Resources

• Whitepaper https://stakenet.io/Stakenet_Whitepaper.pdf
• Quick rundown https://medium.com/stakenet/multi-currency-wallet-and-lightning-swaps-stakenet-solution-7d0dafe99105
• X9's contributions to LTC https://medium.com/stakenet/litecoin-foundation-and-x9-developers-announce-collaboration-510ca985b6
• Exertive Proof of Stake https://medium.com/stakenet/exertive-proof-of-stake-epos-4a999807f9e4
• Great write-up of Cross Chain Proof of Stake (i.e. stake XSN, receive BTC) https://medium.com/stakenet/posw-weekly-ccpos-cross-chain-proof-of-stake-de1ac87055cd
• The Cypherpunk Standard of Banking https://medium.com/altcoin-magazine/the-cypherpunk-standard-of-banking-88f84a834180
• Most recent Dev Update https://medium.com/stakenet/xsn-core-dev-update-july-12-2020-72cac6050377 https://medium.com/stakenet/xsn-core-ledger-update-july-20-2020-a446e7f7af4
• Further reads https://medium.com/stakenet

TLDR; No. Do you want to make money? I'd start with learning how to read.

What is Axion? Per Axion's website:

AXION is the answer to our global financial markets that are on the brink of disaster.
The original solution to this impending collapse was Bitcoin, a decentralized peer-to-peer currency. However, since its inception, certain aspects of Bitcoin, such as lack of speed and high fees, have shifted Bitcoin into more of a store-of-value than a currency. Axion is the currency to address that.
With a high-interest time-locked savings account, Participants in the Axion Network are rewarded daily.

• Fixed Inflation
• Fast
• Passive Income
• Rewards people, not the corporate elite
• Inexpensive
• Global & Scalable

How is AXION distributed?

Anyone holding Hex2T (pre-sale) tokens will receive AXION at a rate of 1:1

Hex holders will also receive AXION 1:1, limited at 10M AXION tokens. Hex holders will also be auto-locked for a year, with 2% releasing weekly. More details can be found in the whitepaper. If Hex holders do not claim their AXION tokens, they will become available for purchase in the Daily Auction every week.

The Daily Auction

Putting Tokens and Value into your pocket.

To get Axion, it needs to be claimed by Hex & Hex2T holders, the longer they wait to claim, the more penalties they face. About 2% of their total per week. This 2% is added into a daily auction pool where people can bid using ETH on the Axion tokens within it. If you bid 10% of the ETH on that day, you get 10% of the pool rewards.
80% of the ETH paid in the auction is then used to hyperdrive both the Axion token and the stakers earnings. First, the ETH is used to purchase the tokens, boosting the token price, and then those tokens are distributed to stakers, creating a very strong positive feedback loop.

Axion Vision

Axion is on the path to becoming the ideal global currency.

For the first time in history, inflation is increasing the purchasing power of the people within the network. Axion has partnerships lined up to be integrated in online and in-person payment solutions, where you can pay for nearly everything in your every-day life using Axion. The merchants can accept FIAT (converted from Axion), or Axion itself. This is a global movement.

Axion: Built to Scale

500 Billion Initial Total Supply
1:1 Freeclaim ratio for Hex2T and Hex holders
80% of ETH Earned in auctions is used to buy back tokens
8% Annual inflation that goes Directly to stakers
100% of all purchased tokens Are distributed to stakers
No Auto-Stake For hex2t holders 100% autostake for hex holders

How to buy:

**Video Tutorials:**Metamask Install – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htyEeKNHX5ABuy/Sell Axion (HEX2T) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYZBOkHIM5k
How Do I Buy Axion (HEX2T)?
Step One: Purchase Ethereum from your exchange of choice (Coinbase, Binance, etc). You can also purchase Ethereum through Metamask and have it sent directly to your Metamask wallet (More details on this in Step Three). If buying through Coinbase, you’ll have the option to use a linked bank account or a debit card. Funds purchased via linked bank account will have a hold period while the bank transaction clears, funds purchased via debit card will be available for use instantly.
Step Two: Install the Metamask desktop browser extension and set up your Ethereum Wallet. You may also install the Metamask app on your Android smartphone and follow the same set up process in the linked video. (Apologies iOS users, the iOS Metamask app has restrictions that disable necessary features, you’ll have to use the desktop browser extension)
Step Three: Once you have your Metamask wallet set up and your seed words properly saved, it’s time to deposit Ethereum to your wallet.
– If you’ve purchased Ethereum on an exchange such as Coinbase or Binance, you’ll have to copy your wallet address from Metamask and withdraw the Ethereum from the exchange to your Metamask wallet address that you just copied. Be sure to check the wallet address multiple times before sending as transactions can not be reversed.
– If you’d like to purchase Ethereum directly through Metamask, you can do so using the Wyre fiat gateway that is integrated into Metamask.
Step Four: Now that you have Ethereum in your Metamask wallet, you can head over to our listing on the Uniswap Exchange to purchase Axion (HEX2T). We recommend using Fast GAS to speed up your transactions. You may also have to click on the gear icon in the top right on Uniswap to adjust your slippage limit when buying larger amounts.
– If using the Metamask app on Android, you’ll have to access the in-app browser through the menu (three bars top left of app) and paste the provided link.
– You will see a “From” input that should have ETH as the selected currency pointing to a “To (estimated)” output that should have HEX2T as the selected currency. The “From” input is the amount of Ethereum you will be spending and the “To (estimated)” output is the amount of HEX2T that you will receive for that amount of Ethereum.
– Once you enter the amount of Ethereum you’d like to spend, the button at the bottom of the page should say “Approve”. This “Approve” function allows the exchange to access Ethereum in your wallet, which is necessary to complete this transaction. You’ll click the “Approve” button and the exchange will send a transaction to your wallet, which you will have to confirm. Wait for that Approve transaction to clear and once it does the button should change from “Approve” to “Swap”.
– Now that you’ve given the exchange permission to use the Ethereum in your wallet, you can click the “Swap” button. This will send another transaction to your wallet that you’ll have to confirm. Once that transaction clears, you’ll have successfully purchased HEX2T with Ethereum!
Side Note: If you can’t see the HEX2T that you’ve purchased in your Metamask wallet’s Asset list, you’ll have to add the token to your Asset list. At the bottom of the Asset list you will see an “Add Token” button, click on that and you’ll see a “Search” and a “Custom Token” tab. Click on the “Custom Token” tab and paste the following address (0xed1199093b1abd07a368dd1c0cdc77d8517ba2a0) into the “Custom Token Address” field, the rest of the info should auto-fill. Then click the “Next” button in the bottom right, and it should display your HEX2T balance, click the “Add Tokens” button and you should now see your HEX2T in your Asset list.
**How Do I Sell Axion (HEX2T)?**To sell Axion (HEX2T), you essentially do the inverse of what you did to purchase it.Step One: Head over to Uniswap Exchange and click on ETH in the “From” input, a drop down list will appear and you’ll select HEX2T. In the “To (estimated)” output, click on “Select a Token” and select ETH. To clarify, if you want to sell, HEX2T should be on top, ETH should be on bottom.
Step Two: Enter the amount of HEX2T you’d like to sell in the “From” input, the button at the bottom of the page should say “Approve”. This “Approve” function allows the exchange to access HEX2T in your wallet, which is necessary to complete this transaction. You’ll click the “Approve” button and the exchange will send a transaction to your wallet, which you will have to confirm. Wait for that Approve transaction to clear and once it does the button should change from “Approve” to “Swap”.
– Now that you’ve given the exchange permission to use the HEX2T in your wallet, you can click the “Swap” button. This will send another transaction to your wallet that you’ll have to confirm. Once that transaction clears, you’ll have successfully sold HEX2T for Ethereum!
If at any point you feel that you need help in this process, please do not hesitate to join our fast growing Discord or Telegram. Once you’re in either of those communities you’ll be able to ask an admin or moderator for assistance.
​

Legal

Their legal proposal is 95% complete, per their Discord announcement - and most likely be finished in the coming days.
​

Charts:

http://chartex.pro?symbol=UNISWAP:HEX2T/USD
https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/hex2t

According to the infamous Jeff K...

​

• "Axion is a currency that provides the most profitable (and sustainable) staking rewards that I have ever seen in crypto."
• "They have implemented a system where they will be doing potentially millions of dollars DAILY in token buybacks, which is legitimately going to continuously push the price up."
• "It's a decentralized ecosystem, where the community votes on governance."
• It's a currency where your purchasing power increases by simply being a part of the system, unlike FIAT, where a savings account won't even keep pace with inflation.
• "Axion took the Hex framework of Certificates of Deposit and made it better in every way."
• "The people who got in on June 3rd when I first called it are now up 100X 🔥"
• "Is it too late to get in? Not a chance."
• "Hex is currently at a 1.1 BILLION dollar marketcap, and Axion is only 20 Million marketcap, leaving another 55X or more to go."
• "People were already saying "I missed this" when Axion did a 3X.... This train is just getting started. Mainnet isn't even here yet."
• "To oversimplify, Axion is a massively improved fork of Hex. Hex has 1001 reasons why people call it a scam, Axion fixes all of these and then some more."
• "People are starting to notice this. In the last 7 days, Hex has gone down 30%, and Axion has gone up 80%. The next "pump wave" for Axion is now here, and the flippening is coming."

TLDR

​

• Axion is a currency that provides the most profitable (and sustainable) staking rewards that I have ever seen in crypto.
• They have implemented a system where they will be doing potentially millions of dollars DAILY in token buybacks, which is legitimately going to continuously push the price up.
• It's a decentralized ecosystem, where the community votes on governance.
• It's a currency where your purchasing power increases by simply being a part of the system, unlike FIAT, where a savings account won't even keep pace with inflation.

Axion WHITEPAPER

In the past when you heard the word ‘cryptocurrency’, the first thing that came to everyone’s minds was Bitcoin. To some, this is still the case; they believe that Bitcoin is the cryptocurrency and the vice versa to also be true.
Of course, the statement is correct in one way; Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency, but cryptocurrency is not made up of only Bitcoin but a host of other currencies. One of these currencies is Ripple.
When it comes to the top five cryptocurrencies with the highest capitalization, Ripple needs no introduction as it has managed to secure a position of being the third most traded cryptocurrency around the world. Perhaps this is due to the fact that Ripple is the only cryptocurrency with a backing from traditional legacy financial institutions.
In addition, the coin has been integrated into the operation of thousands of small businesses around the world.
At this juncture, it is only fair that you learn how to be a part of this great innovation. Thankfully, that is what this guide is all about, showing you some of the best trading platforms for Ripple.
There are numerous exchanges that offer decent exchange rates and well-matched trading pairs, but I’ll only narrow down to some of our best picks to help you get started fast.

What is Ripple (XRP)?

Ripple is a cryptocurrency, a currency exchange, a real-time gross settlement payment system, and a remittance network powered by Ripple. As I mentioned before, this is the third most capitalized cryptocurrency asset after Bitcoin and Ethereum.
XRP allows enterprises such as banks and other financial service providers to offer their clients a reliable option to source for liquidity for cross-border currency transactions.
Ripple is a distributed, open-source platform that seeks to capitalize on the weaknesses of the conventional money payment systems such as credit and debit cards, PayPal, bank transfers, among others. According to Ripple, these payment systems expose users to a lot of transaction delays and restrict the fluidity of currencies.
The platform aims at replacing traditional payment systems through offering a faster, safer, and more convenient alternative for making payments.
Both the platform’s exchange and tokens are called Ripple, and their mantra states one frictionless experience to send money globally.

Where Can I Trade XRP?

Most exchanges that trade Ripple are limited to crypto-to-crypto transactions. This means that you can only trade Ripple with another cryptocurrency and not fiat currencies such as the euro or the dollar.
You’ll need to acquire the currency you wish to trade with XRP on a platform that accepts fiat, and once that happens, you can proceed to trade the two currencies.
There are several great platforms that offer XRP trading; below are just a few:

• Binance
• Bittrex
• Changelly
• Cryptmixer
• Coinmama

Buying XRP on Binance

Binance is an exchange that was established in 2017 but has bagged a reputation worth over 10 years of existence. This, the team claims, is due to a number of features offered by the platform including better security controls, low trading fee (0.05%), as well as its faster transacting speeds.
To buy or trade XRP on Binance, you’ll need to set up an account on the exchange. The platform offers a fast signup process and actually accepts users from all around the world.
Once you’re done signing up, navigate to the fund’s section and click on “Deposits”. You will find all the listed cryptocurrencies supported by the Binance platform.
Since Binance does not support the purchase of Ripple using fiat currencies, you’ll need to acquire another cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin or Ethereum and use it to acquire XRP.
This will require you to use a platform such as Coinbase that accepts fiat currencies when buying cryptos. Getting started on Coinbase is quite simple. Head over to their website and click on the “Get Started” icon on the top right corner of your screen.
Fill in the required fields and read through their User Agreement and Privacy Policy documents, then create your account.
You’ll receive an email that will require you to verify your signup details together with your phone number.
You will then gain access to your created account.
Proceed to buy your coins; preferably, choose either Bitcoin or Ethereum as they have higher liquidities. Once you’re done, your coins will be received in your online Coinbase account.
Head over to the menu indicated as “Account” and click on it.
Click on “Send” and enter the number of coins you wish to send to your Binance wallet. Copy and paste the address of your Binance account to Coinbase, then click send to transfer the funds.
The purchased cryptocurrency will be received and on Binance, you can go ahead and trade it with Ripple.

Buying XRP on Bittrex

Just like on Binance, you’ll need to create an account on Bittrex to get started.
The process is pretty much straightforward, only requiring you to sign up using your email address and password.
Once you’re done signing up, click on the wallet tab. You will be taken to a page where you can view all the deposit addresses of the cryptocurrencies on the Bittrex platform.
You can then choose the currency to use to purchase XRP, after which, you will be required to type in the code of the currency you will be using to purchase Ripple. If you’re using Ethereum, you can type in the search bar “ETH” and then click on the green arrow to reveal the deposit address. In case you will be sending the funds from a different exchange, you’ll need to paste the address to that platform.
Next, you’ll need to send funds to your Bittrex account. Bittrex permits payments using both fiat and cryptocurrencies. So, depending on what you will be using, send money to your online wallet and proceed to trade it with Ripple.

Buying XRP on Changelly

Changelly is another Ripple exchange that requires you to use either Bitcoin or Ethereum to acquire XRP.
The exchange doesn’t have an inbuilt wallet, so you’ll need to store your funds on a separate hardware or software wallet. You can pretty much use any type of wallet, but the most secure ones are the hardware ones as they store your coins in an offline cold storage area.
Ripple prefers not to have many unutilized accounts being set up on its platform; this is why you’ll need to have a minimum of 20 XRP in your account for you to get started. However, if your first transaction will be more than 20 XRP, then you’re all set.
Once you have a wallet ready for your Ripple, head to the Changelly site and click on “input currency”. Here, you will be able to enter the currency you wish to trade for Ripple.
You can basically pick and use any coin listed on the site, but it is highly recommended that you use either Bitcoin or Ethereum due to their high liquidity.
The output section will have Ripple, which is the currency you wish to receive.
The next step will require you to key in your XRP address, which is your Ripple address and the destination tag, which is a description of the transaction.
You can now proceed to trade your chosen coins for Ripple. The transaction shouldn’t take long, and you will be able to receive the coins in your Ripple wallet.

Cryptmixer

Cryptmixer is a platform that assists users to swap XRP with 5 other assets freely. The interface lets users convert assets directly from one’s wallet, without having to create an account or register. Besides, the service helps to compare different providers and find a suitable deal for handling Ripple transactions securely, rapidly, and at the best rate.
The process of using Cryptmixer is quite simple:

1. Go to the main page, choose the currency you’d like to swap, and enter the amount.
2. Choose XRP to receive.
3. Review the amount to see how much you will receive. Cryptmixer will automatically find the best rates for your trade.
4. Click Exchange.
5. Then, enter the wallet address that you wish to use.
6. Send in the deposit to the generated wallet address and wait for the transaction to be processed.

What makes Cryptmixer a great fit is that it provides a very simple layout and quick process so it’s not chore when you trade your crypto. The support line also takes on the job of solving the cases by cooperating with users with top priority.
To learn more on how to exchange XRP at the best rate check https://cryptmixer.com

Buying XRP on Coinmama

Coinmama is a cryptocurrency exchange that has been around for quite a while now. The Coinmama team has been adding more coins on their platform over time to be able to provide its users with a wider variety of trading pairs.
More recently, the platform included Ripple on its platform. However, Coinmama does not allow US-based users to purchase Ripple due to some stringent laws and regulations surrounding the coin.
But for non-US users, you can proceed to create your account on the platform and locate Ripple among the listed assets.
Once you’ve created your account, navigate your way to the area with the list of assets. Select one of the provided packages and proceed.
You’re required to have a crypto wallet prior to making any purchase on the platform, so be sure to have a valid wallet address before completing the purchase. Once that’s done, purchase your Ripple coins and they will be delivered to your wallet.

Storing Your Ripple Coins

Online storages are never safe for cryptocurrency assets. Individuals have woken up to all sort of horrific sceneries on their accounts that left them bankrupt with no one to turn to.
One of the most important concepts you need to grasp about online businesses is the security of your transactions.
Cryptocurrency burglars are everywhere and are getting smarter by the day; this means that traditional ways of guaranteeing the security of your online assets are no longer effective.
Most exchanges have top-notch security standards, but the safety of your cryptos begins with you. A great way of ensuring that your funds are secure is by getting an offline storage device for your coins. I’ve seen great reviews on two hardware wallets that I highly recommend; these are the Ledger Nano S and Trezor wallets.
After getting the wallet of your choice, keep your personal data such as passwords and secret words private; this will ensure that no one else gains access to your wallet even if you misplace it. Writing your password or PIN on open places or somewhere in your phone might not be a good idea; yes, it may be convenient for you, but it will be for the burglar too.

What method of purchasing XRP is considered to be the best?

The most secure and common way of acquiring Ripple is through buying Ethereum or Bitcoin from Coinbase or Coinmama, then transferring the same to Cryptmixer to use to exchange with Ripple.
This is because Ripple is currently not available for purchase by using fiat currencies.

What is the best trading platform for Ripple?

Ripple is available on a decent number of exchanges including Binance, Coinmama, Coinbase, Bittrex, Cryptmixer, and more. However, among the stated ones, I have found Cryptmixer to be more secure and easier to use while it also offers the best trading rates and fees.

The Bottom Line

As we conclude, you now have some of the best choices when it comes to the exchange to acquire Ripple coins. After buying your XRP coins, store them offline on a secure device due to the risk of being faced by threats such as hacking or system failures.
If you’re serious about making cryptocurrency your investment vehicle in the long run, consider investing in a more lasting security solution such as a hardware storage device. You may not get them for a few pennies, but trust me when I say they are worth every last dime you spend on them.

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5. To earn an extra $50 or $100 in free Bitcoin/Celsius for a new loan, go to 'Profile' -> 'Enter a promo code'. Enter the promo code TREAT then apply for a new loan via the app by Saturday 31 October 2020.
6. You'll receive $50 in free Bitcoin/Celsius if you borrow less than $3000 and you'll receive $100 in free Bitcoin/Celsius if you borrow $3000 or more. The bonus will be deposit by Sunday 15 November 2020. For more information regarding the loan bonus, check out here.

In summary, you will earn a $40 in free Bitcoin after total deposits of at least $400+ in crypto into your Celsius Network account plus another $50 or $100 in free Bitcoin/Celsius when you apply for a loan.
Due to crypto prices go up and down, I recommend depositing at least 5% more in crypto to secure the initial deposit bonus. For example, if you need to deposit $200 or more to receive the new account bonus of $20 in free Bitcoin, then deposit at least $210 in crypto.
I recommend using Coinbase, Gemini, Crypto.com, Binance.com or Binance US to buy crypto like Bitcoin or USD stablecoin and transferring to your Celsius Network account for the initial deposit to earn the first bonus.
Remember DO NOT withdrawal any crypto from your account for at least 30 days until the free crypto bonuses are unlocked. Besides every Monday you'll be earning interest on the crypto held in your Celsius Network account.
Remember to sign up using https://celsiusnetwork.app.link/1891962be1 (or use promo code 1891962be1 during registration)
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Leave a comment or send me a message if you have any questions! :))
Have a great day!
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Have a great day!
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https://preview.redd.it/i66fucc5hfv51.png?width=2418&format=png&auto=webp&s=408540b729672631c52f3b4108f1469d8a9e9243

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Summary: Everyone knows that when you give your assets to someone else, they always keep them safe. If this is true for individuals, it is certainly true for businesses.
Custodians always tell the truth and manage funds properly. They won't have any interest in taking the assets as an exchange operator would. Auditors tell the truth and can't be misled. That's because organizations that are regulated are incapable of lying and don't make mistakes.
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First, some background. Here is a summary of how custodians make us more secure:
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Previously, we might give Alice our crypto assets to hold. There were risks:

• Alice might take the assets and disappear.
• Alice might spend the assets and pretend that she still has them (fractional model).
• Alice might store the assets insecurely and they'll get stolen.
• Alice might give the assets to someone else by mistake or by force.
• Alice might lose access to the assets.

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But "no worries", Alice has a custodian named Bob. Bob is dressed in a nice suit. He knows some politicians. And he drives a Porsche. "So you have nothing to worry about!". And look at all the benefits we get:

• Alice can't take the assets and disappear (unless she asks Bob or never gives them to Bob).
• Alice can't spend the assets and pretend that she still has them. (Unless she didn't give them to Bob or asks him for them.)
• Alice can't store the assets insecurely so they get stolen. (After all - she doesn't have any control over the withdrawal process from any of Bob's systems, right?)
• Alice can't give the assets to someone else by mistake or by force. (Bob will stop her, right Bob?)
• Alice can't lose access to the funds. (She'll always be present, sane, and remember all secrets, right?)

See - all problems are solved! All we have to worry about now is:

• Bob might take the assets and disappear.
• Bob might spend the assets and pretend that he still has them (fractional model).
• Bob might store the assets insecurely and they'll get stolen.
• Bob might give the assets to someone else by mistake or by force.
• Bob might lose access to the assets.

It's pretty simple. Before we had to trust Alice. Now we only have to trust Alice, Bob, and all the ways in which they communicate. Just think of how much more secure we are!
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"On top of that", Bob assures us, "we're using a special wallet structure". Bob shows Alice a diagram. "We've broken the balance up and store it in lots of smaller wallets. That way", he assures her, "a thief can't take it all at once". And he points to a historic case where a large sum was taken "because it was stored in a single wallet... how stupid".
"Very early on, we used to have all the crypto in one wallet", he said, "and then one Christmas a hacker came and took it all. We call him the Grinch. Now we individually wrap each crypto and stick it under a binary search tree. The Grinch has never been back since."
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"As well", Bob continues, "even if someone were to get in, we've got insurance. It covers all thefts and even coercion, collusion, and misplaced keys - only subject to the policy terms and conditions." And with that, he pulls out a phone-book sized contract and slams it on the desk with a thud. "Yep", he continues, "we're paying top dollar for one of the best policies in the country!"
"Can I read it?' Alice asks. "Sure," Bob says, "just as soon as our legal team is done with it. They're almost through the first chapter." He pauses, then continues. "And can you believe that sales guy Mike? He has the same year Porsche as me. I mean, what are the odds?"
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"Do you use multi-sig?", Alice asks. "Absolutely!" Bob replies. "All our engineers are fully trained in multi-sig. Whenever we want to set up a new wallet, we generate 2 separate keys in an air-gapped process and store them in this proprietary system here. Look, it even requires the biometric signature from one of our team members to initiate any withdrawal." He demonstrates by pressing his thumb into the display. "We use a third-party cloud validation API to match the thumbprint and authorize each withdrawal. The keys are also backed up daily to an off-site third-party."
"Wow that's really impressive," Alice says, "but what if we need access for a withdrawal outside of office hours?" "Well that's no issue", Bob says, "just send us an email, call, or text message and we always have someone on staff to help out. Just another part of our strong commitment to all our customers!"
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"What about Proof of Reserve?", Alice asks. "Of course", Bob replies, "though rather than publish any blockchain addresses or signed transaction, for privacy we just do a SHA256 refactoring of the inverse hash modulus for each UTXO nonce and combine the smart contract coefficient consensus in our hyperledger lightning node. But it's really simple to use." He pushes a button and a large green checkmark appears on a screen. "See - the algorithm ran through and reserves are proven."
"Wow", Alice says, "you really know your stuff! And that is easy to use! What about fiat balances?" "Yeah, we have an auditor too", Bob replies, "Been using him for a long time so we have quite a strong relationship going! We have special books we give him every year and he's very efficient! Checks the fiat, crypto, and everything all at once!"
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"We used to have a nice offline multi-sig setup we've been using without issue for the past 5 years, but I think we'll move all our funds over to your facility," Alice says. "Awesome", Bob replies, "Thanks so much! This is perfect timing too - my Porsche got a dent on it this morning. We have the paperwork right over here." "Great!", Alice replies.
And with that, Alice gets out her pen and Bob gets the contract. "Don't worry", he says, "you can take your crypto-assets back anytime you like - just subject to our cancellation policy. Our annual management fees are also super low and we don't adjust them often".
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How many holes have to exist for your funds to get stolen?
Just one.
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Why are we taking a powerful offline multi-sig setup, widely used globally in hundreds of different/lacking regulatory environments with 0 breaches to date, and circumventing it by a demonstrably weak third party layer? And paying a great expense to do so?
If you go through the list of breaches in the past 2 years to highly credible organizations, you go through the list of major corporate frauds (only the ones we know about), you go through the list of all the times platforms have lost funds, you go through the list of times and ways that people have lost their crypto from identity theft, hot wallet exploits, extortion, etc... and then you go through this custodian with a fine-tooth comb and truly believe they have value to add far beyond what you could, sticking your funds in a wallet (or set of wallets) they control exclusively is the absolute worst possible way to take advantage of that security.
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The best way to add security for crypto-assets is to make a stronger multi-sig. With one custodian, what you are doing is giving them your cryptocurrency and hoping they're honest, competent, and flawlessly secure. It's no different than storing it on a really secure exchange. Maybe the insurance will cover you. Didn't work for Bitpay in 2015. Didn't work for Yapizon in 2017. Insurance has never paid a claim in the entire history of cryptocurrency. But maybe you'll get lucky. Maybe your exact scenario will buck the trend and be what they're willing to cover. After the large deductible and hopefully without a long and expensive court battle.
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And you want to advertise this increase in risk, the lapse of judgement, an accident waiting to happen, as though it's some kind of benefit to customers ("Free institutional-grade storage for your digital assets.")? And then some people are writing to the OSC that custodians should be mandatory for all funds on every exchange platform? That this somehow will make Canadians as a whole more secure or better protected compared with standard air-gapped multi-sig? On what planet?
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Most of the problems in Canada stemmed from one thing - a lack of transparency. If Canadians had known what a joke Quadriga was - it wouldn't have grown to lose $400m from hard-working Canadians from coast to coast to coast. And Gerald Cotten would be in jail, not wherever he is now (at best, rotting peacefully). EZ-BTC and mister Dave Smilie would have been a tiny little scam to his friends, not a multi-million dollar fraud. Einstein would have got their act together or been shut down BEFORE losing millions and millions more in people's funds generously donated to criminals. MapleChange wouldn't have even been a thing. And maybe we'd know a little more about CoinTradeNewNote - like how much was lost in there. Almost all of the major losses with cryptocurrency exchanges involve deception with unbacked funds.
So it's great to see transparency reports from BitBuy and ShakePay where someone independently verified the backing. The only thing we don't have is:

• ANY CERTAINTY BALANCES WEREN'T EXCLUDED. Quadriga's largest account was $70m. 80% of funds are in 20% of accounts (Pareto principle). All it takes is excluding a few really large accounts - and nobody's the wiser. A fractional platform can easily pass any audit this way.
• ANY VISIBILITY WHATSOEVER INTO THE CUSTODIANS. BitBuy put out their report before moving all the funds to their custodian and ShakePay apparently can't even tell us who the custodian is. That's pretty important considering that basically all of the funds are now stored there.
• ANY IDEA ABOUT THE OTHER EXCHANGES. In order for this to be effective, it has to be the norm. It needs to be "unusual" not to know. If obscurity is the norm, then it's super easy for people like Gerald Cotten and Dave Smilie to blend right in.

It's not complicated to validate cryptocurrency assets. They need to exist, they need to be spendable, and they need to cover the total balances. There are plenty of credible people and firms across the country that have the capacity to reasonably perform this validation. Having more frequent checks by different, independent, parties who publish transparent reports is far more valuable than an annual check by a single "more credible/official" party who does the exact same basic checks and may or may not publish anything. Here's an example set of requirements that could be mandated:

• First report within 1 month of launching, another within 3 months, and further reports at minimum every 6 months thereafter.
• No auditor can be repeated within a 12 month period.
• All reports must be public, identifying the auditor and the full methodology used.
• All auditors must be independent of the firm being audited with no conflict of interest.
• Reports must include the percentage of each asset backed, and how it's backed.
• The auditor publishes a hash list, which lists a hash of each customer's information and balances that were included. Hash is one-way encryption so privacy is fully preserved. Every customer can use this to have 100% confidence they were included.
• If we want more extensive requirements on audits, these should scale upward based on the total assets at risk on the platform, and whether the platform has loaned their assets out.

There are ways to structure audits such that neither crypto assets nor customer information are ever put at risk, and both can still be properly validated and publicly verifiable. There are also ways to structure audits such that they are completely reasonable for small platforms and don't inhibit innovation in any way. By making the process as reasonable as possible, we can completely eliminate any reason/excuse that an honest platform would have for not being audited. That is arguable far more important than any incremental improvement we might get from mandating "the best of the best" accountants. Right now we have nothing mandated and tons of Canadians using offshore exchanges with no oversight whatsoever.
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Transparency does not prove crypto assets are safe. CoinTradeNewNote, Flexcoin ($600k), and Canadian Bitcoins ($100k) are examples where crypto-assets were breached from platforms in Canada. All of them were online wallets and used no multi-sig as far as any records show. This is consistent with what we see globally - air-gapped multi-sig wallets have an impeccable record, while other schemes tend to suffer breach after breach. We don't actually know how much CoinTrader lost because there was no visibility. Rather than publishing details of what happened, the co-founder of CoinTrader silently moved on to found another platform - the "most trusted way to buy and sell crypto" - a site that has no information whatsoever (that I could find) on the storage practices and a FAQ advising that “[t]rading cryptocurrency is completely safe” and that having your own wallet is “entirely up to you! You can certainly keep cryptocurrency, or fiat, or both, on the app.” Doesn't sound like much was learned here, which is really sad to see.
It's not that complicated or unreasonable to set up a proper hardware wallet. Multi-sig can be learned in a single course. Something the equivalent complexity of a driver's license test could prevent all the cold storage exploits we've seen to date - even globally. Platform operators have a key advantage in detecting and preventing fraud - they know their customers far better than any custodian ever would. The best job that custodians can do is to find high integrity individuals and train them to form even better wallet signatories. Rather than mandating that all platforms expose themselves to arbitrary third party risks, regulations should center around ensuring that all signatories are background-checked, properly trained, and using proper procedures. We also need to make sure that signatories are empowered with rights and responsibilities to reject and report fraud. They need to know that they can safely challenge and delay a transaction - even if it turns out they made a mistake. We need to have an environment where mistakes are brought to the surface and dealt with. Not one where firms and people feel the need to hide what happened. In addition to a knowledge-based test, an auditor can privately interview each signatory to make sure they're not in coercive situations, and we should make sure they can freely and anonymously report any issues without threat of retaliation.
A proper multi-sig has each signature held by a separate person and is governed by policies and mutual decisions instead of a hierarchy. It includes at least one redundant signature. For best results, 3of4, 3of5, 3of6, 4of5, 4of6, 4of7, 5of6, or 5of7.
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History has demonstrated over and over again the risk of hot wallets even to highly credible organizations. Nonetheless, many platforms have hot wallets for convenience. While such losses are generally compensated by platforms without issue (for example Poloniex, Bitstamp, Bitfinex, Gatecoin, Coincheck, Bithumb, Zaif, CoinBene, Binance, Bitrue, Bitpoint, Upbit, VinDAX, and now KuCoin), the public tends to focus more on cases that didn't end well. Regardless of what systems are employed, there is always some level of risk. For that reason, most members of the public would prefer to see third party insurance.
Rather than trying to convince third party profit-seekers to provide comprehensive insurance and then relying on an expensive and slow legal system to enforce against whatever legal loopholes they manage to find each and every time something goes wrong, insurance could be run through multiple exchange operators and regulators, with the shared interest of having a reputable industry, keeping costs down, and taking care of Canadians. For example, a 4 of 7 multi-sig insurance fund held between 5 independent exchange operators and 2 regulatory bodies. All Canadian exchanges could pay premiums at a set rate based on their needed coverage, with a higher price paid for hot wallet coverage (anything not an air-gapped multi-sig cold wallet). Such a model would be much cheaper to manage, offer better coverage, and be much more reliable to payout when needed. The kind of coverage you could have under this model is unheard of. You could even create something like the CDIC to protect Canadians who get their trading accounts hacked if they can sufficiently prove the loss is legitimate. In cases of fraud, gross negligence, or insolvency, the fund can be used to pay affected users directly (utilizing the last transparent balance report in the worst case), something which private insurance would never touch. While it's recommended to have official policies for coverage, a model where members vote would fully cover edge cases. (Could be similar to the Supreme Court where justices vote based on case law.)
Such a model could fully protect all Canadians across all platforms. You can have a fiat coverage governed by legal agreements, and crypto-asset coverage governed by both multi-sig and legal agreements. It could be practical, affordable, and inclusive.
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Now, we are at a crossroads. We can happily give up our freedom, our innovation, and our money. We can pay hefty expenses to auditors, lawyers, and regulators year after year (and make no mistake - this cost will grow to many millions or even billions as the industry grows - and it will be borne by all Canadians on every platform because platforms are not going to eat up these costs at a loss). We can make it nearly impossible for any new platform to enter the marketplace, forcing Canadians to use the same stagnant platforms year after year. We can centralize and consolidate the entire industry into 2 or 3 big players and have everyone else fail (possibly to heavy losses of users of those platforms). And when a flawed security model doesn't work and gets breached, we can make it even more complicated with even more people in suits making big money doing the job that blockchain was supposed to do in the first place. We can build a system which is so intertwined and dependent on big government, traditional finance, and central bankers that it's future depends entirely on that of the fiat system, of fractional banking, and of government bail-outs. If we choose this path, as history has shown us over and over again, we can not go back, save for revolution. Our children and grandchildren will still be paying the consequences of what we decided today.
Or, we can find solutions that work. We can maintain an open and innovative environment while making the adjustments we need to make to fully protect Canadian investors and cryptocurrency users, giving easy and affordable access to cryptocurrency for all Canadians on the platform of their choice, and creating an environment in which entrepreneurs and problem solvers can bring those solutions forward easily. None of the above precludes innovation in any way, or adds any unreasonable cost - and these three policies would demonstrably eliminate or resolve all 109 historic cases as studied here - that's every single case researched so far going back to 2011. It includes every loss that was studied so far not just in Canada but globally as well.
Unfortunately, finding answers is the least challenging part. Far more challenging is to get platform operators and regulators to agree on anything. My last post got no response whatsoever, and while the OSC has told me they're happy for industry feedback, I believe my opinion alone is fairly meaningless. This takes the whole community working together to solve. So please let me know your thoughts. Please take the time to upvote and share this with people. Please - let's get this solved and not leave it up to other people to do.
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Facts/background/sources (skip if you like):

• The inspiration for the paragraph about splitting wallets was an actual quote from a Canadian company providing custodial services in response to the OSC consultation paper: "We believe that it will be in the in best interests of investors to prohibit pooled crypto assets or ‘floats’. Most Platforms pool assets, citing reasons of practicality and expense. The recent hack of the world’s largest Platform – Binance – demonstrates the vulnerability of participants’ assets when such concessions are made. In this instance, the Platform’s entire hot wallet of Bitcoins, worth over $40 million, was stolen, facilitated in part by the pooling of client crypto assets." "the maintenance of participants (and Platform) crypto assets across multiple wallets distributes the related risk and responsibility of security - reducing the amount of insurance coverage required and making insurance coverage more readily obtainable". For the record, their reply also said nothing whatsoever about multi-sig or offline storage.
• In addition to the fact that the $40m hack represented only one "hot wallet" of Binance, and they actually had the vast majority of assets in other wallets (including mostly cold wallets), multiple real cases have clearly demonstrated that risk is still present with multiple wallets. Bitfinex, VinDAX, Bithumb, Altsbit, BitPoint, Cryptopia, and just recently KuCoin all had multiple wallets breached all at the same time, and may represent a significantly larger impact on customers than the Binance breach which was fully covered by Binance. To represent that simply having multiple separate wallets under the same security scheme is a comprehensive way to reduce risk is just not true.
• Private insurance has historically never covered a single loss in the cryptocurrency space (at least, not one that I was able to find), and there are notable cases where massive losses were not covered by insurance. Bitpay in 2015 and Yapizon in 2017 both had insurance policies that didn't pay out during the breach, even after a lengthly court process. The same insurance that ShakePay is presently using (and announced to much fanfare) was describe by their CEO himself as covering “physical theft of the media where the private keys are held,” which is something that has never historically happened. As was said with regard to the same policy in 2018 - “I don’t find it surprising that Lloyd’s is in this space,” said Johnson, adding that to his mind the challenge for everybody is figuring out how to structure these policies so that they are actually protective. “You can create an insurance policy that protects no one – you know there are so many caveats to the policy that it’s not super protective.”
• The most profitable policy for a private insurance company is one with the most expensive premiums that they never have to pay a claim on. They have no inherent incentive to take care of people who lost funds. It's "cheaper" to take the reputational hit and fight the claim in court. The more money at stake, the more the insurance provider is incentivized to avoid payout. They're not going to insure the assets unless they have reasonable certainty to make a profit by doing so, and they're not going to pay out a massive sum unless it's legally forced. Private insurance is always structured to be maximally profitable to the insurance provider.
• The circumvention of multi-sig was a key factor in the massive Bitfinex hack of over $60m of bitcoin, which today still sits being slowly used and is worth over $3b. While Bitfinex used a qualified custodian Bitgo, which was and still is active and one of the industry leaders of custodians, and they set up 2 of 3 multi-sig wallets, the entire system was routed through Bitfinex, such that Bitfinex customers could initiate the withdrawals in a "hot" fashion. This feature was also a hit with the hacker. The multi-sig was fully circumvented.
• Bitpay in 2015 was another example of a breach that stole 5,000 bitcoins. This happened not through the exploit of any system in Bitpay, but because the CEO of a company they worked with got their computer hacked and the hackers were able to request multiple bitcoin purchases, which Bitpay honoured because they came from the customer's computer legitimately. Impersonation is a very common tactic used by fraudsters, and methods get more extreme all the time.
• A notable case in Canada was the Canadian Bitcoins exploit. Funds were stored on a server in a Rogers Data Center, and the attendee was successfully convinced to reboot the server "in safe mode" with a simple phone call, thus bypassing the extensive security and enabling the theft.
• Over $200m has been stolen impersonating users of cryptocurrency platforms by one group alone. Here's a list of 10 social engineering attacks against corporate companies. Here's an even larger case. While verification methods are improving, so are methods of identity theft and social engineering. We now have sim swapping and deep fake videos to contend with. Hackers have massive database sets of personal information they can utilize. As the sums at stake increase, so to will the level of effort criminals are willing to undertake. Obscurity for an insecure system will only postpone an attack until the "jackpot" is large enough.
• The very nature of custodians circumvents multi-sig. This is because custodians are not just having to secure the assets against some sort of physical breach but against any form of social engineering, modification of orders, fraudulent withdrawal attempts, etc... If the security practices of signatories in a multi-sig arrangement are such that the breach risk of one signatory is 1 in 100, the requirement of 3 independent signatures makes the risk of theft 1 in 1,000,000. Since hackers tend to exploit the weakest link, a comparable custodian has to make the entry and exit points of their platform 10,000 times more secure than one of those signatories to provide equivalent protection. And if the signatories beef up their security by only 10x, the risk is now 1 in 1,000,000,000. The custodian has to be 1,000,000 times more secure. The larger and more complex a system is, the more potential vulnerabilities exist in it, and the fewer people can understand how the system works when performing upgrades. Even if a system is completely secure today, one has to also consider how that system might evolve over time or work with different members.
• By contrast, offline multi-signature solutions have an extremely solid record, and in the entire history of cryptocurrency exchange incidents which I've studied (listed here), there has only been one incident (796 exchange in 2015) involving an offline multi-signature wallet. It happened because the customer's bitcoin address was modified by hackers, and the amount that was stolen ($230k) was immediately covered by the exchange operators. Basically, the platform operators were tricked into sending a legitimate withdrawal request to the wrong address because hackers exploited their platform to change that address. Such an issue would not be prevented in any way by the use of a custodian, as that custodian has no oversight whatsoever to the exchange platform. It's practical for all exchange operators to test large withdrawal transactions as a general policy, regardless of what model is used, and general best practice is to diagnose and fix such an exploit as soon as it occurs.
• False promises on the backing of funds played a huge role in the downfall of Quadriga, and it's been exposed over and over again (MyCoin, PlusToken, Bitsane, Bitmarket, EZBTC, IDAX). Even today, customers have extremely limited certainty on whether their funds in exchanges are actually being backed or how they're being backed. While this issue is not unique to cryptocurrency exchanges, the complexity of the technology and the lack of any regulation or standards makes problems more widespread, and there is no "central bank" to come to the rescue as in the 2008 financial crisis or during the great depression when "9,000 banks failed".
• In addition to fraudulent operations, the industry is full of cases where operators have suffered breaches and not reported them. Most recently, Einstein was the largest case in Canada, where ongoing breaches and fraud were perpetrated against the platform for multiple years and nobody found out until the platform collapsed completely. While fraud and breaches suck to deal with, they suck even more when not dealt with. Lack of visibility played a role in the largest downfalls of Mt. Gox, Cryptsy, and Bitgrail. In some cases, platforms are alleged to have suffered a hack and keep operating without admitting it at all, such as CoinBene.
• It surprises some to learn that a cryptographic solution has already existed since 2013, and gained widespread support in 2014 after Mt. Gox. Proof of Reserves is a full cryptographic proof that allows any customer using an exchange to have complete certainty that their crypto-assets are fully backed by the platform in real-time. This is accomplished by proving that assets exist on the blockchain, are spendable, and fully cover customer deposits. It does not prove safety of assets or backing of fiat assets.
  • If we didn't care about privacy at all, a platform could publish their wallet addresses, sign a partial transaction, and put the full list of customer information and balances out publicly. Customers can each check that they are on the list, that the balances are accurate, that the total adds up, and that it's backed and spendable on the blockchain. Platforms who exclude any customer take a risk because that customer can easily check and see they were excluded. So together with all customers checking, this forms a full proof of backing of all crypto assets.
  • However, obviously customers care about their private information being published. Therefore, a hash of the information can be provided instead. Hash is one-way encryption. The hash allows the customer to validate inclusion (by hashing their own known information), while anyone looking at the list of hashes cannot determine the private information of any other user. All other parts of the scheme remain fully intact. A model like this is in use on the exchange CoinFloor in the UK.
  • A Merkle tree can provide even greater privacy. Instead of a list of balances, the balances are arranged into a binary tree. A customer starts from their node, and works their way to the top of the tree. For example, they know they have 5 BTC, they plus 1 other customer hold 7 BTC, they plus 2-3 other customers hold 17 BTC, etc... until they reach the root where all the BTC are represented. Thus, there is no way to find the balances of other individual customers aside from one unidentified customer in this case.
• Proposals such as this had the backing of leaders in the community including Nic Carter, Greg Maxwell, and Zak Wilcox. Substantial and significant effort started back in 2013, with massive popularity in 2014. But what became of that effort? Very little. Exchange operators continue to refuse to give visibility. Despite the fact this information can often be obtained through trivial blockchain analysis, no Canadian platform has ever provided any wallet addresses publicly. As described by the CEO of Newton "For us to implement some kind of realtime Proof of Reserves solution, which I'm not opposed to, it would have to ... Preserve our users' privacy, as well as our own. Some kind of zero-knowledge proof". Kraken describes here in more detail why they haven't implemented such a scheme. According to professor Eli Ben-Sasson, when he spoke with exchanges, none were interested in implementing Proof of Reserves.
• And yet, Kraken's places their reasoning on a page called "Proof of Reserves". More recently, both BitBuy and ShakePay have released reports titled "Proof of Reserves and Security Audit". Both reports contain disclaimers against being audits. Both reports trust the customer list provided by the platform, leaving the open possibility that multiple large accounts could have been excluded from the process. Proof of Reserves is a blockchain validation where customers see the wallets on the blockchain. The report from Kraken is 5 years old, but they leave it described as though it was just done a few weeks ago. And look at what they expect customers to do for validation. When firms represent something being "Proof of Reserve" when it's not, this is like a farmer growing fruit with pesticides and selling it in a farmers market as organic produce - except that these are people's hard-earned life savings at risk here. Platforms are misrepresenting the level of visibility in place and deceiving the public by their misuse of this term. They haven't proven anything.
• Fraud isn't a problem that is unique to cryptocurrency. Fraud happens all the time. Enron, WorldCom, Nortel, Bear Stearns, Wells Fargo, Moser Baer, Wirecard, Bre-X, and Nicola are just some of the cases where frauds became large enough to become a big deal (and there are so many countless others). These all happened on 100% reversible assets despite regulations being in place. In many of these cases, the problems happened due to the over-complexity of the financial instruments. For example, Enron had "complex financial statements [which] were confusing to shareholders and analysts", creating "off-balance-sheet vehicles, complex financing structures, and deals so bewildering that few people could understand them". In cryptocurrency, we are often combining complex financial products with complex technologies and verification processes. We are naïve if we think problems like this won't happen. It is awkward and uncomfortable for many people to admit that they don't know how something works. If we want "money of the people" to work, the solutions have to be simple enough that "the people" can understand them, not so confusing that financial professionals and technology experts struggle to use or understand them.
• For those who question the extent to which an organization can fool their way into a security consultancy role, HB Gary should be a great example to look at. Prior to trying to out anonymous, HB Gary was being actively hired by multiple US government agencies and others in the private sector (with glowing testimonials). The published articles and hosted professional security conferences. One should also look at this list of data breaches from the past 2 years. Many of them are large corporations, government entities, and technology companies. These are the ones we know about. Undoubtedly, there are many more that we do not know about. If HB Gary hadn't been "outted" by anonymous, would we have known they were insecure? If the same breach had happened outside of the public spotlight, would it even have been reported? Or would HB Gary have just deleted the Twitter posts, brought their site back up, done a couple patches, and kept on operating as though nothing had happened?
• In the case of Quadriga, the facts are clear. Despite past experience with platforms such as MapleChange in Canada and others around the world, no guidance or even the most basic of a framework was put in place by regulators. By not clarifying any sort of legal framework, regulators enabled a situation where a platform could be run by former criminal Mike Dhanini/Omar Patryn, and where funds could be held fully unchecked by one person. At the same time, the lack of regulation deterred legitimate entities from running competing platforms and Quadriga was granted a money services business license for multiple years of operation, which gave the firm the appearance of legitimacy. Regulators did little to protect Canadians despite Quadriga failing to file taxes from 2016 onward. The entire administrative team had resigned and this was public knowledge. Many people had suspicions of what was going on, including Ryan Mueller, who forwarded complaints to the authorities. These were ignored, giving Gerald Cotten the opportunity to escape without justice.
• There are multiple issues with the SOC II model including the prohibitive cost (you have to find a third party accounting firm and the prices are not even listed publicly on any sites), the requirement of operating for a year (impossible for new platforms), and lack of any public visibility (SOC II are private reports that aren't shared outside the people in suits).
• Securities frameworks are expensive. Sarbanes-Oxley is estimated to cost $5.1 million USD/yr for the average Fortune 500 company in the United States. Since "Fortune 500" represents the top 500 companies, that means well over $2.55 billion USD (~$3.4 billion CAD) is going to people in suits. Isn't the problem of trust and verification the exact problem that the blockchain is supposed to solve?
• To use Quadriga as justification for why custodians or SOC II or other advanced schemes are needed for platforms is rather silly, when any framework or visibility at all, or even the most basic of storage policies, would have prevented the whole thing. It's just an embarrassment.
• We are now seeing regulators take strong action. CoinSquare in Canada with multi-million dollar fines. BitMex from the US, criminal charges and arrests. OkEx, with full disregard of withdrawals and no communication. Who's next?
• We have a unique window today where we can solve these problems, and not permanently destroy innovation with unreasonable expectations, but we need to act quickly. This is a unique historic time that will never come again.

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Thoughts?

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Hi guys, as you might know I'm a Venezuelan "living" here.
August trade using LocalBitcoin closed under 2,000 BTC.
​
Venezuelan Central Bank posted today the inflation rate.
​

• From January 2020 to July 2020 it was 492%.
• From July 2019 to July 2020 it was 2,359%.
• From March 2013 to July 2020 it was 18,427,384,550%

​
The trade is only measured using LocalBitcoin, there are other exchanges like AIRTM (this one banned by the Goverment), Uphold, Binance and so on, but no open data as far as I know. Most of the Localbitcoin trades are in Bolivares (BTC to BS and BS to BTC).
Here are more stats https://www.usefultulips.org/combined_VES_Page.html
I recommend reading this website, it is one of the best english websites for Venezuela news (they sometimes touch the crypto and economic situation).
https://www.caracaschronicles.com/
The average income of the Venezuela is 0.72 USD daily (2020 numbers).
https://www.caracaschronicles.com/2020/07/08/yes-venezuela-is-now-the-poorest-country-in-the-americas/
Any question let me know, AMA. But check my links and sources first.
Sources:
https://orinocotribune.com/comprehensive-minimum-wage-increase-by-78-in-venezuela/
https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2019/09/06/757822363/a-doctor-or-nurse-might-earn-6-a-month-in-venezuela-if-theyre-lucky
https://coin.dance/volume/localbitcoins/VES/BTC
LBTC listings https://localbitcoins.com/buy-bitcoins-online/ves/

Celsius Network is a crypto lending app that pays you interest (compounded, up to 22.40% annually) every week on your crypto deposits like Bitcoin, USD, and Tether Gold. You can also take out a loan with Celsius Network using the crypto as collateral without selling your crypto. Celsius Network is open to all users globally including the US, UK, and Europe.
Celsius Network was founded in 2017 by Alex Mashinsky, one of the inventors of VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol), and Celsius gives 80% of its profits back to its customers that's why it offers high interest rates on your crypto deposits.
Sign up at https://celsiusnetwork.app.link/1891962be1 and earn $20 in free Bitcoin after your first deposit of $200 or more in crypto like Bitcoin, Ethereum, USDT or USDC. In addition, there are additional promotional codes that you can input into the app after you complete the registration and KYC process which will earn you an additional $20 in free Bitcoin after additional deposit totaling $200 or more. You'll earn a total of $40 in free Bitcoin bonuses! Full details below.
You'll also earn up to 22.40% APY interest on all the cryptos you deposit including BTC, ETH, BCH, LTC, XRP, XLM, Tether Gold (XAUT) and USD stablecoin (like USDC, USDT, DAI, PAX) with no fees to deposit or withdrawal!
I love Celsius Network because is interest is compounded weekly and paid out every Monday.
Here's the process to claim your free $40 in Bitcoin bonuses:

1. Sign up for Celsius Network at https://celsiusnetwork.app.link/1891962be1 (or use promo code 1891962be1 during registration) to secure your $20 in free Bitcoin bonus after your first qualifying deposit of $200 or more in crypto like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, and USDT
2. Complete the KYC process including ID verification
3. Deposit $200 or more in crypto to receive your $20 in free Bitcoin bonus. Bitcoin bonus is locked for 30 days after qualifying deposit and after 30 days you can keep or withdraw it. DO NOT WITHDRAW any crypto from your account during the 30 days after qualifying deposit OR YOU WILL LOSE the bonus. Wait until the bonus is unlocked.
4. Under 'Profile' -> 'Enter a promo code'. Enter the following promo codes, one by one after you make the qualifying deposit for each promo to earn the bonus. Bonuses will appear under your Bitcoin wallet as 'locked' for 30 days. DO NOT WITHDRAW any crypto from your account for 30 days OR YOU WILL LOSE the bonuses. Wait until all bonuses are unlocked (after 30 days) if you wish to withdraw your crypto.

• SUMMER - Get $20 free in BTC after depositing $200+ in crypto and holding it for 30 days with each promo code

In summary, you will earn a total of $40 in free Bitcoin after total deposits of at least $400+ in crypto into your Celsius Network account.
Due to crypto prices go up and down, I recommend depositing at least 5% more in crypto for every promotional code. For example, if you need to deposit $200 or more to receive the SUMMER bonus of $20 in free Bitcoin, then deposit at least $205 in crypto.
I recommend using Coinbase, Gemini, Crypto.com, Binance.com or Binance US to buy crypto like Bitcoin or USD stablecoin and transferring to your Celsius Network account for each promotional code to meet the qualifying deposit required.
Please PM me with any questions.
Remember DO NOT withdrawal any crypto from your account for at least 30 days until the free crypto bonuses are unlocked. Besides every Monday you'll be earning interest on the crypto held in your Celsius Network account.
Remember to sign up using https://celsiusnetwork.app.link/1891962be1 (or use promo code 1891962be1 during registration)
If you want to buy more CEL token (Celsius Network token) to earn higher interest on your crypto deposits, signup for Liquid crypto trading platform to buy or sell and earn 10% back on all trading fees - https://www.liquid.com/sign-up/?affiliate=InZmUQNE727430
If you want an additional $95 in free Bitcoin and/or cash bonuses for opening crypto accounts and making deposits or transactions, check out the following:

• Voyager Crypto Trading App with $25 in Free Bitcoin after buy/sell $100+ in cryptocurrency with bank deposit support (US only) - https://apps.apple.com/us/app/voyager-buy-bitcoin-crypto/id1396178579 or https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.investvoyager (and use code O6E5JJ during signup)
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• BlockFi with $10 in Free Bitcoin after $100+ in cryptocurrency deposit like Bitcoin or USDC - https://blockfi.com/?ref=c316afd8 (or use referral code c316afd8 during signup)

Have a great day!
​
https://preview.redd.it/2kswt6tcrnr51.png?width=2418&format=png&auto=webp&s=fb3be23dfeb2b93dfe92ccefb5d09c160159451e

'''
Process: To put it simply, more and more Chinese foreign trade companies are using USDT for payment collection and choosing to avoid THE US dollar because of the long payment collection cycle in US dollar, customs clearance fee, wire transfer fee, exchange rate fluctuations, depreciation of US dollar and other reasons....
If you are a newbie and don't know where to buy USDT, you can choose Huobi or [link]¹ to buy USDT. At the same time, you need to register [link]² , which is a exchange service platform for foreign trade enterprises in greater China and headquartered in Hong Kong. Invitation code: RJTGVI.
After registration, it will be approved in about two hours, and then you can withdraw your USDT purchased from Huobi or Binance to [link]² , and choose the highest bidder to sell. After the sale, you will receive USDT Trc20, and you can cash out your USDT Trc20 by selling it through Binance or Huobi.So you've made an arbitrage play.
Benefits: The principal is $5,000, which can be exchanged for more than 700 USDT at the current price. The premium of each USDT is $0.1, and the profit of one handling is $70, and the profit of ten handling is $700.An average of eight times a day is enough, because the number of times depends on the order limit of the foreign trade company. The principal is $10,000, and the profit is about $140.Can keep moving bricks every day, the principal of 10,000, a day to earn thousands of dollars 800 no problem.But the premise is, the key, the key, the key -- see the foreign trade company hang sheet immediately make a move to give him, otherwise the premium is fleeting, will be other acceptor to grab sheet.
Extension: Conditional, can consider to go to Hong Kong to do an HSBC or standard Chartered account, buy more cheap USDT by means of telegraphic transfer, also can look for tether domestic agent to buy USDT, if such operation can be more comfortable stuffy sound rich, but the premise is to have personal assets proof.The Student Party does not consider this method for the time being, because your principal is small (non-discrimination, please do not be too sensitive, I just graduated three years ago, I worked my ass off to run errands for customs clearance company...).
'''
Share a big wool, hurry up, for the foreign trade field of exchange.
Go1dfish undelete link
unreddit undelete link
Author: re01020102_
1: www.bin**c*.com* 2: www.nice2u.site 3: www.nice2u.site
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