Buckle in: Cryptocurrencies Could Take Ten Years to Prove Themselves
Amidst the popping of Cristal and the revving of Lambos, the “get-rich-quick” ethos of the early, heady days of the cryptocurrency revolution are well and truly behind us. Fortunately (or unfortunately), I was there in the thick of things, on the yachts, sipping MUMM (they ran out of Cristal), watching the newly minted crypto-rich rev their Lambos (there were Ferraris too), watching them talk of buying properties and living lives of carefree excess.
- 26/11/2018
- 5
Malaysia Considers Capital Controls & What It Could Mean for Cryptocurrency
On a particularly pleasant afternoon in Penang, I was about to pay for one of the Malaysian island’s most famous delicacies, char koay teow. The rice noodle-based dish is a rare treat, but on this unfortunate occasion, I had absent-mindedly left my wallet back at the hotel and with no physical currency to part with (I was not about to trade my mobile phone for some sustenance) had to take the walk of shame back to my hotel room, unsatisfied. Malaysia continues to remain a very strongly cash-based country.
- 21/11/2018
- 3
Is it Curtains for Cryptocurrency?
A friend of mine casually remarked the other day in the midst of the highly destructive Bitcoin Cash hash war — “but surely Bitcoin is now trading below the cost of mining? Isn’t there a minimum floor price?” Unfortunately, there is no floor when it comes to cryptocurrencies — the same way that there is no ceiling. To try to postulate what drives cryptocurrency prices one way or the other is akin to telling the future in tea leaves — whatever you’re looking for is there. The cost of mining Bitcoin differs from country to country and the figures that we do have for the cost of Bitcoin mining is an estimation at best.
- 20/11/2018
- 6
Countries Cracking Down on Video Games & What That Could Mean for Cryptocurrencies
The next time someone remarks casually that cryptocurrencies are not “real money” because nobody would use real money to buy digital goods, ask them if they’ve ever played the highly addictive mobile game Clash of Clans or any one of the other hugely popular mobile gaming titles available. In Clash of Clans, prices start as low as US$2.60 for 500 gemsbut can go much crazier from there. Yet not only are players happy to fork out real cash for virtual goods, at least in the case of Clash of Clans, they’re forking it out to the tune of a cool US$1.5 million a day, making the Helsinki-based company enormously rich. What are the developers going to spend all that real gold on anyway? A better ice house? Nowhere is the addictive nature of gaming more apparent than in China — the world’s largest biggest video game market. But just as the Chinese have been plonking down some hard-earned yuan for some virtual armor, the Chinese government has been coming down hard to limit what it has determined to be a highly malicious influence on Chinese society.
- 19/11/2018
- 5
IMF Chief Christine Lagarde Calls for Digital Currencies, But We Need to Go Further
As the minister in charge of France’s economic policy in 2008, Christine Lagarde is no stranger to financial crises. During the 2008 Financial Crises, she described her encounter with her then U.S. counterpart, Treasury Secretary Henry “Hank” Paulson when news of the likely insolvency of Lehman Brothers, one of the world’s largest investment banks at the time, as, “It’s like a tsunami was coming and we were discussing what bathing suit to wear.”
- 18/11/2018
- 4
- Science
- Technology
- Companies
- Environment
- Global Economy
- Finance
- Politics
- Society
BBN Times connects decision makers to you. Experts in their fields, worth listening to, are the ones who write our articles. We believe these are the real commentators of the future. We quickly and accurately deliver serious information around the world. BBN Times provides its readers human expertise to find trusted answers by providing a platform and a voice to anyone willing to know more about the latest trends. Stay tuned, the revolution has begun.