This Week in Crypto

Ripple continues to make waves after releasing a cross-border payment technology. XRapid supports efficient international money transfers — sometimes within minutes.

In more controversial news, Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin invested $1.6 million in competitor DrumG.

Meanwhile, Korea Investment Partners (KIP) has announced funding in blockchain startup Temco. Other South Korean executives are jumping on the bandwagon as well, with the chairman of the National Policy Committee calling for ICO legalisation.

All About Charting

Like taking a roadtrip on holiday, the cryptocurrency world can be hard to navigate without a GPS. Even seasoned traders would be lost without a roadmap of transactions, prices and other data.

Enter charting, also known as technical analysis; a way to see and catalogue market activity.

According to Alex Saunders of Nugget’s News, “[charting] captures all price movements. It’s a visual representation of all available information and human emotion.”

More than that, it is a reliable alternative to fundamental analysis.

“Traders argue that technical analysis is a better indicator than fundamental analysis of a coin because price doesn’t lie,” Mr. Saunders told Coincast TV.

Similar to how a GPS might not recognise a new suburb, critics of fundamental analysis argue that the crypto market is too new to accurately evaluate.

On the other hand, technical analysis can shed light on price predictions using something called candles.

“On a daily candle we’re looking at where the price opened and closed,” said the Nugget’s News host. “If it closes higher than when it opened, that candle is green.”

Otherwise, it is red.

Just like a real candle, these ones have wicks too. Upper and lower wicks represent outlying price trades that do not fall within the open and close space.

While these tools provide basic guidance to get from A to B, volatility trading helps you get there faster.

Mr Saunders is a fan. “Volatility trading can be beneficial to traders because we see big movements in price that we don’t see in traditional markets.”

If you play it smart, you can get years worth of gains in just hours or minutes.

Many observers believe that the bitcoin market has bottomed out. From here on out, it’s a slow climb upwards. So for new speculators entering the crypto highway, a word of warning: watch the speed limit and start slow!

London Calling

Graham Rowan is the chairman of London’s Elite Investor Club. Founded in 2012, the group now extends to Zurich, Mumbai and Singapore.

He is the latest in a growing list of investment leaders eager to help others explore the cryptocurrency markets.

“People have been around the block a few times, they know about traditional markets,” Mr. Rowan said. “Now they’re genuinely keen to learn about crypto and blockchain.”

Mr. Rowan describes himself as a renegade, and he isn’t afraid to challenge the status quo.

“As a human investor I cannot separate my emotions completely,” he told Coincast TV. “I think one of the biggest emotions around crypto is the fear of missing out.”

Looking to the future, the affluent investor believes a mix of traditional markets and blockchain will dominate.

He compares this phenomena to what is happening in the automotive industry today. Electric cars are rising in popularity but it’s their affordable hybrid cousins that are really stealing the spotlight.

This, Mr. Rowan believes, “will give investors the best of both worlds.”

Striking Gold

According to Jeremy Samuel of Metalicoin, “digital assets, particularly crypto currencies and asset-backed tokens, […] are going to transform the gold trading ecosystem.”

“[Digital assets] will allow a digital replication of physical assets.”

The market value of gold is estimated at more than $7 trillion. But unlike bitcoin, humans have been mining gold for more than a thousand years.

“Cryptocurrencies are so volatile,” Joshua Rotbart explained to Coincast TV. “Gold is not as volatile, it’s an asset with a long history… it’s very stable.”
The founder of J. Rotbart & Co. believes cryptocurrencies will make the process of settlement faster and cheaper.

This isn’t the first time an industry has looked to token sales as a way to boost profits. And as far as Mr. Rotbart is concerned, it’s a smooth ride ahead.

“There’s no reason crowd-funding an ICO couldn’t work for the mining and the gold industry. We’ve been helping our clients liquidate and move from precious metals to cryptocurrencies.”

So for gold miners, bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies could be the ultimate pickaxe.

Now Hiring: Blockchain Experts

Bez Tavassoli, a recruiter at Michael Page, is searching for skilled candidates in the blockchain and cryptocurrency industry.

“A simple job posting on a job board isn’t going to be enough,” the head hunter said.

So how do you find the perfect candidate?

“Jumping onto communities on websites, onto coin offerings and getting involved on social media platforms like Facebook and Reddit are popular.”

Many large companies are resorting to in-house teaching to bring employees up to speed on the world of blockchain. But when they do search for outside candidates, the results are interesting.

“A lot of the people with [blockchain] skills are self-taught and self-educated. Some were just teenagers in their bedrooms playing around on the computer.”

Industry authority Techcrunch.com says that demand for blockchain engineers has skyrocketed by 700% since January 2017.

So for every employed blockchain expert currently working, there are currently 14 unfilled positions available.

Looks like blockchain can pay!

Next Week

Tune in next week to hear about the latest in cryptocurrency news, blockchain updates and global fintech events at Coincast TV.
For a quick summary of the weekly updates, check out Bitcoin Australia to read our review of the next episode.