A Few Things About Bitcoin, Blockchain, and ICOs

(one)

Recently, many people were stunned by the rise in Bitcoin prices. The price of Bitcoin doubled in just a few days, from 8,000 yuan per unit to nearly 20,000 yuan per unit at its peak.

The typical representative form of blockchain is Bitcoin. Many people may still think of this thing as a specific currency. When many media reporters write about Bitcoin, they change the quantifier to "one Bitcoin". I am puzzled.

This is a very interesting thing, which mainly includes these keywords.

1. Decentralization means that it is autonomous. The so-called autonomy that we can see in daily life is relative autonomy, but blockchain technology or Bitcoin technology is truly autonomous. Any transaction you make will be recorded by the entire network node, which is a very powerful thing. It is equivalent to the fact that when we used Internet services in the past, we had to have a server as a transit station for transmitting information and storing interactive information. If there was a problem with the server, it would be inaccessible. However, the logical state of decentralization is that everyone's participation constitutes the entire server, everyone is a participant, all participants are recorded, and the rules are actually the same.

2. Irreversible. If it is reversible, it means that many things in the world can be changed, or the truth you see may not be the real truth. However, in the blockchain technology, any action cannot be reversed. That is, if you send a unit of Bitcoin from your Bitcoin wallet address to my wallet address, then this is irreversible. This action is recorded in the entire environment. Once recorded, it means that other people will also be recorded at the same time. This is the simplest logic. Therefore, it is almost impossible for anyone to reverse this fact.

3. World connected. Recently, the overall price of Bitcoin has risen, and there are many different opinions. In short, there are many kinds of opinions. One of them is that the fools in Japan and South Korea, especially Japan, have recognized its payment value, and it is an official behavior, which means that Japan has begun to recognize the value of Bitcoin as a certain monetary behavior. The reasoning is that because many foolish retail investors in Japan and South Korea have participated in the speculation, the price of Bitcoin has risen, and once Bitcoin is high, it will drive up the prices of other virtual currencies with relatively large trading volumes in the world. However, another logic is my personal understanding. This wave of overall Bitcoin price increases may be caused by a problem. Friends who have participated in the transaction of Bitcoin and other virtual currencies must know one thing, that is, the withdrawal of Bitcoin wallets on almost all first-class trading platforms in China has stopped. What does it mean? It means that if you buy 1 unit of Bitcoin with RMB on Yunbi.com, and then you want to transfer this Bitcoin to other platforms, especially foreign platforms, then tell you that this thing can no longer be done.

However, the problem arises, because Bitcoin can be converted into other currencies, and RMB can also be used to purchase other currencies, so one thing that can be done is that if you cannot withdraw Bitcoin, you can exchange it for Ethereum, ZCASH, etc. with RMB, and then transfer it to related trading platforms, and then use these wallets to exchange it for local legal currency, and directly launder the money.

Therefore, anything that is accomplished through administrative means is basically nonsense.

(two)

Regarding ICO, there are some standardized official explanations.

Here is an excerpt:

ICO is the abbreviation of Initial Coin Offering . As the name suggests, it is a way of raising funds with the initial digital cryptocurrency as a reward. ICO is adapted from the term Initial Public Offering in the securities industry. In essence, ICO is also a kind of "public offering", but the subject matter of the issuance has changed from securities to digital cryptocurrency.

Are the coins returned by ICO valuable?

Digital currency is a token built into the blockchain. Generally speaking, it is used as the circulation and commission settlement currency of the blockchain platform and is an indispensable part of the blockchain business ecosystem. At present, digital currency can be freely traded in more than 100 countries around the world (of course, in some magical countries, we haven't figured out what's going on yet, but many people are already playing, so we have to control the risks appropriately). In 2010, someone exchanged a $25 pizza coupon for 10,000 bitcoins, which was the first time that bitcoin established its fair value. At present, the market value of Bitcoin is about $40 billion (the stock market value of Baidu is about $65 billion, and the market value of JD.com is $57.2 billion. You can compare them, but this comparison is actually a very unscientific comparison method) . Similarly, Ethereum, which is famous for its blockchain smart contract platform, has a current exchange rate of about $220 for its token Ether (ETH) (the time of publication is June 2, 2017). The value of the token of a blockchain platform depends on the commercial potential of the project itself, the size of the developer community, the user activity and market recognition. Please choose a reliable project with caution.

What are some of the famous ICO projects in history?

The following are representative international ICO cases listed in chronological order:

- July 2013, Mastercoin (now renamed Omni): the earliest traceable ICO project, which expanded Bitcoin functionality through meta-protocol and raised 5,000 BTC.

- December 2013, NXT (Futurecoin): the first complete PoS blockchain, once mysterious developers, and a strong community that continues to grow. ICO myth: raised 21 BTC (yes, you read that right, 21 BTC, equivalent to about $6,000 at the time), and the peak market value reached $100 million.

- 2013-2014, Bitshares: one of the "three musketeers of digital asset tokens" (the other two are NXT and CounterParty), the source of gossip in the domestic digital currency community, with mixed reputations. Its community has cultivated a large number of early ICO and digital asset enthusiasts in China. Author: It is said that most of this group of people are currently active in Shanghai. In the early years, I also participated in the crazy BTS, and then fell like a dog. Fortunately, I didn't have money in the early years, so basically the loss was not a big loss.

- In July 2014, Ethereum raised over 30,000 bitcoins during its ICO, setting a record. It is a blockchain project that has pushed the concept of smart contracts to the extreme, and has made the world recognize the public blockchain again. It is the most successful ICO in the past two years, and is also the digital currency/blockchain project with the highest market value besides Bitcoin.

- March 2015, Factom: dual token design, the first commercialization of blockchain with proof of existence and the dual institutional setup of foundation and company derived from it.

- March 2016, Lisk: Ethereum challenger, Dapp solution using sidechains.

- In May 2016, TheDAO: a world record-breaking ICO crowdfunding worth $150 million, an atypical ICO (it itself is not a blockchain). It was hacked by hackers just one month after loudly announcing the arrival of the smart contract era to the world, leaving a deep double exclamation mark in history.

How to participate in ICO?

Coin crowdfunding supports two payment methods: RMB and Bitcoin, and the most recent comparison process is to use Ethereum for payment.

In fact, how do we understand this? We can still use some human words to explain it. How to say it? If you want to do something, and this thing is based on blockchain-related technology, the so-called basic content related to blockchain, please check some basic concepts of the article I wrote yesterday.

Then, if I want to do this, I need to invest, so I have to raise funds. So I have to issue a prospectus just like a company going public, telling you what I plan to do and who is on our team, and then you can come forward with confidence.

Then, as for me, it will take some time to develop this. The virtual currency you invested in me, I will first send it to you in the form of tokens. It is equivalent to saying that you now have the original stock certificates, and then on some platforms, you can directly trade with each other through these original certificates.

After a period of time, we have developed the things you invested in, and then we will directly inform all players that you can trade directly on many platforms. The original shareholders do not need to be prohibited from selling, and can cash out in minutes.

This is my general understanding . Of course, I am only half-baked, so what I say is only my understanding, and it is bound to be wrong.

Of course, many ICOs, due to various reasons, actually failed in crowdfunding. That’s because ordinary people are not stupid. Compared with the routines of those new third board companies selling original shares, ICO is still the conscience of the industry. At least, if you work hard to grab it, you still have a chance to grab it. Except, last night, I saw an idiot doing such an awesome thing in a place.

This crowdfunding blockchain is called BAT (the name is also chosen), and then many players know that they must participate in this matter, so everyone can start to discuss, what to do? Then an opinion leader jumped out and said, hey, this, everyone just needs to support it a little, don't care too much.

As a result, this idiot turned around and gathered his brothers and sisters, and instantly bought more than 90% of the entire BAT crowdfunding ICO. What a sinister idiot.

So, basically, it's useless now, there's no way to play it, you guys can play it on your own. It's really a waste of such a good name.

(three)

Today I spent some time researching an application platform abroad called imtoken. You can download it and try it. Of course, if you are an IOS user, the first thing you have to learn is to change your Apple account to an overseas one instead of a domestic one.

Because this application cannot be downloaded in the domestic application market.

The reason for studying this is that some of the new so-called ICO platforms and targets have mentioned this application many times. This application has created some new and interesting secret key mechanisms.

Moreover, this application can be directly connected to some domestic trading platforms, and transactions can be completed directly on this application in minutes. The data is almost the same as the platform itself at any time.

In addition, this function is quite similar, I am talking about the trading part. There is a magical company in China called SOSOBTC. This company seemed to have no voice in the venture capital circle before, but currently it should be regarded as the data provider of the largest virtual currency trading platform in China.

Moreover, you can also have the same function. Although you log in to a trading account on a certain currency network, you can directly complete the transaction in other applications, and the data is almost exactly the same.

What kind of logic is this?

That is, many current application entities, product entities, or platform entities want to do everything by themselves, and then develop an APP application by themselves, spending a lot of energy and cost, and then launching it online, and then they find it stupid to do operation and maintenance.

However, if you extract your core functions and make an open interface, especially if you can provide it to other platforms with higher user dependence and activity, then the other party will not have to download your APP in order to realize some of your functions.

Or, use it and leave. Hey, isn't this the logic of the mini program? It seems to be, but it also seems not to be.

The value of this logic for us to think about is that there are many things we can do, but there are actually very few things we can do well. Therefore, we should focus more on what we can do and do well, and then think of all methods, whether it is to exchange volume or to promote traffic. The ultimate goal is not to have everything, but to have used it before.

So what kind of opportunities might there be?

In fact, many people are already doing it.

For example, a few years ago, Dianping invested in Ele.me, and then Dianping also launched a food delivery channel. In fact, after entering through the banner on the Dianping homepage, the background data processing and order processing were all done by Ele.me.

For example, you now see that Alipay also has a food delivery business. After you click in, you will find that, in fact, the Alipay food delivery page and interaction seem to be the same as the native Ele.me application.

So, the logic is that if you focus on doing one thing or one scene interaction in depth and become invincible in a niche field, then others will naturally be willing to cooperate with you better and you can voluntarily agree on the share of the value brought by each other's traffic contribution.

This is a way of thinking. It is impossible for one person to accomplish big things, but you can just do one thing, and then everyone will be willing to share data with you, direct traffic to you, and promote conversions for you.