Oliver Völkel Stefan Wieler Max Tertinegg Topics Market Overview Lightning Network Regulation Custody and Institutions Final thoughts The Bitcoin Standard (video) Mark Valek:  Welcome to our second advisory board meeting of the Crypto Research Report. Thank you so much for joining us again this quarter. Max Tertinegg co-founder & CEO of Coinfinity, Oliver Völkel, Partner…

The Government Monopoly on Money – For a Long Time Unquestioned “I do not think that it is an exaggeration to say that history is largely a history of inflation, and usually of inflations engineered by governments and for the gain of governments.” Friedrich August von Hayek It is a truism that monopolies are detrimental…

“The total market cap of cryptocurrencies was around USD 400bn, around a quarter of that of gold as store of wealth (gold bars, coins and physical gold ETFs all together amount to USD 1.5tn). And monthly trading volumes of the three largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization (Bitcoin, Ethereum and Ripple) have increased sharply in recent…

Since December, Bitcoin’s price dropped 69 % from a high of $19,224 to a low of $5,920 in early February.[1] The last time Bitcoin’s price plummeted this much was after the 2013 rally when it reached $1,000 per coin for the first time. During a 411-day correction, Bitcoin’s price dropped 87% from $1,163 on November 30,…

“… Bitcoin is an excellent idea. It fulfills the needs of the complex system, not because it is a cryptocurrency, but precisely because it has no owner, no authority that can decide on its fate. It is owned by the crowd, its users. And it has now a track record of several years, enough for…

“A ‘hard fork’ occurs when a new rule is introduced, one that is no longer compatible with old software. If you do not join the upgraded version of the blockchain, you do not get access to the new system’s user base and transactional traffic. Think PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4: In a hard fork, you…

After an epic rise from $162 up to $19,886 in just over two years, the price of Bitcoin fell by nearly 70 % between December 17, 2017 and February 6, 2018, to under $6,000. Alternative cryptocurrencies (altcoins) came under tremendous pressure too and some of them lost 80–90 % of their recently achieved all-time highs. Meanwhile,…

“Virtual currencies mark a paradigm shift in how we think about payments, traditional financial processes, and engaging in economic activity. Ignoring these developments will not make them go away, nor is it a responsible regulatory response. The evolution of these assets, their volatility, and the interest they attract from a rising global millennial population demand…

“The open-source nature of public blockchain protocols, combined with intrinsic mechanisms to break down monopoly effects, mean that the vast majority of this economic surplus will accrue to users. While tens or perhaps hundreds of billions of dollars of value will also likely accrue to the cryptoassets underlying these protocols and therefore to investors in…

“In 1924 John Maynard Keynes stated that an excellent economist has to possess a unique combination of gifts. He had to be a mathematician, historian, statesman and philosopher. In regard to Bitcoin, this list needs to also include several more traits. An excellent crypto-economist should also be a software, hardware and blockchain specialist on top of the…