Crypto-currencies like Bitcoin and Ripple are caught in a “bubble regime”, oscillating between extreme peaks and troughs. A new peak is close….Pictet’s inhouse quantitative analysis can provide ways of spotting certain kinds of bubble and predicting when they will burst (see article ‘Forecasting Financial Extremes’).One aspect of this analysis is focused on investor herding behaviour, as measured by the combination of super-exponential cycles and ever faster oscillations around those cycles....
Read More »Bitcoin’s Settlement Problems
On the FT Alphaville blog, Izabella Kaminska reports about delays, fees, and doubts.
Read More »History of Gold – Interesting Facts and Changes Over 50 Years
History of Gold - How the gold industry has changed over 50 years Thomson Reuters GFMS have compiled an interesting high level history of the gold industry in the last fifty years. Topics covered and interesting historical facts to note include: - Gold market size- Gold mine production "peaked in 2015"- South African production collapse from 1,000 tonnes- South African gold was flown to London and Zurich and an airliner had its own designated...
Read More »Gold Bullion Coin Worth $4 Million, Stolen in Berlin Museum Heist
Gold Bullion Coin Worth $4 Million, Stolen in Berlin Museum Heist - Gold coin called ‘Million Dollar Gold Coin’ or ‘Big Maple Leaf’ stolen from Berlin museum early on Monday- World's purest gold coin and in the Guinness Book of Records for its purity of 99999 fine gold- Gold coin was legal tender, investment grade, bullion coin and only 5 other coins were minted- The other 'Million Dollar Gold Coin' is still available for sale by GoldCore safely stored in vaults in...
Read More »Digital Gold – For Now Caveat Emptor
Digital Gold On The Blockchain – For Now Caveat Emptor – Bitcoin surpasses gold price – a psychological and arbitrary headline – Royal Mint blockchain gold asks you to trust in the UK government – Royal Canadian Mint and GoldMoney blockchain product asks you to trust in government and the technology, servers, websites etc of the providers – Invest in a gold mine using cryptocurrency – but wait until 2022 for your gold...
Read More »Bitcoin Unlimited
On Bloomberg, Yuji Nakamura and Lulu Yilun Chen report about conflicting views in the Bitcoin community on how to address capacity limits in the blockchain. Bitcoin Unlimited is essentially a software upgrade to the blockchain. Years ago, bitcoin’s early developers imposed a cap on the amount of data it could process. While that slowed down the network, it was seen as a necessary safety measure against potential attackers who could overload the system. Now, Unlimited supporters say the...
Read More »Digital Gold – For Now Caveat Emptor
Digital Gold On The Blockchain - For Now Caveat Emptor - Bitcoin surpasses gold price - a psychological and arbitrary headline - Royal Mint blockchain gold asks you to trust in the UK government - Royal Canadian Mint and GoldMoney blockchain product asks you to trust in government and the technology, servers, websites etc of the providers - Invest in a gold mine using cryptocurrency - but wait until 2022 for your gold and trust the miners that it is there - Blockchain and gold will...
Read More »Money, Banking, and Dreams
In another excellent post on Moneyness, J P Koning likens the monetary system to the plot in the movie Inception, featuring a dream piled on a dream piled on a dream piled on a dream. Koning explains that [l]ike Inception, our monetary system is a layer upon a layer upon a layer. Anyone who withdraws cash at an ATM is ‘kicking’ back into the underlying central bank layer from the banking layer; depositing cash is like sedating oneself back into the overlying banking layer. Monetary...
Read More »Gold Investing 101 – Beware Unallocated Gold Accounts With Indebted Bullion Banks and Mints (Part II)
Gold Investing 101 - Beware Unallocated Gold Accounts With Indebted Bullion Banks and Mints (Part II) Investors looking to gold again but gold buyers need to exert caution Royal Mint - a royally expensive way to help the government Unallocated gold - unsecured creditor of a bank? If you cannot hold it, you do not own it Own gold bullion coins as insurance, to reduce counter party risk and to preserve wealth Conclusion - Reduce counter parties, Don’t over complicate Yesterday we...
Read More »Importance of Hiding Gold Creatively and Securely If Taking Delivery
Why gold retains value? Interesting unknown gold facts “Prepare your jaws for a sizeable drop!” History, finite, rare and peak gold “It is beautiful to look at…” ‘Heavy metal’ – Thud sound of a gold bar (kilo) ‘Going for gold’ – Olympic gold medals to Chelthenham ‘Gold Cup’ Peak gold … “Hard work to get gold out of the ground…” How much an Oscar is actually worth? Importance of hiding gold creatively and securely if...
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