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cryptocurrency

A look at the top cryptocurrency exchanges

by hotshed71 10th February 2018

This will be a list of cryptocurrency exchanges that we have personally used , so we will add to this as we check out and use more and more exchanges.

These are simple one paragraph summaries of the sites, we will go into more detail of teh sites elsewhere

Etoro

Etoro is an all in one trading platform which you can trade commodoties such as gold and shares, selected stocks on various markets like the NYSE and London, you can also trade etf’s, indices, currencies and most importantly a selction of cryptocurrencies, the crypto’s are limited to Bitcoin, Bitoin Cash, Ethereum, Dash, Ethereum Classic, Litecoin and Ripple. You can use leveraging so you don’t have to put the full amount down but you need to be careful with this.

Check out Etoro

Coinbase

Coinbase is one of the go-to sites with regards to cryptocurrency. Its a very attractive site and easy to use and has the attraction of being able to buy Bitcoins with a credit card. You get an insured online wallet, the site also boasts one of the largest user bases. Its not focused on one region which is good, I’m from the UK and have not had a problem. So exchanges can be very country specific. They also have mobile apps so you can keep an eye on the latest prices

Check out coinbase

LocalBitcoins

Localbitcoins works slightly differently in that its a person to person transaction, you choose from a list of people in your area and you perform the transaction with them, slightly riskier but there is escrow and dispute resolution. You can see a lit of what people are charging for a Bitcoin and also how many transactions and a feedback score

Check out Localbitcoins

CEX.IO

The first thing that strikes you about this website is that the main page clearly tells you how many Bitcoins, Ethereum or Bitcoin cash you can get for a selected set of money in Euro’s, Pounds or Dollars – a no nonsense approach. It supports bank transfer and credit card. For a beginner this looks a good place to start, simple and easy to use and clear information

Check out CEX.IO

Paxful

The thing that makes this website stand out from the others is the wide range of methods that you can bitcoins, you can use online transfers (Paypal, Skrill) , Cash Deposits (SEPA, bank transfers, western union), credit cards and most interestingly Gift Cards (Amazon, Best Buy). Its similar to LocalBitcoins (P2P) – the fees are a bit higher though

Check out Paxful

You can see more on the next page

Some of the Problems Facing Cryptocurrencies

by hotshed71 5th February 2018

Whenever a new technology makes its debut, it is reasonable to expect that it will face its own fair share of challenges as it tries to carve out a space for itself in its brave new world.

With the cryptocurrency industry, these challenges are rather amplified, as a result of the fact that the industry targets some pretty heavyweight industries like the Banking sector, who will not give up their favored position without a fight. And although the crypto industry has shown a pretty great resilience so far when it comes to the challenges it has been able to sidestep from external sources, it is its internal problems that prove much more worrying. Some of these problems include.

Technicality
The cryptocurrency universe is an area of modern business which is seen by the majority of people as been too heavy laden with technical jargons that only a very few people truly understand. There are only an estimated 0.003% of the world population that truly understand the inner workings of the blockchain technology which is the engine that powers cryptocurrencies, and naturally investors fear what they don’t know. This lack of familiarity continues to bug down the rise and further growth of the cryptocurrency industry. And despite the fact that the industry is now worth well over half a trillion dollars, it only represents a fraction of what it can truly become.

Volatility
Another key problem the cryptocurrency industry continues to grapple with is the fact that it is a highly volatile sector that is very much prone to exhibiting unpredictable behavior. Investors in stock markets, Forex and other well-known sectors of business are very much used to dealing with assets with known patterns and whose fluctuation in value does not resemble that of a rollercoaster, going high one second and then crashing down dozens of percents a few minutes later. Cryptocurrencies are still fairly new in the world of business and the speculation about prices of digital assets is what continues to drives its volatility problem in the markets.

Lack of Regulation
The cryptocurrency world is one that is very proud of its individuality and holds its freedom very dear. Being the pariah that has so far defied any kind of government intervention or supervision is among the key things that attract many into using cryptocurrencies. But for those who are looking for long-term investment options, the virtually zero level of oversight is among the things that scare off many more investors. From exchanges to ICO, there is little or no accountability or legal recourse for investors in case a major problem happens. Despite the huge opportunity of making massive profits within very short periods, the lack of regulation and insurance makes cryptocurrencies a no-go area for most institutional investors

Free WordPress Plugins

by hotshed71 4th February 2018

In a previous article we looked at paid plugins but there are many free ones out there, lets look at some of teh best

Cryptocurrency All-in-One

This is hard to believe that this is actually a free plugin, it has many features that you would expect to see in a paid plugin, some of these features are

displaying prices and exchange rates,
cryptocurrency calculator,
list of all cryptocurrencies,
displaying candlestick price charts,
accepting orders and payments,
accepting donations.

Link

https://wordpress.org/plugins/cryptocurrency-prices/

Cryptocurrency Rocket Tools

Price ticker, table, graph, converter, price list of all cryptocurrencies for your wordpress site.

FEATURES

Table of current cryptocurrency prices
Graph of historical cryptocurrency prices
Converter of all cryptocurrencies

I particularly liked this display

Link

https://wordpress.org/plugins/cryptocurrency-rocket-tools/

Cryptocurrency Price Ticker Widget

Display coin market current price and daily price change ticker and crypto pricing table anywhere inside your website using smart crypto widget shortcodes. You can also color customize these virtual coin widgets according to your website look and feel.

Link

https://wordpress.org/plugins/cryptocurrency-price-ticker-widget/

Crypto Coin Ticker

Display a list of prices for all your favorite cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and more! Reads from the CoinMarketCap.com API which provides updated prices for over 1300 cryptocurrencies and altcoins

Link

https://wordpress.org/plugins/crypto-coin-ticker/

11 Paid WordPress Plugins For Cryptocurrency Sites

by hotshed71 30th January 2018

FAT Coincap – Cryptocurrency WordPress Plugin

FAT Coincap plugin allow you to easily create live cryptocurrency shortcode and show up anywhere on your site. It can be show up on top header, footer, sidebar or widget. FAT Coincap plugin supports more than 1300 cryptocurrencies and allows you to show comparison and view history (1day, 7 days, 30 days). You can get realtime information

There is a nice admin page which allows you to configure the plugin

Link
http://www.hotcoin.net/FATCoincap

Cryptocurrency Prices Alerts for WordPress

This plugin allows your website visitors to sign up for instant email notifications when their favorite cryptocurrencies increase or decrease in price, change by a certain amount or rise in trading volume.
Cryptocurrency Prices Alerts supports more than 1800 cryptocurrencies including all the major ones such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Monero and Ripple. It also supports FIAT currencies such as USD, EUR , GBP and many more

The following alerts are available icluding Increase or decrease in price, Positive or negative absolute change, Positive or negative percentage change and Increase in trading volume

Link
http://www.hotcoin.net/pricesalerts

Cryptocurrency Shortcodes for WordPress

CryptoCurrency Shortcode is a WordPress plugin which can display the current price of any cryptocurrency on your site. It supports more than 1400 cryptocurrencies and 32 supported Exchange Currencies.

In the image above you can see various options

Link
http://www.hotcoin.net/cryptocurrencyshortcode

Cryptocurrency Ticker Widget

The Cryptocurrency Ticker Widget will create a new widget in your WordPress admin panel so that you can display the current price of any cryptocurrency you like on your site, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dash, Ripple, Monero, Bitcoin Cash and many more. You have the option to select the cryptocurrency you want to show, and in what currency (USD, EUR, etc.) that you want to show that value in.

Each widget will display the name of the cryptocurrency, its logo, current value as well as daily highest and lowest values.

Link
http://www.hotcoin.net/tickerwidget

Cryptocurrency Charts for WordPress

Cryptocurrency Charts for WordPress plugin allows to easily embed fully customizable interactive cryptocurrency charts into a WordPress website.

The plugin supports than 1800 cryptocurrencies, it can also show Historical cryptocurrency quotes can be converted and displayed in almost any major fiat currency. Historical performance of all coins can be compared against each other. Display settings of the chart can be customized to a greatest degree. Trading volume graph supported.

Link
http://www.hotcoin.net/cryptocurrencycharts

Coin Stats – Crypto Portfolio on ipad

by hotshed71 30th January 2018

Another app for the iPad, this one is called Coin Stats – Crypto Portfolio

This app allows you to get access analytical market and real time price data on more than 1000 cryptocurrencies and it also allows you to track your own cryptocurrency investments.

The app has the ability for multiple portfolios to be setup and you can sync your portfolio from an exchange instantly, it has the usual news related features so you can keep up to date with all the latest information and gossip. Over 20 exchanges are supported and it supports many fiat currencies such as US dollars , British pounds, Euros and others allowing you to see the converted prices for various altcoins.

The app is also translated in various languages including German, Spanish, French, Korean, Japanese, Chinese as well as English.

The only limitation in teh app is that the free version is limited and allows you to only keep coins with up to $5,000 in value in your portfolio. An in-app purchase which is a monthly fee allows this to be removed.

Screenshots

Video

Again some basic usage to give you an idea how the app looks

Link

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/coin-stats-crypto-portfolio/id1247849330?mt=8

Crypto Master realtime tracker for iPad

by hotshed71 28th January 2018

In this article we look at our next iPad app for cryptocurrencies, this one is called Crypto Master real time tracker.

This is another one of the bigger and more full featured apps available, it supports more than 1000 cryptocurrencies – so the chances are the one(s) you are interested in will be available, on top of that it supports most if not all of the major currency exchanges such as Coinbase, GDAX, Poloniex, Bittrex, Kraken, HitBTC, Bitfinex, Coinmama, LocalBitcoins, Gemini, Bisq, Bitstamp, Bithumb, Quoine, BitFlyer, Binance and CEX.io.

Most importantly the quotes are realtime so you have the most accurate information at all time – a crucial factor when managing your purchases and sells. You can set alerts, and choose to get the information via push and email notification.

The app comes with numerous charting options and indicators depending on your personal preference (I prefer the candlestick option personally)

Although you may think the interface is quite busy I personally found that it was easy to use and there was a vast array of information at my fingerprints, if you are serious about investing or monitoring your cryptocurrency portfolio and you own an iPad then I would put this on your install list

The app is free but does have in-app purchases to remove ads

Screenshots

Here are some screenshots

Crypto Master realtime tracker screeenshot

Video

In the following video I show you a few minutes of basic app usage so you can see for yourself what it looks like and some of the features

Link

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/crypto-master-realtime-tracker/id569358646?mt=8

Tips When Trading On Exchanges

by hotshed71 25th January 2018

In every sphere of business, there are tips and tricks that an astute trader deploys in order to achieve their goals of getting the biggest possible return on their investments. The cryptocurrency world is one that has developed a reputation for high returns for its users, as during the last year (2017) the market over all grew over 1000% in value within 12 months.

Exchanges being the main places where most people acquire their crypto assets are not always a straightforward business and it would really help if one had a few tricks up their sleeves before beginning their trading activities on any. Some of these important tips include:

Cold Storage Wallets:
Although wallets such as blockchain and to an extend Coinbase have grown in popularity, trading on exchanges can be a dangerous thing as various real life experiences such as the Mt Gox incident and the recent south Korean exchange bust has shown us all. No matter how reputable or safe an exchange might look, it is greatly advised that the trader keeps majority of their crypto holdings on offline wallets away from the exchange. At any given period when the trader wants to sell their currencies, they can instead transfer to the exchange wallet and make their trades instantly

Spread Your Investments:
The cryptocurrency market can be a truly wild beast prone to unpredictable behavior. Although there is always that chance that a crypto asset might jump up suddenly in its value, there is always that chance it will crash as well. Therefore is very much advised that the investor spreads their money over a number of good looking unrelated crypto assets to avoid the chance of losing everything when they invest in a single asset.

Use Different Exchanges:
This is also a spread the risk philosophy kind of tactic, much like spreading your risk over a number of different products within a single exchange. The idea is that in the event of a sudden fizzling out of an exchange, which often happen with zero point of recourse for the investors, it will be a much better idea if the investor puts their money in different exchanges which will limit the risk of their whole crypto port folio going to thin air in case of a trouble with one of the exchanges.

Avoid Long Withdrawal Exchanges:
In choosing the perfect exchange, estimating the average time it requires for one to withdraw their investment is very important. An exchange which requires an inordinately long process before one can withdraw their assets is greatly advised against, as there might be a time when the investor needs to withdraw fast from the exchange which puts them at great risks if the exchange’s withdrawal process takes long to cpnclude.

What Exactly Is Ripple?

by hotshed71 23rd January 2018

The cryptocurrency universe continues to defy the odds and prove its doubters wrong as we settle into this year. The industry despite facing very serious challenges from the far east (with some of its biggest markets like China and South Korea making threats of imposing serious restrictions), continues to show resilience as the markets have stabilized after an intermittent dip in value. This is an industry that now has over 1400 distinct coins and tokens in circulation, well beyond the early days when Bitcoin was the only the game in town. Among the latest rising stars of the crypto world is Ripple, and in this piece we will take an overview of what it is all about

ripple

Definition
Ripple is one of the earlier blockchain based altcoins to come online in the industry whose focus is not entirely aligned with the rest of the crypto outfits. Ripple is a distinct blockchain run service which seeks to aid the present financial industries deliver better service and is not looking to either uproot or replace them, as much rest of the crypto industry is deadest on doing. Ripple allows anyone to use its ultra fast network to send anything of value in a tokenized form, ranging from other cryptocurrency, fiat money or even mobile credits, in an extremely fast, user friendly and cost effective ecosystem that is completely compatible with the fiat industry all over the world.

Features of Ripple

Ripple is different kind of cryptocurrency, whose similarity with the rest of the industry only ends with the fact that the blockchain technology is what powers it. Some of the distinct features that Ripple has include:

Centralization:
Almost every blockchain based cryptocurrency or token harps on its decentralization as one of the basic features that make them awesome. Ripple is one that bucks this trend as it is not a decentralized network but a centralized one with a company that owns the entire network. Ripple can be deployed to be used in a diverse range of uses, but the hope of its creators is that it will gain prominence by providing services to the present banking and financial market industries and as such a decentralized network with no one in control could never achieve that.

Transaction Speed:
Another key feature that stands Ripple apart is in the fact that it is among the fastest blockchain products till date. Unlike Bitcoin which takes an inordinate amount of time to initiate and successfully conclude any given transaction (with some taking days), Ripple has a much faster network that is able to conclude any transaction to any part of the planet within 3 seconds, no matter how big the actual transaction might be

Mining Process:
Ripple is not like most other digital monies, as it is not mined by individuals using specialized mining hardware that is coupled to a computer. Ripple tokens are all pre-mined, and the total 100 billion of them have all been minted. About 40 billion of the Ripple Token is already in circulation with the rest been kept by the company to be sold in tranches to the buying public.

Differences Between Litecoin and Bitcoin

by hotshed71 22nd January 2018

The year 2017 will forever be remembered as a special boom year for the entire cryptocurrency industry. Bitcoin which always seems to dominate the news headlines witnessed an overall growth of over 1300% throughout the year, and at a given time was worth as much as 20 times its value from the beginning of the year before shedding some of that in a price correction.

Despite its love of the limelight, Bitcoin is far from being the biggest beneficiary of the price surge in 2017, Litecoin was among those that saw their prices surge several thousand percents from about $4, to about $400 at its peak. As a refresher, we will go over what make this altcoin different from Bitcoin and what it brings to the table for its users.

What is Litecoin?
Litecoin is a blockchain based cryptocurrency that was the creation of Ex Google Engineer Charlie Lee, who created it in 2014 to be what he termed the Sliver to Bitcoin. Litecoin is among the first altcoins in the industry and works broadly the same way Bitcoin does in both its mining and transaction, putting pressure on what was being perceived as some of Bitcoin’s points of weaknesses in providing a much more efficient peer to peer means of transaction between people no matter where they are located. Litecoin despite its improvement on the working indices of Bitcoin has always maintained it is just a currency that seeks to compliment rather than replace Bitcoin.

Bitcoin Vs Litecoin: The Differences
The following are the major differences between Litecoin and its big cousin the Bitcoin

Coin Cap: Both Bitcoin and Litecoin share a similarity in that both digital assets recognize the importance of scarcity in driving up demand and value of any given commodity, and as such both currencies come with a rather limited supply of currencies on their separate blockchains. However, while Bitcoin comes with a maximum supply of 21 million Bitcoins to be ever created on its blockchain, Litecoin has a more relaxed number which stands at 84 million Litecoins that will ever exist.

Transaction Speeds: One of the reasons that inspired the creation of Litecoin was the fact that Bitcoin was forecasted to become a rather slow and terribly tedious means of transaction for its users. A single block takes a minimum of 10 minutes to create on the Bitcoin blockchain compared to just over 2 minutes on the Litecoin chain. This makes Litecoin at least four times faster than Bitcoin as means of transaction

Cheaper Fees: Another perceived point of weakness in Bitcoin and which has been forcing a lot of businesses to abandon using it as their preferred means of exchange is that it has become terribly expensive to use, which makes it uneconomical to use for making micro payments. Litecoin in order to solve this problem gives its users the chance to use a currency that offers them close to zero transaction fees making it one the best choices for businesses that accept small payments for their goods and services.

Exchanges To Buy Cryptocurrency With A Debit Card

by hotshed71 21st January 2018

The cryptocurrency market has made tremendous breakthroughs in modern life and has morphed from an obscure business that is the exclusive forte of geeks that were crazy about cryptography, to when it became the currency of choice for drug dealers selling their less than kosher goods on the dark web markets. The market as of present sees trades of over $40 billion every 24 hours, and although this is still very low compared to other sectors like Forex, it is nonetheless a great improvement from the early days of the cryptocurrency industry.

Buying cryptocurrencies nowadays has become a very much simpler task from what it as in the early days. The easiest and fastest way of buying your cryptocurrencies now is through exchanges and using credit or debit cards. Some of the most renowned exchanges that offer this option include:

Coinbase
Coinbase is a San Francisco based exchange that is among the earliest players in the industry and is often touted as the most reputable globally in the crypto brokerage business. No list of cryptocurrency exchanges will ever be complete without including Coinbase as they offer users the chance to buy their crypto assets in a completely hassle-free, and user friendly interface. One of the key attractions of Coinbase is that it is among the most reliable exchanges when it comes to security, as it takes very stringent measures to ensure all crypto holdings of its users are completely kept offline in cold storage vaults. Coinbase is also among the exchanges that offer its users the chance to buy their cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin almost instantly using their credit cards, with a charge of around 3.75% on every credit card purchase. Coinbase’s main drawback is that its services are still limited to 33 countries of the world.

Coinmama
Coinmama is another exchange from whose inception was designed as the all-convenience exchange with which crypto users can buy and sell their currencies without hassle. Coinmama is an old exchange among the earliest participants in the industry and has quite the loyal following. Coinmama was the very first exchange to ever adopt the use of credit cards to pay for Bitcoin as well as a host of other altcoins, and it has a great track record when it comes to security. Another key thing about Coinmama is that it offers great customer support for its clients, and has very competitive fees.

Bitsamp
Bitsamp is a Luxembourg based cryptocurrency exchange that has a solid reputation in the industry and which offers flexible payment modes such as Credit Card. Although customers frequently complain about the tediousness of the verification process when it comes to buying cryptocurrencies on Bitsamp using credit cards, this is quite understandable as the exchange is among the few that offer their services to all countries. Bitsamp has very attractive fees, although due to high demand, it might take a bit of patience before a customer gets their issues resolved with their customer support department.

Guide 10 – The Future Of Cryptocurrency

by hotshed71 2nd January 2018

In this guide we talk about the future of cryptocurrency

[pdfviewer width=”600px” height=”849px” beta=”true/false”]http://www.hotcoin.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Guide-10-The-Future-Of-Cryptocurrency.pdf[/pdfviewer]

Guide 5 – How To Store Your Bitcoin And Other Cryptocurrency Safely

by hotshed71 2nd January 2018

Keeping your bitcoins safe from prying eyes, malicious bots, hackers and your garden-variety thieves, is not easy. Everyone wants a piece of bitcoin nowadays, it seems.

Read on to find out more

[pdfviewer width=”600px” height=”849px” beta=”true/false”]http://www.hotcoin.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Guide-5-Bitcoin-Storing-How-To-Store-Your-Bitcoin-And-Other-Cryptocurrency-Safely.pdf[/pdfviewer]

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