Simon Dixon, CEO BnkToTheFuture, returns to the 1 Bitcoin show to talk about all things Bitcoin and cryptocurrency related. He brings a unique global perspective to the show. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the knowledge!
On August 1st, 2017 there is a proposal to make changes to the bitcoin software. This proposal, known as Bitcoin Cash, is likely to create a fork in the Bitcoin network. This means that after August 1st, 2017 there are likely to be two versions of the Bitcoin blockchain and two separate digital currencies.
In the event of two separate blockchains after August 1, 2017 we will only support one version. We have no plans to support the Bitcoin Cash fork. We have made this decision because it is hard to predict how long the alternative version of bitcoin will survive and if Bitcoin Cash will have future market value.
This means if there are two separate digital currencies — bitcoin (BTC) and bitcoin cash (BCC) — investors with Bitcoin on BnkToTheFuture will only have access to the current version of bitcoin we support (BTC). Investors will not have access to, or be able to withdraw, bitcoin cash (BCC).
Investors who wish to access both bitcoin (BTC) and bitcoin cash (BCC) need to withdraw bitcoin before 11.59 pm PT July 31, 2017. If you do not wish to access bitcoin cash (BCC) then no action is required.
We plan to temporarily suspend bitcoin investments and withdrawals on August 1, 2017 as the fork is likely to cause disruption to the bitcoin network.
This means your funds will be safe but you will be unable to access or invest with bitcoin (BTC) for a short period of time. If the Bitcoin investment option is available on the platform, that means we have enabled it again. If it does not show, then you can wait till it is enabled again.
When Bitcoin was born in 2008 it inherited the label cryptocurrency. Even though it is a not just a currency but also a commodity, store of value and protocol technology, people associate it most with disruption in the currency markets.
In its early years it was very speculative and unclear what impact, if at all, it would have in the world. Today this is still unclear to many, but I rarely meet people who have not heard of Bitcoin and a percentage of them want to buy it, invest in it or use it when they understand it more. If you have an hour to spare this video interview I gave recently gives you the 100 foot overview of where I think the cryptocurrency market is going next.
But what about Initial Coin Offerings (ICO’s)?
Initial Coin Offerings (ICO) more accurately known as token sales, seek to disrupt equity by allowing for the creation of tokens for blockchain based companies or projects. At the moment they are mostly all built using Ethereum and some early adopters of the cryptocurrency market are slowly assuming the following belief and conclusion:
“Where Bitcoin is disrupting currency, Ethereum is disrupting equity.”
Whether this is true or not is still very unclear, but several things have changed over the last year that investors need to be aware of.
What is a protocol and who gets rich from them?
When computers communicate with each other, there needs to be a common set of rules and instructions that each computer follows. A specific set of communication rules is called a protocol. The internet, Bitcoin and your email all use, or are protocol technologies. When Tim Berners-Lee invented the internet, he created the highest value protocol the world has ever seen which impacted billions of people all around the world.
You would have thought that he would be one of the wealthiest men in the world, yet companies like Google, Amazon and Facebook all created more wealth in their companies than the inventor of the world wide web itself. They created wealth because these companies captured the data derived from the protocol itself such as search result, social interactions and purchasing behaviours.
If similar events take place today there is a possibility that the creators of these network protocols could end up receiving much of the value as the protocol grows through a mechanism called a token, launched through an Initial Coin Offering (ICO).
This process involves issuing a token that is sold to believers in exchange for Bitcoin or Ether. This token is traded on a secondary market whose value is derived from the supply and demand of that token. If demand is high, the token price goes up, if low, the token price goes down.
Through this mechanism, if the protocol becomes successful, the developers, users and community involved in popularising it should in theory be the ones that gain the returns on profit through ownership of the token.
The evolution of the token
We started with Bitcoin. In my opinion Bitcoin is still the most important digital asset as explained in in my recent video interview. It is significant because it created what I believe to be a store of value that every connected internet user in the world can use and it created the reserve cryptocurrency of the world. It is my opinion that we will only have one main ring leader in the crypto space which is Bitcoin, because it performs a similar role to Gold and traditional currency such as US Dollars.
Next came alternatives to Bitcoin called Altcoins. Today there are hundreds of them, maybe even thousands by now, but it is my opinion that only one of them will be a store of value and that is – Bitcoin, and a handful of them may perform a niche function and serve a specific need. They are all traded into and out of the world reserve crypto currency – Bitcoin. Then came Ethereum, which today has become the early reserve protocol for those that want to create their own tokens. These tokens are built on Ethereum technology and trade on crypto currency exchanges driven by supply and demand. Today Ethereum is the clear winner in the token creation market, but it is not clear this will always be the case.
New technology will allow users to create such tokens on Bitcoin whilst others continue to compete for the top spot. Ethereum also has scaling issues and the technology is not tested to the point where we can be confident it will become as reliable as Bitcoin has become as a world reserve cryptocurrency. But that does not matter. Even if Ethereum implodes all these tokens can switch to the protocol that succeeds after a period of turbulence and disruption.
Like them or hate them, what has became very clear to me, particularly this year in 2017, tokens are here to stay and they will change certain markets forever, just like Bitcoin has and will continue to do.
The bubble
In previous videos of mine such as this one, you heard me talk about the ICO bubble that we are in. I believe that what we are experiencing today will play out very similarly to what happened in the internet dot com boom, bust and boom. During the internet boom, ideas alone were raising crazy amounts of finance, there were a lot of ideas that turned out to be useless, stupid and non-existent, but what was born towards the end of the bust cycle, were a few ideas that became some of the most valuable companies in the world that billions of people use every day.
So where are we now?
At the time of writing this, $1.3 billion has been invested in ICO’s super fast, growing at uncontrollable speed and the market is discovering what works, what doesn’t work and best practices.
Next comes regulations.
Some of the regulatory challenges associated with ICO’s have been articulated by Charles Hoskinson very well in this video.
UPDATE: This was written before the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) just made the following bulletin announcement.
What are we doing?
We share some of the same concerns many have been raising in regards to regulatory challenges and have been working on ways to address them in preparation for the regulatory implications that we believe is inevitable. As an equity business that has been investing in the Bitcoin and Blockchain sector from its humble beginning, we understand both the world of traditional securities and the disruptive world of Bitcoin and Blockchain. Our team members invested in the earliest companies in this sector as well as the first ever ICO through to today as one of the most active investors in the sector. Our goal is to create a framework that the sector can rely upon as and when the regulatory situation unfolds. For now we are working on a framework that may give investors and issuers some additional safety as regulators decide how to tackle this phenomenon.
How does this affect BnkToTheFuture?
We are excited and cautious at the same time. We are listening and adjusting to the market as it evolves and grows and analysing all feedback from our portfolio companies, new protocols and investors. We see this affecting us including our portfolio companies and our investors in three main ways:
Better deals for investors
We are speaking with our portfolio companies that are considering to fit into the new and alternative ICO model options. One model we are about to launch for our first pitch is the ‘bonus token model’ for equity investors. Equity investors have taken the most risk and have waited the longest for high risk, high returns should the company exit. But a new model is emerging where a small amount of equity is sold and as a reward for those investors that took the highest risk, they get free bonus tokens if an upcoming ICO launches.
More deals for investors
The size of the market has significantly increased, there are a lot more wealthy investors that believe in this sector and investors are willing to remain loyal and continue to invest in the sector that made them wealthy. There are also a lot more deals and innovation emerging everyday. We have the largest community of FinTech, Bitcoin and Blockchain investors investing online in the future of finance and they are actively looking for more deals to invest in.
Interesting purchasing deals from companies and protocols
Because significant wealth has been generated in the sector this has increased opportunity to larger number of qualifying investors to sign up and participate in the growth of this sector, qualifying investors can use our platform and take advantage of the new trending market that has become so popular very fast. The sector has become self-sustaining, self-funded and independent of investors that don’t understand the market. Having network token holders and motivated equity holders can help the business build a strong network effect.
This also comes with major risks outlined in the videos above which explains as a market we need to address any issues that may rise as the innovation, lessons and regulations unfold.
How can you get involved?
At the moment we are actively investing in the sector while we build our legal, compliance and technical framework to allow investors to co-invest with us. ICO’s often come to use first and offer us the best terms as we are a strategic investor. We have launched our ICO page for those that want to learn more and see if they qualify to launch a token, have us invest in that token, or co-invest with us in these tokens that can be found here.
5 of our most recent token purchases
Civic provide on-demand, secure and low-cost access to identity verification via the blockchain. As a strategic partner and holder of the CVC token we integrated Civic into our platform and now investor members and new users can sign up and see if they qualify to invest, purchase tokens with us or apply for finance with no username or password upon login.
Tierion is using the blockchain to change how the world secures and shares data. They allow you to have an immutable record of the existence of information. As a strategic buyer in their token we are interested in exploring how our members investments and equity might be stored as an immutable record on the Bitcoin Blockchain using Tierion.
Agrello is aiming to let users create and manage smart-contract based legal agreements with no coding or legal skills required. We are not sure how smart contracts will impact our market at this point, but as a strategic buyer we get a front row seat to explore how we can enforce investor rights and term sheets using smart contract as this technology evolves.
InvestFeed is a social trading platform that is shifting from traditional stocks to digital assets,. As a strategic buyer we are able to support our investors in exploring new ways to build their portfolios in digital assets as the market evolves.
Everex is building Blockchain-Powered Microfinance and Remittance Services with fiat pegged digital tokens for stability.
How can you get involved?
At this point you may qualify to do two things.
1 – If you are launching a token sale or ICO and would like to apply to have BnkToTheFuture as a strategic buyer of your tokens then read more details here and make a quick application.
2 – If you are an investor that would like to explore co-purchasing tokens with us on the most favourable terms pre-ICO then we are actively working on both ‘equity bonus deals’ as well as ‘pre-sale token co-purchases’. You can see if you qualify to invest or buy tokens when you register for a private investor members account with us.
We look forward to navigating this changing environment with our qualifying investors and financial innovation entrepreneurs over the years ahead.
One thing that is certain for us, and has been since I wrote the book ‘Bank To The Future’ and we launched our online investment platform – BnkToTheFuture.com…
We still believe the future of finance looks very different from the past and each year our belief is reinforced as we live through the most exciting time in financial history.
Thanks to all who have been there from day one and welcome on board to those wha are starting their journey today, thank you.
I recently kicked off a 16 event tour of China with iconic investor Jim Rogers. Our message is simple and our team will post some footage from the events once the tour is over. Jim Rogers believes that we are in an economic environment that has no historical reference point, a big crash lays ahead and China will be the superpower of the 21st Century. Here is a quick video that summarises his thoughts:
My part of the talk focuses on why Bitcoin is a black swan invention that will never be repeated again and how that relates to all its children that have come from Bitcoin as a result – Altcoins, Blockchains, ICO’s etc.. We will save Jim Rogers new found enthusiasm for digital currencies for when we release the footage.
As there is so much new money jumping into this sector, BnkToTheFuture created a simple video on why Bitcoin matters for beginners that may be drowned in all the noise on alternatives to Bitcoin:
Then come the questions and answers part of the presentation.
Here are the 10 most common questions and 10 short and simple answers from me. These questions were the most common questions that came up after giving our presentations. Obviously these answers can be debated and expanded upon in great length, but I wanted to give 10 simple answers that may take you more time to unpackage, as each one of them is a talk on its own. But here are the short and simple answers for you:
1. People keep asking me what #Altcoin or #ICO to buy. It’s simple – #Bitcoin is the only store of value & gamble 10% of your $BTC on whatever you want if you’re willing to lose it.
2. People keep asking me which digital currency will win. It’s simple, today #Bitcoin is the closest digital currency that cannot be forced to change by a few people pursuing their own agenda – hence the scaling debate. Everything else can be forced to change right now.
3. People keep asking me if it’s too late to own #Bitcoin. It’s simple – it goes up long term as long as non-speculative demand is greater than supply. Right now demand keeps going up and supply keeps increasing at a slower rate.
4. People keep asking me how to get started responsibly. It’s simple – take 10% of your income that you are willing to risk and hold it in #Bitcoin, if you want take 10% of that $BTC and make more speculative investments in the sector.
5. People keep asking me if digital currency will take over fiat currency. It’s simple #Bitcoin is like a global savings account that allows you to send it to anybody, anywhere, but it’s a foreign currency for everybody and you will always make many of your local purchases in your local currency for as long as its stable. You don’t want Bitcoin to be stable as it would lose its investment appeal.
6. People keep asking me if #Ethereum is taking over. It’s simple $ETH needs $BTC as a store of value to survive. It does not have an essential #Blockchain building block – an anonymous founder that can’t be attacked and today its user cases are all speculative. Not sure if that will change.
7. People keep asking me how to analyse a good coin. It’s simple. Eventually utility value has to be larger than speculative value and non-speculative demand for the coin has to be greater than the supply over the long term. In the short term as long as speculative value is greater it can go up based on nothing and can fall even faster.
8. People keep asking me if everything needs a #Blockchain. It’s simple – if your sector suffers from censorship then you may need a Blockchain that has an anonymous founder, is public and has enough Hash power to be secure. Only one of those I know today #Bitcoin. Every other #Blockchain comes with unacceptable long term risks, but may have good short term features.
9. People keep asking me if central banks will use a #Blockchain. It’s simple – central banks don’t want to give up income from printing money and governments don’t want cash. I believe they will settle on a stable centralised digital fiat currency, NOT a Blockchain.
10. People keep asking me if #Bitcoin will scale to meet the huge demand. Good question – that underpins the future of the entire sector and whether #Blockchain works or not because no other #Blockchain has all the properties needed to qualify as a #Blockchain yet.
We have just reached consensus, but the journey to scale Bitcoin continues. It has some of the smartest people in the world behind it and We will continue investing in the sector until it becomes clear it cannot scale. I believe too many people need it to let that happen and too many people care.
BnkToTheFuture CEO Simon Dixon discusses the impact Bitcoin has on the remittance market in South East Asia and beyond with Bitspark CEO George Harrap – a BnkToTheFuture portfolio company.
They discuss Bitcoin scaling, Ethereum, fiat pegged crypto currencies, and how Bitcoin is being used in the remittance market.
Simon Dixon, CEO and co-founder of BnkToTheFuture.com interviews Daniel Vogel President and co-founder of Bitso on the growth of Bitcoin in Mexico, the role of Ethereum and the growth of Ether in Mexico, Bitcoin scaling, the effect of Donald Trump on the Mexican Peso and Bitcoin, Bitcoin regulations in Mexico and the chance of an Indian style war on cash as the Bitcoin market grows globally.
Here is the link to the last funding round Bitso performed on BnkToTheFuture last year.
Kim Dotcom unveiled the first sneak peek of MegaUpload 2 and Bitcache working together after his funding round on BnkToTheFuture. We look forward to seeing more of this product unfold. Here is the sneak peek for you:
These days it’s impossible for businesses and governments around the world to protect confidential files from hackers.
In 2014, hackers gained access to very private pictures of Hollywood actresses in the notorious Apple iCloud hack.
Heads of state and presidential candidates like Angela Merkel and Hillary Clinton have been spied on, their phones compromised, and emails leaked.
On top of this, Edward Snowden revealed how a large number of companies are forced by governments to hand over your files. They are given little choice.
As long as all these files keep being stored on servers belonging to big companies like Amazon, Google, Apple and Dropbox, hackers will keep hacking.
Unfortunately, because they have much of the world’s files, they are a constant target for hackers as well as government demands.
At BnkToTheFuture we believe that there must be a better way and when we found Storj, we began to realise that these problems may become history.
Storj developed files storage solutions to tackle these issues and chose to raise part of their funding on our Online Investment Platform – BnkToTheFuture.com
When the creator of Bitcoin invented the Blockchain it made it possible for you to own your own money and send it cheaper, faster and more securely than when using a bank.
Storj allows anybody to store their files encrypted across a Blockchain-based decentralised network of computers rather than trusting one company to keep them safe. This means that just like Bitcoin they can be stored cheaper, faster and more securely and there is no central point of failure. It also means that anybody can rent out their spare hard drive space and get paid for contributing to the network.
BnkToTheFuture.com is the largest Online Investment Platform with thousands of professional investors waiting to invest in Financial and Technological innovation.
Go to our homepage and you’ll see the total number of professional investors, how much they have invested, and the amount of dividends that they’ve received.
Storj was a perfect match for us. They had a top lineup of support from angel investors at Google Ventures, Qualcomm Ventures, Techstars and now BnkToTheFuture.
They wanted more funding from professional investors who believed in them and knew the value of their business.
And they wanted the investment to come through fast, in different currencies and with a streamlined compliance and documentation process.
We gave Storj access to a global community of thousands of qualifying investors ready to invest in Financial and Technological innovation.
We gave them a platform that complies with international financial regulations tailored for most major currencies and countries.
We structured the investment in a way that meant they only get one registered investor.
We cut out the painful admin, legal costs and problems raising further finance in the future, as compliance and documentation was completed by us in an optimised investment structure.
And all under a “no win, no fee” agreement with no up-front costs.
We provided all our investors with one investment agreement and a forum to communicate with the team quickly, efficiently and privately with additional investor protections. Investors can download all legal work, due diligence and certificates via our platform whenever they want.
We also invested in Storj through one of our Venture Capital funds, meaning, investors got to co-invest with us on the same terms and our interests are aligned.
If Storj floats on a stock market, is acquired in the future or pays investors dividends, investors get their returns minus our 5% fee.
We built our Online Investment Platform with one purpose in mind – to prepare for a radically different future in Financial and Technological Innovation…
Businesses just like Storj can raise finance in a safe, fast and effective way, while our investors get to allocate a portion of their wealth to an extremely disruptive and fast growing area that many are beginning to see could change the world of finance – FOREVER!
Just like Storj, you can get involved by making a quick online application for finance at BnkToTheFuture.com or register to see if you qualify to invest.
We believe that Thomas Hunt has done a great service to the Bitcoin Scaling debate that we wanted to post all his recent interviews in one playlist for our investors who want to take a deep dive into the scaling debate and the varying sides of the debate.
At BnkToTheFuture we fully support the notion that a hard fork must be prevented at all cost and we fully support the ideas that is discussed in the final interviews on this playlist for a Unified Bitcoin. If we don’t, the winner will only be BankCoin.
This is the message we will be sharing as we continue to meet the Bitcoin businesses community, miners, developers, users and investors on our global tours.
I don’t want #MaxwellCoin or #VerCoin I want #Bitcoin If we don’t #UnifyBitcoin again the winner will be #BankCoin https://t.co/8DHyHZmIDk pic.twitter.com/qDcxtRPJlR
— Simon Dixon (@SimonDixonTwitt) March 27, 2017
It’s very clear that most people who are invested in altcoins want Bitcoin to split & encourage divisive rhetoric & vitriol. #unifyBitcoin
— Vinny Lingham (@VinnyLingham) March 25, 2017
If the #Bitcoin ETF had gone through, the attack would have come from Hedge Funds. This attack feels bad, but we are stronger if we unite. pic.twitter.com/cnBorW447A
— Simon Dixon (@SimonDixonTwitt) March 27, 2017
At the time of this recording, Mexico to USA is the the largest single remittance corridor in the world, transacting $24 billion per year.
There are roughly 55 million unbanked Mexicans and almost 93 million who lack access to formal credit.
That’s only 45% of Mexicans that have bank accounts, and of those barely half have access to credit.
At BnkToTheFuture we were shocked to learn that even though the United States to Mexico is the largest remittance corridor in the world, US president Donald Trump is planning to build a wall not only to stop immigration, but to stop US dollars flowing out of the country.
We believe that Mexicans who live in the United States should be able to send their money anywhere in the world, anytime and without paying a high fee just to send it back home to their family and friends.
Well, you’ll be glad to know that these problems will soon become history.
Bitso developed products to tackle these issues and chose to raise part of their funding on our Online Investment Platform – BankToTheFuture.com
We both believed that the people of Mexico have many reasons to use Bitcoin. The costs are lower, it’s faster, and it serves the 45% who are unbanked.
But prior to Bitso, there was no simple solution to transact Bitcoin in Mexico in the comfort of one’s home and online.
Most of the transactions took place offline, which required physical meet-up points along with duffle bags of cash to exchange into Bitcoin.
BnkToTheFuture.com is the largest Online Investment Platform with thousands of professional investors waiting to invest in Financial and Technological innovation.
Go to our homepage and you’ll see the total number of professional investors, how much they have invested, and the amount of dividends that they’ve received.
Bitso was a perfect match for us. They had a top lineup of support from investors like Barry Silbert’s Digital Currency Group, Bitcoin Capital and now BnkToTheFuture.
They wanted more funding from professional investors who believed in them and knew the value of their business.
And they wanted the investment to come through fast, in different currencies and with a streamlined compliance and documentation process.
A solution was found, and Bitso decided to list on BnkToTheFuture.
We gave Bitso access to a global community of thousands of qualifying investors ready to invest in Financial and Technological innovation.
We gave them a platform that complies with international financial regulations tailored for most major currencies and countries.
We structured the investment in a way that meant they only get one registered investor.
We cut out the painful admin, legal costs and problems raising further finance in the future, as compliance and documentation was completed by us in an optimised investment structure.
And all under a “no win, no fee” agreement with no up-front costs.
We provided all our investors with one investment agreement and a forum to communicate with the team quickly, efficiently and privately with additional investor protections. Investors can download all legal work, due diligence and certificates via our platform whenever they want.
We also invested in Bitso through one of our Venture Capital funds, meaning, investors got to co-invest with us on the same terms and our interests are aligned.
If Bitso floats on a stock market, is acquired in the future or pays investors dividends, investors get their returns minus our 5% fee.
We built our Online Investment Platform with one purpose in mind – to prepare for a radically different future in Financial and Technological Innovation…
Businesses just like Bitso can raise finance in a safe, fast and effective way, while our investors get to allocate a portion of their wealth to an extremely disruptive and fast growing area that many are beginning to see could change the world of finance – FOREVER!
Just like Bitso, you can get involved by making a quick online application for finance at BankToTheFuture.com or register to see if you qualify to invest.