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Welcome to The New York Coin Center http://newyorkcoin.net/TheNewYorkCoinCenter/
18 businesses NOW ACCEPT NYC as payment! NYC Supporters - get a business near you to accept NYC. 100,000 NYC bounty for every legit business that accepts NYC as payment.
https://www.reddit.com/r/NewYorkCoin/comments/88obou/18_businesses_now_accept_nyc_as_payment_nyc/?ref=share&ref_source=link
THE NEW YORK COIN CENTER IS OPENING IN SOHO!! Free education / information about the benefits of cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum and NYC). Planning to have possession and exterior signage up NEXT WEEK! Did you miss bitcoin? **Don't miss NYC!** (newyorkcoin.net)
from NYCoin reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/NewYorkCoin/comments/830omw/the_new_york_coin_center_is_opening_in_soho_free/
Remember Crypto market never closes always open 24/7 even on weekends none of this premarket after market manipulation 9:30 to 4 bell stuff lol.
Wall Street Journal News- NewYorkCoin Gains Traction in Cryptocurrency Circles
Created in 2014 and named for our fair city, the altcoin is enjoying a surge of support among enthusiasts
NewYorkCoin Gains Traction in Cryptocurrency Circles
Photo: Rob Wilson
By Anne Kadet
Feb. 20, 2018 12:18 p.m. ET
In Manhattan, a cup of coffee will set you back about $2. Or .00098 Bitcoin. Or—here’s a new one—12,500 NewYorkCoins.
Never mind alternative currencies such as Tigercoin, Ethereum and BiblePay. There’s a cryptocurrency named for our fair city, and it’s gaining momentum.
Last week, I met two of the coin’s volunteer boosters at Gila’s Nosh on East 23rd Street, one of several local businesses accepting NewYorkCoin as payment.
James Burrell, a high-energy business lawyer, and Charles Fulnecky, a low-key developer, explained the currency’s features.
Transactions are confirmed in 30 seconds—20 times faster than Bitcoin, they said. And there’s no network fee on small transactions like buying groceries, making it ideal for daily use.
Of course, like most cryptocurrencies, NewYorkCoin runs on open-source code available to anyone online.
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Bitcoin Price Mania: An ATM Adventure
Bitcoin's price has risen more than 900% this year, but it's seen wild fluctuations ranging from 44% up or 25% down against the dollar. The WSJ’s Thomas Di Fonzo visits New York City's bitcoin ATMs to demonstrate just how volatile the virtual currency can be in just a day. Photo: Alexander Hotz / The Wall Street Journal
“Can’t I just take your code, launch my own currency and call it Anne Coin?” I asked.
“Of course,” said Mr. Burrell.
“Absolutely!” said Mr. Fulnecky. “But it’s not just the code. It’s the community that builds up the coin.”
NewYorkCoin, created in 2014 by an unknown developer, has enjoyed a surge of support in recent months. More businesses are accepting the currency and there’s a growing interest among cryptocurrency developers. There’s even a new Meetup group where enthusiasts who frequent online forums can gather in person to discuss their altcoin adventures.
Everyone jumping on the bandwagon has a different angle. Mr. Fulnecky says projects like building a mobile-wallet app for the coin are a fascinating challenge. “I’d rather be doing this than anything else I can think of, from a coding perspective,” he said.
For Alexander Nicholas, it’s a chance to get in early on a new trend. He’s accepting the currency at KEATS, his Manhattan bar, and at his EPIC Hybrid Training fitness studios. “That’s just my mind-set, being ahead,” he says.
He’s even hosting the community’s monthly Meetup in his bar, where he plans to install the world’s first NewYorkCoin ATM.
Then there’s the miners, people like Cameron Tareen who digitally mint NewYorkCoin on their home mining rigs.
Mr. Tareen started mining NewYorkCoin last month after researching currencies that could be profitably produced. His says his rig churns out about 50,000 NewYorkCoins a day—worth roughly $7.50. The electricity used to power his machine, meanwhile, costs about $2 a day. That’s a small gain, he accedes, but if the value of the currency hits $1, he’ll be a millionaire many times over.
Despite growing support, the coin’s future is far from certain. Its value peaked earlier this year at $0.001162. The total market cap of all NewYorkCoin in circulation is just $22 million, compared with Bitcoin’s $196 billion.
Then there’s the split between the community’s two factions: The group associated with Mr. Burrell, and a group led by “ Charlie K. ,” a Bronx native living in Colorado.
Charlie K. who, like many in the cryptocurrency community insists on anonymity, makes frequent trips to New York City to promote the coin, including a weekend walking the streets of Manhattan wearing a sandwich board. “It was a little goofy, but it got people’s attention,” he said.
He says he’s planning to open a storefront gallery in lower Manhattan next month, extolling the coin’s benefits and history.
Mr. Burrell’s crowd isn’t sure such promotional efforts are necessary or even desirable. The two factions have launched rival websites, designed competing logos, and sparred over development issues. But it’s a friendly dispute, both sides contend.
“I kind of look at him as the crazy uncle,” says Mr. Fulnecky of Charlie K. “We’re family.”
NewYorkCoin has a lot going for it, says Bitcoin and blockchain expert Nick Spanos, founder of the Bitcoin Center NYC.
“You can’t discount a coin that’s been alive for so long,” says Mr. Spanos, who has no investment in NewYorkCoin.
And the name doesn’t hurt, he adds: “It’s not, like, Oshkosh Coin, it’s New York City!”
So yes, I’m now the proud owner of 250,000 NewYorkCoins—worth about $40. I suggested to Mr. Burrell and Mr. Fulnecky that we meet again in a year or two, all driving our Lamborghinis.
“You mean our moon Lambos,” said the optimistic Mr. Fulnecky. “We’ll have Elon Musk shoot us up to the moon.”
https://www.wsj.com/articles/newyorkcoin-gains-traction-in-cryptocurrency-circles-1519147112
NYC New York coin officially listed on Crex24! EXHCANGE https://crex24.com/exchange/NYC-BTC.
https://crex24.com/ European exchange/
A big thank you to everyone who donated because you made this happen. On to the next one!
To donate towards our next exchange - RCNcHge4GNfiPzdmg5i653ubzSkQanNfCv
https://twitter.com/crex_24
https://twitter.com/nycoincommunity/status/965602789467590656
https://www.reddit.com/r/NewYorkCoin/comments/7yn6st/crex24_listing/
NYC is now traded on a few crytpo exchanges and more coming. stay tuned.
Coinomi adding NewYorkCoin (NYC) to #1 rated Bitcoin and altcoin mobile wallet
Coinomi, Fintech's finest security-first multi-asset wallet for Bitcoin and altcoins has announced they will be adding NewYorkCoin (NYC) to their robust mobile platform during their next update. Only 93 coins are currently available at Coinomi's website (https://www.coinomi.com) which will put NewYorkCoin in a very exclusive group of cryptocurrencies to watch this year. Coinomi is also getting ready to release their first mobile wallet for Apple's iPhone market, which will introduce a whole new crowd of digital currency enthusiasts to Coinomi and the growing list of coins they support.
Who is NewYorkCoin?
NYC is a fair launch cryptocurrency that's been around since March 6th, 2014. Still a relative unknown in the crypto-world, NewYorkCoin has a lot of very unique and attractive features. For starters, the NYC network is completely free to use. Meaning that sending and receiving NewYorkCoin anywhere in the world is absolutely free of charge. Free worldwide remittance! If that wasn't enough to get you excited, NYC also offers lightning-fast transaction confirmations. Bitcoin confirmations take at least 10 minutes each and the fees are approaching astronomical levels just to get a single Bitcoin confirmation in under an hour. Confirmations on the NYC network occur every 30-seconds, without fail. And no additional fees (actually no fees whatsoever) are required to complete your transaction in a timely manner. This feature allows NewYorkCoin to be used at the retail level for time-sensitive consumer transactions. Anywhere in the world.
Another very impressive feature of NYC is the low difficulty mining (specialized computer equipment used to verify network transactions). Easy mining is literally built into NYC code which uses a basic scrypt hashing algorithm (vs SHA-256 for Bitcoin which requires much more powerful computer equipment) and Kimoto Gravity Well (KGW). The mining difficulty on the NYC network is constantly adjusted based on current hashrate hitting the network to ensure difficulty stays low and the network remains free to use. Low difficulty mining means lower cost, less powerful equipment demanding much less energy is required to verify network transactions which keeps NYC miner's profitable from just block rewards without requiring any additional fees to complete their critical verifications.
Bitcoin, the original cryptocurrency and clear market leader, has been taking a bit of a beating recently mostly due to the Korean government announcing plans to introduce stricter regulations. With Bitcoin's market value almost cut in half from recent highs, Bitcoin currently possesses a $200 Billion USD market capitalization. NewYorkCoin is an undiscovered cryptocurrency that has recently been gaining a lot of attention but still has a tiny market cap of only $46 Million USD. With the very useful (and unique) features described above, NewYorkCoin appears to be ready to quickly move up the crypto ranks. Although NewYorkCoin has seen its price rise by over 10,000% in just the past 6 months, NewYorkCoin seems to just be getting started. Keep a close eye on this one. And don't blink.
Media Contact
Company Name: New York Coin
Contact Person: Eileen Schechter
Email: eileens@gmail.com
Phone: (212) 535-0538
Country: United States
Website: http://newyorkcoin.net
Information contained on this page is provided by an independent third-party content provider. Frankly and this Site make no warranties or representations in connection therewith. If you are affiliated with this page and would like it removed please contact pressreleases@franklyinc.com
http://www.kulr8.com/story/37321477/coinomi-adding-newyorkcoin-nyc-to-1-rated-bitcoin-and-altcoin-mobile-wallet#.Wnxsa1c_m8E.twitter
Check out this Meetup: NEW YORK COIN (NYC). 5X Faster Than Litecoin. NO NETWORK FEES. NYC NOW ACCEPTED! RSVP 2/21/18 2pm-3:30pm https://www.meetup.com/BTC-NYC/events/246094996/ … #Meetup #NewYork via @Meetup
Check out this Meetup: NEW YORK COIN (NYC). 5X Faster Than Litecoin. NO NETWORK FEES. NYC NOW ACCEPTED! RSVP 2/21/18 2pm-3:30pm https://t.co/KJLWVXvpud #Meetup #NewYork via @Meetup
— NewYorkCoin (NYC) - NO FEE LAYER 1 BLOCKCHAIN (@NewYorkCoinNYC) February 18, 2018
The New York Coin Center is reviewing a lease for a space in Soho bordering Chinatown/Nolita. Large exterior flag and floor to ceiling glass storefront. Soho location with great local and tourist pedestrian traffic. The NYC Center is hoping to sign a lease in next couple of weeks. (newyorkcoin.net)
The New York Coin Center is reviewing a lease for a space in Soho bordering Chinatown/Nolita. Large exterior flag and floor to ceiling glass storefront. Soho location with great local and tourist pedestrian traffic. The NYC Center is hoping to sign a lease in next couple of weeks pic.twitter.com/zLdAy9E8gO
— NewYorkCoin (NYC) - NO FEE LAYER 1 BLOCKCHAIN (@NewYorkCoinNYC) February 18, 2018
NYC New York coin article Feb 18,2018 NewYorkCoin (CURRENCY:NYC) traded down 3.4% against the US dollar during the 1 day period ending at 16:00 PM Eastern on February 11th. One NewYorkCoin coin can currently be purchased for about $0.0002 or 0.00000002 BTC on major cryptocurrency exchanges including Tradesatoshi, FreiExchange, Graviex and YoBit. NewYorkCoin has a total market capitalization of $21.37 million and $16,957.00 worth of NewYorkCoin was traded on exchanges in the last day. Over the last week, NewYorkCoin has traded 10.5% higher against the US dollar.
Here’s how related cryptocurrencies have performed over the last day:
Get NewYorkCoin alerts:
Litecoin (LTC) traded down 4.7% against the dollar and now trades at $218.32 or 0.02045260 BTC.
Verge (XVG) traded down 16.7% against the dollar and now trades at $0.0752 or 0.00000705 BTC.
Dogecoin (DOGE) traded down 5.3% against the dollar and now trades at $0.0066 or 0.00000062 BTC.
Bytom (BTM) traded down 4.2% against the dollar and now trades at $0.38 or 0.00003554 BTC.
Syscoin (SYS) traded 0.4% lower against the dollar and now trades at $0.70 or 0.00006596 BTC.
Polymath (POLY) traded 22.6% higher against the dollar and now trades at $1.42 or 0.00013309 BTC.
GameCredits (GAME) traded down 7.7% against the dollar and now trades at $2.68 or 0.00025193 BTC.
BridgeCoin (BCO) traded 7% higher against the dollar and now trades at $5.32 or 0.00050089 BTC.
Einsteinium (EMC2) traded down 5.7% against the dollar and now trades at $0.41 or 0.00003850 BTC.
CyberMiles (CMT) traded down 4.4% against the dollar and now trades at $0.19 or 0.00001815 BTC.
NewYorkCoin Coin Profile
NewYorkCoin (CURRENCY:NYC) is a proof-of-work (PoW) coin that uses the Scrypt hashing algorithm. It launched on March 4th, 2014. NewYorkCoin’s total supply is 132,185,463,284 coins. NewYorkCoin’s official website is nycoin.community. NewYorkCoin’s official Twitter account is @NYCCoin.
According to CryptoCompare, “NewYorkCoin is a PoW cryptocurrency based on the popular Scrypt algorithm. The NYC is themed after the North American city, New York.”
NewYorkCoin Coin Trading
NewYorkCoin can be bought or sold on the following cryptocurrency exchanges: Graviex, FreiExchange, YoBit and Tradesatoshi. It is not possible to purchase NewYorkCoin directly using U.S. dollars. Investors seeking to trade NewYorkCoin must first purchase Ethereum or Bitcoin using an exchange that deals in U.S. dollars such as GDAX, Coinbase or Changelly. Investors can then use their newly-acquired Ethereum or Bitcoin to purchase NewYorkCoin using one of the exchanges listed above.
https://www.dispatchtribunal.com/2018/02/18/newyorkcoin-nyc-24-hour-volume-hits-28201-00.html
New York Coin (NYC)
@NewYorkCoinNYC
Feb 4
@CoinomiWallet HAS NOW LISTED NEW YORK COIN @NewYorkCoinNYC on http://Coinomi.com . #1 Secure Alt-Coin Wallet Lists 102 Cryptocurrencies. NYC is honored to be part of the Coinomi mobile family.
@CoinomiWallet HAS NOW LISTED NEW YORK COIN @NewYorkCoinNYC on https://t.co/RSPUZB5tAg. #1 Secure Alt-Coin Wallet Lists 102 Cryptocurrencies. NYC is honored to be part of the Coinomi mobile family. pic.twitter.com/ciiOrsDeU6
— NewYorkCoin (NYC) - NO FEE LAYER 1 BLOCKCHAIN (@NewYorkCoinNYC) February 5, 2018
NYC New York Coin Craines NY business article.
Tales from the crypto: An insider guide to the digital-currency craze
Cryptocurrencies are driving a textbook investment bubble. A growing number of New Yorkers are OK with that, so long as they keep making money
Aaron Elstein By Aaron Elstein
FEB 5 2018
Inside a graffiti-strewn loft building on a quiet Bushwick street lies the hub of a worldwide mania. It’s the headquarters of ConsenSys, a three-year-old firm that’s the brains behind Ethereum. It’s the most popular cryptocurrency this side of Bitcoin, and last year its value soared by nearly 9,000%, from $8 a unit to $723. The world’s supply of Ether, the creators’ preferred term for the currency that everyone else calls Ethereum, recently was worth about $120 billion*—twice the market value of Bank of New York Mellon, founded by Alexander Hamilton in 1784.
The ConsenSys nerve center is a tech version of Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory, with computer programmers spread throughout four rooms on two floors cooking up new ways to promulgate Ethereum. The building is also residential, so a sign reminds the 100 staffers to keep the noise down and not disturb sleeping babies. With luck, the kids are deep sleepers because brigades of investors have been marching through the hallways at a steady clip, hoping to team up with the hippest company in finance as it adds staff, opens global offices and expands into consulting, asset management and venture capital.
“I’ve been here two months,” said Kara Miley, the firm’s 25-year-old co-head of public relations. “In ConsenSys years, that’s six months.”
Ethereum is essentially a private payment network, like PayPal, where parties agree to pay for things using the cryptocurrency. For example, a customer dining at a participating restaurant that can be debited for the meal over the platform. There’s no credit card involved, so the restaurant can dispense with cashiers—and bank processing fees. Multiply scenarios like that by millions and you can start to understand why some people think Ethereum could be the next big thing. Enthusiasm is so high, Miley asked that the company’s address be kept secret, for fear that people who have made big bets on its currency will decide to make pilgrimages. “There are a fair number of crazies out there,” she said.
With a frenzy not seen since the dot-com boom, New York is in the midst of an investment craze. It seems as if just about everyone knows someone with a tale from the crypto.
While the current run will likely end with a painful crash —last week the currencies fell — scores of young entrepreneurs are busy using the blockchain technology that powers Bitcoin, Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies to build new businesses. And they are starting to drag a somewhat wary financial establishment along with them.
ConsenSys
Photo: Buck Ennis
BANKING IN BUSHWICK: ConsenSys staffers conjure? up ways to make Ethereum? a global currency.
“Of course it’s a bubble,” Ethereum co-founder Joe Lubin declared in October, speaking about the skyrocketing value of the nearly 1,500 cryptocurrencies trading on various markets. “Hopefully it’s one in a series of increasingly larger bubbles.” His candid assessment did nothing to dampen enthusiasm: Ethereum’s market value has since quadrupled, even after it fell 30% from its $1,389 peak in the past month.
Morgan Hill, a hedge fund manager who specializes in cryptocurrencies, agrees there’s a bubble. Not that he’s complaining. His firm’s investment of a few thousand dollars in Ethereum and other crytpocurrencies early last year netted him $5 million. He sold the last of it last month, but Hill’s phone is constantly buzzing with calls from investors the world over looking to ride his crypto coattails by joining his fund, which he reckons will have about $15 million under management by the end of this month.
Morgan Hill
Photo: Buck Ennis
Hill is attracting international investors eager to ride his coattails.
“There’s a lot of irrational exuberance,” Hill said, borrowing the phrase former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan coined 22 years ago to describe investors’ dot-com mania. But Hill believes it’s all to the good. The bubble “is necessary to get everyone’s attention,” he said. “As people realize there is value here, that will hopefully help create a new global economic system.”
The new alchemists
CRYPTOSPEAK
BLOCKCHAIN The technology underpinning Bitcoin, Ethereum and other digital currencies is essentially a ledger system that records transactions electronically. These ledger entries are sorted into blocks that are chained together so that they can be tracked over time. The ledger is protected by cryptography, which makes it difficult (but not impossible) for outsiders to modify or hack it. The system is sufficiently robust that millions of users now trust blockchain to record financial transactions. That trust is the basis of Bitcoin’s value.
MINING The process of adding and validating new entries on the blockchain. It requires solving a complex math puzzle for which Bitcoin miners are paid 12.5 Bitcoins, or roughly $125,000, every time they succeed. The process is called mining because the coins were created at Bitcoin’s inception, when the total inventory was capped at 22 million. To date, 17 million Bitcoins have been “dug up.” Other cryptocurrencies have no limit on how many coins can circulate.
WALLET A digital account where users store digital currencies. Wallets are protected by a password or a string of characters, but if the holder forgets or loses it, access to the currency inside is lost, as if it were cash.
MARKETPLACES There are hundreds of cryptocurrency exchanges, with CoinBase and Bitstamp among the most popular. It’s also possible to make deals directly with other traders via platforms such as BitQuick and BitBargain. Any profits from cryptotrading must be reported to the IRS, which considers the coins property, and thus subject to capital gains taxes.
TRADING LINGO To “hodl” means to hold Bitcoin—the term’s origins trace back to a typo on a Bitcoin web forum. “Fiat,” typically used derisively by Bitcoin aficionados, describes any government-issued currency. “#BTFD” stands for “buy the f---ing dip,” and it is usually employed by hodlers desperate to find someone willing to use fiat to buy a coin as it is losing value. —A.E.
Ethereum’s story began in Jamaica. Lubin, a former midlevel Goldman Sachs executive who had built a business representing musicians, was on the island with a client when he read a white paper about how Ethereum would work. He got in touch with the paper’s author, Vitalik Buterin, now 24 years old, and in 2015 set up shop in Brooklyn.
Cryptocurrencies have been around since 2009, when the elusive figure known as Satoshi Nakamoto mined the first block of Bitcoin, then went public by linking to a British newspaper article forecasting a second U.K. bank bailout. The first Bitcoin bubble hit four years later, and a much bigger one blew up last year, driven at least in part by South Koreans’ worries that a nuclear bomb might obliterate the nation’s banks. Ethereum was the first digital currency firm to take hold in New York, where many business power brokers remain highly skeptical of the entire enterprise.
The most prominent critic is JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, who last year called Bitcoin a “fraud” and later said it has “no actual value.” One reason Dimon may feel that way is some investors are now using credit cards and even mortgaging their homes to buy Bitcoin. So if the currency plunges, there could be widespread defaults that sap the earnings of his bank and others.
One commonly shared view was articulated in December by Dutch bank ING Group. “One day, beyond the hype, Bitcoin will return to being the niche product that it was in its initial years,” the bank said in a client report, according to Business Insider. “Users will include tech nerds, people obsessed about their privacy, people afraid for (hyper)inflation in traditional currencies, and people wanting to circumvent central banks for ideological or criminal reasons.”
Still, the city’s financial establishment is grudgingly adapting. A Bitcoin futures market is now open, and the New York Stock Exchange’s owner recently said it is preparing to share Bitcoin trading prices with institutional investors. “My job is to get that shiny new toy—Bitcoin—on our network,” one trading executive said.
Digital currencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum all rely on blockchain technology, a cryptography-?protected electronic ledger of continuously maintained and verified transactions shared by users on computer servers. Blockchain does have potentially useful applications for big databases, which explains why JPMorgan, despite Dimon’s dismissals of Bitcoin, is using the technology to help process certain global payments. Microsoft uses the Ethereum platform to help track supply chains.
As a business proposition, blockchain is still in its infancy and enduring plenty of growing pains. Late last year, traffic on Ethereum slowed considerably after an app called CryptoKitties debuted and gained a huge following among Asian teenagers. They were taken with the cartoon cats, whose unique “cattributes” were useful for verifying Ethereum transactions. Though it disrupted trading, Miley said the craze helped introduce scores of new users to Ethereum.
Only six cryptocurrency companies are licensed to do business in New York, and consulting firm Blockchain Driven estimated in December that just 932 people in the city work for blockchain-related businesses. But Blockchain Driven also said “it is fair to assume” that number will rise to 10,000 by 2027.
That might sound like more irrational exuberance, but money is pouring in. Venture capitalists invested a record $1 billion in crypto startups last year, according to Pitchbook. Flatiron District–based Chainalysis, which specializes in tracking Bitcoin transactions for financial institutions and law enforcement, has 60 employees and is looking to hire 40 more in the coming months, a spokeswoman said. Chronicled launched in 2014 as a blockchain company verifying the authenticity of sneakers and handbags, and uses the technology to track pharmaceuticals. The firm now wants to expand into food and use blockchain to track items such as lobsters from fishing boats to restaurants.
“We have 30 employees,” said co-founder Samantha Radocchia, “and 25 job openings.”
Of course, cryptomania has little to do with improving the financial world’s plumbing. Instead, it’s largely seen as the magic formula that allows anyone with enough computing power to become a modern-day alchemist turning code into currency beyond any government’s control.
Bitcoin and its brethren present a mass Rorschach test. The community of believers is still pretty small—22 million people hold some amount of Bitcoin, according to blockchain.info—but it is growing fast, with the number of accounts doubling in the past year. Most are small investors passionate in their certainty that Bitcoin or something like it represents the future of finance. That group includes Sergeline Bernardeau, a songwriter and real estate broker in TriBeCa who in 2016 started learning about Bitcoin, or, as she put it, “going down the rabbit hole.”
“Some say it’s a bubble,” Bernardeau said, “and some say it’s the biggest transfer of wealth in history.”
Converting the masses
MARKET GAINS
26
NUMBER of active cryptocurrencies valued at more than $1 billion
11,954
NUMBER of “nodes,” aka computer networks, working on Bitcoin worldwide
108%
GROWTH in the number of nodes over the past year
$150B
BITCOIN'S MARKET VALUE Feb. 2, $50 billion more than Goldman Sachs’
Michael Leung certainly admires blockchain technology. But he’s really most interested in how rich it might make him after investing 10% of his net worth in Bitcoin during the summer.
“Bitcoin is all anyone can talk about at work,” said the 29-year-old accountant from Bay Ridge.
For now Leung is happy because he got in when a single Bitcoin was worth $3,000, roughly a third of its current value. Of course, he was a lot happier early last month, when it was trading around $20,000.
After a recent four-week plunge dropped Bitcoin to under $9,000, Leung was looking for a little boost, so he joined a blockchain meet-up at eBay’s office in Chelsea. Leung brought along his sister Megan, 26, who works in social-media marketing and has also caught the Bitcoin bug. “It’s like an addiction,” she said.
The meet-up’s emcee, Blockchain Driven senior adviser Art Malkov, opened by touting the potential of blockchain and asked how many in the audience of 200 were involved in Bitcoin a year ago. Ten hands went up. When ConsenSys employee Jack Spallone inquired, “How many of you would be particularly interested in this topic if there was no financial incentive?” hardly anyone stirred.
Wall Street trader Peter Borovykh later forecast that OPEC would one day demand oil be paid for in Bitcoin instead of dollars so it could “kill” the U.S. shale and gas industry. It’s a weighty expectation, considering that all the cryptocurrencies combined are worth $425 billion, about $400 billion less than Apple.
“The future is humongous,” Borovykh said. “Amazing.”
Leung liked what he heard, although he said he had hoped for more insight into what might happen to the price of Bitcoin. His mother, who came along to learn more about what her children are up to, wasn’t sure what to make of it. “You can never know enough about this,” she said. “It’s very challenging.”
Spending trouble
One of the biggest obstacles facing cryptocurencies is the difficulty of spending them, in large part because their underlying values are so volatile. But another is a product of the craze itself: So much traffic is clogging Bitcoin’s network that its transaction fees have hit $10 or more, and trades take an average of 25 hours to confirm, according to blockchain.info.
Alex Nicholas and James Burrell
Photo: Buck Ennis
LOCAL PROPHETS: Nicholas and Burrell preach the upside of New York Coin.
A solution, at least to the latter problem, just may have been found by pub owner Alex Nicholas and attorney James Burrell. The two are promoting New York Coin, a cryptocurrency that has been mostly dormant since it was created in 2014. On the third Wednesday of every month, they hold court at Keats, a Midtown bar Nicholas owns, to preach the benefits of the coin, which they say is faster and less expensive to use than Bitcoin. To prove their point, Burrell used New York Coin to buy a Bud Light, and the transaction was confirmed in about 30 seconds, much to the delight of the crowd of 20 who came to the meet-up. In the coming weeks, the coin’s advocates plan to rent a storefront, preferably in SoHo, so passers-by can learn more about its benefits. Heading into last week, only Nicholas’ bar and a gym he owns accepted New York Coin, but its backers announced on Twitter that a Manhattan restaurant and a Brooklyn recording studio would soon take it. The tweet was hashtagged #real.
Burrell said he would be thrilled if New York Coin traded for $1 each. The odds are poor, considering 132 billion are in circulation and fetch about $0.0001 apiece. But it isn’t totally out of the question. Many of the nearly 30 cryptocurrencies currently worth more than $1 billion were dead in the water until last year. “I feel like I found a ’63 Mustang in a barn,” Burrell said. “It works. It just needs a paint job.”
*All valuations of Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies are as of press time.
Correction: Chronicled launched as a blockchain company in 2014. This fact was misstated in an earlier version of this article, originally published online Feb. 5, 2018.
A version of this article appears in the February 5, 2018, print issue of Crain's New York Business. http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20180205/FEATURES/180209967/the-cryptocurrency-craze-is-a-textbook-investment-bubble
This is my 50th coin Im into. GO NYC!
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