Avesta Responds to Defamation at the Hands of Former Employee

It’s not uncommon for former employees to make attempts to discredit and defame the company they once worked for. Circulating false rumors and making baseless accusations are common tactics.

Recently, a rogue ex-employee of Avesta has been defaming the organization using patently false claims. We wanted to clear the air around this unsettling situation to reassure those interested in Avesta that there is nothing to worry about. These accusations have no basis in reality. The source they are coming from cannot be perceived as having a shred of credibility, and Avesta continues to move forward with its development as planned.

One of the unfounded allegations circulating around is that Avesta is a “scam” or that Avesta uses the hashing power of their miners to mine other altcoins for their own profit. The team strongly denies those false allegations. Rest assured, there is no evidence. In fact, all investigations into the matter have proven the accusations to be false.

In addition, the credibility of the ex-employee is something that has raised red flags. Several sources have noted that “he is unreliable and can’t be trusted”. No evidence relating to the false narrative promoted exists or ever existed.

The great thing about the blockchain is that it creates an immutable ledger of all transactions. The Avesta Blockchain is no exception. Therefore, by looking at the history recorded in the blockchain, we can know for certain whether or not someone is telling the truth. There is no room for ambiguity and no need for rhetoric. Objective inquiry is a simple matter.

The Avesta project has made great strides and continues to advance on all fronts. The Avesta wallet successfully integrated an invoicing feature this quarter and the launch of an exchange is being planned for Q4 2018. The blockchain powers on.

In conclusion, there’s no reason for Avesta users, partners, or investors to be concerned about this matter. Nothing has changed and none of these claims are true in whole or in part. The evidence has proven this. Regardless of this unfortunate incident, the Avesta timeline continues moving forward, with big plans coming down the pike for Q4 2018.

Mass Adoption of Cryptocurrency Continues to Gain Ground With These 3 Major Developments

Mass adoption of cryptocurrency has been making huge strides lately. While 2017 was the year for mass inflows of new capital into the crypto space, 2018 has been the year leading into mass adoption.

• Bakkt, the owner of the NYSE (New York Stock Exchange), is going to great lengths with megalithic monetary players to integrate crypto with mainstream finance.
• Yahoo Finance has introduced trading of Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Ethereum.
• Square, the payment processor with millions of retail partners that is trending towards $3B in annual revenues, has earned a patent for a new crypto payments network that will allow retailers everywhere to accept cryptocurrency
• Lastly, we believe that the current correction in crypto prices is an over-reaction to Goldman Sachs nixing plans for a crytpo trading desk.  They are instead focusing on crypto custody in the short-term, which will bring more funds into the sector than a trading desk.

Bakkt and Mass Adoption of Cryptocurrency

Fortune.com recently published an article about a new crypto company called Bakkt entitled “The NYSE’s Owner Wants to Bring Bitcoin to Your 401(k). Are Crypto Credit Cards Next?”

The title is a little misleading. Technically, it’s already possible to include Bitcoin in your retirement account, and crypto debit cards have existed for several years now.

But Bakkt represents a significant step forward in the process of mass adoption.

This morning Intercontinental Exchange—the trading colossus that owns the New York Stock Exchange and other global marketplaces—announced that it is forming a new company called Bakkt. The new venture, which is expected to launch in November, will offer a federally regulated market for Bitcoin. With the creation of Bakkt, ICE aims to transform Bitcoin into a trusted global currency with broad usage.

Microsoft, Boston Consulting Group, and Starbucks are all in on the deal.

Considering that Bitcoin has been mocked as being little more than a useless tulip bulb since at least 2013, words can’t quite express how huge this is.

For years, many people have said things like “you’ll never be able to buy a cup of coffee with bitcoin.” As if this is a legitimate criticism.

But now, even that kind of senseless rhetoric won’t hold up. Bitcoin users will, in fact, soon be able to buy a cup of coffee with Bitcoin (even though they already can if they use bitcoin-backed debit cards like those offered by SHIFT and BitPay).

While Bakkt is a huge development, it should be noted that some market observers have expressed more cynical sentiments on the matter.

“A regulated exchange with a custodian in the middle contradicts the basic idea of Bitcoin,” says Abhishek Punia, a crypto-currency analyst with venture capital firm Draper Associates. “Bitcoin was designed to be decentralized, without intermediaries taking fees. A regulated exchange may be popular for a short period of time, but it’s not the future. The future will be the original idea of a peer-to-peer network.”

Personally, I don’t think it’s an either/or equation. There has to be both, and the two aren’t mutually exclusive.

Coinbase Didn’t Ruin Crypto and Neither Will Bakkt

Institutional investors will be more willing to enter the crypto space if it has been wrapped up in nice packages they are already familiar with, such as ETFs and mutual funds. And more people will save Bitcoin for the long-term if it’s easier to do so with IRAs and 401(k)s.

The original system of a peer-to-peer payments network can still thrive in parallel to big exchanges like Bakkt.

Coinbase is a very large exchange that has centralized a portion of the market to an extent, but many people still use their own individual desktop, mobile, and hardware wallets, for example.

But during this first week of September, markets haven’t been focusing on developments like Bakkt. They’re more concerned with trivial news bites.

Crypto Market Tanks Thanks to Headlines From Banks

Right now, headlines are being dominated by the fact that Bitcoin has suffered another flash crash in the face of Goldman Sachs deciding not to open a crypto trading desk.

This is a joke – a massive overreaction to a piece of almost irrelevant news. In all likelihood, the opportunity has been seized upon by trading whales to cover their shorts and buy the dip.

Remember when Jamie Dimon called Bitcoin “a fraud?”

There was a massive correction followed by an epic buying frenzy. I’m not saying this time will be exactly the same. But it probably won’t be that different. History doesn’t always repeat itself, but it does often rhyme.

Reminder that NOTHING has affected #bitcoin today. We got to 20k without Goldman and don’t need them for the next ATH either.

If you believe the news, you should not be in the space in the first place, and anyway you were only here to make fiat. So get rekt and get out.

— Ş for Satoshi  (50K 2018!) (@TenaciousBTC) September 5, 2018

Now BTC has broken beneath 7,000 USD and stands at $6,412 at the time of writing, according to Coindesk’s BPI. This is being treated as some kind of epic collapse, even though BTC was trading near 6,000 USD just a few weeks ago.

Back in June, and then again in August, I speculated that this would be the equilibrium point for BTC for a while. That’s because during Fall 2017, the price spiked from $6,400 to $20,000 before correcting in 2018. So it’s no surprise that it has continued to fall back to where it was before the massive surge in Q4 2017.

This won’t last too much longer, however. The current dip represents a significant buying opportunity the likes of which may never be seen again after this year.

It’s worth noting that research firm Satis Group recently stated that their personal price prediction for BTC is $96,000 by 2023. They also stated that BCH would fall to $180 and XRP to $0.01.

$BTC (shorts) some shorts closed in #bitcoin drop but now loading continues, BB’s on the 4hr getting tighter again pic.twitter.com/zWlNNxWctZ

— Chonis Trading (@BigChonis) September 5, 2018

But none of this short-term movement really has an impact on the mass adoption of cryptocurrency, all things considered. What matters is that mass adoption keeps creeping in from all angles.

2018 has seen so much positive news even as the market cap of all cryptocurrencies has cratered on a year-to-date basis. However, it’s important to note that just a few years ago, the entire crypto market amounted to less than 12 billion USD.

Today, the market is measured in the hundreds of billions. Those who focus only on the short-term seem to forget this fact. At the time of writing, the crypto market holds more than $204 billion dollars of capital.

Just as the price of Bitcoin tends to go through periods of long lulls with little action punctuated by quick bursts of explosive movement, so too does the process of mass adoption of cryptocurrency.

Square Achieves Patent for Crypto Payment Network

Payments giant Square has scored a ground-breaking patent for a new payment network that will allow users to exchange value using cryptocurrency.

From Bitcoin Market Insider:

Square was lauded by Wall St analysts because of its invention, which joins its debit and cash cards into its Cash App. Quite besides hosting cryptocurrencies on the stage (because this year its clients can purchase BTC), Square has also been touted as a stage to bank the unbanked because of borderless payments. A analyst for Guggenheim, among the largest US riches and finance managers, said of the firm ”we believe Cash Program’s future earnings potential is underappreciated, we view it providing a important services function to the underbanked.”

One of the many criticisms of crypto is that it can’t serve those who aren’t already connected to the financial system, i.e., the unbanked. What good is a new financial system if it can’t be inclusive?

Square is disproving that theory already.

Crypto Available on Yahoo Finance

Over the last week, Yahoo Finance has added Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Ethereum to its trading platform. The option to trade crypto is currently only available in the USA. The company has not yet given a public statement relating to its new features.

This is reminiscent of other large financial platforms adding crypto, like the smart-phone stock trading app Robin Hood. As mass adoption of cryptocurrency grows, those who do not include options for crypto become irrelevant.

After witnessing the exponential growth in trading volumes present on exchanges like Poloniex and Coinbase (both of which experienced crashes and user downtimes due to insurmountable levels of activity) throughout 2017, more traditional exchanges want their share of the fees that come with that kind of activity.

For early adopters of crypto, it’s hard to believe how fast this change is occurring. I don’t think any of us expected to see BTC futures included in the financial market ticker on CNBC, for example, or for crypto trading options to be available on mainstream platforms like Yahoo Finance.

Mass Adoption of Cryptocurrency Marches On

In the end, nothing can stop the mass adoption of cryptocurrency.

Bakkt could potentially bring in tons of institutional investors. Square’s recent patent demonstrates the continued trend of crypto payment integration. And Yahoo Finance is just the latest example of a trading platform having to include crypto to stay relevant.

In the past, it has taken decades for new technological innovations to sprout the necessary infrastructure and related industries that allow for mass adoption. Email, for example, became a reality in the 1970s but took another thirty years to become widespread.

As time goes on, new technologies become integrated into the mainstream with greater ease and rapidity.

With crypto, the adoption timeframe could be shorter than anything we’ve seen before. The world is much different today, and advancements happen so rapidly that it has become difficult to keep up.

With personal computers and mobile devices now existing almost everywhere (even in many parts of the developing world), we’re already much closer to mass adoption than email was in the 1990s.

Several studies published this summer provide tangible evidence for the fact that mass adoption of cryptocurrency will become a reality within the next decade. At the current pace, it may happen even sooner.

”I don’t believe we shall ever have a good money again before we take the thing out of the hands of government. That is, we can’t take it violently out of the hands of government, all we can do is by some sly roundabout way introduce something that they can’t.” —Hayek 1984 #bitcoin

Get our cryptocurrency research and top picks by subscribing here.

[Originally Published on GoldStockBull.com on September 6th, 2018.]

Avesta Announces Revolutionary New Invoicing Feature of the Avesta Wallet

A much-anticipated feature of the Avesta wallet has recently been added. This new functionality has great potential and has achieved an unprecedented level of utility and convenience for blockchain technology.

The Avesta white paper states that

“Some of the major problems in cryptocurrencies are solved by Avesta. We have created a fast, secure, and easy-to-use cryptocurrency that is also untraceable.”

In addition to being a revolutionary solution for crypto in general, Avesta’s web-based wallet has promised to give businesses a new way to create, record, and pay their invoices. And that promise has been fulfilled.

Business Accounts and the Avesta Wallet

Business accounts using the Avesta wallet can now enjoy the seamless integration of Avesta’s multi-coin wallet and comprehensive invoicing feature. Tracking your financial transactions has never been easier. In addition, all invoices are recorded on the blockchain’s incorruptible and permanent ledger, giving you the ability to view everything in real-time.

All invoice data can be exported into a comma-separated values (CSV) file, Excel spreadsheet, or PDF document.

Simply select “create new invoice” under the “my businesses tab” and enter the required details.

Users can create and manage a large number of commercial accounts. Each account allows for several inputs and allows users to:

•       Create, modify, or delete contacts
•       Create and remove items
•       Create and cancel invoices
•       Create and remove administrators

A New Level of Utility Value

Never before has this kind of transaction technology been fused with a multi-coin wallet like the Avesta wallet. The implications are monumental.

Cryptocurrency payment intermediaries have now become obsolete. No longer will users have to create an invoice, send it to a client or customer, and await payment into their personal wallet. Likewise, businesses no longer have to wait for invoices or use crypto payment intermediaries.

Signing up for an Avesta wallet is easy and takes less than two minutes. All you need is your name and email address. After confirming your email address and setting up a two-factor authentication method (2FA), you’re good to go. You can begin mining, invoicing, or just using the multi-coin Avesta wallet as you would any other wallet.

In short, the Avesta wallet and its new invoicing feature are sure to aid in the widespread adoption of crypto as more than just a store of value. The wallet also makes it easier to obtain and use crypto, something that people in more and more countries desire to do in order to diversify into alternative currencies.

Avesta’s multi-coin wallet, with its new invoicing feature for Business accounts, is too useful for crypto-minded companies to ignore.

BIS and IMF Warn of Risk In Financial Markets That Surpasses That of 2008 Crisis

In his most recent book, The Road to Ruin: The Global Elites’ Secret Plan for the Next Financial Crisis, former CIA analyst Jim Rickards notes that some of the biggest financial bodies in the world have been warning of excessive risk in financial markets since 2014.

Through a series of published papers, press releases, and public statements, institutions like the IMF and BIS have been subtly telling the world that another crisis has long since been baked into the economic cake.

Risk in Financial Markets as Described by the IMF

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) are the two most significant economic groups in the world. Their statements regarding risk in financial markets should be examined carefully.

Headquartered in Switzerland, the BIS is the central bank of central banks – the head of the snake that is the central banking system, so to speak. And the IMF is just what it sounds like – a monetary fund for the world, providing loans for countries that are in dire straits.

As far back as October of 2017, the IMF has been making statements regarding the insane levels of debt being accumulated by corporations and individuals. Without even taking into account the hundreds of trillions of dollars’ worth of public debt that national governments have piled on since the 2008 crisis, the nonfinancial sector itself has become a potential risk.

Taken together, the amount of leverage existing within the nonfinancial sector of G-20 economies is now larger than it was before the ’08 collapse, according to a report by the IMF.

“Increasing leverage signals potential risks down the road,” according to the same report.

General Manager of BIS Gives Speech About Risk in Financial Markets

On August 25^th, Agustin Carstens, General Manager for the Bank of International Settlements, gave a speech during the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City’s 42^nd Economic Policy Symposiumentitled “Global Market Structures and the High Price of Protectionism.”

In the speech, Carstens detailed just a few of the risks posed by current trends.

“Tariffs could therefore push up US prices, possibly requiring monetary policy to react through more rapid increases in interest rates. Such a response would widen the interest rate premium to the rest of the world and could drive the dollar higher. This would hit US exporters with a double whammy, and emerging market economies with a triple whammy. For emerging markets, a stronger dollar tightens financial conditions, triggers capital outflows and slows growth.”

The speech concluded by noting that nonfinancial risks (such as those identified by the IMF) can interact with, and possibly exacerbate, the type of risk that has been building up in the broader financial system for the past decade.

“When assessing these risks, we should not underestimate the potential for real and financial risks to amplify each other in unexpected ways.”

In other words, increasing leverage means increasing unpredictability and systemic risk. The longer these trends continue, the more likely it becomes than an unexpected lynchpin could spark the next crisis.

Risk in Financial Markets Are Already Materializing

Let’s be real. Despite the cautious, uncertain, and vague language they use, these institutions and their managers know full well what’s happening and what it means for the future.

To review:

1) Central Banks distorted Risk across asset classes by manipulating Sovereign Credit. This has created the biggest global bubble in financial market history.

— Paranoid Bull (@paranoidbull) August 10, 2018

While no one can predict with absolute certainty exactly what’s going to happen and when, it doesn’t take a genius to be able to discern that something is seriously wrong, and at some point, it will lead to a chain-reaction of financial failures.

This crisis is already playing out in countries like Venezuela, Turkey, and Argentina, as their respective currencies circle the drain (fun fact: the Venezuelan Bolivar is now worth less than the digital currency used in the popular MMORPG game, World of Warcraft).

With Risk in Financial Markets, Position Your Portfolio Accordingly

While no one can stop what has been set in motion so far, not everyone has to be a victim of it. Position yourself to gain from developing trends while you still can.

The GSB portfolio is packed with mining stocks, cannabis stocks, and cryptocurrencies that are poised to power higher amidst a crisis. Many of these assets have already gained significant ground recently. Subscribe today to gain exclusive access to our picks.

[Originally published on GoldStockBull.com on August 31st, 2018]