Crypto Monthly #1

Crypto Monthly #1 Covering The Hottest Crypto News Every Month

Jean-Pierre Buntinx & Serge Schouterden

IN CRYPTO WE TRUST IN CRYPTO WE TRUST IN CRYPTO WE TRUST

CRYPTO MONTHLY #1 1

Table of Contents

Bitcoin – a worthy currency? An opbjective approach ............................................................................ 2-5

Mobile Vikings – An MVNO using Bitcoin for payments.......................................................................... 6-7

Crypto for physical coins – Some thoughts by a coin collector……………………………………………………… 8-10

CEX.IO………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 12-14

Cryptocurrency VS. Traditionalists- Invest in crypto you will not……………………………………………….. 14-16

Buying stocks of shares from a crypto-based company. Safe bet?..................................................17-18

Charity & crypto – The odd couple? ……………………………………………………………………………………………..19

Alternate Cryptocurrencies……………………………………………………………………………………………………………21

CoinPayments ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………22-23

DigitalCoin …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………24-25

WorldCoin ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….26-28

Grain ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….29-30

LottoCoin ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………31-32

EarthCoin ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………33-34

DigiByte ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..35-36

DogeCoin ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………37-38

NobleCoin …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..39-40

Cryptocurrency Service Reviews ………………………………………………………………………………………………… 41

RapidBalls …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..42-44

CoinGig ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….45-48

Cryptsy ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….49-50

Netflix4BTC ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 51


CRYPTO MONTHLY #1 2

Bitcoin - a worthy currency? An objective approach.

1. What is Bitcoin and what is it used for?

Bitcoin was launched in 2009 by a developer(s) called Satoshi Nakamoto. This is a

pseudonym for the creator(s) of this currency. Simply put, Bitcoin is an open source

p2p network for payments and is as such a digital currency, like most of us know.

So Bitcoin is a currency and what can one do with currency? Everything! From

buying real estate, to gambling, creating businesses, selling virtual goods and

physical ones, auction houses, jobs, etc. Basically Bitcoin has the same usage as

any other “real” currency like Euro, dollar, etc.

2. Is Bitcoin a safe bet? A comparison with stocks.

I always compare Bitcoins, though it’s a crypto currency, to stocks. Stocks rise and

fall in value, just like Bitcoins and so do currencies but you will see why the

comparison with stocks is the best way.

If you were ever active in dealing with stocks and the stock exchange like NYSE, or

others you’ll see that some stocks have a very erratic “rise and fall” pattern. This

means that buying and selling of the stocks are being done for huge amounts, just

like with the price of Bitcoin.

This buying and selling is exactly the same as with Bitcoins. You buy shares of a said

company at price X and when the price of said share rises to price Z you sell. You do

not “hold” the shares you bought in your hands, it’s virtual.

When you sell them you get the money on your bank account, mostly minus a fairly

large percentage that the banks take for “using their systems”, the banks will ask you

again for paying different fees.

So the banks take a share of your profit for buying and selling stock plus they charge

you quite a bit because you traded on the stock exchange. Bitcoins, though it has the

same buying and selling aspects like if you were buying stocks on the stock

exchange, do not charge you with huge amounts of “fees”. Bitcoin charges only 3%

transaction cost, while the banks will charge 6% and much more.


CRYPTO MONTHLY #1 3


For me Bitcoin is the same as buying stocks. It does have an amount of risk but

buying stocks has the same risk. Bitcoin does have an edge on stocks since crypto

currencies have, in general, multiple avenues where you can use them for. As I said

in part 1, crypto currencies have as much diversity as “real money” has.

In everyday life we take chances. How many of us walk a brisk pace just to cross the

street when the walk sign has been just turned red? How many of us bought

something that looked excellent and was good advertised but when you got the item

it did not as advertised. Let’s face it what is life without a little risk now and then?

How much risk you take is up to you, though Bitcoins do have a clear advantage on

the conventional banking system.

3. Is Bitcoin a stable currency? Some thoughts.

If you look through history you will find that currency has been around for a long time

and that money- lenders, the early banks, did get rich at certain points if they were

clever enough. People who had the means could park their hard earned money with

these people and get a certain amount of interest on their money. Though when a

general currency was introduced in a particular region the region stabilized and

prospered. With all things corruption and “extra-legal activities” soon followed.

After a while the money lenders, aka early banks, lend on occasion more than they

actually had reserves for put their trust and savings in that corporation or persons

lost everything as well.

Well long story short a lot of these “early bankers” from the 12th century utilized these

kinds of schemes to enrich themselves. Sometimes they succeeded and other times

well they were the instigators of some crises. These practices were also employed in

the famous crashes of the Wall Street crashes of 1929 and more recent the money

lending problems and the banking crises that followed in 2008

So basically a country prints its own money and sets some arbitrary standard; not

based on supply and demand but on certain precious metals like gold/silver/copper.

It does have its advantages. It’s centralized, its controllable by the governments,

fraudulent people are deterred, etc. though it has the same disadvantages. It’s

controlled by single or 2 organs of government that make the money


CRYPTO MONTHLY #1 4


And as such has a higher probability chance of getting infected by corrupt officials

Bitcoin doesn’t have that Achilles heel since it uses the internet and peer to peer

network, so destroying or manipulating crypto currencies are harder than generally

thought currencies in general and Bitcoin in particular are pretty stable currencies

because they have a broad base and do not just rely on 1 or 2 organs, controlled by

governments that can have a rather high probability of corrupt individuals.

Then is Bitcoin and other crypto currencies the “holy grail” or the “missing link” of

good business and stability and all that? No. Like I said before in part 2 it is still a

gamble. It is just like stocks but with a higher profit margin, less opportunities for

corruption and a bit more stable than your average everyday currency.

4. The revenge of the banks?

While writing this article I’ve seen many journals and “experts” trash Bitcoin and other

crypto currencies like there is no tomorrow. “It is bad, you will lose your money, only

a 1000 people have most of the coins in their hands and the rest must eek around in

the left overs, etc.” More often than not these so called experts and renowned

journals use statistical data to convince people why crypto currencies are bad.

All the aforementioned arguments that appear in the “renowned journals” can be

easily thrown back at the bank practices. The real reason why the banks and some

governments are irked by crypto currencies is that they cannot control the currencies

and as such do not have any profits from crypto currencies.

Furthermore Jack and Jane Public are getting more and more organized and internet

savvy. The crisis that the banks created contributed to this and also forced the public

to think a bit more before they act. This is a bad thing for banks because they need

to train their employees’ new tricks and invest in campaigns, etc. So the lobby

machine and the PR tanks of the banking imperium are rolling out and the fangs are

out.

To the allegations that all crypto currencies are laundry fronts for criminal enterprises

I will say this: since time began and acquiring items, wealth became a priority,

criminal enterprises were also there.

.


CRYPTO MONTHLY #1 5


For example most of your bills that you have in your pocket right now will have some

trace amount of drugs on them.

Are crypto currencies devoid of criminal enterprises? No but it can be argued that the

risk of infiltration by criminal organizations in crypto currencies in cyberspace aren’t

more or less then in regular everyday situations.

I also think that the banks are feeling the hot breath of Bitcoins and other crypto

currencies in their necks and are genuinely afraid of losing customers. If it wouldn’t

bother them one way or another they wouldn’t make all this fuss about it.

5. Conclusions.

In this short article I’ve explained a bit of history of banking systems, the current

modus operandi of the banks. I also debunked some claims the banks and their

frantically lobbying made against Bitcoins and crypto currencies. I also proved that in

many aspects Bitcoins and other crypto currencies are a safer investment than other

possibilities the banks currently offer.

In this writer’s humble opinion Bitcoin and other crypto currencies can be compared

to stocks and the way they work but you can do more with crypto currencies than just

day trade. You can also buy items with them or invest in ideas, companies, etc.

It is up to you if you want to climb aboard this train. There is risk involved but risk is

around us every day so make up your own mind and maybe take a gamble.


CRYPTO MONTHLY #1 6

One of the things people are always concerned about, is how to spend or use Bitcoins for useful products. As you will read in our Shopping section (pages x -xx) , there are plenty of things you can buy with Bitcoins. But are they things you will actually NEED, or is it just excitement to have purchased something with Bitcoin that made you buy it?

For some of us, there are several useful things we can buy with Bitcoin. You can order food online , and have it delivered to your home ,or, if you live in Belgium or The Netherlands, you can now pay your mobile provider in Bitcoin. A little background story is in order, so here we go. Mobile Vikings is an MVNO, a Mobile Virtual Network Operator. Some of you may be familiar with this term, other may have never heard of it. An MVNO is a company that uses the mobile network of another provider, in this case the BASE (former ORANGE) network. What this means is that, if the BASE network has issues, Mobile Vikings’ customers will also be affected. The upside about being an MVNO is that you don’t have to build an infrastructure yourself. Building and expanding a mobile infrastructure is a tedious job, involving lots of legislation processes, paperwork, and man hours to finish the physical roll-out. It also means you can undercut other networks’ pricing more easily, because you have lower startup costs.

Mobile Vikings doesn’t work with a monthly bill, but with a prepaid system. You have several options available, ranging from 10 to 50 euro. For example the 15 euro prepaid option : 100 calling minutes, 2 GB of mobile internet data and 2000 text messages to all Belgian mobile operators.

The mobile data and text messages will last for 30 days, so basically during the first

month after topping up your SIM-card, you’ll only pay for outgoing phone calls.

After those 30 days, both text messages and mobile data will also be billed from your

available remaining prepaid credit balance.


CRYPTO MONTHLY #1 7

An MVNO Using Bitcoin For Payments

But that is not all! You will also receive 300 SMSes and 60 minutes of calling time

FREE, per day only valid between Mobile Vikings’ customers. If you are like me, and

hardly ever call, I can last three full months with 15 Euro in prepaid credit.

Mobile Vikings currently has over 183,000 subscribers in Belgium, and in 2013, extended their services to The Netherlands. As Belgium and The Netherlands are neighboring countries, it seemed like a logical step to branch out. It also helps when the overarching corporation controls both BASE (Belgium) and KPN (Netherlands) of course.

A few weeks ago, the announcement was made that Bitcoins would become a supported payment method for Mobile Vikings, both in Belgium and The Netherlands. They already supported a wide array of payment options, such as Bank Wire, PC Banking, Visa, Mastercard, Mr Cash (popular in Belgium), IDEAL (popular in The Netherlands) and Paypal. As you can see from this list, Paypal & Bitcoin can peacefully co-exist as payment gateways.

Bitcoin payments for Mobile Vikings are handled through Bitpay, as it is still the leading Bitcoin payment processor in the world. Currently, there is no word on whether other coins will be supported in the future, but we’ll work with Bitcoin for now. It is the first official company in Belgium that lets you pay bills with cryptocurrency after all, so we can’t complain.

Payments itself are handled fast and securely, as you can see in the screenshots I have included. I enjoy the experience, because I now don’t have to take out my bank card, use the card reader to get a secure code, etc. etc. Just send over some Bitcoin, et voila, you’re done!

We, at Crypto Monthly, hope to see more companies all around the world adapting to this way of payments. It doesn’t have to replace any existing payment gateways you currently support, but it can, and will, be a nice addition for those of us who strongly support Bitcoin, as well as other cryptocurrencies.


CRYPTO MONTHLY #1 8

Crypto for physical coins – Some thoughts by a coin collector.

I’ve come across a lot of people on the internet claiming to sell gold and silver coins

for bitcoins or other crypto currencies experience, I feel the need to give you faithful

bitcoiners and crypto currency users some pointers what to look out for when buying

coins.

Don’t worry, I will not write stuffy, long winded articles on coins or the history of coins.

It enough to say that money in the form of coins has been around a long time.

1. Coin grades.

• FDC: Fleur de Coin. French terminology for the best coin in the best state possible.

No mistakes in the coin, never had human skin touch the coin (only used

gloves),chips or little imperfections, etc. These coins are also special minted for the

purpose of being a FDC coin and are for collectors highest cost when purchasing.

• PROOF. A coin usually struck from a specially prepared coin die. Proofs are usually

given more than one blow from the dies and are usually struck with presses

operating at slower speeds and higher striking pressure.

Because of this extra care, Proofs usually exhibit much sharper detail than regular, or

business, strikes. These coins are also picked up with gloves but there can be

imperfections, scratches, mistakes etc.

• UNC. Term to indicate a coin or numismatic item that has never been in circulation,

a coin without wear. These usually contain some sort of scratch or indentation from

the minting process. If you get a nice shiny coin from doing your purchases it is NOT

an UNC.

This is a small list of the best grades to look out for when buying coins. Both will net

you a tidy profit when you buy them when they come out.

Having said this not one in their right mind would “circulate” these coins or “found

them in their purse or wallet” when they bought something. If someone tells you that

they are lying about the coin condition and the coin that they would like to sell to you

is a “good” grade at best, “very poor” grade at the worst.

.

.


CRYPTO MONTHLY #1 9


There are also other ways to determine the worth of the coin besides the coin

grades. Rarity of the coin is another. Sometimes you will see something like this:

FDC, AU, and R8. That means that the coin is a Fleur de coin, Gold and extremely

rare.

2. Minted metals. Precious or not.

Ooh look it’s a gold coin! Let’s buy it because it’s only 25 dollars/euros/ whatever. If

you did that I can tell you, with 99.9999% certainty, that that coin is a fake. The same

goes with ridiculously low priced silver coins. They are mostly fake iron or aluminum

coins coated with a little layer of gold or silver.

Gold and silver coins values will depend on their grades as well as their rarity. For

example a golden

Roman coin from Julius Caesar will be worth more than a recently minted golden

coin of “Her

Majesty the Queen”.

The best way to check if you aren’t being cheated out of your hard earned bitcoins

and/or cash you will have to do a quick research for the coin(s) you want coin before

you buy. This is not always possible so the second best thing is photos..

3. Buying from internet.

Where can you buy coins that take bitcoins or other crypto currencies? Right the

internet. Here you need to be extremely cautious. First of all you can’t examine the

coin or talk directly to the seller is a bit of a paranoid standpoint I know. Does it mean

that you shouldn’t buy coins from the internet?

No that is not what I said. Be very careful because there are all kinds of people out

there. There are good, decent and honest coin sellers out there but there are also a

lot of shady characters that want to cheat you out of your bitcoins.


CRYPTO MONTHLY #1 10


Google a coin picture. You can’t tell if there are coins that are glued together,

damaged, fake/ genuine, inscriptions, etc. All you can determine from this picture is

that there are coins in the picture. The best way is to ask for every coin to be

photographed at a high resolution individually (Front, back and side of the coin). Oh

that reminds me: when buying silver coins be very wary if you see spots on the coin.

This was done using an acid test to check if the coin was indeed silver. This

damages the coin.

4. Is trading your hard earned Bitcoins and cryptocurrencies in for real

coins profitable?

It can be very profitable if you use some common sense and do research. If you type

“fake….. coin” in Google (replacing the …. With the coin name) you will get a good

approximation of what you can expect to be fake and what to look out for. It does not

give you 100% certainty but it will give you some support in finding out if the coin you

are buying is fake or not. Make sure if you find out if the coin is a fake not to bite the

dude or dudettes head off. It is quite possible that they do not know that the coin is a

fake. Just be cool and say “no thanks” and walk away.

In my humble opinion buying coins from the internet can be quite profitable if you

keep your wits about you and do enough research and “check-ups” on the coin

before you buy, even when you know the seller of the coins. Many buyers of coins

have been burned, deliberately or not I will leave in the middle, because they trusted

the seller.

Yes, I’ve been also burned in that way so now I warn people that want to invest in

coins about that kind of practice.

If you want more information or some great pointers on books and research material

you can always contact me. If you want a determination, or a second opinion, of your

coin(s) I can do that as well.



Crypto Monthly is proudly sponsored by CryptoGameKeys & Netflix4BTC!



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Cryptocurrency vs traditionalists

It has been coming for a long time. It is open season on everything that is

cryptocurrency related. The first target of the “banking imperium” Is Bitcoin. Bitcoin

gets bashed left, right and center. Their crosshairs are firmly set on Bitcoin… for now

at least. But who are “they”? The “they” are the bankers, the wealthy greedy

politicians and the bank lobby groups.

Think about it for a moment. There are economic crises all over the world and in

nearly every country. People lose their jobs because “the company is in trouble and

they need to cut costs”. People need to survive on something and a little extra is

always welcome. So the people will take some of their savings away from the already

fat banks and invest some of that money in cryptocurrencies.

If you can get up to 10% interest rates a year on your money, what bank or other

investment can claim those rates? If we take a broad census of history we see that

“the will of the people” will endure and quite often will provide the spark that ignites

new ideas and ways of thinking that will change societies and countries alike.

1. Scare tactics.

I’ve been dabbling in stocks, day trading stocks and doing research for a bit now.

Every time something innovative or “new” pops its head up that is not “invented” by

the banks or other firms associated with the bank sector, the considerable lobby and

social machine of the finance sector will kick into high gear.

First they stir up trouble saying that “it is not a good investment or product because

this or that”, most of the time supported by biased “scientific research”. This is a ruse

to scare potential buyers away so the banks can get in there before everyone else

does.

When the banks and certain rich people have enough shares, stocks, whatever, they

will hype it up so much. This is being done with the aid of the media, so that

everyone will jump in and buy in to the shares or whatever they are up to.

So the stocks or share of this or that company will sky rocket and when it reaches a

nice high, like say + 1000% the banks will dump all their shares. The famous pump

and dump practice.



Invest In Cryptocurrency You Will Not.

2. Ignore the “nay” sayers.

Coming from a background in economics and having a lot of experience on the stock

markets I learned many valuable lessons. The most important of all is: when the

banks tell you “buy this stock, it will rise” they mean the exact opposite. So when

these guys and girls tell you to “buy” it means in our language “DON’T BUY, STAY

AWAY” and vice versa!

It has happened many times throughout history that people listened to the “ advice”

they were given by bank employees to invest in this or that product and after a

couple of months they lost a huge percentage of their money. Just look at the last 30

years and there are enough examples.

While reading articles in the business newspapers, some writers don’t know that

much about the crypto currencies landscape and how much alt coins there actually

are. It looks like they just want to bash crypto currencies because it appears that that

was their assignment.

My view on this whole affair is that the banks and big business are annoyed with

Bitcoin because they didn’t come up with the idea themselves. So they use their

modus operandi to just discredit it at every opportunity they can get (in the media,

social network, articles, etc.). Here are some of the most common examples the

“traditionalists” use against cryptocurrencies.

a. “Cryptocurrencies are only used by shady characters”.

The articles that I’ve read make subtle pointers to the “illegality” of using

cryptocurrencies. Often articles in the media insinuate that “illegal activities “are only

linked to cryptocurrencies but there are also a lot of good decent people wanting to

pay with cryptocurrencies for a diverse range of services.

Every form of currency can be used for “illegal activities”. From Animal smuggling to

buying and selling XTC pills, it has been done by every “traditional currency” just as it

has been with some cryptocurrencies. A quite nice example is the paper money bills

we all have in our pockets. There is a 90% chance that there are traces of some kind

of drugs on them.



Cryptocurrency vs. traditionalists - Invest in crypto you will not.

b. “All Cryptocurrency users are using a pump and dump system…a side effect of not

having any supervision or regulatory body”.

This is a just laughable statement that has been put forth by “some reputable

newspapers and writers in certain business journals”. If you are actually active or

have been active in the buying and selling of stocks on the stock exchange you will

remember certain stocks/shares that can be bought at a very low price. They are

very risky ventures but if they rise they can sky rocket to 500% or more.

Then those stocks get massively dumped by their buyers. So it is pretty hilarious and

a little sad at the same time to see these remarks appear in so called “excellent and

reputable” journals and newspapers because the same trends can be found in the

normal day to day trading that have control organs in place.

3. To buy or not to buy. A serious question.

As in every venture you will need to do a lot of research and make a list of the

positive and negative aspects. Be sure to do an adequate research so that your

research isn’t just focused on 1 or 2 sets of parameters or sources. Read up, make

the language your own and read, read, read.

After doing all that research it is up to you what to do. If you’ve seen the trends over

the past 30 years and deciphered the writing on the walls a bit, it will show that

cryptocurrencies will have a future for sure, but how or what will that future be like?

It is too early to make an accurate determination but so far the signs are looking

positive.



Buying stocks or shares from

“Buy shares for a guaranteed return on a daily/weekly/ monthly basis”. Some of

these advertisements crop up in forums and on a wide range of crypto related sites.

Is it a guaranteed money maker or do investors need to be careful?

In the stock exchange business like the NYSE, companies can provide stocks to the

general public. This can be done for increased revenue so that particular company

can get their much needed cash injection so they can fuel their R&D or other

projects. Without going into too much detail there are less reputable “companies”,

real or fake, that utilize a pump and dump system.

Needless to say many people were fooled by these practices and lost, some if not all,

their money.

There are some companies, like Delhaize, that pay a certain amount to their

“shareholders”. It is only logical that this trend will emerge eventually in the crypto

landscape. It is a good way to raise capital and it will provide the funds to evolve the

company.

Like so many thing on the internet and stocks/shares, people need to be extra

careful. With cryptocurrency you need to be even more “on your toes” because there

isn’t an established oversight, commission or organ that checks the company on

validity and authenticity.

So will buying stocks/shares of a company with crypto be a shot in the dark? Not

exactly. There are some good companies out there that just need some financial

backing for a good start up.

If you are thinking about investing in shares/stocks of a certain company in the

currency landscape you will need to do a lot of research. Get to know the developers

and business partners, the “CEO’s” etc.

Most of that information can easily be found on the internet but make sure to get a

double and triple check of the provided information. That way you won’t lose your

hard earned crypto to some slick and shady individuals. Another thing to look out for

is the payout rating: what percentage will you receive, will it be a

daily/weekly/monthly payout, etc.

.



crypto based companies. A safe bet?

Making a certain amount of shares available is a good way to get some cash

injection. Every company can set it up in crypto landscape because there is mainly

no regulatory organ or laws. This is a positive as well as a negative aspect. No

control means more freedom and wiggle room but it entails also greater risks for

scammers.

So far there were shares available from gambling & gaming sites to internet shops

and auction houses that work with crypto payment. As cryptocurrencies are getting

more widely known to the general public, other companies and shops that exist in the

real world and not alone in cyberspace, will find a way to get some hard needed

cash flow to realize their dreams and projects.

So is buying stocks or shares from crypto based companies a safe bet? It can be if

you are extra careful. It is not more or less risky than buying stocks or shares of a

company on the NYSE. In both instances you are required to do a lot of research.

The positive and negative aspects of buying shares and stocks with crypto is like a

double edged sword of Damocles. The potential and the benefits can be great

provided that you “look before you leap in”.

A general rule of thumb is to “never spend money you can’t afford to lose”.

That doesn’t just go for cryptocurrency, but for all financial aspects of life.

This is NOT a get-rich-quick scheme by any stretch of the imagination. This is

real money we are talking about, so please, do your research before making

any commitment.



Charity & Crypto – The Odd Couple?

What would the impact be if people could donate crypto to charities? First and

foremost it will be recognition from the charities part that cryptocurrency is a real

currency. It will also portray the average cryptocurrency user as a “normal human

being” that had the brains, the guts and the will to do something different.

This recognition can go both ways. The media picks up on the fact that crypto will be

accepted by charities and that it is a good thing. That way the crypto landscape will

get some much needed positive media attention.

The second possibility, and frankly the more likely, is that the media finds another

way to scare people away from crypto. . That way the charity “project” will be just that

a “project” or a test run. . Regardless of the outcome crypto will become more

accepted when taking the “charity route”.

In some countries people and companies can get a tax reduction if they give to

charity. Which is a win-win for both the charities and the companies/ordinary people

that make donations. The problem that can arise with the tax reduction is if crypto will

be accepted as a “legal form of donation”.

It probably will not be “legal”, or the institutions will not deem it “legal” per se, but

there are ways to eliminate that obstacle. For example you can donate “real money”,

like dollars or euros, and transfer crypto fund to your bank account.

Currently, “The Water Project” is the first big charity organization to publicly

accept cryptocurrency donations. We have seen efforts by several

cryptocurrency communities being made, in order to raise awareness both to

the project, as well as to their coins.

Later on in this magazine, we have covered a few of these coins, so keep an

eye out for that.



Crypto Monthly is proudly sponsored by CryptoGameKeys and Netflix4BTC!



ALTERNATE CRYPTOCURRENCIES

CoinPayments (pages 22-23)

DigitalCoin (pages 24-25)

WorldCoin (pages 26-28)

Grain (pages 29-30)

LottoCoin (pages 31-32)

EarthCoin (pages 33-34)

DigiByte (pages 35-36)

DogeCoin (pages 37-38)

NobleCoin (pages 39-40)



“We absolutely LOVE CoinPayments, as

they keep striving for mass adoption of

cryptocurrency payments. This is a

company to keep your eye on!”

CoinPayments is for us personally one the best services in the entire world. Not just because they make it so ridiculously easy to accept cryptocurrency payments, but also because their support is top notch. And the fact that they add more coins on a very regular basis, can only be good for business.

CoinPayments pretty much offers the all-in-one solution for website owners. Whether you want to sell physical or virtual goods, as long as you are willing to accept cryptocurrency payments, CoinPayments is the way to go. Their fees are very low, 0.50% of the transaction amount plus the transaction fee. For that kind of fees, you can’t even exchange it yourself, because you’ll end up losing a lot more. Every CoinPayments merchant pays the exact same fees too, so there is no favoritism for bigger or smaller webshops, everybody is welcomed with open arms. As of right now, CoinPayments is supporting 45 different cryptocurrencies. That’s quite a big number isn’t it? Never expected it to be thigh high in such a short amount of time, but it only goes to prove that CoinPayments is a company with their noses in the same direction: forward.

Even though 45 different cryptocurrencies are offered, it doesn’t end there though. Did you know that CoinPayments also accepts Paypal payments? A bit of a shocker, I know. How would one company handle both cryptocurrency and Paypal payments? I have no idea, but they just do, and it seems to work just fine.

The fact that so many coins can be accepted, doesn’t mean you are obligated to

enable them all of course. If you just want to handle mainstream currencies like

Bitcoin and Litecoin, that’s fine too. For us however, it’s slightly different, as we try to

support as many coins as we can.

Besides accepting so many cryptocurrencies, CoinPayments has some other

features you should be aware of. For example, there is a “rating” system, where

buyers can rate their transaction.



“How would one company handle both

cryptocurrency and Paypal payments? I

don’t know, but they just do, and it

seems to work just fine.”

Let’s say some bought a virtual item, and you delivered it within the hour after receiving payment. The buyer can then (choose to) leave a negative, neutral or positive feedback. You can compare it to the way Ebay rates its sellers.

Regarding this feedback system, it’s also worth noting that, as a recently added feature, you as a seller can also comment on received feedback. If a buyer gave you a neutral or negative feedback you don’t think is justified, you can comment on it. The feedback will not be removed, but at least you have a chance to tell your side of the story.

Once your website is set up to accept cryptocurrency payments through CoinPayments, you will be automatically added to the store directory. If you wish, you can even have a banner added to your listing, as well as an e-mail address where (potential- customers can reach you.

More coins will be added to CoinPayments in the future, sometimes unannounced, other times with a community poll you can vote on. It’s definitely a service to keep your eye on, as they will keep striving for massive adoption of cryptocurrency payments. And that is what we all want in the end, is it not?

http://www.facebook.com/Coinpayments

http://www.twitter.com/CoinPaymentsNET



DigitalCoin is one of those coins that will strike it big in the coming months. There are several reasons for that, but I should first explain to you all what DigitalCoin really is, and how it came to be. DigitalCoin has been developed by Baritus, a good developer who is both active and very highly regarded in the community. Being released to the public in May of 2013, DigitalCoin is one of the very few long-living coins that has never experienced any forking issues, besides that hard fork which was created by Baritus himself, and a warning was given well in advance.

The idea behind Digitalcoin was to create a simple cryptocurrency with a name that’s easy enough for people to understand & remember. Besides that, the financial objective was to offer a coin that kept its value well (and has done so) , especially compared to the volatility in prices of cryptocurrency in general.

From the start, Digitalcoin formed a strong and loyal community, with people who are both enthusiastic about cryptocurrency, as well as people who helped develop applications and services to push DigitalCoin into the hands of as many people as possible. The fact that it’s also a very fast and efficient way to send or receive money to or from someone, sure helps. What also worked in favor of DigitalCoin is the fact that the block rewards were kept pretty low. 20 DigitalCoin per block, which has been reduced to 15 a while ago, and will reduce again in the future, to make sure there is no way for people to massively devalue DigitalCoin. This is something most new coins have lost sight of I’m afraid.

The total amount of DigitalCoin in circulation will be 144,500,000. Not a big amount, if you compare it to Bitcoin for example, there will be approximately 7 times as many DigitalCoin as there will be BItcoin, with the difference that people can always mine some amount of DigitalCoin, whereas mining Bitcoin is becoming pretty much impossible without investing thousands of dollars in new mining hardware. If you paid close attention, you’ll notice I mentioned the term “hard fork”. A fork means

that a separate version of the current blockchain will be created, either because some

improvements have been made, or because someone attacked the blockchain in order

to double-spend their Digitalcoin.



The hard fork that occurred to Digitalcoin was intentionally put in place by Baritus, because DigitalCoin was seeing a lot of dumping from multipools when the difficulty was very low. And once the difficulty re-adjusted, the normal miners were left with very long block rounds, leading to unhappiness and a dip in price. This hard fork was announced well in advance and a new mandatory DigitalCoin client was released to make the transition as smooth as possible.

There is also a DigitalCoin Android wallet, developed by Ahmedbodi. This Android wallet has seen some updates since its release, and is currently undergoing some small revisions. It just goes to show you that, even if you as a coin developer don’t know how, or don’t have time to develop an Android wallet, your community can and will help you out. As far as the future plans for DigitalCoin go, we will soon witness the launch of CryptoAve, an exchange where DigitalCoin, as well as SecureCoin (more about this in issue #2) and Argentum (see issue #3) will be traded against fiat currencies. You can also buy and sell CryptoAve shares with DigitalCoin. This exchange will definitely spark more interest in these coins, as well as cryptocurrency in general.

Algorithm Scrypt

Launch Date May 18 2013 Exchanges? Cryptsy, CoinEx, Crypto-Trade,Vircurex,

CryptoAve (2014)

Language Support English, French,German,Greek,Chinese, Russian

Mobile Wallet Android

http://www.facebook.com/DigitalcoinDGC

http://www.twitter.com/DigitalcoinDGC



WorldCoin is a coin that has seen highs and lows during its existence, but is back on the right track since a few months, and the introduction of the WorldCoin Foundation. I’m one of the early adopters who has always believed in WorldCoin, and everything is pointing towards me being right in the end. The birth of WorldCoin took place during May 2013, which apparently was a busy month regarding the release of long-term profitable cryptocurrencies. The idea behind WorldCoin was to make it a payment method of the future, available for everyone regardless of country, race, beliefs, etc.

Let’s take a brief pause and think about the name “WorldCoin” for a bit. It doesn’t get much better than that, does it? There is no better way to be “for the people” than calling it “WORLDCoin”. Separated by borders, united by technology...it’s the future unfolding before our very eyes, ladies and gentlemen.

Anyway, back to WorldCoin now. Not unlike DigitalCoin, WorldCoin has a very fast transaction processing time, which is exactly what we want. With a fairly limited supply of 265 million WorldCoin to go around, it is destined to gain in value over time, unlike our paper currency we use now, which is getting less and less valuable every year.

I did mention that WorldCoin has seen its ups and downs. In the spirit of being completely honest with everyone reading this, there is a little bit of a backstory about WorldCoin that took place in 2013, and you should be made aware of it, if only to reealize how strong WorldCoin came out of that debacle.

It was July of 2013 when the cryptocurrency world was shocked at the

announcement of UNOCS: the United Open Currency Solutions project. The

partnership existed of Worldcoin, FeatherCoin and PhenixCoin, and the idea was to

have all developers work together as one big team, while keeping the currencies

separate.

It sounded great, and people saw the massive potential behind this project. The official

UNOCS announcement stated that we would see “strategic solutions, services and

applications to make it easier for merchants to accept cryptocurrency payments”. It pretty

much was what we have all been waiting for since 2011, and the future was looking

bright.



Unfortunately,the whole collaboration came to an abrupt end not even two months later, when FeatherCoin pulled out off the project. The official reason was “because we don’t have enough control over the project being developed by external developers”. Okay...I can see your point, but to end it that sudden? Strange….

Other rumours surfaced around PhenixCoin being the guilty party in the break-up. “They seem to have terrible project management, and now have a working exchange that is taking up all their time”. The fact that PhenixCoin’s latest client update included a mining reward change every 6 hours, which completely devalued PhenixCoin, didn’t help either.

I’m sure that by now, you can understand how devastating this could have been for WorldCoin too. They lost the entire partnership because of reasons out of their control, and were left in the dust with nothing to show for it. So where does a coin go from there?

There are several ways to handle such a disappointment, but WorldCoin did it in a classy fashion: they started the WorldCoin Foundation to rebuild their coin. The ideology of the WorldCoin Foundation is to have openness, public faces and a clear business plan for everyone to see. The fact that all WorldCoin board members have shared their photo, as well as personal information about themselves with the public, shows that they are serious about making WorldCoin the cryptocurrency for everyone. The team behind the WorldCoin Foundation is simply amazing, and they complement each other very well.

But the fun didn’t stop there for WorldCoin enthusiasts. Shortly after the WorldCoin Foundation was announced, even bigger things were already being developed. What if you could buy WorldCoin directly with paper money? Or at least by wiring in money? Without having to first buy Bitcoin to then later on convert to WorldCoin? This is where Scharmbeck comes in. Scharmbeck is the WorldCoin Financial Institution, which will be doing exactly what UNOCS was supposed to do: provide an easy way for everyone to get involved with cryptocurrency, and offer merchant solutions to accept and process WorldCoin payments easily and securely.

Scharmbeck is currently in beta, and will go live in February 2014. No exact date is known as of yet. But Scharmbeck isn’t just about buying, selling and accepting WorldCoin. You can also become a Scharmbeck investor, by buying Scharmbeck Fee Shares on CryptoStocks.



There has already been 1 round of public offerings, where 100,000 SBFS (Scharmbeck Fee Shares) have been sold, at the price of 0.005 Bitcoin each. The next offering, which is taking place right now, will see another 100,000 SBFS being sold, at the price of 0.05 Bitcoin each. (No, that is not a typing error, the price will be higher). Scharmbeck Fee Shares owners will receive monthly dividends when Scharmbeck has gone live. These dividends are made up of 100% of all fees generated by Scharmbeck (minus operating costs). Each SBFS represents 0.0001% of the total dividend. This is a good way to earn some passive income while supporting WorldCoin as well.

As an added bonus for being a Scharmbeck Fee Share holder, you will be entered into a one-time competition, where you can 500 Bitcoin! Everyone who owns at least one Scharmbeck Fee Share (and is not working on Scharmbeck) is eligible. The competition will conclude once the second round of share offerings is sold out, so keep an eye out for that announcement.

To learn more about Scharmbeck, and how it will work, check out pages xx to xx, where you will find an in-depth look at the Scharmbeck beta, and what we can expect for the (near) future. Said future is looking very bright for WorldCoin, and for cryptocurrency in general. We are definitely excited, and we hope you are too!

Algorithm Scrypt

Launch Date May 18 2013

Exchanges? Cryptsy, CoinEx, Crypto-Trade,Vircurex, Scharmbeck (2014)

Language Support English, Dutch,German,Japanese,Chinese, Russian,Spanish,Romanian,Polish,Norwegian,

Swedish,Lithuanian

Mobile Wallet Android wallet coming soon!

http://facebook.com/pages/Worldcoin-

Foundation/136558323220544

http://www.twitter.com/wdcfoundation



Grain: Separating the Wheat

From The Chaff

Grain is a pretty unusual cryptocurrency in some ways. Even though there’s nothing specific about its algorithm, or its design in general, for some reason not too many are paying attention to it. Which is not unusual either, but Grain has a pretty high price at the moment, and keeps becoming more valuable every day.

Even though most cryptocurrencies will hardly get named after some so “mundane” as Grain, it’s a pretty good choice if you ask me. The fact that it doesn’t have the word “coin” in it, is a blessing and a welcome change. And grain is already tradable, and known by all people worldwide. So why not call your coin Grain? Even though it might confuse some people I guess…

Anyway, Grain has been around since December 2013, which still makes it relatively new in this ever-evolving world we live in. From the moment the announcement was made, we noted a sincere appreciation from the community toward the coin developers. We, of course, did an article about Grain as we were quite intrigued to find out more ourselves. Grain offers a Proof-of-Stake feature, which lets you gain a certain interest percentage by keeping your earned/mined Grain in your wallet. This process takes place once your wallet’s coins have “aged” for 10 days. This means that, if you were to spend any coins, the “aging” timer will reset from that moment on, and you have to wait 10 days to receive your stake.

It can sometimes take a little over 10 days for your stake to be generated, even though maybe you haven’t spent anything. That’s nothing to worry about, as it’s not exactly fixed on a 240 hour duration, but it can vary, depending on the current network activity. Just let the Grain sit in your wallet and reap the benefits of proof-of-stake. Proof-of-stake also has another good consequence: not all 50 billion coins will come from mining, because the proof-of-stake amounts are factored into that coin cap. This means that anyone with at least some Grain will be able to generate more Grain as time goes on, whether you are mining them or not.



Grain: Separating the Wheat

From The Chaff

To purchase Grain in some fashion, you can visit the CoinedUp exchange. Grain is listed there in two separate trading pairs, both against Bitcoin and Litecoin. Grain’s value has risen significantly over the past few weeks, as it climbed from the 12 satoshi mark to 80 and higher at times. Definitely valuable.

Merchants can also easily handle & process Grain payments, thanks to CoinPayments (see page xx). CoinPayments decided to add Grain to their vast catalog of accepted coins. This event has gone by pretty much unnoticed, because no actual announcement was made. This addition opens up a whole new array of possibilities for Grain.

We do see a quite fortuitous future for Grain. More and more people are starting to pay attention lately, and with the proper developer team and strong community they have going, there is no reason why Grain shouldn’t be on everyone’s list as a coin to watch for 2014.

Algorithm Scrypt

Launch Date December 7th 2013

Exchanges? CoinedUp

Language Support English

Mobile Wallet No

http://facebook.com/GrainCoin

http://www.twitter.com/Graincoin



LottoCoin : The Future

Of eGaming

LottoCoin isn’t a coin like most other cryptocurrencies out there. To clarify this statement a bit: most cryptocurrencies want to replace either Bitcoin or Litecoin. Not that that is a bad thing, but you’re setting the bar extremely high for yourself though. LottoCoin on the other hand just wants one part of the cryptocurrency business: eGaming. If you are unfamiliar with eGaming, it basically means all forms of online gaming: casinos, lottery games, dice games, raffles, and jackpots ... Anything you can associate with eGaming. Not to be confused with eSports , because that is competitive online gaming, which is not LottoCoin’s aim at this point.

LottoCoin is another coin that hasn’t been around for very long, but it sure has made a splash in the cryptocurrency community. Considering the fact that there has only been one previous coin that was aimed specifically at eGaming (CasinoCoin), and it pretty much flopped, people were anxiously awaiting a proper replacement. Tadaaa, LottoCoin!

The name in itself, LottoCoin, means it’s all about having fun, and gambling online

without that feeling of spending cold hard cash from your pocket. It also saves a lot

of unwanted questions from partners or spouses, when you have to explain what that

charge for “PokerStars” (for example) is doing on your credit card statement….

LottoCoin is a coin for everyone really, because it’s been made accessible in a

variety of ways: you can participate in a giveaway, compete in a daily raffle on a

quality site like RapidBalls, or just buy a few on an exchange like Cryptsy and play

around with it. The opportunities and possibilities are nearly endless.

You might wonder why LottoCoin has decided to go after eGaming, and not replace

either Bitcoin or Litecoin as a whole. That’s a smart question in fairness. The

LottoCoin “brain club” believes that every cryptocurrency can have its place in

society, and that there won’t be “one coin to rule them all”, so to speak.



LottoCoin : The Future

Of eGaming

Bitcoin and Litecoin have their merits, don’t get me wrong. But the one problem they are both facing is that it takes a while to get money transferred and confirmed, ranging from a few minutes to up to an hour or more. That is certainly not acceptable when it comes to time-sensitive businesses like eGaming. If you were an owner of an eGaming website, and you would have people chomping at the bit to play on your site, but you would only accept either Bitcoin or Litecoin as a payment option, you’ll lose customers. People want to deposit NOW, play NOW, and have fun NOW. And you really can’t blame them for leaving if the depositing takes too long.

This is where LottoCoin would be a perfect replacement, for any and every eGaming website. LottoCoin payments are done in the blink of an eye, and confirmations take less seconds than taking a deep breath. It’s the perfect solution for one part of the world’s economy that is still on the fence about cryptocurrencies.

LottoCoin is a coin you should keep an eye on, as big things can and will happen in the future. It’s not a short-term coin, like plenty of others out there are. LottoCoin is aimed at the long-term game, so if you are looking to purchase some, it won’t get cheaper than current prices.

Algorithm Scrypt


Exchanges? Cryptsy, CryCurex, CoinEx, Guogao, CoinedUp, CryptoKopen, Atomic Trade

Language Support English

Mobile Wallet No(t yet)

http://facebook.com/Lottocoins

http://www.twitter.com/Lotto_Coin



EarthCoin -

The People’s Currency

Most cryptocurrencies are made with one thing in mind : getting it in the hands of as many people as possible, coaxing them into buying it so that the coin can gain value on exchanges.Nothing wrong with that strategy, at all, don’t get me wrong. However, EarthCoin is slightly different, as it’s also looking to give back to the people of Earth. The main objective of EarthCoin is to be a cryptocurrency for the people, by the people. Even though this might sound simple, it’s a lot harder to realise than you might expect. Mostly because cryptocurrencies in general are still frowned upon. EarthCoin is here to change that though, and so far, it’s working!

When EarthCoin launched a little over a month ago, we immediately had very high expectations of this new cryptocurrency. The design of the EarthCoin logo is simply amazing, as it embodies what you would come to expect when mesmerizing about what an “EarthCoin” would look like.

Design is only a small part of the job though, you also have a message you want to get out to the people. In EarthCoin’s case, that message was pretty straightforward: “No matter what race, age, ethnicity, we're all a part of this beautiful planet, and who knows, maybe this tiny lil' grass roots idea might be enough to unite some/many of us!”

To take up a brief moment of your time without talking cryptocurrency, don’t you agree that our society is forcing us to have an egotistical state of mind? Everyone avoids interaction with other people as much as they can, only focused on what they want and can do. Then again, the powers that be are kind of pushing us in that direction…. But let’s get back to EarthCoin!

That wasn’t the only part about EarthCoin that we really liked though. It resembles the Earth moving around the sun as well. EarthCoin’s block rewards increase and decrease over the course of 365 days (1 year), in a sine curve with an amplitude of 2,000. This means block rewards can increase to a maximum of 12,000, and decrease to a minimum of 8,000. EarthCoin wouldn’t be a successful coin without it getting picked up by some exchanges. The list is quite impressive though, as EarthCoin is traded on CoinedUp,Cryptsy, BTC38, Coinex, and BTC-8.



EarthCoin -

The People’s Currency

As an added bonus, you can simply purchase EarthCoin with EURO currency, by using the website CryptoKopen.eu. Payments are handled by Skrill (formerly MoneyBookers)

In the opening section, we mentioned that EarthCoin is looking to be “for the people, by the people”. To obtain that status, you would have to be involved in giving back to the people of this planet, either financially or otherwise. Earthcoin has taken some steps in that direction, and more projects will be announced in the future.

The first project is called “Mining for Food”. Everyone who mines EarthCoin on the “MineBig” pool, will be participating in this project. The pool runs on 1% fee for all transactions, and 25% of all collected fees will be sent to an EarthCoin wallet owned by user “24Kilo”. This user owns a farm in Australia, and once enough EarthCoin are generated in the wallet, they will deliver FRESH vegetables to the needy residing in Sydney, Australia.

Yes, this is a very local project, but ambitions like these take time and have to start out small. So far, it’s not a great success yet, but people are trying their best. it’s a bit of a revolutionary concept in the world of cryptocurrency, so it will take some time before people will adapt.

Besides (localised) charity projects, Earthcoin is about technology too. There have been several Android apps released, and a few more are currently being developed. Although this might not be significant to everyone, it does show that there is a plan behind EarthCoin, which is slowly being unfolded before us. EarthCoin is trying to change the world, one small step at a time. Just for that, we can only applaud the efforts by the developers, pool owners and the community. But we are certain that EarthCoin will come to its full potential in the coming years. Maybe not in 2014, but it won’t take too long either. Definitely a cryptocurrency to keep your eye on!

Algorithm Launch Date

Exchanges? Language Support

Mobile Wallet

Scrypt December 20th 2013

Cryptsy, CoinedUp, CoinEx, CryptoKopen, BTC-8

English, Chinese,

No http://www. facebook.com/ earthcoin.world

http://www. Twitter.com/ getearthcoin

http://www/

http://www/



Digibyte : The Currency Everyone Can Relate To

You may have noticed by now that all different cryptocurrencies mentioned in this edition of the magazine all have easy names to remember. That’s only normal, because the understanding of cryptocurrency itself is already hard enough, so why complicate it with a difficult name? DigiByte is another one of those fine examples.

Pretty much anyone at any age will know the term “megabyte”, and associate it with “storage” or “data”. Now, if you tell those same people about “DigiByte”, they’ll have a far easier time linking it to something “online”. That’s half the work done right there, by picking a proper name for your cryptocurrency. But fear not, DigiByte is about a lot more than just coaxing people into the world of cryptocurrency. It’s about building a new platform for fast, easy and secure payments, as well as being a reliable source for merchants to accept payments. And they got a cutu robot in some of their logos, what more do you want?

Launching very recently, on January 20th, DigiByte immediately got some attention. Maybe it was just the name, the idea behind it, or something else, but whatever it was, it worked. It even grew on both of us from the beginning, because saw a good named coin, a great team behind it, and a community that loved it instantly.

DigiByte got picked up on an exchange pretty quickly too. Not a major exchange like BTER or Cryptsy, because those takes ages to get added to unfortunately. A brand new exchange, called CoinMarket, added DigiByte as one of the very few trading pairs listed there. Call it a sort of a premiere for both DigiByte and CoinMarket. The community behind DigiByte isn’t to be underestimated either: they have co-operated to translate the DigiByte website to no less than 18 different languages. This has also led to some unique merchants accepting DigiByte as a payment options, including a shop that sells...crocodile meat! (No we’re not making this up) So far so good for DigiByte really, a coin that hasn’t even been around for three weeks,merchants gladly accepting it as a payment option and DigiByte being picked up on a brand new exchange… Really good stuff. But it doesn’t end there though, as the team behind DigiByte, as well as the community, have been developing some new goodies for us to play with.



Digibyte : The Currency Everyone Can Relate To

First of all, there is a DigiByte Android wallet. Yes, this soon after the coin’s release, whereas other coins take months, years,, or simply do not bother to get a mobile wallet. Big props to the developers. We have tested the DigiByte Android wallet, and it runs smooth. Syncing is fast, transactions are nearly instant. Really outstanding work!

There is also a neat Chrome Extension for DigiByte, completely free of charge of course. It’s a DigiByte price ticker, which shows you the DigiByte value in either US dollars, or Bitcoin, depending on the settings you prefer. It saves the hassle of opening up another Chrome tab to keep an eye on the price.

There are many more things in the works for DigiByte in the (near) future too though. Setting up a DigiByte Foundation for example, a DigiByte marketplace for both physical and virtual goods & services, and a DigiByte to USD exchange. We are sure that more projects will be added to this list once more people jump on the DigiByte train.

Algorithm Scrypt

Launch Date January 10th 2014

Exchanges? CoinMarket,CryptoKopen

Language Support English,French,Dutch,Russian,Spanish,Chinese, German,Italian,Korean,Portugese,Danish,

Greek,Finnish,Polish,Czech,Slovak,Romanian, Hebrew,Turkish

Mobile Wallet Android

http://facebook.com/digibytecoin

http://www.twitter.com/DigiByteCoin



DogeCoin : Such Wow, Very currency, Sexy Price

The one cryptocurrency that caught virtually everyone off-guard is DogeCoin. No one was sure what to make of it, as it sounded, apologies for saying so, stupid at first glance. Naming a cryptocurrency after the term “dog”, but misspelling it a bit, and then adding a cute image on the coin. Sure, who’s going to invest in that? Well, it turned out we were all wrong for not believing in DogeCoin a lot sooner. Who would’ve thought that creating a meme would be such an excellent way to promote a cryptocurrency? Even though I love memes myself (cats, mostly!), no one would ever tie it to something that could at one point become so valuable. Unless… What if it was a brilliant marketing move from the start? Sure, anyone can create a coin and run with it, but maybe this whole meme thing was a deliberate strategy, plotted out by the developers of DogeCoin. If it was, than my hat goes off to all of those people, because it has worked even better than most people anticipated. Whether this was the plan all along, or people just kept improving the original meme, is a bit hard to tell in fairness. Although I’m sure no one really cares about it at this point. All we want is to see how far DogeCoin can get, and how much people are willing to pay for it. Let’s take a look at how it all evolved over the past months.

The day was December 8th, 2013. I would like to say I could still remember what I

was doing when it all began, and make it sound more exciting than it was, but I was

just sitting in my chair, browsing the BitcoinTalk forums. Suddenly, the announcement

was there: “DogeCoin - Very currency, many coin!”

At first, I thought: “wait, what? Is this some Chinese coin that got google translated?”.

Of course, as is part of human nature, we tend to click on odd links on the interwebz,

whether we like it or not. So I clicked open the thread, and some a coin with a picture

of a dog. Dog, Doge….Google translate much, yes?

“Very Scrypt, such random, much profit, many coin”. Thinking to myself “Am I

delirious? What on earth is going on? “, I scrolled down and saw it was an actual new

cryptocurrency, called DogeCoin. “Okay….” Available for Windows and Mac, it has a

website, a faucet and gambling sites supporting it. Time to give it a shot.



DogeCoin : Such Wow, Very currency, Sexy Price

So I started doing some more research on why THIS dog specifically. is it a rare race, or is it just someone’s dog? Turns out it’s themed after the pomeranian breed of dogs.

That’s when it struck me. (Sometimes it takes a while). Everyone knows what a dog (e) is, but only a margin of those people know what a pomeranian dog is. So you just go for the big audience. Smart choice to be honest. It’s something everyone can relate to in one way or another, so they’ll pay attention to it for sure!

Anyway, enough with the background information. The question we are all waiting to see answered is: “why is DogeCoin so popular?” Well, it’s simple. You create an animal meme, you turn it into a cryptocurrency that might be worth something someday, and you push it into the hands of as many people as possible.

No one really expected it to be worth even 0.00001 US Dollar each at best. How wrong we were… Current market cap shows it about 0.0014 US Dollar per DogeCoin. Considering the fact there are 38 billion DogeCoin in circulation right now, that is a quite big number to stick on the total value of DogeCoin. (~2.3 million US Dollars)

What is certain though, is that we haven’t seen the last of DogeCoin yet, not by a long

shot. So many people still haven’t heard of it. DogeCoin might be the perfect crypto

coin to draw you into the world of cryptocurrency. Trust me, you’ll like what you see,

read and learn.

Algorithm Scrypt


Exchanges? Vircurex,CoinedUp,Bter,Cryptsy,Coins-E

Language Support English, Polish


http://facebook.com/DogeCoin

http://www.twitter.com/Dogecoin

http://facebook.com/DogeCoin



In some regards, NobleCoin isn’t that much different from EarthCoin, as both cryptocurrencies are trying to bring forth the best in people. Both very noble (see what I did there?) causes indeed. But NobleCoin is taking a slightly different approach towards reaching it goals, and so far, it seems to be working as more and more people start to take note of NobleCoin.

As you have probably guessed by now, NobleCoin is all about bringing out the “noble” side of people, in a constructive way for everyone to benefit from. The way this is to be achieved is by joining the Noble Movement, by raising global awareness of, and improving the potential behind cryptocurrency in general.

Once the “noble” side of cryptocurrency has been highlighted, we should see a wider spread adoption. One way to put a focus on the “noble” side of cryptocurrency, is by helping to raise funds for charities, such as The Water Project for example. This is one of the first charities to openly welcome cryptocurrency payments. Outside of charities openly accepting NobleCoin as a form of payment, there will always be a “charity reserve fund”. Eligible charities, as voted on by the NobleCoin community, will be put on a short list in order to receive donations. Requirements to be eligible include: having a global focus, as well as being as free from political influence as possible.

Outside of charities, third parties can also receive donations, if they are in some form

connected to a charity or a good cause. A merchant can offer “non-monetary” aid to

a good cause, such as the supply of food and medicine, or tents. As these goods

cost money, the merchant can then accept donations in NobleCoin, which are then

exchanged into fiat currency.

NobleCoin isn’t just about charities and helping people in need though. The way

things are going, every person on the planet will be in need over the next few

decades, so the fundamentals are being put in place now by NobleCoin. It’s all about

helping each other now, and trying to create a better future for ourselves and future

generations.



“A sound, distributed, decentralized and secure means of digital exchange done at a global scale is a noble pursuit.” Not all control should be in the hands of a few people, we should all have a say in how we want to exchange information and goods digitally. Especially when it comes to sending and receiving payments.

You too can help spread of NobleCoin, by becoming a NobleCoin Ambassador. What this means is that you will spread the word about NobleCoin, come up with some (potentially mindblowing) ideas, and basically help NobleCoin grow to become an established value in both the online, as well as the real life world.

One of NobleCoin’s up-and-coming features is the Noble Marketplace. This will be a sort of Amazon-like online shop, where you can and sell goods with NobleCoin. Beta testing of the Noble Marketplace is expected to begin around the end of February. More details on this project will be announced in the near future.

CoinPayments, a payment processor of over 40 different cryptocurrencies, has added NobleCoin to their list of accepted coins. This came a bit out of the blue, but it’s definitely a sign of things to come. NobleCoin is on people’s radar now, and it can only get better from that point forward.

With a business plan in their back pocket, and the necessary skills to make NobleCoin a success, this is without a shadow of a doubt the noblest cryptocurrency of this decade.

Algorithm Scrypt

Launch Date Janaury 7th 2014

Exchanges? CoinMarket,Poloniex

Language Support English, French,Russian,Chinese,Dutch, Portugese,Swedish,Spanish


http://facebook.com/Noblecoinz

http://www.twitter.com/NobleCoin

http://facebook.com/Noblecoinz



CRYPTOCURRENCY SERVICE REVIEWS

RapidBalls (pages 42-44)

CoinGig (pages 45-48)

Cryptsy (pages 49-50)

Netflix4BTC (page 51)



RapidBalls : Fun for All &

Excellent In Entertainment

When you are dealing with cryptocurrencies, there are always a few objectives on your mind: making a profit and having fun. But what if you could combine those two? Make profit either in fiat value, or by getting more coins, but in a fun and secure way? That would be the dream really. it’s a good thing there are sites like RapidBalls. RapidBalls is a gambling website. Not just any ordinary gambling website either though. As you might have derived from its name, RapidBalls is about lottery games, raffles, and jackpots. You know, the fun stuff. And it is doing an amazing job towards creating the ultimate fun & hassle-free online gambling experience we have all been waiting for.

When dealing with money in a gambling fashion, the first thing that comes to mind is: “Is my money secure?” At RapidBalls, you’ll never have to worry about that. All cryptocurrency payments are stored in separate wallets, spread out over multiple servers. There has never been any incident regarding lost or stolen coins.

Another thing to worry about when using cryptocurrency for eGaming purposes, is depositing and withdrawing of funds. These processes need to be completed in a short time span, or else we’ll start to worry, because that’s human nature. It won’t take longer than 2 minutes for money to be deposited and withdrawn on RapidBalls, as user experience is their #1 priority.

So what about the supported cryptocurrencies then? I mean, we want to have some choice in which coins we support and want to play with,right? No need to worry, as RapidBalls supports no less than SIX different cryptocurrencies : Bitcoin, DevCoin, DogeCoin, WorldCoin, PrimeCoin and LottoCoin are all supported, both for raffles and the actual games.

In case you would run into an issue of some kind, or have any other question about

the RapidBalls website in general, you can always contact their support staff.

Reactions times are extremely fast (dare we say …. rapid?), and the staff themselves

are friendly and know what they’re talking about. Exactly what you would come to

expect from RapidBalls.





Now that we’ve taken a closer look at all technical and support worries you might have when first approaching RapidBalls, it’s time to talk about their fine selection of games and raffles, don’t you think? They actually recently added a new game, just for you!

Do you like playing the lottery? A silly question really, because almost everyone does. The only issue with the lottery as we know is that, despite our best attempts, you hardly ever win anything, because the odds are stacked against you big time. And you need at least three correct numbers to win peanuts too….

RapidBalls is here to change that, even though the system is similar. Instead of picking 6 lucky numbers, you’ll only have to select 5 while a total of 6 are drawn. Yup, that’s correct, if you manage to get five out of six balls correct, you win 1200 times your bet, plus the jackpot. That sounds good, right?

In case you wouldn’t be that lucky, have no fear. Whenever you manage to get at least two numbers right, you can call yourself a winner. You will (only) get 50% of your original bet back, but that’s still a much better payment than what you would get with the real life lottery, where you might get 30% back if you’re really lucky. If lottery numbers aren’t exactly your thing, there are other options available too. Are you any good with colors? Then you can play the “Colors” game, where you try to predict how many times a certain color will be drawn, ranging from 0x to 6x. However, you can’t select the obvious choices, like 1x and 2x. That would be too easy really.

We also have the “Totals” game, where you guess the total value of all drawn balls. For example, you have a draw of numbers 3 - 12 - 19 - 33 - 35 - 44. This mean the total value would be 3+12+19+33+35+44 = 152. If you guessed that the “Totals” result would be between 151 and 200, you’ll win twice the amount of the original bet. Want to make it even more complicated? Then the “Lucky” game is exactly what you’re looking for. “Lucky” is the sum of all the total numbers combined. So when we look at the above example, the “Totals” number is 151, then your lucky number would be 1+5+1 = 7. This is one of the most fun games in my book.





I did mention a new game was added, which is called “Reds”. The objective here is predicting that there will be more red balls drawn compared to any of the other colors (blue, yellow, purple and green). For example, if a draw had 3 reds, 2 yellow and 1 green, you would’ve won if you betted on there being more red balls drawn than either yellow or green.

There is one aspect about RapidBalls that we haven’t discussed yet, even though it’s the most important factor about online gambling: is it fair? A very good question, with a very simple answer; RapidBalls is provably fair. This means that all draws are 100% random, without interference from the site owner. The provably fair guarantee can be verified by yourself if you wish, because it’s been open-sourced, and is currently used on nearly every trustworthy gambling website. Check out the RapidBalls Frequently Asked Questions for more information about the provably fair system, and how to test it for yourself.

As you can see, RapidBalls offers something for everyone who wants to have fun.

And rest assured that there will be more games added over time. It is possible that

more cryptocurrencies will be supported in the near future, but no official details are

available yet.

Website http://www.rapidballs.eu

Type eGaming

Provably Fair? Yes

Supported cryptocurrencies

Bitcoin,WorldCoin,LottoCoin, DogeCoin,DevCoin,PrimeCoin

Mobile App No(t yet)

N/A

http://www.twitter.com/RapidBalls



The Global Bitcoin Marketplace

CoinGig is a very interesting platform to say the least. It not only allows you to buy and/or sell (virtual) goods in exchange for Bitcoin, but it also offers a built-in Escrow service to both buyer and seller. We have taken both the role of as a buyer (Jdebunt) and seller (Sergios), and would like to share our conclusions with all of you.

1. Buyer’s perspective (by Jdebunt)

I find myself browsing the CoinGig website on a nearly daily basis ever since I have completed my first purchase there. There is just so much variety of (virtual) goods offered for sale, and it also allows me to earn some extra Bitcoin if I ever wanted to sell something. But how does the buy process work exactly?

First of all, you need to find an item that you are really interested in. For me, I just wanted something simple, like a Bitcoin T-shirt. Luckily for me, those aren’t too hard to find on CoinGig , as they separate categories for almost anything, including clothing. Or, to be more precise, clothing, shoes and jewelry.

The item my eye got drawn to was a burgundy red t-shirt, with the simple text of “BTC”. And a Bitcoin logo next to it (do a search for it on CoinGig, you can’t miss it)). The price is pretty cheap, 0.034 Bitcoin is the price I paid, which roughly converts to 20 US Dollars, including shipping to Belgium.

I ordered the item I wanted, and was redirected to the CoinGig checkout page, where

I was given a Bitcoin deposit address to send the coins to. Sending the money over

from my Cryptsy balance and waiting for the confirmations took about 20 minutes.

Not that this is CoinGig’s or Cryptsy’s fault, the Bitcoin network can be a bit slow at

times.

Once the payment was confirmed, I received a confirmation e-mail from CoinGig with

the order details. Meanwhile, the money is being held in Escrow by CoinGig. This

means they notified the seller about the purchase that I made, and it was up to them

to ship it out as fast as possible. I e-mailed the seller with the color I wanted, as well

as the size.




A few days later (it was near the New Year’s holidays so it’s understandable it takes a bit longer, plus you can’t simply print out a T-Shirt in 5 minutes time either), I received a new e-mail saying that my order had been shipped! I was very excited and anxiously awaited my package, containing my Bitcoin tshirt!

There was no tracking number included in the shipping confirmation e-mail, but considering that I didn’t have to pay extra for shipping, I couldn’t complain too much. Nor was that necessary, as the package arrived four days later in the mail. Somehow I also managed to avoid import fees, so I got lucky there I guess.

The package itself was wrapped carefully, and the T-Shirt was exactly as promised: the correct size and color, the logo printed on really nicely, top notch stuff. The quality of the T-Shirt is excellent, as it’s made by Fruit of the Loom, and they deliver quality products. So far so good, right?

After checking out the goods, I logged back in to the CoinGig website and marked

the item as “Received”. Once I did that, the funds held in Escrow were released to

the seller. All in all, it was a flawless experience, and the Escrow services added that

extra layer of protection we all want when doing some online shopping, especially

with Bitcoin.

I can’t recommend CoinGig enough to buy things online. Unfortunately, I have no

experience with selling goods on CoinGig (yet), so I’ll leave that up to my partner in

crime, Sergios.

2. Seller’s perspective (by Sergios)

Coingig, is a site where people can sell and buy digital goods as well as physical

goods. The site uses escrow to ensure security. The Escrow system has been

around since the beginning of Internet auctions and commerce won in popularity. It

was one of the many developments that allowed for trust to be established in the

online sphere.




As with traditional escrow, Internet escrow works by placing money in the control of

an independent and licensed third party in order to protect both buyer and seller in a

transaction. When both parties verify the transaction has been completed per terms

set, the money is released. If at any point there is a dispute between the parties in

the transaction, the process moves along to dispute resolution.

The outcome of the dispute resolution process will decide what happens to money in

escrow. With the growth of both business and individual commerce on the web

traditional escrow companies have been supplanted by new technologies.

The European Union has allowed the introduction of very low-cost Internet escrow

services that are licensed and government-regulated. The legislation that has been

created by the EU allows these web-based escrow services to operate on European

websites. The EU wanted to create and enhance security in commercial transactions

and therefore they gave the “green light” for escrow.

Problems with Escrow Everybody knows that most people that sells/buy things online are pretty decent

people. Of course now and again some of us will inevitably come in contact with

shady characters that want to “scam” unsuspecting potential buyers and sellers.

One of these “scam” practices is the following: In an effort to bamboozle a wary

potential buyer, the seller will propose the use of a third-party escrow service. The

victim is unaware that the seller has actually created a near exact copy of a

legitimate escrow site. The hoodwinked buyer sends payment to the fraudulent

escrow company and receives nothing. This practice can also work vice versa. The

seller sends the product to the buyer and waits for his/her payment through the

escrow site, which is never received.

Escrow is still the best and safest way to do business though. There are online

guides and lists, both from government institutions and from buyers/sellers, which

provide a good deal of information about legitimate online escrow companies. There

are also lists in existence of “scammers”. If you do enough research before buying,

the research will only take a couple of minutes and can save you from a horrible

experience; you can do some great deals.

.




However Escrow isn’t “the holy grail” of doing business. Some of these “scamming”

practices have been used in other online actions like eBay and PayPal. Sellers send

their items to the people that paid for them. They send the item with “registered “and

or “signed for” mail. The buyer did receive their item, because there was a record of

accepting/signing for delivery, and still the buyer complains about “not having

received the item”.

2. Coingig and selling.

Selling on Coingig is much better than on eBay. The most important thing is that

Coingig isn’t greedy as eBay is. They have a much more reasonable “fee” when the

product sells. Working with Coingig it’s also easy and everybody can use it. It is very

simple and isn’t complicated so the accessibility is very high. So far Coingig is only

accepting Bitcoin to do trades and adjusts the BTC price in real time.

This will prevent buyers and sellers to go into heated arguments about the price of

the item etc. All in all a fair and good system that Coingig employs.

Placing your item on Coingig is free. There is no annoying little popup screen yelling

at you that you need to pay a certain amount of money to upload photos. You can

upload a certain amount of pictures for free.

Website http://www.coingig.com

Type Marketplace

Escrow? Yes, built-in


Bitcoin


http://www.facebook.com/coingig

http://www.twitter.com/coingig



“The fact that Cryptsy trades such a big

amount of different coins is both a blessing

and a curse I’m afraid.”

Cryptsy is one of the biggest altcoin exchange currently available. By biggest, I don't necessarily mean in terms of trading volume, but rather in terms of available cryptocurrencies that can be traded. Cryptsy also offers some unique features, which we will discuss further later on.

In total, Cryptsy lists a couple of dozen different altcoins that can be traded against either Bitcoin, Litecoin or Primecoin. Yeah, you are not reading it wrong, Cryptsy has a Primecoin trading market. More details can be found later on in the article.

The fact that Cryptsy trades such a big amount of different coins is both a blessing and a curse I'm afraid. The upside is that a lot of people (are forced to) use Cryptsy for their trading needs. It also helps a lot of different cryptocurrencies gain more reaction both inside their community, as well as from potential investors.

That is pretty much all positive news regarding Cryptsy I'm afraid. The downside about all those different coins is that it brings a lot of people and transactions to the Cryptsy exchange. This leads, inevitably, to massive lag spikes at times, leading to delays in orders, deposits and withdrawals. Not a very pleasant experience, I can tell you that much..

There is nothing worse than not being able to execute your buy or sell order at a certain time, simply because the servers can't keep up. Especially when you are trying to maximize profits (read: day trading) , this will become very frustrating.

It wouldn't be such a problem if this only occurred once in a blue moon, so to speak.

Unfortunately for Cryptsy users, this is a daily occurrence, even several times per day

occasionally. These issues have been going on for months now, and even after

server upgrades, things haven't improved at all.

But enough with the negativity, it's time for us to take a look at some of the features

that make Cryptsy unique. For starters, as I've mentioned earlier, Cryptsy has a

Primecoin trading market. That's something you won't be able to find at any other

exchange.



“However, rumors are circulating, stating that

the CryptsyPoints will be usable to buy

hardware and Cryptsy merchandise

at some point”

Even though Cryptsy's Primecoin trading market is fairly limited regarding supported coins, it does create that extra option for certain altcoins. It still remains to be seen if the Primecoin trading market will be either expanded, or perhaps even removed completely, as it is not bringing in a great amount of trading volume. Things are always subject to change of course.

Other than the Primecoin market, Cryptsy awards its users with CryptsyPoints. These points are awarded based on your own executed trades, as well as the trades executed by any people you may have referred to Cryptsy. These points won't add up quickly for small traders, but it gives an added value to Cryptsy.

CryptsyPoints can be sold in exchange for Bitcoin at this point. However, rumors are circulating stating that the CryptsyPoints will be usable to buy hardware and Cryptsy merchandise at some point, maybe even later this year. This is a feature we will be keeping a close eye on. As soon as we find out more information, an article will be posted on our website.

For now, Cryptsy is your best bet to exchange most of the altcoins out there, and you will have to take the bad with the good unfortunately. For some specific coins, there are other viable options out there. You just have to do some research...

Website http://www.cryptsy.com

Type Exchange

Escrow? No


Far too many to list


http://www.facebook.com/Cryptsy1

http://www.twitter.com/Cryptsy

http://www.cryptsy.com/

http://www.facebook.com/Cryptsy1



Netflix4BTC – Netflix/Hulu gift codes

for Bitcoin The fact that we can purchase goods for Bitcoin is great, I absolutely love it. Before I made a purchase on CoinGig (see pages 44-45) however, I also made some smaller purchases on the BitcoinTalk forum.

One of those purchases was a 12 month Hulu plus gift code. Basically, this gives you a full year of Hulu Plus without any credit card charges. As I am a longtime Hulu Plus user, it seemed appropriate to give one of these codes a try.

The person I bought it from also runs his own website where you can buy these codes, called Netflix4btc.com. Simply select the code you want (Netflix, Hulu, Pandora or Itunes) and checkout. Payments are handled by Bitpay, and the code will be e-mailed to you shortly after your payment completed.

We would like to thanks Netflix4btc for being the first sponsor of our fine magazine. We are looking forward to doing more business with you guys in the future.

Crypto Monthly #1

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Transcript of Crypto Monthly #1