Cryptocurrency Stock Exchange If you happen to have a Delorean DMC-12 time machine parked in your garage, the very same one Michael J. Fox used to bend the space time continuum and travel back in time in the movie, Back to the Future, why not use it to full effect and purchase bucket loads of cryptocurrency before anyone even heard about what exactly is Bitcoin. But hold your horses! There aren't many people who know that the world of trading in virtual currencies did not originate from when Bitcoin was first used and recognised. Rather, virtual currencies have always been around in the days and still is commonly found in Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing games or MMORPG. The numero uno MMORPG, World of Warcraft (WOW) has an in-game Auction House where players buy and sell items found in the game. However, enterprising geeks will try to monopolise the in game market and start selling gold coins, a currency used in the game in exchange for real world currency. If you are thinking only a small handful of players would actually do that then you'll be in for a world of surprise. Right now, players with enough gold coins to spare can even play for free every month by using these gold coins earned in the game and purchase a free monthly token. Who says gaming is a waste of time? And neither trading in Bitcoin is. Currently the worth of cryptocurrencies is a whooping $200 billion, fluctuating as per supply and demand in the market. This has led to governments implementing laws in the trading of cryptocurrencies with China being among the first to outrightly ban Initial Coin Offerings or ICO as illegal. ICOs, a form of crowdfunding makes use of blockchain cryptography by encrypting information like ownership of shares and other financial commodities into the blockchain system ensuring tamper proof data storage. As more industries start making use of blockchains to securely store data, governments must step in to regulate. That's because even among the different types of cryptocurrencies, each of them functions in different ways from the most popular Bitcoin. Would be too eager investors might genuinely find themselves parking their money in the wrong lot. There is this possibility of it happening since the advent of Bitcoin wasn't invented in the 1900s. It's still a relatively new investment option. If trading in Bitcoin is an option too attractive to turn away from, there is a long list of ICOs allowing investors to park their money in pretty large investment options with initial buy-in of $10,000 or even more. But don't think there's only going in the Bitcoin way. There's Ripple, another cryptocurrency use in the financial services industry with recognition by UBS and Santander. There's also another currency/project called Ethereum that allows smart contracts stored in an automated way. For the Lords of Gambling, there are also online gambling tokens that can be used in similar fashion as well as digital tokens created for use in online and mobile games. Blockchains and cryptocurrencies have such a promising future that it is a new technology that is impossible to not take a quick glance. Putting it even more plainly, just like links in a chain, each block even has a time stamped on the block next to it and the records of the next one and the next, so on and so forth. This means hackers cannot simply gain access to one block and not alter the rest of all the blocks in the chain. It's noticeable. Because of the huge amounts of data stored in blockchains, one would need a lot of processing power from a multitude of computers just to change all of the chains connected in the network. And not unlike having a physical server address and location, there isn't one for blockchains. There's no server hub for blockchains, it's 'off the grid'. Of course experts have also chipped in and highlight the possibility of smaller blockchain networks being more susceptible of being hacked. Blockchains aren't just solely for business functions only. As long as the need for storage of sensitive and important information is ever present, switching over to blockchain technology is always there, awaiting implementation. The leading $1.6 billion Digital Currency Exchange firm, Coinbase, approached the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in December 2017 indicating it would like to be granted the license and be recognised as a brokerage firm. Economists and traders view this as a positive indication and a huge step forward about the future and legitimacy of cryptocurrencies that one day, trading in these digital currencies like Bitcoin would be no different than trading in forex or bonds. Only recently founded in 2011 and headquartered in San Francisco, California, Coinbase
wishes to take hold of the reins and be the first brokerage firm to be granted trading status and have Bitcoin and other digital currencies be treated as securities. That's because the SEC hasn't exactly decided which of these currencies can be treated as such. But until further government regulation kicks in, the more volatile and less popular digital currencies will not be accepted on Coinbase as a digital token to be traded. The more popular tokens on Coinbase can be easily traded by retail investors who are otherwise unfamiliar with the multitude of cryptocurrencies currently in the market. That's what makes trading on Coinbas so popular. At present, Coinbase has stated that according to transactions on it's trading platform, Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litcoin and Bitcoin cash pull in almost $8 billion last year. What makes trading on Coinbase different from other Crypto Exchange firms is in it's policy of only listing currencies that are more stable and have less fluctuations in price. They just wish to avoid financial repercussions from the SEC clamping down hard on Initial Coin Offerings (ICO) like the one from Centra, a Miami-based startup company. The SEC charged two of Centra's founders, Sam Sharma and Robert Farkas with federal criminal and civil charges for fraud. The company sought $32 million in the company's ICO. Allegedly, according to the SEC, the company marketed lies about their partnerships with certain businesses about a new introduction of a digital currency debit card. This debit card had the acceptance from the tie-up Centra has with these businesses and the card itself is also jointly partnered by Visa and Mastercard. So investors can use these cards just as they would with any credit card. There were even plans of a future launch by Centra of a cryptocurrency based credit card. To further the ruse, the company even had celebrities like boxer Floyd Mayweather help promote their marketing campaign. What makes an ICO different is that it functions more like a crowdfunding effort than a traditional startup company raising money by selling stocks to the public via Initial Public Offering (IPO) with the investor owning a part of the company. In an ICO, the company offers a new type of cryptocurrency and exchanges it for a more establish one like Bitcoin. But by large, an ICO is unregulated unlike IPOs which have been around for so much longer. Coinbase hopes to circumvent all these fraudsters by only working with more established cryptocurrencies or companies. In the ever increasing upward trend of blockchain tech and cryptocurrency, the latest news is about Facebook wanting to utilise blockchain technology for all of their systems and collaborate with Coinbase board member David Marcus. All things seem to indicate clear skies and good weather for Coinbase and it certainly looks like they are here to stay and for a good decade or more to come.