Is Bitcoin really fast enough for it to be considered “instantaneous”?

Will it survive it’s faster competitors like Maxcoin? Is it a realistic platform for on-site transactions on the retail and on-trade environment?

Will it work alongside with faster coins as the “safer” and more “vintage” cousin of the family?

Or is it doomed to fall to faster and more modern competitors like Maxcoin?

Read more: Will Bitcoin survive it’s faster competitors like Maxcoin?

Worst Crash In Our Lifetime Is Coming – Jim Rogers

Legendary investor Jim Rogers sat down with Business Insider CEO Henry Blodget on this week’s episode of “The Bottom Line.”

Rogers predicts a market crash “later this year or next …. write it down.” Rogers say the crash will rival anything he has seen in his lifetime.

Jim Rogers holds a gold coin (Digital Journal)

Here is a transcript of the Business Insider video:

Blodget: One of the things I’ve always admired about you as an investor is that you don’t talk about what should be. You figure out what is going to be and then you do that. So what is going to be with respect to the stock market? What’s going to happen?

Rogers: I learned very early in my investing careers: I better not invest in what I want. I better invest in what’s happening in the world. Otherwise I’ll be broke — dead broke. Well, what’s going to happen is it’s going to continue. Some stocks in America are turning into a bubble. The bubble’s gonna come. Then it’s going to collapse, and you should be very worried. But, Henry, this is good for you. Because someone has to report it. So you have job security. You’re a lucky soul.

Blodget: Well, yeah, TV ratings do seem to go up during crashes, but then they completely disappear when everyone is obliterated, so no one is hoping for that. So when is this going to happen?

Rogers:……..

Click here to continue reading

A collapse of the current global fiat currency regime is, concerningly, something that increasingly looks more and more inevitable. This will destroy a staggering amount of the (paper) wealth currently held by today’s households.

Which makes developing a fully-informed understanding of the cryptocurrency landscape now — today — an extremely important requirement for any prudent investor. Which of the current coins will emerge as the winner(s) adopted by the mainstream?

Click here to read the full report

Things to come’ in the financialized economy is on the agenda for Max and Stacy in this episode, and they also ask whether or not James Howard Kunstler is right in his prediction that ‘the financialized economy is entering its moment of final catastrophic phase-change.’ Max also interviews lawyer and filmmaker John Titus, of All the Plenary’s Men, about the not-so-secret and yet little-discussed Financial Stability Board authority over sovereign powers to regulate banks. Titus highlights the case of HSBC and the threat made by George Osborne to the Obama administration’s Department of Justice.

In Part 3, we investigate just who changed the Sabbath to Sunday – and does resting on Sunday REALLY honor the day of Jesus’ resurrection?
The answer may SHOCK YOU…

Click Here For Full Golden Nuggets of Truth Coverage:

Go for Gold – Win a beautiful Gold Sovereign coin

The Irish Times has teamed up with GoldCore, Ireland’s first and leading gold broker, to offer you the chance to win a beautiful, freshly minted Gold Sovereign coin (2017) which contains nearly one quarter of an ounce of gold and is ‘investment grade’ 22 carat pure gold.

Gold Sovereigns can be bought for insured delivery or in ultra secure vaults and remain one of the safest ways for investors and savers to diversify into gold. They are tax free (no VAT) highly liquid stores of value in these uncertain times. They are capital gains tax (CGT) free in the UK. Gold Sovereigns also make great gifts and are a good way to pass on wealth to the next generation.

To be in with a chance to win this fantastic prize, answer a simple question here:

Many of us have written about cycles in the past decade: Kondratieff economic cycles, business/credit cycles, the Strauss–Howe generational theory (an existential national crisis arises every four generations, as described in their book The Fourth Turning), and long-wave cycles of growth and decline, as described in seminal books such as The Great Wave: Price Revolutions and the Rhythm of History and War and Peace and War: The Rise and Fall of Empires.

There is another Rhythm of American History that few recognize: the economic, social and political crises sparked by exploitive Elites. There are two dynamics that drive these crises:

1. The exploitation of commoners by financial/political Elites reaches extremes that create systemic instability as commoners no longer have the means to improve their conditions.

2. The economic mode of production that generated Elite wealth no longer functions, but the Elites cling to the failing system and enforce it with increasingly violent suppression of dissent.

Here are the previous Crises of Exploitive Elites:

1. Slavery, 1850 to 1865. Though the toxins generated by slavery are still with us, the existential political, social and economic crisis arose in the years between 1850 and the end of the Civil War in 1865.

In broad brush, the rise of the American West triggered a political crisis in the U.S. as the southern states realized the non-slave West’s rising political power would doom the fragile balance between the non-slave Northern industrial-economy states and the cotton/agricultural slave-economy South.

It was a trend the South couldn’t possibly win, but the South’s exploitive Elites refused to concede any of their power–and that refusal to adapt to changing conditions guaranteed the Civil War.

The first Industrial Revolution radically transformed the source of wealth creation. The plantation agrarian mode of production of the South was eclipsed by the vast wealth-generating might of the rapidly industrializing North.

The Southern political and economic Elites could not win economically or politically, so they attempted a military solution–a war they might have won had it not been for the Westerners Lincoln, Grant and Sherman. (Lincoln was born and raised in the frontiers of Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois; both Grant and Sherman were born in Ohio and served in Army postings along the West Coast.)

The moral tide was rising against slavery. The Christian world had long been divided on the issue of slavery, but the tide turned against slavery in the early-to-mid-1800s, both in Great Britain an the U.S. Moral turnings are powerful instigators of political crises, and once again the Southern Elites attempted to stem this tide with military force.

2. The Crisis of Gilded-Age Exploitation, 1892 to 1914. The dates of this crisis are inexact and open to interpretation, but in broad brush, the Second Industrial Revolution (mass production, integrated industrial corporations, the rising dominance of Finance and Industrial Capital, emergence of monopolies and cartels, etc.) forced millions of commoners into the penury of wage-labor while concentrating the gains of capital and speculation into the hands of the few.

Adjusted for inflation, the wealth of the financier-industrialists in this era exceeds the wealth of today’s billionaires, and is on par with the extremes of wealth concentration that characterize the last stages of the Roman Empire.

Commoners attempting to unionize were brutally suppressed by hired private enforcers and the police/military forces of the American government. Radical unions such as the I.W.W. (Industrial Workers of the World, a.k.a. Wobblies) were destroyed by coordinated, concerted government suppression, much of it by means that are visibly illegal by today’s standards.

The conflict between exploited industrial labor and politically dominant Capital was eventually resolved by progressive anti-trust laws (aided by President Theodore Roosevelt) and the beginnings of social rights and welfare programs–universal education, limits on hours worked per week, etc.

3. The Great Depression and the Failure of Debt-Based Capitalism, 1929 to 1941. Capital was increasingly concentrated in the hands of the Elites in the Roaring 20s, but the commoners had new access to the financial magic of credit: banks sprouted by the thousands, anxious to loan money to fund the purchase of more farmland, new autos, and all the other output of a consumerist economy.

But alas, credit is not collateral, nor is it wealth. When the debt bubble burst, so did the stock market, which was based on highly leveraged margin debt.

The Elite financiers resisted writing down the debt that had made them so rich, and as a result the Depression dragged on, immiserating millions who then turned to fascism or radical socialism as the political fixes to the systemic exploitation and dominance of Elites.

4. Civil Rights and Global Empire, 1954 to 1973. The legacy of slavery’s oppression had lingered on for almost 100 years, and the rising prosperity of the 1950s and 60s generated a social, moral, political and economic movement to throw off the most oppressive aspects of an exploitive social/political order.

At the same time, the costs of maintaining a Global Empire were raised to a boiling point by the war in Vietnam, which destabilized the moral, political, social and economic orders.

In response the Elites instigated waves of violent, suppressive state tactics designed to disrupt and destroy the organized dissent of social movements. These tactics included the FBI’s COINTELPRO programs as well as other blatantly illegal, heavy-handed government enforcement of the dominance of exploitive Elites.

I’ve written extensively about state over-reach and illegal suppression of dissent: remember, the state exists to enforce the dominance of Elites: everything else is propaganda, misdirection and obfuscation.

Welcome to the United States of Orwell, Part 3: We had to Destroy Democracy in Order to Save It (March 28, 2012)

State Over-Reach: Stripmining the Citizenry for Fun and Profit (November 13, 2009)

When It Becomes Serious, First They Lie–When That Fails, They Arrest You (March 16, 2015)

For more on COINTELPRO, please read War at Home: Covert action against U.S. activists and what we can do about it.

Simply put: when lies no longer work, the government devotes its resources not to eliminating wars of choice, cronyism and corruption but to suppressing dissent and resistance to those extractive, exploitive policies.

Which brings us to the present-day Crisis of Exploitive Elites. The “fixes” to the stagnation of postwar Elite/state-dominated Capitalism in the 1970s were financialization, globalism, and the sustained expansion of debt in all sectors–state, corporate and household.

Now all three engines of “growth” have run out of steam. All three greatly exacerbated wealth and income inequality, as these two charts reveal:

Once again, the political and economic Elites are resisting the tides that are undermining their Empires of Debt and Exploitation. The Elite-controlled Corporate Media has been ordered to War Status, an DefCon-5 emergency requiring an endless spew of all-out propaganda designed to distract, disrupt and destroy organized dissent and any resistance to the dominance of Exploitive political and financial Elites.

The Exploitive Elites cannot turn back the clock, so they cling to their failed “fixes” and demand our compliance.

The Exploitive Elites cannot turn back the tides of history, but they can immiserate millions. That seems to be “solution” enough for them, but you cannot destroy rising moral revulsion to soaring inequality and the abject failure of debt-based global capitalism with mere media propaganda.

Of related interest:

Coming Apart: The Imperial City At The Brink

The U.S. Is Where the Rich Are the Richest

The Pin To Pop This Mother Of All Bubbles?

If you found value in this content, please join me in seeking solutions by becoming a $1/month patron of my work via patreon.com.

In today’s competitive world, businesses are trying their best cut down on time spent in non-profitable activities. With the traditional financial setup, general transactions end up taking way longer than expected to cause a loss of time and investment opportunities. To tackle the issue of loss of valuable time and avoid paying a reasonably high transaction fee, most of the businesses are now turning towards cryptocurrencies. While using cryptocurrencies surely is profitable, there is a problem in completing adopting the digital tokens. Leaving confidential transaction information in the public blockchain makes them an easy target for industrial espionage by their competitors.

By uncovering the ownership of individual wallet addresses, rival companies can quickly gain access to information about their competitor’s operations and supply chain. To solve these issues, ‘Blockpay’ has developed standardized point-of –sale merchant tools for commercial utility. Let’s dive deep into how ‘Blockpay‘ plans to address all the security issues and the details of their project.

What is Blockpay?

BlockPay is a blockchain based FinTech company from Munich that helps businesses with fast and straightforward payment processing services. The platform supports most of the cryptocurrencies available today. In the current scenario, businesses are not willing to take any risk by adopting blockchain based payments at this point. Some of the other factors affecting the use of cryptocurrency and blockchain based solutions by businesses include security, network issues followed by the active and high volatility of digital currencies. BlockPay is solving most of the security and business risks through modern Blockchain reinforcements and helps business around the world to accept digital payments for free. It is designed to be universal: supporting all digital currencies, wallets, fiat banks, and merchants. Retailers face zero fees.

How is Blockpay profitable?

 

BlockPay’s customized suite for businesses includes a specialized application for merchants along with an integrated system to support existing e-commerce systems. The application is suitable for any business including grocery chains, gas stations, vending machines, kiosks and more. Customers can choose to pay for their purchases with digital currencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Steem, Dash, Bitshares, etc. They can avail BlockPay’s Echo wallet application for carrying out the transactions. BlockPay suite also supports payments from wallets like Mycelium, Jaxx, Circle, and Dash.

Echo Wallet is a multi-currency, multi-asset wallet that also acts as a secure communication application. Merchants and customers can use Echo to send secure voice, video and instant messages over an encrypted channel.

Launch dynamics of Blockpay and its performance

The tokens sold in the ICO are ‘Blockpay’ tokens. They as such do not have a role in the Blockpay payment system. They allow the investors to share in the rewards from BlockPay transactions and revenue streams generated through the products built by the company. The crowd sale ended in September 2016 after raising 1000 BTC in just 13 days. OpenLedger worked with BlockPay to facilitate the crowdfunding process. OpenLedger has launched the Pre-ICO on its ICOO economic enterprise engine starting August 23rd, 2016.

Currently, there are almost 5.5 Million Blockpay tokens in circulation with the platforms market cap soaring above $3 million. The tokens are now trading on OpenLedger around $0.5 per token.
With the quick sale of tokens and a concept that has the range to capture payments market, Blockpay is surely a promising project.

Disclosure: Deepak Bharadwaz, Crypto Data Analyst for BlockStreet.info, was paid for his cooperation in preparing this content. Deepak provides Bitcoin Technical Analysis & Trading Intelligence.

We discuss ‘initial coin offerings’ and the ‘IPO’ target on their back as the SEC may want to defend its bureaucratic turf. Max interviews Chris Blasi about the PMC ounce, precious metals and crypto currencies.

 Some days it can feel a little rough being a gold investor. In today’s article Dominic Frisby is certainly feeling that way. Sometimes it can be all too easy to get caught up in the day to day chat around prices. Some forget that the reasons why they invested are still strong, even if it feels like the price isn’t.

Frisby reminds us that ‘We know government finances do not pass basic safety standards. We know there’s too much debt. We know asset prices are overvalued.’ and we must keep reminding ourselves that this is unsustainable and cannot go on forever.

What will last forever is gold. This is one of the major reasons for investing in bullion; it is not just because of the price. Prices change according to the damage done by governments as well as other factors, but gold’s physical form, intrinsic value and role is here to stay.

Dominic Frisby via MoneyWeek

Remember the Noughties? What a decade that was for the gold bug.

Click here to continue reading…..

With the advent of multiple cryptocurrencies that offer their own set of fundamental, strategic and technical advantages over others, the cryptocurrency market is enjoying new found diversity and flexibility. To reap the benefits of this network of cryptocurrencies and facilitate the transfer of one digital asset to another, crypto-exchanges have been launching user-friendly multi-currency wallets in the recent times. As convenient as that might be, imagine if you owned a single token that can represent any cryptocurrency available and can be transacted on its blockchain system. Exactly this is what “Internet of Coins‘” new initiative “Hybrid” is all about. Let’s dive deep into the idea behind Internet of coins and how Hybrid has the potential to become the most transacted platform in the future.

What is Internet of Coins?

Click here to read whitepaper

Internet of Coins is a structured environment for personal finance involving cryptocurrencies. As a decentralized platform, it enables a comprehensive financial network, interlinking all digital forms of value. It allows users to trade digital assets and currencies peer to peer, with an easy to use interface and the opportunity to earn fees by participating as an allocator. The best part of the platform is that the existing wallets need not go for any upgrade or change to adapt and link to the Internet of Coins. The developers are launching an inter-systemic, and cross-blockchain token called a ‘hybrid asset.’ This token allows for the transfer of value between ledger systems without the need to update or adapt existing cryptocurrency source code. The key idea is to integrate all the digital currencies into an interconnected and financially liquid web.

How is Internet of Coins profitable?

The primary motivation behind the launch of Internet of Coins is to bring a financially viable platform into play where interested parties can make the shift to the crypto-world. With various entities looking to reap the benefits of the cryptocurrencies and their quick time applications, IOC would surely be the most sought out platform in the coming years. Since anyone with any wallet can link to this platform without upgrading their schema, its utility and adoption are going to be on the higher side. A different allocation schema ensures that currencies with a small market cap receive the needed liquidity to support one’s exchange and relevancy within a good cryptosphere. The vision is to make the Internet of Coins a comprehensive autonomous network, enabling anyone to participate and build alternative financial instruments and markets, featuring equality in participation, representation and influence.

Launch Dynamics of Hybrid and its performance

The official token of the Internet of Coins platform is termed ‘HYBRID.’ It provides a store of value across multiple blockchains and serves as the medium to swap value between the different chains they are registered on. The crowdfunding was launched on 21st Mar 2017 and ended after three months on 21st June 2017. The crowdfunding of the project was a huge success with over 700,000 Hybrid tokens issued during the funding. The tokens are expected to be tradable from July 1st post the closing of the crowd sale. The tokens will be tradable on all blockchain networks irrespective of the cryptocurrency.

The founders of the platform believe that owing to the value the platform possess; its crowd sale was a humungous success without the involvement of any venture capitalists. They think that it would surely become a must-have tool for all the cryptocurrency traders shortly.

Disclosure: Deepak Bharadwaz, Crypto Data Analyst for BlockStreet.info, was paid for his cooperation in preparing this content. Deepak provides Bitcoin Technical Analysis & Trading Intelligence.

Global macro economic data has been weak for many years, but there’s now a very real chance of a world-wide recession happening in 2017.

Why? A dramatic and worsening shortfall in new credit creation.

Click here to read the full article

We discuss #carmageddon and the toxic debts that have brought the credit markets to such a scary place. In the second half, Max continues his interview with journalist and businessman, Vito Echevarria of Cuba Ventures Corp., about the latest in the US-Cuba relationship and how much of Obama’s progress is likely or not to be rolled back.

• Millienials look for instant gratification
• Spend half of their income on leisure
• Instant gratification doesn’t work if need to save for the future
• Savings rates falling, few have retirement funds
• Important to understand marginal difference between spending and pleasure
• Future wealth depends on what you decide to keep and invest in now

This week the festival of all festivals begins, Glastonbury 2017. Ed Sheeran, Foo Fighters and Barry Gibb will each be singing to the 250,000 revellers who are currently on their way to Somerset. To those unfamiliar with Glastonbury it is a glorious few days in the countryside with camping and music. Every year there is far too much mud, lots of tears, alcohol, dodgy substances, hippies and great bands. Not to mention the fancy dress outfits and the toilets with questionable sanitary conditions. It is brilliant fun which everyone should try at least once.

135,000 of Glastonbury attendees will be on the standard tickets (priced at £243). This basically means roughing it for five days and camping with a £20 tent that you forget where you pitched it when you’re looking for it at 4am whilst also looking for your friends. But who cares? It’s basically less that £50 a day for non-stop entertainment and top music. Festivals are great levellers, you know it’s only for five days and who needs a shower when no-one else is bothering?

Glastonbury has been this way since it first began in 1970. It is all about turning up, popping up your tent and enjoying each other’s company whilst listening to music.

But, in recent years times have changed. Generation X and now the millennials have decided they would like the Glastonbury experience more on their terms. These are the people known as glampers (glamorous campers). They work really hard all week and why should they sleep in a tent when they don’t have to? Who cares if it’s all part of the festival spirit? So, naturally there are a number of companies to meet these peoples’ city-softened needs.

The Telegraph writes of one, ‘Camp Kerala has served the needs of local festival goers since 2005. It features a spa, a Kerala Cocoon fancy-dress den, bar and upmarket on-site dining options – think smoked-trout eggs royale for breakfast, organic sirloin steak with truffle-salted chips for dinner. Guests reside in spacious Shikar tents, made to a design that was introduced by the maharaja of Jodhpur, and equipped with duck-down duvets, sheepskin rugs and Egyptian cotton sheets. With tickets included, accommodation here for the duration of the festival starts at £8,225.’

I can see why some people don’t…….

Click here to continue reading……

– The digital currency Maxcoin is skyrocketting from $0.001 to an high of $0.21, according to Jubi Exchange.
– This is beceause of a spike in global trading volume, especially from China and its Jubi Maxcoin exchange.
– Much of the move is beceause of greater interest from long-term investors.

Maxcoin leaped to a fresh record high this week, spurred by a jump in global trading activity. The digital currency climbed almost 21,000% percent to $0.21, from the lows in december. The currency has jumped almost 50 percent in the last week, according Jubi Exchange.

To connect to the Maxcoin network to synch your wallet, use addnode=104.234.220.135:8668 in your maxcoin.conf.

More:
– What is Maxcoin?
– How to install or upgrade your Maxcoin wallet?
– How can I get maxcoins?

The cryptocurrencies offered the world disruption and path breaking solutions that would transform the face of multiple industries and consequently the world as we view today. While the digital assets are making inroads into various sectors, their underlying technology – ‘Blockchain Technology,’ has proven its worth in multiple verticals in quick time. However, the ledger based technology proponents are yet to realize the full potential and applications of the technology. To explore these possibilities and simplify day to day activities, Viewfin.com – a Chinese company, is introducing Metaverse – the first ever public blockchain in China. Metaverse aims to enable blockchain-based digital asset management – even more fundamentally, a blockchain-based system for managing our digital lives. Let’s dive into the details of how Metaverse is planning to do so.

What is Metaverse?

Metaverse is a decentralized world that redefines digital identities and smart assets through blockchain technology. Within the peer to peer network resides universally unique and self-sovereign identities, which will primarily power all decentralized applications or smart contracts coming afterward. The project imagines a blockchain in which people, organizations, institutions can transact with each other. To authenticate the digital asset transactions on the blockchain, Metaverse plans to introduce intermediaries called Oracle. In essence, Metaverse aims to be the Chinese substitute for Ethereum where the intermediaries will be parties whose vested interest lies in the kind of transaction taking place over the public blockchain. The token that powers Metaverse blockchain is Entropy. It will be used to register assets, pay fees, establish the identity as an Oracle (for intermediaries), and value assets on the blockchain.

Click here for the Meta verse white paper

How is Metaverse or Entropy profitable?

A digital asset blockchain needs the more diverse type of transactions than executable smart contracts. Metaverse doesn’t have a fixed category of operations and hence is flexible to accommodate innovations that might arise. The introduction of intermediaries or Oracle authenticates the transactions of the respective domains bringing in the trust factor for the network. Metaverse encourages intermediaries–such as banks, government agencies, foundations, or even individuals–to register as oracles depending on the type of transactions carried out. Another key advantage is that the Chinese government has always supported Chinese versions of popular, successful businesses based outside of China like Baidu for Google, Alibaba for Amazon, etc. Since Metaverse aims to be Chinese substitute for Ethereum, hopefully, the authorities would be very supportive on the regulations front.

Launch dynamics of Entropy and its performance

The Metaverse ICO started on Sept. 5th, 2016, distributed Entropy tokens (ETP) for the investors. There is 100 million total Entropy in the system. 15 – 30 million were distributed during the first ICO, and another 15 – 30 million will be distributed in another ICO after the Metaverse wallet and blockchain are complete. The remaining ETP will be distributed through the proof-of-work mining process, and eventually, the system will enter micro-inflation of 1-4% per year.

Danish Blockchain Company, OpenLedger ApS, has signed a Strategic Cooperation Framework Agreement with ViewFin, the market leader in Blockchain technology and the developer of Metaverse™, the first public Blockchain in China. This enabled the trading of entropy tokens on the OpenLedger decentralized exchange (DEX).  Currently, at the time of writing this post, each Entropy is being valued a little over $5.

With better innovation on Metaverse platform and the impending disruptive projects, the platform surely has a bright future ahead.

Blockchain Technology has invariably penetrated major verticals where its disruption potential has completely transformed the genetic structure of the industry. Its immutability, transparency, and speed found applications in fields where digitization of assets is of prime importance. Recently, ViewFin, the developers of Metaverse™ – the first public Blockchain in China, have banked on the advantages of blockchain to tokenize the sale and purchase of art and collectibles on one platform –‘ZenDao‘. Through ZenDao, the creators are hoping to create a fair market for the trading of artifacts and collectibles while tackling the challenges encountered by the stakeholders in the real world. With its ICO coming up, let’s dive deep into understanding how ZenDao can soon become an open platform for one of the highly illiquid but precious markets of the world.

What is ZenDao?

ZenDao is a platform developed on Metaverse Blockchain that utilizes the solutions provided by the Blockchain technology to create a digital representation of the real-world collectibles on Blockchain and establish an unalterable digital provenance coupled by ownership tracking. By tokenizing the assets, the platform aims to create a link between physical assets and their digital representation which helps in easy identification and trading of ownership given the advantages of ledger technology. Using collectibles’ digitizing process (CDP), they obtain the digital signatures of real assets through high-accuracy 3D scanning. These digital signatures are stored on Blockchain, and the permanent nature of the technology makes it impossible to tamper these signatures. Then their value is tokenized to be traded on the platform using the ZenDao Coin (ZDC).

How is ZenDao profitable?

ZenDao solves the challenges that confront the dealers of artifacts and collectibles in the real world. Since Blockchain has a tamper-proof, timestamped, publicly traceable information ledger characteristics, it is suitable for establishing an unalterable digital provenance tracking system for the collectibles. This helps in tackling the problems of forgery and ownership conflicts amongst various art pieces that exist. The high transaction costs and middleman charges adversely affect the liquidity of the art industry. Since ZenDao is a platform where no trading and commission fees are applied, the liquidity will improve significantly over time attracting major players of the market. Another significant advantage of the platform is the divisible ownership. As the artifacts are tokenized, multiple interested parties can purchase part of the asset and go for collective ownership which makes diverse objects accessible for everyone

ZenDao ICO campaign and impending dynamics

The ICO for purchasing ZenDao tokens (ZDC coins) commences on 23rd, 2017 and the fundraiser closes on July 17th, 2017. During the ICO, ZenDao Coin (ZDC), the fundamental unit of ZenDao platform representing the value of the entire network, will be distributed to the investors and early backers of the platform. 70% of the initial number of ZDCs on the platform will be circulated through the ICO. The price per ZDCs and bonus awarding system will be publicly available on the official webpage of Zendao (zendao.org) from the ICO opening date.

Recently, OpenLedger ApS signed a Strategic Cooperation Framework Agreement with ViewFin, the developers of Metaverse™. The resulting partnership has made it possible for the OpenLedger DEX (exchange) to offer all tradable ViewFin products and tokens exclusively on an international level. Hence the investors can participate in the ICO through BTC, ETH, and ETP on ZenDao official website or OpenLedger.

Being a platform that integrates high-value artifacts and blockchain advantages while propelling secure trade system, ZenDao is sure to positively impact the artifacts and collectibles market adding more value to the existing ecosystem.

Identifying the tell-tale signs of Imperial decay and decline is a bit of a parlor game. The hubris of an increasingly incestuous and out-of-touch leadership, dismaying extremes of wealth inequality, self-serving, avaricious Elites, rising dependency of the lower classes on free Bread and Circuses provided by a government careening toward insolvency due to stagnating tax revenues and vast over-reach–these are par for the course of self-reinforcing Imperial decay.

Sir John Glubb listed a few others in his seminal essay on the end of empires The Fate of Empires, what might be called the dynamics of decadence:

(a) A growing love of money as an end in itself.

(b) A lengthy period of wealth and ease, which makes people complacent. They lose their edge; they forget the traits (confidence, energy, hard work) that built their civilization.

(c) Selfishness and self-absorption.

(d) Loss of any sense of duty to the common good.

Glubb included the following in his list of the characteristics of decadence:

— an increase in frivolity, hedonism, materialism and the worship of unproductive celebrity (paging any Kardashians in the venue…)

— a loss of social cohesion

— willingness of an increasing number to live at the expense of a bloated bureaucratic state

Historian Peter Turchin, whom I have often excerpted here, listed three disintegrative forces that gnaw away the fibers of an Imperial economy and social order:

1. Stagnating real wages due to oversupply of labor

2. overproduction of parasitic Elites

3. Deterioration of central state finances

War and Peace and War: The Rise and Fall of Empires

To these lists I would add a few more that are especially visible in the current Global Empire of Debt that encircles the globe and encompasses nations of all sizes and political/cultural persuasions:

1. An absurdly heightened sense of refinement as the wealth of the top 5% has risen so mightily as a direct result of financialization and globalization that the top .1% has been forced to seek ever more extreme refinements to differentiate the Elite class (financial-political royalty) from financial nobility (top .5% or so), the technocrat class (top 5%), the aspirant class (next 15%) and everyone below (the bottom 80%).

Now that just about any technocrat/ member of the lower reaches of the financial nobility can afford a low-interest loan on a luxury auto, wealthy aspirants must own super-cars costing $250,000 and up.

A mere yacht no longer differentiates financial royalty from lower-caste financial Nobles, so super-yachts are de riguer, along with extremes such as private islands, private jets in the $80 million-each range, and so on.

Even mere technocrat aspirants routinely spend $150 per plate for refined dining out and take extreme vacations to ever more remote locales to advance their social status.

Examples abound of this hyper-inflation of refinement as the wealth of the top 5% has skyrocketed.

2. The belief in the permanence of the status quo has reached quasi-religious levels of faith. The possibility that the entire financialized, politicized circus of extremes might actually be nothing more than a sand castle that’s dissolving in the rising tides of history is not just heresy–it doesn’t enter the minds of those reveling in refinement or those demanding more Bread and Circuses (Universal Basic Income, etc.)

3. Luxury, not service, defines the financial-political Elites. As Turchin pointed out in his book on the decline of empires, in the expansionist, integrative eras of empires, Elites based their status on service to the Common Good and the defense (or expansion) of the Empire.

While there are still a few shreds of noblesse oblige in the tattered banners of the financial elites, the vast majority of the Elites classes are focused on scooping up as much wealth and power as they can in the shortest possible time, with the goal being not to serve society or the Common Good but to enter the status competition game with enough wealth to afford the refined dining, luxury travel to remote locales, second and third homes in exotic but safe hideaways, and so on.

4. An unquestioned faith in the unlimited power of the state and central bank.The idea that the mightiest governments and central banks might not be able to print their way of our harm’s way, that is, create as much money and credit as is needed to paper over any spot of bother, is unthinkable for the vast majority of the populace, Elites and debt-serfs alike.

That all this newly issued currency and credit is nothing but claims on future production of goods and services and rising productivity never enters the minds of the believers in unlimited state/bank powers. We have been inculcated with the financial equivalent of the Divine Powers of the Emperor: the government and central bank possess essentially divine powers to overcome any problem, any crisis and any conflict simply by creating more money, in whatever quantities are deemed necessary.

If $1 trillion in fresh currency will do the trick–no problem! $10 trillion? No problem! $100 trillion? No problem! there is no upper limit on how much new currency/credit the government and central bank can create.

That there might be limits on the efficacy of this money-creation never enters the minds of the faithful. That pushing currency-credit creation above the limits of efficacy might actually trigger the unraveling of the state-central bank’s vaunted powers never occurs to believers in the unlimited reach of central states/banks.

The possibility that the central state/bank’s powers are actually quite limited is blasphemy in an era in which the majority of the Elites and commoners alike depend on the “free money” machinery of the central state/bank for their wealth and livelihoods.

It is instructive to ponder the excesses of private wealth and political dysfunction of the late Roman Empire with the present-day excesses of private wealth and political dysfunction. As Turchin and others have documented, where the average wealth of a Roman patrician in the Republic (the empire’s expansionist, integrative phase) was perhaps 10-20 times the free-citizen commoner’s wealth, by the disintegrative, decadent phase of imperial decay, the Elites held wealth on the scale of 10,000 times the wealth of the typical commoner. Elite villas were more like small villages centered around the excesses of luxury than mere homes for the wealthy and their household servants. Here is a commentary drawn from Turchin’s work:

“An average Roman noble of senatorial class had property valued in the neighborhood of 20,000 Roman pounds of gold. There was no ‘middle class’ comparable to the small landholders of the third century B.C.; the huge majority of the population was made up of landless peasants working land that belonged to nobles. These peasants had hardly any property at all, but if we estimate it (very generously) at one tenth of a pound of gold, the wealth differential would be 200,000! Inequality grew both as a result of the rich getting richer (late imperial senators were 100 times wealthier than their Republican predecessors) and those of the middling wealth becoming poor.”

Following in Ancient Rome’s Footsteps: Moral Decay, Rising Wealth Inequality(September 30, 2015)

We can be quite confident that these powerful elites reckoned the Empire was permanent and its power to secure their wealth and power was effectively unlimited. But alas, their fantastic wealth vanished along with the rest of the centralized, over-extended, complex and costly Imperial structures.

There is a peculiarly widespread belief that Elites are so smart and powerful that they always manage to evade the collapse of the empires that created and protected their wealth. But there is essentially no evidence for this belief when eras truly change.

Yes, Elites have proven to be adept at shifting with the political winds; thus the guestbooks of French chateaux were filled with the names of Nazi dignitaries during the German occupation of France, and with the names of Allied bigwigs after the war ended the 1,000-year Reich.

But the complete collapse of the financial system and centralized power is not a war or financial crisis–these are storm waters which the Elites have the wherewithal to survive. But when a tsunami disintegrates the entire structure and carries it out to a nameless sea as flotsam and jetsam, there is no transfer of wealth from the Old to the New.

The Roman Elites did not become Barbarian elites who just so happened to own the same villas and vast estates they did when they wore togas and dined on super-refined delicacies. They were pushed aside along with everything that supported their wealth and power.

Nothing is quite as permanent as we imagine–especially super-complex, super-costly, super-asymmetric and super-debt-dependent state/financial systems.

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James Rickards via Daily Reckoning

Gold was down after the Fed’s hike, but I expect it to start heading higher again. Too many powerful forces are driving it behind the scenes. Dwindling physical supply is a major one.

Gold in USD (5 Years)

On a recent visit to Switzerland, I was informed that secure logistics operators could not build new vaults fast enough and were taking over nuclear-bomb proof mountain bunkers from the Swiss Army to handle the demand for private storage.

Geopolitical fear is another. The crises in North Korea, Syria, Iran, the South China Sea, and Venezuela are not getting better. The headlines may fade in any given week, but geopolitical shocks will return when least expected and send gold soaring in a flight to safety.

Fed policy tightening is normally a headwind for gold. But, the last two times the Fed raised rates — December 14, 2016 and March 15, 2017 — gold rallied as if on cue.

Gold is the most forward-looking of any major market. It may be the case that the gold market sees the Fed is tightening into weakness and will eventually…….

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Max talks to Chris Blasi about cryptocurrency and the precious metals market.