Missed out on Bitcoin? Well here's a second chance, don't blow it!

It's called Ethereum and there's a lot good reason$ why you should take a look at this new digital currency!

He’s been called autistic, a prodigy, and even the next Steve Jobs. But whatever he is, Vitalik Buterin, a Canadian
programmer now living in Switzerland, has just developed a secret “currency alternative” that could let early investors turn every $200 stake into a rare, once-in-a-lifetime return of $6,850.

You see, Vitalik Buterin isn’t your average 22-year-old. In 2013, he took a page out of the Steve Jobs playbook and dropped out of college. One year later, he won a $100,000 fellowship from billionaire PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel.
Then, he went on to win a “World Technology Award,” beating out Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg. But despite these achievements, Buterin has remained largely unknown. That could soon change thanks to a groundbreaking announcement Microsoft just made…

You see, a couple of years ago, Buterin came up with a novel way to improve bitcoin, the popular digital currency that lets people buy things (and exchange funds) anonymously—without relying on any government or central bank-printed money. Bitcoin went mainstream in 2013 when it shot up an incredible 8,526% in 11 months, going from
$13 to $1,157 per “coin.”

The meteoric rise was fueled by the economic crisis in Cyprus, when the country confiscated as much as 47% of people’s wealth via its so-called “bail-ins.” As a result, people scurried to move their money outside traditional currencies. Bitcoin soared. And a new class of millionaires was created. “It’s a bit surreal,” writes Robert S., one of the
new self-described “bitcoin millionaires.” “I have used a small portion of my holdings to buy a small house,” writes another one. Once an underground currency, Bitcoin is now accepted by over 100,000 merchants worldwide, including Amazon, Target, CVS, and Subway. People can even buy groceries and cars with it. In fact, according to Business Insider, a businessman in Texas parlayed a bitcoin “starting stake” of $1,200 into a $39,000 Porsche.

“I think it’s fantastic,” said 12-term Congressman Ron Paul. It’s “better than currency,” declared Bill Gates.
And billionaire Richard Branson added, “People have made fortunes (with bitcoin),” but also
predicted “there will be other currencies like it that may be even better.”

That is precisely what many people believe the young Canadian has just found. You see, while bitcoin has gained a large following, it has failed to make substantial inroads with major financial institutions. Buterin’s new currency, on the other hand, has already been tested by 11 major banks around the world.

Wells Fargo, Barclays, BMO, Credit Suisse, Natixis, HSBC, TD Bank, RBS, UBS, Unicredit, and the Commonwealth Bank of Australia have all given it a try. And another 31 banks, including JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, and Citibank, are looking into it. “This is a very exciting development,” said David Rutter, the man in charge of the banking project.

Tech giants have also joined in, with IBM, Samsung, and Microsoft all recently setting up partnerships with Buterin.
According to Marley Gray, Microsoft’s director of business development, a big reason companies are choosing Buterin’s technology is because it’s 40 times faster than bitcoin.

40 times faster.

What does that mean? Well, say you want to cash in a check at a bank. As you know, it can take anywhere from three to five days for that check to clear. That’s because of the way our current banking system is set up.
It’s essentially using “old plumbing.” With digital currencies, however, it doesn’t take nearly as long for money to clear. For bitcoin, it takes 10 minutes.

But with Buterin’s new currency, the same transaction takes less than 15 seconds. It’s almost instantaneous!

That’s why everyone is jumping all over this. Speed is king. And for these billion-dollar companies, minutes matter.
In fact, even the $2 trillion Toronto Stock Exchange is looking into Buterin’s currency. “It’s exciting,” says Anthony Di Iorio, the exchange’s chief digital officer. And Tom Dyson, an investment analyst who turned an early $25,000 stake in bitcoin into nearly $536,000, declared, “This is the next bitcoin. You’ve got to buy it.” But Tom and Anthony aren’t the only ones excited.

Google has been tracking “the next bitcoin” for months now. And just recently, one of its algorithms indicated a major spike in the currency’s popularity. I flew to Austin, Texas, to find out what was going on. Caterina Rindo, a top consultant in the digital currency space, was presenting at the SXSW (South by Southwest) conference. Rindo told me there’s been a recent shift within the community away from bitcoin and toward “the next bitcoin.”

Buterin, like Jobs, is quickly developing a “cultlike” following. (At the conference where I met him, he was mobbed by hordes of fans.) In fact, even though he only started his project in late 2014, more than 38,779 individuals around
the world have already signed up to attend local workshops to learn more about—and help support—Buterin’s new currency. As a result, the price of “the next bitcoin” has started to go parabolic… On January 1st, you could buy it for 9 cents… But by Oct 2016, it had shot all the way past $11.00.

Wall Street insiders have started to take notice…

According to The New York Times, Michael Novogratz—who managed $2.3 billion at Fortress Investment Group and helped lead Fortress’ initial investment in bitcoin—just made a “significant” purchase in “the next bitcoin.” That’s why I rushed to get out this alert. Because it’s still early days for “THE NEXT BITCOIN.”

But that won’t last long…

So, what’s the name of the next bitcoin? It’s called ether… And it’s an internet-based currency for Buterin’s revolutionary network called Ethereum.

How Do Digital Currencies Work?

This is where it’s easy to get in the weeds. To me, the best way to think about it is like this:

We all drive cars, but how many of us understand the finer details of how an engine works? Here’s a quick explanation…Ether (and other digital currencies such as bitcoin) work thanks to something called a
“blockchain,” which is nothing more than a very secure online database. Just think of it as a public ledger. However, this database has a key feature, and that’s the fact that it is decentralized. “Decentralization” simply means all the records about the digital currency are tracked on thousands of computers around the world. That means it’s almost impossible for these digital currencies to get “hacked” because to do so, you’d need to change the records on
THOUSANDS of computers! Compare that to a central bank.

The Federal Reserve, for example, was recently victim to the largest bank theft in history. Digital thugs from Bangladesh stole $100 million. The reason this happened is the Fed is not decentralized. It’s a single entity.
That’s why the blockchain is so powerful. Thousands of computers around the world form a digital “chain” that determines—by consensus—what the truth is.

So, you can’t invent money out of thin air… You can’t fake an entry (like Enron did)… And you can’t delete money.

Now, let me tell you why the blockchain will revolutionize banking and commerce.

Blockchain: A Groundbreaking New Way to Make Transactions

We live in a modern age with all types of new technologies. But did you know we’re still using antiquated methods to make payments? And it’s costing us billions per year. You see, during Roman times, bankers would transfer money via what we’d consider today as paper checks. According to a Goldman Sachs report, paper checks still make up 50% of all business payments. So, we’re sending $26 trillion per year through a system that was invented 2,000 years
ago. The cost of this antiquated approach is mammoth. All-in costs surrounding these outdated payment
systems are estimated at $550 billion per year. To put that in perspective, that amount is 3.5 times bigger than all the profits made by U.S. banks in 2014. It’s twice the size of the global PC market… and almost as big as the annual
Pentagon budget.

So, what are the problems with the way we handle money as a society now?

For one, it’s inefficient. It takes days to verify transactions, and mistakes are made in the process. Second, money can be counterfeited. According to the Secret Service, about $300 million in fake U.S. currency is removed from circulation each year. And that doesn’t include check forgeries and credit card fraud.

Digital currencies solve these two major problems using the blockchain.

Let me explain how it works…

When you go to the bank and withdraw money, the teller checks the bank’s electronic ledger to see your balance.
Once the teller sees that you have enough money to withdraw, he or she gives you your money and changes the ledger to reflect the withdrawal. If you immediately go to an ATM at a different bank, you’ll see that the ledger has already been shared with the other bank. This is called a closed-ledger system. Only other banks and payment networks can view this ledger. The blockchain works similarly, but the ledger is public and online. Identities are kept anonymous, but all transaction details can be seen by everyone. The blockchain is maintained by thousands of independent computers across the world. These computers are constantly “talking” to one another, comparing data to make sure the ledger is valid. This prevents double spending, the same way banks prevent double spending.

Even better, the blockchain is unhackable and impossible to shut down because there’s no central server. Being unhackable means no one can tamper with the information on the blockchain. And because the blockchain uses cryptology (a secure form of communication), it’s also difficult to counterfeit digital currencies. So, this creates trust without needing a central authority or middleman. When you cut out middlemen, you cut out lots of costs. This
is already changing the face of the money transmitting business. For example, you can now send money in any
currency to any place in the world that has an internet connection for 99.9% less than it costs to send money by Western Union. The recipient will receive the money immediately. Paying 5–10% of the money you send in a wire
transfer and waiting seven days for that money to clear will be things of the past. In a few years, you’ll be able to buy a home without having to spend $3,000 on title insurance. The blockchain can do that in seconds. And Ethereum is the best blockchain of them all.

Why Ethereum’s Blockchain Is the Best

Before he created the Ethereum network, Buterin wrote for Bitcoin Magazine. And although he still owns bitcoin, he recognized some weaknesses with it that he wanted to improve. So, what was the novel improvement Buterin
made to bitcoin? You see, bitcoin is essentially a payment system. And it uses the blockchain to register those
transactions. That’s where Buterin’s big idea came in and why so many banks are interested in his network. He recognized that if you could make payment transactions using blockchain software, you could make any type of transaction if you wrote the proper code. And that’s what Buterin did with Ethereum. He created a program that could create “customized” transactions based on each developer’s needs. In other words, you could write real estate
and insurance contracts, mortgages, and even stock purchases using Ethereum—all without a middleman (or lawyer!).

And that’s one reason “the next bitcoin” is so much better than the original.

No wonder he won a prestigious World Technology Award for his invention. And it’s also no wonder some of the biggest venture capitalists in the world are getting behind Ethereum.

Why Businesses Will Choose Ethereum....

Ethereum is an operating system like Android or Microsoft Windows. Developers write programs that run on the Ethereum system in much the same way they do for Windows or for apps that run on Android phones. Ethereum is different because it’s an operating system for the blockchain. So, instead of having to create your own blockchain, you can build programs on top of Ethereum’s blockchain. This makes rolling out a blockchain application much faster and cheaper than building an entire blockchain network from scratch. That’s why banks, brokers, insurance companies, and exchange officials are so excited about Ethereum. They don’t have to invest in a vast network of distributed computers. They also don’t have to create their own programming language. All they have to do is build whatever application they want and run it on the Ethereum network.

The beauty of it all is… anytime Buterin’s Ethereum technology is used, the currency attached to the Ethereum network has to be used… so it creates a natural demand for ether. And that demand DRIVES UP THE PRICE OF ETHER!

** Microsoft is working on Ethereum **
On March 30th, Microsoft made a huge announcement… It will soon allow over 3 million of its developers work on Ethereum through its Windows platform. This is massive!

By one measure, that’s over 19 times the developers working on bitcoin. As one ether enthusiast noted, it’s like “bitcoin on steroids.” And as another noted, “I am beginning to doubt how bitcoin will manage to stay ahead.”

So, here’s what you need to do…

Action to Take: Buy ether
Stop Loss: None
Position Size: No more than 1% of your portfolio

HOW TO BUY ETHER

Unique Loophole: A One-Step Ether Purchase Option

We’ve found a unique loophole that lets you buy ether in a one-step purchase. But it’s only available in 38 states. If you live in one of them, you can buy ether directly with U.S. dollars from an exchange called Kraken. Just head to this page and start the one-step process. (Note: You can use Kraken only in the following states: AL, AR, AZ, CA, CO, DC, DE, GA, IA, ID, IL, IN, KS, MA, ME, MO, MS, MT, NC, ND, NE, NH, NJ, NM, NV, OK, OR, PA, SC, SD, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WI, WV, and WY.

Now, if your state is not listed, you can buy Ether by purchasing Bitcoin first. Bitcoin is the most widely used, and easiest to purchase, digital currency. You can keep your Bitcoin or convert some or all of it into another currency like Ether.

How to Mine Ether For Free

Now, what I’m going to reveal to you here is NOT FOR EVERYONE… but for those who want to obtain a serious amount of ether, there’s a way you can collect it for free. (I’ll also share another little trick that can help you get a very small amount for free.) We’re talking about ether mining. Don’t worry, this doesn’t involve any picks or
shovels. Really, all you need is a computer. In the digital currency world, miners verify transactions on the network. And they do this by using their computers to solve math problems. Every time a problem is solved, another block
gets added onto the blockchain. (Digital currency transactions are logged on a blockchain. As we mentioned before, it’s similar to a ledger.) And the miner gets Ether for FREE. Ether blocks are generated every 12 seconds. That’s 50 times faster than bitcoin. If ether prices rise the way bitcoin’s did, ether mining could become a very profitable operation. All you need is a computer with a graphics-processing unit and an interface called geth. Geth is the software that connects you to the Ethereum network.

If mining isn’t for you, there is another way to get some free ether. You can actually do this for a bunch of digital currencies. It’s called a faucet. And it works as a reward system. You do a simple task, such as fill in a captcha, and get free digital currency. [A captcha is a simple test that obscures its message from computer interpretation by twisting the letters and adding a slight background color gradient. Captchas are often used by websites for security purposes to distinguish a person from a computer.] Just go to http://www.etherfaucet.net/.

You’re not going to get rich. But if you just want to get your feet wet, this is the way to go.

By Teeka Tiwari