Steep Correction Coming? Or Bitcoin Boom With SegWit?

Steep correction coming or boom coming with Segwit?

• Bitcoin retracing, which is not surprising. After a quick price gain, there is retracement. Which we see time and again. You remember when Ethereum peaked at $400? Quickly back down again, yet still with very quick growth in a short space of time.

• Bitcoin cash showing the same signs of consolidation for the moment, sitting at around $700, which makes it around 17% of Bitcoins market cap. Not bad for a currency born a few weeks ago.

• Ripple a big gainer, you should know I love talking about Ripple. They confirmed rumours they are looking to break into the Chinese market, and there is building speculation of them entering Korea. The rumour is being spread from a tweet from Ripples social media team: https://twitter.com/blockstradamus/status/899839541128777729 A top reply to the image being that the logo looks a lot like the map of Korea.

• Now this is not financial advice and I am not a financial advisor. You are responsible for your own money. For those who are looking to get into bitcoin now is looking like a much more attractive time. But will we see it go lower? The secret truth behind this is, no one knows. So, what some may wish to do is move into their Bitcoin position gradually, buying a little bit every day or every week. Because if you go all in, and the price drops drastically the next day, your stomach hurts you know.

• But then the price will recover, for sure. What happens is when the price drops a little bit, and those weak hands that bought it while it was high notice they’ve lost some money, panic sell. And that’s a vicious cycle that continues until a certain support level. Those guys follow this strategy:

• We call them weak hands. And we need to purge them time and again, until the coins get bought by the strong hands that are battle hardened. That have seen the dips and weathered storms of previous crashes, and do not panic sell. They see the dip as consolidation, and not a cause for alarm.

• However, Segwit is 88% of the way to activating: https://www.xbt.eu/
  Now segregated witnesses are great because it reduces the data size of a transaction, effectively increasing the block size limit so we should have less delays. However, the main benefit, at least in my mind, is the potentially soon introduction of the lightning network.

• Now do you want to get hype? Have a look at the lightning network website. I know they might be biased, but still: https://lightning.network/

Is the price already factoring in Segwit activation, or will it take off afterwards? No serious question, let me know in the comment section down below. Why do all the youtubers say that? Do they think you might get confused by the left, top and right comment section?

• https://blog.bitpay.com/bitcore-segwit-activation/

• But further along down the line in Bitcoins upgrade path, the road to a 2mb block size is not looking like a smooth one. In fact, it could be a very bumpy ride. It recently started with a blog post last week, from Bitpay (one of the largest payment processors for merchants accepting Bitcoin in the world and are based in the states), stating ‘Download BTC1’.

• This simple message started a firestorm: https://twitter.com/i/moments/898288070591520768

Some of twitters best comments on the subject. But why? BTC1 is a software client, something you and I would use to generate a bitcoin private key and send and receive payments. It’s not the one created by Satoshi Nakamoto. The same one is used today, although renamed to Bitcoin Core after the network's main open-source developer team.

What they were suggesting people upgrade to is used by 1.9% of users. Essentially this is the same as updating your mobile phone (or cell phone to my American audience) and then no longer being able to text people. Will we see more trouble down the line, yes very likely.

• Onto the news, 50 Bitcoin exchanges have filed with the Japanese financial authority. Which are currently under review by the Japanese financial services agency. This would be huge for increasing the ease to access crypto, because no one wants to convert their funds into Euros, into dollars and all the way back again. Story here:

https://news.bitcoin.com/bitcoin-exchanges-filed-japanese-financial-authority/

• Currently in the states, there’s a lot of uncertainty around crypto legislation. The state of New York in 2014 introduced the BitLicence, which has been described as oppressive and chasing out of fintech from the state. Then we have the recent SEC ruling that the DAO tokens were securities, subject to the same rules and regulations of buying and selling stocks and shares. There is of yet no clear path to a fully government approved or backed Bitcoin, and we have a very long way to go.

• A two-year effort to unify cryptocurrency business regulations across the US recently concluded. Established in 1982, the Uniform Law Commission (ULC) is a non-profit association made up of 350 commissioners. All are lawyers by trade, and their goal is to draft legislation that brings clarity to areas where state law is creating instability. So, industry observers are optimistic about now fighting back.

• The Uniform Act seeks to spell out which virtual currency-related activities are – and are not – considered money transmission, and therefore require license. It further defines foundation concepts such as the "custody" of crypto assets. If you want mass market adoption, businesses need to first know they can accept Bitcoin without getting shut down. So, here’s hoping.