Economy Archives - Foreign policy

Which Country Will Recover First from COVID-19?

Published on April 7, 2020

Besides being dangerous for world health, with more than a million people infected, this pandemic also has a huge influence on the global economy, and many experts are warning us how this can be another economic crisis that will hit all world.

The economies of most countries have stopped, and they are trying to figure out what measures would help the economy and society after the pandemic ends. According to some announced measures and active measures, we can see that the best control over this crisis can be seen in Norway, Denmark, Sweden, and Luxembourg, where they are fighting with a virus, but they also prepared a special set of measures that will save their economies when the quarantine days are over.

The United States also came up with the idea to help their economy, and assign special funds for small businesses, families, and children. They are hoping that a good financial injection into every industrial sector would prevent the fall down of the entire economy.

Another country that seems like it gained control over the crisis is China when this pandemic started in the first place. They were fighting with the COVID-19 for a long time, and there are first clues that the situation is calming down.

Some countries were prepared for the outbreak, like Russia, or Finland, where we can the situation is under control, and there are no too many new people diseased. Also, Singapore is one of the countries with the smallest death rates, with only three victims from a total of around 900 infected.

South Korea is also controlling the situation, especially because of its rapid measures and responsible citizens. Furthermore, since Hong Kong already had experience with some similar outbreaks in recent history, they are dealing well and their medical centers were well prepared since the beginning.

How is the Stock Market Connected to Economic Performance?

Published on December 23, 2019September 11, 2020

Business

The price of a stock is seen as a reflection of the health and success of a company. Yet the state of the stock market as a whole is not as directly correlated to the success of the local economy. For example, prices affect consumer and business confidence, and the confidence of investors and company owners influence the overall market. How is the stock market connected to economic performance?

The Stock Market as a Barometer of Mood

The stock market and the economy influence each other, but the terms should not be used interchangeably. Prices typically follow a trend, and that doesn’t necessarily match other economic trends.

Yet the stock market’s trend line can influence the psychology of investors and the public in general. If the prices are going up, they may go up higher than the business fundamentals say it should be priced because people expect it to keep going. That can lead to a bubble, but it tends to lead to a correction. If people are afraid a market sector is going to suffer, they’ll sell off stocks and devalue them, though an individual company may be stable and profitable.

The overall stock market can be a barometer of collective mood as well. As the market trends upward, people tend to buy stocks that are appreciating. More importantly, others join the market hoping to profit from the upward trend. They may buy them in the mere hope that it will go up. And the inverse is true in a bear market, when the stock market is going down.

When people are pessimistic about the economy or about a particular industry, they’ll sell, and others will flee the market to sit on the sidelines. When the news media creates a climate of fear, people will move funds from the stock market to lower risk assets. That will depress stock prices further and make their predictions of doom and gloom come true. Sheer fear can cause a stock selloff and collapsing market though the businesses themselves are doing fine.

Volatility in the stock market is itself a sign of general uncertainty. In general, that hurts consumer and business confidence. It can be offset by other positive metrics like improving employment rates and gross domestic product growth. Trading price movements of shares up or down is possible via contracts for difference. This means you could profit from downward stock market trends in addition to the traditional method of buying them in the hope it can be sold for a profit later. For more information visit easymarkets.com.

The Stock Market as a Reflection of Consumer Spending

We’ve discussed how the stock market can be a reflection of general sentiment, accurate or not. The stock market can also be a reflection of consumer spending habits. When people increase their spending in a given area, stock prices in that industry will generally rise. When reports come out that people are losing interest in a company’s products or a class of products, the stock price for related companies will fall.

Stock markets can also drive consumer spending, since they’re a measure of consumer sentiment. For example, a rapidly appreciating stock portfolio makes many people feel wealthy. They’re now more likely to spend on consumer goods and big-ticket items.

When portfolio values are falling, they’re more likely to put off purchases or downshift their purchasing to cheaper products. This even affects the general economy. A falling stock market can cause people who don’t hold stock to cut back on nonessential spending as they beef up savings, just in case the economy slows down and they lose their jobs. In this regard, a falling stock market can cause slower economic growth.

The Stock Market and Business Investment

Issuing stock is one way in which companies can raise money to expand the business. Stock prices can also affect business investments. Businesses are more likely to invest in new capital improvements when there is strong, positive sentiment.

If people think things are going well and will spend more, this is the time to invest in new production and storefronts. And when the stock market is going down, companies tend to push pause on their expansion plans. They’re afraid a slowdown in consumer spending will hurt their business. Furthermore, the lower price of their stocks prevents them from issuing new stock to fund growth.

On the other hand, optimism explains why merger and acquisition activity speeds up during bull markets. When stock prices are high, the stock can be swapped as part of a merger because of its high value. This allows firms to essentially buy other firms without having to use as much or even any cash. And when business and consumer confidence is high, you see more initial public offerings, because firms expect to get the most money for their shares. This is why it’s important that you know everything you can about mergers and acquisitions. A perfect place to start would be this Wall Street Prep guide.

The Interest Rate and Stock Markets

Interest rates affect the economy, and this in turn has an effect on the stock market. When interest rates rise, borrowing costs go up. This will slow down consumer spending and business investment. When interest rates go down, this can stimulate economic growth because borrowing is cheaper.

However, interest rates may be a response to economic conditions that have their own impact on the stock market. For example, higher interest rates required to issue new debt to cover a major government spending deficit will slow down an economy and reflect trends that will hurt it long-term. Currency fluctuations that cause interest rates and currency values to go up will increase the cost of exports. This will hurt export-driven firms and countries with export driven economies.

The stock market can go down when interest rates go up, too. When the national economy is overheating, raising interest rates is a way to cool things down. This is a sign that inflation is a problem, since it was necessary to take action to adjust it.

Raising interest rates faster than expected demonstrates that there is a serious issue, and it can cause the stock market to drop. A national bank dropping interest rates repeatedly is also a warning sign. It demonstrates that the economy isn’t picking up as fast as the economic leaders think it should.

The stock market is affected by both business fundamentals and general sentiment. These two forces can be at odds with each other, but they can influence each other as well.

Understanding the Very Brief History of Cryptocurrency

Published on October 22, 2019August 25, 2020

Business

Every great invention began with a simple idea.

A reductive view of innovation, perhaps, but the adage stands the test of time: “Necessity is the mother of invention.” And an excellent example of a remarkable new technology that responded to the needs of the people in cryptocurrency. In fact, it’s been a major buzzword for several years now—but do most people really know how they have come to be? A lot has happened since they first emerged in the market, and taking a trip down memory lane makes it that much easier to understand just why and how it became highly valuable today. By discussing how cryptocurrency started and how it became useful, we can better imagine what the future of the technology looks like.

The Beginning and Its Timeline

On October 31, 2008, an anonymous user, under the name ‘Satoshi Nakamoto’ published “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System” online, a whitepaper explaining how Bitcoin and the blockchain network worked. The release of said paper started the buzz around cryptocurrency, specifically Bitcoin. Months after they released the paper, ‘Nakamoto’ created the Genesis Block, which started the blockchain technology. The true identity of the person who started this revolutionary technology remains unknown to this day.

By 2010, a Laszlo Hanyecz purchased two pizzas for 10,000 BTC. That transaction marks the first “Bitcoin Pizza Day”, an unofficial holiday that’s still being celebrated by crypto enthusiasts today.

A year later, Litecoin was founded by Charles Lee, widely considered to be second only to Bitcoin. Scads of cryptocurrencies have emerged since then and now, there are thousands available in the market.

Its Importance Today

Perhaps the main reason why cryptocurrency easily became important is because of its decentralized backing.

The world operates, primarily, on many centralized systems that, more often than not, give the upper hand to authorities and corporations, rather than people. While that’s not entirely a bad thing, people are drawn to the idea of protecting their assets in decentralized systems.

Another reason why decentralization became so important is its assurance of secure storage of data and transactions. Despite the fact that transactions performed on the blockchain are being broadcast over a public network of computers, only those with private keys can actually access the data. The reason behind this public broadcast is for members of said system to verify the transaction and make sure it’s trustworthy.

With the secure blockchain as the technology behind cryptocurrency, users can breathe more easily knowing they control their own data.

Cryptocurrency Takes on Hollywood

One company that already took the major step toward embracing cryptocurrency and blockchain is the reality TV show, Fight to Fame, where professional fighters go through a series of challenges and training phases to compete for the grand prize; the winner will receive contracts to star in major Hollywood blockbusters. In fact, according to Techbullion the newest one currency to hit Hollywood comes from Fight to Fame. These tokens can be used to purchase tickets to the show and its events.

Future of Cryptocurrency

Many experts have dubbed the current period in history as the early stages of cryptocurrency. The technology itself still has a long way to go, but the road to the future has already been paved. More and more industries are looking into cryptocurrency and researching on ways they can incorporate it in their operations, with no signs of slowing down.

The Relationship Between the US Stock Market and the Economy

Published on August 30, 2019

Economy

The US stock market is enormous. At over $30 trillion, it is a massive one. Many global companies are active on it and they affect the economy as a whole. Pundits have always based their economic forecasts on the performance of the stock market.

The general mood of investors in the market can indicate how the economy will perform in the coming months. The stock market and the economy are thus tied in a special relationship where occurrences on one end affect the end. The following is a breakdown of the key ways in which it affects the economy.

The Working Mechanism of the US Stock Market

Before delving into the key details, it is important to note the mechanisms that characterize the US stock market. To start with, it is among the most liberal ones in the world. It is also huge and it constantly attracts investors from all over the world. The easy processes involved in doing business are the key drivers of investment in the market. Over 46% of households in the US own some form of stocks. US companies are thus enticed by the market and they often get listed when they want to achieve growth.

How the Market Affects the Economy

In terms of its characteristics and contribution to the economy, the stock market is influential in the following main ways. First, it allows the participation of all individuals. Individual investors and private equity investors can all find their space in it. This is one of the best destinations for individual investors since they can bet on their stocks to give them returns. Representing 40% of the global stock market cap, in the US, it is irresistible. Information is also not a challenge as investors can see the best shares to buy from market data. According to traders working with AdmiralMarkets, investment in this market is also a great way to avoid inflation. When cash is exchanged for shares, the value is retained regardless of the prevailing inflation.

Second, the economy is kept vibrant because of the stock market. When companies are looking for capital, they turn to individual investors. They do this by floating an IPO where anyone can buy shares in the company. This means of raising capital is effective because it gives investors the confidence to buy shares knowing that the firm is valuable enough to go public. Shareholders who buy stocks maintain percentage ownership of the company and thus become invested in its success. Most IPOs end up raising a large capital and this has a lot of bearing on the company.

Lastly, the behavior of investors in the stock market indicates how they generally feel about a particular company. When the stock prices of a particular company go up, the indication is that investors feel confident about the future of the company. When the prices are falling, it means that investors are not confident in the company’s ability to generate profit. These occurrences have an effect on the economy as a whole. In recent times, the technology sector has become the largest in the stock market, accounting for 26% of the total value.

The Effect of the Economy on the Stock Market

As noted earlier, the economy also affects the stock market. It is a major source of insights for various entities in the economy. When the economy is fairing well, more consumers are likely to increase their spending. One of the areas where consumers end up spending their extra cash is on investments in the stock market. The demand for goods and personal consumption are thus crucial factors that affect the performance of stocks in the market. The various indices show how it performs throughout a business cycle. In a given period where the GDP is faring well, a good performance will be recorded on the stock market and vice versa.

Effects of the Stock Market are Limited

To conclude, it is important to note that the stock market is not the same as the economy. Even in the US economy where the exchange is huge, the economy is big and independent enough to function under its forces. Investors in the stock market might sometimes fail to read the signals of the economy and end up overinvesting, leading to a crash.

In Australia, Consumers are Standing up to Big Banks

Published on August 29, 2019

Economy/Finance

After years of stability, some turbulence prompted Australians to switch credit card providers en-masse. Here is why:

The saying “needs must when the devil drives” has been thoroughly tested in other banking sectors around the world, but in Australia, where the recession has been absent for more than a decade, people were always very loyal to their banks and hardly ever switched. This all changed during the recent property crash when big banks started to recall loans from clients they knew for years – and when the RBA lowered interest rates, but many card providers did not reflect this amply in the way they charge the consumer.

The consumer was eventually left with no other choice but to switch

Today, credit card comparison websites are popping up across Australia – and a more open market finally means that consumers have more choice to escape the debt trap laid by some of their card providers. People have realized that the banks are looking after themselves first and now consumers are mirroring that approach as we discuss below:

A man on a mission to educate and inspire change

Meet Roland Bleyer – the CEO of Australia’s leading credit card comparison website Creditcard.com.au. He is the man behind thousands of people who abandon the big banks for alternative options, all to get a better deal: more favorable terms and lower interest rates. When asked how he went about inspiring such a cultural shift in a country that is rather conventional with issues such as personal finance, Bleyer said: “We did this by equipping the public with powerful information in a series of courses they access on our site – and by connecting them to better options from alternative providers in a few simple clicks. By leveraging AI and technology to pair match the right people with the right providers, we save time for both parties, delivering a win-win outcome”.

Bleyer explained the magnitude of the credit card phenomenon in Australia, where people are totally in love with credit: “We might be a nation with a fantastic GDP per capita, yet Australian consumers racked up $50 Billion in credit card debt. If it was zero interest, fine, but it’s not: a massive $5.3 Billion was paid in credit card interest last year. Furthermore, it costed $1.5 Billion in credit card fees In Foreign fees alone. This comes to over $1 million dollars a day. When you think about these facts and the reality that Australians present a lower risk to banks than people in other struggling economies or heavily populated high-unemployment regions, well then Australians are not getting a good deal! So they have no choice but to compare the leading credit card deals to fight the banks – and get the deal they deserve”.

The rise of alternative credit card options

Whereas previously, the privilege to issue credit cards was severely limited to a handful of banks, today Bleyer’s comparison site features a string of providers such as NAB, Me, Virgin Money, Latitude, ANZ, American Express, Bank of Melbourne, BankSA, Citi, Wespac, HSBC, BankFirst, BOQ, BCU, Bank of US, Bank of Sydney and Bank West.

Evaluating a plethora of options in seconds

It would, however, have been impossible for the average working person to find the time to compare all these banks individually and make a decision. This is where comparison websites come in: At the click of a button, they aggregate the various options available. Consumers can then see a side-by-side comparison of what might be best suited for their individual circumstances. Some have lower interest rates; others have better perks while you spend (including air miles and zero fees on international transactions) and so forth. So, depending on what you need most, the aggregator provides an option to screen all the options – and to apply immediately to the most suitable ones.

It is, in fact, a genius invention as it is helping both banks and consumers find each other in a market that suddenly became more crowded. When education aggregators started in the US and UK, universities were critical: today they are all on board because they are losing enrolments. So is it also with the banks – now the biggest banks are after Bleyer in order to get a piece of the action.

Balance transfers are often the biggest attraction

Some 450 000 new credit cards were issued in Australia in the last year with the ASIC debt clock showing astronomical statistics. With 83% of young people using credit cards to support their lifestyle, many sit with debt on which they need to pay interest. So, in order to clear the debt easier, without interest or with very low interest, many opt for a “balance transfer”. This is simply when you apply for a new credit card from a new provider, use it to settle the balance on the old credit card and switch providers. Often these balances come with zero-interest for up to 24 months, either enabling consumers to “breathe”, or to set the debt without paying much interest.

Final scoop on credit card comparison in Australia?

The Australian credit card market will never be the same again: The consumer is awakening to a new set of rules that enable them to take back power from the big banks – the power to decide for themselves where the best deal exist at any point in time. Many consumers are now switching every two years, so this certainly represents a new trend to watch closely.

What Are The Best Investment Opportunities in China?

Published on July 3, 2019

Business/Economy

China’s shift from a low-income agrarian economy to a market-based system in 1978 reshaped the country as a whole. The once low-income economy was a threat to China so changes had to be made to be competitive both in the domestic and foreign markets. That was made possible after a series of measures that transformed the country roughly five years ago.

The statistics behind China’s economic rise speak for themselves. According to statistics from the World Bank, nearly 800 million Chinese citizens have escaped poverty in the last four decades, and China is the world’s largest exporter of manufactured goods. According to Forbes, China has nine of the biggest firms from the list of the top 20 in the world.

With so much potential for business and investment, China is a really great place to stake your claims, even if you are a foreigner.

So with all that said, let’s find out the best investment opportunities in China.

The Stock Market

The Chinese stock market has had a very rough year, the roughest since 2008. The Shanghai Composite is down by 25% and the Shenzen exchange sees a 33% decline in its benchmark index. According to Gentlemen Marketing Agency, a country’s stock market is often the barometer for the nation’s economic strength and wealth.

So, the Chinese stock market is in a pretty bad state, but does it mean you should stay away from it? The answer to this question is no. The stock market is in a crash due to the US-China stock war that is currently going on. But every investor will happily say that if the market is in decline, then the stock prices are also in decline. If the stock prices are in decline, then there is a real opportunity to invest in Chinese stocks.

The Chinese Yuan

The Chinese are slowly, but with somewhat poor success, trying to make the yuan a global currency. Since December 2017, only 1.7% of both domestic and foreign payments were made denominated in yuan. The numbers show us a low volume, but the future could see those numbers rise. While the trade is not very high, the currency does display positive signs that the volatility in the forex market will increase.

Gold Investments

Gold has been a much-favored investment tool in China for almost millennia. The reasons behind it? Gold investments have the potential of stabilizing your investment portfolio and even provide you with an extremely high return of investment during difficult times of the world economy. When the global crisis occurred in 2008, the price for gold was $1,000 an ounce. Everyone started turning towards the shiny material and the price quickly rose to $2,031 per ounce in 2011. That was a 100% increase in the following three years. The next seven years showed us a different picture. The price of gold during the next seven years was in constant decline and at the beginning of 2018, it hit a price of $1,280 per ounce.

However, it’s 2019 and reputable banks such as JP Morgan and the Bank of America think that the price of gold could increase by 15% in the following few years.

Documenting a Country’s Real Estate Economy

Published on July 3, 2019

Economy/Politics

For too long, Pakistan’s economy has remained largely undocumented and informal. This has caused a lot of trepidation both within the country and internationally. Locally, everyone knows that the country’s real estate sector has been used to park a significant amount of black money as well as launder money.

When we say ‘black money’, we do not necessarily refer to the money earned from illegal sources but (as far as real estate is concerned) also that which has not been documented thanks to loopholes in the registering mechanism – caused, of course, by the negligence of the authorities. The people themselves are certainly to blame, too; it suited them to pay much lower taxes than they would have had to after registering their properties at their proper prices. Also, there was nothing actually stopping them from recording their properties at their actual market values.

Internationally, Pakistan has often been accused of not doing enough to curb terror-financing from within its borders. Regardless of the government’s willingness to effect some change in the prevalent situation – one overarching issue is that the economy isn’t documented enough to effectively restrain finances from being funneled towards any organization with potential terror links. Again the significant importance of taking account of the undocumented black money and the funds parked in real estate sector becomes evident.

All of this has eventually led the government to finally take action on the matter before the current decade sees its closure.

The issues caused by a minimally regulated, informal economy

In general, for the economy overall, the issues caused by the undocumented economy can be understood this way:

The informal economy encompasses the entire economy, as well as that particular sector which is resistant to its advances. Any reforms introduced can be easily bypassed by its instigations, and when 30-40% of the economy is estimated to be undocumented (as is the case in Pakistan), this means that, at the end of the day, the reforms will not really take root.
As mentioned above, the informal economy can serve well to hide illicit and downright criminal activities; even more so when the sector is as large as Pakistani real estate, which, according to some estimates, has a volume running in billions of totally unaccounted-for-dollars.
Locally, an oft-discussed issue regarding the undocumented economy in general and real estate, in particular, goes along these lines: the authorities have been unable to tax the sector effectively because of its non-rationalized nature.
The unregulated nature of the sector has also meant that it is highly uncompetitive and random. The prices have been raised on the basis of mere speculation; hence the preponderance of the frequent ‘bubbles’ that deflate the prices significantly ‘all of a sudden’ after every few years.
Two issues attendant to and stemming from the ones mentioned above lead to the market not contributing anything, relatively speaking, to the national economy – when analyzed for its actual size and volume.
And, despite such a large amount of investment being poured into the sector, it doesn’t contribute as much to construction (developmental) activity. Most of the money is allocated towards buying and selling land, which, at the end of the day, serves no purpose at all. It is not, then, surprising that Pakistan has a housing shortfall running into millions of rupees.

How the situation has stacked in this decade

Both the current and previous governments initiated efforts towards documenting the sector. The former made inroads; but whenever they faced internal political pressures, they capitulated. They did, however, set grounds for the current government to push through with what it is attempting right now.

The current government, led by Prime Minister Imran Khan, has been spending political capital left, right and center (literally) to change the very nature of the economy and bring in reforms where it sees fit.

Now the previous government, while it did capitulate on a number of matters, it did continue making efforts to generate revenue through real estate – even while it ignored the glaring regulatory loopholes exploited by citizens for not filing their income taxes or wealth statements.

The current government seems to have doubled down on those efforts and its stated goal in the current budget has been to document the economy. It has, of course, taking measures to increase its revenue generation capacity as well.

From a real estate perspective, these measures have included the following:

The previous government had created the loophole of a ‘non-filer’ — a person who didn’t file taxes and who, as a result, was charged with exceedingly high tax rates. This government has not only imposed higher taxes on such people but has also stripped away any modicum of legal cover over the term; making the practice a prosecutable offense.
Another loophole of the difference in valuations between the market and the ones announced by the government, which causes the black money in the market to accumulate, is also being remedied by raising the government’s valuation charts. This will help both in documenting the property sector and taxing it.
Lastly, an overarching amnesty scheme was announced earlier this year. It is ironic that Prime Minister Khan, when he was in the parliamentary opposition only last year, basically sabotaged a similar amnesty scheme announced by the then Nawaz Sharif-led government. At the time, Khan had announced that after coming into power, he would be taking action against anyone found to have availed the amnesty scheme.

An easy way to keep the money and real estate sector undocumented has been to avoid formal banking channels. The current government has made efforts to make cash flows through this route either a mandatory or a recommended practice. In its recent budget, it imposed penalties on the avoidance of banking channels.

Data from the country’s top real estate portal, Zameen.com suggests that Pakistan’s real estate market has slowed down incredibly in the past couple of years; however, if one were to supplement this finding with anecdotal evidence, it would become evident that this is primarily just a bubble of ‘fake price appreciation’ created by the shady sections the sector which has now collapsed.

Cryptocurrency and ICO market

Published on July 1, 2019December 22, 2019

Economy/Technology

Cryptocurrency could best be explained as a parallel to the game of PUBG as both of them has epitomized controversy and sparked debates around their acceptability as a format. As PUBG comes with a string of statutory warning on its possible predicament on different psychological aspects which could plague the mind of an adolescent child, the same appears to be true for Cryptocurrency as well. The only significant difference is the warning that circles around cryptocurrency, which seems more potent as it comes from eminent economist and reputed financial audit and research firms across the globe. But the popularity of both goes unabated with more and more users pouring in.

Cryptocurrency has now become a global phenomenon with Google having a contingent of more than a thousand dedicated pages designed to cater to the curiosity of the common man about it. The institution of cryptocurrency still stands inundated in the thick layers of myth around it. Consequently, it looks so opaque that most of the people who are contemplating on it, find themselves in a state of utter dichotomy and cannot really conclude whether it appears good, bad or ugly.

What is a cryptocurrency?

Cryptocurrency refers to the digital currency encrypted with cryptographic protocols that help users do the transaction at their convenience without any possibility of being tracked at any point along its digital route. In a bid to redefine ease of making payments online, cryptocurrency has made digital transactions simpler for both the private sector and the common public. The most important attribute of cryptocurrency is that it cannot be brought into the ambit of regulatory control of any central agency or financial body which works under the guideline of any nation or united unions. Being very liberal in spirit and democratic in concept, it has now got immune to traditional controls and interventions made by several legal and financial bodies. That is where we need to draw the line of caution followed by taking a stance, which is balanced and reflective on the possible prejudice that it can invite to mankind. There is a score of incidents reported by security agencies and financial watchdogs where cryptocurrency has been misused to make illegitimate monetary transfers to radical groups and extremist outfits all across the globe. The use of cryptocurrency has garnered traction among the drug peddlers, unscrupulous people involved in human trafficking and arms dealers who remain invisible in the real world and usher in a pseudonymous transaction that cannot ever be tracked and breached into.

The future of Fintech?

If we can put aside the mist of the apprehension of misuse, nobody can turn a blind eye to the enormous possibility it could unfold in shaping the future of Fintech more in terms of how it can drive the world economy towards inclusive prosperity and well being for all. Anyone can log into https://CryptoLab.one to keep themselves well abreast of latest updates and developments along with interactive charts and graphs showing markets trends in the world of cryptocurrency

There is a variety of cryptocurrencies available in the niche economy ecosystem that it carved out for itself over time. The most important breed of cryptocurrency is Bitcoin, which is believed to have served a digital gold standard in the whole cryptocurrency industry. Only within a span of seven years, the valuation of Bitcoin has reached 650 dollars from zero, and its transaction frequency has brewed up to 0.2 million units per day which truly shows the immense possibilities that the destiny has in store for it. Apart from Bitcoin, there are so many other currencies as well which are also gaining prominence. Ethereum, Ripple, Litecoin are some of those species which are also gaining popularity over time.

What is ICO?

In the context of the resurgence of new currencies, the circle of discussion cannot complete without the mention of ICO which stands for Initial Coin Offering. What IPO means for a mainstream investment world, ICO holds the same relevance in the realms of cryptocurrency. ICO serves the purpose of the fund-raiser. When an entity looks forward to creating a coin, app or service, it does it with the launch of ICO. ICO has come into the limelight and occupied news headlines as more and more investors are joining in with an expectation to make quick money. Some very successful ICOs over the period has given the investors reasons to bank upon it, but there is an opposite side of the coin as well which is not very glittery and flamboyant. There are instances where all the investment has gone down into the drain. Being an unregulated proposition, it always runs the risk of being exploited.

Therefore, we all need to draw a forbidden line of caution around it which will put a restraint on how we use the technology and what for. If we let the conscience take over and decide the course of our action, cryptocurrency will eventually unleash its true potential where everyone across the tiers and pedals of the society will be empowered to wake up to a dawn of new financial resurrection.

1 2 Next