It might be kind of weird to be wishing an inanimate object a happy birthday, but the world is a weird place, happy 10th birthday Bitcoin White paper.
It's inspired a lot in the past 10 years, a lot of which I am grateful for. It looks like it’s also inspired a bit of a copy cat, but one who hasn’t really got that anonymous thing quite figured out as well as Satoshi.

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The Bitcoin White paper is a thing of beauty in regards to a decentralized network. It’s set the stage for all kinds of disruption that has been needed for a very long time.

Now ten years later, there’s a new project that has set it’s sights on disrupting the ACH, or the Automated Clearing House. The ACH is was has been responsible for dealing with things like direct deposits and direct payments for banks. Pretty much any transaction that happens within and between banks most likely involves the ACH. The value of all ACH transactions grew from $43 trillion in 2016 to $47 trillion in 2017.
The project that wants to disrupt this is called Promise. Which at first glance, isn’t exactly the type of name that evokes a whole lot of certainty, but if the protocol is designed correctly, maybe this is the missing link for making recurring Bitcoin payments an option for big businesses. If you want to learn more about Promise, I’ve included links to the initial white paper as well as the supplemental addition which names its 3 authors.

Another thing that I’m grateful for is this new appreciation that is growing, the appreciation of decentralization when it comes to systems that allow you to store and trade cryptocurrencies.
A lot of people think that all things to do with cryptocurrencies are decentralized, but here’s some evidence that this isn’t the case, tragically, a lot of people will learn this lesson the hard way.

Once again those who have placed their faith in a centralized exchange are facing some tough consequences.

There once was an exchange called Mt. Gox. In 2014 this centralized exchange cut and run, or rather, the CEO of this exchange took a lot of Bitcoin, more than 200,000 Bitcoin that was entrusted to the exchange by a whole lot of people.
There were attempts to launder these coins through another centralized exchange called BTC-e. BTC-e was shut down and then heavily fined by the U.S. government. Not long after, and with the help of some familiar BTC-e employees, a “new” exchange came into existence called WEX.

Unfortunately, those who had not really done much research on this exchange, or else were willfully ignorant, chose to keep their coins here for either storage or trading opportunities.
For the past several months, this one has suspended the withdrawal option for many different cryptocurrencies. It’s been discovered that a great number of Ethereum has been leaving the wallet that’s controlled by WEX and has been deposited into everyone’s favorite Binance exchange.

Sound like a familiar story?

No doubt this is a truly disappointing situation for those who have been aware of it, and for those who are now finding out.

But the best thing that can come from this is for there to be a new wave of woke individuals who will be seeking out more secure, more decentralized options for storing and trading their cryptocurrencies.

This space is full of individuals who hold decentralization highly, and who had the foresight to understand that the problems with centralized exchanges will only increase over time. These individuals have been working hard to create decentralized exchanges. I talk about them a lot and today is no different. If you want to store your cryptocurrencies safely, get yourself a hardware wallet and learn how to use it in the safest way possible. There are a ton of videos that exist which explain the safe steps to take and why. Search them out and study them. If you want to trade your cryptocurrencies safely, learn how to identify a properly decentralized exchange and how to properly use it. I’ve made a lot of videos that go over these things so I will be including links to them down below.

I’m going to end this one with a healthy reminder, one that we all need from time to time

It’s Halloween, a day when people take a lot of time and energy to dress up in costumes and ask you to give them candy.

In the land of cryptocurrency, companies are doing this every day. We’ve seen it with the Kodak ICO, with the New Jersey Ice Tea company, and with countless other companies and “projects” who have jumped on the ICO madness bandwagon in the hopes of making some money without the intention and much less the ability to actually create a viable product that actually needs cryptocurrency or blockchain technology.

There are imposters everywhere in the crypto space, it will do you well to develop the ability to spot them and avoid them. It will save you a lot of money and stress. Don’t worry, I’ve made a video about this as well ;)

Additional Reading/Links:

Satoshi mimicry
Promise White Paper
Promise Supplement

Reminder of the pitfalls of centralization
BTC-e Becomes WEX
Mt. Gox

Be aware of those piggy backing blockchain tech for shallow/unneeded reasons

Helpful Videos:

Setting up Ledger Hardware Wallet, How & Why
Decentralized Exchanges Playlist
ICO Scams
Critical Analysis of Altcoins