After a rough January -  February seems to be a month of recovery!

At the time of publishing, the total market cap has been hovering in the $490-$510 billion range, at one point today even nearing $520 billion.

The whales (large investors) seem to be returning as well - as blockchain activity shows some large buys.  No surprise, Bitcoin topping the list with a single purchase totaling $40 Million taking place yesterday.

The altcoin star of the week award however goes to Litecoin. Which begun the week at $142, and now sits at a healthy $220! News of their new payment platform LitePay (link) seems to be the reason for the rise - also worth noting some impressive Ethereum gains too!

In the clear? For now it seems so, after what took place between the SEC and Congress (link) alleviating fears of new regulation in the US, along with South Korean officials seemingly backtracking on their previous harsh words regarding possible regulation in that nation as well.

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There's a bit of irony here, we always hear stories about venture capitalist investors constantly on the hunt for the next hot thing in tech and virtually all the top firms are now in the blockchain and cryptocurrency space today, directly or though companies they hold stake in.

But while they've been out looking for whats next in tech, not much about the world of venture capital investing has changed for quite some time. It's time for the venture capital world, to see how they can improve and streamline their own industry.

One of the companies out to do that is EQUI, who has roadmap to bring venture capital investing into the modern world, and while doing so, make expand it's reach so individuals, not just huge firms can participate in the marketplace.

"Traditionally, venture capital has been the preserve of institutions and ultra high net worth investors. Now for the first time, non-industry professionals will have a chance to back the next hot investment opportunity that most of us only get to hear about in the media" says lead founder Doug Barrowman.

Their process will work like this - first EQUI's board of directors consisting of 'visionary entrepreneurs' will research and identify projects that they see as innovative and could benefit from an injection of venture capital.

Now here's where blockchain comes in - users of the platform will then have a chance to invest into the companies EQUI finds worthy, under terms and through transactions protected by smart contracts.  Within the smart contracts will be things like project maturity estimates, caps and targets. Investors can then participate by using their platforms token, the 'EQUItoken'.

Then they take a hands on approach - offering operational support and strategic advice needed to turn the company's vision into a reality. Overseeing the standard stages of investment - seed, early, and growth.

This method of investing allows for levels of flexibility benefiting the investor this space hasn't seen before.  EQUItoken holders can contribute as many or as few as they wish towards companies. Investors will receive 70% (pro-rata) of the profits generated from projects they invest in.

The EQUI ICO will begin in March in two phases, full information can be found at https://www.equi.capital

The "Litecoin Cash" hard fork is coming Sunday and it has a lot of people confused.  Major media outlets even pointed to this fork as a reason for Litecoin's rally the last couple days - however, that wasn't the case as traders within Litecoin forums virtually all cited LitePay as the reason for raising their investments in the currency.

So, what is Litecoin Cash? Let's take a look.

- It isn't an upgrade.  

The stated goal of the "Litecoin Cash" team is to change the mining algorithm from Scrypt to SHA-256.  Basically, like Bitcoin was. The "Litecoin Cash" team  says transactions will be 90 percent faster than the original Litecoin, however, these numbers are accurate when you have a lot of miners and not a lot of transactions.  Look to Bitcoin's transaction times if you're wondering what happens when SHA-256 mining is put under a heavy transaction load.  Oh, and toss in insanely high energy usage into the list of problems as well.

In an interview with Smartoptions, "Litecoin Cash" developer going by the name "Tanner" stated "Looking through the CoinMarketCap front page, we were really surprised that there were so few choices for SHA256 miners." well... there's a reason for that.

- This has nothing to do with Litecoin.

Charlie Lee, founder of the real Litecoin stated:

"...any fork of Litecoin, calling itself Litecoin something or other, is a scam IMO. Litecoin Cash, Litecoin Plus, Litecoin *... all scams trying to confuse users into thinking they are Litecoin."

The "team" behind Litecoin Cash doesn't deny they're just stealing the name and making a new coin, saying:

"We’re using the Litecoin Cash name simply because it has become customary in recent months for a coin which forks a blockchain to prefix its name with the name of the coin being forked. This practice has become a widely understood convention. We’re not associated or affiliated with Charlie Lee or any of the Litecoin team in any way; we are big fans though."

- Who the hell is this "team" behind it?

Nobody is sure who these guys are. Mysterious photos that reverse image searches can't find, first names only - and even a unicorn as their PR person (which ironically is a pretty bad PR move.)

 Red flags.

- Over supplied, and lack of support.

The supply is 10 times the size of the original LiteCoin - 840 million coins. With no word of exchanges, or wallets planning to support it.

Conclusion - what do you need to do to prepare for the fork? Nothing. Because it doesn't matter.

It’s no secret that the cryptocurrency arena has seen a lot of change recently, creating a level of uncertainty among crypto enthusiasts. For Symatri LLC, current crypto trends strengthened their commitment to each person who has or will purchase Kala. To reiterate their dedication, Symatri is excited to add a new referral program to Kala’s ITO.

"Our Kala community is of the utmost importance to us and we want to show our gratitude for supporting us" states Symatri CEO Darren Olayan. “So, when our users started reaching out to us about a referral plan, the Advisory Board quickly made it happen"

The Kala Referral Program begins today and runs through the end of the Kala ITO, March 15, 2018. Everyone who has or will sign up for a Kala ITO account gets a unique referral ID that they can share with others. All purchases made through a referral ID earns the referrer 5% in Kala. Kala users will be able to view their referral commissions as transactions are completed.

Created with the purpose of making cryptocurrency as accessible as possible, Symatri President Reid Tanaka believes their new referral program makes purchasing and using Kala even easier and strengthens Kala’s growing community. “It’s natural for people to share good things with family and friends,” he said.

After the ITO closes, Kala owners will be able to take advantage of the fluctuations in value that is a fundamental characteristic of all cryptocurrencies. The token will integrate within an already existing ecosystem with more than 300,000 members in over 140 countries. Kala will be fungible, transferable, and is expected to trade on exchanges later this year.

With Kala currently priced for only $.02, Mr. Olayan is excited to see Kala’s ITO take off. “Kala really is a cryptocurrency for everyone. It’s easy to understand, simple to earn, and now Kala is easy to share with everyone.”

For more information on Kala, to view the white paper, or to participate in the ITO, visit
https://go.kalatoken.io

I've always found these kind of projects the most interesting - when an existing business in an existing field, discovers blockchain technology and finds ways to improve the way they function by implementing it - because they're ready for blockchain, right now!

That's exactly what SyncFab is - founded in 2013 they're already successful in the manufacturing and supply chain fields.

It could also be perfect timing - the US economy is in the midst of a manufacturing boom that could see it taking the #1 spot back from China within the next couple years.

Having experience in these fields, SyncFab identified some problems they believe blockchain can solve. Medium and small businesses face a number of challenges when comes to getting access to hardware manufacturing companies, which currently  large procurement firms, and middlemen control.

SyncFab's solution is actually pretty simple - which is a huge plus because their goals seem reasonable and attainable.  An online decentralized buyer-to-manufacturer platform.

"We have received overwhelming support from end users and industry professionals regarding our plan to implement digital tokens to incentivise working class manufacturers to adopt our blockchain solutions." says CEO Jeremy Goodwin.

Manufactures join the platform and list what their machines and factories are capable of producing.  The buyer joins the platform and explains their needs.  Then this will send buyers requests directly to manufacturers that match the buyers needs, and secures the agreement with smart contracts on what they're calling the "Smart Manufacturing Blockchain".

They've also worked out some pretty impressive partnerships beyond private interests in their industry, the city of San Francisco and their home city of San Leandro in the Bay Area through the STIR 'Startup in Residence' program.

So where does a token fit into this? Their MFG token will function as a utility, and reward token. Allowing buyers to get quotes, make purchases, and secure transactions - and allowing manufactures to control pricing, eliminate middlemen by connecting directly to buyers, and guarantee their payments via smart contracts. There will also be a rewards program for using the platform.

Their presale is live now, more info at https://blockchain.syncfab.com/

The project has been in the works for awhile, and is set to launch any day now.

It's called LitePay and the goal is simple: real world use of cryptocurrency as currency - and make it so easy, merchants will feel like giving it a shot.

So, why does this actually have a chance to succeed? Ease of use - for both the buyer and the merchant.

From a merchants perspective - they're currently giving anywhere from 3% to 7% of their transactions to whatever company processes their credit card payments.  With LitePay, that drops to 1%.  Imagine a small business doing $100,000 a year in transactions - if they can get their customers to use LitePay, they'll see an increase of up to $7,000 in profits per year - which is extremely appealing to a small retailer.

Embedding the ability to accept Litecoin as a payment on their websites will be as simple as adding just one more option to their current list of payment options such as credit cards, paypal, etc.

From the buyers point of view - none of the hassle of dealing with wallet addresses and private keys, how about just a card and pin instead?  “Litecoin users will be able to convert Litecoins to dollars and vice versa through their Visa-compatible LitePay cards, which will be usable at all ATMs or businesses that support Visa payments.” Palwasha Saaim, a Research Analyst at Lombardi Financial recently told the Nasdaq stock exchange.

The release date has been a vague 'Feburary 2018' - with the last update being given about a month ago from the LitePay team stating "we are on schedule for Feburary".

*UPDATE* - A release date of Feb 26th has been announced!

IBM Global Industries Senior Vice President Bridget van Kralingen on the company's investment in blockchain technology.