Wells Fargo now joins Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, and Bank of America in banning cryptocurrency purchases from credit cards issued by them.

“We will continue to evaluate the issue as the market evolves” Spokesperson Shelley Miller told Bloomberg news.

The banks odd and rare public stance is that they are doing this out of concern for their clients and their ability to pay them back.  A reason that makes little since when you think about it.

Why am I right now, able to purchase everything needed for a $10,000 vacation to Europe? Which would leave me with nothing that I could sell afterwards?  My credit card company does nothing to make sure I can pay it back.  Not even a friendly phone call to make sure I can afford this vacation?  I thought you cared!

But I can't buy $10,000 worth of Bitcoin, which could even lose half it's value - i'd still be left with $5000 worth of it.  That's the riskier transaction? Really?!

Why the concern with just this one purchase? I think we all know the answer.

Wells Fargo is trying to recover from a scandal where they created millions of unwanted and fraudulent savings and checking accounts for their customers without consent. They were fined $185 million for the illegal activity, and faces multiple civil lawsuits.

Nothing like cryptocurrency to bring out sudden concern for customers well-being.

Mainstream adoption of is arguably still a few years out. While the innovation may be among us, hypothetical use-cases abound from distributed applications to smart payment methods. Considering everything, what is your crypto use-case?

You may be a tech enthusiast, a dApp dev, or an online merchant. Regardless, you are stuck in a world where speculation is king, and you must pay your dues to the most volatile asset class in the world. Most users don’t want to spend their precious crypto and most sellers can’t afford to gamble on fluctuating prices. Suffice to say, crypto is mainly an investor’s game at the moment.

For a noob, it’s a lot to wrap your head around. How to manage a portfolio to maximize your return, how to keep up with current news and trends, track prices, setup esoteric wallets and deal with the erratic world of crypto social media. If speculation is to be our stepping stone to mass adoption, we will need a fast and easy way for the average person to get up-to-speed...without losing too much in value.

Makeafolio is a new Ethereum powered ICO devoted to introducing investors to the world of cryptocurrency. Essentially, it’s a portfolio-building tool. As a service, they offer a bit more. It includes user-friendly software for choosing and tracking assets, analysis of price action and buy/sell indicators, and even social features that allow the user to get the help from others in the community.

The token for the Makeafolio app is MAF. Send Bitcoin, Ethereum, or Litecoin, which is converted into MAF tokens and used to purchase cryptos of your choice. Once you have your selection in place, one press of a button creates a portfolio with visual representation and analytics.

Track your portfolio performance and even place on the MAF leaderboard to “compete” with other users, or just to get feedback on how other users are investing. You can even quick-copy an existing portfolio form one of the top performers for your own use.

The platform includes a service called MAF-Pay, a simple tool for verifying withdrawals and payments to avoid common mistakes. When you want to send crypto out of your MAF wallet, the app automatically sends a negligible amount to the receiving address for confirmation before transferring larger funds. In theory this will help avoid wrong addresses and lost funds.

Each user will have his own profile page within the MAF-Social feature, a facebook-inspired social media application designed for sharing portfolio attributes and tips. Each profile will be
customizable to allow for more expression and creativity within the network. A guided feedback section is referred to as MAF-Mentor Program, where MAF-Pupils can learn from more experienced investors.

While Makeafolio may not appeal to more seasoned crypto traders and investors, there’s no debate that this kind of user-friendly exposure is sorely needed within the community. Apps like this clear the path for newcomers who would otherwise tread with caution and trepidation. Most new potential investors get cold feet, especially when prices are falling. So even if you aren’t looking for a new portfolio management tool, this could be an ICO worth keeping an eye on as it could see positive growth.

The token sale begins on July 1st 2018 and ends September 4th. A 30% bonus will be awarded to pre-sale buyers.

For more information, visit https://www.makeafolio.com

I'm going to try to keep this 'short and sweet' and link to the detailed analysis for those who want to dive in deeper - but here's the basics of what you need to know.

Recently analysis released by Chainalysis states one simple thing happening - old investors selling, and new speculators picking up where they left off.  In their report they write:

"Since September 2015, the majority of bitcoin has been held for investment, as shown in the chart below. However, this has declined in the last year, from 72% of available bitcoin in April 2017 to 50% in April 2018. At the same time, there has been an increase in bitcoin held for speculation, from 14% of available bitcoin in April 2017 to 35% in April 2018. This suggests that investors have cashed out some of their holdings. These bitcoin are now in the hands of new users who use their bitcoin to speculate or make personal transactions, rather than hold their bitcoin as a longer term investment."

Two questions you must ask yourself if you're thinking it's the end of the world:

Is it strange that people who have held Bitcoin since it was nearly worthless, would now like to enjoy their investment paying off?  No, it is not.

When these long term investors sell, are they finding people to buy? Yes! Plenty of them.

It's time to worry when these answers change.  If there's more sellers than buyers - that's when a market ends - it's a situation we aren't even close to.

In other words - if someone is selling 1000 BTC, and the sell order sits there for days or weeks because there is no buyer - worry.   But currently, there's a buy order for every sell order.

So what does this mean for the immediate future though?  Be prepared for Bitcoin to remain around it's current price for awhile. Now that possession has changed hands from early investors, to new speculators, something else now needs to happen for the price to go up.

Last week I covered a story about one of those things that could send the price skyrocketing - but keep in mind even if everything goes as planned, it's a few months away from happening.

You can read Chainalysis' full report here.

If you are a cryptocurrency enthusiast, chances are you don’t like censorship, centralized control, or middlemen. Bitcoin arose from the ashes of a tumbling world economy to offer safe haven to those disillusioned with the status quo. Since its inception, thousands of alternative and incarnations have followed suit. Yet the main delivery system of all this information—no doubt the method in which you are reading these very words, often goes unquestioned.

MEDIA Protocol offers a solution of internet transparency, allowing publishers, content creators and consumers a direct link. The MEDIA whitepaper refers to this link as a two-way flow from publisher to consumer and vise-versa. In theory, this protocol would be more efficient; costing both parties significantly less money and time while incentivizing both parties with their token-based approach.

So how does this work? Consumers that use apps integrating MEDIA Protocol will receive token rewards. If you read content online, share the work of your creators, record preferences, etc, you’ll get MEDIA tokens in exchange. These ERC20s can be traded on the open market, or used to tip your favorite content creators.

Publishers that use MEDIA Protocol will be given an alternative to the regular avenues of advertising and distribution. When a website publishes an article, for instance, the URL is usually shared on social media, and is boosted for a fee. With this new system, this website will have a direct link to its readers. Think of it like shortcut through the internet, using blockchain to connect those invested in the content. MEDIA refers to these new protocols as “Smart URLs”.

MEDIA Protocol is positioning itself to become the core infrastructure of a new internet communication. The system will rely on third party dApps to build diverse, eclectic online communities. According to the company’s available documentation:

“MEDIA Protocol is a tool for the proliferation of infinite and open content economies, powered by communities through relevant content. It is a remedy for the cognitive drain we each experience when we consume the content of the lowest common denominator, with little alternative, which results from economies of scale in the current content ecosystem.”

Fancy words, but you might be asking what exactly MEDIA Protocol is. Stripped down to the code, it is a smart contract using the Ethereum blockchain which provides a token as a reward for interacting with certain apps and websites.

They have created a working prototype dApp called CryptoCatnip as a proof-of-concept and an example of future applications. CryptoCatnip is their flagship app devoted to news about the world of cryptocurency and delivering the latest stories to avid readers. Finally, MEDIA is a set of analytic tools for publishers. While consumers remain anonymous, metrics will be provided through the supported apps. MEDIA Protocol will eventually have a developer toolkit for easy building on iOS and Android platforms.

While this proposal may at first seem convoluted, MEDIA’s whitepaper and roadmap are intricately detailed. Token distribution, scalability issues, off-chain service, delegation, issues of identity protection and paywalled media sources are all addressed in far greater depth than can be summarized in a review. When issues of internet censorship, net neutrality, consumer-creator rights and other relevant arguments are at stake, it’s worth taking a closer look. In the crypto space we have some fantastic new-internet solutions in projects such as Substratum, MaidSafeCoin, and many others, but so far only a few address these specific concerns.

The project boasts an impressive group of advisors. Andy Tian, CEO of Gifto, Kate Cox, CMO of GoDaddy, Mark Adams of VICE, and Richard Ma of Quanstamp make up only part of a star-studded crew you can’t go wrong with. Angel investors from Havas Group, Cowboy Ventures, and Wachsman also appear to be consulting the fundraising process.

For more info check out www.MediaProtocol.org for a slew of upcoming events as well as a glimpse at their whitepaper, smart contract, and even their marketing campaign and roll-out plans. Token sale is to-be-announced, inclined investors are encouraged to join their Telegram group.

The amount of cryptocurrency lost forever is staggering.  One of the things that brings strength to cryptocurrency also has it's downsides. It's empowering that no government can order a wallet unlocked, and only the holder of the private key can control access to it - that is, until that private key gets lost, or the owner takes it to their grave.

NY based Chainalysis, an analytics firm, recently published a study stating nearly 4 million bitcoins are lost forever. The study points to people who bought a few out of curiosity years ago, maybe just $20 worth at the time - and miners from the days when bitcoin was only worth pennies or low dollar amounts.

On this topic I have a personal friend who is among some of the early Bitcoin miners who made this mistake, he explained to me:

"I started mining Bitcoin in 2012 - not as anything serious, and not even with a very good mining rig - I had earned about 30 BTC worth about $5 bucks each - so my wallet was valued at about $150 bucks.

My private key saved on 1 laptop, I thought nothing of how risky that was - how closely does anyone really guard $150 bucks?

That laptop was stolen out of my car trunk parked in downtown San Francisco - and with it, I lost access to that wallet forever.  At the time I was only mad about losing the laptop itself, but now that's the least of it. 

It still haunts me today but the worst was December 2017 when it amounted to losing about a half million dollars."

At today's price, it's still worth over $200,000.  While he's taking it with a grain of salt and trying to laugh at his misfortune, I also can't help thinking of those tormented forever - some people never come to grips with a massive loss, last year we even covered a story titled "My brother killed himself because of bitcoin" (link).

Now that the price of Bitcoin is so much higher than it was back in 2012 - people are guarding their private keys like their life depends on it - and they're literally correct.

Just last month crypto billionare Matthew Mellon died of a heart attack - his private keys seemingly lost with him.  He had told people he printed and placed his private keys in secure bank valuts around the world - but it appears to have been something he was just planning on doing, and never actually did. His family has stated they recieved his belongings from his bank safe deposit boxes - no private keys were there.

Lessons to learn - have your private key saved in multiple secure places.  Include instructions to access them in your will in the case of death.

For those of us living, oddly enough this has a positive effect on the market.  Coins locked into wallets people don't have access to means these are coins that can never be sold - so the effect on the market is the same as someone HODLing, forever.

Twitch is the leading streaming platform, for anything really - but best known in the gaming community.  Twitch stars such as top gamer 'Ninja' earn up to $500,000 per month steaming their gameplay on Twitch - all that money donated by fans.

While millionare superstar gamers are rare - there's countless smaller streams earning a few hundred bucks per month, enough to total over $100 million a year paid out by Twitch to to various streamers!

Streamlabs announced the move in a post on their official blog reading:

"Hodl? Crypto tips are here!

It’s time to give one of your lambos a wash, because all Streamlabs broadcasters can now accept cryptocurrency tips. We’re initially adding support for Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and Bitcoin Cash, and will be looking into adding other coins in the future."

Another interesting factor to consider - Amazon owns Twitch, they purchased the company in 2014.  Could we looking at the testing grounds for something bigger? While the payments go through StreamLabs - our sources at Amazon say they'll be "paying attention to the results".

June 2nd marked the day of the EOS mainnet launch, and with it came a snapshot for many tokens to be airdropped to its users. If you aren’t an EOS holder yet and feel like you’ve missed out on this opportunity, you’re in luck. You still have an chance to get your hands on some EOS mainnet coins before these tokens are released to the EOS community later this year. Here are a few to look forward to that aren’t being talked about enough.

EOS Cafe - A decentralized autonomous corporation (DAC) dedicated to sharing ideas about the EOS platform. Community owned and operated, the block producer team plans have local meetups throughout the world in coffee shops where people can gather and make their wildest blockchain ideas come true. They will organize hackathons, investment seminars, and other collaborations to benefit the EOS community.

Airdrop date: sometime in June 2018

Snapshot date: to be determined.

https://www.eosdrops.io/details/EOS-Cafe

Hirevibes: A decentralized app to bring crowdsourced job hunting to its users. There are many new blockchain based employment apps, but this should be one of the largest. They will offer
payment of 5% just for signing up and referring others, so it is sure to be one of the most popular as well. Job seekers and businesses both can enjoy maximum efficiency while earning more and giving back to the community.

Airdrop date: sometime in Q3, 2018

Snapshot date: to be determined.

https://hirevibes.io/

IRYO Netowrk: The first participatory healthcare network on the blockchain. Decentralising access to medical date, IRYO used big data research and machine learning to the test while
preserving privacy issues with the use of zero-knowledge encryption. Rest assured that your information is both secure and easily accessible through this next-gen healthcare solution. Airdrop date: sometime in Q3, 2018

Snapshot date: to be determined.

https://iryo.network/