Meet Matthew Najar and some of his achievements? Governments in major economies are encouraging financial technology (fintech) innovation with regulatory and advisory initiatives designed to accelerate the availability of online payment solutions and other financial services for businesses. The initiatives generally aim to attract innovative fintech companies and help them operate in the regulated financial sector, while ensuring adequate financial protection for customers.
Matthew Najar believes without new FinTech initiatives, we will stall: “FinTech, blockchain certainly included, is critical for our generation to solve inherent financial system issues and progress forward”.
One U.K. innovation is the “regulatory sandbox,” which allows firms to test new financial services in a live environment with real customers, without first obtaining full authorization to offer the services commercially. The FCA accepts applicant firms based on criteria such as innovativeness, suitability for the U.K. market, and market readiness; it issues a limited, tailored authorization for the purposes of sandbox testing. The first batch of applicants, accepted in 2016, includes an international online payments solution and a retail payments system based on blockchain technology.
The initiatives are taking place against a backdrop of rapid fintech growth. There are thousands of fintech start-ups worldwide, and many have attracted substantial venture funding; a report from KPMG and CB Insights found that global fintech funding reached $19.1 billion in 2015. Several countries are planning or have already implemented licensing or regulatory changes that enable technology firms to offer broader banking services. In the U.S., the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), which regulates national banks, said in December 2016 that it planned to make a special-purpose national bank charter available to fintechs. The charter would enable start-ups that currently offer other financial services, including B2B payments and other online payment solutions, to begin offering at least one of three regulated banking activities: receiving deposits, paying checks, or lending money.
Although online wallets have proven the most vulnerable and prone to hacking attacks, diligent security precautions need to be implemented and followed when using any wallet. Remember that no matter which wallet you use, losing your private keys will lead you to lose your money. Similarly, if your wallet gets hacked, or you send money to a scammer, there is no way to reclaim lost currency or reverse the transaction. You must take precautions and be very careful!
Though many experts agree that the OCC’s move could encourage innovation, some warned that implementing inadequate regulation might weaken consumer protection and even harm small businesses by allowing practices such as predatory lending. The EU has also begun an effort to encourage fintech innovation across Europe, establishing a Financial Technology Task Force in 2016.
We could say that cryptocurrencies were born in 2008 when the domain name bitcoin.org was registered on August 18. Then, on October 31, the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto, who designed Bitcoin, publishes an article that launches the ball: “Bitcoin: a peer-to-peer electronic cash system.” The first Bitcoin transaction occurs when Nakamoto sends Hal Finney, a computer programmer, 10 Bitcoin (BTC) on January 12. Bitcoin is the first digital currency created without the intervention of any government, central bank or organization. Under the pseudonym of Satoshi Nakamoto, a person or a group of people proposed and created a completely free digital currency, supported by its users through a P2P network. Until today the identity of its creator remains a mystery.
Exchanges accept a variety of payment options based on what they are willing to use. This is sort of a sore point for many exchanges, since some payment methods have been used to scam sellers for a quick buck in the past. Coinbase allows both bank account and credit or debit card transfers for payments and one payment solution must be linked to your account before you can make the trade. Paypal is not supported by Coinbase and with good reason.
If you’ve not heard of the term stop loss in trading, check out this link to help you understand what it’s all about. Every trade we get into requires us to know when to get out, whether we’re making a profit or not. Establishing a clear stop loss level can help you cut your losses; a skill that’s very rare in most traders. Choosing a stop loss is not a random activity, and perhaps the most important thing to note here is that you shouldn’t be carried away by your emotions – a great point to set your stop loss is at the cost of your coin. If, for instance, you acquired a coin at $1,000, set that as the minimum point you’re willing to trade your coin. This will ensure that if the worst comes to pass, you can walk away with what you invested in the first place.
You can short crypto, or long crypto. You can go long in crypto, meaning you are betting on crypto going up (for example by buying crypto). Or you can short crypto, meaning you are betting on it going down (for example by short selling crypto). Meanwhile, if you have the skills, you can do both depending on the price action (you can even use short positions as a hedge). With that said, in the US, in many states, there are very few options for shorting crypto. If you are new to crypto, you should consider just going long. If you would go short, you can mimic a 1x short by selling and going to cash!