The ascent of a blockchain influencer : Matthew Najar

Matthew Najar or the rise of a tech influencer? 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.

National banking licenses would increase fintechs’ ability to operate across the U.S. without requiring state-by-state permission or partnerships with established banks. This could increase competition in banking and also make it easier for technology firms to offer new online payments solutions or other services. In a speech, Thomas J. Curry, the OCC’s chief officer, listed three reasons for moving forward with the long-discussed plan to issue a national charter for fintechs. First, it’s in the public interest to make new innovative services available. Second, fintechs should have the opportunity to become national banks if they wish to do so. And third, it helps ensure that all financial institutions operate on a level, nationally regulated playing field. As Curry pointed out, the reality today is that many fintechs are already competing with national and state banks — but “without regard to any of the national bank responsibilities and under a patchwork of supervision.” The agency said it would collect public comment before moving farther.

Paper: wallets are easy to use and provide a very high level of security. While the term paper wallet can simply refer to a physical copy or printout of your public and private keys, it can also refer to a piece of software that is used to securely generate a pair of keys which are then printed. Using a paper wallet is relatively straightforward. Transferring Bitcoin or any other currency to your paper wallet is accomplished by the transfer of funds from your software wallet to the public address shown on your paper wallet. Alternatively, if you want to withdraw or spend currency, all you need to do is transfer funds from your paper wallet to your software wallet. This process, often referred to as ‘sweeping,’ can either be done manually by entering your private keys or by scanning the QR code on the paper wallet.

The U.S., which is home to some of the world’s biggest fintech companies, is also kicking off innovation initiatives similar in concept to those already up and running in other countries. The OCC plans to establish an Office of Innovation in 2017 to help the agency ensure that financial institutions operate in a regulatory framework that is responsive to financial innovation; its roles will include an outreach and technical assistance program for banks and nonbanks developing financial services. In addition, a bill to introduce a regulatory sandbox was introduced in the U.S. Congress in 2016, with the goal of passing enabling legislation in 2017.

Everyone is talking about cryptocurrencies. The explosion in the price of Bitcoin in previous years, when it reached its maximum price and almost touched $ 20.000 dollars, caused the eyes of the world to settle on the crypto world. Suddenly, from average citizens to financial giants, everyone became interested in cryptocurrencies. Their rising prices gave cryptocurrencies a new attraction.

Signing up for a Coinbase account is easy, though you will need to provide some form of identification. That may involve sending a copy of your photo ID and potentially also sending a live image of your face using a webcam. These rules are important to follow as they allow the site(s) to comply with ‘know-your-customer’ regulations. Although Coinbase alone will allow you to buy and sell Bitcoin, it’s also worth signing up to its linked exchange platform, Coinbase Pro, which will give you greater control over your purchases.

Now, I know this may sound obvious but it’s important for you to have a clear purpose for getting into cryptocurrency trade. Whether your purpose is to day trade or to scalp, you need to have a purpose for starting to trade cryptos. Trading digital currencies is a zero-sum game; you need to realize that for every win, there is a corresponding loss:. Someone wins; someone else loses. The cryptocurrency market is controlled by the large ‘whales’, pretty much like the ones that place thousands of Bitcoins in the market order books. And can you guess what these whales do best? They have patience; they wait for innocent traders like you and me to make a single mistake that lands our money to their hands due to avoidable mistakes.

Consider laddering your buys and sells. In others words, instead of buying or selling everything in one chunk, set incremental buy and sell orders to buy when the price goes down and sell when the price goes up. Laddering and averaging will help you to avoid mistiming the complex and volatile cryptocurrency market. Learn about dollar cost averaging and laddering. Learn about position sizing and risk management. To the above point, one generally takes a much larger risk with bigger bets. Learn how to make the right size buys and sells to avoid losing too much on a bad play. See: The Basics of Risk Management and Position Sizing in Cryptocurrency.