Business Finance What happens to cryptocurrency if net neutrality dies for real?
(FINANCE) Every cryptocurrency relies on a free and open internet, so if net neutrality in America dies, what happens to crypto? Tweet
Net neutrality may bite the dust thanks to the FCC’s December 14th vote . While most of us are lamenting what this means for the internet as a whole, specific implications continue to arise.
If the Restoring Internet Freedom Order remains unchallenged, net neutrality may end up in a shallow grave. This spells disaster for equal access to sites and speeds, and will also likely impact the cryptocurrency market.
Cryptocurrency thrives on a free, untethered market.
Though technically unregulated, checks and balances are in place to keep networks secure and equally accessible.
In the absence of net neutrality, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) can basically do whatever they want.
Stripping Title II protection as outlined in the Communications Act means the internet will no longer count as a regulated utility like water and electricity.
These protections prevented ISPs from blocking legal sites and content, and didn’t allow for favoring the speed of internet traffic. Without this classification, the internet will be considered part of the free market.
If an ISP wants to severely throttle the speed of a site, or even cut off access entirely, they can. Shutting down entire exchanges could lead to the resurgence of Silk Road -type law evading black markets.
Cutting off access may also lead to disasters like the scandal of Mt. Gox , a Tokyo-based Bitcoin exchange that filed for bankruptcy in 2014.
Hundreds of thousands of its customers’ Bitcoin were lost or stolen, leading to plenty of fun lawsuits.
ISPs could also go the route of prioritizing some platforms by offering faster access, better security, and speedier transactions.
Smaller exchanges may suffer from throttled speed.
Established ISP monopolies may opt to choose a preferred Bitcoin exchange platform and shut down competitors in the area by throttling speed or completely blocking sites.
This would severely limit investors’ options, further encouraging black market activity.
Theoretically, ISPs could even start issuing their own cryptocurrency and offer discounts on internet packages to customers using their currency.
Although these potential changes are taking place in the U.S., the global crypto market will be affected.
Legislation modification in the U.
S. certainly won’t decrease demand for cryptocurrency. Let’s just cross our fingers for all those counter-suits and challenges to the FCC’s ruling and hope this is a bad dystopic dream. Lindsay Huber
Lindsay is an editor for The American Genius with a Communication Studies degree and English minor from Southwestern University.
Lindsay is interested in social interactions across and through various media, particularly television, and will gladly hyper-analyze cartoons and comics with anyone, cats included. Continue Reading Darrell Birkey January 3, 2018 at 12:02 am
Net neutrality was only here for two year and cryptocurrencies have been around much longer. ISP’s make money by providing service not blocking service. With new coming technologies especially wireless and satellite tech, if one ISP were to do what you fear, customers would flee other ISP’s.
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked * Comment Cryptocurrency sets new historic market cap of $600 billion
(FINANCE) Cyrptocurrency breaks record with historic $600 billion market cap, continues climbing.
Published Lindsay Huber
Cryptocurrency set a new historic record on December 18, exceeding $600 billion total market capitalization for the first time.
Data site CoinMarketCap charted the capitalization maxed at $603.3 billion, rising above the $600 billion mark near 11:30 UTC. About an hour later, it dipped below that, only to continue rising in the proceeding four hours.
CoinMarketCap calculated market caps by multiplying price by circulating supply. Only cryptocurrency currently on the market on in the general public’s hands count towards circulating supply, which is a close approximation of the actual amount on the market.
Locked, reserved, or otherwise unsellable coins are not included since they can’t affect the price of cryptocurrency. This is similar to using public float in calculating market capitalization for traditional investing.
As of today, the market valuation is hanging out around the $658 billion mark. This is nearly triple the $232 billion market cap from just last month.
For the past three years, total market capitalization has steadily increased. At the beginning of this year, the market cap was only at $18.3 billion. Excluding Bitcoin, January 2017 was around $2.3 billion, and the latest spike hit $286 billion.
So let’s talk about Bitcoin, the most popular kid in cryptocurrency school. Out of all the top five cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin Cash has had the most significant gains
In November, most of Bitcoin cash’s network nodes transitioned to a new software meant to entice miners with more favorable rewards and secure the blockchain. Initially implemented on August 1, 2017, this hard fork from the main Bitcoin blockchain utilizes a different algorithm more favorable to miners.
Bitcoin cash’s hard fork increased the block size from 1 MB on bitcoin to 8 MB, effectively accelerating the verification process and speed of mining.
Bitcoin cash was up 16 percent during the record-breaking spike, but didn’t top the charts for largest increase during 12:00-16:00 UTC on December 18.
Other cyrptocurrencies VeChain rose 31.88 percent, and Hshare climbed 28.
15 percent.
Not every cryptocurrency experienced gains though. Out of the top 50, Startup Power Ledger’s PWR token dropped 8.64 percent, and Siacoin fell 10.12 percent during the afternoon trading session.
Right now, one Bitcoin is valued over $14,250 and continues to gain in popularity. Business Finance Easy tax calculator for freelancers that tend to wing it
(FINANCE NEWS) This tax calculator gives you an idea of what you should be holding back so tax day isn’t such a big surprise this time.
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The freelance checks are rolling and your income is adding up fast.
Score!
Not so fast.
Your freelance checks are not taxed individually, but that doesn’t mean your income is tax-free.
Whether you’re a full-time freelancer, part-timer, or just work on contract projects here and there, it’s important to know how much of your freelance income needs to go towards your tax bill.
As 2017 comes to a close, it’s a great time to review your project income and get an idea of what you may owe once taxes come due. Better to get a general idea now and start saving (if you haven’t already), than be blindsided when you fill out your tax forms.
To get a general idea of what you’ll owe, free tools such as The Freelance Project Tax Calculator can be helpful.
This calculator, which is a collaboration between CPAs at Atribus Solutions and Sail, can be downloaded via email after submitting a request on the Sail website.
It’s compatible with Google Sheets and Excel, too, so use whichever spre.
