The Trust Crisis Of Banks Worsens Ensuing Initial Collapse Of SVB. A Plus for Crypto

The US banking sector is facing a crisis of trust following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, which has left many Americans, particularly those without insurance for their deposits, anxiously trying to determine if their money is safe. A recent report found that more the 186 banks, or 5% of all banks in the country, are in danger of failing. The article outlines the analysis, identifies the risk factors to watch out for, and explains why investing in cryptocurrency could be a genuine safe-haven option.

Source: SSRN Papers-Full Study

As the above screenshot shows, the study is titled ‘Monetary Tightening and US Bank Fragility in 2023; Mark-to-Market Losses and Uninsured Depositor Runs?’  It was written by four academics from distinguished universities in the United States on March 13th, 2023. 

The report begins with a brief explanation of why so many US banks are at risk of going under and pertains to all the assets banks hold on their balance sheets. These are US bonds (US government debt) and mortgage-backed securities (MBS) (bundles of mortgages). US Bonds and MBSs are the safest assets a bank can hold, at least according to regulators, and why banks tend to invest most of their customers' deposits in US bonds and MBSs.

Images sourced at Investopedia.com

These assets earn interest for the banks and thus make it possible for them to offer services with low or no fees. However, when interest rates rise, the value of US bonds and MBSs decreases. The reasons for this are many, but the main takeaway here is that higher interest rates result in US bonds and MBSs crashing. If the value of these assets falls too much, banks can become temporarily insolvent. 

This insolvency is temporary because when US bonds and MBSs mature, meaning the loan terms end, the bank receives the total value of the underlying asset. Again, the mechanics of this are many, but just know that US bonds and MBSs don't lose money if they are held to maturity, and why banks don't report the losses on US bonds and MBSs when interest rates rise. 

Most information about losses on debt securities held by banks is immersed in the glossaries in their SEC filings. It is not considered a significant problem until that bank has major liquidity issues. It’s because it's not a loss until they sell, and in the case of US bonds and MBSs, they won't lose anything if they hold them to maturity. 

This accounting practice is arguably controversial. These so-called unrealized losses are acceptable if the bank isn't forced to sell any of these assets at a loss, specifically customer withdrawals.  It’s what happened to SVB and why it sank. However, there is one crucial detail to keep in mind. 92.5% of SVB's deposits were uninsured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). 

For context, the FDIC only ensures bank deposits up to $250,000 per account. Any amount above that is considered uninsured. SVB experienced a bank run because its uninsured depositors could see that it had many unrealized losses. This led to speculation that SVB didn't have enough money to honor all withdrawals. 

As such, this bank run may not have happened if most deposits were insured, i.e., under $250K per account. SVB had so many uninsured deposits because the bank provided accounts and banking services primarily to small and medium-sized businesses, startups, and entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley. These clients typically require lots of cash liquidity to pay their employees, make acquisitions, etc. 

Around $9 trillion of bank deposits in the United States are uninsured, roughly 50% of all bank deposits. Banks have been happily investing these uninsured deposits into US bonds and MBSs. The problem is that interest rates have risen, and their unrealized losses have proliferated. At the end of 2022, US banks collectively had unrealized losses totaling more than $600 billion. Interest rates have risen more since then, so these losses are likely even more prominent now.

In short, US Banks have lots of unrealized losses and also lots of uninsured depositors who are concerned that banks can't honor withdrawals because of these unrealized losses. The authors examined over 4,000 banks in the study to see which ones were most at risk and why. 

Unrealized Losses

First, the study highlighted that 42% of all bank deposits had been invested into regular MBSs, with another 24% invested in commercial MBSs, i.e., commercial real estate loans, US bonds, and other asset-backed securities (ABS). The authors then tried to calculate the unrealized losses on these assets. After crunching the numbers, the authors found the following, 

“The median value of banks' unrealized losses is around 9% after marking to market. The 5% of banks with worse unrealized losses experience asset decline of around 20%.” 

Note that ‘marked to market’ means ‘assuming sold today.’ In lay terms, the average American Bank has unrealized losses of around 10%, and 5% of the most vulnerable banks have unrealized losses of 20%. 

So if depositors were to rush and withdraw from these banks, they would get 90% of their money back at the average bank and 80% back at a vulnerable bank. Not surprisingly, these unrealized losses were the smallest for Global Systemically Important Banks (GSIB), including JPMorgan and Bank of America. GSIBs have less than 5% of unrealized losses. The average non-GSIB has 10% unrealized losses, and SVB wasn't even the worst. 

The authors found that more than 11% of US banks had larger unrealized losses than SVB when it collapsed. They estimate that as many as 500 other banks could have failed based purely on unrealized losses. The reason why only SVB went down was because of the high number of uninsured deposits. The authors then provide a series of scenarios to showcase how uninsured depositors could react to rising interest rates.

Uninsured Depositors Waking Up

The first scenario assumes that the uninsured depositors stick around and wait. The other three scenarios surmise they withdraw and invest in other assets, which provides a higher interest rate than a savings account. Understand that insolvency fears related to unrealized losses aren't the only reason why uninsured depositors withdraw money from a bank. 

The primary reason why they would do this is that they want to earn a high-interest rate on their large deposits. This desire for yield increases as interest rates rise. Unfortunately for the banks, it's hard for them to provide competitive interest rates on savings accounts without losing lots of money. This is why many US banks haven't increased their interest rates on savings accounts, despite interest rates increasing. They’re making lots of money off their depositors. However, if they were to raise interest rates on savings accounts, they wouldn't make nearly as much money. 

In the study, the authors assume that most uninsured depositors are sleepy, meaning they aren't rushing to withdraw to earn a higher interest rate elsewhere. However, this is starting to change; besides the banking crisis, the high-interest rates that are still rising in other regions tempt those sleepy uninsured depositors into waking up and moving their money elsewhere. If they do this, banks with large, unrealized losses will start going under as they won't be able to honor all withdrawals. 

How Many Banks At Risk?

Naturally, the authors assess whether banks have enough assets to honor these upcoming withdrawals from uninsured depositors. They assume that the FDIC doesn't close down banks that come under stress, which is significant because the FDIC is likely to do this if banks start getting squeezed. 

The good news is that all bar two American banks have enough assets to honor withdrawals from uninsured depositors. The bad news is that the authors don't specify which two banks are at risk, but they conclude that this little risk means additional bank runs are unlikely for the time being. 

For Good Measure

As an extra, the authors analyzed the possibility of what would happen if uninsured depositors ran. They did a number of simulations of bank runs, from 10% to 100% of uninsured depositors withdrawing their assets. 

Source: SSRN Papers-Full Study

What's concerning is that the ten banks most at risk of experiencing a bank run are large. As the authors cite in the study, 

 “The risk of run does not only apply to smaller banks. Out of the 10 largest insolvent banks, 1 has assets above $1 Trillion, 3 have assets above $200 Billion (but less than $1 Trillion), 3 have assets above $100 Billion (but less than $200 Billion), and the remaining 3 have assets greater than $50 Billion (but less than $100 Billion).” 

Unfortunately, the authors don't specify which banks these are but reveal how sensitive US banks are to bank runs. They concluded that even if just 10% of uninsured depositors withdrew their money from banks, 66 banks would go under. If 30% of uninsured depositors withdrew their money, 106 banks would go under. If half of all uninsured depositors ran, 186 banks would fail. This underscores that at least a few dozen banks are at risk of going under over the coming months. 

This is ultimately due to the fatal combination of significant unrealized losses due to rising interest rates and withdrawals from uninsured depositors seeking higher yields from these rates. The final simulation was if 100% of uninsured deposits withdrew all their assets from US banks. They insisted that this simulation is worth doing to assess the state of the US banking sector. Surprisingly only about half of US banks would go under. 

The authors then conclude by highlighting that the value of assets held by US banks is more than $2 trillion lower than what's being reported, thanks to unrealized losses-based accounting. They reiterate that hundreds of banks are at risk of going under if uninsured depositors withdraw. They warned that even small numbers of withdrawals from uninsured depositors could lead to unrealized losses being realized. This would lead to more bank runs, evolving into an even bigger banking crisis than we've seen. They go as far as to suggest regulations to address this. 

For starters, banks should start changing how they report their unrealized losses so that bank depositors have a better sense of how underwater their banks are. Because of the lack of transparency, the authors manually calculated these unrealized losses using complex maths. The authors acknowledge that this won't solve the insolvency risks many banks face, so they recommend that banks be forced to increase their capital requirements. 

This coincides with what Michael Barr, the Fed’s Vice-chair for Supervision, has been busy doing. Michael had been examining capital requirements for banks before the banking crisis began. Maybe he saw the banking crisis coming or was preparing to take advantage of it to introduce regulations. Michael Bar’s anti-crypto speech indicates the second possibility is the most likely. Michael has been desperate to increase his powers, presumably to consolidate the banking sector to assist in the rollout of a central bank digital currency. 

Be Vigilant of The Risk Elements

Which risk factors should you be aware of when analyzing banks? I am not a financial adviser. Still, my research into this convoluted accounting system revealed that the two main risk factors are unrealized losses and uninsured deposits. It is at risk if your bank has many unrealized losses and uninsured deposits. The problem is that it takes work to estimate these unrealized losses. Moreover, not all uninsured deposits are prone to flight. Remember that most of them are required to pay employees at small companies. 

Also, as mentioned above, most banks with many uninsured deposits tend to be smaller, i.e., not GSIBs. In theory, this makes them inherently riskier than GSIBs. In practice, though, when a non-GSIB goes under, it gets acquired by a GSIB. This means your assets could be safer at a small bank. If you read the article about bank bail-ins, you'll know that GSIBs can be risky. 

If a non-GSIB goes under, it gets acquired by a big bank, and customer deposits are kept, but if a GSIB goes under, customer deposits are used to bail them out. As recently happened with Credit Suisse and its takeover by UBS. The arguably political deal required capital from somewhere to satisfy UBS. According to WSJ, the Swiss government was desperate to avoid the appearance that this was a taxpayer-funded bailout.

GSIBs are also more likely to comply with investment ideologies, like ESG. As discussed in this article, the Bank of America is one of the big institutions behind the ESG movement. Some of its affiliates are introducing individual ESG scores for their customers. 

Small banks may also have challenges because around 80% of commercial real estate loans come from small banks. In addition to being wrecked by higher interest rates, commercial real estate is struggling because people must return to the office. 50% of office spaces in the US are empty. This means that small banks are at a higher risk of sitting on larger unrealized losses, which is consistent with the findings of the study. 

If that weren't bad enough, these losses would likely increase as time passes, even if interest rates start coming down because work from home is probably here to stay. Even if uninsured depositors are less likely to withdraw from small banks due to the purpose of these deposits, just a small number of withdrawals could therefore cause severe issues for small banks. 

The findings of the study suggest this risk is already there. All it takes is 10% of uninsured deposits to move. In sum, small and big banks come with their own risks, and it's up to you to decide which risks you'd instead take. Diversifying your deposits is an option, but the fact that every bank operates using this fractional reserve model means your money will never be genuinely risk-free in their coffers. 

Image credit: Markethive.com

Cryptocurrency To The Rescue

This is where cryptocurrency comes in. Cryptocurrencies ostensibly have only one risk: their current price volatility. There are, of course, risks associated with things like improperly written code, but the largest and most established cryptocurrencies have been battle tested every day for over a decade. 

Aside from that, cryptocurrencies are one of the best hedges against the banking system. When you hold a cryptocurrency, there is no counterparty risk. That crypto is genuinely yours, and there isn't some greedy banker going and investing your crypto into a basket of risky, commercial real estate loans behind your back. 

This characteristic alone makes cryptocurrency valuable. Also, cryptocurrency lets you send a transaction to whoever you want, whenever you want, and for however much you want. This is the true definition of financial freedom, and its importance was fully displayed when Nasdaq halted the trading of bank stocks during the recent banking crisis. 

Nobody can turn off the decentralized cryptocurrency exchange and prevent people from trading. You will always be able to trade. Take a second to consider; that blocking transactions, halting trading, and freezing assets will only become more common as CBDCs are rolled out. This will make the financial freedom aspect of cryptocurrency ever more critical, along with the decentralization that underlies it. 

Without decentralization, crypto's value proposition quickly disappears. That's why instead of wasting time assessing the unrealized losses and uninsured deposits of banks, you should learn about what makes a cryptocurrency genuinely decentralized. After all, the days of commercial banks are numbered; the thousands of existing banks will inevitably consolidate into a handful of mega banks, and governments will nationalize these mega banks. 

Financial freedom in the traditional financial system will be gone when that happens. At the same time, economic freedom in the crypto ecosystem will only continue to grow. By the grace of God, it will rise to the point that it's capable of accommodating the billions of people who will pull out of the traditional financial system as it becomes ever more centralized and ideological. 

Both monetary mechanisms will take years to play out, but it's already clear that the global financial system is splitting into two structures: free and sovereign and one that is not. You now have the once-in-a-millennium opportunity to choose which system to participate in. It’s critical to make that decision before it's made for you. 

This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

 

 

Editor and Chief Markethive: Deb Williams. (Australia) I thrive on progress and champion freedom of speech. I embrace "Change" with a passion, and my purpose in life is to enlighten people to accept and move forward with enthusiasm. Find me at my Markethive Profile Page | My Twitter Account | and my LinkedIn Profile.

 

 

 

 

 

Also published @ Substack.com; BeforeIt’sNews.com; Steemit.com.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Trust Crisis Of Banks Worsens Ensuing Initial Collapse Of SVB. A Plus for Crypto: The Trust Crisis Of Banks Worsens Ensuing Initial Collapse Of SVB. A Plus for Crypto ...

 

MARKETHIVE THE FUTURE OF ALL MEDIA

Innovations that will change the way we work and interact online. 

The Markethive Social Market Broadcasting Network becomes more prominent daily as the blockchain-driven ecosystem for entrepreneurs with a non-adversarial, bi-partisan free speech ethic and the collaborative culture we rarely see on social media platforms today. Even the newer acclaimed, free speech platforms are partisan to the left or right and deal with deplatforming and boycotts from payment providers.

It’s widely notorious that the actions of the tech giants have divided nations and are the source of countless societal harms, including rampant censorship, promoting violent extremism, spreading false information, and unfairly stamping out its competition. 

Instead of improving the user experience to one that users would welcome, legacy big tech is somewhat distracted by its self-induced problems. It’s now under scrutiny by government policymakers with the overall consensus that something should be done to reign in the centralized power or structurally break up the technocracy. 

Facebook is focused on updating the internet with new regulations to appease critics and leverage its Oversight Board to circumvent this. At the same time, Twitter grapples with the idea of integrating a more decentralized approach to the platform, explicitly giving users an algorithmic choice by opening up its news feed to third-party algorithms selected by its users. This could undoubtedly customize the user experience but still be under a central authority. 

 Markethive Goes Next Level

Known for its evolutionary and innovative ethos, Markethive continues to expand its decentralized “all-in-one” platform with the development of a unique news feed interface that completely embodies the user experience (UX) in the framework of “don’t make me think.” A concept brought to light by author Steve Krug, a usability expert, cites that usability is fundamentally about human psychology. 

The book “Don’t Make Me Think” was first written in 2000 and revised in 2013. Since the turn of the century, technology has changed rapidly, but the principles are the same as before. Something is only usable if an average person can figure out how to use it to achieve an outcome. Krug breaks this down into three laws:

 

Image Source: Reading Graphics

Key Quote

“Usability is about people and how they understand and use things, not about technology.

...while technology often changes quickly, people change very slowly.”

Once it is understood how the human brain works, these same insights can continue to be applied even as technology and landscapes evolve. So usability is not just about technology; it’s about understanding how people think and behave to build better things, giving the user a more seamless and more straightforward experience when navigating.

Unlike the social media giants, which only have one primary news feed algorithmically set by the central authorities, Markethive is integrating four news feeds to accommodate the multi-functional platform within the Markethive ecosystem. 

The individual feeds are General, Video, Blogging, and Content Curation, and they are all accessible from the main page and can be algorithmically set by the individual user. The scope that Markethive has is enormous as it integrates all the vertical systems of the other platforms under one roof. 

 

Social + Video + Blogging + Marketing + Curation + Broadcasting + Affiliate + Gamification + Cottage Businesses = Markethive: A Powerful Blockchain-driven Ecosystem 

There is nothing out there like Markethive. We are an Inbound Marketing (automated marketing platform) like Marketo, Paragon, and even the wannabee MLM Onpassive platform. We are like Youtube, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc., but will be superior to these legacy Web 2 media when we release all the aspects and layout of Markethive 2.0. 

We have a dynamic social media interface and growing community with a strong collaborative ethos, with SaaS and broadcasting capabilities already operational. We are not waiting for the launch to access the services; they are already there for you to use to help you facilitate your business and increase your reach and following. 

Markethive is enhancing and bringing the platform into the future internet with our new technology and interfaces, but still in keeping with the human touch. The latest updates and integrations are explained in this article.

So What Else Is Coming? 

We will also be a search engine like DuckDuckGo, allowing you to determine your own algorithms to control the outcome. Our new Hosting and Domain Registry coming this year will enable your business to be sovereign as it’s hosted within the Markethive system, along with the opportunity to generate affiliate income.

The Markethive Hosting and Domain Website (NOT LIVE YET)

 

We will have a curation system like Scoop.it (https://www.scoop.it/topic/markethive), as well as a superior conference room like Google Meets (this is in the works) https://meet.google.com/mow-hwei-jsr, plus our own advertising services that you can sell for profit, and to make Markethive a complete ecosystem, we have our own coin, (HiveCoin) wallet, and exchange.

Scoop.it examples of Curation

 

Technology has advanced with Blockchain, and Crypto is becoming ubiquitous, giving rise to the decentralized, privacy, and autonomy components of social media. Something that the established dinosaurs would find near impossible to integrate at its highest level.  

Markethive has not only enjoyed longevity, but it can also integrate cutting-edge and unique systems. It is next-level, delivering every function and aspect available, fitting for the entrepreneur, business, and corporation. A clean design, not cluttered, intuitive for easy navigation, and simple to carry out tasks for all users on every level is crucial for website stickiness and the overall success of our entrepreneurial users.
 
 As quoted by CEO and Founder of Markethive, Thomas Prendergast,

“We are making major changes right now to the entire layout and aspects of the system. It’s a new look, with better navigation and an improved alert system. We are rebuilding the page-making system to be intuitive, inspired by Leadpages, all in preparation for the Wallet. 

All accounts (free and paid) will receive an email and a WordPress site integrated into the Markethive Page Making system. The domain for this will be hive.garden and all members will be assigned their username@hive.garden for POP email and username.hive.garden for your default website where you will have the option to have WordPress or a Markethive capture page assigned.

Understand this major uplifting has been in the works for several months, and we are close to its completion. We have already launched The Boost and The Wheel Of Fortune. The Premium Upgrade will launch once the wallet is integrated and the ability to upgrade to Entrepreneur One will not be available.”

 

The current Entrepreneur One members will continue to enjoy the benefits of the upgrade, including receiving a 1/10th ILP for every year their subscription is active for up to ten years. The benefits are explained further in this article.  https://markethive.com/group/marketingdept/blog/theentrepreneuroneilpspecial

 The New Main Page Interface Explained

The following images are a basic mockup or draft, subject to enhancements, to give you an idea of how the new main page will look with the various news feeds and menus. It is definitely something to look forward to upon its integration. 

Example of Main Page Interface 

 

The format is horizontal, not vertical, like many other websites making it more readable and less time-consuming in terms of navigation. The vertical side menus will be removed, along with the busy text in the blue bar. 

At the top of the main page are the Super Banners. This is prime real estate and specifically for Markethive, the company. Anyone else inside or outside of Markethive wanting to place a banner there will pay top dollar. The real estate below the blue bar is for the markethive community and placement of their banners.

Multiple Pulldown Menus 

Multiple pull-down menus will be replacing the side menus on the main news feed page and the profile page. These are now accessible on one page on the blue bar under Settings, Shopping Cart, and the Notifications bell icon also named Alerts Control. This allows you to configure the blue alerts bar and provides a click menu navigation. In other words, you choose what icons you would like to display. 

All the settings displayed that could only be accessed on the left of the profile page are now accessed on the main interface, including general profile page settings, payments, Vault, ILP purchases, login account, social accounts, and hive ranking. This makes it a lot easier to navigate and is much more intuitive. 

There is also a pull-down menu under Shopping Cart that displays the status of your cart (whether it’s empty or has items pending in it). 

The shopping cart menu takes you to the Markethive store and the Advertising services strictly for the Markethive Press Release program, the Boost, social network broadcasting, digital banner advertising, and video advertising. You will find these services in this pull-down menu as they are introduced. 

A series of upgrades will also be displayed under the shopping cart. Currently, there is the E1 upgrade and upcoming Premium Upgrade to be integrated upon the launch of our internal wallet. There will ultimately be multiple levels of premium upgrades which will all be located in the shopping cart pull-down menu. 

For the purpose of this article, the image below displays all pull-down menus opened and can be accessed by clicking on their respective icon. 

 
Image: Example of Pull-Down Menus

 
Combined News Feed - The New Innovation

Now for the pièce de résistance and Markethive’s claim to fame. The combined news feed interface is a first in the social media environment. It includes the four primary feeds being the general Newsfeed, Blog, Video, and Curation feed. 

So what’s the big deal about a news feed?

The news feed is the heart and lungs of Markethive, and everything around it is the bones or structure of Markethive. It all starts at the center, being the newsfeeds and works outwards and is the dashboard or control center, where every aspect of Markethive is easily accessible. 

The combined pulldown menu also includes the Groups feed, Campaigns, Games, Store, and Email feed, which you can set algorithmically. You choose what and who you want to see in your combined news feed. 

You can choose only to see what you’ve posted, select by geo-location, friends, Tube feed, Blog feed, Group feed, etc. You can access these configuration tools in the tray just above the HTML editor, housing the stats tools, tracking devices, posting tools, sorting and filtering tools, editing, and upload tools.  

Image: Example of Combined News Feed Menu

 
Upgraded associates will be able to post in a news feed with the ability to stylize text (bold, italics, text size, font type, hyperlinks) add embed videos and images, similar to the current blog editor. This will make your posts more dynamic and exciting.

Whatever task you do, you will access it from the combined feed pull-down menu. For example, if you want to upload a video in the Tube Feed, it will open up the tool page for you to upload it. 

You do not leave the main page for any task you perform. This is where you access all your interfaces. E.g., The video upload interface, the blogging platform, the curation control panel, etc. You will be able to add, edit and monitor everything you do right from the main page. 

Whatever you choose to see in your combined feed will be displayed: Videos from the Tube Feed, Blogs, Capture Pages, Groups feed, General postings, everything will be displayed on the page.  
 

Image: Example of Rich Text Editor and Combined Feed Interface
 
 

The Beauty Of Markethive 

Everything is at your fingertips on this one page, making it very intuitive and mobile-friendly. The dynamics will change completely, and you won’t have to navigate individual pages within the Markethive system. All configuration, filtering, and searching are done from the combined news feed interface. 

The new interface will be instantaneous and straightforward to post any content remotely, whether blogs, videos, or general newsfeed posts. Markethive will be infiltrating every corner of the internet universe and become a household name.  

The whole interface is streamlined and purposely created horizontally with minimal to no advertising, so it is not overwhelming for the average and new user. So many websites, blogs, and digital media articles are cluttered with vertical side columns and advertisements, making it annoying and virtually impossible to read or comment on the site. 

Markethive has always been a pioneer and ahead of the curve, initiating a social network before social media became a thing, starting with Veretekk in the nineties. It is a Divine inspiration, a vision that is coming to light. It’s one of integrity and can command authority with its clean, polished new look and navigation.  

So what we have here is an outline of what’s coming in Markethive. There’s more to this unprecedented, monolithic concept and project. All updates and orchestrations are discussed at the Markethive meetings every Sunday at 10 am Mountain Time. (MST)  

You can keep yourself up to date with the latest news and developments of Markethive as they happen. To access the meeting room, go to the Calendar and click on the link provided. See you there! 

So what time is it in your part of the world? Go here to find out. The doors to the meeting room are closed 5 minutes after commencement, and latecomers are denied access, so get there early. 

 

 
 

Thank you to the Founders Thomas and Annette for their insights, inspiration, and dedication to bring the next generation social market broadcasting platform far removed from the chaos of the legacy tech giants.

Our appreciation and gratitude to the team of engineers at Markethive working tirelessly to deliver a completely decentralized ecosystem, impervious to the oppressive forces that have subjugated humanity.  

Thomas affirms that we are building an orchestra consisting of many moving parts that will harmonize, catering to everything we do online and facilitating bringing in the next 100 million people into Markethive this year.  

Our system is based on Ethics, Gospel, and the Holy Spirit and operates differently from other media platforms because it runs on a heavenly frequency. Welcome aboard to all, and be ready for an exciting transition and transformation of Markethive. 
 

 

Also published @ Before It’s News https://beforeitsnews.com/2022/02/markethive-the-future-of-all-media-3022.html

 

 

 

MARKETHIVE THE FUTURE OF ALL MEDIA:   MARKETHIVE THE FUTURE OF ALL MEDIA ...

Shitcoins vs Crypto Scams. What’s The Difference? 

There are many types of scams society has fallen victim to that have been around for decades. Charity scams, insurance scams, et al. are all too common, and they are more rampant than ever now we have the internet. And as technology emerges, anyone can simply create a crypto token which opens a pandora’s box of newly defined crypto chaos. 

The cryptocurrency market has exploded since the inception of Bitcoin, with 1000s of alternative coins now listed on various exchanges. Many have earned the respect of the crypto community by applying actual use-cases with developing technologies. While prominent cryptocurrency coins display transparency, genuine utility and serve a purpose for a decentralized application or an associated blockchain, many altcoins hold no real value. 

These coins are referred to as shitcoins and have no discernable purpose, and they are often targeted towards less experienced people in an effort to exploit them. The term shitcoin is commonly used for a copy or clone of another well-known crypto, or it can be a brand new project. It’s very much based on personal opinion. 

But are all shitcoins crypto scams? Not necessarily. There are inconspicuous scams out there orchestrated by greedy evil-doers hiding behind the guise of benevolence and charity and taking advantage of the crypto craze and people’s naivety of the nascent crypto industry. I’ll touch on that later with an example. 

Importantly, any crypto with no meaningful purpose and often no genuine demand for the coin, whatever value it may generate depends on pure speculation and is considered a precarious investment. Shitcoins are digital currencies that people believe to be valuable simply because they exist. Centered around hype and shills, they are very prone to pump and dumps and rarely recover. 

The crypto projects that rely on paid shills to pump their coin or token should be viewed with immense suspicion. Why should they feel the need to create an artificial perception of demand? Does that mean that there is no genuine organic interest in the project?

On a side note; If you’re not familiar with the terminology in this article relating to the crypto industry, here is a  breakdown of the most common crypto lingo.

How Easy Is It To Identify A Shitcoin?

It is often easy to identify a shitcoin because many follow a specific pattern. When a shitcoin is first launched, the token may attract some interest, but its price remains relatively low. The low price attracts newbie investors naively thinking they’ve invested in the “next Bitcoin,” further validated by a high-profile influencer backing it for whatever reason.

As interest peaks and investors jump in, prices spike quickly. This is almost always followed by the price tanking. The sharp fall in price is caused by investors selling their coins to profit from short-term gains. Usually, these pump and dump schemes are dominated by only a few “insiders” who really know the price dynamics and know when to sell to profit. The process is often associated with shitcoins and can leave many retail investors stuck with worthless tokens.

What Is The Most Obvious Sign?

The most obvious sign of a shitcoin is a lack of a well-defined function. 

Bitcoin was built for a decentralized payment network where financial transactions are secure, trustless, and censorship-resistant. It is now classed as the store of value for cryptocurrencies.

Ether, the coin native to the Ethereum blockchain, is used to validate transactions and secure the network. 

Binance Coin, the token native to the Binance Exchange, reduces fees on the Binance platform and powers the associated Binance Chain blockchain.

ADA, the native coin to the Cardano blockchain, is used to further develop applications, Defi, smart contracts, scalability, and interoperability. 

Hivecoin, Markethive’s native currency, is used to power a decentralized social media and multi-dimensional marketing platform, sovereign from the social media and tech oligopoly.   

Shitcoins do not have such clearly defined purposes.

Discerning a shitcoin is more straightforward when looking into the background development and associated project (if one exists). 

• Is the project a copy of an already-known cryptocurrency platform? 
• Does the project have an associated whitepaper? 
• Is the whitepaper copied from a different project? 
• Does the whitepaper reveal in-depth details on the technical implementation? Or is it just hyped up with promises and emotive images?
• Is there a clearly defined and credible road map?
• Is it raising money through an ICO based on the promise of a good return but lacking product, demo, or code? 

If there are contentious answers to any of these questions, the cryptocurrency could well be a shitcoin. A whitepaper is intended to be the technical details behind a project. It is not supposed to be an easy read. When a whitepaper is overly visual and lacks technical solutions, consider that a red flag. 

Numerous examples of projects have developed a cryptocurrency for something that really did not need one at all. Let’s not forget that the future value of a utility token will come from its actual use.

Three Widely Known Shitcoins

Although subjective, here are some of the more well-known shitcoins within the cryptocurrency market:

Dogecoin (DOGE). This meme-based cryptocurrency was designed around a comical picture of a Shiba Inu dog called Doge. The coin was initially created as a joke. Much of the coin's popularity has been the result of influencer encouragement and hype.

Shiba Inu (SHIB). Following Dogecoin's success, SHIB was developed as a token simply named after the Shiba Inu dog breed. It serves no purpose and is not associated with any blockchain or decentralized application. The maximum supply of tokens was set at one quadrillion.

Safemoon (SAFEMOON). Safemoon is a Ponzi-inspired coin that punishes holders for selling. Holders are charged an additional fee by the network when they sell, which is distributed to other holders. 

As I previously mentioned, it is so easy to generate a token for any reason. This video shows you what to do, or should I say what not to do, for the sake of the future of crypto and for humanity. 

The presenter also gives you his take on Safemoon and its ICO, which may be why certain authorities have outlawed ICO’s. Initial Coin Offerings are predominantly unregulated and have been the vehicle for scams and fraud. Consequently, the SEC has deemed them as securities and restricts unaccredited investors from participating. 

Crypto Scams Can Be Difficult To Recognize 

With technology, many projects can look legitimate at face value, so it’s easy to fall for their narrative as many unsuspecting people have done only to find they’ve been scammed with no recourse. 

Crypto scams have sky-rocketed, and it doesn’t help when popular social media influencers get involved claiming to be ambassadors for the cause. Playing on people’s emotions and goodwill makes the charity sector a sitting duck for crypto scams. 

One such example was the “Save The Kids” project, and unfortunately, many didn’t see the red flags and were fooled into investing their hard-earned money into this scam. There are many scams out there, but this one takes the cake for me. The video below explains it all.   

Finally...

There is a critical shortage of quality information about cryptocurrency, with only a handful of proven experts that can explain cryptocurrency and how it genuinely works in simple terms. There are millions of people desperate for more information to benefit from this developing industry which gives the opportunists a platform and immense power to shill and cook up crypto scams that can last for months or years. 

Scammers and shills take advantage of this narrow flow of information, purporting to be crypto gurus, and mislead or fool people looking for answers with their narrative, which by enlarge is speculative, even erroneous.  

Shitcoins are risky investments that most cryptocurrency enthusiasts should avoid. For investors who love risk and know what they’re doing, shitcoins may present an opportunity to make somewhat large but short-term profits. 

And outright scams? Well, tread very carefully. Do your research before committing. Who is behind the project? Are they credible? Have they been involved in any questionable projects in the past? How long have they been involved in the blockchain space? 

With experience comes knowledge and wisdom. As the saying goes, “Fool me once; shame on you. Fool me twice; shame on me." 

 

 

 

Shitcoins vs Crypto Scams. What's The Difference?: Shitcoins vs Crypto Scams. What’s The Difference?  ...

The Rise Of The DEX And Peek Into A New Financial System

Since DEXs are permissionless, no one checks your identity

DeFi (Decentralized Finance)  is a term used to cover various components and activities, including Decentralized crypto Exchanges or DEXs which are at the cutting edge of DEFI. The rapidly evolving market of the DEX allows peer-to-peer cryptocurrency transactions without the need for an intermediary.  

DeFi - A New Financial System

DeFi is a system by which financial products become available on a public decentralized blockchain network. That makes them open to anyone to use, rather than going through middlemen like banks, brokerages, and even centralized crypto exchanges.

Unlike the legacy financial institutions and centralized crypto exchanges (CEXs), the KYC/AML (Know Your Customer and Anti-Money Laundering) protocol. These are usually government-issued ID, Social Security number, or proof of address. They are not necessary with the DeFi protocol and are welcomed by those concerned about their privacy and who cannot access valid documents.

More specifically, DeFi operates in a decentralized environment on public and permissionless blockchains, making it possible for buyers, sellers, lenders, and borrowers to interact peer to peer and use services encoded into open-source software protocols and smart contracts rather than a company or institution facilitating a transaction.

Historically, intermediaries have been the central hub acting as agents and brokers of trust, providing liquidity and security. Over the last century, the massive failings of this system, resulting in tumbling economies and the onset of a global recession, revealed a major flaw in the architecture. With the emerging technology, we can see a glimpse of a new financial services infrastructure. 

Decentralized finance uses technology to disintermediate centralized models and provides financial services on a global scale to anyone regardless of ethnicity, age, or cultural identity. It also gives users more control over their money through personal wallets and trading services that expressly cater to the individual, not institutions. 

 

Source: https://www.coingecko.com/

What Is A Centralized Exchange? (CEX) 

Since the inception of Bitcoin, coin exchanges were fundamental as the vehicle to connect buyers with sellers. These exchanges are centralized and facilitate every aspect of digital trading. On most CEXs, you must deposit fiat or cryptocurrency into an exchange-held crypto wallet before making trades. In the world of digital assets, this is called on-ramping (as opposed to off-ramping, when you withdraw and convert your crypto to fiat).

Although you can transfer your crypto to an external crypto wallet (non-custodial wallet), many users leave it in their custodial wallet managed by the exchange, so essentially you give up control of your crypto. You don’t own the private keys to your funds, which means that you ask the exchange to sign a transaction on your behalf when you withdraw. You need to trust the exchange with your money. 

Notably, in Sept. 2020, centralized exchanges accounted for approximately 95% of the crypto trading volume. CEXs function as trusted intermediaries in trades and often act as custodians by storing and protecting your private keys, and therefore your funds. Along with the cost of your independence, centralized exchanges have their challenges. 

They reside in specific geographic locations and are subject to stringent regulations. A recent example of this is Binance, which was banned from undertaking any regulated activity in the UK. Any centralized exchange can place limits and restrictions on its customer’s actions, and some have been the target of malicious attackers, hacks, and fraud. Overall, they are arguably centralized bottlenecks that stand in contrast to cryptocurrency’s open, decentralized ethos.

Centralized entities have dominated the field of crypto exchanges and are now more than ever at the behest of regulatory authorities. You know, the ones we are trying to separate ourselves from. But with the continuous evolution of technologies, decentralized exchanges are emerging as an alternative. 

 

Source: https://www.coingecko.com/

The Decentralized Exchange Approach (DEX)

DEX platforms use a different approach when facilitating the buying and selling of cryptocurrency. With no intermediary organization to clear transactions, DEXs leverage the functionality of self-executing smart contracts. Their backend exists on a blockchain, and as DEXs are non-custodial, no entity takes custody of your funds or control of your private keys.  

Since DEXs are permissionless, no one checks your identity. All you need is a cryptocurrency wallet. However, some DEXs are partially run by a central authority, so there are some legal requirements that need to be adhered to. In some cases, if the order book is centralized, the host must remain compliant.

DEXs have become more prominent today, with over 85 exchanges listed on Coingecko, offering advantages that impact custody of digital assets, diversity, transactional trust, investor privacy, and trading fees. 

 

What Are The Advantages Of A DEX?

Custody - No counterparty risk

The primary appeal of decentralized cryptocurrency exchanges is that they don’t hold customers’ funds. Being non-custodial also means you don’t relinquish control of private keys to transact. You have an external wallet that interacts with DEXs instead, where trades self-execute through smart contracts. 

This eliminates counterparty risk and breaches like the Mt. Gox hack in 2014 and, more recently, the Binance hack that has put users’ funds at risk and exposed sensitive personal information.
 
Diversity

Currently, there are over 9,000 cryptocurrencies on the market. CEXs choose the cryptocurrencies they list and generally only list those that meet the requirements. These are adequate trading activity, prevalence, and effective security standards to ensure profitability and legal compliance. 

Altcoins that aren’t listed on centralized exchanges can still be traded freely on DEXs, where peer-to-peer transactions can occur without high trading volumes. This provides a broader opportunity for engagement in digital assets and enhances financial inclusion.

Trustless Transactions 

On CEXs, every transaction is overseen and recorded by a central authority, the exchange itself. Through smart contracts, DEXs execute trades and record them to the blockchain, enabling trustless transactions. This means that the system is run autonomously by the blockchain protocol’s underlying technical architecture and consensus mechanism. 

Decentralized exchanges are distributed across a vast network of computers and governed by their stakeholders. Anyone can become a stakeholder in a crypto DEX, share in its evolution, and benefit financially from its growth. There are numerous elements foundational to the trustless nature of blockchain networks, including immutability, decentralization, transparency, censorship resistance, and neutrality.

Privacy

Investors and Traders using decentralized exchanges don’t need to disclose their private keys because wallets are held externally, and the DEX is not liable for the funds. For the same reason, users aren’t typically required to complete KYC and AML procedures when using DEXs. 

Lower Fees 

Decentralized exchanges have no intermediary and function through the use of self-executing smart contracts. Therefore, DEXs like Uniswap charge a lower fee of around 0.3%. Although these fees fluctuate in response to the network utilization, they remain far lower than the costs incurred on centralized alternatives.

 

Overcoming Obstacles

Over recent years, many decentralized exchanges have emerged and have experienced some obstacles, including limited scalability, throughput, liquidity, and usability. However, DeFi and DEX are still in the infant stages with ongoing innovation in the technology, iterating on previous attempts to streamline the user experience. 

Ethereum-based DEXs have seen increasing momentum and user adoption. New combinations of cutting-edge technology are helping later generation blockchains overcome the perceived shortcomings of earlier implementations. Cardano’s 3rd generation blockchain, DeFi platform, and Hydra technology will address the obstacles mentioned above.

The whole point of decentralized finance is to build financial services separate from the traditional financial and political system.

Interestingly, Cointelegraph recently reported the U.S Securities and Exchange Commission is very keen on understanding what is happening in the smart contract-based digital asset and DeFi landscape. Hester Peirce, Commissioner of the SEC, has warned of rampant “shadow-centralization” within the decentralized finance (DeFi) sector.

Dubbed the crypto mom, Pierce believes that DeFi founders need to ensure complete decentralization from launch to bypass financial regulation. 

“If you want to be decentralized, you really need to be decentralized, and that is going to then put you in a different category from the perspective of regulators because that’s just not something that we’ve dealt with before.”

 

The Future Of DeFi And Crypto Exchanges 

DeFi will minimize the power from large centralized organizations and put it in the hands of the open-source community and individuals. It allows for a more open financial system preventing censorship and discrimination worldwide.  

Decentralized exchanges are a solution and valid alternative to centralized entities.  Through on-chain smart contracts, DEXs provide a trustless method of connecting buyers and sellers and offer new precedents of equitable involvement and governance for stakeholders.

No banks or corporate exchanges are required. While a board of directors runs banks, DEXs are run by the “customers” themselves. With increasing momentum, we will witness a ramping up of innovation in technology throughout the entire industry. The evolution of technology will challenge the status quo and heavily align with the ethos of self-sovereignty.

 

Sources: Gemini Cryptorials, Binance

 

The Rise Of The DEX And Peek Into A New Financial System: Since DEXs are permissionless, no one checks your identity ...

Stimulus Payments - How Much Went Into Bitcoin?  

What About Altcoins? Surprising Results 

Last year, we saw governments across the globe dole out billions of dollars to their citizens in an attempt to offset some of the economic impacts of the pandemic lockdowns. While that money was intended for food and rent, some of it managed to find its way into the crypto market. 

This has led many to wonder just how big of an impact all those stimulus checks, otherwise labeled Economic Impact Payments (EIP), have had on the crypto market. The United States Federal Reserve has also been wondering the same thing, so they recently published a study with surprising results and even more surprising regulatory recommendations. 

The study was conducted by the Federal Reserve Bank Of Cleveland, specifically, which is one of the 12 Regional Banks which collectively make up the Federal Reserve System in the United States. The Federal Reserve is the privately held independent entity within the US government which issues federal reserve notes, also known as US Dollars. 

 The Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland differs from the other Fed branches in that it is the only one that handles collections for the US Department of the treasury. In other words, they provide the payment system that the US government uses to collect taxes and pay back government debt. This seems to include any payments made by individuals or institutions to the US government. 

The Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland also supports the treasury's objective of expanding the use of digital products and payment services across the federal government, as quoted on their website. It’s not surprising that many of its constituents are interested in crypto. Two of them recently released the study, Uncovering Retail Trading in Bitcoin the Impact of COVID-19 Stimulus Checks. 

In contrast to academic studies, this Fed study is technically a working paper that is circulated among all Federal Reserve officials to discuss, according to the second page of the paper. So with all this context in mind, let's take a look.

First Section Of The Study

The first section of the Fed's stimulus study lays the groundwork for the entire paper. It starts by noting that the Fed was inspired to analyze the effects of stimulus checks on the crypto market after data released by Coinbase, CEO Brian Armstrong in mid-April of 2020, featuring an image which shows that there's a massive spike in buy orders and deposits on Coinbase in the $1,200 range. 

Who Was Eligible?

As explained in the second section of the Fed study, every adult in the United States that earns less than $75K per year was eligible to receive a no-strings-attached stimulus payment for $1,200. Those making between $75K and $99K per year were still eligible to receive some, but this amount approaches zero as their income approaches the upper-income limit.

Given that the median salary in the United States is only around $36k, the vast majority of adults were eligible to receive some helicopter money, and seven out of ten received their Economic Impact Payment (EIP) by the end of May 2020. 

This totaled nearly $270 billion, which was just 10% of the over $2 trillion the CARES Act eventually pumped into the US economy. Around that time, both the stock market and the crypto Market accelerated their recoveries from the massive crash in early March, which is believed to have been caused by the World Health Organization's announcement that a pandemic was indeed upon us.

Interestingly, the rally out of the slump began long before the EIPs started being sent out. The Fed believes that the mere announcement of monetary measures was enough to jump-start the recovery in asset markets. Although there have been two more rounds of stimulus payments since last year, the Fed's working paper only focuses on the first round of stimulus, which went out in March of 2020.

 

Methods Used To Determine Effect

The third section of the FED study details the methods they used to determine how much of an effect the stimulus checks from last spring had on the price of Bitcoin. First, the Fed took trading data from Kaiko, a crypto data research company, about BTC buy orders on 26 cryptocurrency exchanges between January 1st and June 5th, 2020. Then they identified any buy orders at the $1,200 range and divided the initial time frame into two periods, January 1st to April 9th, and April 9th to June 5th.

They did this because the first round of stimulus checks was sent out on April 9th, and the remainder were distributed in the weeks that followed. Logically, the Fed predicted that there would be more $1,200 BTC buy orders between April and June than between January and April. The number of these orders could then estimate how much of that money was invested into Bitcoin. 

It stands to reason there are many confounding variables like multiple price points besides the $1200, where retail investors only invested a portion of their stimulus checks. They pointed out people with children are unlikely to invest in speculative assets. They highlighted the fact that most cryptocurrency investors tend to be young and single, among other variables. Still, overall the Fed actually did a pretty good job of accounting for most of them. 

 

Significant Findings

The 4th, 5th, and 6th sections of the Fed study reveal results for their various hypotheses in detail; however, how the last findings related to the impact of the EIPs on the price of Bitcoin are nowhere close to the magnitude that you'd expect. Of the nearly 270 billion dollars of stimulus money sent out to Americans, only about $58 million found its way into Bitcoin between April 9th and June 5th. 

Now, this might sound like a lot, but it's barely enough to push up the price of BTC by 5% on a single cryptocurrency exchange, much less the entire crypto market. According to the Fed, stimulus payments only accounted for 3.8% of BTC trades by number and 0.7% of trades by value during that time. 

In terms of the actual price, all the buy orders they analyzed, $1200, $1000, $600, $500, and $100, only managed to push up the price of Bitcoin by 0.22% between April 9th and June 5th. When you isolate the $1,200 payments, that BTC price pump drops to just 0.05%. So it just goes to show you that there are much bigger things that move the crypto market.

 

The Main Takeaways

The last section of the Fed’s stimulus study lays out a few conclusions and some regulatory recommendations for future stimulus programs. The main takeaway is that only 0.02% of all stimulus checks were spent on bitcoin: Ascertaining that,

“Policymakers should not be concerned about money being diverted to cryptocurrency markets when considering similar economic relief programs in the future.” 

It’s good news they came to this conclusion, but these findings are only pertaining to BTC. Bitcoin is just one of many cryptocurrencies that make up the crypto market and, these days, doesn't account for the majority share by market cap. 

 

What About Altcoins? 

It's possible that some of last year's stimulus money ended up in altcoins, and arguably the amount is probably more significant than the $58 million that went into Bitcoin. Considerable evidence for this is a study conducted by Coinbase in May 2020 which found that 40% of retail investors buy altcoins instead of Bitcoin, and more than half of those who purchase Bitcoin buy altcoins eventually. 

As shown in the chart above, the Coinbase study indicates a whopping 76% of crypto investors ultimately put their money into altcoins. Unlike BTC, which requires tens of millions of dollars to change its price on any given day, it’s often the case that even just a few hundred thousand dollars is more than enough to move an altcoin up or down by double-digit percentages. 

Bitcoin does carry the flag for the crypto space universally, as the store of value for all cryptos, much like gold was when it backed fiat currency. However, although some retail investors cut their teeth with Bitcoin, they are branching into other assets with prominent use-cases that provide differentiated services. 

Therefore stimulus-driven investing could have had a significant impact on the price of select altcoins while having a negligible effect on Bitcoins price. Cardano’s ADA has soared over the past few months, holding firm in the dip of many cryptos, including Bitcoin. 

Further evidence for stimulus-driven altcoin investing was the Bitcoin dominance chart when there was a significant dip in Bitcoin dominance in April, which is precisely when the bulk of those stimulus payments were sent out. 

Correlation certainly doesn't equal causation, but it's pretty clear that the average retail investor of today realizes the importance and utility some altcoins have with emerging technology, providing much-needed solutions to issues that have arisen within the industry and externally. 

Of all the crypto reports and studies out there, this one is probably the most significant. Besides the fact that the United States Federal Reserve conducted it, it underscores just how small of an effect retail money has on the price of Bitcoin. To move a trillion-dollar asset, you need trillions of dollars, and that's something the average person doesn't have. 

There are golden opportunities in the altcoin market the average retail investor can afford. When you think about the billions of people on social media and the swarms of digital media, marketing, and advertising on the internet, a decentralized blockchain project in this space is the ticket and answer to the social and financial issues experienced in today’s climate. 

 

Markethive - The Answer

With crypto smarts and not-so-crypto-savvy, many retail investors are coming to Markethive and supporting the social media and digital marketing network. Why? Because they are looking for a platform that promotes freedom and sovereignty. A place where entrepreneurs can flourish professionally, artistically, and financially, away from the pressures of the legacy Web 2 tech giants. 

Never before has a blockchain crypto project been attempted at this scale, but given the distributed data technology Markethive is integrating, it’s the next step in the evolution of multi-dimensional social media, marketing, and advertising. 

Markethive’s Hivecoin is one of the select altcoins that will rise and empower the retail investor. Its use case is the pinnacle and essential for this fungible asset coin to become very valuable to any user in the social media, marketing, and digital media industry. 

The various ways to earn Hivecoin, including airdrops, bounties, and staking capabilities, make it easy to accumulate and grow your portfolio. The added advantage of Markethive’s decentralized exchange and wallet soon to be released creates a robust, thriving ecosystem for the average Jack and Jill - The aspiring entrepreneur and retail investor. 

 

 

 

 

Stimulus Payments - How Much Went Into Bitcoin?: Stimulus Payments - How Much Went Into Bitcoin?   ...