So aside from my basic roles in technology the last twenty years (wow, has it been that long?) I've always had a passion for trading markets. Over the years I've traded your basic stocks, buying and selling as well as traded options for hedging entry and exit points, purchased tons of mutual funds, and had fun analyzing markets. These days you'll typically just catch me trading S&P futures for it's simplicity and get in get out dynamics. I love it. But my passion has brought me into the world of crypto currency exchange full throttle. There is no other market in the world that's as volatile with gains this high and drops this low. It's a day traders paradise if they know what they're doing.

I've never seen so many people able to take 1000% gains in less than a week as I do in these markets. I've left some comments on LinkedIn regarding blockchain technology and how it's disrupting well over 60+ industries and that number is going up daily. I've invested significantly in some of these particular areas as well as new forms of these currencies in general. Many business leaders and investors like Richard Branson, owner of Virgin and Ashton Kutcher actor and investor both like bitcoin.....a lot. This also includes the Winklevoss twins (Facebook co-founders) who own upwards of well over 800 million dollars in bitcoin assets.

But bitcoin is just one small part of the blockchain movement. The vast majority of everything flooding into this particular tech space now comes from the Ethereum network which allows for smart contract technology that are peer to peer which allow people to create contracts simply and easily with companies like Etherparty, and have these contracts automatically execute the parameters within them. Think about a mortgage. They're all done in paper and held by multiple entities. Your bank has a copy (hopefully), a title company, and yourself along with possible county recorder/clerk's office etc., the list goes on. How many mortgages got lost or misplaced during the great recession of 2008? How many people never had to pay on them again because the entity stating they had the document(s) could not produce proof? None of that would ever happen again using smart contracts. Once the information is entered and written onto the blockchain within the confines of the DApp writing it, it's there forever. It can't be edited, it can't be changed or modified in any way. That contract would automatically execute someone's mortgage payments and on the day it was paid off in full, would transfer complete ownership to the property owner. It would always be available and there would never be issues of lost or misplaced mortgages or incorrect parameters of the contract. Now think of how many industries a smart contract could disrupt. 

There's also the inception of the ERC20 crytpo token which brings about a multitude of payment processes within these DApps written on this incredible Ethereum network. Sometimes the token has a completely different purpose. One example is the marijuana industry. This is a cash only industry because on the federal level, it's still technically illegal and considered a schedule 1 drug. Despite the politics and opinions involved with that scenario, dispensaries are popping up all over the country for either medical reasons or recreational. The owners of these businesses are in pretty dangerous circumstances seeing they have to keep large amounts of money in safes and probably have to carry a gun with them everywhere they go so as not to become the victim of a robbery. This is also why you'll see armed security hired to protect these places. Now imagine a DApp (application written on top of ethereum) that can use these crypto tokens as a form of temporary currency for transactions (remember, they're not technically accepting dollars) and then once it reaches the merchant through the app on someone's phone, is immediately exchanged for USD in real time on that person's own debit card designed and built for that DApp which they can then use anywhere that accepts debit/credit cards. Customers can now use debit and credit card transactions to buy their marijuana which is a multi-billion dollar industry and the merchant is able to actually receive fiat currency or crypto tokens for it on a card or in an account, without having to store stacks of bills in a safe to accomplish this. And it's completely legal and banks don't have to get involved and have their license pulled by the federal government. Coincidentally the company in this example is a firm called Greenmed. Crytographic currencies are going to change EVERYTHING.

There are currently incredible possibilities going on right now. ICO's (Initial Coin Offerings) are pulling in record crowdfunding money in the billions of dollars. Sites like Icoalerts.com and coinmarketcap.com all track these things with numbers and breakdowns. It's such a massive, massive space with incredible market caps, many have already become millionaires or are well on their way. I just marvel at the size and scope of what's going on right now.  Like I often times say, those who don't somehow get involved in blockchain technology will be kicking themselves in the next few years. These things are going to change the world.