Disclaimer: This newsletter is informational in nature; nothing written here should be construed as financial advice.

What is Bitcoin? What is a "blockchain"? How do I buy < your favorite coin here >? Is this really money? Why is everyone so excited about crypto currency?

The cryptocurrency / blockchain industry is very new and still quite hard to understand. We haven't had enough time to innovate the ease-of-use niceties we're used to when we use an iPad to send an email, but... all of that is coming.

Cryptocurrency represents a revolution in money--availability to those in the third world who currently can't even get a bank account, transactional speed that allows you to send money across the globe in a few seconds or minutes with negligible fees, and true privacy that let's you own your money and decide what you want to do with it. Blockchain technology, on which cryptocurrency generally is built, is independently creating new ways things can happen online.

Do you want to be sure that piece of fruit you just bought is actually organic and actually travelled for less than 3 days to get to you? The blockchain will do that. Do you want to ensure that that independent media outlet you watch on YouTube isn't censored by Google? The blockchain can already do that. How about ensuring that big companies or even the government can't change what's on Wikipedia by storming the Wikipedia offices and demanding an article be edited? Blockchain can do that too.

If you'd like an easy-to-understand introduction to the basics, read this series, and you can subscribe to my newsletter at https://www.mikefreemen.com

In my newsletter, I'll provide blurbs, summary reports, and ideas that will make the crypto-sphere more accessible. I'll explain the basic working of the technology; I'll discuss some of the most interesting / promising projects; and I'll keep you posted on what excites me most in this market.

I have also begun a set of online video tutorials to cover the basics of how to get your first cryptocurrency and how to trade it for other crypto currency, as well as how to store it safely. This world of crypto is not like the bank you use today. There is no FDIC; there is no customer support line; and there is no bank. Crypto brings with it some unique and super useful characteristics that we'll discuss, but with great power comes great responsibility. So we'll also be discussing the pitfalls and what you need to know to protect what you acquire. See my d.tube channel or YouTube channel for those tutorials.

This arena is very complex, and I've been steeped in it deeply for a long time. So it'll take a bit to get "the basics" articulated, but we will get there soon. I do aim to provide educational resources for everyone, so that cryptocurrency is understandable and accessible to everyone reading this newsletter.

While I plan to cover many topics and make deep dives occasionally into a topic or project, I will aim to keep my updates short so you can just glance at them, grab a few new ideas, and keep tabs on the market.

What will be regularly covered in this newsletter:

The most exciting projects and technologies
Occasional summary comments from my sporadic deep dives into particular technologies or issues.
Occasional comments on current events / issues of importance.
High-level mindsets for investing in this market.

What will not be covered (at least for a while) in these updates:

Investment advice / specific investment picks
Discussion of trade timing
ICOs or projects that are still super early stage

The crypto-sphere is teeming with new projects and ideas. Covering any majority of them in any kind of detail will be impossible, so I will keep a tight focus on those things I think add value now or imminently, and which I've had ample time to research.

My Thoughts on some of the top coins...

Bitcoin

Bitcoin has major technical as well as governance problems that are not predictably going to be overcome (much more to say about this in coming issues). While they had the lead, they are losing it very fast.

Ethereum

Being the first mover in the space, they are now trying to upgrade to include lessons learned and finding that very challenging. They've got a lot to do, and they've got at least one (and more coming) major competitors.

Ripple

This is not like most other cryptos in that it is not a fully decentralized, free, grass-roots-built blockchain like so many of the others. I'm not interested in it at all. We'll get to that in the future also.

Bitcoin Cash

While members of the Bitcoin Cash community, like Rick Falkvinge, make excellent arguments that--at least at some level--are inarguable, and the Bitcoin (core) community confirms these arguments by never having a reasonable response, Bitcoin Cash is not the solution. Perhaps it'll become a decent solution, but I think that is highly unlikely. Certainly not any time soon.

LiteCoin

I've never quite understood LiteCoin's use case. There are examples of its utility here and there, but it seems to be buoyed by 2 things: international use and an idea. The idea is "Silver to Bitcoin's Gold". That's a great idea, but I can't imagine betting on that idea. I've owned LiteCoin. I've made money investing in LiteCoin, but now that I have a broader understanding, It's just not the place I feel focused attention will pay off the most.

EOS

I will be saying a ton about EOS. It is, far and away, the most interesting project out there right now to me. I'll get into why, but it's blockchain goes live in early June, and all the pent-up good news and solid fundamentals were pushing the price up against the market's prevailing push down since December. In mid-April, that came to an end, and we've seen it's price jump massively. This one's got the tech, the money, the team, everything. Much more to say in the coming updates.

Tron and Cardano

I'm not very interested. We may get into why in the future.

Privacy Coins

Privacy as a key issue in cryptocurrencies has jumped into the spotlight with the revelations of Edward Snowden, and as more and more people find that Bitcoin isn't actually as anonymous as everyone had thought, people are starting to explore the truly private coins. I'm not alone in saying that this will be a big target of interest in 2018. The big coins--all of which I'll comment on in coming updates--are Monero, ZCash, PIVX, and ZCoin.
Lastly, I've created a dTube channel to host my free educational videos about cryptocurrency and blockchain. dTube is a blockchain-based version of youTube. I've uploaded my first video, which walks you end to end through purchasing your first crypto currency of choice. In the example, we use Coinbase to buy Bitcoins with dollars, and then turn that Bitcoin into EOS. This video is meant simply to illustrate the entire process of doing so. Future videos will explain the pieces that are only shown in this video.

Providing Some Clarity Amid the Ambiguity...