Ian Lee
Freelance writer for hire.
Ian Lee is a freelance writer for hire specializing in the areas of business, finance, and economics. He also has over 5 years of experience in investment banking.
PROJECTS
coingecko.com
The Complete Beginner’s Guide to AirSwap
First announced in late 2017, AirSwap, a ConsenSys project, is one of the most talked about decentralized exchanges for Ethereum and other ERC20 tokens today. The AirSwap Marketplace, the feature which actually allows you to trade tokens recently went live on April 27, 2018.
Since that feature is now live, we at CoinGecko figured that it’s a good time for a comprehensive beginner’s guide to using AirSwap. This guide will explain what AirSwap is all about, how it works, and more importantly ho...
coingecko.com
CoolWallet S Bitcoin Wallet Review
If you’re serious about investing in cryptocurrencies, it would be crazy for you not to own a hardware wallet. Also known as a ‘cold wallet’, these offline wallets are currently the most secure way of storing your cryptocurrencies, short of actually memorizing your private keys.
In today’s review, we’re going to be taking an in-depth look at one of the newer hardware wallets out there, the CoolWallet S by CoolBitX. Touted as the world’s first mobile hardware wallet, the CoolWallet S uses Blue...
coingecko.com
A Complete Beginner’s Guide to Using MetaMask
If you’ve ever looked into buying or trading Ethereum and other ERC20 tokens before, then you’ve probably heard the word MetaMask mentioned. If you already know what MetaMask is and how to use it, then feel free to skip this article. But for those of you who have been wondering just what MetaMask is, then this guide was made for you.
What is MetaMask?
If I had to summarize MetaMask in one sentence, it would be this. MetaMask is a browser extension that acts as both a wallet and a way for you ...
blokt.com
SEC Obtains Order to Freeze Additional Assets of PlexCorps’ Dominic Lacroix
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission revealed in a litigation release dated June 20 another emergency court order for an asset freeze over Dominic Lacroix, who the agency describes as a “recidivist Quebec securities law violator.”
Blokt reported, in December 2017, that the agency’s newly formed Cyber Unit obtained the first emergency asset freeze to halt PlexCorps ICO, which it described as “fraudulent” and a “full-fledged cyber scam.” The ICO had already raised up to $15 million from ...
blokt.com
BIS Repeats Tired Criticisms Against Cryptocurrencies in Special Report
On June 17, the BIS made available a 24-page chapter from its upcoming annual economic report. The report, which is negative against cryptocurrencies as a whole, repeats the same criticisms against cryptocurrencies that have been around for years, namely that of scalability, volatility and trust.
The report begins with a definition of money and the basic structure of cryptocurrencies. It then goes on to compare the current state of cryptocurrencies against said definition and concludes that b...
blokt.com
CBOE President Says SEC’s Announcement Clears ‘key Stumbling Block’ for Ether Future
In a statement released to Bloomberg on June 15, Chris Concannon referenced a speech by William Hinman, director of the agency’s corporate finance division. In the speech, Hinman said that Ethereum, as “currently structured” would not qualify as securities transactions, despite the initial offering conditions of Ethereum back in 2014.
As Concannon told Bloomberg:
“We are pleased with the SEC’s decision to provide clarity with respect to current Ether transactions. This announcement clears a k...
blokt.com
Ant Financial Just Raised $14 Billion; Will Fund Blockchain Development
Ant Financial, the financial affiliate of the Alibaba group, announced on June 8 that it had raised $14 billion from various international investors. The company notes in its press release that:
“The Company will continue to invest in developing its blockchain, AI, security, IoT and computing capabilities to upgrade its global technology platform for the next generation.”
The company’s explicit mention of blockchain development should not come as a surprise, as it is consistent with previous ...
blokt.com
Quebec Freezes Crypto Mining Power Requests Amid Excessive Demand
Canada’s biggest electric utility Hydro-Quebec will temporarily halt processing requests from cryptocurrency miners due to “unprecedented” demand that has exceeded the company’s short and medium-term capacity.
In a press release dated June 7, the utility company noted that the directive to stop processing such requests came through a ministerial order. An “Order-in-Council” also instructed the provincial regulator, Régie de l’énergie, to address concerns hounding electricity sales to companie...
coingecko.com
What Is A Cryptocurrency Airdrop And How Does It Differ From An ICO?
If you’ve been around cryptocurrencies for a while, you’ve probably heard the term ‘airdrop’ bandied about, usually accompanied by a lot of anticipatory excitement. In this guide, we are going to teach you everything you need to know about airdrops, including what they are, how they work, why people do them, and how you can qualify for one.
What is a Cryptocurrency Airdrop?
A cryptocurrency airdrop is a free giveaway of cryptocurrency tokens. Yes, it’s true, in the cryptocurrency world; money...
coingecko.com
4 Lessons from the Biggest Cryptocurrency Scams of 2018
Back when cryptocurrencies were ‘only’ worth billions, scammers ran rampant through the community. We’ve wrote about how to spot such scams before in our 2016 article The Complete Guide to Bitcoin Scams.
Two years later, cryptocurrencies are now worth hundreds of billions of dollars. The general public is now much more aware about cryptocurrencies and many more retail investors are entering the market.
However, cryptocurrencies remain largely unregulated, creating an even bigger opportunity f...
blokt.com
Nasdaq CEO Describes Cryptocurrencies as ‘Height of a Hype Cycle’
On June 6, Adena Friedman sat down for a 20-minute interview on the evolution of capital markets and the role that cryptocurrencies and blockchain are playing in this. When Joel Weber asked how Nasdaq as a company views cryptocurrencies, Friedman responded by describing the current state of cryptocurrencies as “completely unregulated” and speculative, saying:
“At this point though, I believe that it is very much a speculative asset class… that doesn’t necessarily have a foundational purpose i...
blokt.com
Pumapay Partners With Over 40 Companies Totaling More Than $10 Billion in Annual Transactions
On May 7, PumaPay announced via its blog that it had successfully raised $117,019,041 from its private sale, generating a total amount of 78,042,956,829 tokens. The amount raised means that PumaPay now joins the ICO big leagues, putting PumaPay at the eighth largest ICO of 2018 so far, according to Coinschedule data. Based on the full year’s data from 2017, PumaPay would have ranked as the sixth largest for the year.
Push vs. Pull: The Draw of PumaPay’s Flexible PullPayment Protocol
The massi...
blokt.com
Hong Kong Has No Plans to Issue Central Bank Digital Currency
A Hong Kong official has ruled out any immediate plans to implement a central bank digital currency as it would be “broadly similar to, and not clearly superior to” the existing financial infrastructure.
In an official press release dated May 30, Joseph Chan, who is the Acting Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury in the Legislative Council, responded to a question by Dennis Kwok, who is another member of the Legislative Council. Referring to reports that the People’s Bank of Chin...
blokt.com
Average ICO Investor Earned 82% Returns, Boston College Paper Finds
A recent paper by Boston College researchers on ICO returns concluded that the average ICO investor earned 82% returns, with significant evidence of ICO underpricing.
Hugo Benedetti and Leonard Kostovetsky wrote the paper titled “Digital Tulips? Returns to Investors in Initial Coin Offerings” and dated May 20, 2018. Benedetti is a former Fulbright Scholar and a current finance Ph.D. candidate at the university’s prestigious Carroll School of Management. Kostovetsky, who holds an economics Ph....
blokt.com
Headphones Maker Plans $300 Million ICO, ‘Money Monster Network’
Money-losing company Monster Products Inc. is planning a $300 million “monster ICO” to create an e-commerce platform, the Money Monster Network, as seen in a filing to the SEC.
The SEC filing, which was dated May 25, detailed Monster’s ICO prospectus as well as the company’s financial statements in the past two years. Monster plans to sell its own Monster Money Tokens (MMNY) at $1 per token during the ICO, which is planned to last for a year from a currently unannounced date.
These tokens can...