10 ms·

A Small Fintech Stock Surged 2,400% After Announcing It’s a Crypto Company

85 points by uptown 9y ago

lspears 9y ago
Bubble?
- quickben 9y ago
  Continuous QE spilled in everything else, assets, stocks, latest is crypto. At some point, math kicks in and it will have to reset. Coincidentally, why else do you think Trump is trying to bring everything back home? Note: I am not from the USA and am not trying to start a political argument here. It's merely a macroeconomy observation.
  - winslow 9y ago
    Could you expand on your thoughts for Trump trying to bring everything back home? Genuinely curious what your thoughts are and not from a political stand point :) Thanks.
    - quickben 9y ago
      Sure. Keep in mind I'm not an expert. I also have to write some assumptions first, I apologize for the length. There are ups and downs. The bigger the up, the uglier the down (1999 vs 2007).Money gets flooded and scooped (interest rates are as much proactive as reactive). Inflation is aimed at 2-3% because that's what people ignore but it keeps this fable called money going for all (rich get richer, the poor get regular inflation based raises, all is happy). Credit cycles are a thing, but can be extended by injecting money in the system (as long as nobody objects, inflation is near 3%, and interest rates are reasonable). Bailouts work up to an extent, at some point (because I can't draw charts) the math catches up, and heavily QE will become worthless, this risking inflation or deflation. No matter the outcome, one or the other must happen, or like the Bank of Japan, the government starts buying bonds and stocks with it just to keep the pretense money are still worth something. Based on the above (and I'm aware the story is longer and somewhat with more details) USA has a way to go for a complete endgame. However, the money flooded so far in the system, are bigger than ever, and the next down will be probably more ugly than ever. So, when it's ugly it's somewhat benefitial if people can get some sort of jobs. With all the assumptions from above, and it really doesn't look like from here that Trump came with the idea (he would be boasting). He's doing what any sane central bank will do. So he's told what to do, and believes it's overall the right thing. - Make sure outsourced jobs vanish. It will cost businesses now, but maybe if they get awesome tax cut, they won't complain. - NAFTA will probably go away, Americans will get to do stuff that free trade did. If employment on domestic grounds is good (and not in the service industry, but factories and stuff), when it gets bad, people (or a bigger fraction of them) will have jobs, compared to if the service sector is doing great now. - Based on the continuous QE volume, the next credit cycle will be the worst. - If I had to guess, tech stocks will crater the worst. So all related tech visas will also go. - He repealed Obama care, because in a recessions, most people won't have health care, but won't pay penalties. Not having it, is horible, but the population seems somewhat adjusted to the idea of not having health care ( and a revolution hasn't started over that so far, so they can do that). Related reading: USA losing the Petro dollar. Bitcoin being worse than the tech stocks and cratering more. China bonds being risky right now. That report from IBS (October?) where they wrote that china/India are fully integrated in the world labour and main growth stopped, wages will restart going up after two decades. Upcoming Australia's housing crash (because resource export stalled, and other factors). Interest rates raising again, so other overextended housing markets will get corrected (starting with Canada, UK, Sweden). The world economy is complex and it's all fluid all the time, but at this point, this how it looks to me. Apologies for the length.
      - winslow 9y ago
        I'm very grateful you took the time to respond especially in such great length. Don't apologize for the length this is the exactly what I was hoping for! Sometimes it's good to get a completely different view on things as the rhetoric within the US has been quite negative towards Trump (potentially well deserved) without much discussion around the quantitative easing etc but rather just tax cuts for corporations etc.
    - craftyguy 9y ago
      It gets him votes, part of the "make 'merica great again" propaganda. In other news, he and his relatives will continue to outsource where ever they can.
      - stevenwoo 9y ago
        The tax bill ironically appears to encourage outsourcing by any company big enough to do it by making the minimum corporate rate 10 percent (theoretically to encourage Apple to bring billions home) in certain circumstances and letting companies average their income/taxes over all offshore affiliates. http://theweek.com/articles/743632/gop-tax-bills-biggest-boondoggles http://theweek.com/articles/743632/gop-tax-bills-biggest-boo...
      - coderdude 9y ago
        I picture you hitting reply, leaning back in your computer chair thinking, "that oughta open their eyes."
      - winslow 9y ago
        I realize you aren't OP but I do understand the "making America great again" getting him votes by saying he's bringing back jobs. However, that's a political response that deflects from the real issues at hand. What I am curious about is the quantitative easing we witnessed due to the 2008 Financial & Housing crisis and how that is being handled both in the economy and the governments around the world. The Fed interest rate is still at a historic low having just recently bumped to 1.5% [1]. For instance one of the view points I've heard is that Trump is trying to deregulate as much as possible in order to avoid the economy crashing. Maybe that a makes a correction from QE worse in the future. Maybe Trump is indeed just trying to siphon as much money/tax breaks as possible but I'm curious about the macro economics currently in play from different world viewpoints. [1] - https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/interest-rate https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/interest-rate
        quickben 9y ago
        The developed world mostly started following USA with QE+bailout based currency supply policy. Now that USA is playing a different game the rest will probably follow that too. It's just that the USA is ahead of the game again.
  - tehlike 9y ago
    Even in case of bubble, the market seems to take a temporary hit and rise even stronger.
    - quickben 9y ago
      Yes. Only 20-40% of investments, chunk of the stock market based pension, and several years or decades of ones sweat. It will rise stronger if you are in your 20s-40s, not if you are 60+ and planning to retire.
      - tehlike 9y ago
        Fair point
  - sremani 9y ago
    Crypto is not 'Murican bubble, its global to an extent, and has massive footprint in Europe and Asia (esp. East Asia).
    - quickben 9y ago
      So, since nothing backs the deflatory currency being traded as an actually appreciating asset, it will be a global loss. Mostly to the dumb money entering late to the game.
- neil_macintyre 9y ago
  Seems reminiscent to the dot com bubble where just adding "e-" to your companies name could increase your market cap.
  - jvagner 9y ago
    Or "i"- to a product?
    - aphextron 9y ago
      I'm pretty sure that worked out just fine
philfrasty 9y ago
Another FORMER biotech NOW crypto stock RIOT https://medium.com/@jillcarlson/the-riot-act-f29a2557498f https://medium.com/@jillcarlson/the-riot-act-f29a2557498f
- AznHisoka 9y ago
  Yep. Be careful with shorting stocks like these. RIOT just went up another 35% today. Markets can stay irrational for quite awhile...
  - tehlike 9y ago
    I wish they had a year in puts. Or two. Hell of a gain there.
jgalt212 9y ago
> On November 25, 1998, during the dot com bubble, the stock price soared from $3 per share to $38.94 on November 27, 1998 and an intra-day high of $47.00 on November 30, 1998 after the company announced an updated website. Two weeks later, the share price was back down to $10. By 2000, the share price had returned to $3.[7][8] Those days included suspenseful times for day traders, such as when the stock moved up 6 points in 13 minutes.[7] During this time, insiders sold hundreds of thousands of shares.[7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Books-A-Million https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Books-A-Million
turc1656 9y ago
As it so happens, I just created a brand new company. We have no idea what we're going to do, or how we're going to monetize it. But we're definitely going to use blockchain technology. If you are having any doubts, we are willing to provide a brand new coin linked to our company in lieu of stock to assuage any concerns you may have about securing your investment. Who's ready to throw money at us? /sarcasm
- colorint 9y ago
  I'm going to issue a coin for carrying out an undertaking of great advantage, but nobody to know what it is.
- tehlike 9y ago
  I am willing to pay 10$/100k coins. It is guaranteed to have 5$/coin in this environment.
- pimmen 9y ago
  I'm still a bit sceptical, I only invest in companies that use "machine learning" at least twice in their marketing material.
cik2e 9y ago
The most mind-boggling thing about the crypto market is the valuations for abandoned projects. There have been plenty of teams that have stopped putting out any updates shortly after the ICO, yet their tokens are still trading at decent multipliers over the buy-in price. I can understand the bubbliness of the coins that show promise, but the fact that the exit scams aren't being decimated in the market is really troubling me.
- yks 9y ago
  or even abandoned "forks" like Ethereum Classic for that matter
- bobwernstein 9y ago
  Do you have an example?
ithinkinstereo 9y ago
“Longfin corp, a leading global FinTech company, announces the acquisition of Ziddu.com, a Blockchain-empowered solutions provider that offers Microfinance Lending against Collateralized Warehouse Receipts in the form of Ziddu Coins"
- tehlike 9y ago
  That is deep. Trying to wrap my head around what it means.
LeeHwang 9y ago
Well I see bitcoin talks by instagram models saying they are bitcoin gurus now too. I'm inclined to think bitcoin is a bubble, but cryptotech is the future.
- vintageseltzer 9y ago
  Can you share some links please? I'm morbidly curious.
  - j4ship 9y ago
    leave please
    - dang 9y ago
      We've banned this account for repeatedly violating the site guidelines. If you don't want to be banned on HN, you're welcome to email hn@ycombinator.com and give us reason to believe that you'll follow the rules in the future. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- optimuspaul 9y ago
  What do you mean when you say cryptotech?
  - wickawic 9y ago
    "blockchain, et al"
    - zitterbewegung 9y ago
      Block tech or chain tech might be a better phrase Or decentralized ledger / dledger tech.
      - tekromancr 9y ago
nikolay 9y ago
So, sprinkle some crypto crap on a company and create "value" out of thin air...
- rsynnott 9y ago
  See also, “AI”, “social”.
mv4 9y ago
I remember the days when adding the word "e-commerce" to your penny stock had the same effect. Good times.
- pavlov 9y ago
  Back in the dot-com days there was a fish processing company called Zapata that decided to become an Internet portal. As their stock soared, Zapata tried to buy Excite.com for $1.6 billion in stock but didn't succeed. Zapata finally pulled the plug in January 2001: "The news of Zap's demise marks the end of an era. The Internet business was so heady back in 1998, when the portal-wanna-be first came on the scene, that people scoffed only slightly at the news that an animal by-products company was taking on Yahoo! in the battle for those formerly coveted viewers." https://www.forbes.com/2001/01/09/0109zapata.html#70a49b773a8b https://www.forbes.com/2001/01/09/0109zapata.html#70a49b773a... We're probably nearing the point where the Zapatas of this crypto-token boom start using their inflated valuations to try to acquire more traditional tech companies.
  - mv4 9y ago
    I am starting to see the same patterns.
  - SkyMarshal 9y ago
    >We're probably nearing the point where the Zapatas of this crypto-token boom start using their inflated valuations to try to acquire more traditional tech companies. The crypto co's aren't going to try to acquire companies, first b/c most traditional companies have no product of interest to a decentralized platform, and second b/c most crypto's are set up as non-profit foundations. What they will be doing soon is raiding top traditional tech companies for their best engineering talent with promises of new tech to work on and great wealth.
- gozur88 9y ago
  Heh heh. I worked for a company that rebranded itself as "b2b" back when that was the buzzword. We didn't get a 24x pop, but I was amazed at the extent to which our little company was suddenly worth so much more even though our product and operations remained exactly the same.
mentalgainz 9y ago
It's not about the crypto for me.It's about the technology behind them that excites me. Blockchain is definitely worth the hype in my opinion. Reading this article got me even more excited on the applications of blockchain: https://passivetalks.com/the-top-venture-funded-blockchain-technology-companies/ https://passivetalks.com/the-top-venture-funded-blockchain-t...
- wybiral 9y ago
  Crypto is the tech behind the blockchain. And the blockchain is the tech behind these cryptocurrencies. How did "crypto" start to mean "cryptocurrency" to people? When this cryptocurrency stuff crashes I hope there isn't some media backlash against crypto, in general.
  - jjn2009 9y ago
    I can understand the way people feel about blockchain but a backlash against what boils down to mathematics is a futile exercise.
    - wybiral 9y ago
      Unfortunately ignorant people have been known to conduct exercises in futility.
  - pimmen 9y ago
    I actually kind of do hope there is. In a climate of sceptics only the strongest businesses survives. When there's a bear market, I look around at what companies are still doing good and snatch some shares. Intelligent VCs that really understand and value the tech are going to make a killing and good, sound business plans become the norm rather than the exception for crypto companies then. Sure, the engineer in me weeps that all the cool technical progress might slow down when investor money dries up after a burst bubble, but hopefully academic institutions will pick up the slack.
    - thisacctforreal 9y ago
vfulco 9y ago
Saw the same countless times during Internet 1.0. In one case, a small uninspiring Florida bank said they were starting a website. Stock went from 8 to 92 in a day. It's called a bubble folks. Study history lest you get permanently burned when it explodes.
- zghst 9y ago
  Yeah but after the bubble there’s always big players that emerge. Just have to outlast the wave
  - pimmen 9y ago
    But to "just" outlast the wave, you actually need a sound business plan with margins that can survive an industry crisis. Most players are not even close to that and are living at the mercy of their investors.
  - chii 9y ago
    or ride the bubble and get out as soon as you made "enough".
  - jgalt212 9y ago
    what big players emerged after the tulip bubble?
    - tonyjstark 9y ago
      according to [0], the tulip bubble was not as big as most people would think [0]https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/there-never-was-real-tulip-fever-180964915/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/there-never-was-real-...
anticipation 9y ago
- Shady - Check - AI- Check - Small Float -Check - Blockchain - Cherry on the cake Here's some background of the promoter. Venkat Meenavalli is the CEO of the Longfin. Here's the brief background for you to understand. - Promoted another listed company North Gate Technology in India, name changed to Green Fire Agri Commodities touched a price of Rs.1587 in 2007 and now it trades at Rs.0.59 - Promoter of Ziddu.com owned by Meridian (Singapore based company owned 95% by Venkat) was a file sharing website (see internet archives) and was paying people to host content. Most of it was just pirated content like megaupload and rapidshare - Promoted Stampede Capital which is part of the transaction in LongFin in India listed at Rs. 33 currently trades at Rs.7.5 and Usha Meenavalli (promoter group) has been selling 100k+ of shares every month since January 2016, supposedly to fund the listing of the company in Singapore. As a reminder, there are no financials of this company LONGFIN, no regulatory details on shares outstanding, and no direct evidence of a business model that makes any money. Currently under investigation for insider trading.

85 points by uptown 9y ago

lspears 9y ago

Bubble?

quickben 9y ago
Continuous QE spilled in everything else, assets, stocks, latest is crypto. At some point, math kicks in and it will have to reset. Coincidentally, why else do you think Trump is trying to bring everything back home? Note: I am not from the USA and am not trying to start a political argument here. It's merely a macroeconomy observation.
- winslow 9y ago
  Could you expand on your thoughts for Trump trying to bring everything back home? Genuinely curious what your thoughts are and not from a political stand point :) Thanks.
  - quickben 9y ago
    Sure. Keep in mind I'm not an expert. I also have to write some assumptions first, I apologize for the length. There are ups and downs. The bigger the up, the uglier the down (1999 vs 2007).Money gets flooded and scooped (interest rates are as much proactive as reactive). Inflation is aimed at 2-3% because that's what people ignore but it keeps this fable called money going for all (rich get richer, the poor get regular inflation based raises, all is happy). Credit cycles are a thing, but can be extended by injecting money in the system (as long as nobody objects, inflation is near 3%, and interest rates are reasonable). Bailouts work up to an extent, at some point (because I can't draw charts) the math catches up, and heavily QE will become worthless, this risking inflation or deflation. No matter the outcome, one or the other must happen, or like the Bank of Japan, the government starts buying bonds and stocks with it just to keep the pretense money are still worth something. Based on the above (and I'm aware the story is longer and somewhat with more details) USA has a way to go for a complete endgame. However, the money flooded so far in the system, are bigger than ever, and the next down will be probably more ugly than ever. So, when it's ugly it's somewhat benefitial if people can get some sort of jobs. With all the assumptions from above, and it really doesn't look like from here that Trump came with the idea (he would be boasting). He's doing what any sane central bank will do. So he's told what to do, and believes it's overall the right thing. - Make sure outsourced jobs vanish. It will cost businesses now, but maybe if they get awesome tax cut, they won't complain. - NAFTA will probably go away, Americans will get to do stuff that free trade did. If employment on domestic grounds is good (and not in the service industry, but factories and stuff), when it gets bad, people (or a bigger fraction of them) will have jobs, compared to if the service sector is doing great now. - Based on the continuous QE volume, the next credit cycle will be the worst. - If I had to guess, tech stocks will crater the worst. So all related tech visas will also go. - He repealed Obama care, because in a recessions, most people won't have health care, but won't pay penalties. Not having it, is horible, but the population seems somewhat adjusted to the idea of not having health care ( and a revolution hasn't started over that so far, so they can do that). Related reading: USA losing the Petro dollar. Bitcoin being worse than the tech stocks and cratering more. China bonds being risky right now. That report from IBS (October?) where they wrote that china/India are fully integrated in the world labour and main growth stopped, wages will restart going up after two decades. Upcoming Australia's housing crash (because resource export stalled, and other factors). Interest rates raising again, so other overextended housing markets will get corrected (starting with Canada, UK, Sweden). The world economy is complex and it's all fluid all the time, but at this point, this how it looks to me. Apologies for the length.
    - winslow 9y ago
      I'm very grateful you took the time to respond especially in such great length. Don't apologize for the length this is the exactly what I was hoping for! Sometimes it's good to get a completely different view on things as the rhetoric within the US has been quite negative towards Trump (potentially well deserved) without much discussion around the quantitative easing etc but rather just tax cuts for corporations etc.
  - craftyguy 9y ago
    It gets him votes, part of the "make 'merica great again" propaganda. In other news, he and his relatives will continue to outsource where ever they can.
    - stevenwoo 9y ago
      The tax bill ironically appears to encourage outsourcing by any company big enough to do it by making the minimum corporate rate 10 percent (theoretically to encourage Apple to bring billions home) in certain circumstances and letting companies average their income/taxes over all offshore affiliates. http://theweek.com/articles/743632/gop-tax-bills-biggest-boondoggles http://theweek.com/articles/743632/gop-tax-bills-biggest-boo...
    - coderdude 9y ago
      I picture you hitting reply, leaning back in your computer chair thinking, "that oughta open their eyes."
    - winslow 9y ago
      I realize you aren't OP but I do understand the "making America great again" getting him votes by saying he's bringing back jobs. However, that's a political response that deflects from the real issues at hand. What I am curious about is the quantitative easing we witnessed due to the 2008 Financial & Housing crisis and how that is being handled both in the economy and the governments around the world. The Fed interest rate is still at a historic low having just recently bumped to 1.5% [1]. For instance one of the view points I've heard is that Trump is trying to deregulate as much as possible in order to avoid the economy crashing. Maybe that a makes a correction from QE worse in the future. Maybe Trump is indeed just trying to siphon as much money/tax breaks as possible but I'm curious about the macro economics currently in play from different world viewpoints. [1] - https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/interest-rate https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/interest-rate
      - quickben 9y ago
        The developed world mostly started following USA with QE+bailout based currency supply policy. Now that USA is playing a different game the rest will probably follow that too. It's just that the USA is ahead of the game again.
- tehlike 9y ago
  Even in case of bubble, the market seems to take a temporary hit and rise even stronger.
  - quickben 9y ago
    Yes. Only 20-40% of investments, chunk of the stock market based pension, and several years or decades of ones sweat. It will rise stronger if you are in your 20s-40s, not if you are 60+ and planning to retire.
    - tehlike 9y ago
      Fair point
- sremani 9y ago
  Crypto is not 'Murican bubble, its global to an extent, and has massive footprint in Europe and Asia (esp. East Asia).
  - quickben 9y ago
    So, since nothing backs the deflatory currency being traded as an actually appreciating asset, it will be a global loss. Mostly to the dumb money entering late to the game.
neil_macintyre 9y ago
Seems reminiscent to the dot com bubble where just adding "e-" to your companies name could increase your market cap.
- jvagner 9y ago
  Or "i"- to a product?
  - aphextron 9y ago
    I'm pretty sure that worked out just fine

philfrasty 9y ago

Another FORMER biotech NOW crypto stock RIOT https://medium.com/@jillcarlson/the-riot-act-f29a2557498f https://medium.com/@jillcarlson/the-riot-act-f29a2557498f

AznHisoka 9y ago
Yep. Be careful with shorting stocks like these. RIOT just went up another 35% today. Markets can stay irrational for quite awhile...
- tehlike 9y ago
  I wish they had a year in puts. Or two. Hell of a gain there.

jgalt212 9y ago

> On November 25, 1998, during the dot com bubble, the stock price soared from $3 per share to $38.94 on November 27, 1998 and an intra-day high of $47.00 on November 30, 1998 after the company announced an updated website. Two weeks later, the share price was back down to $10. By 2000, the share price had returned to $3.[7][8] Those days included suspenseful times for day traders, such as when the stock moved up 6 points in 13 minutes.[7] During this time, insiders sold hundreds of thousands of shares.[7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Books-A-Million https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Books-A-Million

turc1656 9y ago

As it so happens, I just created a brand new company. We have no idea what we're going to do, or how we're going to monetize it. But we're definitely going to use blockchain technology. If you are having any doubts, we are willing to provide a brand new coin linked to our company in lieu of stock to assuage any concerns you may have about securing your investment. Who's ready to throw money at us? /sarcasm

colorint 9y ago
I'm going to issue a coin for carrying out an undertaking of great advantage, but nobody to know what it is.
tehlike 9y ago
I am willing to pay 10$/100k coins. It is guaranteed to have 5$/coin in this environment.
pimmen 9y ago
I'm still a bit sceptical, I only invest in companies that use "machine learning" at least twice in their marketing material.

cik2e 9y ago

The most mind-boggling thing about the crypto market is the valuations for abandoned projects. There have been plenty of teams that have stopped putting out any updates shortly after the ICO, yet their tokens are still trading at decent multipliers over the buy-in price. I can understand the bubbliness of the coins that show promise, but the fact that the exit scams aren't being decimated in the market is really troubling me.

yks 9y ago
or even abandoned "forks" like Ethereum Classic for that matter
bobwernstein 9y ago
Do you have an example?

ithinkinstereo 9y ago

“Longfin corp, a leading global FinTech company, announces the acquisition of Ziddu.com, a Blockchain-empowered solutions provider that offers Microfinance Lending against Collateralized Warehouse Receipts in the form of Ziddu Coins"

tehlike 9y ago
That is deep. Trying to wrap my head around what it means.

LeeHwang 9y ago

Well I see bitcoin talks by instagram models saying they are bitcoin gurus now too. I'm inclined to think bitcoin is a bubble, but cryptotech is the future.

vintageseltzer 9y ago
Can you share some links please? I'm morbidly curious.
- j4ship 9y ago
  leave please
  - dang 9y ago
    We've banned this account for repeatedly violating the site guidelines. If you don't want to be banned on HN, you're welcome to email hn@ycombinator.com and give us reason to believe that you'll follow the rules in the future. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
optimuspaul 9y ago
What do you mean when you say cryptotech?
- wickawic 9y ago
  "blockchain, et al"
  - zitterbewegung 9y ago
    Block tech or chain tech might be a better phrase Or decentralized ledger / dledger tech.
    - tekromancr 9y ago

nikolay 9y ago

So, sprinkle some crypto crap on a company and create "value" out of thin air...

rsynnott 9y ago
See also, “AI”, “social”.

mv4 9y ago

I remember the days when adding the word "e-commerce" to your penny stock had the same effect. Good times.

pavlov 9y ago
Back in the dot-com days there was a fish processing company called Zapata that decided to become an Internet portal. As their stock soared, Zapata tried to buy Excite.com for $1.6 billion in stock but didn't succeed. Zapata finally pulled the plug in January 2001: "The news of Zap's demise marks the end of an era. The Internet business was so heady back in 1998, when the portal-wanna-be first came on the scene, that people scoffed only slightly at the news that an animal by-products company was taking on Yahoo! in the battle for those formerly coveted viewers." https://www.forbes.com/2001/01/09/0109zapata.html#70a49b773a8b https://www.forbes.com/2001/01/09/0109zapata.html#70a49b773a... We're probably nearing the point where the Zapatas of this crypto-token boom start using their inflated valuations to try to acquire more traditional tech companies.
- mv4 9y ago
  I am starting to see the same patterns.
- SkyMarshal 9y ago
  >We're probably nearing the point where the Zapatas of this crypto-token boom start using their inflated valuations to try to acquire more traditional tech companies. The crypto co's aren't going to try to acquire companies, first b/c most traditional companies have no product of interest to a decentralized platform, and second b/c most crypto's are set up as non-profit foundations. What they will be doing soon is raiding top traditional tech companies for their best engineering talent with promises of new tech to work on and great wealth.
gozur88 9y ago
Heh heh. I worked for a company that rebranded itself as "b2b" back when that was the buzzword. We didn't get a 24x pop, but I was amazed at the extent to which our little company was suddenly worth so much more even though our product and operations remained exactly the same.

mentalgainz 9y ago

It's not about the crypto for me.It's about the technology behind them that excites me. Blockchain is definitely worth the hype in my opinion. Reading this article got me even more excited on the applications of blockchain: https://passivetalks.com/the-top-venture-funded-blockchain-technology-companies/ https://passivetalks.com/the-top-venture-funded-blockchain-t...

wybiral 9y ago
Crypto is the tech behind the blockchain. And the blockchain is the tech behind these cryptocurrencies. How did "crypto" start to mean "cryptocurrency" to people? When this cryptocurrency stuff crashes I hope there isn't some media backlash against crypto, in general.
- jjn2009 9y ago
  I can understand the way people feel about blockchain but a backlash against what boils down to mathematics is a futile exercise.
  - wybiral 9y ago
    Unfortunately ignorant people have been known to conduct exercises in futility.
- pimmen 9y ago
  I actually kind of do hope there is. In a climate of sceptics only the strongest businesses survives. When there's a bear market, I look around at what companies are still doing good and snatch some shares. Intelligent VCs that really understand and value the tech are going to make a killing and good, sound business plans become the norm rather than the exception for crypto companies then. Sure, the engineer in me weeps that all the cool technical progress might slow down when investor money dries up after a burst bubble, but hopefully academic institutions will pick up the slack.
  - thisacctforreal 9y ago

vfulco 9y ago

Saw the same countless times during Internet 1.0. In one case, a small uninspiring Florida bank said they were starting a website. Stock went from 8 to 92 in a day. It's called a bubble folks. Study history lest you get permanently burned when it explodes.

zghst 9y ago
Yeah but after the bubble there’s always big players that emerge. Just have to outlast the wave
- pimmen 9y ago
  But to "just" outlast the wave, you actually need a sound business plan with margins that can survive an industry crisis. Most players are not even close to that and are living at the mercy of their investors.
- chii 9y ago
  or ride the bubble and get out as soon as you made "enough".
- jgalt212 9y ago
  what big players emerged after the tulip bubble?
  - tonyjstark 9y ago
    according to [0], the tulip bubble was not as big as most people would think [0]https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/there-never-was-real-tulip-fever-180964915/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/there-never-was-real-...

anticipation 9y ago

- Shady - Check - AI- Check - Small Float -Check - Blockchain - Cherry on the cake Here's some background of the promoter. Venkat Meenavalli is the CEO of the Longfin. Here's the brief background for you to understand. - Promoted another listed company North Gate Technology in India, name changed to Green Fire Agri Commodities touched a price of Rs.1587 in 2007 and now it trades at Rs.0.59 - Promoter of Ziddu.com owned by Meridian (Singapore based company owned 95% by Venkat) was a file sharing website (see internet archives) and was paying people to host content. Most of it was just pirated content like megaupload and rapidshare - Promoted Stampede Capital which is part of the transaction in LongFin in India listed at Rs. 33 currently trades at Rs.7.5 and Usha Meenavalli (promoter group) has been selling 100k+ of shares every month since January 2016, supposedly to fund the listing of the company in Singapore. As a reminder, there are no financials of this company LONGFIN, no regulatory details on shares outstanding, and no direct evidence of a business model that makes any money. Currently under investigation for insider trading.