The 10 Best Cryptocurrencies

CRYPTOCURRENCIES

Crytocurrencies (CC)  / aka kriptocurrencies (kc)

Bitcoin (BTC)!  Etherium (ETH)! Litecoin (LTC)! Unless you've been living your life wearing  blinkers, or you've been hiding under a rock for the past year, I'm almost certain you've heard about them or perhaps any of the 1324 other Cryptocurrencies. So what's Crtyptocurrencies and what's all the hype about, you my ask. Well in a nutshell ..., Cryptocurrencies are the new money, and the hype is all about making money and lots of it. Many, many people have made small fortunes virtually overnight by investing in Bitcoin.

MAKING MONEY WITH BITCOIN

Let me give you an example. Bitcoin sold for less than half a $1.00 in 2010 and today a single Bitcoin is worth $14290.00 and fluctuating. By implication if you bought just $10 worth of Bitcoin in 2010 it would have metamorphosed into a six figure sum by 2017.  Impressive? Having said that, I need to add that there is no better time to invest in Bitcoin than right now, even though some billionaires are avoiding it, calling it a "bubble".  In my humble opinion they're avoiding cryto cash purely because they don't understand blockchain technology and the host of advantages it holds for future technologies.  

Bitcoin as a virtual currency, and is probably the only Crypto coin referred to most of the time by everyone when speaking about it, however, there are numerous other Cryptocurrencies available. Among them are, Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Ripple (XRP), Cardano (ADA), Veritaseum (VERI), Decred (DCR), Dash (DASH), Zcash (ZEC), etc, to name just a few. But remember, not all cryptocurrencies are born equal. Some are more popular than others, some will create more interest than others. Some will increase in value faster than others.

The reality of the matter is that a quarter of a million retailers globally will be accepting this new type of money shortly because it's doubling  its value virtually every week. Bitcoin has captivated the money markets and the demand for other digital coins are currently surging as financial institutions are raising millions of dollars in minutes. This is a rare opportunity to amass a small fortune from these emerging cryptocurrencies by investing sooner rather than later.

Blockchain Technology

Cryptocurrencies are based on Blockchain Technology and again in my humble opinion will become the  core of many future technologies. Governments will benefit from Blockchain Technology when it ties GIS systems to their land ownership and titling system. When I worked in Madagascar on a Geospacial project for land identification, I witnessed that their records / paper trail for land ownership was antiquated and inadequate.  We found at least two cases where title deeds were forged, in order to steal land from their rightful owners. A blockchain-based solution would easily have solved this problem by allowing the land chain to be traced from owner to owner upto and including its genesis. A heathcare blockchain-based solution would solve  numerous patient health record problems, if  all doctors contribute to the blockchain. A patient's entire medical records from birth to current date would be on-hand and in a single volume, accessible from anywhere in the world.

There are so many other uses for Blockchain Technology and should never be considered a bubble. Cryptocurrencies are potential replacement currencies and the popularity behind them, is the fact that they are completely decentralized, and cannot be manipulated by government and other authorities like Federal Reserve bank. Crytocurrencies are safe and allows you to buy commodities on the international markets without paying forex and other expensive banking fees in the process. Cryptocurrency payments, permits  private transactions with total anonymity, is completely irreversible  and nearly impossible to forge or counterfeit. Hence Cryptocurrencies have been growing in popularity at a blistering speed so much so that it is starting to "challenge gold" as the investment of choice.

Bitcoin Mining

There are two ways of getting onto Cryptocurrency band wagon, the first is to open an account at a brokerage that invests in Bitcoin, Etherium, Litecoin or other Crytocurrencies. This entails parting with a sizable amount of cash and trusting them to make your investment grow. The  second is to mine one or more Crytocurrencies  yourself, using a computer capable of a high hash rate , alternatively using an ASIC miner for mining Bitcoin or an ASIC miner manufactured for a specific Cryptocurrency. This entails investing your cash into some pretty expensive hardware, that's going to consume and enormous amount of electricity. ASICs are coin specific and are difficult to resell  whereas as a GPU based miner is essentially a regular gaming computer with plural graphics cards capable of mining different coin subject to the software installed.

ASIC Miner for mining Bitcoin.

CPU's have a low hash rate whereas GPU's have extremely high hash rates, so the more GPU's you install and the faster they process capability, the higher your hash rate and the faster they mine. Both ASICs and GPU's are power hungry and the trick is to balance out your initial hardware investment and your continuous electricity and internet connectivity bills against your Cryptocurrency mining earnings. The successive blog installment will cast some light on how to setup a mining rig for Bitcoin, Etherium and Litecoin, etc.

GPU Miner for mining Etherium, Litecoin Dash, Zcash etc.

CC is an abbreviation for Crytocurrencies and sometimes  KC is used for  Kriptocurrencies. Most cryptocurrencies have a three character abbreviation much like AUD - for Australian Dollar, GBP - for the Great Britain Pound, EUR - for Euro, JPY - for Japanese Yen, etc have. Like I mentioned above, there are in excess of 1324 crytocurrencies and other crytocurrencies are constantly emerging with just a few of them listed below.

BTC - Bitcoin 
LTC - Litecoin
ETN - Electroneum
XRP  - Ripple 
ETH  - Ethereum  
BCH - Bitcoin Cash
ADA - Cardano  
ZEC  - Zcash  
XMR - Monero  
EOS  - EOS 
NEO - NEO 
BTG - Bitcoin Gold
ETC  - Ethereum Classic
TRX  - TRON
XVG - Verge
IOTA - MIOTA

However the 10 crtypocurrencies to look out for during 2018 are:- 
LTC - Litecoin
XRP  - Ripple 
XMR - Monero
ETH  - Ethereum
ADA - Cardano
Iota  MIOTA 
BCH  - Bitcoin Cash
NEO - NEO
ADA - Cardano
TRON - TRX

DISCLAIMER:
NB!  The author holds and invests in crypto assets. However, the contents of this post should not be misconstrued as investment advice;  it's merely shedding much needed light on some lesser known cryptocurrencies that have the potential to grow between 10 and 100 times it's ICO.

CYBER WARFARE

CYBER WARFARE

On Friday the 13th November 2015, social network giant Facebook deleted the group page of the Cyber Hacktivists  Anonymous which was exposing a list of more than a thousand pro-ISIS social media accounts. Facebook announced that the existence of the group was a "violation of their Terms of Service and Community Standards" and subsequently banned all Anonymous administrators, without prior warning and without giving any reason. Exposing the pro-ISIS accounts was in retaliation to the bloody terror attacks in Paris that claimed the lives of more than 130 people and left over 352 injured. The hacktivist collective Anonymous has publicly declared total war against ISIS. One of their spokespersons, spoke in French, on a video posted on YouTube saying  "Anonymous from all over the world will hunt you down. Expect massive cyber attacks" whilst hiding behind their signature Guy Fawkes mask.  

The French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve also said that "war" had been declared on France and that "anybody who attacks the Republic, the Republic will fight back." "They will not destroy the Republic, it is the Republic will destroy them," he added. In retaliation French jets have been bombing  the ISIS stronghold of Raqqa, Syria since Monday the 16th November. 

Meanwhile, in response to Anonymous' statement, the militant group ISIS  released a statement, responding to Anonymous’ declaration of total war, calling them IDIOTS, and suggesting anti-hacking tips to their supporters to protect themselves against cyber attacks. The reply from ISIS to the Anonymous group was sent via one of the ISIS-affiliated official channels, dubbed “Elite Section of IS”, using the messaging app, Telegram.

An Anti-terrorism "ethical" hacker group known as Ghost Security Group (GSG), going after ISIS says that ISIS regularly use cryptocurrencies to fund its terrorist operations.  Adding that they hired a team of blockchain analysts to trace several Bitcoin addresses and found one  account containing $3 Million in US dollars worth of Bitcoins. 

Even though ISIS is called the Islamic State is has very little to do with Islam if any. ISIS is an abbreviation for Israeli Secret Intelligence Service a.k.a  Mossad (Israel's intelligence agency). ISIS is in fact a collective American-CIA-Mossad-Saudi Intel Covert Operation. Fidel Castro  slammed the  USA/Israel for creating ISIS and retired Lieutenant  General  Ian McInerny said “We have helped create ISIS”. NSA documents leaked by Edward Snowden revealed that British and American intelligence agencies and Mossad worked together to create the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).”  The leader of ISIS is known as Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi but his real name is Elliot Shimon, a Zionist Jew born from two Jewish parents, trained by Mossad in espionage and psychological warfare against Arab and Islamic societies.  He is a blackhat hack. The ISIS objective is to create unrest and chaos in the middle east -from Pakistan to the Mediteranian Sea, by deceiving the brain-dead public with the "Renegade Muslim" facade in plain sight while they steal the oil and gas.

The Iran-Iraq-Syria Pipeline and the Qatari pipeline needed access via Syria to reach the Mediterranean coastline for the oil tankers to transport it to the Americas. In order to control the the pipeline from end-to-end America declared war on Sadam Husain for weapons of mass destruction and in the process vanquished Iraq killing thousands of Iraqis, taking control and setup several US army bases. A blink of an eye later, America's war on terror attacks Afghanistan demanding that the Taliban hand over Osama bin Laden and expel al-Qaeda, vanquishing the country killing thousands of Afghans, taking control and setting up several US army bases. Then, sanctions against Iran for their used of Uranium  for electrification and its possible use for weapons of mass destruction. But  they still working on Iran. Meanwhile Syria the last piece of the puzzle goes up in flames  with barrel bombs being dropped on the masses and America declaring was on ISIS on all fronts  and bombing the Syrians into submission. All the ISIS killings are purely collateral damage  because with the pipe line is more valuable than people. With all this middle  eastern turmoil, ISIS has now grown into veritable armies with modern advanced weaponry and vehicles with thousands of foot-soldiers covering the faces so that the masses cannot identify them as Caucasians. To achieve their goal of  world domination / new world order, with America at the helm, they have unceremoniously killed tens of thousands of innocent bystanders. 

Be that as it may, France is currently in the global spotlight because as few as 130 innocent people were killed yet the entire civilized world turns a blind eye when tens of thousands of innocent Palestinians men women and  children are massacred by  Israeli settlers, gunmen and Israeli Government policies. Conservatively speaking, between 2000-2005 as many as 4,907 Palestinians were killed and as many as 8,611 wounded and between 2006 and 2015 as many as 5,500 Palestinians were killed and as many as 20 400 wounded, but spotlight, not even a candle. Shame on all of you!

CIA AND FBI HACKED

THE CIA AND THE FBI HAVE BEEN HACKED

The young Black Hat hacker crew that hacked into CIA Director John Brennan personal correspondence and that of other  government officials acquired very sensitive security information regarding top-secret Intelligence matters. This enabled them to struck again, but  now infiltrated the FBI. They identified themselves as CWA - "Crackas With Attitude" and subsequently hacked into an  even more important target, which according to them is a private law enforcement portal that granted them access to the US arrest records database and at least  a dozen more law enforcement tools. Amongst which are the  Enterprise File Transfer Service, a tool for sharing files, as well as Intelink the United States Government computer system Justice Enterprise File Sharing, and so much more.

The CIA and the FBI just got hacked

Cracka the leader of the hacker crew provided a screenshot of the arrest records database called JABS which stands for Joint Automated Booking System. This could give them carte blanche to erase criminals records of anyone who has one, for a price and even clean their own slates if they have criminal records or were previously incarcerated. This portal also grants them access to arrest  information of suspected terrorists, gang members and drug merchants.  I wouldn't be surprised if this  information end up on Tor network or Alpha Bay on the deep web for sale to the highest bidder.

JABS database query tool infiltrated by the CWA hacker crew.

However yesterday CWA posted a list of names, phone numbers, and email addresses of more than 3000 government employees, military personel and FBI agents working at various local police departments through the country into Pastebin and Cryptobin. This was done to coincide with Guy Fawkes Day and in solidarity with the "million mask march" of  hacker crew "Anonymous" from the Philippines. As an indication of their seriousness, they named this release  “Part 1” implying that there is more to follow.  Cracka, also said it is their way to hurt the government and not innocent people and that  they are doing this to help the people of Palestine and not for name and fame.

CWA has certainly opened up a can of worms by targeting both the CIA and the FBI of the United States and is sure to become public enemy number one. If they haven't been on the intelligence agencies radar before, they certainly are now.