Topic: Reggie Middleton uses car analogy to explain that Bitcoin is not a bubble (Read 7318 times)

I have downloaded the ultracoin client and it looks pretty impressive. But my question is: are the trades protected from bitcoin price fluctuations? For example I short apple for 1 bitcoin ($350).At the expiration Apple has lost 15% so I get back 1.15 bitcoins? But if bitcoin price lost 20% in the meantime I only get back the equivalent of $322 making this trade a net loss in terms of usd?

you paid a million dollars for your car, now its worth a fraction of that.   now you are stuck with a car you dont want and want to get rid of but you cant.

Reggie, the name you chose has some blowback involved with it.  The first problem is, it's already taken.  The second problem is, I've been involved with coins such as Vertcoin and Ron Paul Coin myself, along with having been a relatively decent sized miner for a while.  The launch of the original Ultracoin in the above link was considered to be one of the biggest scams/money grabs in altcoins.  I'm not sure if you want that past reputation haunting the coin by choosing the same name.

You might get by unscathed since 99.9% of people on the planet have never heard of the original Ultracoin, but that coin still seems to be around and didn't die for some reason.

Thanks!

Still didn't get around to take a look.

Is there a writeup by now as to how ultracoin functions? I have many questions, like: how is ticker data injected? Is there really an ultracoin (is it mined at all) or how is settlement achieved?

The UltraCoin value trading wallet is ready to go. Just download it here and you can see it work for yourself. Over 75,000 tickers available for trading. http://ultra-coin.com/index.php/download-beta

I'm not sure how it's done in ultracoin, but I'm guessing settlement and such is purely in crypto? Otherwise it'd not be 0-trust as advertised.

Maybe we can hook-in the Bitcoin blockchain so we can settle in something "established" (sorry, didn't take a look at ultracoin)

I've been familiar with BoomBustBlog for a number of years.   Reggie has a solid reputation with the mainstream markets - great analyst and communicator!
Glad to see he appreciates the BTC vision - notice he's not so excited about the price of the coins, but very excited about the protocol. 

Reggie has a big fin market following but doesn't get much of a mention on here, a few of his threads have sunk. Don't know if the btc crowd are unfamiliar with his reputation and suspicious of newbie accounts or are overall not into his product, but I think an investor like Reggie is a big asset to the btc space.

Can't believe this is the first time I've seen this video.  Thanks for posting!  Excellent analogy with the car, roads that go anywhere low fuel costs and not having tolls.  Genius explanation, it's one of the best I've heard to date.

This is f'ng fantastic!

Reggie, way to go, man - the markets are so ready for this next step.

Only now I learn that The Reggie Middleton has joined this board. You are definitely on top of all major techno waves out there.

I admit I haven't tried Ultracoin yet but the question I keep asking myself is how real world assets are tied to the concept of Ultracoin. It's easy to exchange one electronic asset (e.g. a Litecoin) for some other electronic assets (e.g. Mooncoins). Lock the assets up and exchange. No trust needed, its all decentralised.

Now enter a USD / EUR swap. I cannot throw 100 dollars into Ultracoin through my CDROM tray. Even electronic dollars cannot be tied to Ultacoin just like that. The same goes for the Euro part of the swap transaction.

Will Ultracoin just tie these 2 promises together: promises to pay fiat?

Obviously, Ultracoin will not lock in the fiat dollars and euros. Can't be done with centralised systems for fiat currency. Presumably there is and will not be  a 'central' point of trust being Reggie's wife's USD and EUR bank accounts to accommodate this swap.

So what remains: locking in the equivalent of USD and EUR in Bitcoins? Then, parties are just exchanging Bitcoins. And how to deal with Bitcoin variations in price in USD vs EUR
EUR) ?

really looks great so far. nice video. congrats!

Do you realize the name UltraCoin is already in use?

https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/ultracoin-est-feb-2014-asic-resistant-ultrafast-6-second-transactions-727023

The UltraCoin (pure bitcoin) smart contracts wallet is avialable for download now - http://ultra-coin.com/index.php/download-now

+1 it can be a pain having to sift through the threads looking for something deeper than Moon / $0.

I put up a thread to try and provide links to the classic threads over the years because I'd love to have them all in one place rather than trawling. And I enjoy reading the opinions of the early investors.

Didn't get much input, but here is the thread https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.5174362

Interesting ideas.
All it takes is looking beyond a few buzz words and pre-conceived notions. Reggie can do it. Why is this so hard for people?  Perhaps it is the loss of brain plasticity after youth. Or just that some have built a world on the old financial system and feel threatened by the massive changes happening now.

This could have a lot of potential depending on how well it is implemented. Refreshing to see a worthwhile thread amongst all the rubbish strewn around the speculation forum

I am platform agnostic, but Bitcoin has the network effect thingy going for it as of now. I will use whatever platform/coin/blockchain that accomplishes my or my client's goals.

Are these contracts going to be represented by bitcoins on the satoshi level?

How will their relationship to derivatives be tracked? (in the text field or other added layer or will there need to be a clearing house that keeps track and thus primed for attack/abuse)

I am guessing Reggie is working on developing another layer onto the protocol that is like the text field but wonder these instruments need to be on the satoshi level so they do not get divided up or will it be so advanced that you could have a contract split up and then rejoined on this new protocol level...

Hi Reggie,

Have you heard about Bitshares? Do you plan to make Ultracoin only on top of Bitcoin or also on top of other blockchains?

I am asking that because it seems to me that with Bitshares there will be a lot more possibilities to do cool stuff with financial products than with Bitcoin.

You're not attacking at all. Actually, you're quite polite and professional. Don't be afraid to ask me questions. I know how to answer them (I do it for a living) and I'm honest and above board hence have nothing to lie about.  


And this question answers your other question as to how I differentiate myself from the competitors. It is my belief that the vast majority of development in the xxx.coin space will be on the financial engineering side, and NOT on the software programming side. If I'm correct (and of course, that's an "if") then that puts me at a distinct advantage as compared to practically everybody else on the scene, doesn't it? It also explains why I have to move quickly because when my real competition arrives (Goldman, JPM, et. al.) then things get much harder. Luckily, a decentralized network is anathema to these guys because it's hard to pack ridiculously outsized profit margin in opaque pricing schemes that way, but it can be done. All you need is enough suckers to buy into it, and trust me... There are no dearth of suckers. You can usually identify them as those who know everything :-)

I'm a for profit operation (well, I would like to be, at least) thus I do not give out trade secrets. But I do make ample use of open source tools and believe in giving back. Let it be known that there's a lot of fat to be cut out of the current system and still be able to profit handsomely. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJpBQ0wCF0g&list=PL36ikfnnWcAHOt_cwahKMqPfW1wMtqf30

{quote]What do you mean by you having an "app up and running"? I may have missed something, but I can't find it. Where can I use/see it?{/quote]
The swap client has been operable for weeks now. I'm trying to push out beta 3 which "should be" (fingers crossed) mostly debugged and then I can move on to security hardening, prettying up the interface, etc.  I've decided not to open up the beta to the public yet because:
a) I want less bugs and usability issues and..
b) some members of the community are not conducive to getting this venture off the ground and will unduly badmouth it simply because it has issues that any bleeding financial/tech venture would have, thus creating unnecessary bad will early on, and...
c) I don't want to launch the app until it is ready to actually be used for profitable trading (this is very soon, hopefully within the week or so).

you have, thanks for clearing up misconceptions.

However it seems it generated more question marks on my side...


How do these work technically? You say it's not a coin but runs on the bitcoin blockchain. The blockchain can act on bitcoins, nothing else. How is tying contracts to the real world of USD/real estate/whatever solved?


I draw my hat.


What do you mean by you having an "app up and running"? I may have missed something, but I can't find it. Where can I use/see it?

Please don't get me wrong. I might come across as opposing your idea or downplaying the status of your implementaiton in some way. That's not my intention. I just want to get a clearer picture.

Thanks for your patience.

You have a few misconceptions here. This is not a betting network, this is a set of (continuously growing) derivative applications.

This is not an alt.coin, this is a set of smart contract applications/wallet that rest on top of the Bitcoin protocol. I have yet to be convinced that I have to reinvent the wheel, re: bitcoin when the wheel has yet to be driven anywhere yet.

I'm self educated - on bitcoin as I am in finance, investment and technology in general. All three topics have plethora of info available, no?

I hired programmers to whip up the java prototype (their identity is not necessary). I'm funding this entire campaign out of my pocket and have had many media appearances RT/CNBC/Fortune magazine etc. since started and (at least to my knowledge) I'm the only one to have a fully functional contracts based derivative product and p2p trading app up and running.

Thus far I have not true competition. Practically everybody else that you've named (sans goldman sachs, of course) are basically programmers who are developing platforms while I'm an investor and financial engineer developing complete end to end solutions for end users, primarily institutional, corporate and HNW end users.

My current solutions on tap (some already developed, others WIP) include:
- bail-in/bail-out solutions for sovereigns, banks and bank depositors
- interest rate arbitrage
- hard money
- capital transference/flight/protection schemes
-import/export solutions
-commercial and income producing real estate through the blockchain
- and virtual swaps (already developed and currently beta testing).

If you go through all of the competitors that you mentioned, they are primarily building platforms that may or may not allow these things. I bring a much richer, much deeper financial expertise to the the table. Something which I believe is not to be found in abundance in the developer community that we have here. I also have a tame ego that allows me to clearly see my limitations and know when I need to ask for help, which brings me to the need to get programmers who are very well versed in the protocol and contracts.
The goal is to take my financial expertise and creativity (which some consider among the best in the world) and translate it into high end coded contracts through crypto. My swaps app is proof of concept and I plan on pushing it through to finished product in two months. I will open the beta testing of the product (some of us have been live trading on it for weeks) a little more next week.

I hope I have addressed all of your questions.

For those who don't know me, here are some recent calls and my Wikipedia page:
http://www.boombustblog.com/reggie-in-the-news
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reggie_Middleton

So: contrarian badass who likes to step on toes makes trustless p2p betting network using bitcoin as collateral to intermediate banking (gambling?) industry?

I like it!

Still need more detail before I invest capital (monetary or human), for example:

• What type of consensus protocol will be used in UltraCoin? Proof of Work? Federated?
• Who are the people that educated you on bitcoin and/or whipped up that java prototype?
• How are you planning to stand out from competition (Mastercoin, Protoshares, XCP, ethereum (goldman sachs?))
• Why do you need to collect capital vs. just selling your watch for $113,000?

Yes, I do: Some people will not only move to gold when trust is lost in the system, they will also move into Bitcoin, because like gold, Bitcoin is not really part of the system and is therefore a hedge against systemic risk.

How is MM wrong? Because of the current setback in gold? Its moving up again. There is a chance of a 1929 style crash of the DOW next week or in two:
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/scary-1929-market-chart-gains-traction-2014-02-11
This thing is spreading and even if the correlation is purely random, it has the quality of a self fulfilling prophecy. In particular since all the other things that made 1929 happen are in place today.

Where do you think Gold (and Bitcoin) goes if the Dow is at under 10000 at the end of the month? It may well be that MM's predictions turn out to be conservative.

Thank you. They're moving along quite rapidly, although expensively as well. I have coders, but I'm in search of additional talent, particularly Java experts and those who are capable of scripting complex contracts. Since practically all of this stuff is essentially an ongoing R&D run with no real precedence to fall back on its hard to find good help in abundance.

I excluded specifics for a reason. My business model is quite different from practically everybody else on this forum (bitcoin, that is) as is my target audience. While most are creating alt.coins with the hope of cashing in on the cap appreciation of the pre-mined stash, I'm attempting to recreate the Wall Street bank off the block chain, sans conflicts of interest, trust issues and excessive compensation models that drive $30 million bonuses to guys a couple of years out of school.
With that being the case, I am making a lot of competitors who are quite well funded, ripe with intellectual capital, extremely aggressive and have the ear of our legislature through lobbying. Tipping my hand prematurely would be a bad business move.

Alas, the gauntlet has been thrown down and it is now time to dance. See the attack on bitcoin by JP Morgan (the bank that singularly has the most to lose) and my pointed rebuttal...

Theres' Something Fishy In The House Of Morgan, Pt. 2: Bitcoin Fear, Envy & Loathing

I'm looking for entrepreneurial (as in willing to take some risk) programmers who are very proficient in 1)Bitcoin protocol 2) willing to learn contracts inside and out 3)Java, Android and to a lesser extant, LAMP

If you or anybody you know fits the bill, let's chat!
I'm also looking for beta testers of the UltraCoin client. It's in its 2nd stage of beta but I don't want to release it to the public just yet. Of course, if anybody wants to contribute to the cause or get some actual coins, financial consulting, etc. through crowdfunding, see http://ultra-coin.com/index.php/fund/discover/21-software-developement/1-ultracoin-the-future-of-money

Jup, that surely builds confidence. Now we know it really is you .

[quote
This is the type of financial acumen that I'm bringing to Bitcoin derivatives, see http://ultra-coin.com/index.php/fund/discover/21-software-developement/1-ultracoin-the-future-of-money. I've been lurking in the shadows of these bitcoin forums for a while and I've been meaning to correct you and your friend, but never got around to it until now.

For those who don't know me, here are some recent calls and my Wikipedia page:
http://www.boombustblog.com/reggie-in-the-news
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reggie_Middleton
[/quote]


Sooo....

(assuming that's actually Reggie Middleton posting)

... mind if someone edits your Wiki bio, to add your involvement with cryptos?


[/quote]
I have re-registered under my real name to keep it real. Feel free to modify the Wiki as long as you are accurate and honest. I don't know if you guys read the Fortune magazine article from a few weeks ago, but it was one of the best in the mainstream media. Check it out... http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2014/01/21/bitcoin-platform/

Sooo....

(assuming that's actually Reggie Middleton posting)

... mind if someone edits your Wiki bio, to add your involvement with cryptos?

Hey Reggie,

Welcome to the Bitcoin forums... Truly a world of it's own.

How are your Bitcoin-related entrepreneurial endeavours progressing?

You might be on to something, but your descriptions lack the depth and detail necessary to evaluate that accurately.

Do you have coders? Who is helping you?

That's not true. I've been saying Apple would face margin compression for years (which it did and I was 100% correct), I called to short Apple twice - the first time for a small profit (a little early) and the second time with full confidence the week the iPhone 5 launched in 2012, which was also the week of Apple's all-time high of about $700. Contrarian, accurate and to the contrary of your assertions. You have spread false information. Here are some facts to back up the statements:

http://www.boombustblog.com/blog/item/6222-deconstructing-the-most-accurate-apple-analysis-ever-made-share-price-market-share-strategy-and-all

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-JQt9Jpw7w

This is the type of financial acumen that I'm bringing to Bitcoin derivatives, see http://ultra-coin.com/index.php/fund/discover/21-software-developement/1-ultracoin-the-future-of-money. I've been lurking in the shadows of these bitcoin forums for a while and I've been meaning to correct you and your friend, but never got around to it until now.

For those who don't know me, here are some recent calls and my Wikipedia page:
http://www.boombustblog.com/reggie-in-the-news
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reggie_Middleton

This is precisely what always gets overlooked with things or people like this.

Edward50 correctly called the crash, but called it too early and missed out on a 1000% rise. But still, he did call it.

All hail Sage Edward50!

man, this dude really is serious:

Reggie Middleton builds Zero Trust Digital Currency Contracts on Blockchain

he was saying that for years though...  before a lot of the run up of apple

Isn't he an athlete?

This guy is absolute spot on.

The internet changed the world and the way in which we communicate, now upon that Bitcoin will change the way in which we trade value with each other.

Crypto currency is the future.

*snicker*

I forgot goog bought ripple.. recalculating...

Thanks for posting OP... agree!

Well, he could've also mentioned that it travels ~10 times faster. That would've been appealing.

He says it so eloquently and definitely has given me ammo for explaining it to some of my dumber friends.

So was Mike Maloney.

He was also right on Gold n Silver....

....until one day he wasn't.

yeah, fuck lamborghinis, I want the bitcoin car that comes with it's own toll-free roads to everywhere in the world.

Reggie was also correct on the housing bubble.

interesting car analogy.

Reggie Middleton uses car analogy to explain that Bitcoin is not a bubble:




Bitcoin for Dummies: Why Bitcoin Is Not A Bubble


I think it's genius.