If you still don't know what Quarkcoin (QRK) is, Jason explains it pretty well in his recent video below.

Since Bill Still talked about Quark in his recent video, it has exploded within the Bitcoin community and has received huge critism, with many dismissing it as a "scamcoin" or a "pump and dump" scheme. See the Reddit discussions below for more information.

Reddit: Are we being mislead by Quarkcoin Propaganda? 
Reddit: Pump and Dump scheme

nice to see someone else hasn't lost their fucking mind. http://t.co/IrMJjUG094 attacking #quark and the fraud it's built on. #nicejob
— BitcoinSachs (@BitcoinSachs) December 2, 2013

Apart from Quark being more secure by using 6 different hashing algorithms, I have yet to be able to find any substantial evidence that this coin is "not a scam" or "better" than most other alts out there. The conversations about Quark have exploded in Reddit over the last few days, and the most asked question is regarding the issue of 98.9% of the Quarks being already mined out.

In fact, almost everyone in the Bitcoin community has been calling Quark a scam, and saying that the heavily vested (Max Keiser & Bill Still) are overhyping a premined coin for their own profits. However, someone like Bill Still or Max Keiser pumping a "useless" coin solely for their own benefits seems like a stupid thing to do. In my opinion, there has to be a better reason as to why they really believe so!

Also, I want to emphasize that Quarks were NOT pre-mined! Instead, the 98% of Quarks that have already been mined were mined by a community of ~100 or so people, who in the case of Quark, will be the central nodes of distribution for Quarks. This then leads to the more important question, how can the Quarks held by 100 people be fairly distributed among the rest of the new adopters?

This was covered in depth in a few discussions that I found, but there is still no concrete answer to the question posed.

1. Quark Forum: Decentralization and Supply of Quark
2. Reddit Discussion: How to answer the Premining question
3. Quark Forum: Question Pre-Mining

The closest answer we have lies in Quark's design. QRK is designed in a way that only CPU mining is efficient. Quark is being mined during a short period of time, which discourages GPU or ASIC miners and keeps the coin fair since Developing ASIC miners takes considerable time and man power. Quarks are mostly mined by early miners, and have been well distributed before the value of this coin goes high like Bitcoin. So there are no ASIC miners and hence we don't have a case where a minority of privileged people mining using specialized hardware gain big profits. From this point of view, Quark is more decentralized since virtually everyone (rather than certain groups of people with special hardware) can mine it; the likelihood of monopolization is smaller.

[Source: Quark Forum: Decentralization and Supply of Quark, Quark Forum: Question Pre-Mining]

Secondly, from the official information posted on Cryptocointalk, it is interesting to note that the supply of QRK is inflationary, wtih a total of 247 million QRK will be mined in ~ 6 months, after that ~ 1 million QRK p.a. (~ 0.5% p.a inflation). This is interesting because it is a completely opposite take on Bitcoin's limited supply. And this means that the value of QRK is deflationary.

Thirdly, Quarkcoin also brings with it several technical benefits when you compare it to Bitcoin, as pointed out by user majormax (see the discussion here). Some of them are listed below:

1. Secure and different Hashing algorithm. 9 rounds of hashing from 6 hashing functions, rather than a single Hash function, which most coins use. Although the single hash function is considered sufficient at present, the multiple hash gives a further layer of security against future unknowns.
2. Rapid block generation times. The block generation time for QRK is 30 seconds against 10 minutes for BTC.
3. A rapid decrease in the Mining Subsidy. This increases scarcity at a greater rate: the newly mined coins available for sale do not affect market price as much as other alternative currencies.

I have also compiled some Quarkcoin related news, which I recommed you watch/read before investing in Quark.

1. http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1rvcpd/bill_still_to_talk_about_cryptos_on_the_max/
2. http://dailysilverupdate.com/blog/2013/12/max-keiser-bill-still-on-bitcoin-litecoin-quarkcoin-prices/
3. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7daKwO3cgiU
4. http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1rwfni/shame_on_you_bill_still_you_hate_on_bitcoin_for_2/
5. http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1rr4eg/keiser_promoting_another_scamcoin_pump_and_dump/
6. http://www.reddit.com/r/QuarkCoin/comments/1rxcs4/stop_pulling_out_of_quark_there_is_nothing_to/

After doing this preliminary research, I still have no clue as to whether or not Quark will be here to stay. On the other hand, Quarks will soon experience the Keiser Effect, and I'm not going to miss this boat. I will continue to research into Quark, and buy more (as the price decreases, just my prediction) until it rises after the 19th of December, when Keiser Report airs. Don't forget to vote on my Quark poll on the right column! Also, please tell me what you think in the comments section. Whether not you agree or disagree with me, I just want to know what you think, so shoot me!

Another coin to watch is Zetacoin, which also has an infinitely inflationary supply. Read up more about Zetacoin by clicking here. Also, watch out for Bitcoinsachs' upcoming blog post or follow his Twitter account @BitcoinSachs. Might cover that over the weekend. Stay tuned!

Since I mentioned a resistance/support of $50/$25 for LTC in my post from 2 days ago, LTC prices have found it's support at $23.51, and has risen over the last 4 hours to it's current BTC-e price of about $32. Hold on tight to your Litecoins because I think prices are going to continue going up and break the $50 resistance by Friday, probably earlier. I wasn't thinking of writing a post today, and I still owe you a post about Panic selling/buying & Bull/Bear traps, but I found some interesting topics to write about that will interest you altcoin and crypto junkies.

What really triggered this blog post was a tweet I saw by Keiser, featuring Quarkcoin (QRK) alongside Bitcoin and Litecoin as the cryptocurrenies of choice. I first saw the word Quarkcoin when it broke into the top 10 market cap with over 300% increase in market capaitalization value overnight.


I overlooked it even after seeing it rise from 6th to 5th, until I saw what Keiser tweeted:

If Jesus were born today, the 3 wise men would bring him BTC, LTC and Quark.
— Max Keiser (@maxkeiser) November 30, 2013

If Keiser said it, it has to be worth something. With his reach and influence within the Bitcoin community, we could see a huge jump in Quark prices soon, even if it doesn't have much value. From my research so far, I found out that Quark uses nine rounds of secure hashing from six different algorithms to make Quark transactions super secure. Many programmers have been worried about whether or not the Bitcoin protocol is hackable, but Quark has just made it even closer to impossible by using a mix of algorithms. On the other hand, what intrigues me is that 98.9% of the Quarks have already been mined (see the Reddit discussion here), which makes me wonder how this is a good thing. If you know how this is beneficial to the community, please drop a comment down below! Greatly appreciated!

Apparently the prices surged after a video of Bill Still, a legendary Economics cult figure went viral among the Bitcoin community. What's notable is that Bill will be appearing on a Keiser Report interview, which airs on the 19th of December, so keep your eyes peeled.

http://t.co/3hKy9t93DS WILL INTRODUCE QRK IN THE COMING DAYS!! CHINA IS COMING!!
— Mega Coin Pumper (@MegaCoinPumper) December 1, 2013

During my research into Quark, I found out about Zetacoin (ZET). The prices of Zetacoin have increased 550% against the bitcoin, with ZET/BTC prices skyrocketing from 0.0065 at the beginning of 30th November to a peak of 0.055 and is currently hovering around 0.036 at the time of posting (Source: Cryptocoincharts.com). Looking into Zetacoin, I found that it actually has an inflationary characteristic. There are a total of 160 million Zetacoins, and upon the depletion of this initial supply, 1 million additional Zetacoins will be added to the supply every year. This is quite a different take from the limited supply of all other cryptocurrencies, and could be an interesting tweak that can potentially solve some of Bitcoin's existing limitations.

I'm still not entirely sure about the benefit and utility of Zetacoin, but I'm going to jump on the bandwagon and bet on the hype of the Zetacoin, while I do more research over the next few days.

Buy #zetacoins. A million of something doesn't take much increase to make a small fortune. #zetacoin up 80% today
— BitcoinSachs (@BitcoinSachs) November 29, 2013

Everything is a buy right now. $0.05 zetacoin is a great price. $0.25 on Monday
— BitcoinSachs (@BitcoinSachs) December 1, 2013

If you don't own at least 100k zetacoins you're going to spend a life time regretting that
— BitcoinSachs (@BitcoinSachs) December 1, 2013

To buy either of these 2 cryptocurrencies, along with almost any other alt coin out there, set up an account at Cryptsy.com to get started! I only started my account today, and I've had a pretty decent experience so far. Still some problems with the site such as:

1. Deposits take way longer than they should. Bitcoin deposits take about 45mins to 2 hours.
2. Cancellation of open orders will result in your funds being "stuck" in limbo for up to an hour.
3. It took 45 mins for my account verification email to arrive. 
4. Interface is less responsive (laggier) than I would prefer.

I think its just a problem with them being unable to handle the surge in traffic over the last 5 days, and I hope that fix it soon. But apart from these problems, looks really good, and I'm definitely using this over BTC-e from now on.

I hope this post was useful for you. These are my own views and thoughts, which like the Bitcoin market, is largely driven by speculation. Follow my recommendations at your own risk. With that said, to all of you guys holding Quarks and Zetacoins, I'll see you on the moon and give lets China's Chang'e-3 a surprise! ;)


http://bitbash.blogspot.sg/2013/11/quarkcoin.html
http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1rmuf8/quark_coin_is_up_450_since_yesterday_got_any/
http://www.reddit.com/r/QuarkCoin/comments/1rrrqe/welcome_to_quarkcoin_as_btce_would_put_it_to_the/

Source: Bill Still on Quark

And lastly, we could see Quark on a Chinese exchange over the next few days. If this is true, you better get your Quarks as soon as you can!

As I have mentioned in my previous post, I believe that Cryptocurrencies are here to stay, and that Litecoins are a good buy right now. Before I explain why so, lets go through a little introduction on cryptocurrencies. Since Bitcoin's rise to fame, a myriad of alternative cryptocurrencies (altcoins) have come into existence.

There are over 30 altcoins available on Coinmarketcap.com, but most have meagre market capitalization as compared to Bitcoin. Litecoin is currently leading the altcoin market and is the coin to watch, as I will explain.

One of Litecoin’s most significant claimed improvements over Bitcoin is that it allows transactions to be confirmed as legitimate much more quickly, says Charles Lee, who designed the currency, which is now maintained by him and a small group of other enthusiasts. It is also notable that Charles is currently working in Coinbase, which could mean that Coinbase may announce Litecoin integration anytime soon. In fact, Coblee (aka Charles Lee), posted on trollbox that Litecoin support will be available on several exchanges next week (see the post here).

Litecoin prices have been steadily declining since it boomed alongside Bitcoin earlier this year, and many people do think it will continue on this downtrend to its oblivion. However, it is interesting to note the similarity of Litecoin chart compared to Bitcoin chart right before it started climbing up to it's current level. See the comparison in this video below.

So what determines whether or not Litecoin prices will increase?

I believe that this is largely dependent on the availablility of services built ontop of Litecoin. As long as there remains no significant usage of Litecoins, it's price will continue to decline, possibly to the level of other altcoins. Hence, an example of good news for Litecoin would be trading platforms such as BTC China, or online wallets such as Coinbase integrating Litecoin into their systems.

In this recent Youtube video, the team at 'Let's Talk Bitcoin' discussed Litecoin and its potential which I highly recommend watching.

They mention two main problems faced by Litecoin, namely an infrastucture problem, and an adoption issue. In terms of infrastructure, the number of resources available to trade Litecoin as compared to Bitcoin is currently very minimal. Hence, Litecoin prices have been sliding (or stagnating) since its boom in April 2013. On top of that, adoption of Litecoin by major trading platforms has been non-existential. Even though trading platforms like MtGox have announced Litecoin integration back in May, it still has yet to do so. Until Litecoin sees an enhanced utilization and utility, we will unlikely see Litecoin prices grow. However, my guess is that once large trading platforms or wallets start to accept Litecoin, we may see a great boost in Litecoin prices.

Lastly, they also discuss how the future of cryptocurrency lies in the ability of the payment infrastructure to be cryptocurrency agnostic, that is, that one infrastructure will be allowed to accept different kinds of coins. Much like a packaged solution where vendors can integrate and accept every altcoin. This will allow markets to exist on its merits instead of its perceived value.

This is also in line with much of the discussion I have found on Bitcointalk, such as this one titled "Why the loss of confidence in Litecoin". Some of the comments by users are highlighted here:

Furthermore, this Quora discussion titled "Do other crypto-currencies have a chance or is Bitcoin too far ahead?" generated more than a few interesting comments, as shown below:

Ben Mordecai, Bitcoin Hopeful (See the full comment here: http://qr.ae/NmnvS)

Ben Solmar (See the full comment here: http://qr.ae/Nmnsv)

Lastly, I'd like to end off this post with a more controversial video, linking FIAT currency and a decreasing trust in Governments and Banking corporations, to the rise of Cryptocurrencies.

Cheers & have a great week trading. All the best, and stay tuned!