How to know if the GUI wallet is synced : Monero

I remember waiting two days for the GUI wallet to sync a couple months back and it seemed stuck, so I gave up on it. I just started it up now and it’s not telling me it’s syncing… so does that mean it’s synced? It does say “Network status Connected”.

I’m guessing the daemon must have been running in the background and when I thought it was stuck, it was just really slow.

Anyhow, is there some definitive way for me to tell if its synced or not?

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5 Blockchain Challengers Addressing Mammoth Markets

Instead of chasing the hype, savvy cryptocurrency investors choose to do their own due diligence. Finding a solid investment is often easier when one tunes out the media, which is simply a collection of channels that trumpet projects with larger advertising budgets, and not those with the most potential.

Blockchain startups that spend more effort gathering ICO contributors than pushing their team to meet roadmap goals aren’t always the best investments, so it’s worthwhile to take a different perspective. To find the cream of the crop, ignore the buzz and look towards the world’s biggest, most lucrative industries instead.

Sectors like oil and gas, retail, and pharmaceuticals are ripe for disruption. Blockchain solutions that are likely to claim a large slice of these markets are an opportunity for early investors, but they frequently fly under the radar. With no shortage of investment capital (sometimes from existing industry players), working minimum viable products, and a focus on research and development rather than notoriety, it’s hard for those who only browse ICO aggregators to get informed. The globe’s most significant industries are listed below, along with the relevant blockchain solutions already making leaving their mark.

It goes without saying that all humans share a common need for sustenance. The food industry is one of the world’s largest, and involves growing, harvesting, shipping, preparing, and selling staples to people everywhere. Whether in the grocery store, one’s favorite local restaurant or a simple café kiosk, all food must come from somewhere. The increasing globalization of food means that the origins of any single meal are less predictable, and so blockchain company Ripe.io is making it easier to achieve greater culinary transparency. By empowering everyone on the supply chain from farm to table with a comprehensive IoT-driven platform, Ripe.io uses the decentralized ledger to give quality-conscious eaters the ability to know exactly where their meal is sourced, what’s in it, and what happened to it along the way.

• Automotive: Oaken Innovations

The Internet of Things is a pertinent tool for the future of the automotive industry, which by all indications is heading towards increased autonomy. Connecting a car to wireless internet is useful for many reasons, including better navigation, recognition of traffic patterns, pushing software updates and even paying tolls. Oaken Innovations has taken the latter idea and run with it, collaborating with some impressive partners like Toyota and MIT. By installing Ethereum nodes called Acorns into vehicles and the machines in their periphery, autonomous cars are seamlessly integrated into the ledger. Their first success was a Tesla that pays tolls on its own, and the company is busily developing other smart functionality for the future of transportation as well.

One of the oldest and most important markets, due largely to our dependence on what they produce, oil and gas has long proved resistant to change. Services that seek to disrupt or threaten this sector are hard-pressed to succeed, so a better strategy is to create solutions that benefit all stakeholders rather than displace them. Ondiflo recognized blockchain as the best method for increasing efficiency in this area and seeks to digitize and sync operations between entities up and down the supply chain. It’s connected ledger keeps precise track of oil and gas meters, providing transparent, accurate measuring and cash-to-order systems. Such a system will be crucial for basic operations like field ticketing, which informs those further down the chain how much oil was extracted from the field. By losing the paper systems for such processes, Ondiflo helps the industry to streamline itself, reduce overheads, and profit accordingly.

The retail space encompasses an astounding variety of businesses. When buying products online or in the store, most people still use physical fiat money like dollars or euros, and bitcoin was the first real blockchain product to offer an alternative. However, the idea of ‘digital cash’ is already played out, so it’s up innovative creative companies to offer cryptocurrencies with the same functionality—but also more purposeful utility. An excellent example is found in HoToKeN, a cryptocurrency platform that encourages healthier relationships between retailers and their customers. By paying customers in HTKN for custom missions—like answering a questionnaire, posting an image on social media, or writing a review—users are incentivized with in-store redeemable currency for the value they generate. Participating merchants also reap the rewards from better promotional opportunities and the ability to collect more granular data.  The value proposition is more beneficial and sustainable than options like Groupon or Shopee and is already being resoundingly embraced in Asia.

Like with oil and food, full transparency is crucial, and only truly attainable with blockchain. Fake pharmaceutical products like pills and cough syrups are dangerous, and unfortunately rampant in certain parts of the world. Third-party suppliers might seek to cut costs by reducing the potency of their drugs, or even putting placebos in their place. Additionally, licensing and distribution of drugs is difficult to standardize between labs, manufacturers, distributors and doctors. Recently, logistics innovator Viant partnered with GlaxoSmithKline to introduce pharma to the ledger which can immutably track the movement and quality control enforcement of drugs better than any alternative. Partly to comply with laws like the Drug Supply Chain Security Act, Viant is already making inroads with the US government and may succeed in helping them mandate blockchain as a necessary component for the entire industry.

Follow the Money

Instead of listening to the latest YouTube video on the hottest upcoming ICOs, study the areas where blockchain can make the biggest difference. In sectors through which trillions of dollars flow annually, identify those blockchain solutions likely to claim even one percent of the market. A few well-placed investments in one’s cryptocurrency portfolio will give it a greater upward trajectory and help turn participants into true stakeholders of the future.

 

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John Lee Dumas and building a 6 figures business

Summary

John Lee Dumas is the Host of eofire.com. He helps people break through and start their entrepreneurial journey. John has a top rated podcast with more than 1 millions downloads and generate more than 250 000$ a month in revenue. We talk about what it takes to be successful and is daily routine.

Items mention during the show

The Freedom Journal

FreePodcastCourse.com

Daily routine eofire.com/daily

In this episode you will learn:

• How to build a tribe of people that want to listen to you
• How to start a podcast from zero to hero.
• how to engage one on one with your tribe
• How John Lee Dumas schedule is day

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source http://bitcoinswiz.com/john-lee-dumas-and-building-a-6-figures-business/

Bitcoin Price ‘More Likely To Hit $100’ Without Illici… | News

A Harvard economist told CNBC Tuesday, March 6 that Bitcoin is “more likely to be worth $100 than $100,000” by 2028. Speaking to reporters during an edition of the network’s Squawk Box segment, professor and economist Kenneth Rogoff implied Bitcoin only had value because of its use in “money laundering and tax evasion.”

“I would see $100 as being a lot more likely than $100,000 ten years from now,” he said, continuing:

“Basically, if you take away the possibility of money laundering and tax evasion, [Bitcoin’s] actual uses as a transaction vehicle are very small.”

Rogoff joins a diminishing number of traditional finance figures still maintaining a firm anti-Bitcoin stance. Despite high-profile naysayers such as JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon U-turning on their negative opinions in recent months, others remain highly skeptical.

Last month, Berkshire Hathaway vice president Charlie Munger adopted a particularly harsh tone, telling the audience during an AGM speech that Bitcoin was “totally asinine” and that people investing in it “disgusted” him.

Despite mixed perspectives on price performance, the implication of Bitcoin in organized crime has come under more serious doubt this year. Despite Europol this month suggesting as much as $5.5 bln per year is laundered via cryptocurrency, Bitcoin in particular has lost favor with perpetrators, who allegedly prefer other more anonymous assets such as Monero.

Rogoff meanwhile appears alone in suggesting regulation will force the price of Bitcoin down, not up, while many industry commentators welcome regulatory moves as a step towards mainstream acceptance and adoption.

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How and Where To Buy Cryptocurrency? Overview | News

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

Despite the recent news about banks closing their doors on credit card purchases of crypto; one after the other, there are still available options you can use to buy crypto. Let’s see what they are.

The easiest way is to buy cryptocurrency with a debit card on a centralized exchange.

It really is as easy as buying clothes on Amazon. Coinbase, for example, is a popular interface to buy crypto with fiat (fiat = paper currency like dollars or euro).

On Coinbase, users need to create an account and verify identity. After that, they can buy with their debit card.

Rules for verifying identity differ for each exchange/country; generally, users need to at least provide an ID/Passport and enable 2-factor authentication.

Coinbase also has a sister company named GDAX – this type of platform gives users a better idea of how crypto exchanges really work. It features an intuitive interface with many charting tools, trade history, and real-time order books. These are all tools that traders use to make sure that they are getting the most out of their trade. This exchange follows US regulations, bringing it to compliance in USA, Canada, Europe, the UK, Australia, and Singapore.

Image: Buybitcoinworldwide

Bitfinex is another very popular exchange that has been around as early as 2012. Its website boasts being the “most advanced cryptocurrency trading platform” in the world, with many advanced charting tools to equip while trading. The website even has an app that is available for both Android and the iPhone. The core of the exchange is made up of three features: Exchange trading, Margin trading, and Margin funding. The P2P financing market integrated into Bitfinex matches borrowers with lenders to bring the advanced tools of margin trading. A beginner’s guide is offered in their support section so that even a first timer can buy on the site.

The Bitfinex exchange app on iPhone

While there are many more places to buy cryptocurrency with fiat, Robinhood is unique in its zero-fee approach and their goals to be an even easier platform to buy cryptocurrency. This exchange/trading app hybrid lets users buy Bitcoin and Ethereum right from their phone with no trading fee. Compare this to Coinbase’s 1.49%-3.99% fees added to every purchase.

Just after the announcement of launching a crypto trading platform, the millennial stock trading app received over 1 million users on their waitlist to try in just five days.

While this app platform is not fully released yet, Robinhood has allowed some users from a few states to begin trading on the app.

We’re gradually sending invites to customers residing in CA, MA, MO, MT, NH. We look forward to releasing crypto trading functionality in more states later. In the meantime, you can monitor market data for 16 cryptocurrencies & add them to your watchlist. https://t.co/28TamoX4rO

— Robinhood (@RobinhoodApp) February 23, 2018

Not all cryptocurrencies can be bought with fiat

As of now, it’s mostly Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Litecoin and Ripple that have fiat/crypto pairs. To obtain the ~1,546 cryptocurrencies, commonly referred to as “altcoins”, that are listed right now on Coinmarketcap, users need to trade BTC or ETH. Every altcoin has a BTC/crypto pair, and most have ETH pairs as well.

Coinbase offers Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and Bitcoin Cash that users can buy with fiat debit cards. To get involved with other altcoins, users will need to send their BTC, ETH, LTC or BCH over to an exchange that has all of these pairs. The two most popular fluctuate between Binance and OKex, both of which are well trusted global exchange networks.

How to buy with Cash – P2P

Buying Bitcoin with cash can be as simple as giving money to your friend in exchange for BTC. For those who don’t know anyone with BTC (or anyone that wants to sell), there are decentralized, p2p sites to meet with people. LocalBitcoins works worldwide as an advertising community board for users to agree on a price beforehand, and then meet in person to trade. It might take a lot of time to process the exchange process, and it might not seem trustworthy enough, as it involves strangers, but it is still popular and has great reviews from users. It is technically a decentralized platform because it involves p2p trading. No middlemen are used to mediate the deal – which means no fees are paid at all.

How to Simply buy Bitcoin (no exchanges involved)

Bitcoin ATM – Bitcoin ATMs are becoming very popular- March tolls about 2,393 Bitcoin ATM machines worldwide, with a steady trend upwards. With these machines, the user shows up to a physical location and either a) buys Bitcoin using fiat currency and has it sent to a Bitcoin wallet or b) sells Bitcoin from the atm to withdraw fiat money. These devices are extremely convenient and allow traders to not have to deal at all with the “trading” part of crypto.

Image: Finance Magnates

Buy.Cointelegraph – Cointelegraph has recently partnered up with Simplex to offer a convenient way to buy Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, and/or Ethereum. Simplex accepts most credit cards (including Visa and Mastercard) and also accepts some debit and prepaid cards.

buy.cointelegraph.com

Coming Soon: Decentralized Exchanges

While not very popular yet, mostly because the technology is still being worked on, decentralized exchanges (DEXs) are set to become more popular in 2018. DEXs use a trustless AI system to connect traders online. In a centralized exchange, the money goes from the user’s wallet to an escrow, and then to the other user in the trade. Funds stored on centralized exchanges are stored in wallets owned by the company, making funds more susceptible to hacks. In a DEX, user funds are stored in hardware wallets on each user’s computer, and value is never lost; when a trade commences, and instant swap, i.e., atomic swap, occurs so that the money never passes through a middleman. A smart contract is used to keep trust between the two users trading the money.

Altcoin.io is working hard to make the first ever decentralized exchanges for traders, by traders. While many DEXs have bulky, complicated interfaces; Altcoin.io is working to make both a simple interface to quickly exchange crypto, as well as an in-depth, customizable exchange. The team was made famous back in October for successfully completing the first ever BTC-ETH atomic swap – a complicated feat because these two coins run completely different blockchains.

Altcoin.io Preview Interface

Bitshares already has a working platform, which works best as a client downloaded straight to the computer. Decentralized exchanges that are already working tend to be for the crypto-savvy; there are many advanced features, and the interfaces are not as easy on the eyes. While the number one exchange, currently OKex, is trading $1.75 billion million daily, Bitshares is only trading at approximately $2 million.

Crypto is easier than ever to buy now, and this year should see some huge improvements for both centralized and decentralized exchanges. Centralized exchanges will focus on scaling, usability and adding of new tokens, while decentralized exchanges will be focusing on getting their product out on the web and involving the existing crypto community. But for now, and forever, it’s a good time to buy crypto.

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