{"id":527,"date":"2018-02-21T10:30:55","date_gmt":"2018-02-21T10:30:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blockchain-society.science\/?p=527"},"modified":"2018-02-21T10:31:27","modified_gmt":"2018-02-21T10:31:27","slug":"coin-metrics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blockchain-society.science\/?p=527","title":{"rendered":"Coin Metrics"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"primary-header\" class=\"entry-header\">\n<div class=\"header-inner\">\n<h1 class=\"entry-title\">Useful resources for investors<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"primary\" class=\"content-area row\">\n<article id=\"post-275\" class=\"post-275 page type-page status-publish hentry\">\n<div class=\"entry-content\">\n<p>This is a list of some resources we have found valuable and think you might, too. It\u2019s a selection of our favorites rather than an attempt to include everything. The resources extend from quantitative tools like ours to long-form research and academic papers. This list, like our website, is probably more useful for investors rather than anyone looking for particularly technical resources.\u00a0We were not paid to include anything on the list \u2013 the only organizations we have formal partnerships with are listed on our sponsors page. This list is subjective and not intended to be complete or exhaustive.<\/p>\n<p>TL;DR version:<\/p>\n<p>Indexes:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bletchleyindexes.com\/\">Bletchley Indexes<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.smithandcrown.com\/index\/\">Smith + Crown<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/crix.hu-berlin.de\/\">CRIX<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bitwiseinvestments.com\/index\">Bitwise Hold 10<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mvis-indices.com\/indices\/digital-assets\">MVIS<\/a><br \/>\nRankings sites:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cryptocompare.com\/\">CryptoCompare<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.coingecko.com\/en\">CoinGecko<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/onchainfx.com\/\">OnChainFx<\/a><br \/>\nData:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/bitinfocharts.com\/\">BitInfoCharts<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/coin.dance\/\">CoinDance<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/blockchain.info\/\">Blockchain.info<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.tokendata.io\/\">Token Data<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/statoshi.info\/\">Statoshi<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/shabang.io\/\">Shabang<\/a><br \/>\nTools and dataviz:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sifrdata.com\/\">Sifrdata<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/cointrading.ninja\/correlation\">Correlations<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/mapofcoins.com\/\">MapOfCoins<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/cryptomaps.org\/\">CryptoMaps<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.buybitcoinworldwide.com\/volatility-index\/\">Bitcoin Volatility Index<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/cryptovoices.com\/\">Crypto Voices<\/a>,<a href=\"https:\/\/transactionfee.info\/charts\/\">\u00a0Transactionfee.info<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/data.flipsidecrypto.com\/#preview\">Flipside Crypto<\/a><br \/>\nBlogs:\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/woobull.com\/\">Willy Woo<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/thecryptocurrencyinvestor.com\/\">Ari Paul<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/view\/topics\/money-stuff\">Matt Levine<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/elaineou.com\/\">Elaine Ou<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/@cburniske\">Chris Burniske<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/prestonbyrne.com\/blog\/\">Preston Byrne,<\/a>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/@tuurdemeester\">Tuur Demeester<\/a><br \/>\nResearch:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/ark-invest.com\/innovation-white-papers\">Ark Invest<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/grayscale.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Grayscale-Ethereum-Classic-Investment-Thesis-April-2017.pdf\">Grayscale<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.coindesk.com\/research\/\">Coindesk<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.smithandcrown.com\/\">Smith + Crown<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/ledgerjournal.org\/ojs\/index.php\/ledger\">Ledger<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.jbs.cam.ac.uk\/faculty-research\/centres\/alternative-finance\/publications\/\">Cambridge Center for Alternative Finance<\/a><br \/>\nSelected papers:\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/journals.plos.org\/plosone\/article?id=10.1371\/journal.pone.0169556\">Wang and Vergne (2017)<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/arxiv.org\/pdf\/1709.02489.pdf\">Naranayan et al (2017)<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/coinmetrics.io\/papers\/dissertation.pdf\">Carter (2017)<\/a>,<a href=\"http:\/\/rsif.royalsocietypublishing.org\/content\/11\/99\/20140623.short\">\u00a0Garcia et al (2014)<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/cseweb.ucsd.edu\/~smeiklejohn\/files\/imc13.pdf\">Meiklejohn et al (2013)<\/a><br \/>\nAdvocacy:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/coincenter.org\/\">Coin Center<\/a><br \/>\nBooks:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Digital-Gold-Bitcoin-Millionaires-Reinvent\/dp\/006236250X\">Digital Gold<\/a>;\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bitcoinandbeyond.com\/\">Cryptoassets: The Innovative Investor\u2019s Guide to Bitcoin and Beyond<\/a>;\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Bitcoin-Standard-Sound-Money-Digital\/dp\/1119473861\">The Bitcoin Standard: Sound Money in a Digital Age<\/a><br \/>\nNewsletters:\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/proofofwork.news\/\">Proof of Work<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/tokeneconomy.co\/\">Token Economy<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/us16.campaign-archive.com\/home\/?u=67eb93253df610fc7b047c270&amp;id=1cdbed15b1\">Marty\u2019s Bent<\/a><\/p>\n<h2>Indexes<\/h2>\n<p>We discuss the pros and cons of indexing strategies in\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/coinmetrics.io\/cryptoasset-indices-compared\/\">this post<\/a>, now slightly outdated. We still think\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bletchleyindexes.com\/\">Bletchley Indexes<\/a>\u00a0offer the most thoughtful and consistent approach to index construction. They have recently added a useful total market index. Keep an eye on them.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.smithandcrown.com\/index\/\">Smith + Crown<\/a>\u00a0and a team of academics at\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/crix.hu-berlin.de\/\">CRIX<\/a>\u00a0also run indexes; we cover them in the blog post.<\/p>\n<p>Also worth noting is the Bitwise\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bitwiseinvestments.com\/index\">Hold 10 Index.<\/a>\u00a0It incorporates some of the innovations that have been publicly discussed over the last few months. True to the name it tracks 10 large caps; but it weights them by 5 year inflation.<\/p>\n<p>Vaneck has a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mvis-indices.com\/indices\/digital-assets\">comprehensive selection<\/a>\u00a0of indexes which are worth looking at.\u00a0Digital asset indexes are a much more crowded space than when we first started looking at them!<\/p>\n<h2>Rankings sites<\/h2>\n<p>We like\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cryptocompare.com\/\">CryptoCompare<\/a>\u00a0for extractable historical data. They have a great API too.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.coingecko.com\/en\">CoinGecko<\/a>\u00a0creates very interesting quantitative rankings. They offer a refreshing alternative to the CoinMarketCap school of ranking which is rather uncritical at times, and promotes the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/blog.sia.tech\/want-to-deflate-the-token-bubble-fix-the-market-cap-indicator-d50f7f1e1ec4\">misleading<\/a>\u00a0\u201cmarket cap\u201d indicator. CoinGecko grades cryptoassets on developer activity, the strength of community, and the amount of public interest, building a quality indicator which can help investors avoid dead or stagnating projects.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_268\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img src=\"https:\/\/blockchain-society.science\/wp-content\/uploads\/litho\/f5374b11378e955e2a5ddd99f757ee805ead20cd10dbc176c3ea547df23df391.png\" class=\"image-treated\" data-original=\"http:\/\/coinmetrics.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Screen-Shot-2017-09-25-at-9.45.21-PM-1024x458.png\" data-treated=\"https:\/\/blockchain-society.science\/wp-content\/uploads\/litho\/f5374b11378e955e2a5ddd99f757ee805ead20cd10dbc176c3ea547df23df391.png\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">CoinGecko do excellent work<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/onchainfx.com\/\">OnChainFx<\/a>\u00a0is a great product. OCFX does a few interesting things; it focuses on the impact of monetary policy on valuation, which has been a sorely overlooked topic until now. Most interestingly, it lays out clearly the float and pending supply of a set of major cryptoassets, and extrapolates network value to 2050, assuming no change in unit price. This lets investors very easily measure the impact inflation will have on various cryptoasset networks. Another interesting indicator that holds a lot of promise is the \u2018Vladimir club cost;\u2019 or what it would cost to own 1% of 1% of the asset\u2019s eventual supply. Onchainfx integrates some Coinmetrics data \u2013 we suggest using them for your rankings. (<em>Full disclosure: OnChainFx\u00a0is a Coinmetrics sponsor<\/em>.)<\/p>\n<h2>Data sources<\/h2>\n<p>We are inspired by\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/bitinfocharts.com\/\">BitInfoCharts<\/a>; they offer an absolute treasure trove of blockchain data.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/coin.dance\/\">CoinDance<\/a>\u00a0do valuable work to illuminate the bitcoin ecosystem, especially when it comes to decoding what the miners are up to.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blockchain.info\/\">Blockchain.info<\/a>\u00a0have a fantastic assortment of data and charts, and we wish this sort of information existed for every cryptocurrency.<\/p>\n<p>For tokens (something we don\u2019t spend very much time on),\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.tokendata.io\/\">Tokendata<\/a>\u00a0is a clean and minimalistic data source evidencing that most large tokensales have been fairly poor investments thus far.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/statoshi.info\/\">Statoshi.info<\/a>\u00a0is a very thorough service which collects incredibly detailed Bitcoin data from a full node. We wish this level of detail existed for other blockchains.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/shabang.io\/\">Shabang.io<\/a>\u00a0is a very cool new service that catalogues lightning network nodes and segwit usage.<\/p>\n<h2>Tools and visualizations<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sifrdata.com\/\">Sifrdata<\/a>\u00a0is a really unique resource. People with a finance or statistics background will really appreciate it. It covers rolling correlations, sharpe ratios, correlation clustering, the distribution of returns, and volatility of major cryptocurrencies, among other things.<\/p>\n<p>If you like mean-variance optimization, and want a dynamic correlation tool with a lot of choice, play around with this excellent\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/cointrading.ninja\/correlation\">correlation<\/a>\u00a0matrix, developed by Jonas Verhoelen.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/mapofcoins.com\/\">MapOfCoins<\/a>\u00a0is a very cool evolutionary graph of a huge number of cryptoassets, and lets you easily determine their history. It\u2019s sadly not being updated at present, but nevertheless still very interesting.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/cryptomaps.org\/\">CryptoMaps<\/a>\u00a0is a real-time visualization of the market heavily inspired by Finviz. It\u2019s currently somewhat flawed due to odd segmentation decisions, and a lower limit on the size of the rectangles representing small-caps, which results in the inclusion of many ultra small caps that probably don\u2019t merit consideration in the sample. Nevertheless it\u2019s an easy way to picture how the market is faring in real time. You\u2019ll notice that it\u2019s heavily correlated.<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.buybitcoinworldwide.com\/volatility-index\/\">Bitcoin Volatility Index<\/a>\u00a0is a nifty site. Since so many finance professionals insist Bitcoin can\u2019t be a store of value since it\u2019s too volatile, it\u2019s nice to have a visualization on hand. The site also does Ethereum and Litecoin.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cryptovoices.com\/\">Cryptovoices<\/a>\u00a0is a really interesting site \u2013 mainly oriented around a podcast \u2013 which also boasts some very thoughtful ratios, graphs, and indicators. We particularly like the network\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/cryptovoices.com\/network-price-to-sales-ratio\/\">price-to-sales ratio<\/a>\u00a0which they run for a variety of public blockchains. This is a very clever ratio which models blockchains a bit like typical rent-extracting assets. Keep an eye on cryptovoices.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/transactionfee.info\/charts\/\">Transactionfee.info<\/a>\u00a0creates some interesting charts aggregating Bitcoin payments, rather than just transactions (which can bundle many payments). Counting outputs as payments is a far richer picture of Bitcoin development than simply looking at transactions. Due to higher batching rates, the relationship between transactions and outputs has inflected.\u00a0This is a useful analysis that our data doesn\u2019t account for presently.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/data.flipsidecrypto.com\/#preview\">Flipside Crypto<\/a>\u00a0runs a github index which blends together github data for cryptoasset projects and synthesizes it into a single indicator. If you click through to individual projects, the data is presented in digestible form.\u00a0(<em>Full disclosure: Flipside is a Coinmetrics sponsor<\/em>.)<\/p>\n<h2>Blogs we read<\/h2>\n<p>Willy Woo doesn\u2019t just write a\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/woobull.com\/\">blog<\/a>. His indicators, visualizations, and models are incredibly influential. I\u2019d classify almost every post on his page as a must-read. His charts page in particular is very illuminating. To the best of our knowledge, Willy devised the market to transaction value (MTV ratio), which he now calls the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/charts.woobull.com\/bitcoin-nvt-ratio\/\">network value to transactions ratio<\/a>\u00a0(NVT ratio).<\/p>\n<p>Ari Paul hasn\u2019t been active in the cryptoasset space very long since migrating from traditional asset management, but he has become very influential. Now launching a cryptoasset fund, Ari may become more limited in what he has to say, so treasure his\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/thecryptocurrencyinvestor.com\/\">posts<\/a>\u00a0while you still can.<\/p>\n<p>Matt Levine doesn\u2019t exclusively cover cryptoassets, but his<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/view\/topics\/money-stuff\">\u00a0popular daily column<\/a>\u00a0for Bloomberg has become dominated by the topic of late, or as he calls it, \u201cblockchain blockchain blockchain.\u201d Matt is continually entertained by the stories of ICOs, hacks, novel financial products, and market manipulation, and he expresses his generally skeptical view in a fairly good-natured way. The main lesson from his column is that there is nothing new under the sun; only new ways to do old things. Bonus: a Coinmetrics founder was quoted on Levine\u2019s blog at length recently! Tweet us if you find it.<\/p>\n<p>I don\u2019t have much to say about Elaine Ou\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/elaineou.com\/\">fantastic blog<\/a>\u00a0aside from the fact that it\u2019s an absolute gem.<\/p>\n<p>Chris Burniske\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/@cburniske\">pushes the envelope<\/a>\u00a0on valuation models, which he generously publishes for everyone\u2019s benefit. Chris also popularized the market to transaction value measure which we use here. He is also thoughtful about nomenclature; Chris is probably responsible for the shift to \u201ccryptoasset,\u201d and he\u2019s leading the charge in leaving the misleading \u201cmarket cap\u201d behind in favor of \u201cnetwork value.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>If you are in the mood for a much more skeptical look at cryptoassets and tokens, Preston Byrne runs a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/prestonbyrne.com\/blog\/\">blog<\/a>\u00a0which can safely be described as contrarian. Preston is a UK-trained lawyer with a penchant for unraveling some of the more extravagant claims made by founders and promoters. Investors owe it to themselves to consider tail risks and regulatory action, and Preston\u2019s blog is an excellent starting point.<\/p>\n<p>The well-known Bitcoin investor and industry critic Tuur Demeester doesn\u2019t write very often, but when he does, it\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/@tuurdemeester\">worth reading<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>You may perceive the constituents of this list as too fond of bitcoin or overly skeptical; if any commentators emerge with a thoughtful defense of ICO mania, we will gladly include them.<\/p>\n<h2>Research platforms<\/h2>\n<p>The investment management firm\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/ark-invest.com\/\">Ark Invest<\/a>\u00a0posts frequently on bitcoin\u2019s investable qualities. They were well ahead of the game, voicing this conviction and taking a public position in the troughs of the 2015 bear market, well before the recent market inflection. Their research can be found\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/ark-invest.com\/disruptive-innovation-research\">here<\/a>\u00a0but the essential reading is their white paper:\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/research.ark-invest.com\/bitcoin-asset-class\">Bitcoin: Ringing the Bell for a New Asset Class<\/a>. The essential contention is that cryptocurrencies represent a radically new asset class, crucially different from commodities, currencies, and property (which they are\u00a0commonly compared to) along three dimensions: politico-economic features, correlations of returns, and the nature of return profiles. This is vital reading for those crossing over from the traditional finance world of sharpe ratios and mean variance optimization.<\/p>\n<p>The Digital Currency Group cannot be overlooked when it comes to digital asset markets. One overlooked contribution of theirs to the space is investment research. Grayscale released an excellent\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/grayscale.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/Grayscale-Ethereum-Classic-Investment-Thesis-May_2017.pdf\">investment thesis for Ethereum Classic<\/a>\u00a0[pdf warning] to support the launch of their ETC fund back in May. Whether or not you agree with their criticisms of Ethereum, this may indeed become the template for cryptoasset investment theses. It describes key aspects of investability\u00a0which are crucial for investors: history and launch; governance; economics and monetary policy; target market size; incentive structures.<\/p>\n<p>The DCG subsidiary,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.coindesk.com\/research\/\">Coindesk<\/a>, boasts the most comprehensive and professional industry research setup in the space. Much of it is public but some key reports are paywalled, which isn\u2019t surprising given the rigor and detail. One of the pitfalls of issuing research in such a fast-moving sector is the near-instant obsoletion of your work. Their Q1 2017 \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.coindesk.com\/research\/state-blockchain-q1-2017\/\">State of Blockchain<\/a>\u201d looks curiously out of date now, boasting of the $25b cryptocurrency market cap and ICO funds totaling $36m. However, these reports are invaluable \u2013 especially if you\u2019re an institutional investor needing to justify your investment to skeptical clients.<\/p>\n<p>The excellent\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.smithandcrown.com\/research-search\/\">Smith + Crown\u00a0<\/a>win a spot for their contributions\u00a0to research. They have created a searchable repository of digital currency-related publications which aggregates a huge amount of papers, tagged appropriately. Additionally, they have written a good number of currency profiles, covering\u00a0even relatively obscure ones in detail.<\/p>\n<p>And of course, you have good old academia. Last year,\u00a0<em><a href=\"https:\/\/ledgerjournal.org\/ojs\/index.php\/ledger\/index\">Ledger<\/a>,\u00a0<\/em>a\u00a0bespoke peer reviewed digital currency journal, was launched to publish\u00a0some of the best work in the space. It is not exclusively technical in content, either. The inaugural issue had a refreshingly varied set of articles, from a largely impenetrable post\u00a0on\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/ledgerjournal.org\/ojs\/index.php\/ledger\/article\/view\/34\">ring confidential transactions<\/a>, to a work of political philosophy comparing\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/ledgerjournal.org\/ojs\/index.php\/ledger\/article\/view\/62\">governance structures on blockchains<\/a>\u00a0to the contract theory of Hobbes, Rousseau, and Rawls.<\/p>\n<p>Lastly, it\u2019s worth giving some attention to the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.jbs.cam.ac.uk\/faculty-research\/centres\/alternative-finance\/publications\/\">Cambridge Center for Alternative Finance<\/a>, who do an excellent job of covering cryptoassets and the corporate blockchain space more generally. Their<a href=\"https:\/\/www.jbs.cam.ac.uk\/faculty-research\/centres\/alternative-finance\/publications\/global-cryptocurrency\/\">\u00a0global cryptocurrency benchmarking study<\/a>\u00a0is incredibly thorough. They have an ambitious research agenda planned for 2018.<\/p>\n<h2>Selected papers<\/h2>\n<p>Recent articles that have caught our attention include the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/arxiv.org\/pdf\/1709.02489.pdf\">BlockSci working paper<\/a>, created to accompany the open source BlockSci tool for blockchain analysis. This represents a significant improvement in the tools available to the public for answering difficult questions about popular blockchains. They use the tool to demonstrate an attack on Dash\u2019s privacy, to show how multisig transactions hurt confidentiality, and interestingly, to make better estimates about the velocity of major cryptocurrencies.<\/p>\n<p>Another paper we like is<a href=\"http:\/\/journals.plos.org\/plosone\/article?id=10.1371\/journal.pone.0169556\">\u00a0Buzz Factor or Innovation Potential: What Explains Cryptocurrencies\u2019 Returns?<\/a>\u00a0by Wang and Vergne which unpacks the return drivers of major cryptocurrencies over a yearlong period. They find that, when accounting for various factors, that buzz is negatively associated with weekly returns. Attention should be given to their methodology which quantifies developer activity to try to capture innovation.<\/p>\n<p>While its inclusion is somewhat nepotistic, we believe this paper is also important. It is written by one of Coinmetrics\u2019 creators. The 2017 paper\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/coinmetrics.io\/papers\/dissertation.pdf\">A Cross-Sectional Overview of Cryptoasset Governance and Implications for Investors<\/a>\u00a0is a master\u2019s thesis covering governance structures in the industry. It has a useful survey of the top 50 circulating cryptoassets by network value (as of July 29, 2017) with detailed analysis of the governance models on display. The paper is aimed at educating investors about the relative lack of shareholder (tokenholder) rights in the industry. It also discusses a few of the functioning models of cryptoasset governance.<\/p>\n<p>Garcia et al\u2019s 2014 paper\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/rsif.royalsocietypublishing.org\/content\/11\/99\/20140623\">The digital traces of bubbles: feedback cycles between socio-economic signals in the Bitcoin economy<\/a>\u00a0may be dated by cryptocurrency standards, but it is still a thorough exposition of the relationship between social sentiment and Bitcoin price. They cover an early period in Bitcoin\u2019s history, but the relationships. Rather than naively correlating google trends and bitcoin price like other academics do, Garcia et al notice a feedback loop between social buzz and price. This means that search volumes combine with price rises to drive positive loops which cause reflexive bitcoin behavior \u2013 in both directions. A full awareness of these relationships is absolutely vital to unpacking sentiment data.<\/p>\n<p>In our view,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/cseweb.ucsd.edu\/~smeiklejohn\/files\/imc13.pdf\">A Fistful of Bitcoins: Characterizing Payments Among Men with No Names<\/a>\u00a0by Meiklejohn et al (2013) is the canonical paper on serious empirical analysis of the Bitcoin economy. The researchers use a variety of techniques to determine how Bitcoin is actually used over time. This involves a robust and nuanced analysis of UTXOs, heuristic-driven transaction volume estimates, user clustering, and more exotic empirical techniques. They even transacted with 334 Bitcoin services \u2014 choosing a variety of exchanges, gambling sites, vendors, wallets, and other merchants to determine their addresses and estimate their impact on transaction volume.\u00a0<em>A Fistful of Bitcoins<\/em>\u00a0is a stunningly useful and informative paper, even 4 years on.<\/p>\n<h2>Advocacy<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/coincenter.org\/\">Coin Center<\/a>\u00a0is a nonprofit think tank based in Washington D.C. which seeks to educate policymakers about cryptocurrencies and advocate for reasonable and fair regulation. They also serve the dual purpose of\u00a0educating members of the public about the latest regulatory developments. The US is only one among many countries that can regulate digital currencies and tokens, but given that regulators like to follow the leader, what happens in US Congress tends to reverberate worldwide. Coin Center boasts impressive access to Congress, and they produce pithy explainers for journalists and original research to boot.<\/p>\n<p>Investors who know the history of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Liberty_dollar_(private_currency)\">alternative currencies<\/a>\u00a0know that regulators can be an existential threat. Bitcoin and its many descendants\u00a0are decentralized and hence largely immune to being closed down\u00a0by regulators, but they can still be hamstrung if, for instance, exchanging fiat for digital currency is suddenly outlawed.<\/p>\n<p>The value of digital currencies and cryptoassets is evident to everyone involved in the space, but regulators and the media need a bit more convincing. Coin Center does very useful things like proposing a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/coincenter.org\/entry\/food-for-thought-a-federal-safe-harbor-for-non-custodial-cryptocurrency-users\">safe harbor framework<\/a>\u00a0for nodes, thus protecting users from being accountable\u00a0for the money-transmitting implications of node traffic; \u00a0clarifying whether or not cryptocurrencies should be\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/coincenter.org\/entry\/framework-for-securities-regulation-of-cryptocurrencies\">treated as securities<\/a>; and explaining why\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/coincenter.org\/entry\/why-bitcoin-is-not-the-root-cause-of-ransomware\">bitcoin isn\u2019t to blame for ransomware<\/a>\u00a0attacks.<\/p>\n<p>Many bitcoiners and digital currency enthusiasts would be surprised to hear that they have advocates in frequent contact with US Congress, helping establish a fair framework for eventual regulation. It\u2019s a dirty word to many, but regulation does not mean closing down all digital currency activity, but could instead mean consumer protection, clarifying securities laws, simplifying money transmitter frameworks, protecting individuals from exchange failures, and so on. Coin Center has flown under the radar thus far but deserves to be a key element of your research\u00a0if you care about the long-term health of the digital currency market.<\/p>\n<h2>Books<\/h2>\n<p>There are a surprising number of books already published about this novel industry. Nathaniel Popper\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Digital-Gold-Bitcoin-Millionaires-Reinvent\/dp\/006236250X\">Digital Gold: Bitcoin and the Inside Story of the Misfits and Millionaires Trying to Reinvent Money<\/a>\u00a0is a very thorough look at Bitcoin\u2019s history, pre-history, and political underpinnings. It is largely non-technical, but is essential reading for anyone seeking an understanding of why the digital currency is so popular. Everyone I have referred this book to has subsequently bought Bitcoin. It is about a year out of date, which is an eon in the cryptocurrency world, but it is still a very worthwhile read. Where else will you learn about the impact Mark Karpeles\u2019 cat Tibanne had on the history of Bitcoin?<\/p>\n<p>Chris Burniske and coauthor Jack Tatar jumped into the fray with their offering, entitled<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bitcoinandbeyond.com\/\">Cryptoassets: The Innovative Investor\u2019s Guide to Bitcoin and Beyond<\/a>. This to our knowledge is the first book-length approach of these assets from an investment standpoint. Chris has great credentials in the space and this is a vital read. It is a nicely-paced read which enables investors with any level of expertise gain an understanding of the asset class. The sections on taxonomy and valuation are particularly valuable.<\/p>\n<p>Lastly, Saifedean Ammous is publishing\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Bitcoin-Standard-Sound-Money-Digital\/dp\/1119473861\">The Bitcoin Standard: Sound Money in a Digital Age<\/a>\u00a0in hardback early next year. He made early drafts available to the public, and if the finished product is anything like those, this book will be very influential. It\u2019s a look at the economics of the system and how bitcoin can underpin a new era of sound money. Importantly, is plainly and comprehensibly written with no excessive ornamentation or jargon. Anyone can find value in this book; it\u2019s not just for economists or technologists.<\/p>\n<p>Other books aren\u2019t on this list because I haven\u2019t read them. If you have a burning desire to have them included in this list, feel free to send them our way. (Edit: still haven\u2019t received any books\u2026) (Edit2: still waiting\u2026)<\/p>\n<h3>Newsletters<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/proofofwork.news\/\">Proof of Work<\/a>\u00a0is a very cool newsletter from fund manager Eric Meltzer. It delivers weekly updates about cryptoasset projects\u00a0<em>directly<\/em>\u00a0from the founders and top devs themselves. Turns out there\u2019s a fairly high correlation between the viability of a project and the transparency of the founding team. Funny that!<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/tokeneconomy.co\/\">Token Economy<\/a>\u00a0is a weekly newsletter run by Stefano Bernardi and Yannick Roux that does an excellent job of distilling the most important developments in the space. It includes new launches, commentary, links to influential posts, and occasionally some criticism, which is useful.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/us16.campaign-archive.com\/home\/?u=67eb93253df610fc7b047c270&amp;id=1cdbed15b1\">Marty\u2019s \u0243ent<\/a>\u00a0is an entertaining daily Bitcoin-oriented newsletter detailing the latest thoughts of, well, Marty. It\u2019s informal and occasionally vulgar, but it\u2019s all in good fun. Marty deserves plaudits for being amazingly consistent. He will deliver something thought-provoking to your inbox every day, without fail.<\/p>\n<p>* \u00a0* \u00a0*<\/p>\n<p>We hope you have found this list useful. If you think something deserves to be on here, get in touch at\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/coinmetrics\">@coinmetrics<\/a>. We can\u2019t guarantee we\u2019ll put it on there \u2013 this list is mainly for resources which we use and have actively benefited from. This list is actively curated.<\/p>\n<p>Last updated: Feb. 19, 2018.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Useful resources for investors This is a list of some resources we have found valuable and think you might, too. It\u2019s a selection of our favorites rather than an attempt to include everything. The resources extend from quantitative tools like ours to long-form research and academic papers. This list, like our website, is probably more [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,6,7,5,23],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blockchain-society.science\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blockchain-society.science\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blockchain-society.science\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blockchain-society.science\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blockchain-society.science\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=527"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blockchain-society.science\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":529,"href":"https:\/\/blockchain-society.science\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527\/revisions\/529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blockchain-society.science\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blockchain-society.science\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blockchain-society.science\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}