It is fascinating and multifaceted topic. This requires a lot of research. It has been a decade since I first attempted to understand it. I also tried to help others. Over the years, I kept coming up with the same questions over and over again. I began bookmarking resources to save time searching for them.

I eventually decided that it would be easier to just collect them all in one place. Thus was born in 2015 in support of the Bitcoin Special Interest Group I started. It started as a single page, with only a few links. Now it has 40 pages with subcategories and over 1,500 links.

This is my ongoing curation project to allow you to browse the many high-quality articles that have been written about bitcoin and other related topics over the years.

I will answer the why and how of bitcoin for those who are just starting. The whitepaper is a simple, non-technical English text that should be read by everyone. However, translations are available for dozens of languages.

While you can gain a good understanding of the network in a matter of minutes, a deeper dive into the protocol could take several weeks. Beyond the technical details, there are many questions and criticisms about the economics, game theory and the future development of the network. Bitcoin is so complex that many people have tried to explain why it’s so difficult to understand.

Although you won’t become an expert within an hour, day, or week of digesting the content from bitcoin.page, you will be more prepared to use this technology.

The measure was presented by the government as a way of boosting economic development and job creation.

Polls suggest Salvadorians are not prepared for the move, and the World Bank has warned against its adoption.

Analysts believe it is an “attention-seeking” move by an ‘authoritative system.”

Next week’s landmark day follows a vote by lawmakers in June to legalise the crypto-currency.

Businesses will have to accept Bitcoin or the US Dollar as payment under the country’s Bitcoin Law.

To convert dollars into Bitcoin, more than 200 cash machines have been installed in El Salvador.

To encourage citizens to use the national wallet accessible via an app, El Salvador’s government has offered $30 (PS22) worth of bitcoins for free.

Since the announcement, El Salvador has been divided.

Recent protests in San Salvador have shown a lack confidence among citizens. Many of them are still not familiar with crypto-currency.

The Central American University (UCA), in a survey, found that only 4.8% understood Bitcoin and its uses.

Over 68% of those interviewed said that they were against using crypto-currency to be a legal tender.

Over two million Salvadorian workers send money home to their families in other countries. Around 20% of the country’s GDP is made up of remittances.

People who support the move suggest that Bitcoin could make it cheaper to send money home.

Others, however, argue the opposite.

Glen Goodman, a crypto-analyst, warned that ‘an academic paper has shown that exchange costs could end up being even more expensive’.

“It’s also being imposed against small businesses’ wishes. A Chamber of Commerce survey found that 82.5% of respondents don’t want to receive Bitcoin remittances, due to its volatile and unpredictable price.

“If it isn’t broken, it would be fair to ask President [Nayib] Buke why he is trying so hard to fix it. “I have not yet heard a convincing answer,” Mr Goodman said.

Markets.com’s chief market analyst Neil Wilson says that the nation’s poorest will likely be the ones who are most affected by the move.

“El Salvador is small in terms of its economy,” he said. He said that this was a ploy to get attention from the autocratic regime.

“Bitcoin is an intrinsically poor payment method because it is very expensive for small transactions.

Bitcoin, a virtual currency that has no direct link to the real economy and which has seen large fluctuations in its value over the years, is a great example of this.

After a crackdown by China and Elon Musk’s Tesla decision not to accept it anymore as payment, the price dropped sharply in May.

However, it has since recovered, rising above $50,000 (PS36,000) for the first time in three months in late August.

Anyone who is a Bitcoin follower will notice that market sentiment can change in a matter of seconds. One tweet away from a bearish market and one Tesla earnings report away is a bull market. This market is as emotional as any you’ll ever see. It begs the question: What metrics can we use to measure where we stand on this emotional spectrum.

One thing I keep track of is the ratio between calls and puts trading in a particular month. Let’s call this the “yield and volatility ratio”. It takes into account the distance between like-priced puts and calls from spot bitcoin’s current price. Then it divides the difference between calls and spot bitcoin prices by the price between puts and spot bitcoin. This metric’s value is affected by many factors, including the implied volatility of options skew and futures yield curve. This ratio can provide a good indication of the current market forecast for bitcoin’s price. What is the sentiment? Are bitcoins headed for the moon? Or are we in for a three year bear run?

This is best illustrated using examples from the last few months. On May 11, 2021, with the bitcoin spot price at $55,000, let’s look at what the ratio was for the September 24, 2021, expiration on Deribit:

The $50,000 put traded at the same price that the $80,000 call. The put strike was therefore $5,000 off the spot bitcoin price and the call strike $25,000 below the spot bitcoin. Divide the difference between the spot bitcoin price and the call strike ($25,000) by the difference between the put strike ($5,000) and we get a ratio of 5:1.

This metric gives a score of five to one, which is very high. You may recall that bitcoin was at its peak bull-market phase. To take advantage of these market conditions, you can use the following trade ideas:

This strategy would give you the following exposure to Bitcoin until your options expire:

You are short at $55,000 but you can only lose money up until the $50,000 put strike. Your losses are then stopped and you can lose as much as $5,000. You will make a profit up to the $80,000 price point, at which point you can only make $25,000 profit. This means that you can make $25,000 profit (45% more), and only risk $5,000 (9%) loss. You can see the 5:1 ratio again.

These odds are appealing to me. Because I am bullish on bitcoin for the long-term, it can be difficult to find ways to hedge your long term exposure. I don’t enjoy selling spot bitcoin and I tend to be long-term bullish on bitcoin overall. When the call/put ratio reaches levels of 5:1, I enjoy selling calls and buying put to hedge a portion of my overall exposure.

Compare that to the June 21st 2021 date. You could use the following inputs to interpolate the July 30th 2021 ratio: With the bitcoin spot price at $36,000 the $32,000 puts would be equal to the $41,000 calls. The ratio is now 1.25:1.

What trade idea would you have in this market? I prefer to do the opposite of what is suggested above. It is a good idea to buy calls and then sell the puts. You can only lose $32,000 on the put if you assume that BTC rises to $0. The upside is endless. It doesn’t make any sense to increase this ratio to 1:1, given bitcoin’s ability to go parabolic.

How does the current ratio look? The ratio has increased as we have seen yields rise on the most recent rally. This is especially true if you look further back in time. The December 31 expiry ratio is 2.80:1. This is only an approximate ratio and can change depending on the initial call you make or which put strike you take. To ensure consistency, I prefer to choose a put that is 10% lower than spot and then solve for the call. Although it has rebounded from its recent lows, there is still potential for expansion in the months ahead, particularly when futures markets offer higher yields. Selling calls or buying put is a good way to get rid of some of the ratio. However, I wouldn’t do it often as the ratio is likely to rise.

The most important thing is to be in control of your emotions. You must keep your head up and accept the hand dealt to you by the market.

Alberta could be a potential new crypto hub in Canada

Binance, the largest crypto exchange in terms of trading volume, has partnered up with Alchemy Pay to create the first hybrid fiat/digital currency gateway.

What happened? According to a Press releaseThe partnership will allow for a payment bridge between fiat and crypto through Binance Pay wallet on Wednesday.

Binance Pay is available for peer-to-peer and merchant-based transactions. Users and merchants have access to over 40 supported cryptocurrency options.

It will also allow users and merchants worldwide to send and receive cryptocurrency payments without having to pay any handling fees.

Why it matters: Alchemy has a network of 2 million merchants in 18 countries. It also includes e-commerce companies.Shopify Inc (NYSE:SHOP) and Canadian footwear brand Aldo.

Alchemy Pay was established in 2018 with the aim of creating a hybrid fiat/crypto payments system that businesses can use on all existing systems.

Blockchain-based projects have their own identity EthereumGovernance token based on -based (CRYPTO ETH: ETH).Alchemy pays (CRYPTO : ACH), which rallied 127% overnight. ACH traded at $0.02708 as of the writing of this article.

“When we started, the market’s total value was less than one tenth of a per cent of today. John Tan, CEO of Alchemy Pay, stated that electronic payments other than the $80 trillion fiat currency were almost unknown to the rest of the world.

“Alchemy Pay’s partnership for Binance Pay wallet greatly expands the practical backbone apps we build between crypto and fiat,” he said.