As if cryptocurrencies weren’t complicated enough for new investors, now Ethereum has a hard fork coming up on January 16.

A fork is essentially an update or change to a cryptocurrency blockchain protocol. There are two main types: a soft fork and a hard fork. Soft forks are backward-compatible, meaning that nodes on a network can still recognize newly coded blocks implemented by the soft fork.

A hard fork, on the other hand, isn’t backward-compatible. Newly created blocks cannot be recognized by the network’s nodes, which means that at times a new network needs to be created to cater to new blocks using an updated protocol. A prime example of a hard fork is the creation of Bitcoin Cash in the wake of the bitcoin hard fork in 2017.


The Constantinople hard fork differs from bitcoin’s in that it is non-contentious, meaning it is being embraced by a majority of the Ethereum community. Bitcoin’s hard fork in 2017 was contentious, meaning there were major disagreements in the cryptocurrency’s community. For instance, many believed bitcoin’s network was no longer sustainable, and therefore a new network was needed, causing the development of Bitcoin Cash.

The Constantinople hard fork is expected to take place on January 16 at a block height of 7,080,000, and most in the community seem prepared for the change. Major exchanges and trading platforms have expressed their support for the fork, and have prepared all the technical requirements needed to adapt to the update. The main goal of Constantinople is to ease the future transition of Ethereum from the Proof-of-Work (PoW) mechanism to Proof-of-Stake (PoS), while cutting costs and increasing efficiency of the network.


The arrival of Constantinople has had a positive effect on Ethereum (ETH) value. In mid-December, ETH was trading around $80, an all-time low for the cryptocurrency. With Constantinople’s approach, that value nearly doubled in less than a month, reaching $160 on January 4 and reclaiming the number two spot in value rankings, as shown by CoinMarketCap.

As of this writing, however, its value has dropped to about $118, returning to the third rank in value, as Ripple has reclaimed the number two spot again. The drop isn’t associated with Constantinople but with the drop of the cryptocurrency market as a whole. Ethereum isn’t far behind and will most likely reclaim the number two spot as we get closer to Constantinople.

This year so far, there have been almost 1,200 ICOs, up from 875 in 2017.
Even more significantly, in 2016 there were only 29, which shows the meteoric rise in the sheer number of ICOs coming out of the woodwork.

But what makes a successful ICO? Is it only the amount of capital raised, or is it when the promised product is robust, development ongoing and communication frequent? It’s definitely some combination of those factors, but for an ICO to even get to that stage, it must make the goal by the deadline for the project to move forward.

Looking at the numbers, there’s been a rather small percentage of ICOs that reach this milestone of success. In fact, in 2017 only 48% of ICOs were successful. The research compiled by Suicide Ventures also shows the amount of money being raised by ICOs dropping, from $1.3 billion in January to just $290 million by September.

Even with these declines, there have been some extremely successful ICO projects this year. For anyone who is in the middle of planning their own project, studying these successful ICO stories can be very valuable in aiding their own success.

We’re going to put aside the ongoing, multi-staged ICO for EOS, which holds top honors for most successful ICO of all time at over $4 billion raised, and the somewhat sketchy Dragon platform which raised $320 million in February but has lost 98% of that value to date. The token aims to aid high stakes gamblers in moving their money around, but has been the center of controversy, seen a high-profile theft and generally has little to show for all its investment.

2018 was a difficult year for the entirety of the cryptocurrency market, from investors to miners. The market plunge caused businesses to close their doors and many investors to grab back their money. Yet, many experts predict a turnaround for cryptocurrencies in 2019 as well as major advancements in blockchain technologies.

Given the positive outlook, there is a wide variety of cryptocurrency conferences and other crypto-related events scheduled throughout this year. Whether you’re new to cryptocurrencies, or already an industry veteran, anyone with an interest can gain something valuable from the following conferences and events.




The Blockchain Connect Conference is one of the biggest blockchain conferences in North America. This year’s theme, “Academic,” will feature many notable speakers, such as Ethereum creator, Vitalik Buterin, cryptographer David Chaum (who will also be speaking at another event on this list), as well as a variety of other blockchain and crypto professionals across the globe. San Francisco is home to some of the largest tech companies on earth, so we can expect a lot of news on new products as well as updates on the current ones.






The North American Bitcoin Conference, held in Miami, Florida each year, is one of the biggest and most informative events for bitcoin, and this year looks to be more valuable than ever. David Chaum, the cryptographer who pretty much paved the way for cryptocurrencies with his release of DigiCash in 1989, is scheduled to speak. It’ll be interesting to see what Chaum has to say about the current state of cryptocurrencies. In addition to Chaum, the conference will also host over 150 other top bitcoin-related speakers.





The Crypto Investor Show is targeted heavily towards cryptocurrency investors. It aims to update its participants about how cryptocurrency has evolved, the regulatory progress, and what can be done to facilitate mass crypto adoption.

4,000 attendees are expected, and speakers will include former CCO of Ethereum Stephan Tual, as well as Emergent Technology CTO Sally Eaves, in addition to many others. The event will also have hundreds of cryptocurrency-based exhibits.

Given the huge growth in the number of ICOs, up from only 29 in 2016 to 1,187 so far in 2018 (ICOData), there’s also a surge in ‘ICO advisors’ available.


ICO planning is effort-intensive, requiring to consider an increasing regulatory framework, along with marketing, PR, and branding to make your offering stand out in the crowd and ensure you’re being listed in all the right places. Choosing the best ICO advisor you can find will help you succeed in each of these key areas, along with building a solid team and financial structure to support you before, during, and after the ICO.

Considering all the market circumstances, truly knowledgeable advisors are in high demand, while there are also many of those who claim to be experts, but really aren’t. Anyone can make a polished-looking website or LinkedIn page, so we’re going to show you how to look beyond that to choose a solid ICO advisor.

Do Your Research

* Instead of taking your advisor’s website or LinkedIn page’s word for it, read as much as you can about the actual ICOs they have been involved with. Verify their involvement by contacting key personnel of those startups. The right advisor will have a verifiable record of success, whether as an advisor or just in the industry.

* Speaking to someone who has worked with them directly is your best bet to really gain an understanding of their skill set and effectiveness.

* It is important to choose an advisor that’s got experience in your chosen field. If you’re working on a startup in the healthcare industry, hiring an ICO advisor that’s mainly worked on fintech startups will not be of much help to you. Someone that knows your industry and the ICO landscape will be of far more value.


Search Internationally

While it’s easier to find someone ‘in your backyard,’ expand your search globally. We work in an ever-globalizing economy, and the best ICO advisor will have international expertise. You should make sure you’re looking all around the world, as one of the biggest benefits of blockchain tech is the borderless nature of it.

Regulations are constantly changing, and finding an advisor with international experience will help you navigate that complex landscape. You can waste lots of time working on a solution that does not comply with new regulations, so make sure your advisor is truly in touch with the latest legislative developments.

Choose an ICO Advisory Group

Limiting yourself to just one expert is not an option in 2019. There are now advisory groups forming of the companies that will help you navigate the process. Advisory groups have more resources to help you and can see more of your potential blind spots than a single advisor.

There are many key factors to the success of your ICO, and while a single advisor may be very adept at helping with your marketing strategy, they may miss a major flaw on the technical side. Conversely, you might find the best ICO advisor on the technical side that will miss opportunities from a marketing and promotional standpoint. Choosing an established ICO advisors group will increase your chances of success.

Crypto trading can be done with ease once you master order books that display real-time information from buyers and sellers on cryptocurrency exchanges. An exchange order book might be confusing at first glance, though, but it’s mostly due to the fact that each exchange shows the information in different formats. It is important to spot the commonalities in every exchange book in order to decipher critical data.

Buy-side & sell-side
There are four main areas to note in an exchange order book: bid, ask, amount, and price. These can be found on both sides of the exchange book known as the buy-side (open orders created by buyers) and the sell-side (open orders created by sellers).

The bid
While reading the exchange order book, you’ll see the amount and price columns. They show the essential information about each order, that is, the amount of cryptocurrency that can be traded for a given price. Here, the buy-side will display what the buyer is willing to spend for each order, which is also known as the “bid.”

The ask
The sell-side must also be understood in order to read an exchange book. Here, the sell-side will display the price, or the “ask,” at which a seller is ready to offer their amount of cryptocurrency.

Effectively reading the order book can lead to more knowledgeable trading decisions. Check out more of trading tips and techniques here.

Crowdsale finished
genEOS Crowdsale Finished. Information for Investors

Dear genEOS supporters,

Thank you for your participation in the genEOS crowdsale. We appreciate your interest in the project.

We are sorry to communicate to you that genEOS didn’t reach the soft cap though we did our best to get maximum contributions.

We will be giving refunds on December 26-28, 2018.

Rest assured that you will be refunded the whole ETH amount you sent to the genEOS smart contract.

Thank you for your contribution and trust in the project!