Earlier this week, the BTC to US dollar exchange rate dipped below $200, a level unprecedented since the value of the cryptocurrency rose past $1,000 as an effect of its popularity as a fast and cheap means of online fund exchange. By January 15, the BTC:USD exchange was at about $170, thereafter hovering to around $200.

This is about an 82% drop in value since the currency’s peak of $1,130 in 2014, and about 76% drop in value since the same time in January 2014, during which BTC was at $850. Just mid-Devember, Bitcoin was trading at about $350, however, which means the drop was not as drastic month-on-month.

Bitcoin is sensitive to both positive and negative news about cryptocurrencies, and this drop has coincided with the opening statements of the criminal case against Ross Ulbricht, the alleged founder behind dark website Silk Road. In the same case, Mt. Gox founder Mark Karpeles has been implicated as having possible links to being Silk Road’s “Dread Pirate Roberts”.

Such severe fluctuations in Bitcoin’s value have mired the image of the cryptocurrency as unstable, and therefore inadequate as a form of monetary exchange. While fluctuations have been used by speculators as a means to gain from any rise in value, a decline in the price of BTC often results in negative repercussions, not only for those who hold on to Bitcoin in the hopes of the value appreciating, but also for the community surrounding the cryptocurrency, too.

Feeling the crunch

Startups and individuals that have invested in the cryptocurrency are feeling the crunch, however. Bitcon mining startup CEX.IO, for example, has temporarily suspended mining operations, citing that this is “the result of cloud mining costs exceeding mining profit.”

Bitcoin is not the only currency that is currently being hit hard with wide fluctuations. The Russian Ruble, for example, lost value in the wake of the Ukraine-related crisis, as well as embargoes imposed in relation to the issue. Even the Swiss Franc has sharply gained 20% in only a few days time due to the Swiss central bank’s lifting of the currency’s cap against the Euro.

This fluctuation has badly affected exporters and several hedge funds heavily invested into the Franc. Everest Capital’s Global Fund, which had about $830 million in assets as of end-2014, lost almost all its money with the Franc’s rise. FXCM reported having $225 million in “negative equity balances” from clients, necessitating a $300 million emergency loan to cover its losses. And this is all because of a supposedly stable currency suddenly gaining.

The future of Bitcoin

While the Bitcoin crash has spelled doom for some, others are unfazed. Jerry Brito has written on Wired, for example, that the price of Bitcoin does not matter at this time, as it is still in its early stages as a technology. He goes to cites parallels between Bitcoin and the Web, which suffered setbacks in its infancy, with the only difference being that Bitcoin comes with a dollar value attached to it. With a longer time-frame to consider, he says, short-term rallies and crashes should not mar Bitcoin’s potential as a technology, not just as a cryptocurrency.

For some, the inherent value of Bitcoin is not its tradable dollar value, but as a fast and inexpensive means of exchange. NewsBTC‘s Trevor Alpeter, for instance, has concerns with the price drops in the short term. However, he cites the possibility of better regulatory environment and support for Bitcoin, as well as an better acceptance among the venture capital community as potential drivers for growth in the long term. It’s the underlying technology that will ultimately spell long-term success for the cryptocurrency.

This has been demonstrated with how some startups have experimented with sidechains, considered to be a protocol for powering next-generation Internet services, and potentially unifying alternative cryptocurrencies, the so-called alt-coins.

Is this a sign of things to come for both financial markets and the cryptocurrency community? Perhaps these are unexpected shocks, but, at least for Bitcoin, there is hope that things will normalize in the end.

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A Chinese tech investment group has invited Israeli startups to pitch their companies at Google’s (NASDAQ: GOOGL) Tel Aviv Campus on January 15 to a panel of investors and professionals from both countries.

The committee will select 10 startups to present their pitch live online to Zhongguancun Private Equity & Venture Capital Association’s (ZVCA) annual conference. ZVCA has over 1,000 members and $15 billion in assets under its management.

Meanwhile, Chinese state media is reporting the government intends to start negotiations for a free trade deal with Israel this year. China – the world’s second largest economy – has been aggressively pursuing closer diplomatic and economic ties with Israel in recent years. China’s attention has been particularly focused on the vibrant technology industry that has won Israel the nicknames of Startup Nation and Silicon Wadi.

The Israeli government has welcomed China’s interest with open arms. Israel’s Economy Minister Naftali Bennett described the two countries “natural partners for technological and business cooperation” during a visit to China in late November.

In addition, bilateral trade surpassed $8 billion last year. Israel’s blossoming trade with China contrasts with the threat of boycotts from Europe and the United States over the lack of progress in talks with the Palestinians.

However, Israeli companies remain concerned by Chinese threats to intellectual property. Last year, Maryland-based security firm Cyber Engineering Services, Inc. (CES) accused the People’s Liberation Army Unit 61398 – state-sponsored hackers going by the alias of Comment Crew – of stealing sensitive information from 2011 to 2012 from three Israeli defense companies responsible for the Iron Dome anti-missile system.

The U.S. Justice Department indicted five prominent military members of the group last May on charges of economic espionage for hacking several American companies. As the United States has the power to veto defense deals involving American technology, Israeli companies are likely to proceed cautiously in seeking Chinese funding.

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The Taiex closed up 38.83 points, or 0.41% at 9,307.26 on turnover of US$1.87 billion on Dec. 31.

Transportation sector extended its gains after international crude oil prices fell to their lowest level in more than five years overnight.

At 11:18am on Dec. 31, the transportation sub-index had risen 1.28% to 90.70 on the Taiex, while the broader market’s weighted index had lost 0.04% to 9,265.16.

Evergreen Marine Corp (TPE: 2603) had gained 1.81% to US$0.71, while Yang Ming Transport Corp (TPE: 2609) had gained 0.9% to US$0.56.

Meanwhile, China Airlines (CAL)(TPE: 2610) gained 3.21% to US$0.48 and EVA Airways (EVA)(TPE: 2618) had risen 2.09% to US$0.73.

While the international crude oil prices tumbling for the second consecutive day, the prices for West Texas Intermediate in the U.S. and Brent crude in the Europe fell 1.7% and 2%, at one point overnight to their lowest levels in five and half years. The downtrend resulted from a forecast made by the American Petroleum Institute that U.S. crude oil inventories could rise about 800,000 barrels to 387.3 million barrels.

Yuanta Investment Consulting said that fuel costs account for 40% to 45% of airlines’ operating costs and 20% of shippers’ operating costs. Yuanta said that for every 1% fall in crude oil prices, the profits for EVA, CAL, Evergreen and Yang Ming will rise 1.2%, 1.7%, 1.6% and 1.3%.

To compare with the figures on the last day for 2013, the Taiex is up 695.75 points or 8.08% with a total value of US$77 billion. Each investor earned an average of US$8,267 during the past year, while there are a total of 9.43 million registered investors for the Taiex.

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When we look at the world of covering technology today, we see that (unfortunately) most of the media and worse, paid up blogs and forum shilling tactics, are smothering the information which the public should receive.

It is hard to get information when technology sites have to live off selling ads in exchange for a set number of awards per year (in all of its five and a half years, Bright Side of News* received plenty of those offers from Far East), or even worse, unmarked advertorials.

We all live in a period of time when the amount of respect for a profession of journalism is at an all-time low. To make the matters worse, everyone can state even the craziest conspiracy theory and hope for a “repeated truth” syndrome to take place. Quite often, false news will get even the most brilliant engineers go on a self-destructive tangent.

When looking to invest in an organization, you’re often met with shady business practices. In media, this typically means journalists and bloggers (based in foreign offices) are doing visa runs because the parent company often doesn’t even legally exist in a territory from where the content is created. Then, an investor will face off difficulties with due diligence when the contracts signed with off-shore authors are illegal in the countries where the parent companies are.

As you can read, with this type of structure it is almost impossible to pass due diligence check from any serious investor. And from my stand point, there are only two options: cry over spilled milk, or put the money where the mouth is and create a working framework where people are respected from both sides of the fence. Products, technologies and maintaining the integrity of the said individuals is of paramount importance.

Our New Framework

Starting today, we are executing a roadmap which will see us split into three directions. Bright Side of News*, which 1.67 million of you came to trust, is going to evolve to cover the financial aspect of the industry.

What does a technology or a product mean for you? Should you invest in companies that we report on – that advice is not something we can legally do – we can give you our honest opinion, and we will not hold stock in companies we report about. Especially not when it comes to shorting the stock to make a quick buck (something which AMD is especially fragile from, and Intel barely made an escape from that zone). For any potential investor looking to come to technology, we would advise you to read The Wolf of Wall Street first amongst others.

We are expanding our focus from United States to cover what is really going on in countries which you read on the sidelines, but no one actually goes there and reports how it will affect you. We live in a global economy and you deserve coverage from everywhere.

West (Coast) Meets (Far) East

As of this moment, we are setting up offices throughout the Asia-Pacific (including Singapore, Hong Kong, Taipei, Taiwan and Shenzhen). Coming on board to report from Taipei will be Sam Reynolds as well as Chris Low and Han-Wei Tsai for BSN*’s new Chinese section.  A roster of reputable technology journalists with bylines you will recognize will be complimenting their coverage from around the world.

Now is a time of transition, so Bright Side of News* will be a temporary home for two teams of journalists as we put the finishing touches on a new publication. As you might notice, content will be temporarily in both English and Chinese for the next couple of weeks.

Next, we are launching several new business units, including Special Industry Groups (SIGs), which will work hard with the key industry players to bring new technology to the market in the most compatible way. In order to stay true to our path of independence and unbiased views, any technology we deliver on the market will not be directly reviewed by us (as an actual product we will write about what makes the technology tick).

Instead, we will launch a program that puts the technology in the hands of people. We want to hear what you think about the products and technologies that are coming to market.

Over the past two years, BSN* hosted several dozen giveaways where we tried to remove the regional locks which were the bane of most readers, and I cannot express my gratitude to over 2000 people that wrote to us about having a fair approach and often paying hundreds of dollars in shipping cost to the winner. Come to that, I believe the craziest package we ever sent was to a Swedish doctor working in Botswana. How in the world he ran a 3D Mark Vantage benchmark of a diesel generator, we’ll leave that one for you.

Thus, let’s move on together. I wish to thank you for five and a half years of supporting our efforts to remain independent and unbiased, and let’s jointly work on many more years to come.

Thank You,

Theo Valich
Co-Founder and Publisher, Bright Side of News*

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