Clearly, the crypto world is still in its initial stages of development and adoption. The role of Trend Disruptors is to provide impartial information, so investors can better weigh the dangers and the future potential of this very volatile sector, one that we have labelled the “wild west.’ If you’re willing to accept the risks, you can look forward to serious profit opportunities.

Crypto currencies hold great promise for the future. They can revolutionize money, infusing discipline into monetary policy. Unfortunately, the crypto space also has a dark side. It suffers from loose standards, questionable operators, excessive hype, and occasional market crashes. Also, buying the actual crypto currencies can be a cumbersome process, and as noted below, governments are now stepping in, trying to figure out how they can take a chunk of that action as taxes, fees, or some yet to be created method of taking your money from you.

If buying the actual CCs is not your cup of tea, understand that over the next few years we expect that the majority of the recommendations in the  Trend Disruptors Premium service will come from blockchain, and other technological advances that will change the way we do business, much the same way that the internet has revolutionized our lives.

Times change, technologies evolve. Ten years ago there were no mobile apps, or data clouds. Today we have robots, which are changing the way people do business, in everything from manufacturing to drones. In China, face-detecting systems can now authorize payments, provide access to facilities, and track the movements of every single person in a smart city. Soon we will be passengers in driverless buses and cars.

We will also see cloud-based AI services, which will make artificial intelligence tools available to a wide range of businesses. And even “Dueling Neural Networks”, a breakthrough in artificial intelligence that allows AI to create images of things it has never seen, giving AI a sense of imagination.

There will be some serious privacy, security, and other issues that will need to be addressed as we step into the next evolution of technology advances, but as an investor, each of these advancements gives you the opportunity to make massive gains. The key is to get in early with the right companies, in the right technological trend.

Be clear here, while some of the stocks we will be recommending in Trend Disruptors Premium will be known leaders in their field, other stocks will be unknown and unproven technology stocks that are not on the radar of the masses.

Many of these companies you’ve never heard of will be household names in just a few years.

If you would like to join us, as we ride the wave of the next technological trends, we have re-opened our Special Offer where you can subscribe to Trend Disruptors Premium and save $175 and pay only $525. Click here to take advantage of this offer.

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It’s tax time – are you ready for CC craziness? 

Crypto currency (CC) investors have a lot to think about with the tax implications of buying and selling crypto coins.  Many governments are still deliberating about how to get in on the action – in the form of taxation.  They know there is big money at stake, and they know they are going broke, so they sure don’t want to miss out.  There seems to be no simple answer that all governments can agree on.  Should CC’s be treated as currency, as a commodity, as a security, as property, or some combination thereof?

For example, here is what’s happening in the USA.  In 2014 the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) determined that “convertible virtual currency”, such as Bitcoin, will be treated as property.  This decision means that purchases using CC’s are subject to capital gain (or loss) and investment tax treatment, with all the associated reporting requirements.  Given that there are many retailers who now accept CC’s as payment, this means that the IRS requires everyone to do all this when spending their CC:

• record the amount of coins spent
• allocate the cost basis of the coins spent
• subtract the cost basis of the coins spent from the actual price paid
• report the difference to the IRS, and calculate the capital gain or loss, factoring in the date of when the coins were purchased

This all goes in your annual tax return, and you must pay the taxes owed, or claim the capital loss.  All this work is generated by the consumer’s choice of “payment method”.  Many analysts and commentators are calling this a prohibitive, crazy, quagmire.  Can you imagine the nightmare if you purchased two cups of coffee every day, using Bitcoin as your payment method?  You might need an army of accountants.

In the USA there are going to be other problems, as there are four departments that want to treat CC’s in their own special way:

• The Commodity Futures Trading Commission views CC’s as a commodity
• The Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) is treating “some” coins as a security
• The Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has stated that “certain activities involving convertible virtual currency constitute money transmission”
• as shown above, the IRS insists on treating CC’s as property

So here we have four different, inconsistent categories for the same thing, which prompts us to remind you to carefully check what’s happening with the CC tax rules in your jurisdiction.  We can’t promise you that it will make sense, or be easy to understand.  It is another example of the “wild west” nature of this market space.

Stay Tuned!