I would like to start by wishing readers a very prosperous 2018. This sounds really good but what does it mean? Where are the opportunities and how will you take advantage of them?

Whenever I think of investment opportunities I’m forced to reflect upon the underlying business models being adapted. Whether it comes to domains, crypto-currencies or anything else it’s the business models which ultimate will or will not produce the results we all dream of at the beginning of the year.

Let’s tackle the domain investment business models:

Development
For the past year and a bit, I’ve been working on a platform for better monetising domain traffic. The key here was to build a platform that more accurately understood the traffic while at the same time building both immediate and residual revenue. I can only say, watch this space…..as my first evolution of this will be launched shortly.

I've received quite a lot of feedback on my previous article on Bitcoin and rather than reply to them I thought it would be best to write a follow-up article. Most of the comments I've received mistakenly construed the fact that I was drinking the Bitcoin Kool-aid and that we should all buy, buy and buy some more before it's too late.


Bitcoin, like fiat currency, at its core is a concept. If enough people buy into the concept, then it has value. What I was commenting in my previous article is not whether you should buy or not but whether the Bitcoin was going to go up. All the indicators from volume of transactions (both monetarily and value) are still rapidly going heading north which suggests a growing demand for essentially a dwindling supply.

The reduction is supply is largely due to people holding their coins in the belief the price will continue to rise. Why sell today when you can sell tomorrow for $1,000 more.

Until the "currency" stabalises the dream of Bitcoin being used to buy a cup of coffee will remain just that, a dream. The wild hourly swings mean Bitcoin is largely driven by speculation.....the question is when will the speculation tap out…..as it must.

I’ve been reading a lot about the various cryptocurrencies and trying to dig through the misinformation to get to the bedrock of what’s going on. The first thing I’d like to say is cryptocurrencies are a complete game changer for the world financial system…..ignoring them may well be detrimental to your business.

For those of you wondering….at its simplest level the blockchain operates in a similar fashion to the DNS that most domain investors are familiar with. There are additional levels of cryptography added (sort of like DNSSEC) to ensure transactions are legitimate but what it all boils down to is a ledger of transactions held by a distributed computer network.

I would like to wish all the readers of Whizzbangsblog, members of the Domainers Network and sponsors a very Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year. I can’t believe another year is over and NamesCon 2018 is just around the corner.

Both Roselyn and I were just so proud and happy for our son Timothy marrying his wonderful bride, Ruth, on her mother’s farm. It was an incredibly joyous occasion that caused me to reflect on three words that are very appropriate to the Christmas season and principles I try to abide by in my own life, “truth, trust and learning”.

You can’t have a relationship, whether it’s with your wife, kids, business partner, colleagues, or other companies without being truthful. Taking the more difficult road of telling the truth in a manner that it can be received will pay massive dividends in your relationships over the years to come.

If Roselyn never knew whether I was telling her the truth, then what would my marriage of 30 years be built upon? It’s exactly the same with business relationships. There needs to be a level of transparency where the other party is confident you are telling them the truth.

There’s been a flurry of activity on the Domainers Network with individuals joining groups, making friends and doing some business together. I’ve always wanted to create a social network for just domain investors and those in the domain industry and now it looks like it’s all coming together.

If you are a part of the Domainers Network you will also see a lot of articles, videos etc. posted from research that I’ve been conducting on a wide range of topics. Anything from ICANN news right through to cryptocurrencies….if I think it’s an interesting read then I’ll post it in the Network. I would like to encourage others to also post interesting articles that they find as well.

You can view the list of public groups by clicking on the menu item....also anyone can create their own group and set it to be either public or by invitation only. For instance, I’ve just added a public group called Crypto-currencies as a place to post and discuss anything about cryptos such as bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple etc. After creating the group I then posted a poll question asked whether Bitcoin is going to go above $25,000?