Oil tycoon wades into crypto currency – any lessons for Ghanaians?

By Divine Sewornu Dzokoto

In spite of the perceived dangers concerning bitcoin, especially its price volatility, it seems the volatility is an attraction for some new entrants. Mr. Daniel Masters, 51, and his business partner, Russle Newton, run the Global Advisors bitcoin fund which buys and sells bitcoins to take advantage of its price movements.

It does seem like a pretty risky business venture, seeing that bitcoin price moves almost like a pendulum. Masters and Newton are not new to such uncertain terrains. In 1985, Masters started trading in oil at Shell, almost 30 years before cryptocurrency was launched. That was where he met Newton, a year later and in 1999, the pair set up the commodities fund, Global Advisors to trade in oil. The fund bought oil at $15.00 and $16.00, held onto it, to be delivered years later. They had bought over 1bn dollars.

Global Advisors was closed down in 2013 when investors withdrew their cash and oil prices peaked up. In 2014, Mr. Masters waded into cryptocurrency, choosing to trade in bitcoin. He is advocating a similar buy and hold strategy as he used in the oil trade.

Masters and his partner may have entered the bitcoin trade when the price was at $600.00 but the price has since plummeted to between $250.00 and $290.00. One needs a lot of guts to trade in such an environment but they both have the guts, having ever traded in the oil industry. If a business tycoon could enter the cryptocurrency industry, what about those who do not have much and wish to become rich?

Having the guts alone is not enough, one needs the financial clout. Most of us in Ghana do not have such a clout as Masters and Newton and we do not have the credit worthiness to attract huge funds. That is why we need a “Plan B”. Our “Plan B” is virtacoin. It is just a cryptocurrency like bitcoin. It is based on the same code base as bitcoin so it works almost exactly like it

Like bitcoins, the demand for virtacoins will increase as it is used across board. The use of virtacoins to pay for online services is going to spread like bushfire. Even foreign companies who would like to transfer profits but are restricted by central bank limits, may change their money into virtacoins and cash it outside. The cash remains in the system while they still get it outside Ghana, a win-win scenario, you might say.

The bottom line is that as interest grows, more people will need virtacoins. The more people want to buy virtacoins the more the price rises. There are only 21bn virtacoins that would ever be generated. Currently, over 11.4bn virtacoins have been mined and about 9.9bn are in circulation. This may mean almost 2bn virtacoins are being held by owners, waiting for price appreciation. This is where Mr. Masters and Newton’s strategy is valuable. Their strategy is to buy and hold bitcoins till price goes up. A virtacoiner must also buy and hold till price appreciates.

If, for example, you own and hold 200,000 virtacoins today and one virtacoin rises to say $2.00 then you will be GHc1,600,000.00 ($1.00=GHc4.0). Question is, if you have GHc 10.00 to get 200, 000 virtacoins, would you only get 200, 000 or would you get 10, 000, 000? Virtacoin is available in Ghana. Just Google “Buy virtacoins in Ghana” and you will find a seller. You could get between 50,000 and 200,000 virtacoins for GHc5.00. You could buy from Ghana easily.

Even those who do not have money but have smartphones, tablets, laptops and desktop computers with internet connectivity can get 200,000 virtacoins for free if they follow these steps.

1. Open an online wallet at www.virtacoinwallet.eu and copy your wallet address.

2. Open www.moonbit.co.in and paste your address where you are asked to paste your bitcoin address. Click sign up and the coins will begin to accumulate immediately.

3. Click "claim" every few hours and follow the prompt to claim your coins. Payment goes directly into your wallet every Sunday if your balance is 5500 or more.

NOTE: For the virtacoins to reflect in your account, write to admin@virtacoinwallet.eu or vtawallet@gmail.com and ask that your wallet be configured to receive bitcoins. Also ask for your PIN. You need the Personal Identification Number to spend your balance.

From the above, money should not be your excuse because you do not necessarily need money to take advantage of this unique opportunity. Apart from that, a cryptocurrency address is going to be a major requirement in the future, just like having an email address is now almost like a necessity. You may now want to open your personal virtacoin wallet.

You must remember that current payment settlement systems are decades old and only cryptocurrencies like virtacoin can integrate with our digital lifestyle in the 21st century and no digitally minded must be left behind.