Co Deposit Return Microsoft Word: Fill & Download for Free

I noticed that some of the answers to this question appear to be ads for services that help you publish —- for a fee. If you can use Microsoft Word, you can do all the formatting you need to produce ebooks for Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, and other sites. Or you can use an aggregator, such as Smashwords or Draft2Digital. None of the ebook reailers charge money to publish on their sites. Below is some information on the different sites.HOW ARE THE SITES THE SAME?When you create an account at an online bookseller, you will see that all sites have similar features. You start by creating a site profile and provide bank deposit and tax information. You can see a list of your published books (called a bookshelf or dashboard) and how many sold.Most pay sixty days after the end of a month. If you make more than a certain amount of money per year, you get a W-2. Some send it in the mail, some make an electronic copy available.You choose a royalty level, and it will vary with a book’s price. The lowest prices pay a smaller royalty percentage.You choose where to sell your book (US or World distribution), set the price, and decide whether to use digital rights management.Relatively new on most sites is the preorder option. This lets your book be seen (and ordered) before the first date of sale. All the sales are accrued for the first day of sale, which can lead to a higher sales ranking.Sites give you the option of loading an author profile and photo. Make sure to do that.Finally, you load in MS Word, but some sites are experimenting with having authors load ePubs. That would require additional software, so I will stick with Word.WHAT ARE SOME VARIATIONS?The formats used to load a book. If you use Word, use a doc file (Word 97-2003) file, not docx. Docx works, but sometimes has more formatting errors. Some sites let you load an epub, Google Play requires a PDF.The format(s) in which the retailer sells your book. This varies by the type of ereader a book buyer uses. For example, Kindle uses the MOBI format, Nooks use the ePub format.ISBN, specifically, whether they provide it, you do, or you can do without one.Royalty percentage and payment methods. Most (not all) pay 60 days after the end of a month. Some pay only to a bank account, some only to PayPal, some to either. If you make less than $10, the money rolls to the next month.LOADING TO AN INDIVIDUAL SITEOR USING AN AGGREGATORShould you use one (or more) of aggregators discussed here – Smashwords, Draft2Digital (D2D)?With an aggregator, you load a book once and it appears on many sales sites –such as Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Apple, Overdrive (for libraries), Scribd (a subscription service), and many more. Each sales point has its own web link for your book. A reader cannot tell whether you loaded your book to the site directly or via an aggregator.I have used Smashwords and tried D2D. You can use more than one aggregator. For example, I loaded a couple books to D2D to experiment, then put them on Smashwords and sell through it to the sites that D2D does not reach.The different markets to which aggregators load are referred to as your sales channels. It's not necessary to pick them all. For example, if you publish some books directly to BN, then you would not send the same book to BN via Smashwords or D2D.In my opinion, you would never load to Amazon via an aggregator (and in most cases you cannot). Amazon has so many tools for those who publish directly through it site – especially fairly quick response to questions, immediate sales reporting, and some marketing incentives.I generally go the aggregator route when I can (except for Amazon). Royalty rates are bit lower. However, having multiple loading points means if you find a typo you have to make a change lots of places. I like to keep things as uncomplicated as possible.That said, Kobo and BN have improved their upload sites and customer service, so I have begun to do direct uploads to them again.Below is some info on the individual sites.Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP)http://kdp.amazon.comFormat for upload: Microsoft Word (as a doc file, not docx). Epub upload in testing.Format Produced: MOBI (unique to Amazon). Books can also be downloaded to a computer as text or read in the Cloud.ISBN: Use your own ISBN, or go without. Amazon assigns an ASIN to each book. Many sites on which you advertise books will require the ASIN, not the ISBN.Royalties and payment: Amazon pays a 70% royalty for books priced from 2.99 to 9.99. For a 2.99 book, that’s $2.05 per sale. It pays 35% royalty for books priced less than 2.99 and those priced more than $9.99. For a 99 cent book, you make 34 cents. Amazon charges a small delivery fee, which is why the 70/35% royalties are not exactly that.In terms of customer service to publishers, when you are in your KDP account, Amazon has a contact link that permits you to send an email with questions. An Amazon publishing representative responds within a day or less, and answers are precise.The email service to publishers is only if you publish directly with Amazon. If you have a publisher who sells on Amazon for you, you must get all information from them.Amazon’s formatting guidance is below. It talks about saving your book in html. I have never done this, and didn’t know they suggested it until recently. I don’t use html except to add links to web sites.These are Amazon’s simplified formatting guidance. They are sufficient for novels.Preparation using a Microsoft operating systemhttp://www.amazon.com/dp/B007URVZJ6Preparation using a Machttp://www.amazon.com/dp/B00822K3Z0Amazon’s How-To Web Pageshttps://kdp.amazon.com/help?topicId=A37Z49E2DDQPP3Amazon’s overall publishing guidelines are very technical.These are updated periodically, and are for people producing what I would call complicated books – textbooks, comics, and a lot more. Candidly, I can barely understand them. It can be hard to find a link to these, so I have added the Amazon pdf as the last lecture in Section 7. I suggest you not view the document—it will make your head spin.Bottom line, the formatting steps in the lecture in Section 7 are provided in the order you would apply them, and seem simple to me. And I hope to you.Smashwordswww.smashwords.comFormat for upload: Microsoft Word (as a doc file, not docx)Formats produced: MOBI, ePub, PDF, Rich Text, Text, some older formats for defunct ereaders.ISBN: Free from Smashwords or use your own.Royalties and payment: For books sold directly through Smashwords, the royalty is 85% of the list price. For books sold through others it is 60%. Payments are quarterly to Pay Pal only, and are usually there by the 20th of the month following the end of the quarter. (Smashwords plans to move to monthly payments in 2017.)Using the Smashwords’ free ISBN means Smashwords is the formal publisher. They do not want you to say (in the inside cover) that it is the Smashwords Edition. I always mention my own publishing company, Lifelong Dreams Publishing.Though most books you load to Smashwords are sold at other retailers, you earn more when the books sell directly from Smashwords. A Smashwords customer can download a MOBI file and put it on their Kindle, but most prefer to buy directly from the company that made their ereader.At the bottom of the Smashwords page is a support link, for specific questions. Replies go to your email address. Next to the email entry point is a set of links to common help responses, which may answer your question.A huge advantage to Smashwords is that you can generate coupons for discounts or free books. Only those to whom you give the discount (or free) coupons can access them. If a coupon is promoted elsewhere without your knowledge and you are giving books to people other than those intended, just end the coupon.Smashwords has two levels of approval for you book files:· Computer file check known as "the meat grinder" or Auto Vetter. When the book passes, it is on sale at Smashwords immediately.· Premium distribution approval (for retailers beyond Smashwords). This takes a few days for new books, less for resubmissions.If meat grinder accepts the file, download the book (as an ePub, free to you) and examine formatting to be sure it appears as you intended. If not, changes needed (most often rogue font changes or excess spacing) will be obvious. Make them and reload.Don’t worry that the book has been on sale for ten minutes. When a customer buys a book, they get the most recent version.A common reason for rejection for premium distribution (the other sales channels) is having links to sites other than your own. You cannot even include links within Smashwords or web sites that do not sell books. Retailers (BN, itunes, etc.) want no mention of potential competitors. You can link to your own sites.You do want to include links to your other books. I refer to my website (www.elaineorr.com) or blog (http://elaineorr.blogspot.com). Within a website or blog, you can create separate pages for your books and insert those links when you mention titles of the books. Most authors list other titles at the end of a book.The Smashwords Style Guide gives the best overview for ebook publishing. (If you have an old version, download the new one. The instructions are crisper.)Why? It's clear and quirky, reflecting Smashwords’ founder Mark Coker’s humor. This encourages a straight read rather than looking for specific how-to info. You need an overview. It’s also long, so skim it initially, don’t try to learn it all.In July 2015, Smashwords produced a piece that takes writers from their co-publisher options to how the site is organized to how to market ebooks. Read it, at some point. Much of what is said applies to the ebook industry, in general. Don't go straight to marketing! Write a good book first.https://www.smashwords.com/about/how_to_publish_on_smashwordsSmashwords also offers (for free) a list of people who can help you for fees less than $40. I have used one artist for covers, no one for formatting.The list is at: https://www.smashwords.com/listSmashwords now links you to audiobook production via Findaway Audio.Draft2Digitalwww.draft2digital.comFormats for upload: PDF, Microsoft Word, rich textFormats produced: ePub, MOBI, or PDF file.ISBN: D2D will provide or use your own.Payment: PayPal, check, or direct deposit. ($25 threshold for checks.) The site says, “Our fee at most digital stores is approximately 10% of the retail price (it's technically 15% of the net royalties).” My royalty has been $1.78 per book priced at $2.99, which is only a penny less than Smashwords.Draft2Digital is also an aggregator, though it does not put you on as many retail channels as Smashwords. It has the major ones (BN, Kobo, itunes) and more and recently added Overdrive, for library distribution.A key advantage is that a human being will provide help if something goes wrong.I tested D2D with a document that had more formatting than a fiction piece, and it created lots of extra spaces and a few other problems. However, when I could not figure out how to fix it myself, D2D staff did. That was a big plus.I later loaded a work of fiction, and there were no problems other than those I created, noted when I previewed, and corrected. From what a couple of friends have said, this is the more typical experience.The only disadvantage I found with the fiction book was that it did not load to itunes after three weeks. I took it out of the D2D system, loaded it to Smashwords, and it was on itunes in three days. That may have been an anomaly.There is no style manual, and you are told to “do something distinctive” to mark chapter endings. This is a bit vague for me, but may suit you.Draft2Digital can also prepare a paperback. When they say one size fits all, they are being literal. When you finish your ebook, you download a pdf. If it looks okay you go with it, if not, you can work more with D2D, which the site says "takes longer."Similar to Smashwords, D2D has a list of partners who can edit or do covers (for a fee), but it's a shorter list. They recently added Findaway Voices as an audiobook partner.How to Publish with D2D: https://www.draft2digital.com/steps/Barnes and Noble Press (formerly Nook Press)https://press.barnesandnoble.com/Format for Upload: Microsoft Word (doc, docx, html, text, epub)Product: ePub.ISBN: Provide your own or publish without one. BN assigns a unique identifying number.Royalties and payment: Sixty-five percent for books priced from $2.99 - $9.99, and 40% for all other. Monthly (60 days after the end of a month) by direct deposit if you earn more than $10.There are some formatting variations for Barnes and Noble Press (such as section breaks only, no page breaks), so this is the site for which you make the most changes in the Digital Master File I show you how to create in the Section 7, Get Your Book Ready for Readers.There is an email for publisher support. Response time has improved substantially in recent times.More info at https://help.barnesandnoble.com/app/bnpress/main. This is a very well organized listing of information.Google Play Partner Programhttps://play.google.com/books/publish/Format produced: ePub or Adobe Digital Edition (a type of PDF file)Format for loading: ePub or PDF.ISBN: Use your own or publish without one. Google assigns its own unique identifier.Payment: Google pays 52% of your list price; if they offer a discount, you are still paid based on the price you set. Deposit to checking account monthly, seemingly before you make $10.You can use an existing Google account, such as Gmail, to register for Google Play.Books are sold for Android devices, such as Samsung or Nook. Google Play is not affiliated with any aggregators.When you load to Google Play you also place a book on Google Books. It contains many books not published on Google Play, and lets potential readers see more than a short preview. However, it's not always just the book's beginning, and for a couple of mine they had the end. Fine unless you write a mystery.The big caution about Google Play is that your list price is not what appears on their web site (though your royalty is based on the price you set).Why is this a problem? Most online booksellers require that no other digital sales point offers a lower price.When you price a book at $2.99 on Google Play they offer it at about $2.59. Thus, Amazon would match this and you'd only earn a 35% royalty on Amazon. Yikes! Amazon also sends you a note telling you your book is priced lower elsewhere. You don’t want that.A $3.93 price leads to a 2.99 list.I sell few books on Google Play compared to Amazon, but sales have picked up. I assume the more Android phones there are, the more Google Play book sales.The ebook version used for Amazon works, though if you have links to other books you’ll want them to be to the Google Play sales point. You probably don’t want to use the same ISBN you used for Amazon, though many people use one ISBN for all electronic editions.Google Play does have a help function, which leads to a live chat if you need it.https://support.google.com/books/partner#topic=3424344 Click on ‘contact’ in the upper right corner. The live chat people are very good.Kobohttps://kobowritinglife.com/File format produced: ePub.How you load: As an ePub or Word doc.ISBN: Provide your own ISBN or publish without one.Payment: Royalty of 70% for books priced $2.99 or above, 45% books below. (A more generous range for the higher royalty than the other retailers, and larger percentage for lower-priced books.) Only 20% for works in the public domain. Kobo uses a third party for payment. You have to accrue $50 in royalties. Funds are deposited to your bank account “45 days after the end of the applicable month.”The neat thing about Kobo is its strong presence in Canadian and UK markets.Kobo also lists your books on bookseller sites overseas, which you agree to when you list with them. Kobo books listed via Smashwords are also on multiple overseas sites.Kobo has revised its site (Kobo Writing Life) so that loading books is seamless, sales reporting is up to date, and questions sent to support are answered within one business day. Because it’s so easy, I have begun loading new books directly to Kobo rather than through Smashwords.Kobo (or its parent company, Rakutin Kobo, Inc.) owns Overdrive, the library site. I have begun listing with Overdrive directly through Kobo.IngramSparkwww.ingramspark.comFile Format for upload: ePub only. Really. They suggest ePub 2 or 3 (flowable text).File format produced: ePubISBN: Use your own.Payment: A low 40 percent as of 2017 (45% for print books)Fee: $25 for ebooks or $49 for ebook and paperA fee-based publisher (for paperbacks and ebooks), some authors use it for ebooks because they have put their print-on-demand paperbacks with IngramSpark. Why do paperbacks here when Amazon and Barnes & Noble offer free paperback publishing?Many book stores will not order from POD printers -- they accept no returns. Book stores do not want to be stuck with books they cannot sell. You can see their point.I tried IngramSpark for the second paperback edition of the first book of an older series. I wanted to see whether publishing there could lead to more paperback sales without a lot of returns, which take away from future royalties. (Complicated subject, could be a book in itself.)If you do a paperback through IngramSpark (for $49 if you load yourself and provide your own cover that meets their specifications), it may make sense to pay a fee for IngramSpark to distribute your ePub. I have not done an ePub file through IngramSpark, since all other sites are free and royalties are better.IngramSpark has telephone support, and the site has been redesigned several times to be more user-friendly.Additional info athttps://www.ingramspark.com/Portal/EPUBGuidehttp://www.ingramspark.com/how-it-worksHope this helps.Elaine L. OrrHomehttp://elaineorr.blogspot.com

Essentially Mr Balaji Viswanathan (பாலாஜி விஸ்வநாதன்) have used Per Capita Income as a means to determine whether a place is poor or rich.And at the same instance, he has also mentioned, a good percentage of people of Kerala do work outside. These two statements actually co-exist, making the first part go wrong in reality. Statistically what Balaji said is 100% truth which differs from reality.GDP per capita means taking entire GDP (Sum total of economic activities within territorial limits) and dividing with the total population. However this is a big poor estimate, as a huge percentage of economic activities of its population happens outside the state and its benefits transferred into the state, something not-so-common in other states.There are some states that do have a very larger percentage of its population living outside the state. For example, Punjab has nearly 1 crore (10 Million) punjabis living outside the state; Gujarat accounts almost 33% of entire Indian dispora living outside India.Yet when talking about NRIs, we often associate with only Malayalees more, rather than these much larger communities. The reason is simply because of the following. A majority of Malayalee NRIs are actually Indian Passport Holders, living mostly in Middle East where there is no concept of Permanent residency or citizenship. Where as Punjabi/Gujarati migrants, who are mostly in western hemisphere, where they are in majority, become either citizens of the country where they reside in or are permanent residents.This means, Malayalees NRIs (less than 2 Million) would essentially be connected back to their home much more than their Gujarati/Punjabi counterpart does.So unlike Gujarati/Punjabi NRIs who keep the large portion of their savings back in their country of residence, Malayalee NRIs contribute back to Indian economy, particularly Kerala economy via remittances. Approx 1.5 Lakh crore of NRI deposits has flown into Kerala banks untill March 2017.So naturally sum doesn’t get counted in GDP, which makes the per capita figures actually go down.There are has been many studies and reports that say, Kerala ranks higher when we talk in terms of Purchasing power and expenditure on consumables.Just for example (figures are that of 2011–2012 period; used to illustrate a point as the figures may have changed by now)Source: Development model? Half of Indian states' households have higher purchasing power than Gujarat: NSSOne can see, on average, every household in rural areas in Kerala spends nearly Rs 2669, while their counterpart in much more prosperous Gujarat spends Rs 1536. When it comes to urban area, Haryana looks higher with Rs 3,817 (due to presence of Gurgaon), but without a similar Gurgaon in Kerala, it ranks No 2 with Rs 3,408In short, the fact is that, People do have much larger income in their hands to dispose, which may not be seen in GDP per capita figures.Working outside is actually more of an aspiration today than a situation. I have explained this in another post of mineArun Mohan (അരുൺ മോഹൻ)'s answer to Why is Kerala not generating many jobs despite having India's highest literacy rate?I would just recollect a personal experience that happened to me a few days back. Last day for a trip to Guruvayur, I hired a driver from a travel agency to drive my car. While chit-chatting on the way, he said he isn’t a regular driver in the agency, rather a freelancer who works for multiple agencies apart from owning a personal car which he sometimes use for Uber/Ola drives in his free time. He was working in Saudi as a bus driver until 2014 and returned back to Kerala after losing his job. He said, for last 4 years, he is working as a freelance driver, making a sum of approx 40K per month, which is a pretty decent amount in India.However he got a job in Qatar recently and will be leaving by Dec 2018. I asked why he is planning to go to Doha when he makes Rs 40K per month back at home? He said, the salary offered to him is QAR 5500 including OT, which means he will be making approx Rs 1 Lakh per month. 5500 Qatari Riyals is not a huge money in Qatar. Its a basic level, but its forex makes that into a huge sum in India, that's almost more than double what he earns in Kerala. So why should he stay back in the state?Imagine a driver from lower economic strata of the society, who just had an ITI + driving licence as his formal qualification making Rs 1 Lakh per month, a sum which normally highly qualified technical professionals or doctors earn in India. This opportunity has pushed the income of many commoners, ordinary people with average educational background to levels of professionals as elsewhere in India. This enlarges the common man’s prosperity.So the key part of the question, is KERALA POOR?Not really. One can see the below chart for it presented by Dr. Aravind Subramanian, former Chief Economic Advisor of India during a meeting at IIT-DelhiSource : Setback to claimants of ‘Gujarat model’: New Rangarajan committee report on BPL suggests Gujarat has slipped in rural povertyYes, Kerala has lowest number of poor people in India among the bigger states. Its second in total after counting small state- Goa as number 1.Kerala has featured the least poor as per the Multi-Dimensional Poverty Index across India even in dynamic terms. In fixed terms, its only 1%.In terms of HDI, Kerala ranks closer to China and far above other states. This itself has a meaning.http://www.iitd.ac.in/CEAIITD/pdfs/3/State_of_States_v9.pdfHigher Human indices means higher human aspirations, which cannot be catered with traditional offerings. For example, getting a job of line mechanic for Rs 15K in a factory like KIA Motors may enthrall a vocational educated person in AP, which will definitely not enthrall a Malayalee in same level. This is because he is aware, for same level of hardwork, he can earn double or triple sum in other parts of the world. Equally the higher human index brings the awareness of rights which does not work for industries that look for exploitation. What's the USP of bringing many industries into many parts of India? The often quoted word is cheap labour, cheap resources.If you have an European standards of Human index, can you offer cheap labour and cheaper resources? Definitely not !!! Rather they demand facilities and social privileges as equal to European level which negates the very reason to bring the unit to India.This is one key reason that Kerala can’t have many large manufacturing industries. I have explained that part in another post of mine in detail.Arun Mohan (അരുൺ മോഹൻ)'s answer to Why is Kerala not so developed industrially like Tamil Nadu?Saying so, I must agree to Balaji, there are many inefficiencies and flaws that exist in Kerala, reducing its true potentiality. If not large mega factories, probably larger IT/Knowledge units could come up in that place that may not exploit as to levels of manufacturing industry.Kerala’s future lies in developing such service sectors in a big way. It must focus heavily on logistics, technology and service sectors like banking, education etc. Many older concepts that prevail in this sector which actually hinders must go. There are so many examples why many things don’t simply work in India. For example Kerala started India’s first trans-shipment terminal in Kochi in 2011, but for nearly 2 years India’s finance ministry and commerce ministry were at feuds over the status of cabotage relief, which hampered its economic potential in a big way during its early days. These kinds of issues do exist in India, due to which we cannot be compared with much autonomous or relatively easier- California of US.Yes, Kerala government cannot start so many industries and companies to employ people, rather private ventures in these sectors must come up and provide equal opportunities as government would do and there should be a paradigm shift in such policy factors.I think, Kerala’s ruling class have realized that for a longer time and started working towards it. And the best example of recent times is global Car giant- Nissan Motors deciding to invest in Kerala for its Electronic/technology research development center in the state which would directly employ 10k along with its direct partners and indirectly employ 50k.More than bringing such majors, I see a radical shift in approach of welcoming such investors. The government started talking a personalized initiatives for it, which rarely happened before.How Kerala got the Nissan dealThis is giving a strong confidence to more investors into KeralaAfter Nissan, Microsoft also wants to come to Kerala: Pinarayi VijayanKerala do not follow Bangalore Model or Hyderabad model by putting all eggs in one basket. Due to which there is a loss of synergies of not having 1+1=3 model. But still it helps in maximum development across the state, thus there is a strong inclusive growth thats spread across the state.Arun Mohan (അരുൺ മോഹൻ)'s answer to Why is Thiruvananthapuram, as capital, unable to compete with Bengaluru, Chennai, and Hyderabad?So even if we don’t have one mighty Bangalore in Kerala, we are slowly marching in creating multiple hubs like Trivandrum Technopark which employees approx 1 Lakh people, Infopark in Cochin employing nearly 50K, Kozhikode Technology parks employing nearly 10–15k ETC. If we have followed a Bangalore model, probably these employments concentrating in one place, say 2 to 3 lakh IT employment in one single place may push huge multiplier effect which also increases the visibility factor of having large metro city.But our model of development isn’t that way. We believe maximum distribution of resources, so as we don’t create a potential division problem like North Karnataka vs Old Mysore debate as of today or Telangana vs AP issue of yesterday.So essentially we are happy that we aren’t poor in total, so as we aren’t damn rich limited to few pockets.But essentially there are miles more to go to reach our most deserving place.

Four reasons why it’s still profitable to invest in cryptocurrencyBefore i continue, let me introduce you to a platform i discovered where you can sell your Bitcoin and other top Cryptocurrencies at the exact rate in dollars any where in the world. The website is IBUYCRYPTO (www.ibuycrypto.store). It is safe and secure. The interesting part of it is that, you don’t have to drop your vital informations before you sell to them. You sell and get your money directly sent to your bank account immediately your deposit is confirmed. You can also sell and request the money is sent to someone else. Thank me later after using this platform.#1: Blockchain is the futureProbably you don’t even really know what a blockchain is right now. That’s why I’ll explain it to you briefly (quite simply, not too technically detailed): The Blockchain stands for decentralization, unchangeability and transparency. All possible data can be collected, verified (confirmed) and viewed. And all this without an intermediary who controls everything and who you have to trust (for example a bank). In the case of Bitcoin, transactions are processed in the blockchain, but it can also be used for completely different things and is actually already used elsewhere. Thus, the second largest cryptocurrency “Ethereum” is based on a blockchain which allows you to create decentralized “Smart Contracts”. In normal language this simply means that it is possible to process certain procedures (contracts) via this blockchain – completely transparent, clear and automatic – without an intermediary. For example, you could sell a house without a notary. Or you could have something as simple as a coffee machine brewing a fresh coffee every morning and paying for that all by itself. Sounds really cool, doesn’t it? If that got your attention, here I have an interesting Forbes article for you on what actually is already possible and built on the blockchain:#2 The Bitcoin is the mother of all cryptocurrencies & limited: Enforcement as an investmentBitcoin is currently the largest, most popular and best-known cryptocurrency – the undisputed number 1 with a current market share of 37.1% (source: Coinmarketcap). But that’s not what makes it so valuable. In fact, the bitcoin is currently technically at a disadvantage compared to some other cryptocurrencies. By this I mean that a larger Bitcoin transaction can quickly cost you two dollars or more in fees if you also want it to be relatively quick. Competitors such as Litecoin also manage to execute very large sums quickly and easily with only a few cents of fees. But the Bitcoin has two attributes that make it so incredibly valuable:1. Bitcoin is the Mother Of All Cryptocurrencies.The very first. And that’s probably why, even if there will be an offshoot (or state cryptocurrencies) later on, it will still have a high status. Because the Bitcoin has ushered in this new era. In fact, I guess Bitcoins won’t establish itself as an everyday currency – since the state will probably just bring out its own cryptocurrency – but I think that in the future Bitcoin could function as an investment opportunity like gold for example. Because at the moment bitcoins are actually used for the most part as just that.2. The number of bitcoins is predefined, or as marketers would probably say: strictly limited.This is another feature that makes Bitcoin such an extremely lucrative investment. There are only 21 million pieces, there can and will never be more. Strictly speaking, these 21 million do not even exist at the moment – because bitcoins are still created through what is known as “bitcoin mining”. According to blockchain there are currently about 16,750,000 BTC (short for Bitcoins) in circulation. That makes 4.250.000 BTC which still have to be mined. According to calculations, the last bitcoin block (in the “block”chain) is to be mined around 2140 – so it will take more than a century. But this is only because the number of bitcoins distributed per block for the miners is halved about every 4 years. This means that by 2036 more than 99% of all coins will already be in circulation. But enough with the numbers, this limitation is a feature that is extremely popular among gold investors, for example. And bitcoin has exactly the same. If you only get one, you’ll already have one of 21 million. Not so little.#3 An entire state already relies on cryptocurrencies: VenezuelaVenezuela has been in a major crisis for some time. To be more precise in two: The state is in an absolutely bad state, politically as well as economically. Economically, the country is now trying to save itself with the help of a cryptocurrency: it is called “Petro”. That’s the Venezuelan word for oil. As the name suggests, the cryptocurrency is to be covered by oil reserves, mineral and diamond deposits – because Venezuela is the country with the largest oil reserves. Head of state Nicolas Maduro – obviously a crypto fan – is trying to do something like this against the high inflation of the national currency, because it has lost 1000% in value last year. Bitcoins in return have gained about 1000% in value.#4 The crypto market is already being covered by companies worth billions and is meeting with approvalCryptocurrencies may be very new, but the Internet is fast moving. Several companies which operate with enormously high sums have already formed in the crypto market – a large part of those sums in cryptocurrencies, of course. Meanwhile, the Austrian Dr. Julian Hosp should no longer be an unknown face even in Germany – where the crypto fever can still be felt the least. The co-founder of TenX has already been to GEDANKENtanken or Galileo and his company is now worth over half a billion euros. TenX offers credit cards that allow you to shop conveniently in non-virtual life using cryptocurrencies. At REWE, for example, you could use your credit card to pay for your weekend purchases via Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. And I think you’ll be able to think of at least one big company where you’ve already seen a “Bitcoin accepted here” button, right? Be it Microsoft, Steam or Wikipedia. Cryptocurrencies are simply becoming popular and more and more trusted by the general public. I am firmly convinced that they will succeed. And that bitcoins will also establish themselves as an investment option