Beyond Bitcoin: A Quick Guide to Getting Started with Cryptocurrencies

COPYRIGHT © 2018 | VIACREST CAPITAL LP ▪ 720 KING ST. W #2000 ▪ TORONTO ON ▪ M5V 3S5 ▪ CANADA

Viacrest Capital is a multi-strategy alternative

investment firm with a dedicated focus on

Blockchain Technologies and Digital Assets

including but not limited to Cryptocurrencies.

Our portfolio and investment strategies have been

designed to optimize liquidity and manage

volatility while delivering risk-adjusted capital

growth.

Despite the numerous doom and gloom

prognostics by many from the mainstream

financial press, we believe that Crypto as a means

of exchange is here to stay and will soon be an

integral participant within the wider global

economy.

We are in it for the long run!

LEGAL DISCLAIMER

The information provided in this deck is provided for educational and informational purposes only, without any express or implied warranty of any kind including (but not limited to) warrantiesof accuracy, completeness or fitness for any particular purpose. The information contained in or provided from or through this presentation is not intended to be and does not constitutefinancial, investment, trading or any other advice.

This presentation is general in nature and is not specific to you, the user, or anyone else.

Investments in digital assets such as (but not limited to) cryptocurrencies and tokens are unregulated and highly speculative instruments, carrying a high degree of volatility and risk. Beforeparticipating in such investment strategies, please practice due diligence and invest at your own risk. These programs have varying degrees of risk ranging from low to high risk depending onthe daily return, honesty and integrity of the owner/s and business model such as mining , trading or sale of goods and services. When you are signing up for such investment programs you aredoing so at your OWN risk.

Investing and Trading in digital assets such as cryptocurrencies, protocols and/or tokens may or may not be legal in your jurisdiction of citizenship and/or residence. Please research allapplicable laws as a part of your due diligence.

There is a potential of losing your invested capital in the event of business failure or closure of the sponsoring organization of your underlying crypto asset. Dealing with alternative investmentssuch as digital assets is not suitable for all people. Individuals should seek independent financial or professional advice before undertaking any investments.

Get the Gist on Cryptos Keeping you Informed

Keeping it Real

Keeping it Visual

Keeping it Simple

While Weeding out the Fluff!

Sure you’ve heard of Bitcoin. You probably have even heard of theBlockchain too. But whether you go on Google, Wikipedia, YouTube orany of the other thousands of blogs and websites, you will getoverwhelmed with information overload!

Do you really need to flip through hundreds of online and offline pagesto get started with cryptocurrencies? Do you have days, weeks andmonths to spare to go through it all?

There’s just too much out there for busy investor, an executive decisionmaker or just simply any individual lacking the time of day.

Viacrest Capital has put together this deck with the aim of helping youget introduced to the complex world of digital asset management andcrypto investing. We hope that you will benefit from this short, clear,concise and visual introduction, and help you get started, withoutgetting too technical!

CONTENTS

Beyond Bitcoin

Introduction

Crypto Landscape

Investing

The Future

The History of Money and How we got to Crypto

Cryptocurrencies : Bitcoins & Altcoins. But why?

How to Buy, Sell, Trade and Store your Cryptos

Cryptos as an Asset Class to Boost Your Portfolio

Market Analysis: Investment Opportunities & Risks

Will the Crypto Asset Bubble Pop?

Stop Worrying : How You and Your Business can Benefit

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

Cryptocurrency Design and How it all Works

6000 BC - BARTER SYSTEM

• Simply System: Every individual producedgoods that they specialized in and theywould trade it for stuff they’d need

• But Some Flaws: no common unit of value,dependent on mutual agreement

• Also goods were often perishable and hadlimited shelf-life. It was difficult to timeproduction with supply & demand

• Security also was not assured: goods couldbe stolen

THE HISTORY OF MONEYAnd how we got to Cryptos!

Introduction

600 BC – GOLD COINS

• Had the advantage of being non-perishablebut also a mutually agreed upon commonunit of value

• It was also Non-Inflationary: the limitedamount of gold reserves would controlsupply while increasing demand

• But it had its inconveniences: it was heavyto transport, expensive to mine and itcould easily be stolen

960 AD – PRINTED CURRENCY

• Due to the difficulties in transporting gold,paper-based IOU’s were created as anexchange contract for gold.

• While these notes were fairly cheap toproduce, they did not solve the securityconcerns with Barter or Gold as thesenotes could be easily stolen as well.

1700s – CHEQUES

• Most similar to todays Bitcoin in the senseof security as cheques would specify thesender and receiver as well as providesignature authorization

• Still some drawbacks as signatures could befaked as well as the risk of issuance of NonSufficient Fund (NSF) cheques.

1950s – 1990s PLASTIC & DIGITAL

• Credit/Debit cards and the distribution ofATM’s worldwide have facilitated the adoptionof paying with plastic. Modern Banking hasfurthermore implemented various protectionmeasures so as to reduce fraudulentelectronic transactions.

• Additionally the Internet has facilitatedinternational payment solutions on worldwidecommerce.

• However cross-border transactions are stillsubject to high transaction fees not tomention inter-bank delays in paymentclearance and settlement.

TODAY & TOMORROW

• BITCOIN & CRYPTOCURRENCIES are digital,decentralized stores of values gainingincreasing popularity and adoption. Thefaith of the market participants ultimatelydetermine their value.

• Cryptocurrencies provide enhancedsecurity and to some degree, anonymity asit employs complex hash cryptographywhen compared with traditional money.Also transaction costs are lower as thereare no banking intermediaries.

CRYPTOCURRENCY DESIGNUnderstanding the Various Parts and how They all fit Together

Distributed Applications (dApps) quite often have their own application tokensbased on the Ethereum backbone, also known as smart-contracts. There is ablurry line as to what is an application token vs. what is a cryptocurrency.While application tokens give the holder rights to transact and use a givensystem, they are increasingly used as tradeable instruments on variouscryptocurrency exchanges.

Essentially they are units of digital currency. These “coins” are not physical; norare they on any hard drive somewhere (not even on your PC!). The transactionrecords are essentially its currency. Bitcoin can be considered both a protocoland a cryptocurrency. On the other hand, Ether is the cryptocurrency for theEthereum protocol.

Protocols are what you traditionally think of in the cryptocurrency space.Bitcoin and Ethereum both fall under this classification. They are not linked totraditional assets or centralized entities. They’re governed by a protocol acrossa distributed network, and enforced through the Blockchain.

Blockchains are generally distributed and decentralized database systems whichunderpin the cryptocurrency ecosystem. In fact one could even think of it as asophisticated spreadsheet that is shared throughout the community of usersand that continuously adds new rows (data entries that record transactionaldata), while never being able to delete older rows.

Smart Contracts

Tokens

Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH) etc.

Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple etc.

Distributed/Decentralized Ledger

Application

Cryptocurrency

Protocol

Blockchain

Introduction

SELLERPerhaps this may be an individual or

perhaps a larger consortium

EXCHANGESWhile in theory cryptocurrencies should be peer-

to-peer with no intermediaries such as banks,

the reality is that there are often trading

exchanges in between buyers and sellers, often

quoting different bid/ask prices. Crypto Trading

is still very much at its infancy and the efficient

market theory does not apply!

MINERSSuch individuals (or companies) validate Blockchain

transactions such as when you move your cryptocurrency

(i.e. buy or sell) to different locations. Due to the

mathematical complexity, mining requires access to

powerful computer systems. Miners are rewarded in

cryptocurrency for validating a block of transactions, similar

to the way stock brokers receive commissions on client

transactions.

YOU, THE BUYERBeginners to the world of cryptos will generally

sign up for accounts with several different

exchanges. It is often the case that beginners will

buy their first cryptos by exchanging Fiat currency

either by credit card or bank transfer. In the

beginning you are unlikely to buy your cryptos

directly from a seller, but rather you will do so

via an Exchange.

DIGITAL WALLETThese are essentially browsers to view your digital currency holdings.

Your assets are not stored within a wallet, but rather on the Blockchain.

Reputable desktop wallets such Exodus or Jaxx (or Hardware wallets

such as Trezor or Ledger Nano S) provide you with Private Keys so that

you can securely access your holdings on the Blockchain so as to be able

to move them around later on.

CONSENSUSAs the Blockchain is decentralized,

consensus amongst the stakeholders is

needed to confirm the validity of

transactions. If 51% agreement is

achieved, a transaction is deemed valid.

This also serves as a control mechanism to

ensure you cannot spend your

cryptocurrency twice on different

transactions and thus an anti-

counterfeiting measure of sorts.

HOW CRYPTOCURRENCY WORKSIntroduction

CRYPTOCURRENCIES: BITCOINS & ALTCOINSWhat Purpose do all These Cryptocurrencies Serve?

Influenced Influenced

There are some 1450+ Cryptocurrencies being traded onvarious exchanges. There are countless other non-tradeable Cryptos on top of these! Collectively thesedigital assets have a market capitalization in excess of$500 Million USD.

Given the open-source nature of cryptocurrencies manynew coins are derived either off the Bitcoin or theEthereum Blockchains through various hard forks (i.e.change in protocol through consensus and oftensubsequent disagreement) and thus splitting the coin andcreating a new currency altogether. The sustainability andlong-term value of these spin-offs are intensely debatedwithin the community. There are other numerous stand-alone cryptos, however (neither derived off Bitcoin norEthereum) that may be of interest to the Crypto investor.

There is also another type of cryptocurrency: tokens foruse within a Blockchain-Based app. Essentially thesetokens were handed out to contributors in exchange forfunds as a part of an Initial Coin Offering (ICO). Thesetokens could not only be used within the app but they arealso tradeable assets on various crypto exchanges.Throughout much of 2017 many of these tokensexperienced triple and quadruple digit growth, exceedingBitcoins rate of return in some cases.

As of January 2018:

2

3

1

Crypto Landscape

* In Crypto terms: Altcoins essentially refer to all coins that are NOT Bitcoin (such as ETH, Litecoin, Ripple etc.)

*

HOW TO BUY, SELL & TRADE CRYPTOCURRENCIESAnd Ways to Safely Store Them!

Beginner Investors should startsmall and should take extra careto work only with reputableexchanges. It will be easier towork with an exchange thataccepts Fiat currency for yourfirst deposit. But it is alsoimportant to do researchbefore deciding to work withyour selected exchanges.Google is your friend! Somewell known exchanges thataccept Fiat deposits are:Coinbase, Blockchain.info,Bitstamp and Kraken.

01While most exchanges alsoprovide you with facilities tostore your cryptocurrencies, it isnot a best practice to do so asgenerally speaking, exchangewallets do not let you own theprivate cryptographic keys. It iswise to set up your owndesktop/mobile wallet for yoursecurity, as a result. There havebeen high-profile hacks of somecrypto exchanges in recentyears where investors ended uplosing their crypto holdings dueto security negligence at someexchanges.

02Cryptos are extremely volatileinstruments. Generally oneneeds a healthy mix of Buy-and-Hold with regular portfoliorebalancing and inter-cryptoactive asset management. Whilethe major players such as Bitcoinand Ethereum serve as a store-of-value of sorts, there arethousands of other altcoins inthe ICO and dApp space thatdeserve a look. We believe aCrypto investor should set asidecore holdings while allocating acertain amount to dApp tokensand ICO’s.

03As you grow your portfolio anddiversify into other altcoins, dApptokens and ICO’s, you will realize youwill need to set yourself up withdifferent exchange platforms inorder to buy/sell the assets youwant. In the crypto-world only somedApp/ICO assets are tradeable onlyon certain exchanges and withvarying degrees of liquidity. Theability to move quickly betweenexchanges, wallets and to/from Fiatis vital for success. Some well knownexchanges with a large pool ofaltcoins and tokens include: HitBTC,Binance and Poloniex.

04

SET UP ACCOUNTS WITH CRYPTO EXCHANGES THAT

ACCEPT FIAT

SET UP DIGITAL WALLET(S) INDEPENDENT FROM THE

EXCHANGE

DEFINE INVESTMENT STRATEGIES & GOALS

SET UP SECONDARY INVESTMENT FACILITIES

&STAY INFORMED

Crypto Landscape

BitcoinTalk, Reddit, Medium, Telegram, CoinDesk, and others!

CRYPTOCURRENCIES AS AN ASSET CLASSA Small Exposure to Crypto to Boost your Conservative Portfolio

2% 18% 30% 50%

5.41% CAGROn a hypothetical portfolio allocation of 50%MCSI World ETF & 50% JP Morgan/AmundiGlobal Govies, with monthly re-balancing.

9.90% CAGROn a hypothetical portfolio consisting of 49% MCSI World, 49% Global Govies & 2% Bitcoin

CRYPTOS Bonds Cash & Equivalents.

Equities

Investing

OPPORTUNITIES EVEN FOR THE CONSERVATIVE INVESTOR!

Cryptocurrencies are volatile assets and do not enjoy the same levels of liquidity as

other market traded asset classes. Therefore one must take care NOT to allocate

an amount to Cryptos, that one cannot afford to lose. However given the gains

witnessed over period 2010 to 2017, it can be stated that one can obtain

impressive ROI even if allocating a very small amount of one’s portfolio to the

crypto asset class.

Source: Swissborg SA/iShares/Coinmarketcap.com

0

5

10

15

Without Crypto With Crypto

Sample Portfolio Allocation

Core Holdings

&

Market Lending

Emerging Altcoins

&

ICO’s

Automated

Strategies

&

Arbitrage

Market Liquidity

&

Cyber Risks

MARKET ANALYSIS – INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITIES & RISKS

There are a large number of Initial CoinOfferings (ICO) and newly listed dApptokens (altcoins) getting quoted onvarious trading exchanges on a neardaily basis.

It can be claimed that the majority ofthese ICO’s and new tokens are a all justhot air and hype. But for the timebeing the money flow is there and itwould be foolish to pass these up.

There are a few ICO gems out therewhere impressive ROI can still beachieved. Simple strategies such asbuying pre-ICO and sell shortly afterlisting could be considered.

Cyber-Risks such as Exchange Hackshave occurred on several high-profileinstances. However with somecommon sense strategies, such riskscan be mitigated.

Market Liquidity & Regulatory risk isanother concern: in the event of achange in laws and/or a mass marketsell-off, you may find yourself unable toexit your positions.

The crypto markets are still intheir infancy and not efficient.There are some automatedtrading and arbitrage tradingstrategies that can be applied:

• Inter-Exchange mispricing (X-crypto)

• FX (X-Fiat/Crypto) mispricing

A crypto portfolio shouldmaintain core holdings of the“Blue-Chips”: BTC & ETH

These coins are widely acceptedcurrencies and thus can bereallocated into other cryptoinvestments such as ICO’s or P2PLending for Leveraged Trading oncertain Crypto Exchanges.

Crypto Lending can yield upwardsof 30% ROI/annually althoughwith an exposure to solvency riskfrom the borrower

Investing

ARE CRYPTOS A BUBBLE THAT’S ABOUT TO POP?Let’s Compare with Recent Inflation Adjusted ‘Bubbles’ and Stop Talking About Tulips!

As of January 2018, this is theapproximate market cap of allCryptos combined$550 Billion

$7 Trillion

This was the collective valuation ofInternet companies in the late 1990sbefore this bubble popped, only torecover a few years later withAmazon, Google and others risingfrom the ashes.

The US Housing Bubble fueled bysubprime mortgages and CDO’s hit 8Trillion before it popped and made amovie out of it.

Collective Japanese Assets balloonedfrom the late 1980s into the early1990s through inflated real estateand stock prices. Yet it had to record26 Trillion in inflation adjusteddollars before it popped.

$8 Trillion

$26 Trillion

Cryptos.comTheBig

Short

1990sJapan

The Future

Are Cryptos in a Bubble? Maybe! But we may still have a room to grow before we pop!

October 24th, 2022What People may be Saying

I missed the boat in 2017and I live with regrethaving invested my lifesavings into Cryptos in2018. I am financiallyruined and I will never beable to pay off my debts.

Wow – I thought I was lateas I only bought my firstCryptos in 2018. I’m gladthat I did as I can now takeup early retirement and liveout the millionaire lifestyle!

What does the crypto future hold? Only

time will tell!

The Future

STOP WORRYING AND EMBRACE THE FUTURE!

Best in class Risk Management

Global Outreach

&

Brand Recognition

Spot on

DIVERSIFICATIONIssuing ones on crypto not only allows you to diversify your businesses offering, but it also allows you to diversify your treasury and liquidity opportunities.

GO TO MARKETWhile the tokenization of businesses are still in their infancy, numerous GTM growth possibilities can be considered, giving a competitive advantage to those companies choosing to embrace this new economy.

CAPITAL GROWTHNew business processes and

opportunities can be designed under the issuance of a

tradeable Crypto token or coin branded under your business

identity.

SALES & MARKETINGCrypto Tokens for use of various

products and services within your Business ecosystem will

increase your marketing reach at low cost; while incentivizing

customers and creating new forms of revenue

How you and your Business can Benefit with your own Branded Crypto Token

The Future

HOW WE DO IT

R

E

B

A

BALANCEDHolistic Framework to assess risk/reward before investing

EXPERIENCEA mix of cyber experts and finance professionals

RESOURCESStrategic partnerships with key members of the Crypto community.

ANALYTICSQuantitative data driven approach.

Viacrest Capital believes in

long lasting relationships and

productive partnerships as

the key to success. It is only

through such collaborative

environments where one can

navigate the ever changing

Crypto Landscape; to be able

to deliver capital growth all

the while addressing

emerging regulatory and

cyber risks.

For further information please visit us at:viacrest.capital

Please feel free to contact us at:info@viacrest.com

COPYRIGHT © 2018 | VIACREST CAPITAL LP ▪ 720 KING ST. W #2000 ▪ TORONTO ON ▪ M5V 3S5 ▪ CANADA

This publication has been prepared for general guidance on matters of interest only, and does not constitute professional advice.You should not act upon the information contained in this publication without obtaining specific professional advice from anaccredited person or institution. No representation or warranty (express or implied) is given to the accuracy of completeness ofthe information contained in this publication. Viacrest Capital does not accept or assume any liability, responsibility or duty of carefor any consequences of you or anyone acting or refraining from acting on your behalf, placing reliance on the informationcontained in this publication or any decisions based on it.