That may change soon. The Responsible Financial Innovation Act, a bipartisan bill introduced in the U.S. senate, would answer a number of key questions about cryptocurrencies, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and other digital assets, potentially improving the entire crypto marketplace in the process. 

“The bipartisan Responsible Financial Innovation Act is a landmark bill that will establish a regulatory framework that spurs innovation, develops clear standards, defines appropriate jurisdictional boundaries and protects consumers,” said Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a Democrat who co-sponsored the landmark bill with Republican Cynthia Lummis. 

“Importantly, the Lummis-Gillibrand framework will provide clarity to both industry and regulators, while also maintaining the flexibility to account for the ongoing evolution of the digital assets market.”

How 2022 Cryptocurrency Regulation (Might) Work

Of course, the word “regulation” isn’t popular among cryptocurrency enthusiasts, but for years, the U.S. government has looked for ways to reign in the market’s wildest impulses without limiting innovation. Currently, cryptocurrencies are taxed as pure assets, which can mean high tax bills for investors when those digital assets fluctuate in value — and with Bitcoin’s value reaching an all-time high of $64,000 in early 2021, early adopters were forced to pay heavily for their savvy investments.

But just as values can skyrocket overnight, they can drop just as quickly. At the time this article was written, Bitcoin was valued at just under $30,000, with Ether sitting at $1,780 — far off its peak of $4,891. 

The Responsible Financial Innovation Act would exempt consumers from reporting small purchases of up to $200. It would also classify digital assets as securities or commodities, depending on their characteristics. Coins like bitcoin and ether would be commodities, and as such, they would be able to be regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. 

What would that mean for cryptocurrency fanatics? For starters, simpler tax filings, particularly for active traders — and potentially, much lower tax bills.

The Responsible Financial Innovation Act Could Cripple Some Digital Assets

Overall, the bill is good news for investors, many of whom feared a tougher legislative approach to blockchain-related tech. However, in its current form, the law would eliminate algorithmic stable coins, provided that those coins aren’t backed by traditional finance (TradFi) assets (such as the U.S. dollar or the value of precious metals). 

If included in the final bill, this provision would ensure that consumers can always receive a flat payment for stable coin investments. However, it would destroy some stable coins in the process.

Will the Responsible Financial Innovation Act Pass?

The bill was introduced in the Senate, and it’s going to go through numerous committees before it receives a vote (if it receives a vote). After passing the Senate, it would need to pass in the House, and the midterm elections could throw a wrench into the legislative process.

Ultimately, the act may change dramatically before its passage. With that said, most cryptocurrency experts believe that legislation will eventually re-shape the market. If the Responsible Financial Innovation Act is any indication, those changes may be largely positive.

Need to recover cryptocurrency? Datarecovery.com can help. 

As the first data recovery company to accept crypto payments, we’ve prioritized cryptocurrency recovery for over a decade. Whether you’ve lost a cryptocurrency wallet due to hard drive damage, file corruption, forgotten passwords, or for any other reason, we can help you understand your options — and with our no data, no charge guarantee, you never pay unless we’re successful. 

Get started by calling 1-800-237-4200 or click here to submit a case online.

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The success of the Ethereum blockchain has brought immense wealth to many early investors — but several massive events have shaped the coin’s development. One of the most significant was the DAO hack that led directly to a hard fork, which split the currency into two separate coins).

The DAO hack left many investors without access to their funds, and years later, many of those users have not regained their Ether tokens. Few up-to-date resources are currently available for Ether fund recovery, but the experts at Datarecovery.com have found effective methods for restoring these tokens, and our methods remain effective in 2021.

If you lost access to Ether tokens due to the DAO hack, call us now at 1-800-237-4200 or read on for more information.

A Brief Overview of the DAO Hack and Ethereum Hard Fork

The Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) was an early attempt to create a decentralized business model on the Ethereum blockchain. Established through a massive crowdfunding campaign, The Dao raised more than $34 million by May 10, 2016, eventually amassing an ether value of more than $150 million.

Unfortunately, The DAO’s code had serious security issues. The organization was vulnerable to numerous attack vectors, which have been thoroughly detailed by the B9lab blog.

In early 2016, The DAO was attacked. A hacker drained 3.6 million ether from The DAO, but white hat hackers responded quickly, creating a plan to protect the remaining 70% of The DAO’s funds. Those methods were only partially successful, and Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin presented several options to the blockchain’s community to find a resolution.

The DAO hack was ultimately resolved on July 20, 2016, via a hard fork, which essentially erased the hack from the blockchain’s history. The hard fork was controversial, and many Ethereum advocates remained on the original blockchain, which is now generally referred to as Ethereum Classic. However, it allowed DAO victims to recover their funds via the new blockchain.

Many victims of the DAO hack have not recovered their ether.

In the months after the Ethereum hard fork, DAO contract holders were able to use several widely publicized methods to withdraw their ether. These methods built-in time limits to protect the integrity of the blockchain; however, many contract holders faced challenges that prevented them from restoring their funds within the first months following the hack.

Major issues included:

• Many Ethereum users did not save key information about their DAO contracts, which made token tracking difficult.

• Recovery required an active Ethereum wallet. Some users received error messages because their accounts did not have ether (and couldn’t pay for transaction processing). Users may have errantly determined that recovery was impossible.

• Over time, some recovery methods have become obsolete. The WithdrawDAO contract expired in 2017, and confusion regarding the implications of the contract expiration led many users to assume that their DAO accounts were permanently lost.

DAO can still be converted to ETH. Datarecovery.com can help. As experts in cryptocurrency recovery, we can restore access to lost ether tokens in the vast majority of situations. Our no data, no charge policy gives you peace of mind as your case progresses; if your wallet remains inaccessible, you will not pay for the failed recovery attempts.If you’ve lost access to funds due to the DAO hack — or if you’re unable to access your Ethereum wallet for any other reason — call us today at 1-800-237-4200 to speak with a cryptocurrency recovery expert or fill out our online case form.

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What Is an NFT?

In March of this year, digital artist Mike Winkelmann (more commonly known as Beeple) sold a JPG for 69.3 million dollars. Not only is this one of the highest price tags for a piece of art ever sold, but the enormous 21,069 pixel x 21,069 pixel collage — titled EVERYDAYS: THE FIRST 5000 DAYS — is also the most expensive NFT in the very brief history of the digital asset. But… what exactly is an NFT?

The short answer is that NFT stands for non-fungible token. This doesn’t make it any clearer why someone would pay almost 70 million dollars for what is essentially a digital file when a person could seemingly just save the image to their computer for free, though. You see, the key to understanding NFTs lies in those first two letters: NF. Non-fungible. This means that the token (the T of NFT) cannot be replaced. It’s one of a kind. Compare this to currency in general terms (either dollars or cryptocurrency like Bitcoin). Currency is fungible. There is effectively no difference in regard to value between one dollar and another dollar, or between one Bitcoin and another Bitcoin. They are interchangeable in their use.

This still leaves the question of ownership, though. How can a person truly own an image when anyone could come along and simply save the image to their computer and say they own it? It’s a valid question, and the answer still might not satisfy you: Think of the Mona Lisa. Anyone can print out a picture of Leonardo da Vinci’s most famous work, but it doesn’t change the fact that the one and only original remains on the wall at the Louvre Museum in Paris, France. The same goes for NFTs. Every printed or forged copy of the Mona Lisa will have distinctions in comparison to the original, but an NFT has a digital makeup that identities it as one of a kind. It’s all about trying to bring verifiable ownership to crypto, in other words — but it’s more akin to a Certificate of Authenticity, really.

Why Are NFTs So Popular?

While NFTs have had the most success in the art world, they can really be any digital thing, from social media posts to albums to sketches to documents and anything in between. For this reason, notable figures from all corners of the pop culture pantheon have come out of the woodworks to dip their toes in NFTs. Actors like William Shatner, musicians like Weezer, plenty of social media influencers, and countless others — like the creator of ancient internet meme Nyan Cat — have done their part to wheel and deal NFTs. All of these big names have essentially worked in tandem with one another to make this novel crypto asset blow up.

Not to mention, NFTs have been making millions in the past month or so — and not just Beeple’s EVERYDAYS: THE FIRST 5000 DAYS. All sorts of other artists have made anywhere from one to ten million dollars on their own respective NFTs. Their success with NFTs combined with the almost meme-ification of the crypto asset by verified celebrities and other social media users has created an unprecedented amount of buzz.

Are NFTs Worth It?

To answer the question of whether or not NFTs are worth it, let’s get into how they actually work on a technical level. See, the majority of NFTs are a part of the Ethereum blockchain. While Ethereum itself is a cryptocurrency, it’s the cryptocurrency’s blockchain that holds the large chunk of the world’s NFTs. For this reason, other blockchains are free to implement their own version of NFTs if they pleased — Which potentially raises a red flag for the future of NFTs themselves, should another blockchain choose to do their own take on them.

Beyond this, while NFTs promote ownership, the artist often still retains the copyright and reproduction rights — meaning that your one-of-a-kind non-fungible token might not be so non-fungible as you initially thought it was. If an artist’s NFT doesn’t sell for the high price they expected it to sell for, then there’s nothing stopping them from taking another crack at it and creating another token. For this reason, NFTs are less like proof of ownership and more like proof of commemoration.

While these two factors definitely make NFTs sound riskier for buyers, they’re big positives for sellers. Not only do they give artists the opportunity to sell their work for much more than they ever would have had the chance to otherwise, NFTs optionally come equipped with a feature that pays the artist a percentage every time the token is sold or traded.

The Future of NFTs

Wherever you fall in the great NFT debate, the future of NFTs remains pretty murky. Five, ten, 100 years from now, who’s to say how much these non-fungible tokens will be worth? Not to mention, there’s always the possibility that the NFT owner’s crypto wallet could be lost or stolen, that the image quality could decline, that the artist could create ten more copies that devalue your token, and countless other risks that make these crypto assets far more risky than, say, Bitcoin.

If anything, the popularity of NFTs doesn’t suggest that they will become the future of cryptocurrency, but that many other kinds of crypto assets are sure to emerge in the coming years to compete with their success. Given Bitcoin’s immense and ever-increasing price tag, it’s clear that cryptocurrency isn’t going anywhere. Whether or not NFTs will blow up in a good way or in a bad way remains to be seen, but this much is clear: they surely won’t be the last of their kind.

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July 20th, 2020

It seems the technology industry only grows more vast with each passing day. The word “tech” encapsulates a whole slew of different goods, services, and businesses like computer software, information technology (IT), electronics, network security, hardware, artificial intelligence, and — especially as of late due to the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic — cutting-edge and life-saving medical equipment. Not only are there countless tech stocks to choose from, but the sector itself sees some of the largest market capitalizations the world over (think companies like Apple and Google).
For this reason, the simple act of wanting to invest in tech stocks becomes a lot more daunting than it might seem at first. What areas of the technology industry are currently booming? Where should you begin with your investments? To find the answer to these questions, look to this compilation of today’s most promising tech stocks — Everyone from first-time investors to seasoned stock market aficionados could benefit from this round-up of this week’s most interesting and exciting tech stocks on the market.
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT)
While Microsoft might be most well-known for their developing, manufacturing, and selling of computers, the corporation and all their subsets prove to be much more expansive than simple desktop hardware. On the whole, the Microsoft Corp. rakes in over a hundred billion dollars in revenue annually from its wide range of products and services like Windows software, the Microsoft Office suite, Skype, Xbox, LinkedIn, Outlook, and plenty of others.
Quoted as saying that the novel coronavirus had nothing more than a small impact on their overall revenue, stock in Microsoft Corp. will hopefully continue to be a safe bet for the weeks and months to come.
NortonLifeLock Inc. (NLOK)
While Norton and LifeLock have both been around for years now, their recent amalgamation back in November of 2019 has turned the two separate forces into an incredible powerhouse for cybersecurity software and services. A one-stop source for protection of identity and electronic devices, online privacy, and home networks, NortonLifeLock Inc. has seen a lot of promising growth in the last quarter — a good sign for investors, because it shows that not even a global pandemic can detrimentally hinder profits.
To be more specific, in the last quarter alone, NortonLifeLock Inc. has seen an increase in earnings per share of 620%. If this trend continues, purchasing stock in NLOK could be quite the worthy investment.
Coupa Software Inc. (COUP)
Based in California but spread throughout Latin America, Asia Pacific, and Europe, the goal of Coupa Software Inc. is to help large companies keep track and keep control of the money and resources they’re spending (a service known as Business Spend Management, or BSM). While the name Coupa might not be as instantly-recognizable as Microsoft or NortonLifeLock, this company is not one to be ignored. Just take a look at their market summary to see why.
After a slight dip around the arrival of Covid-19, COUP stock has seen spectacular growth since March (and they’re showing no signs of slowing down, either). It seems that Coupa Software and their global technology platform would make for yet another solid addition to both budding and seasoned stock portfolios alike.
NVIDIA Corp. (NVDA)
No matter if it’s gaming, artificial intelligence, professional visualization, data centers, or auto tech, NVIDIA is a name synonymous with developing groundbreaking technology. For example, most recently, NVIDIA announced NVIDIA Jarvis: a a brand-new platform intended to aid artificial intelligence programmers in the use of video and speech data to create what is known as conversational AI. This artificially-intelligent tech has the potential to create realistic conversations for anything from telemedicine customer service call centers.
Since the announcement of NVIDIA Jarvis in late May, NVIDIA has continued to show a massive amount of momentum — throughout the past year, investors have seen a 12-month trailing total return of 155.5%. There’s no doubt that stock in NVIDIA Corp. will continue to grow in value exponentially in the weeks and months to come.
Veeva Systems Inc. (VEEV)
While Veeva Systems has been at the forefront of the software sector for quite some time now, stock in the cloud software technology provider continues to show an increasingly strong track record as time goes on. Tailored to the pharmaceutical and life science industries, Veeva Systems aims to provide cloud-based business solutions to companies like Bayer, Gilead Sciences, and GSK. They went public back in 2013, and in the seven years since, they’ve managed to garner a market capitalization of 35 billion dollars.
Because the response to Covid-19 and the search for an effective vaccine is directly linked to the pharmaceutical and life science industries, you can be certain that Veeva Systems Inc. will only continue to grow in importance going forward. (CEO Peter Gassner even mentioned to CNBC that Veeva was working directly with customers to develop testing, treatment, and vaccines for the novel coronavirus.) With all this in mind, it seems wise to keep Veeva Systems Inc. on your radar this week and in the weeks to come.
The Bottom Line
The opportunity to invest in tech stocks means giving investors the chance to be a part of the latest and greatest technologies currently being developed in our world. From those on the forefront of innovation to those on the front lines of the global fight against the novel coronavirus pandemic to those who simply provide us with new ways to play video games, watch TV, or stream movies, tech companies across the planet play an essential role in the way our society operates.
These five tech stocks are just the tip of the iceberg — They are undoubtedly the ones worth watching this week, but the stock market is notorious for throwing screwballs at any given moment. By next week, there will be new tech stocks that demand your attention. Until then, consider taking a deeper dive into each one of the handful of great opportunities we’ve put togeter above.

_{Notice: Information contained herein should not be construed as an offer, solicitation, or recommendation to buy or sell securities. The information has been obtained from sources we believe to be reliable; however, no guarantee is made or implied with respect to its accuracy, timeliness, or completeness. Authors may own the stocks they discuss. The information and content are subject to change without notice.}

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As global markets have melted down, one sector remains resilient to the economic fallout from COVID-19. Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, technology has solved healthcare challenges and facilitated communications, spearheading a surge in investment. Here are 10 tech stocks that show no signs of slowing down, making them a great pick for both first-time investors and finance aficionados.

(Information accurate as of 7/20/20. Source: MarketWatch)

#1. Zoom

Zoom Video Communications, Inc

NASDAQ: ZM

Few people had heard of Zoom pre-COVID. Once governments implemented lockdown measures, this communications platform became a household name. Zoom expedites peer-to-peer teleconferencing, social relations, and remote education, making ZM stocks a great buy when so many of us are working and learning from home.

Over the last 3 months, investors have generated a 75% return (and a 284% year-to-date return), proving this once little-known app is now a financial powerhouse.

#2. Microsoft

Microsoft Corp.

NASDAQ: MSFT

We featured Microsoft Corp. in our last round-up, but this stock market superpower is worth another mention. Microsoft brings in more than $100 billion yearly from services like Windows, Xbox, LinkedIn, and Outlook. But with so many people “out of the office,” one might expect its stock success to suffer. This isn’t the case. COVID-19 has had no impact whatsoever (so far) on Microsoft, with investors generating a very impressive 19% return over the previous 3 months.

#3. Apple

Apple, Inc.

NASDAQ: AAPL

Another company that seems recession-proof, with investors generating returns of 41% over the last 3 months (even more than Microsoft!). Rising demand for new tech (including iPhones and Macs) as we adapt to the “new normal” of working/learning at home could be behind Apple’s stock market winning streak.

#4. Coupa

Coupa Software, Inc

NASDAQ: COUP

Coupa stock prices have surged post-COVID, making this company extremely lucrative to investors. Over the last 3 months alone, investors have seen a massive 88% return on spend (and an eye-watering 114% year-to-date return). Why has Coupa become so popular? Well, it supports businesses trying to implement work-from-home programs with its business management software. Expect its stock to generate further returns soon.

#5. Dynatrace

Dynatrace

NYSE: DT

Dynatrace provides a suite of application management/monitoring solutions to businesses trying to adapt to changes in the workplace. The company’s stocks remain a good buy, with investors, on average, experiencing a 64% return over the last 3 months. Year-to-date returns prove even more impressive, averaging 72%.

#6. Xerox

Xerox Holdings Corp.

NYSE: XRX

Xerox Holdings Corp. one of the oldest technology companies on our list, provided investors with a small (but significant) 3% return over the last 30 days or so. This upward tick comes after a less-than-stellar performance over the last 3 months, so bear this in mind when looking for profitable tech investments. Note: Unlike some of the newer companies on our list, Xerox has weathered many economic storms in the past.

#7. Gartner

Gartner, Inc.

NYSE: IT

Gartner started 2020 poorly, but the research/advisory company has since prospered thanks, in part, to its role supporting businesses through this crisis. Investors have generated a 17% return on stocks over the last 3 months.

#8. NortonLifeLock

NortonLifeLock, Inc.

NASDAQ: NLOK

As more people work from home, anti-virus solutions have become increasingly popular. This could be driving software company NortonLifeLock’s stock price, which has gained small but steady momentum since the pandemic started. Investors, on average, have seen a 1% return in the last 3 months.

#9. Advanced Micro Devices

Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. 

NASDAQ: AMD

Advanced Micro Devices, which specializes in processors and graphics, is another company that has experienced growth in 2020, with a 24% return since the year began. In the last month, investors have generated a 4% return. What’s fueling this growth? Among other things, the company has teamed up with Penguin Computing, Inc. to provide colleges with computing support in the fight against COVID-19.

#10. NVIDIA

NVIDIA Corp.

NASDAQ: NVDA

Games company NVIDIA is one of 2020’s biggest winners, providing investors with a 45% return in the last 3 months (and a huge 143% return in the last year.) As this company invests in new technologies (and works with organizations to fight the virus) its stock price has skyrocketed.

As you can see, many tech stocks are providing investors with good returns, despite the current economic woes. Like with any sector, tech stocks could fluctuate in the coming weeks/months, so consider investing in one of these opportunities sooner rather than later.

Notice: Information contained herein should not be construed as an offer, solicitation, or recommendation to buy or sell securities. The information has been obtained from sources we believe to be reliable; however, no guarantee is made or implied with respect to its accuracy, timeliness, or completeness. Authors may own the stocks they discuss. The information and content are subject to change without notice.

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