Topic: How To Invest

Q: Hello Pat: Thank you for your excellent advice over the years. I recently purchased some newly listed HIVE shares in order to gain exposure to the cryptocurrency and crypto mining sector. I realize this is a speculative play, but HIVE seems to have good financial backing and competent leadership. Your opinion regarding HIVE would be much appreciated. Regards.

Article Excerpt

A: HIVE Blockchain, $3.47, symbol HIVE on the Toronto Venture Exchange (Shares outstanding: 234.6 million; Market cap: $30.1 million; www.hiveblockchain.com), is new company that aims to profit by “mining” cryptocurrencies like bitcoin. HIVE began trading on the Venture Exchange on September 18, 2017, after it changed its name from Leeta Gold. At the same time, it sold shares to privately held Genesis Mining Ltd. in order to raise $16.5 million. Essentially, as a cryptocurrency miner, HIVE competes against and works with other miners to decode and verify bitcoin transactions. It then adds those transactions to the electronic ledger, or blockchain, that records all bitcoin transactions. Each cryptocurrency has its own blockchain. Although miners work with more than one currency, they get paid for each transaction they validate in the currency of that transaction—whether it’s bitcoin or otherwise. HIVE started its operations by using the funds from its share offering to purchase Genesis’s cryptocurrency-mining data centre in Iceland for $9 million U.S. Genesis also…