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Crypto-currencies have lost 30% of their value in the last 3 weeks

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Re: Crypto-currencies have lost 30% of their value in the last 3 weeks

#31
post #25
post #23

Does this include all of the altcoins built on top of ethereum? For example, BAT adds another $90million of value that isn't represented strictly by looking at the ethereum market cap[0]. [0] https://coinmarketcap.com/assets/basic-attention-token/

I'm not familiar with what "built on top of" means in this case, as it pertains to overall cryptocurrency value. Is it additional, actual coin with tradable value? Is it a derivative? Can someone describe in comparison to traditional means what this is?

Ethereum is a blockchain technology where every block contains a list of Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) instructions. The EVM is a Turing-complete virtual machine that allows arbitrary programs to be built upon it, making it much more powerful than Bitcoin, which (although it has a limited scripting language) is really just for transferring value.

Every program in the EVM is called a "contract" but in reality it's a program. One of the fundamental contracts built atop Ethereum are additional coins, traditionally sold in an ICO. Most coins follow a protocol called ERC20 that allows them to be easily exchanged with any other ERC20 coin and Ether itself. In liquid markets, like for the Basic Attention Token (BAT), one can sell off a lot of BAT for Ether without tanking the market too much.

Re: Crypto-currencies have lost 30% of their value in the last 3 weeks

#33
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it a good idea to buy GPU from mining farm? Surely it was overclocked and in bad thermal condition, so it could barely survive. I think, electronic circuits degrade in those circumstances, so this GPU won't last long.

gpu mining becoming not profitable will not only flood the market with cheaper used gpus but also reduce the excessive demand for new gpus, both will lower prices.

It's not profitable to mine Bitcoin, but we have about 1000 others, and some of them to mine right now is very profitable.

Re: Crypto-currencies have lost 30% of their value in the last 3 weeks

#34
post #33
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

gpu mining becoming not profitable will not only flood the market with cheaper used gpus but also reduce the excessive demand for new gpus, both will lower prices.

It's not profitable to mine Bitcoin, but we have about 1000 others, and some of them to mine right now is very profitable.

how does that have anything to do with my comment?

Re: Crypto-currencies have lost 30% of their value in the last 3 weeks

#36
post #7
post #3

For now it's just a rather small correction, keeping in mind how much they had gone up in the last 60 months. On the other hand, the uncertainty with Bitcoin's Segwit activation, possible chain split etc won't help in the next few weeks including August. It could make the bubble pop... or not. What's weird is that coins that have already adopted SegWit, like Litecoin, seem to suffer even more than BTC during the dips…

Yeah, the theory that people would be moving money into LTC when the BTC potential split approaches doesn't seem to be holding, at least not yet. For now, the main theory, that all altcoins, including LTC, take their value from BTC, and react based on BTC's movements, seems to remain true. When people lose trust in Bitcoin, they lose even more trust in other cryptocurrencies, in aggregate.

yes actually it's like playing with leverage, I notice that every 2% move from BTC can results in 10% or more movements in all other coins

Re: Crypto-currencies have lost 30% of their value in the last 3 weeks

#37

Any speculations on why this is happening, and whether/how much they will grow in the near future ?

1st of aug there is a fork (maybe) which makes people very nervous. Most people I know sold off because of that (and not understanding what stuff means as in ; all crypto is the same and this sounds dangerous!). And correction which was needed anyway. I'll be buying.

There's a good explanation here : https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/bitcoin-beginners-guide...

Re: Crypto-currencies have lost 30% of their value in the last 3 weeks

#38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

30% is not a small correction. Per definition, anything that is down more than 20% is in a bear market.

Over a two-month period, usually. If the price shoots up from here (and that would be pretty normal for btc, etc), then it was just a correction. It could also drop another 50% from here. cryptocurrency markets are nuts.

Yes, they're nuts. And that's so because they're so small, relative to fiat markets. So it doesn't take much to push relatively large amounts into them, or drive them out.

But whatever. I just use Bitcoin because I can easily make it as anonymous as I like. Price spikes are sweet when they happen, and crashes can be an inconvenience. But that's just what's so.

Re: Crypto-currencies have lost 30% of their value in the last 3 weeks

#39
Gold, which is possibly the oldest store of value used by civilization, is just as volatile.

The inflation-adjusted price per Troy ounce of gold went from a high of around $2400 in the the late 1400's, to a low of $200 in 1919; then, it rose in fits and starts until it peaked at nearly $1600 in 1980; it then declined, again in fits and starts, until it bottomed just below $400 in 2002; then it rose to nearly $2000 in 2012; and since then, has dropped to just over $1200, today's price:

   1490   1919   1980   2002   2012   2017
  -----  -----  -----  -----  -----  -----
  $2400   $200  $1600   $400  $2000  $1200
The price of gold is unstable over shorter time frames too. For example, since the start of last year, the price has oscillated between just over $1000 and nearly $1400 per Troy ounce.

This kind of volatility seems normal for assets used as a store of value.

Sources:

[1] http://www.zerohedge.com/news/charting-price-gold-all-way-ba...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_as_an_investment#/media/F...

[3] http://www.kitco.com/charts/historicalgold.html

Re: Crypto-currencies have lost 30% of their value in the last 3 weeks

#40
I still remember when Bitcoin was at $1,000 for the first time. The Economist ran a story and it was discussed nearly everywhere. The price fell by 30%+ after that. A few years later it was at $3,000.

It's normal that markets crash when everyone starts talking about how high they are. Once booming stockmarkets make it to the front page of newspapers it's often the end of the boom. It wakes people up who realise they still have stocks (or bitcoin in this case) and quickly sell it.

So the crash after hitting $3,000 was somewhat expected, given the attention in the media. Doesn't mean that it won't be strong over the next 2-3 years.

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