As a nitpick the proper term is "cryptocurrency", not "digital currency". A cryptocurrency does not necessarily have to be stored or generated digitally.
Makes sense. Coinbase's website is plastered with the term "digital currency" so that seemed the safest to use since I'm not too familiar with that market :)
They do that for their benefit, & for the benefit of their regulator bedfellows (I think). The SEC, for example, dare not mutter the word 'crypto', confirming that Bitcoin et al do actually exist!
I'm sure there are some "bitcoin purists" who think someday bitcoin will be used to buy everything, but that's certainly a minority viewpoint. There's a more pragmatic way to think about it. Bitcoin can coexist just fine with national currencies, and with other cryptocurrencies, and with precious metals. Bitcoin doesn't need to "win" by replacing any of these. Bitcoin is valuable because it's a secure way to store an…
Yeah, I think there's a strange amount of both fans and people who dislike bitcoin that think bitcoin can only be valuable if it's on a path to complete adoption, replacing other currencies. I see it more like a decentralized PayPal alternative, and I keep seeing it pop up in more places that I buy stuff online and I've made personal transactions with it to other people, so it's providing value to me and seems to be…
I know miners will hate me for saying this it will bring up the lightning network but I think the transaction costs are too high. They have to come down (close to zero if not zero) even if it means miners and node operators are working for no gain. I don't understand why it means that Bitcoin is insecure for people to be able to mine in their gpu.
Maybe we need to leave Bitcoin alone and come up with another currency for low value transactions that happen frequently? I'm thinking like buying coffee or groceries.
Definitely late to the game, but finally bought bitcoin this week. I've followed bitcoin since ~2010, but it's volatility and financial constraints had prevented any real action. Here are some notes if there are any other holdouts out there: I used Coinbase and Gemini. It was surprisingly difficult to get money into these places, which was a bit frustrating, but in the same sense reassuring that they are playing by t…
I have actually already created a C# Gemini API wrapper[0], if you are interested. Along with a GUI for it [1]. Both are open-source.
I used my library to write an automated trading system that's running on Gemini (not open source, obviously). I like Gemini much more than it's competitors.
That money would have had better upside if invested in bitcoin directly.
Are you saying that the investors would get a better return on their investment if they had instead simply purchased bitcoins? That claim seems to require the ability to know the future. Bitcoin may eventually be superseded by a superior alt coin, and disappear into history.
Explain "superseded" to me. In the world of crypto there is no such thing.
I'm pretty naive on the subject of Bitcoin so I might be missing something here, but can someone explain to me how it's used right now? Aside from treating BTC like a stock that is. The value of it fluctuates so much that actually buying/accepting it seems incredibly risky. The price can go down just as fast as it goes up. As a someone looking make purchases with BTC; if the value of a BTC is going up, why would I us…
Bitcoin purists will say that, eventually, there is no "cash out" phase. 1 BTC = 1 BTC and who cares about what the dollar equivalent happens to be. Once everything is in BTC you will never exchange it for dollars. Do you spend dollars today wondering if tomorrow the Euro will be worth more or less? No, so why would you care what the dollar equivalent to a BTC is when everything you buy is priced in BTC? This is long…
If/when the limit of 21 million is reached, the miners would/will increase the limit. Over time the incentives of BTC holders and BTC miners diverge. One of the many reasons a viable PoS is important, as it merges these two groups into one.
Coinbase makes a killing with their fees. The spread between the buy and sell prices on coinbase are 1-1.2%. On top, their bank transfer charges are proportional to amount transferred instead of standard flat fee. I wonder why they need another $100M ! For people who want to buy, I would recommend Kraken - they have much higher volume and sane pricing. There are others too like Bitfinex, Poloneix, etc.
I was wondering the same thing. At the volume GDAX is processing ($100M/day [0]) they should be making $100M in gross profit every year [1].
I'm pretty naive on the subject of Bitcoin so I might be missing something here, but can someone explain to me how it's used right now? Aside from treating BTC like a stock that is. The value of it fluctuates so much that actually buying/accepting it seems incredibly risky. The price can go down just as fast as it goes up. As a someone looking make purchases with BTC; if the value of a BTC is going up, why would I us…
It is possible for a business to accept bitcoin and immediately have it converted to dollars so they are not exposed to the currency risk but get the benefits of irreversible payments, so little chance for fraud.
That's what 99% of the businesses that accept Bitcoin (that aren't themselves crypto-coin based businesses) do. Overstock is a counter-example. They keep 50% of the BTC they collect now as investment.
I'm pretty naive on the subject of Bitcoin so I might be missing something here, but can someone explain to me how it's used right now? Aside from treating BTC like a stock that is. The value of it fluctuates so much that actually buying/accepting it seems incredibly risky. The price can go down just as fast as it goes up. As a someone looking make purchases with BTC; if the value of a BTC is going up, why would I us…
As a someone looking make purchases with BTC; if the value of a BTC is going up, why would I use it to buy anything? It's gone up $700 in the last week; up $200 in the last 24 hours alone. I'd feel incredible silly spending bitcoin in a growth phase. Why do you spend any currency when you can buy Bitcoins instead, let it grow and then sell them back into the original currency? Any reason you can give applies to spend…
Not sure that really applies. You NEED to buy things. Rent/mortgage. Food. Transportation expenses. The guy's right - at this point, why would you ever spend BTC on those transactions when you can spend $ instead?
The reason why you spend any currency instead of buying BTC is because you need to. Not because you're willingly buying something unnecessary to forsake potential earnings in the future.
Bitcoin purists will say that, eventually, there is no "cash out" phase. 1 BTC = 1 BTC and who cares about what the dollar equivalent happens to be. Once everything is in BTC you will never exchange it for dollars. Do you spend dollars today wondering if tomorrow the Euro will be worth more or less? No, so why would you care what the dollar equivalent to a BTC is when everything you buy is priced in BTC? This is long…
I'm sure there are some "bitcoin purists" who think someday bitcoin will be used to buy everything, but that's certainly a minority viewpoint. There's a more pragmatic way to think about it. Bitcoin can coexist just fine with national currencies, and with other cryptocurrencies, and with precious metals. Bitcoin doesn't need to "win" by replacing any of these. Bitcoin is valuable because it's a secure way to store an…
The real value is in the underlying technology of the platform, the blockchain. Instant, secure transfers of value to anyone in the world at minimal cost with a publicly auditable ledger. There are also many cool things that can be built on top of the tech, including secure online voting: https://followmyvote.com/online-voting-technology/blockchain...