Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Bitcoin Surpasses $4,000, Reaches Another Milestone

forbes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 92 posts

Re: Bitcoin Surpasses $4,000, Reaches Another Milestone

#71

Post by nostrademons »

nimos wrote: post #56
nostrademons wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not, actually - the total value of all physical $USD (M0) is only about $3.8T, vs. the figure of $100-300T given for total wealth (which seems low to me, BTW). The actual truth is even weirder: if Bitcoin takes over as the world currency, its value in $USD will be infinite, but the question will be meaningless, as the dollar will be worthless. Currencies tend to be winner-take-all within a society; if one takes…

There are 164 national currencies in the world. The USD is the defaco world currency and the USD is not worth infinite of other currencies and the rest are certainty not worthless. I think the US government tolerates crypocurrencies because realistically they are far more damaging to countries like Venezula and China who have much more restrictive economies and in those countries the flexibility of bitcoin is a huge…

The thought experiment explicitly implies BitCoin usurping the $USD as a global currency, and presumably all other ones as well. I'd agree with your assessment of which countries/currencies are realistically much more likely to suffer, but thought I'd engage with the thought experiment on its original premise.

On the aircraft carrier issue - the killer app (literally) for cryptocurrencies is autonomous weapon systems. Imagine if you could deposit $Xm Bitcoins into an address and have access to a fleet of 100,000 drones on 10,000 speedboats. At that point, we're really in uncharted territory, though.

Re: Bitcoin Surpasses $4,000, Reaches Another Milestone

#73

Post by taysic »

shams93 wrote: post #39

Can you get an IRA portfolio based on cryptocurrency? It would be nice to be able to invest in btc with the same kind of tax benefits you get with a traditional stock based IRA.

It way too volatile and uncertain. It literally depends on a decentralized network that no one can control exactly so that why it keeps getting shut down

Re: Bitcoin Surpasses $4,000, Reaches Another Milestone

#74

Post by taysic »

marcell wrote: post #16
senatorobama wrote: post #9

Is it too late for the average joe Software Engineer to invest in Bitcoin?

There is an interesting discussion between Hal Finney and Satoshi in 2009 about the possible value of bitcoin. This is back when it was just a random software project, and had zero value: http://diswww.mit.edu/bloom-picayune/crypto/142207 As an amusing thought experiment, imagine that Bitcoin is successful and becomes the dominant payment system in use throughout the world. Then the total value of the currency should…

I think Bitcoin has potential but the majority of people do not want their everyday currency to change value everyday

Re: Bitcoin Surpasses $4,000, Reaches Another Milestone

#75

Post by CyberDildonics »

kristopolous wrote: post #31
senatorobama wrote: post #9

Is it too late for the average joe Software Engineer to invest in Bitcoin?

Bitcoin adjacent companies like Nvidia are riding the craze and would be less susceptible to a tulip mania style crash if that's your concern

You can't profitably mine Bitcoin with GPUs. It has been this way for 3-4 years.

Re: Bitcoin Surpasses $4,000, Reaches Another Milestone

#76

Post by danieltillett »

EliRivers wrote: post #70
danieltillett wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does anyone think the current owners of capital are going to sit by and let their powers and wealth be destroyed? If bitcoin were ever likely to become close to being the dominant payment system it will be outlawed with "extreme prejudice".

Do the current owners of capital principally hold their money in cash? If they're holding their money in ownership of companies and things, then their wealth wouldn't be destroyed as (current) monies became displaced by bitcoin.

No they mostly own assets, but they need control over the money supply to ensure they don't lose control of the assets. How would the GFC gone if they did not have control of the money supply?

Re: Bitcoin Surpasses $4,000, Reaches Another Milestone

#77

Post by nicky0 »

westiseast wrote: post #54
shmerl wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sending money is a good use case.

* would be * a good use case if it were reliable. I don't want to say I'll transfer $1000 to someone and by the time the transfer is complete the vale has dropped/I need to wait 5 days for confirmation/ the bitcoin exchange has collapsed.

You don't need an exchange to make a bitcoin transaction, that's the whole point. It's decentralised.

Exchanges are only for trading your fiat currency for bitcoin.

Re: Bitcoin Surpasses $4,000, Reaches Another Milestone

#78

Post by kristopolous »

CyberDildonics wrote: post #75
kristopolous wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bitcoin adjacent companies like Nvidia are riding the craze and would be less susceptible to a tulip mania style crash if that's your concern

You can't profitably mine Bitcoin with GPUs. It has been this way for 3-4 years.

scroll down and look at the pricing history of the rx 470: https://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu.php?gpu=Radeon+RX+470 and the 480: https://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu.php?gpu=Radeon+RX+480

Notice what happened during the alt-coin bubble?

Now go look at nvidia's stock price around that time. Everything went bonkers in May.

So I understand what you are saying, but there is clear historical evidence for my claims. When it comes to market manias the safest place to make money from it is adjacent to it in a way that supplies the maniacs.

Re: Bitcoin Surpasses $4,000, Reaches Another Milestone

#79

Post by olegkikin »

taysic wrote: post #74
marcell wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is an interesting discussion between Hal Finney and Satoshi in 2009 about the possible value of bitcoin. This is back when it was just a random software project, and had zero value: http://diswww.mit.edu/bloom-picayune/crypto/142207 As an amusing thought experiment, imagine that Bitcoin is successful and becomes the dominant payment system in use throughout the world. Then the total value of the currency should…

I think Bitcoin has potential but the majority of people do not want their everyday currency to change value everyday

Every currency changes its value every day. Every minute even.

Plus I don't think anybody would mind if their currency tends to increase in value.

Re: Bitcoin Surpasses $4,000, Reaches Another Milestone

#80

Post by aussieguy123 »

ericb wrote: post #63
Laforet wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bypassing financial regulations, extortion, llicit substance trade and many other forms of small-time illegal activities. If you strip speculative value and all the technical gloss, what's left is essentially Liberty Reserve 2.0. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberty_Reserve P.S. Fees has actually got lower since the worst back in May, but there is no telling it won't happen again. Paying for anon hosting is not a…

You forgot some: -Peer to peer remote transactions -Embed money into a binary, a puzzle, an image, a file -Non-correlated asset https://www.thebalance.com/what-is-asset-correlation-2894312 -The only money no one can take away from you, even states. Protection from governments like Greece -Inflation hedge. Protection from governments like Venezuela.

-The only money no one can take away from you, even states. Protection from governments like Greece

except hackers, if they get their hands on your wallet.

Post reply on HN