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

Bitcoin Surges Past $7,000 to Extend Record Rally

bloomberg.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

231–240 of 437 posts

Re: Bitcoin Surges Past $7,000 to Extend Record Rally

#231

Post by votingprawn »

pinchharmonic wrote: post #206

Do these people that hold bitcoin or say that they've "made amazing returns" actual cash out at any point? Or are they holding a few bitcoins like everyone else? Isn't that how a bubble forms? If I got into it, I would get a return I thought was nice (100-200%) and then cash out.

I cashed out 20 bitcoins many years ago...and brought myself a nice graphics card with the proceeds. (i.e. $300)

If I'd waited a few years longer I'd have been able to buy a house (nearly), but I suppose I could also have ended up with enough to buy a sandwich.

Re: Bitcoin Surges Past $7,000 to Extend Record Rally

#232

Post by tudorconstantin »

slg wrote: post #226
tudorconstantin wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bitcoin's value is given by the trust people put in it. Just like with the fiat currencies as a matter of fact, because I don't know of any of them to be backed by anything else than trust. Of course, the US dollar has the whole US economy and the biggest army in the world as its plus, but it also has its minuses: the US treasury can and does print as many as it wants, in the detriment of ALL USD holders. Bitcoin's p…

>Bitcoin's value is given by the trust people put in it. Just like with the fiat currencies as a matter of fact Except fiat currencies also have that fiat behind them that gives them value. If you want to do business with the US government, you do it in USD. If you are one of the millions employed by the US government, you are paid in USD. If you manipulate USD, you have to answer to the US government. Those things a…

It might not be just the trust in value. BTC started at less than 1$ in value. The trust built over the last almost 9 years.

It might be trust that you can't double spend BTCs, trust in the issuing algorithm, trust that you can only lose your bitcoins if you do something stupid with your wallet, etc.

Of course, we can't compare right now bitcoin's ecosystem with the ecosystem of the fiat currency, but who knows what will happen in the future if more and more people and businesses choose to adopt it.

Re: Bitcoin Surges Past $7,000 to Extend Record Rally

#233

Post by tixocloud »

weddpros wrote: post #165
tixocloud wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The big risk for banks is that they need to know who you are and to a certain extent how to reach you if there ever was an investigation into your activities. That being said, is there a way for a bank to always contact you? A bank designed for digital nomads would be a very interesting proposition for me given I'm in banking and am looking to discover new models.

Yes, I think KYC is a problem with digital nomadism. All things administrative become a huge burden when you're travelling full-time, rent a furnished house in a tourist location without utility bills, etc. Some banks are already trying to address such needs, like Monese (which I'm also using).

Thanks for the reference to Monese. What did you have to provide as part of KYC?

Re: Bitcoin Surges Past $7,000 to Extend Record Rally

#236

Post by ringaroundthetx »

toomanybeersies wrote: post #57
dandare wrote: post #3

I keep seeing my non-it friends boasting on FB how much they profited with Bitcoin this week. I am afraid this bubble will get way much bigger before it bursts.

When Paris Hilton started shilling ICOs on Instagram, I was reminded of a very pertinent quote apparently (not actually) by Joe Kennedy > You know it's time to sell when shoeshine boys give you stock tips

Then wait till the shoeshine boys give you stock tips

Not one of the wealthiest people who is mimicked by wealthy friends and wannabies! The point of the quote is when the lowest economic class is buying, something monumental already happened for them to even know it was happening and there is nobody else to sell to.

Paris Hilton and the people that paid her are the opposite of that. I think you misinterpreted the quote.

Re: Bitcoin Surges Past $7,000 to Extend Record Rally

#237

Post by mcv »

slg wrote: post #226
tudorconstantin wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bitcoin's value is given by the trust people put in it. Just like with the fiat currencies as a matter of fact, because I don't know of any of them to be backed by anything else than trust. Of course, the US dollar has the whole US economy and the biggest army in the world as its plus, but it also has its minuses: the US treasury can and does print as many as it wants, in the detriment of ALL USD holders. Bitcoin's p…

>Bitcoin's value is given by the trust people put in it. Just like with the fiat currencies as a matter of fact Except fiat currencies also have that fiat behind them that gives them value. If you want to do business with the US government, you do it in USD. If you are one of the millions employed by the US government, you are paid in USD. If you manipulate USD, you have to answer to the US government. Those things a…

> With Bitcoin you only have trust in value of Bitcoin.

More specifically, you have trust in the continued trust that others have in it. It's a self-fulfilling prophesy: as long as people continue to trust it, it continues to be valuable, but as soon as people start to doubt that others will continue to trust it, it's instantly worthless. There's no real value backing it up. This makes it very vulnerable to hype and hysteria.

Re: Bitcoin Surges Past $7,000 to Extend Record Rally

#238

Post by lucozade »

acjohnson55 wrote: post #136
lucozade wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having a globally ordered, immutable, common ledger is a really useful thing in banking. Particularly in the inter-bank space where a vast quantity of data is shoveled around and everyone keeps partial, flawed copies. Any given piece of data is, usually, required to be private to a small number of parties but is, usually, all required to be available to some parties i.e. regulators. Doing all that is absurdly costly…

> But it's not the bitcoin blockchain, per se, that's particularly interesting. For example, the trustless piece is largely a pointless waste in the problem I outlined above. We know all the participants and can safely move keys etc around. In the same vein, proof of work is unnecessary, we can identify block creators and easily use external remedies if they play silly buggers (no-one is suggesting we get rid of all…

> Yep, you could basically accomplish the same thing with Git

Not entirely sure that "Git and a bit" is likely to be sufficient but, yes, there are some intersections. The idea isn't new at all.

The belief that practical solutions for a common ledger that meet strict privacy and confidentiality requirements is relatively new.

> Now there's simply an implementation that cuts the banks out of the loop

Not sure what you mean here. If you're talking about Bitcoin as a product then I don't think the banks are that concerned. It's starting to be interesting as an extra option for portfolio diversification but that's about it. If anything, the well publicised schoolboy errors have been net positive for the banks.

As I said, where it has generated most interest as a technology is in inter-bank. There are 3rd parties appearing in this space but that's been encouraged (and often funded) by the banks. It's a space with a lots of cost and operational risk but very little actual value.

Re: Bitcoin Surges Past $7,000 to Extend Record Rally

#239

Post by ringaroundthetx »

lsmarigo wrote: post #129

the engagement on these posts is insane relative to everything else on here. Seems without heavy moderation Hn would be Crypto-News. Everyone is afraid to say what they think. The core concept of BTC is fundamentally flawed and unbelievably naive. The value is rising based on hype and speculation alone, no value is being generated in-fact it's being consumed to 'mine' and transact the coins. Those claiming they're sp…

your false dilemma is hype OR regular purchases

are you intentionally leaving out additional uses or are you unaware?

Also do you know how commodities work? Commodities don't decrease in price when something is not functioning well and easily accessible, and right now there are $205,000,000 worth of the was-trading bitcoin supply that are stuck off the market.

Re: Bitcoin Surges Past $7,000 to Extend Record Rally

#240

Post by ghostbrainalpha »

dotluis wrote: post #145
Synaesthesia wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah that happened to a lot of people, myself included.

And it's going to happen to everybody, since the Bitcoin is deflationary.

I sold my Bitcoin a couple weeks before Floyd Mayweather's fight with Conner McGregor. I used all the money to bet on Floyd to win the fight, which he did.

When I went to put the money back into BTC, I found out that I would have made the same amount just by leaving in BTC for the 3 weeks I was out of the market.

Post reply on HN