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Bitcoin Surges Past $7,000 to Extend Record Rally

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

#251
post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People who believe that ethereum is technically superior have not studied cryptocurrencies in depth. Ethereum made a lot of reckless design decisions, trading long term stability and security for advantages that only exist over bitcoin in the short term. Their short block time is a sloppy choice. Their focus on gpu mining is a boneheaded mistake. Their scripting system is embarrassing. Proof of stake is nonviable. Mu…

> Their focus on gpu mining is a boneheaded mistake Better to leave random warehouses in China to control the entire pool? How does supporting asics matter in the least other than making it less accessible?

If any government wanted to take down a CPU or GPU based cryptocurrency, they could accomplish a 51% attack in no time. Gathering or manufacturing ASICs would be a longer, harder, more obvious process.

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

#252

Notice how almost all news of Bitcoin now are about its price. Bitcoin used to be exciting in both technical and economical aspects, but has now become just a store of value entirely driven by speculation. Other technically superior cryptocurrencies (e.g. Monero, Ethereum) have replaced most of its usecases, boasting much faster and cheaper transactions and real anonymity in the case of Monero. Bitcoin takes more tha…

Other technically superior cryptocurrencies...

VHS vs. Betamax

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

#253
post #2

I consider myself pretty tech-savvy, but I'm still completely lost as to whether Bitcoin is basically a pyramid scheme set to crash massively, or something huge that will continue climbing. I probably should've taken the time to mine some back when my friends were doing it and tried convincing me too. Ah well. (Queue heated comments from both sides. Discussing bitcoin is like bringing up religion AND politics at the…

If you're pretty tech-savvy then the Satoshi's white paper should help. Have you read it?

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

#254

Notice how almost all news of Bitcoin now are about its price. Bitcoin used to be exciting in both technical and economical aspects, but has now become just a store of value entirely driven by speculation. Other technically superior cryptocurrencies (e.g. Monero, Ethereum) have replaced most of its usecases, boasting much faster and cheaper transactions and real anonymity in the case of Monero. Bitcoin takes more tha…

I keep thinking about investing again, but I have a rule about investments. If I can't come up with a reasonable story to explain why supply and demand are the way they are. I don't invest. I can explain the supply side part... but the demand here baffles me. The best explanation I can come up with is "this thing is rising in price like a rocket, maybe I'll make some money"

That's not a good reason to invest in my opinion. Good gamble though.

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

#255
It's the normalisation effect kicking in now that more traditional financial instruments are tacking advantage of Bitcoin and the growing acceptance with regulators and government officials (see UK's report on cyber crime and cryptocurrencies as well as Europol's, see CTFs announced, etc).

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

#256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Their focus on gpu mining is a boneheaded mistake Better to leave random warehouses in China to control the entire pool? How does supporting asics matter in the least other than making it less accessible?

If any government wanted to take down a CPU or GPU based cryptocurrency, they could accomplish a 51% attack in no time. Gathering or manufacturing ASICs would be a longer, harder, more obvious process.

Gathering or manufacturing ASICs would be a longer, harder, more obvious process.

In the short term, true. The same could have been said of integrated circuits at one point. ASIC manufacturing will become cheaper and easier.

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

#257
post #254

Notice how almost all news of Bitcoin now are about its price. Bitcoin used to be exciting in both technical and economical aspects, but has now become just a store of value entirely driven by speculation. Other technically superior cryptocurrencies (e.g. Monero, Ethereum) have replaced most of its usecases, boasting much faster and cheaper transactions and real anonymity in the case of Monero. Bitcoin takes more tha…

I keep thinking about investing again, but I have a rule about investments. If I can't come up with a reasonable story to explain why supply and demand are the way they are. I don't invest. I can explain the supply side part... but the demand here baffles me. The best explanation I can come up with is "this thing is rising in price like a rocket, maybe I'll make some money" That's not a good reason to invest in my op…

At this point, the demand for bitcoin is driven primarily by its value; anyone acquiring it with the intent to use it in transactions is being foolish. Almost certainly they would be better off holding the BTC and processing the transaction with another currency.

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

#258
post #56

Understaning the bitter concept of Bitcoin is really daunting.

It's not entirely the fault of its adherents--that generation has never known any kind of political stability. They can't understand ethical government if they have never experienced it. They can't understand ethical institutions if all the institutions they have ever dealt with have stabbed them in the back or scammed them one way or another.

The problem isn't Bitcoin, it is the human condition itself. People weren't always bad actors, or the majority of people weren't, at least. But we have allowed the bad actors to gain control of everything that matters and that's where we keep screwing up.

How do we fix this? Let "too big to fail" fail!

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

#259

Notice how almost all news of Bitcoin now are about its price. Bitcoin used to be exciting in both technical and economical aspects, but has now become just a store of value entirely driven by speculation. Other technically superior cryptocurrencies (e.g. Monero, Ethereum) have replaced most of its usecases, boasting much faster and cheaper transactions and real anonymity in the case of Monero. Bitcoin takes more tha…

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…

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

#260

Notice how almost all news of Bitcoin now are about its price. Bitcoin used to be exciting in both technical and economical aspects, but has now become just a store of value entirely driven by speculation. Other technically superior cryptocurrencies (e.g. Monero, Ethereum) have replaced most of its usecases, boasting much faster and cheaper transactions and real anonymity in the case of Monero. Bitcoin takes more tha…

There are DApp currencies which have better scaling solutions in place already vs Ethereum. I think you are heavily discounting the first mover advantage.

I think a lot of the price movement is speculation, but a lot of it is new institutional investors investing in bitcoin. Ask most people who are new investors in BTC if they've heard of ETH, I bet it isn't as large of a proportion as you'd think. People are betting on the future of BTC being greater than it is currently, not about its current value.

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