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Bitcoin hits $10,000

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Re: Bitcoin hits $10,000

#141

Post by phil248 »

SomeStupidPoint wrote: post #62
narrator wrote: post #4

7 years ago: The first bitcoin article on HN with comments! https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1532670 One of the posters says the feds will shut it down. I also thought this too. This remains one of the most enduring mysteries of Bitcoin to me. Why has the government taken such a hands off approach?

> Why has the government taken such a hands off approach? Because it's something like win-win-win for them? 1. They don't stifle a new technology for no reason. 2. They can always regulate it later, with the added bonus that they'll be able to stick a bunch of people they want to investigate with non-compliance charges for failing to register at the appropriate time. Similarly, how many people do you think are doing…

To add a little socialist critique, governments have been hands-off crypto-currencies because major financial institutions haven't started ramping up the pressure, yet.

Re: Bitcoin hits $10,000

#142

Post by glebedel »

deorder wrote: post #41

Be careful. There is evidence that certain parties are issuing fake dollars called USDT / Tether from which they buy cryptocoins (incl. BTC) to artificially increase the price: https://mobile.twitter.com/bitfinexed (One of the people monitoring the situation) https://np.reddit.com/r/btc/comments/7g5yml/my_investigation... (Some more info) Make sure you are able to get out on time if needed. Investigate and decide for…

None of this amounts to evidence... At best you got correlations but attributing the rise to tether issuance really isn't proven by any of this.

Re: Bitcoin hits $10,000

#143

Post by programmarchy »

modeless wrote: post #68
quickthrower2 wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does a government stop it? And if they could, could they also stop illegal file sharing in a similar way?

They ban exchanging Bitcoin for fiat currencies, which completely disconnects Bitcoin from the traditional financial system. Underground and in-person exchanges would continue but at much lower volumes with higher friction and fees, and the value of Bitcoin would crash. This is diffrerent from file sharing because file sharing does not need a connection to the traditional financial system to be useful for most people…

Why would the value crash? Typically, artificially restricting supply raises prices, like with drugs and other contraband.

Re: Bitcoin hits $10,000

#145

Post by chrischen »

3pt14159 wrote: post #127
freedomben wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not convinced this is true anymore. My only information source is anecdotal, but I've been amazed at how many non technical people I've talked to lately that know about Bitcoin. Many are even buying little bits on coinbase. Their knowledge doesn't run deep, but it certainly exceeds levels of "never heard of it."

Are you in a major city in North America, Japan, South Korea, China, or Europe? If so, I don't think you have a truly representative sample. On the other hand, I still think governments are going to ban it once they understand it. But for now: :D

You probably just covered > 50% of the population of the earth there. If that isn’t “ordinary people” than what is? People aren’t all rural farmers anymore.

Re: Bitcoin hits $10,000

#146

Post by zzxxddere333 »

sytelus wrote: post #128
0bsidian wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let me try to make the case for why Bitcoin could be a useful beyond greed. I can't really think of many reasons why you would use crypto to pay for a coffee or a sandwich if you live in the West (or frankly, even most developing nations). On the other hand, I can definitely see the utility in a censorship-resistant digital medium to store wealth. To me, this latter use case has much, much more potential to serve the…

There is absolutely nothing that would prevent a government outlawing and criminalizing bitcoin at any point in time. With one stroke of a pen government can outlaw owning bitcoins or performing any transactions in bitcoins. I'd say this is bound to happen eventually with certainty because no government would be willing to lose control on currency (especially ability to pull it out of thin air) and thereby the power…

Japan has already embraced cryptos as a legal currency. They won't be the last. As this happens, there will be geopolitical factors at play and it won't be that easy to simply "outlaw cryptocurrencies".

Re: Bitcoin hits $10,000

#147

Post by zzxxddere333 »

sytelus wrote: post #88
mtgx wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've seen comments saying "unlike bitcoin, gold has intrinsic value!" on HN for years. It never made sense to me. Like Bitcoin, gold is only valuable because we think it is and we want it to be (and because it's relatively scarce, too, just like Bitcoin is). Same with diamonds. Their functional value is relatively small in comparison to their "beauty" and scarcity values.

That is not correct. Gold actually has uses in manufacturing all kind of goods. In many manufacturing processes its irreplaceable. It has historical significance that is ingrained in virtually every culture (i.e. everyone grows up thinking gold as valuable thing due to stories you hear as kid). Jewelry made out of gold looks great, doesn't get rusty and you can keep it for centuries without needing any technology. Ev…

This is not accurate. The once useful properties of gold have now been replicated using other (cheaper, alternative, and even synthetic) materials that perform better.

Re: Bitcoin hits $10,000

#148

Post by programmarchy »

narrator wrote: post #4

7 years ago: The first bitcoin article on HN with comments! https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1532670 One of the posters says the feds will shut it down. I also thought this too. This remains one of the most enduring mysteries of Bitcoin to me. Why has the government taken such a hands off approach?

Allow me to don my tinfoil hat... Could be that Bitcoin is a technology developed and promoted by international central banks, cloaked with a cyberpunk aura via Satoshi. Bitcoin could be an ideal global currency, so long as the central banks could control enough computing power and coin holdings.

Re: Bitcoin hits $10,000

#149

Post by HN15718653 »

Honest question: Is Bitcoin used in significant quantities for "legitimate"/legal transactions? I don't know a single person who has bought anything with a Bitcoin, or received payment. From my non-economic POV, it sure seems like /pure speculation/.

Re: Bitcoin hits $10,000

#150

Post by int_19h »

0bsidian wrote: post #81
fullshark wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is nonsense. This is being driven by speculation / minuscule interest rates / greed. Very little of the demand for btc in the past year is due to lack of faith in institutions.

Let me try to make the case for why Bitcoin could be a useful beyond greed. I can't really think of many reasons why you would use crypto to pay for a coffee or a sandwich if you live in the West (or frankly, even most developing nations). On the other hand, I can definitely see the utility in a censorship-resistant digital medium to store wealth. To me, this latter use case has much, much more potential to serve the…

> You are from Venezuela or Zimbabwe – The government has issued capital controls and is devaluing currency by the day. You transfer your wealth into Bitcoin in order to offset capital erosion due to hyper-inflation. When the situation stabilises, you transfer your Bitcoin back into fiat.

How exactly do you transfer your wealth to BTC in this scenario? There aren't many people willing to sell BTC in exchange for a rapidly devaluing third world currency. Realistically, to use any of the large online exchanges, you'll need to convert it to some common currency (like USD or Euro) anyway. But if you can do that, why would you buy BTC, instead of just storing your money in that common currency? It's going to be a lot more stable.

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