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Bitcoin hits $10,000

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Re: Bitcoin hits $10,000

#231

Post by wils1245 »

shitgoose wrote: post #200
wils1245 wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At this point the arguments for or against the idea of cryptocurrency are pretty irrelevant. Bitfinex has injected millions of dollars of fake money into the ecosystem, users are reporting an ability to withdraw money from it on Reddit, and their Twitter account's last message was reports of a DDoS two days ago with no updates. https://twitter.com/bitfinex https://www.reddit.com/r/bitfinex/comments/7fx9z9/bitfinex_w.…

"Bitfinex has injected millions of dollars of fake money into the ecosystem" please, explain what money is "fake" and what "injected" and "ecosystem" mean.

Bitfinex controls Tether, a single source cryptocurrency supposedly backed by and pegged to the US dollar. The market cap of Tether has risen $188 million dollars to $678 million in one month:

https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/tether/

If Tether is what they say it is, this can only come from investments of US dollars. Ie nearly $400 million dollars of investment in one month.

On November 21 Tether announced a hack in which they lost $30 million.

Bitfinex is extremely likely to be insolvent at this point. Users are complaining of an inability to withdraw funds on Reddit, and Bitfinex's Twitter has a days old announcement of a supposed DDoS attack, with no updates:

https://twitter.com/bitfinex

https://www.reddit.com/r/bitfinex/comments/7g8cp3/eth_withdr...

Tether has been traded on other exchanges for other cryptos, meaning that these other cryptos have been inflated by purchases with fake money.

This is a good outline of the scenario I think is about to play out:

https://prestonbyrne.com/2017/11/26/the-bear-case-for-crypto...

Bitfinex'ed is an anonymous Twitter and Medium account that is explaining the Tether fraud much better than I can:

https://twitter.com/Bitfinexed

Re: Bitcoin hits $10,000

#233

Post by dleslie »

programmarchy wrote: post #116
bluetwo wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Errrrr.... Bitcoin is a fiat currency, so be careful with your generalization. And whose job is it to investigate bitcoin fraud and theft? No one.

> Bitcoin is a fiat currency Please expand. Which state is forcing people to pay their taxes in Bitcoin, and/or authorizing it as legal tender?

It's legally recognized, in some places, as a currency and is not backed by anything physical. What more do you need?

Re: Bitcoin hits $10,000

#234

Post by thisisit »

wintom wrote: post #17

“Rosenstreich at online trading firm Swissquote said bitcoin’s surge harks to the surprises of the U.K. referendum on European Union membership and President Trump’s election. “We have underestimated the populist movements,” he said. “There is growing unease on how central banks and governments are managing fiat currencies. Ordinary people globally understand why a decentralized asset is the ultimate safe haven.”” Th…

I have theory regarding "underestimated the populist movement" - Anything which is highly publicized and talked about whole day gets stuck in people's mind. And if that something is portrayed as taboo people get more attracted to it.

I think it is in everyone's favor to ignore and not give credence to things like these. There is an article on how Finland has been able to achieve this:

http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/03/01/why-is-finland-able-to-f...

For people wanting to see a video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwAzU5ji-CM

Re: Bitcoin hits $10,000

#235

Post by dleslie »

magpi3 wrote: post #207
bluetwo wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The key quality of a fiat currency is that it is spun out of air without intrinsic value.

Honest question: why does gold have intrinsic value? My understanding is that it's scarcity is the prime driver of its value, at least in monetary terms, and bitcoin shares that quality. Of course gold does have physical qualities that are useful, but so do many other metals that are not used as stores of value.

Gold is used to make physical things, like jewelry and electronics.

Re: Bitcoin hits $10,000

#236

Post by wallace_f »

bluetwo wrote: post #212
wallace_f wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Think about what bailing out means. It was a transfer of wealth from taxpayers and money-balance holders to Wall St banks, the US gov't and a few select private corporations. Now I don't mean to be patronizing, but it is useful for us to ask ourselves, "how were we convinced that this was desirable?"

No amount of debate over the validity of the 2008-2009 financial crisis and resolution makes bitcoin any less of a fiat currency.

What? It seems like you are just changing the subject here? I thought you disagreed with the idea of my grandparent post, but it seems that now you want to say that bitcoin is a fiat currency?

Re: Bitcoin hits $10,000

#238

Post by zjaffee »

wallace_f wrote: post #66
chii wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because there's no reason for a democratic govt to shut it down. The only reason they would is to prevent capital flight (not to mention it's very hard to shut down in any case)

Our government is closer to a plutocracy than a democracy, and look at what happened to other people that kicked out central banks (Gadaffi, Sadam, Hitler). The Fed swelled their balance sheet to 4.5trillion to bail out the banks. They can just electronically create money out of thin air. Everyone has a price, and when you have ultimate power you're in denial of 95%++ of people's human nature if you don't believe tha…

It's total bullshit when people say that all the countries without central banks were the ones being attacked by the US military, north korea has a central bank, Libya has had a central bank continuously since the 1950s.

The fact that this type of fake news is so heavily proliferated and believed damages the ability of working institutions to keep their legitimacy.

Re: Bitcoin hits $10,000

#239

Post by secstate »

DenisM wrote: post #166
sytelus wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> If Starbucks accepted Euro in US for its coffee it would be a crime I don't believe that's true. The US dollar is only mandatory for two things: for settling debts (the lender must accept USD to extinguish debt) and for paying taxes. Otherwise people are free to trade as they please - euros, chickens, whatever.

IANAL, but there have been laws on the book prohibiting bartering in any substantial amount for a while. Of course, the IRS is not going to chase you down for swapping with your neighbor, but large scale "bartering" is definitely frowned upon. What's to stop people bartering a yacht for a house and avoid taxes?

Re: Bitcoin hits $10,000

#240

Post by _justinfunk »

nwah1 wrote: post #218
Cookingboy wrote: post #56

Disclaimer: I do own BTC. But I really can’t see how this is not just an instrument for some people to get very rich in a very short amount of time on the back of others. Can it reach 100k? Absolutely. 1M? Who knows. 10M/BTC? Someone on Reddit said it will get close. But in the end I do think it will be remembered as a global mania instead of the creation of a new asset class. I do believe in block chain and the valu…

I heard a rumor that it will hit 1 trillion dollars. It sounded legit.

The rumor I heard was that it will hit 1 quadrillion dollars.
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