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Bitcoin and almost every other cryptocurrency crashed hard today

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Re: Bitcoin and almost every other cryptocurrency crashed hard today

#121

Post by Cthulhu_ »

cocktailpeanuts wrote: post #83

As someone who owns and believes in cryptocurrency, I'm actually glad this happened. I was getting sick of all the get rich quick people who've been driving the price lately, even for the coins that shouldn't be pumping. It was almost as if the entire cryptocurrency space had turned into a huge unregulated casino. I was at a couple of Bitcoin meetups recently and was surprised to find that most attendees were proudly…

> It was almost as if the entire cryptocurrency space had turned into a huge unregulated casino.

[/thread]. That's really what it is, but instead of casino, call it a stock market. With that one there's a lot of regulation in place - including new European legislation, MiFID II (http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEMO-14-305_en.htm), which in part is aimed at protecting clueless investors from themselves.

The crypto market doesn't have this, so a lot of people jump on this, consider themselves subject matter experts after a few days or weeks of reading up on stuff and following relevant subreddits, and getting swept up in the hypes (even if they don't think they are. I don't think I am. wait.)

It's the same with stock market trading, you don't need to understand how the company you're investing in works, the only thing that really matters is how much other people are interested in the company (or crypto).

The value of cryptocurrencies is not based on technology or how it works, it's based on supply and demand, which in turn is driven by trust and hype. Not unlike the stock market in a less regulated age.

Re: Bitcoin and almost every other cryptocurrency crashed hard today

#122

Post by aviv »

carry_bit wrote: post #107
tanilama wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> not rare Interesting. Don't really know how crytos work, but isn't rarity is guaranteed by the BitCoin algorithm itself?

Bitcoin itself is rare, but cryptocurrency as a whole is not because it's easy to create another blockchain.

This right there is exactly why long term it's doomed and cannot be a reliable store of value. You don't see banks and random geeks inventing new precious metals out of thin air. So you have gold, silver, platinum and palladium and that's about it as far as store of values are concerned.

Re: Bitcoin and almost every other cryptocurrency crashed hard today

#123

Post by nxsynonym »

hobs wrote: post #104
nxsynonym wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This has got to be one of the most elitist and ignorant comments I've ever seen here.

/s indicates a "closing" sarcasm tag.

He edited in the /s after the fact - and besides sarcastic comments don't add any value to the discussion.

Re: Bitcoin and almost every other cryptocurrency crashed hard today

#124

Post by watty »

flatline wrote: post #62
HiroshiSan wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is blockchain a pipedream?

People keep thinking it’s going to revolutionize entire industries when really it’s a highly limited and inefficient database technology that no one who isn’t trying to make a buck would suggest using for data storage unless you have the very particular constraints of something like bitcoin. There’s lots of mature, versatile database options out there: Postgres, SQLite, BerkeleyDB, and countless other NoSQL and CQRS…

It's like "machine learning" and every other buzzword. People expect "machine learning" to just solve all the problems in every industry. It's great tech but it has limited use cases.

Re: Bitcoin and almost every other cryptocurrency crashed hard today

#125

Post by dithering »

tanilama wrote: post #93
mutteraloo wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They didn't know what they were buying; bits in a database. A very poorly implemented database that was - not scalable - not rare - didn't have any government backing or big institutional backing in case the price dropped from 19,000 to 11,000 - easily hackable (tether, fake trades, scam exchanges, etc) - too expensive to do a single transaction this applies to most crytocurrency

> not rare Interesting. Don't really know how crytos work, but isn't rarity is guaranteed by the BitCoin algorithm itself?

Algorithm is defined by consensus. Changing the algorithm just means gaining consensus amongst the miners.

"Would you like to continue printing free money?" sounds like an easy sell to me.

Re: Bitcoin and almost every other cryptocurrency crashed hard today

#127

Post by YCode »

explorigin wrote: post #40
danvoell wrote: post #3

I blame Bitcoin Cash. But to put things in perspective, the crash wiped out like three weeks of gains. So this is just a counter part to the Bitcoin going through the roof article.

BCH is the catalyst but not the direct cause. It's commonly agreed that BTC price was a bubble. Bubbles need an event to pop them. Coinbase opening support for BCH was that event.

I like the term "correction", in that it's not over for bitcoin it's just now it's getting a more realistic value.

Re: Bitcoin and almost every other cryptocurrency crashed hard today

#128

Post by frgtpsswrdlame »

24gttghh wrote: post #56

Ha! I needed a good laugh this morning. Thanks internet. What I don't get, is how do these prices actually change? For btc or a stock. The mechanism seems very voodoo.

>What I don't get, is how do these prices actually change? For btc or a stock.

Easy, so take a look at this which was linked upthread: https://www.gdax.com/trade/BTC-USD

So the weird moving green and orange bars in the middle of the screen are the order book. Green is the 'buy' side of the book and orange is 'sell.' Buy and sell orders get matched, the sale goes through and both the buy and sell order disappear from the order book. If there's more demand to buy then the green bar starts eating into the orange section and pushes the price up. Vice versa in a crash, and it works the same way for stocks.

And you can see that the orange and green sections are cumulative. So if the price right now is $12000 I can scroll over $12,250 and it'll say something like 280 BTC, that number is how many bitcoins I have to buy to eat the order book up to $12,250 (which makes that the new price).

Re: Bitcoin and almost every other cryptocurrency crashed hard today

#130

Post by edem »

mutteraloo wrote: post #82
htormey wrote: post #51

I do mobile software consulting. To give you an idea of the level of crypto currency mania: Every single one of my clients in San Francisco have some kind of slack or group chat devoted to crypto trading. I was waiting at the front desk of a client who has a floor in a fancy building downtown. Whilst waiting I overheard the end of a conversation between the door guy talking to the maintanence man: “I put in a bunch o…

They didn't know what they were buying; bits in a database. A very poorly implemented database that was - not scalable - not rare - didn't have any government backing or big institutional backing in case the price dropped from 19,000 to 11,000 - easily hackable (tether, fake trades, scam exchanges, etc) - too expensive to do a single transaction this applies to most crytocurrency

What is the problem with Tether? Do you refer to USDT?
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