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Bitcoin and almost every other cryptocurrency crashed hard today

techcrunch.com

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Re: Bitcoin and almost every other cryptocurrency crashed hard today

#321

Post by sprt »

cabaalis wrote: post #285
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 may be an unpopular statement, but I believe that even enthusiasts and long-time supporters such as yourself know just about as much regarding the actual value of bitcoin as people who are caught up in the hype.

Note the parent is talking about technology, not value. As far as actual value is concerned, your statement is fair enough since we all know the same amount: fuck all.

Re: Bitcoin and almost every other cryptocurrency crashed hard today

#322

Post by sowbug »

Analog24 wrote: post #244
sowbug wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same is true about Facebook. Someone could clone the features and create facebook2.com, and everyone would flock to it. That's why Facebook stock is a Ponzi scheme. Anyone who thinks Facebook has a value above $0 is insane.

You could say that about any company that doesn't have crucial IP. It doesn't seem like you understand the value of a brand. >Someone could clone the features and create facebook2.com, and everyone would flock to it. This is flat out false. if it was actually that easy don't you think we would have seen it happen already? There are numerous social media platforms that have tried to dethrone Facebook and none of them…

Perhaps you would have benefited from an explicit /s in this conversation. We're in agreement. I was taking OP's point and extending it to demonstrate its weakness.

Re: Bitcoin and almost every other cryptocurrency crashed hard today

#323

Post by vec »

Mankhool wrote: post #265
apcragg wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The dollar is essentially backed by oil and the fact that it's needed to trade with the largest economy in the world, not to mention the country with the largest military.

The dollar is essentially not backed by anything - except debt.

The thing about dollars is that I can pay my taxes with them.

Let's say I think dollars are worthless, and my whole community works off something with real value, like shiny rocks. I'll still have to pay the IRS next April. They may take shiny rocks, but instead I could trade just one or two rocks for a big pile of worthless dollars and get Uncle Sam of my back for next to nothing. Unfortunately for me, every other shiny rock user in town is going to have the same idea, so they'll bid up the price of dollars until trading rocks for dollars doesn't feel any better than just paying my taxes in rocks directly.

The only faith that "full faith and credit" requires is faith that I'll have to keep paying taxes.

Re: Bitcoin and almost every other cryptocurrency crashed hard today

#324

Post by Asdfbla »

jaywunder wrote: post #16

Serious question: who didn't expect this? Did anybody think that the 19K high of last week was going to be the new normal?

Is there really much there is to expect though? Bitcoin's value has no real basis one way or another, since all the purported practical uses have fizzled out once the network became incapable of actual commerce due to various factors like transaction fees, price instability, processing delays, etc.

So I guess by now, Bitcoin crashing by 50% is as surprising or unsurprising as Bitcoin growing by 50% instead. So I'm not sure if you could really expect the crash, since that expectation requires understanding the unknown speculation mechanism that currently drives it. Though in the future some analysis in hindsight might tell us how to explain what market psychology is currently influencing the price.

Re: Bitcoin and almost every other cryptocurrency crashed hard today

#325

Post by asciimo »

saalweachter wrote: post #222
empath75 wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There’s no reason $19 couldn’t be the new normal either.

Nope! That's the exciting part of an asset with no fundamental value.

You can use US dollars to wallpaper your bathroom, for example.

Re: Bitcoin and almost every other cryptocurrency crashed hard today

#326

Post by rc_bhg »

Alex3917 wrote: post #31

This time I think we’re done for the year. Unlike in July, this time if you look on Reddit there is very little appetite in ‘buying the dip’. People are fed up after the Coinbase shenanigans and are wary about Tether, IOTA, etc.

Coinbase did not do any "shenanigans". Take off the tin foil hat.

Re: Bitcoin and almost every other cryptocurrency crashed hard today

#327

Post by colorint »

CamelCaseName wrote: post #252
jcranmer wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Serious question: what value would gold have in a post-apocalyptic world? If I'm selling something, why should I take gold in exchange for it, instead of something useful, like ammunition or food or water?

Because there's an expectation that you can use gold to buy something else you need. This expectation may not hold, but whatever the post-apocalyptic world settles on first will likely be there to stay for a while.

Ironically, the postapocalyptic world will probably still use US dollars. And when it turns out that not enough physical dollars survived the apocalypse, dollars will be the way credit is accounted, with whatever dollars remain being used to periodically reconcile accounts.

Re: Bitcoin and almost every other cryptocurrency crashed hard today

#328

Post by 52-6F-62 »

buttcoinslol wrote: post #79
jaywunder wrote: post #16

Serious question: who didn't expect this? Did anybody think that the 19K high of last week was going to be the new normal?

I wanted to short bitcoin, I predicted a price correction of -50% after the CBOE and CME futures came online, and well, here we are. Unfortunately I can't post 200% margin even on a 20k contract :( edit: The futures markets may not have even been the catalyst for this drop, more likely it's this: "The market has also been artificially pumped up by Bitfinex and their money printing machine Tether."

I've been looking into it after hearing a few thoughts this morning. I think its even more likely that:

The timing of increased volumes and the beginning of bulk selloffs times pretty closely with the announcement of a large hack in South Korea — and exchange called Youbit. They've completely shut down. South Korea is a huge market.

https://themerkle.com/youbit-hacked-again-closes-its-doors/

https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/bitcoin/historical-data...

> The South Korean National Intelligence service believes that North Korean hackers were behind that attack, as well as a separate hacking of South Korea’s largest exchange, Bithumb, back in February. The Korean Internet and Security Agency is currently investigating Youbit’s most recent attack.

Re: Bitcoin and almost every other cryptocurrency crashed hard today

#329

Post by Klathmon »

root_axis wrote: post #318
Klathmon wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And I could make thousands of kinds of physical coins next month, it doesn't mean physical money is worth less... I feel like I'm crazy here, how is the ability to make a new "thing" make something else less valuable? A toyota isn't worth less because I can make a new car company next week, Facebook isn't worth less because I could make a clone of it tomorrow, A company stock shouldn't be consitered "worthless" just…

> And I could make thousands of kinds of physical coins next month No, you couldn't, not without literally tons of raw material, heavy machinery and infrastructure to mint the coins, laborers to run the operation, time to process the raw materials, and a practical mechanism to circulate the coins. These are serious barriers to the creation of physical money, unlike cryptocurrency which can be instantly and effortless…

>The point is that you can't just "create a new company" tomorrow that is in any way comparable to a successful business

That's my point exactly! Just because you can replicate the "class" of thing, doesn't mean you can replicate the thing...

Just like how a company stock isn't just a piece of paper that anyone can photocopy, a cryptocurrency isn't just the code that runs it. It's the users, the track record of security, the amount of vendors and exchanges that use it, the amount of centralization/decentralization to it's development team, the amount and maturity of implementations of the software, and any number of other intangible things.

Simply making a new cryptocurrency is exactly the same as making a new company, or a new facebook, or a new toyota, or a new anything. It doesn't make you a direct competitor any more than my "klathmonbook.com" is a direct competitor to facebook just because I replicated some (or even all) of the functionality.

>the ash heap of history is littered with the remains of companies that thought they could replicate a successful company's business model only to find out that its actually not that simple.

So is the pile of scamcoins and poorly thought out implementations that have already collapsed within months of their creation. Give the space some more time, and I bet you'll see a lot more of them fail, because just like how creating a company isn't just clicking a button, creating a successful cryptocurrency isn't a simple thing either. But I still don't think that it means that all cryptocurrencies are worthless because anyone can enter the space.

Re: Bitcoin and almost every other cryptocurrency crashed hard today

#330

Post by rc_bhg »

CamelCaseName wrote: post #8
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.

That's if it stops here. People say that we've had 30%+ crashes earlier this year and that's true, but not quite this fast.

Super high volumes are making everything happen faster.
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