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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

#401

Post by candiodari »

hbosch wrote: post #270
candiodari wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By what standard, exactly ? The dollar certainly has had 30% "shocks" in a year compared to gold, which is the usual standard. Most famously, obviously, 1971, but there have been more normal years with such changes as well. You could also say that the US dollar is really backed by the US economy. Well, the US economy is S&P500 + a few percentage points. Well that has dropped, and gained more than 30% in a year as wel…

Yes but will they happen 4 or 5 times a year, as with bitcoin?

Now ? No.

I wonder what happened when the dollar was 10-20 years old though. Can't seem to find good info anywhere.

Re: Bitcoin and almost every other cryptocurrency crashed hard today

#402

Post by candiodari »

mikepurvis wrote: post #223
bluGill wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only thing you cannot do with bitcoin is pay taxes directly. You can do that indirectly by trading your bitcoin for USD. There are a lot of different goods you can buy with bitcoin, some of which you cannot buy any other way (many are illegal but that is a different matter). Bitcoin is traded for other currency all the time. I tend to believe those who say bitcoin will not last are right, but right not it is a cu…

That's like saying I can pay my taxes in barrels of oil, I just have to sell them first so that I can pay in my government's currency. Like, what accountant would be capable of planning finances for a business where every single liability is denominated in a super-volatile asset? The whole thing is nuts.

Euhm, almost every single country on the planet ? (granted, one or two exceptions)

Even the value of the dollar is significantly in the social contract with Saudi Arabia (not sure if "social" is the right word, but it's definitely not legal, as both sides are sovereign and thus free to change any law or contract between them)

Seems to work well, for the most part. Granted, on occasion disasters happen.

Re: Bitcoin and almost every other cryptocurrency crashed hard today

#403

Post by mrhappyunhappy »

anonemouse145 wrote: post #100
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think there are three elements contributing to the negativity: (1) People may get hurt. I was in an Uber two weeks ago where my driver talked about taking out a second line on his home to buy Bitcoin. By today's mark, he's lost money. That people who clearly have no idea what they're doing are being preyed on is disturbing to many, myself included. (2) ICOs are a cesspool of frauds. They allow promoters to make mon…

And transaction fees. I saw someone reporting over $30 fee to get processed within 20 minutes. That's why Steam dropped Bitcoin. As a skeptic, people thinking this is a good currency are hilarious. Day trading and making money off them is simple sport.

This is total bs. Segwit transactions are under a dollar.

Re: Bitcoin and almost every other cryptocurrency crashed hard today

#405

Post by mrhappyunhappy »

nxsynonym wrote: post #119
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There's no valuable discussion to be had anymore regarding BTC because every discussion turns into price point speculation There are tangential discussions around market structure, regulations (their existence, interpretation and necessity) and other matters I've found genuinely interesting. Bitcoin appears to have attempted a clean reboot of modern finance. It's interesting seeing where common solutions are found.…

Let me clarify - I agree with you. Price discussion shouldn't be the only discussion, but the media frenzy and run away increase in value makes it the main topic of focus. The things that you mentioned are what I am most interested around Bitcoin, and what should be talked about - but that is only happening in very small amounts and (in my experience) by people who don't have any horses in the race. As a side note -…

I think thI discussion should no longer be about bitcoin but about blockchains and how they are going to make the current financial system obsolete. Take for example EOS and Cardano, the two are 3ed generation blockchains that will enable all sorts of uses for crypto coins. Yes the median is fixated on Bitcoin, and I say let them be. People are overlooking what will be the most impactful technology of our lifetime and that is a damn shame. But hey, what do I care; I'm one of those greedy bastards scooping up virtual land I'm decentraland, investing in amazing projects that will eliminate billions of waste in financial and healthcare world and will connect the other 4 billion people currently not participating in the virtual economy.

Re: Bitcoin and almost every other cryptocurrency crashed hard today

#406

Post by mrhappyunhappy »

djsumdog wrote: post #161
gressquel wrote: post #19

Downvote me all you want, but HN really needs to cure this bitcoin-jealousy. Yes, people who invested early became millionares and billionares with a single mouse click. I know it feels unfair when you spend countless hours creating and innovating and not being rewarded. But some of you here needs to stop hating and being bitter. I have been watching HN and bitcoin related threads for months now. Same pattern.

Who is buying coin? Like if you seriously found 3 BTC you had on an old hard drive from years ago, remembered that password, who would pay you the $30k? You'd have to try different exchanges, try small amounts first, pay the insane transaction fees and wait for confirmation. Anyone who truly had a huge stash of like 400k USD in BTC would need to grab a lawyer, an escrow company and enter into a pretty strict legal co…

I come across 100m+ accounts every Day on ethereum explorer. Gdax moves hundreds of millions per day.

Re: Bitcoin and almost every other cryptocurrency crashed hard today

#407

Post by mrhappyunhappy »

SippinLean wrote: post #269
sowbug wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your numbers are off by more than a factor of 1,000. As of a couple days ago, you could liquidate $30M (not $30K) on GDAX with a market sell order (which would be the worst possible way to sell) for more than 95% of last-quoted price.

What would be a better way to sell?

A littl bit at a time. You don't want to cash 10m in a subsequent number of sells, that would fluctuate the price too much.

Re: Bitcoin and almost every other cryptocurrency crashed hard today

#408

Post by mrhappyunhappy »

cs702 wrote: post #179

What we're seeing right now is a shakeout of all those unsophisticated individuals who have been purchasing crytocurrencies in growing numbers, mostly without understanding them, and in many cases with borrowed money and even by taking out home mortgages.[a] Those unsophisticated buyers are the ones who pushed the price of Bitcoin from ~$1000 at the beginning of the year to $18000+ a couple of weeks ago.[b] Now they'…

Or as we call them : normies

Re: Bitcoin and almost every other cryptocurrency crashed hard today

#409

Post by mrhappyunhappy »

increment_i wrote: post #236

Looks like people have already started buying the dip. I've found the recent discussions around BTC and cryptocoins on this forum incredibly illuminating, from both the bulls and the bears. I'm beginning to think perhaps there's no point in discussing the fundamental financial flaws of cryptos, or their lack of inherent value. I'm beginning to think their main utility in is meeting a human need that's existed since a…

Most people here seem to be completely oblivious to the movement behind Bitcoin and what it means for the world as the antiquated financial systems are replaced with people in control of their own money. The fact that everyone is so fixated on price shows the lack of imagination and forward thinking about what is coming. You call it gambling, we call it being ahead of the curve when the rest of the world only wakes up. I've come to believe the HN crowd for the most part cannot comprehend what is about to happen to our financial, political and technological world. Entire industries are being revamped while the hackerpeneur is blinded by Bitcoin fog. You are correct, there is no point in telling a banker he is about to be unemployed.

Re: Bitcoin and almost every other cryptocurrency crashed hard today

#410

Post by tim333 »

cocktailpeanuts wrote: post #174
Cthulhu_ wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 cry…

I agree and disagree. I agree that currently it's purely based on speculative supply and demand. But I disagree that's what cryptocurrency is. Bitcoin became popular because people actually used it to buy and sell stuff in the early days. And its main value was that it could provide very low transaction fee. Nowadays that's become impossible because the BTC transaction fee has risen to a ridiculous state. For somethi…

Bitcoin seems pretty fungible in that it's a "commodity whose individual units are essentially interchangeable." But I agree the transaction costs are too high if that's what you mean.
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