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No End in Sight for Crypto Sell-Off as Bitcoin Breaches $4,250

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Re: No End in Sight for Crypto Sell-Off as Bitcoin Breaches $4,250

#351

Post by paulie_a »

mrleinad wrote: post #71
booleandilemma wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At $250 I was explaining to my parents what bitcoin is. At $19,000 I was overhearing Starbucks baristas talk about it.

When the cleaning lady asks if she should buy bitcoin, is when you should dump and sell everything.

People have asked me if they should buy in. I've simply told them as a complete gamble. Suggested if they want to buy go with a small amount of money and not be concerned if they lose it all. I don't know they bought but I made it clear it is risky and volatile. Sure there is a possibility of a good return, don't take out a second mortgage.

Re: No End in Sight for Crypto Sell-Off as Bitcoin Breaches $4,250

#352

Post by freewilly1040 »

jrp55 wrote: post #62
dragontamer wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is that all that computing power still exists. If the hashrate drops, then a 51% attack becomes possible. Remember that those mining farms still exist, even if they've temporarily turned off their mining equipment. Someone can turn all that equipment on suddenly to attack the network and start double-spending their coins. In effect: the hashrate MUST remain high if the BTC network is to remain secure. Tha…

At the risk of sounding overly flippant... should we (the general non-bitcoin holding public) really care whether a 51% attack happens or not?

I think if the general economy cared about cryptocurrency the effects would have been felt already

Re: No End in Sight for Crypto Sell-Off as Bitcoin Breaches $4,250

#353

Post by atomical »

wild_preference wrote: post #306
atomical wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

* Basic Attention Token (BAT), Brendan Eich, digital advertising * FunFair (FUN), Jez San, online gambling

How is BAT not just a money grab? It could've been done with cash. New blockchain tokens just create speculative hype and make the creator rich. Also, how does blockchain help in its objective over any other solution beyond making the creator rich?

The money raised is being used to build the product and hire talent. It isn't being used to enrich Brendan Eich personally. If you have evidence to the contrary please post it.

Re: No End in Sight for Crypto Sell-Off as Bitcoin Breaches $4,250

#354

Post by habitue »

andrewla wrote: post #341
na85 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Has anyone come up with a use case for blockchains yet, that isn't buying illegal drugs or money laundering? I keep seeing pie in the sky hypotheticals like "supply chain trust" from people who think farmers are etching their cucumbers with serial numbers, but I've yet to see any use case presented for a blockchain that has real utility and isn't better solved by existing processes or systems.

I'll go out on a limb and say that if we expand "buying illegal drugs" to "buying anything", or more accurately, "sending money securely, reliably over the internet in a censorship-resistant fashion" then that seems like a sufficiently interesting use case. Even treating Bitcoin as a settlement layer, and saying that we have "an electronic bearer currency that is deterministically produced and cannot be forged" is pr…

There's this big wall between "buying illegally" and "buying anything". The only reason people are using it to buy things illegally is because they can't use normal methods like credit cards. It's strictly more annoying and higher friction to use than a credit card for non-illegal purposes.

It's kind of like those free speech platforms. If you're a free speech anything goes platform, but everyone who isn't saying terrible things isn't encountering any problems on Twitter, then you end up with only people saying terrible things on the free speech platform even if that wasn't the original purpose.

All this is to say, I think for Bitcoin or crypto to overtake credit cards, it has to provide massive benefits above and beyond credit cards to get people who have no problems with credit cards to switch to it. Right now, that's not the case.

Re: No End in Sight for Crypto Sell-Off as Bitcoin Breaches $4,250

#355

Post by Forbo »

narrator wrote: post #322
simias wrote: post #20

Since the article states "the trigger for the latest sell-off is unclear" I'm really curious if somebody here could venture a guess about the reasons for the sudden drop. The Bitcoin Cash fork seems suspiciously correlated but is it big enough news to cause such a turmoil? Being a cryptocurrency-skeptic I won't pretend that I don't experience a little bit of schadenfreude when I see CC crash, however if I'm trying to…

I think the bell that rung at the top was the same bell I've seen in other speculative markets: The main people you would expect to see cheerleading throw in the towel and say it's crazy. That happened writ large at the beginning of 2018. There was one presentation at a Bitcoin conference I went to in early 2018 where this long haired huppy guy went through CoinMarketCap and called out every single thing on there as…

Any chance this talk was recorded? I would love to watch it!

Re: No End in Sight for Crypto Sell-Off as Bitcoin Breaches $4,250

#356

Post by pavel_lishin »

nothrabannosir wrote: post #339
ceejayoz wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Driver's license or other state/country-issued ID seems like a perfectly reasonable line. https://support.coinbase.com/customer/portal/articles/274981...

Not if it has to be issued in the country of residence, like mkohlmyr reported. For me that would be basically unachievable. Well, I could retake a driving test here, I guess. That’s quite a bar to clear, if you ask me.

I find it difficult to believe that a local identification card is a high bar to clear.

If you live in a country, surely you have some legal status there, which implies some sort of identification, no? How long would I be able to live in London without needing a local ID card?

Re: No End in Sight for Crypto Sell-Off as Bitcoin Breaches $4,250

#357

Post by ejanus »

apo wrote: post #308

Having seen four of these major wipeouts over the years, here's the pattern for this highly cyclical spectacle: 1. Nobody cares about Bitcoin. If you tell anyone you bought it, they either shrug or laugh. 2. Bitcoin refuses to die. The long-predicted technology show-stoppers never happen and the network keeps chugging. A small but dedicated group of users continues using it on a regular basis. 3. Speculators who had…

Simple....and well crafted ..but this is not limited to BTC and company. The same pattern happens in other markets , equity, bond and debts , fx , and the rest. But BTC was unique because one does not need to pass lengthy huddles before buying it unlike say buying Google stock if you live say in Libya .

Re: No End in Sight for Crypto Sell-Off as Bitcoin Breaches $4,250

#358

Post by mgolawala »

andrewla wrote: post #209
ForHackernews wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What "scarce digital assets" exist other than blockchain-backed cryptocurrencies? You've invented a problem for your solution.

There are plenty of scarce assets defined by no utility except for their scarcity; we call those assets money. That said, even before Bitcoin arose, most real-world (fiat) currencies were handled primarily through electronic transfers. There, the double-spend and scarcity-preservation was largely maintained through a combination of accounting convention, interbank agreements, audits, regulations, and occasional crimi…

>> There are plenty of scarce assets defined by no utility except for their scarcity; we call those assets money.

Money doesn't hold value because of its scarcity. Money holds value because of the faith and credit of the entity that backs it.

If a person issued a single unit of currency tomorrow and promptly died, it wouldn't suddenly hold any value simply because it is scarce and guaranteed to remain so.

To put it another way, money's value lies in the fact that it is "legal tender". That status is backed by a powerful organization and people have to trust that organization. When the trust is gone, the value is gone, regardless of how scarce or plentiful the units of money.

Re: No End in Sight for Crypto Sell-Off as Bitcoin Breaches $4,250

#359

Post by xiphias2 »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #194
xiphias2 wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With BTC this is just normal volatility. The usual drawdowns that are happening every 1-3 years are about 75% - 95%. If the price of BTC goes under $1000 that will be something new. I can't speak of other coins as they are a very different market (and I'm a Bitcoin maximalist).

By "Bitcoin maximalist" I assume you mean you want to see it enter widespread use as currency? Any thoughts on the extreme environmental downside of BTC?

It means that I think it will eat all money (and most altcoins as well) over the next 15-20 years.

About the downside: I hope using coal as an energy source will be shut down ASAP. Bitcoin protocol would easily work with only sustainable energy sources, but it doesn't work without the security of proof of work (all other algorithms for decentralized concensus so far decrease security of the protocol).

Luckily China already took some steps to close down the most polluting Bitcoin miners.

Re: No End in Sight for Crypto Sell-Off as Bitcoin Breaches $4,250

#360

Post by mancerayder »

simias wrote: post #20

Since the article states "the trigger for the latest sell-off is unclear" I'm really curious if somebody here could venture a guess about the reasons for the sudden drop. The Bitcoin Cash fork seems suspiciously correlated but is it big enough news to cause such a turmoil? Being a cryptocurrency-skeptic I won't pretend that I don't experience a little bit of schadenfreude when I see CC crash, however if I'm trying to…

Well, there's also some news about the Tether probe: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-11-20/bitcoin-r...
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