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Kik, once valued at $1B, is to be closed

forbes.com

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Re: Kik, once valued at $1B, is to be closed

#221

Post by Method-X »

pjc50 wrote: post #216
repomies691 wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know a handful of people who benefited a lot from Bitcoin by just speculating with it. They got wealthy, some even rich and now they have much better living standards. That group fits into the niche that were quite well "served" by Bitcoin. Just pointing out that "scammers and criminals" is clearly not the only ones benefitting from Bitcoin, and I would suspect it is also minority.

And where did that wealth come from? Other people's trading losses.

So now the stock market is a scam too?

Re: Kik, once valued at $1B, is to be closed

#222

Post by not_a_cop75 »

pcunite wrote: post #2

... the FBI had taken control of a Kik user's account to run groups sharing such illegal imagery for over a year ... Think about that for moment.

Many US agencies have full access to "private" messaging services. Don't be fooled into thinking anything is really private.

Re: Kik, once valued at $1B, is to be closed

#223

Post by saalweachter »

spurdoman77 wrote: post #195
heavenlyblue wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know, my first foray into the world of Big Corpo people was when I met this guy studying at . He was looking for ways to use blockchain to help regions with unstable currencies. Well, he was doing his Ph.D, actually on that topic. So he would approach people and suggest they all meet up and have this think-tank somewhere in North London. Now imagine you've got about 20-30 people sitting in the same room: and they…

Bitcoin didnt require initial investments of mining hardware, initially it was mined with normal computers. Mining hardware is more like a running cost that goes up with usage/value.

The specialized mining hardware is a red herring.

The security of the Bitcoin network isn't a function of its hashrate or the number of nodes, though these things correlate; it's a function of the cost of running it.

Regardless of whether the network is run on specialized hardware, old desktops, or TI-83s, the network is only secure so long as it costs enough to run that any motivated attacker would have to spend more money than they can leverage to attack it.

Re: Kik, once valued at $1B, is to be closed

#224

Post by goatinaboat »

Method-X wrote: post #221
pjc50 wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And where did that wealth come from? Other people's trading losses.

So now the stock market is a scam too?

The stock market is not because good companies really do become more valuable by doing real work. It’s not zero-sum.

Re: Kik, once valued at $1B, is to be closed

#225

Post by criddell »

thesausageking wrote: post #65
criddell wrote: post #10

What was the $1B valuation based on? It seems absurd.

The $1B valuation was for their last round which was a $50m investment by Tencent, the company behind WeChat. The investment was more about a partnership between the companies than the economics. At the time, Kik's CEO said: "Today, there are only five other companies in the world that see the future like we do: Tencent, Line, Facebook, Snapchat, and Telegram. One of them owns the largest internet market in the world…

I even wonder how Tencent thought Kik was worth $50m. That seems absurd.

Re: Kik, once valued at $1B, is to be closed

#226

Post by bitxbitxbitcoin »

chx wrote: post #78

Cryptocurrencies are scam. End. This is very simple. Yes, they are a new kind of scam, a good name suggested is Nakamoto Scheme. https://prestonbyrne.com/2017/12/08/bitcoin_ponzi/ Also notable: https://davidgerard.co.uk/blockchain/2018/04/05/debunking-bu... which doesn't outright call it a scam but certainly points out > Git gives you pretty much everything offered by the business case for blockchains. The one thing…

If you know anything about the space, you'd know that Nakamoto Scheme is a complete misnomer.

Re: Kik, once valued at $1B, is to be closed

#227

Post by pjc50 »

Method-X wrote: post #221
pjc50 wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And where did that wealth come from? Other people's trading losses.

So now the stock market is a scam too?

Stocks pay dividends. Cryptocurrencies don't.

Commodities can be sold and consumed for some real economic purpose. Cryptocurrencies can't. It's like gold except you can't see it or make jewellery from it or use it for anything.

Re: Kik, once valued at $1B, is to be closed

#228

Post by Method-X »

pjc50 wrote: post #227
Method-X wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So now the stock market is a scam too?

Stocks pay dividends. Cryptocurrencies don't. Commodities can be sold and consumed for some real economic purpose. Cryptocurrencies can't. It's like gold except you can't see it or make jewellery from it or use it for anything.

I made no comment(s) on your above mentioned points. I was replying the assertion that "trading gains are someone else's trading loses".

Re: Kik, once valued at $1B, is to be closed

#229

Post by pjc50 »

Method-X wrote: post #228
pjc50 wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stocks pay dividends. Cryptocurrencies don't. Commodities can be sold and consumed for some real economic purpose. Cryptocurrencies can't. It's like gold except you can't see it or make jewellery from it or use it for anything.

I made no comment(s) on your above mentioned points. I was replying the assertion that "trading gains are someone else's trading loses".

It's an arithmetic consequence of there not being any intrinsic return. The money won from cryptocurrency trading can only come from other traders, because there are no coupons, dividends, or physical deliveries.

Re: Kik, once valued at $1B, is to be closed

#230

Post by asjw »

Insanity wrote: post #168
WA wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Calling them currrency is already a scam. They are not a currency. They are hardly money (look up the difference yourself), because you mostly can’t buy stuff with it. And for sure, you can’t pay taxes with them. I read a great question here on HN a while back to enthusiasts: If you were the last person in earth to receive coins, would you still like them and endorse them? So many comments can be traced to the idea o…

A couple of shops (jewelry places mainly) and most food delivery services around me accept bitcoin. So I can use them as a currency. It's like duck typing. If it looks like a currency and behaves like a currency, it'd a currency! (Overly simplistic I know, but I'd challenge the idea that it outright can't be a currency)

Nope.

You're paying not in bitcoin, but in the value of those bitcoins converted to a legal currency.

Otherwise those businesses are just avoiding taxes, it would be better to pay in gold, at least it has a stable price.

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