To me it's like any other stock, except more volatile. When you use it for payments it's like selling some of your shares in a stock.
Bitcoin as a Game
21–30 of 82 posts
Re: Bitcoin as a Game
#22> The premise behind bitcoin-the-game is that the current wave of buyers must guess when (or if) a subsequent wave of buyers will emerge, this second next wave's participation being contingent on when (or if) they believe a third wave of buyers to emerge. If they guess right, the early birds win at the expense of the late ones. ... This is a truly tired analysis. It goes by various names, including "greater fool theo…
Surely there is a difference between investments that have underlying value, but are speculated on, and investments which have no underlying value except that due to speculation.
Re: Bitcoin as a Game
#23The problem with the Bitcoin game is there is no longer the 'millionaire overnight' scenario as a possibility. Sure, you could buy 1 coin and it could go up 10x, yet you'd still only be (at this time) $90k richer. Which isn't bad but the big climb from decimal places up to full dollars is where there was more possibility. Common folks can take a gamble on 100 coins for $1 a piece, they really can't take a gamble at $…
If you had bought $10 worth of bitcoin starting on Oct 21, 2015, and continued to do so every month for the next four years, your total investment of $480 would be worth around $3,337 today — a gain of 595% (as of 10/21/19).
Coinbase: https://blog.coinbase.com/charting-the-course-of-bitcoin-11-...
Re: Bitcoin as a Game
#24This is one of the worst anti-bitcoin articles I’ve ever read.
Bitcoin is no game; over $7 trillion has been transferred since 2009: https://blog.coinbase.com/charting-the-course-of-bitcoin-11-....
We’re seeing the beginning of a new economic good being created right in front of our eyes and many of us won’t realize this until many years later.
Re: Bitcoin as a Game
#25> The premise behind bitcoin-the-game is that the current wave of buyers must guess when (or if) a subsequent wave of buyers will emerge, this second next wave's participation being contingent on when (or if) they believe a third wave of buyers to emerge. If they guess right, the early birds win at the expense of the late ones. ... This is a truly tired analysis. It goes by various names, including "greater fool theo…
Surely there is a difference between investments that have underlying value, but are speculated on, and investments which have no underlying value except that due to speculation.
Isn't the underlying value here mathematically provable scarcity ?
Re: Bitcoin as a Game
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
Surely there is a difference between investments that have underlying value, but are speculated on, and investments which have no underlying value except that due to speculation.
Isn't the underlying value here mathematically provable scarcity ?
Imagine a system existed whereby you could trade some time from your computer when it was idle for extra juice later. Some kind of credit if you will.
Re: Bitcoin as a Game
#27So many articles about Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies today! I've devoted a lot of my career to blockchain, and here is my brief summary:
- Blockchain typically means a tamper-proof, distributed database.
- Smart contracts are like stored database procedures.
- Blockchains allow you to transact valuable assets - even billions! - without needing to trust your counter-party.
- However, you must trust the underlying software! This is a fundamentally different risk from usual financial transactions where you trust the institutions servicing the exchange, but not necessarily the counter-party. This turns finance upside-down!
- People can create financial products and services - even extremely complex ones - without any governmental permission, or if they need a real-world presence, permission from a regulatory body that is very amenable. And once granted, it's very easily to transact globally!
- If your curiosity is piqued, check out my blog post I wrote a while ago on MakerDAO and their decentalized stablecoin. It's fascinating! https://medium.com/@james_3093/the-dai-stablecoin-is-a-game-...
- Cryptocurrency and blockchain are some of the most debated, and IMO misunderstood technologies of 2019. They are interesting from not just a pure computer science perspective but also economics, philosophy, and psychology.
Re: Bitcoin as a Game
#28I think this article is kind of missing the point. Literally any tradeable thing can be used for speculation like this. The problem with bitcoin is that it seems to be primarily used for speculation.
Re: Bitcoin as a Game
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
Surely there is a difference between investments that have underlying value, but are speculated on, and investments which have no underlying value except that due to speculation.
Isn't the underlying value here mathematically provable scarcity ?
There is no true scarcity. I can create a clone of Bitcoin in seconds just by cloning a github repository and changing one line.
Re: Bitcoin as a Game
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
Isn't the underlying value here mathematically provable scarcity ?
There is no true scarcity. I can create a clone of Bitcoin in seconds just by cloning a github repository and changing one line.
Your clone of Bitcoin wouldn't be a 'clone' any more than a lead bar is a 'clone' of gold.
You might call it bitcoin all you want, but no actualy bitcoin software would be fooled. (You might trick some people, but fraud has existed long before computers).
It's a lot less expensive to reliably distinguish a fraudulent bitcoin from a fraudulent goal bar.
So even if you hold the position that there is no perfect scarcity because fraud is possible-- the cost, difficulty, and success rate of that fraud matters greatly.