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Bitcoin Price Hits All-Time High of $19,786, Topping 2017 Record
41–50 of 263 posts
Re: Bitcoin Price Hits All-Time High of $19,786, Topping 2017 Record
#42Bitcoin and other compute-intensive cryptocurrencies should be banned or taxed so heavily that it's financially infeasible to use them. The amount of energy being wasted (reportedly more than seven nuclear power plants worth) on what is essentially an unproductive project is quite absurd. In a world where we should all be increasingly concerned about the looming climate catastrophe, it's wholly irresponsible for Bitc…
>The amount of energy being wasted (reportedly more than seven nuclear power plants worth) on what is essentially an unproductive project is quite absurd.
As opposed to the energy and pollution generated by digging up yellow rocks or shiny crystals? What about billionares flying around the world in private jets or cruising in their yachts?
Moreover, if carbon emissions are the issue, why not tax it directly (aka carbon tax), rather than indirectly via a "sin" tax? That would have the effect of incentivizing the reduction of carbon emissions economy wide, rather than in a tiny sector.
Re: Bitcoin Price Hits All-Time High of $19,786, Topping 2017 Record
#43Would be great to short-sell right now, but that's almost impossible to do the last I checked.
Re: Bitcoin Price Hits All-Time High of $19,786, Topping 2017 Record
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
There is not a single use case better solved by cryptocurrencies or blockchain than by a classical solution. Name one, I’ll wait. When there is I’ll eat my, err, hat.
The permissionless nature does enable some use cases where the overhead associated with the classical solutions makes them impractical. With Bitcoin, anyone can start a cash-to-bitcoin/bitcoin-to-cash office. All you need is a phone with Internet. Could Western Union solve the same problem? In theory, yes, in practice, the overhead cost of joining the network means the guy with a phone in some remote village isn't go…
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Re: Bitcoin Price Hits All-Time High of $19,786, Topping 2017 Record
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
Bitcoin is a Bitfinex and Tether phenomenon. Since the Tether article was posted a few weeks ago another $2B fake dollars have been generated and used to buy Bitcoin. This absolutely and completely dwarfs the pennies Square and PayPal threw into the wishing well.
Tether is a cornerstone of the crypto industry. You can post some random blog posts here but Tether is actually used by trading firms, and can be minted and redeemed through their portal here https://app.tether.to/app/login The Tether FUD is so dumb, but it's the last straw being grasped by perma-bears.
Nonsense. Tether has never been redeemed, and even if it could be redeemed, there is no possible way that they could cover the balance of issued tethers.
It’s the mother of all Ponzi schemes, clearly, and is definitely going to implode in the next big pullback.
Re: Bitcoin Price Hits All-Time High of $19,786, Topping 2017 Record
#46Can someone explain why BTC going from 13k to 20k in a month isn't the yearly pump and dump?
It's probably more reflective of inflation and the dollar losing value, which is the natural consequence of dropping interest rates to zero and pumping $6T more into the economy. TSLA has gone from $191 to $576 since June, GOOG from $1394->$1761, AMZN $2478->$3143, ZM $262->$466. Where I'm at restaurant meals have gone from about $13/plate to $20/plate, and houses have gone from ~$1.6M -> $2.1M.
BTC's rise isn't all that out of line with any of those. I think you're seeing investors rush out of dollars and into anything that'll have hard value in the digital economy going forward. Inflation doesn't hit all markets evenly, so you may not see it in your paycheck yet (if you still have a paycheck) and areas without a lot of people seeing money come in won't have prices rise as much. But I think you should read this as a currency crisis for the dollar, not a bubble for Bitcoin.
Re: Bitcoin Price Hits All-Time High of $19,786, Topping 2017 Record
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
There is not a single use case better solved by cryptocurrencies or blockchain than by a classical solution. Name one, I’ll wait. When there is I’ll eat my, err, hat.
The problem of exchanging value between parties without intermediary or third-parties.
Yeah that’s not a problem though, it’s a feature.
Re: Bitcoin Price Hits All-Time High of $19,786, Topping 2017 Record
#48Bitcoin and other compute-intensive cryptocurrencies should be banned or taxed so heavily that it's financially infeasible to use them. The amount of energy being wasted (reportedly more than seven nuclear power plants worth) on what is essentially an unproductive project is quite absurd. In a world where we should all be increasingly concerned about the looming climate catastrophe, it's wholly irresponsible for Bitc…
If I build a geothermal plant in a place where no one needs power, and use it only to mine bitcoin, then only renewable energy is used, nothing is added to the climate. See https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/13/how-iceland-be...
Using excess hydro power (china) or renewables like geothermal doesn't hurt the planet. Most bitcoin is mined using marginal energy that would be wasted otherwise. It has to be, as mining is an extremely cutthroat industry where burning actual fossil fuels is generally not cost effective.
Re: Bitcoin Price Hits All-Time High of $19,786, Topping 2017 Record
#49Bitcoin and other compute-intensive cryptocurrencies should be banned or taxed so heavily that it's financially infeasible to use them. The amount of energy being wasted (reportedly more than seven nuclear power plants worth) on what is essentially an unproductive project is quite absurd. In a world where we should all be increasingly concerned about the looming climate catastrophe, it's wholly irresponsible for Bitc…
> The amount of energy being wasted (reportedly more than seven nuclear power plants worth) on what is essentially an unproductive project is quite absurd.
Orders of magnitude less than the amount of energy being "wasted" sustaining the millions of employees of the banking industry. I use scare quotes because the energy is being spent, not wasted.
> I mean what would be left except for just buying into the pyramid scheme, and ransomware payments
It's hard to give you the benefit of the doubt when you clearly haven't bothered to understand the argument for Bitcoin's value proposition.
Hard money (i.e. money which cannot be inflated) has valuable economic properties, and many people think that a hard money is concomitantly a valuable long-term investment/store of value.
Re: Bitcoin Price Hits All-Time High of $19,786, Topping 2017 Record
#50It seems like a lot until you consider that it has been surpassed by many other investments in terms of gains such as Tesla, Paypal, Palantir stock and others. The days of Bitcoin going up 10-50x in a year are over, but still interesting to see what happens next. I think increasing regulation and the use of blacklists and 'coin tainting' erode whatever use bitcoin has though, as there will be no fungibility. This mak…
> I think increasing regulation and the use of blacklists and 'coin tainting' erode whatever use bitcoin has though, as there will be no fungibility.
This has already happened. Bitcoin is a permissioned blockchain, now. It may be used by permission of the chainalysis industry and the regulators.
That's not to say bitcoin won't become a widely-used currency.
Maybe governments will allow bitcoin but ban all cryptocurrencies they can't track.