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Bitcoin breaks above $20k

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Re: Bitcoin breaks above $20k

#41

Post by im3w1l »

silentsea90 wrote: post #16
louwrentius wrote: post #8

I wonder where the money comes from that funds this price. I'm very afraid that people who should know better, like pension funds, start buying this crap, in search for any return. This game of musical chairs will come down eventually.

How long does the "game of musical chairs" have to go on before you consider the possibility that this isn't one? It has been a decade since BTC was launched.

Sooner or later bitcoin must stabilize. Either because it goes to zero or because it starts tracking inflation with volatility way down. That's when we will know.

Re: Bitcoin breaks above $20k

#42

Post by Bobblebobble »

tectonic wrote: post #2

What's the carbon footprint of BTC like these days? Has any progress been made on mitigating this fundamental design issue?

The carbon footprint is estimated to be 37Mt CO2 per year, similar to New Zealand, and BTC represents close to half of the current global data centre electricity use. https://digiconomist.net/bitcoin-energy-consumption/

Re: Bitcoin breaks above $20k

#43

Post by baron_harkonnen »

silentsea90 wrote: post #16
louwrentius wrote: post #8

I wonder where the money comes from that funds this price. I'm very afraid that people who should know better, like pension funds, start buying this crap, in search for any return. This game of musical chairs will come down eventually.

How long does the "game of musical chairs" have to go on before you consider the possibility that this isn't one? It has been a decade since BTC was launched.

I'll consider that this isn't a game of musical chairs as soon as a non-trivial amount of BTC is used for anything other than speculation.

We've been in a massive credit bubble for well over a decade, we saw it wiggle a bit in 2008, but we're still deep in it. Just because these insane illusions are able to maintain themselves for absurdly long periods of time doesn't make them real.

What we've seen is capital desperately seeking to find a new source of value to exploit, perpetually failing to do so and getting ever more delirious in its search.

Re: Bitcoin breaks above $20k

#44

Post by zepolen »

marta_morena_91 wrote: post #20
seibelj wrote: post #5

Bitcoin is a pure computer-science phenomenon. Regardless of whether you personally feel this is a good or bad investment, I think the magnitude of this success over such a short time frame, the impact on the world, and the interest it and the wider crypto ecosystem receives from the non-tech world, is absolutely stunning. HN should accept that Bitcoin is an achievement of massive proportions.

But it's really not. Bitcoin isn't anything special. If there were any real-world use cases for it (which there don't seem to be), this would have been done long ago or would have been done organically. As it stands, interest in bitcoin was largely null, until people realized that it's a great investment opportunity where everybody can get rich (tulips, anyone?)... The rest is history. Now alt coins were popping up l…

> 1. There is no use case for crypto currencies, except fraud and crime.

Pornhub seems to disagree.

Re: Bitcoin breaks above $20k

#45

Post by Aaronstotle »

marta_morena_91 wrote: post #20
seibelj wrote: post #5

Bitcoin is a pure computer-science phenomenon. Regardless of whether you personally feel this is a good or bad investment, I think the magnitude of this success over such a short time frame, the impact on the world, and the interest it and the wider crypto ecosystem receives from the non-tech world, is absolutely stunning. HN should accept that Bitcoin is an achievement of massive proportions.

But it's really not. Bitcoin isn't anything special. If there were any real-world use cases for it (which there don't seem to be), this would have been done long ago or would have been done organically. As it stands, interest in bitcoin was largely null, until people realized that it's a great investment opportunity where everybody can get rich (tulips, anyone?)... The rest is history. Now alt coins were popping up l…

Are you aware that USD is the currency most frequently used for both fraud and crime?

Re: Bitcoin breaks above $20k

#46

Post by war1025 »

ur-whale wrote: post #26
marta_morena_91 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But it's really not. Bitcoin isn't anything special. If there were any real-world use cases for it (which there don't seem to be), this would have been done long ago or would have been done organically. As it stands, interest in bitcoin was largely null, until people realized that it's a great investment opportunity where everybody can get rich (tulips, anyone?)... The rest is history. Now alt coins were popping up l…

> 1. There is no use case for crypto currencies, except fraud and crime. So you have found a way to protect your wealth against inflation, I guess? Would love to hear what that is.

> So you have found a way to protect your wealth against inflation,

That is generally known as investing.

It's literally the entire point of buying stock instead of putting your money in a savings account.

Re: Bitcoin breaks above $20k

#47

Post by thrower23423423 »

ttul wrote: post #35
tectonic wrote: post #2

What's the carbon footprint of BTC like these days? Has any progress been made on mitigating this fundamental design issue?

My understanding is that a great deal of Bitcoin mining takes place in corrupt jurisdictions where power can be obtained for free from power producers that have been captured through bribes and other forms of revenue sharing with officials. That power is not necessarily carbon free. It seems to me that the nature of Bitcoin as a pseudonymous currency actually facilitates and encourages illicit power stealing arrangem…

Hmm. I'm surprised BTC isn't mined in India - a country with an extremely high power leakage, and provides free electricity for 'farmers'.

Re: Bitcoin breaks above $20k

#48

Post by isuckatcoding »

But why...?

> When this [rally to near $20,000] happened in 2017, there was a real lack of products for the new converts to experience, whereas today there are endless uses, protocols, services across farming, lending, standard trading, etc

Is this really true though? My first instinct isn’t at all to go to blockchain/cryptocurrency for farming.

Re: Bitcoin breaks above $20k

#49

Post by yters »

_hdap wrote: post #15

I am NOT a fan of Bitcoin, but... Watch a real-time visualization of the global Bitcoin transaction flow, as it is happening right now: https://dailyblockchain.github.io/ Each square is a bitcoin address (like a cryptographic public key) Each graph component is a transaction. The components appear as transactions are broadcast into the bitcoin P2P network (but before they are verified and committed to the blockchain)…

I see a number of transactions that pay out to a large number, or aggregate a large number. Not sure the meaning of the big graph components.

Re: Bitcoin breaks above $20k

#50

Post by syntaxing »

The appreciation and depreciation of Bitcoin is one of the things I don’t really understand. I get currency, capital flow, and asset to capital conversions. But for Bitcoin, where exactly is the value? Why is holding one Bitcoin appreciating so much faster compared to the USD? Is it because us as a society is perceiving the value of Bitcoin to appreciate (even though it’s illogical IMO to think so)?
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