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Bitcoin breaks above $20k

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Re: Bitcoin breaks above $20k

#151

Post by Imnimo »

_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 notice that some rando on github can make a chart of my financial transactions since they're all public.

Re: Bitcoin breaks above $20k

#152

Post by blacksmith_tb »

arithma wrote: post #87

Just a question, isn't all criticism against bitcoin applicable to gold? Money/Currency/Value in general can't be reduced or derived from first principles. You always have to take into account human nature, economic activity, and most unfortunately: psychology. So all criticism about how bitcoin inherently being pointless, sounds like off-tune. I want good reasons to/NOT-to buy in. First-world country citizens kind o…

Gold is not just a store of value, it's a material with many practical uses (like all the electronics that make having this conversation possible). Even gold's decorative value gives it a serious advantage over BTC in my book (though I like silver and platinum better, to be honest).

Re: Bitcoin breaks above $20k

#153

Post by paulryanrogers »

batmanthehorse wrote: post #126
arithma wrote: post #87

Just a question, isn't all criticism against bitcoin applicable to gold? Money/Currency/Value in general can't be reduced or derived from first principles. You always have to take into account human nature, economic activity, and most unfortunately: psychology. So all criticism about how bitcoin inherently being pointless, sounds like off-tune. I want good reasons to/NOT-to buy in. First-world country citizens kind o…

the energy consumption is my biggest criticism, so the answer is "no" (even though you try to sidestep that). buying a pack of gum with bitcoin could power a whole house for 2 months, that's awful and irresponsible.

Nice to know I'm not the only one weighing these costs.

Re: Bitcoin breaks above $20k

#154

Post by ChainOfFools »

thrower23423423 wrote: post #47
ttul wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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'.

There has to be a goldilocks zone where high power theft and corruption is balanced with reasonable physical security and guarantee of stable power delivery, or your miners will short out the entire town supply, if they aren't simply stolen first. Also thy need cooling and are very noisy, attracting attention.

Re: Bitcoin breaks above $20k

#155

Post by carleverett »

albntomat0 wrote: post #3

What's the current thoughts on Tether, and how its speculated potential collapse will affect the rest of the ecosystem? Also, what's the latest on scaling? The last time I looked into it, Lightening was a thing, but I don't follow it closely.

This chart shows the amount of BTC that's locked into the Lightning Network over time, one measure of adoption: https://embed.theblockcrypto.com/data/on-chain-metrics/bitco...

It hasn't grown much in the last year and a half. Personally I don't see Lightning Network winning the battle for high-bandwidth, low-cost transactions against all the other protocols.

Re: Bitcoin breaks above $20k

#156

Post by tboyd47 »

_sm6n wrote: post #94

It's kinda sad that the pricing or market capitalization is the only thing that is being talked about in the "cryptocurrency community", instead of focussing on how the technology can be useful for society. Like for example if you look at /r/Bitcoin, there's a sidebar with "Submit text/link NOT about price", yet virtually every post is about price, even if just indirectly (Paypal joins the cryptocurrency bandwagon an…

If you're looking for more substantive discussion among Bitcoiners, touching on its relation to economics, politics, and society, YouTube and Reddit are not the spots. I'd try Twitter. Start with @saifedean and go from there.

Re: Bitcoin breaks above $20k

#158

Post by spurgu »

rodiger wrote: post #130
dontTango wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ethereum removed the 100M soft cap on EIP 669. This was quietly slipped through with no debate. ETH shouldn't be trusted.

Inflation is good for currencies / anything that's meant to be used.

One exception to this that pops to mind is computers, which have gradually gotten cheaper. Even though you always get a better one if you wait, it hasn't deterred consumers.

Re: Bitcoin breaks above $20k

#159

Post by wait_a_minute »

phoinix wrote: post #144

Someone has to feel sorry for Btc. Many people are going to lose money. Bitcoin has value. It is only Btc people that took a very nice technology and crippled it. The put a cap in it's block size, and they removed instructions of the Bitcoin Script language. Bitcoin's usage lies in it's use as an immutable ledger, that no one can change the past. We can put other information inside it,alongside with the money transac…

I don't understand how "uploading the information right away to the blockchain" changes anything in this situation. Arrest information is already logged somewhere, and even if it was logged in an immutable public ledger that doesn't mean that people wouldn't immediately distrust arrests depending on the circumstances regardless of a blockchain being involved. It really seems like this post is just another example of vaunting the all-powerful all-knowing blockchain without it being clear and specific as to what the blockchain actually DOES for us in this situation.

Re: Bitcoin breaks above $20k

#160

Post by shakezula »

NovemberWhiskey wrote: post #106
gruez wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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)? Same reason why asset (stocks, housing) prices have skyrocketed even though there's a pandemic going on: money printing.

And yet, somehow, during various other periods of money printing its value has crashed. So are you asserting this period of money printing is different, and if so how? edit Even the post facto explanations of Bitcoins price fluctuations generally do not seem to be agreed or understood.

"History doesn't repeat itself, but it rhymes"

We can look at how economics have worked in the past to get some hints about the present, but ultimately we have no idea. We may have just entered a new era of financial and economic patterns, or we may be teetering on the verge of complete and literal collapse that would put the Great Depression to shame and have absolutely no idea. We just don't know.

Unemployment rates are slowly going back down, and the economy seems to have come to grips with how to handle the virus over the summer, so for now I think we're probably good, but the long term effects of COVID's shock to the system and the tax breaks we passed before it are probably at least 6-12 months away from starting to materialize.

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