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Bitcoin breaks above $20k

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Re: Bitcoin breaks above $20k

#221

Post by mplewis »

wjdp wrote: post #205
deweller wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

for (1), what you are seeing is a payment and a the "change" going back to a new address owned by the sender. This is a very common pattern of bitcoin use.

Why would there be "change" in a Bitcoin transaction? Is this: send me £10 in BTC but actually send me £15 in case the price changes and I'll send you back the difference.

In Bitcoin, reusing an address gives folks who watch the blockchain information about whose money this is and what they use it for.

Let's say you have $20 in your address, and you want to spend $10 on candy bars. A common pattern of use is to spend all $20: $10 goes to the candy bar company, and $10 goes to a new address you just created. This helps obfuscate how much money you actually have.

Re: Bitcoin breaks above $20k

#223

Post by stevewodil »

wjdp wrote: post #205
deweller wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

for (1), what you are seeing is a payment and a the "change" going back to a new address owned by the sender. This is a very common pattern of bitcoin use.

Why would there be "change" in a Bitcoin transaction? Is this: send me £10 in BTC but actually send me £15 in case the price changes and I'll send you back the difference.

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Change#:~:text=When%20the%20outpu....

Re: Bitcoin breaks above $20k

#224

Post by ackbar03 »

xur17 wrote: post #216
627467 wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think its fair to say it's "the only thing", although I'll give it that its the most popular aspect that it's talked about. The truth is excitement and hype around price is the lowest common denominator for people interested in cryptocurrency so naturally it would be the most visible topic. Tech around this is still very... technical, young non-vital, niche. I understand why people worry and even discard the…

> The truth is excitement and hype around price is the lowest common denominator for people interested in cryptocurrency so naturally it would be the most visible topic. Echoing this, I'm involved in several more technical cryptocurrency groups, and there is little reference to the price, even today. Pretty much all of the discussion is around the technology itself, and what it can do.

What can it do exactly though? A lot of talk about decentralization and distributed database and Yada Yada Yada. I'd love to find a good use case for blockchain but so far it's elusive

Re: Bitcoin breaks above $20k

#225

Post by spurgu »

slewis wrote: post #135
nwah1 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tether is still a scam, and the music is still playing. Don't be the last guy. As for lightning, it adds a layer of trust into a system whose reason for existence is trustlessness. If you don't care about trustlessness, you can already have fast and scalable transactions through normal banking.

"you can already have fast and scalable transactions through normal banking." I see this repeated a lot. I think you're saying bitcoin is no better than normal banking for moving value. Do you really believe this? Yes, in the US I can immediately wire money somewhere as long as: 1) I do it within east coast business hours. Weekend? Sorry, wait til Monday 2) I have the correct information for the receiving institution…

I've transferred 5-figures of fiat a couple of times and it always makes me sweat. Sure those transactions make me sweat with bitcoin as well, but the difference is that the process is 100% transparent.

Plus the incredible annoyance of having to go through the KYC/AML procedures everywhere to do any kind of meaningful transactions. And still risk getting flagged for fraudulent transactions and possibly having your funds locked/confiscated.

Re: Bitcoin breaks above $20k

#226

Post by paulgb »

garmaine wrote: post #212
paulgb wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here’s a recent study from Cambridge that puts it at 39%. The studies I’ve seen with higher numbers always seem to be funded by firms involved in crypto trading. https://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/faculty-research/centres/alternati...

39% renewable, which is actually higher than I expected. I said renewable and opportunistic power capture. The latter is a large proportion of mining because it is effectively free income. There are a lot of places in the world where excess power is generated and wasted because there aren’t uses on site. Bitcoin mining is a relatively cheap way to offset cost of operations in these areas.

Where does the 80-90% number come from, though? Is that just you speculating or has someone come up with that estimate?

Re: Bitcoin breaks above $20k

#227

Post by dpoochieni »

alex_young wrote: post #169

I see lots of comments suggesting that BTC is a constant store of value and that it is rising in USD terms because of ‘money printing’. If that was the case, wouldn’t we see inflation in USD prices for a basket of goods? Isn’t inflation very close to zero? Others say they are sick of talking about BTC price and would rather focus on its utility. This makes sense, but for the same reason above it cannot happen since o…

Depends on how you measure it. The government keeps shifting the goalposts and the current measurement is little related to what a consumer faces. Inflation is measured differently today from the 90s and both different from 80s IIRC.

For further reference: http://www.shadowstats.com/alternate_data/inflation-charts

Re: Bitcoin breaks above $20k

#228

Post by nostrademons »

_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…

I think this is representative of a bigger problem within the developed world: the top problem on many people's mind is "Other people have money and I don't." This manifests in a lot of other areas as well: stock market speculation, people asking for government handouts, folks looking for get-rich-quick startup ideas, glorification of the "side hustle", etc.

And I think the root cause of that is that productivity growth in areas needed for basic survival - housing, health care, not getting screwed (legal) - hasn't grown nearly as fast as productivity in consumer goods. Combined with population growth and the entry of the developing world into the developed world, it means that more people are increasingly chasing the same limited pool of houses and doctors, and basically all disposable income goes to them. The focus on get-rich-quick schemes is a rational reaction to being stuck in a game of musical chairs where there are not enough chairs to go around.

Re: Bitcoin breaks above $20k

#229

Post by patricius »

alex_young wrote: post #169

I see lots of comments suggesting that BTC is a constant store of value and that it is rising in USD terms because of ‘money printing’. If that was the case, wouldn’t we see inflation in USD prices for a basket of goods? Isn’t inflation very close to zero? Others say they are sick of talking about BTC price and would rather focus on its utility. This makes sense, but for the same reason above it cannot happen since o…

Increasing prices can be seen in several places, most visible of all, the stock market. CPI is not necessarily a sure indicator of an expanding money and credit supply.

Re: Bitcoin breaks above $20k

#230

Post by drcross »

mam2 wrote: post #133
_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…

Bitcoin is useless for any legal activity. change my mind with an actual existing application that's not done by anything else.

Transferring international remittance on a weekend. good enough for you?
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