Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Bitcoin is a disaster

metzdowd.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

291–300 of 992 posts

Re: Bitcoin is a disaster

#291

Post by aplummer »

thebean11 wrote: post #178
im_down_w_otp wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Technically speaking, it's also a terrible investment vehicle for those same reasons. It's a fantastic parlor game of speculation though, where the point is the volatility.

It's volatile, but the overwhelming trend has been upwards. Historically it's a great investment if you can weather volatility

So is roulette if you win. A "good investment" in many contexts has a 20 year lifespan and low risk profile, so TBD.

I'm not saying its bad, but its an extremely high risk investment so not suitable for the money you can't afford to lose. I've heard of many people withdrawing superannuation to put into crypto (or using credit) for example.

Re: Bitcoin is a disaster

#293

Post by kens »

px43 wrote: post #277
yunesj wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> No one treats Bitcoin as a currency. ... And the reason behind that is obvious. Something whose value may double in a month or whose value may halve within weeks is a terrible currency. Nope. I don't buy things in crypto only because of the reporting burden. Every cup of coffee bought with crypto has to be reported on a tax return.

[deleted by user]

> I've been advised that there's an income tax exemption for "hobby income" ... up to 10k USD per year

If you're talking about the US, I think you're wrong: you need to declare all your hobby income, and since 2018, you can't deduct hobby expenses.

See e.g. https://www.creditkarma.com/tax/i/hobby-income-taxed https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tips/self-employment-taxes/4...

Re: Bitcoin is a disaster

#294

Post by vulturalcptlst »

julius_set wrote: post #108

I see a lot of biased posts on Hacker news regarding Bitcoin. How it will replace fiat, how it will revolutionize banking, how it will continue to go up in price. The fact is that the technology powering Bitcoin is not great. There are better alternatives to Bitcoin, transactions still take a long time to finish on Bitcoin. And the alternatives themselves need to be refined too. There are also still a lot of scam coi…

You're missing the entire importance of balance. Unfortunately, I'm not sure you understand what makes Bitcoin valuable.

It's a balance between: Decentralization, Security, and Speed of Transaction but still doesn't compromised on the other two. Bitcoin is balanced with immaculate conception. There's no 'altcoin' that will be able to achieve this.

Re: Bitcoin is a disaster

#295

Post by thebean11 »

bluedevil2k wrote: post #273
thebean11 wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's volatile, but the overwhelming trend has been upwards. Historically it's a great investment if you can weather volatility

> overwhelming trend has been upwards You’re cherry picking your price analysis time period. Last year I could have said “BTC has trended down tremendously the last 2 years” and I’d have been right as well.

I'm looking a lot further back than two years. What I said is true even if you ignore the current run up.

If you want to make the opposite argument, that it has a downward trend, you have to cherry pick a fairly small period.

Re: Bitcoin is a disaster

#296

Post by xapata »

beaner wrote: post #250
xapata wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or maybe the other way around. Don't just assert. Explain. From the article: > The whole idea of proof-of-work mining is broken the instant hardware comes out which is specialized for mining and useless for general computation because at that point the need to have compute power for other purposes is absolutely irrelevant in having any effect on mining, and there ceases to be any force that causes mining to be distri…

Miners have no ability to retract or redirect transactions. And to exclude them would require 100% collusion. Miners as "middlemen" doesn't make sense. Edit: Your comment was edited after I made this one. I see no relation between the quote from the article and how miners are supposed to be middlemen.

> collusion

It doesn't take 100% collusion, but certainly no more than 51%, and I've read speculation (though no proof) that less is sufficient.

> middlemen

A mining cartel can't edit a blockchain, but they can choose to accept a different blockchain, which is effectively the same thing. Do you accept the premise that a sufficiently large cartel can exist, by state intervention in the price of electricity?

[Apologies for the edits. I often find I dislike my first draft.]

Re: Bitcoin is a disaster

#297

Post by josalhor »

julius_set wrote: post #108

I see a lot of biased posts on Hacker news regarding Bitcoin. How it will replace fiat, how it will revolutionize banking, how it will continue to go up in price. The fact is that the technology powering Bitcoin is not great. There are better alternatives to Bitcoin, transactions still take a long time to finish on Bitcoin. And the alternatives themselves need to be refined too. There are also still a lot of scam coi…

There has been some work being done by the EU to make a digital euro [0]. China [1] and the US [2] are also exploring digital alternatives. I believe if these alternatives are well implemented they are going to change banking forever. Banks could become a frontend to that digital infrastructure that would only add features to the network (safety, insurance, help keep your transactions anonymous...). Naturally, everything that I am saying is 100% speculation, but I don't see a world where the current digital currencies (Bitcoin et al.) get backed by the governments.

[0]: https://www.ecb.europa.eu/press/pr/date/2020/html/ecb.pr2010...

[1]: https://www.wsj.com/articles/china-to-expand-testing-of-a-di...

[2]: https://www.forbes.com/sites/billybambrough/2020/08/22/digit...

Re: Bitcoin is a disaster

#298

Post by IfOnlyYouKnew »

beaner wrote: post #206
542458 wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Economists weren’t born yesterday. Inflation is measured in many ways, most often by looking at a basket of goods where the prices are relatively non-volatile. Using the USD/Bitcoin ratio as a yardstick for inflation seems very misguided, as Bitcoin is heavily speculated.

Inflation doesn't need to be measured in many ways, you can view it directly on the m2 money supply chart: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/M2 Everything else is just a derivative of this. You're measuring the side effects of inflation. If you want the deeper cause, it's here.

Inflation is a loss of value, most directly observed in rising prices.

Everything else–money supply, borrowing costs, etc are linked to it, but do not necessarily correlate. The price of a Big Mac is almost certain to be a far better approximation than any of those indicators.

This really isn't that complicated.

Re: Bitcoin is a disaster

#299

Post by aplummer »

hombre_fatal wrote: post #215
reaperducer wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have no proof of residency once my driver's license expired. Every state I've lived in (13 so far) has an ID card that looks and acts exactly like a driver's license, with the only legal difference being that it is not valid for driving. Unless you're not in America, in which case someone else can chime in.

If you don't live in the US, then it becomes difficult to prove state residency as they want things like pay stubs, cellphone bills, and rent payments. Or you need to find someone who can prove residency and then claim (lie) that you reside (domicile) with them. I don't have any of that. But maybe you can appreciate that I don't want to have to jump through those hoops just to be able to send someone $100 digitally.

> But maybe you can appreciate that I don't want to have to jump through those hoops just to be able to send someone $100 digitally.

Surely you store fiat currency somewhere, and isn't there a "transfer money" button where you plug in an account number and institution and the money arrives shortly after?

Re: Bitcoin is a disaster

#300

Post by vulturalcptlst »

Blikkentrekker wrote: post #92
baby wrote: post #31

That’s nonsense. Bitcoin is as good a store of value as gold due to one unique feature: scarcity. Actually, it’s even less power consuming than the gold industry and is much more transparent. I wouldn’t really advise bitcoin for anything else, like day to day transactions, although I and many of my friends have used bitcoin to transact on dark markets and it works. The only argument I’ve heard about gold being better…

Gold is very much used in almost any electronic appliance because it's a noble metal with low electric resistance. Jade however is actually without any industrial application and is purely valued for it's scarcity.

Nope, sorry.
Post reply on HN