Live data from Hacker News

Bitcoin surpasses $50K as major companies jump into crypto

cnbc.com

481–490 of 830 posts

Re: Bitcoin surpasses $50K as major companies jump into crypto

#481
post #135

the saddest thing is people see it as a success because its price has gone up. But the entire idea behind it was to be a decentralized currency. Its absolutely failed at that. What its succeeded at is being a speculative gambling instrument like beanie babies or tulips. So yes, it's "successful" currently in that its price is going up, but no, no one actually uses or cares about using it as a currency or buys it for…

A failed currency and successful store of value. You win some, you lose some.

Re: Bitcoin surpasses $50K as major companies jump into crypto

#482
post #458

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>So it sounds like lemming group think. It seems like someone one should hold “just in case,” but no real valid reason to do so yet (that I’ve heard). Honestly what more do most people have? You could work your entire life but even all the earnings and scrimping and saving isn't even be a tiny fraction to what you would have if you had been the one to fulfil the order for the bitcoin pizza and just held. Think a lot…

We used to call them Ponzi schemes. This is the same but in slow motion. People are going to start taking their profits at some point and whoever takes them last will be holding the bag.

Or just lottery tickets, which are mostly purchased by low income folks, and legal/state-sponsored, no less.

Re: Bitcoin surpasses $50K as major companies jump into crypto

#483

So it sounds like lemming group think. It seems like someone one should hold “just in case,” but no real valid reason to do so yet (that I’ve heard). We know transactions are slow and expensive, so it’s not a good replacement for ordinary commerce. It can be used to transfer across borders, but there often is asymmetry in capital movement that makes this difficult in the places you need it most (poor countries with r…

Do you really want an answer to that question? Feels more like your are taking the temperature of the top minds of HN to decide if it's cool to like bitcoin yet.

Re: Bitcoin surpasses $50K as major companies jump into crypto

#484
post #208

I believe Bitcoin is the experimental precursor to proper distributed money. For some reason, even though BTC was meant to be "money", it is now being treated as an asset (at a basic level, an asset is something you hold onto, as it produces additional value, unlike money, which tends to devalue if not put to work). It's almost as if the next big idea in distributed money will be around disincentivising "asset" like…

Check out Nano. No fees, no mining, near-instant transactions, and fixed supply.

https://docs.nano.org/protocol-design/introduction/#abstract

Re: Bitcoin surpasses $50K as major companies jump into crypto

#486
post #435
post #425

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That said, Tesla's Bitcoin purchase does make a lot of sense ... They then announced their Bitcoin purchase with fanfare that drove the price up, marking a quick return on their investment. Tesla is a car manufacturer! It doesn't make any sense at all! At any company that made sense, a CEO would lose his job for gambling $1B of company money in a casino totally unrelated to the company's business interests.

I'm afraid it makes sense if they are hedging bets against a major global economy...

If they were properly hedged then there would be no profit from Bitcoin going up. Global companies should be hedged so that currencies going up or down do not affect performance. Unless you’re betting on a particular currency.

Re: Bitcoin surpasses $50K as major companies jump into crypto

#487

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>"Does anyone really think the person buying crypto $100 at a time in their Robinhood account wants to pay $18 (current average transaction fee) every time they want to move that BTC into their wallet?" I'm curious is this the transaction per $100 or is $18 a flat fee regardless of transfer amount?

It's a flat fee. The $18 may be the average currently, but it's on the high end. You'll probably be fine with $5. It all depends on how much you want the transaction to be in the next block. If you're sending $50,000 in BTC then you don't care about $18. If you're transferring smaller amounts, why are you using Bitcoin? Use Bitcoin Cash or Litecoin or one of these newfangled proof-of-stake currencies. Then it'll be a…

For reference, a wire transfer at a major bank like Wells Fargo is $34.

Re: Bitcoin surpasses $50K as major companies jump into crypto

#488

It's a bit worrisome that we are inching towards the scenario where companies may be tempted at an economy wide scale to reduce investment in production in order to hoard cryptocoins instead. It caused the great depression when businesses switched to hoarding gold tied currency instead of producing in the 1930s. Now I'm not sure that crypto coins without being jacked up by central banks (like gold was during the grea…

They are just moving non-productive cash sitting around doing nothing and swapping it for an asset. It's just diversification, not diverting from production.

Cash, if it's in a bank an not under a mattress, gets reinvested by the bank so it's not the same thing.

Re: Bitcoin surpasses $50K as major companies jump into crypto

#489

So it sounds like lemming group think. It seems like someone one should hold “just in case,” but no real valid reason to do so yet (that I’ve heard). We know transactions are slow and expensive, so it’s not a good replacement for ordinary commerce. It can be used to transfer across borders, but there often is asymmetry in capital movement that makes this difficult in the places you need it most (poor countries with r…

The forefront of the Bitcoin frenzy isn't even on the blockchain, it's at the exchanges. Hardcore tech people and those who don't (or can't) trust institutions with their Bitcoin will pay the transaction fees to get their money out of exchanges and into their own wallet. The average retail investor, however, doesn't want to be their own bank. They just want in on the price action, while letting the exchange manage th…

“I'm aware of the 21 million maximum BTC cap”

Better thought of as a configuration value set by people with most of the mining power, which last time I checked was PRC

Re: Bitcoin surpasses $50K as major companies jump into crypto

#490

Does anyone else feel like: - they've missed an opportunity to get rich with minimal effort from crypto - still have absolutely no interest in jumping in at this point?

When everything is going up, you can feel like everyone is winning but you. There's many get-rich-quick-schemes available right now and if you put in the effort to know where to go, you can get "rich" quick too. Or, you can continue enjoying your life the way you are without worrying what others are doing. Many times, they are only projecting one side of the story.

But the meth voices say to keep browsing for patterns
Post reply on HN