Live data from Hacker News

Bitcoin’s plunge intensifies, tanks 30% to $30k in single day

cnbc.com

81–90 of 211 posts

Re: Bitcoin’s plunge intensifies, tanks 30% to $30k in single day

#81
post #70

other than trying to get the money of suckers, I've never understood the point of bitcoin. no currency, digital or not, can be removed from the world's activities. why would you ever want something that could plunge 30% in a day? even if it went up 5 billion percent, then what? everyone sells and it goes down? what's the point? it's like the most zero-sum activity imaginable. edit: I'm sincerely wondering what the va…

The stock market has plunged 30% in a short period of time. Sure, it might be over a few weeks as opposed to days, but that's just a quantitative difference, not qualitative. The main value propositions behind bitcoin are: - stable store of value in its end state (minimal inflation)(note: you'll see wild fluctuations during the interim period where its future is uncertain) - not under the control of any government or…

Clearly it’s failed at being a stable value

Re: Bitcoin’s plunge intensifies, tanks 30% to $30k in single day

#82
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not everyone in the world lives in an economy that has 4% YoY inflation. And not everyone has access to financial services or a developed banking sector

sure, but let's say that you're in Turkey, and very worried about your currency devaluating 17% every year. Does putting your money in something that can devaluate 30% in a day sound like a better solution?

As long as you can wait long enough it should always go up, because there's 3 built in methods of deflation. Which also means you should never sell bitcoin.

Re: Bitcoin’s plunge intensifies, tanks 30% to $30k in single day

#83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've used it to pay for things more than a handful of times. Just cause you don't have a reason doesn't mean the tech should be immediately dismissed.

you can also use fiat to pay for things. what's the benefit of bitcoin compared to say, USD for paying for things? is it cheaper or faster to buy $1 trinket using bitcoin vs. paypal?

The typical argument (not one I necessarily agree with or am making) is that there is a limited supply of Bitcoin, whereas the supply of USD is controlled by US monetary policy. On the other hand, it is "decentralized", i.e. backed by the blockchain and not a political body.

Again, not my arguments, but arguments I have heard.

Re: Bitcoin’s plunge intensifies, tanks 30% to $30k in single day

#84
post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

please, feel free to educate me. what's the value of bitcoin, other than the tautological argument around preserving its value?

Kind of like when you create money:credit out of thin air when you run a tab at a bar. But with code.

It's not like that at all.

Re: Bitcoin’s plunge intensifies, tanks 30% to $30k in single day

#85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I view it as a similar asset class to gold - why own gold? No really though, I don't own any physical gold for the same reasons.

what does gold have to do with bitcoin? why even bring it up? did gold also crash today?

Bitcoin is frequently compared to gold because in both cases their value is mainly based on speculative trading. They do both have practical functions - gold is used in small amounts in industry and jewellery while Bitcoin can be used as a currency - but these have little or no relation to their traded value.

Re: Bitcoin’s plunge intensifies, tanks 30% to $30k in single day

#86
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So bizarre that he would tweet this after coming out against Bitcoin for environmental reasons. The higher the price goes, the greater the incentive to spend more electricity on mining; for anyone who cares about the environment this crash is great news.

He also cares about Tesla stock price though, and that is significantly down today since they have so much Bitcoin holdings.

i get that Tesla is revolutionary in the car industry but it's stock pretty much goes up and down like a cryptocurrency. I have a strong feeling that people who love tesla stock also own crypto.

Re: Bitcoin’s plunge intensifies, tanks 30% to $30k in single day

#87
post #52

other than trying to get the money of suckers, I've never understood the point of bitcoin. no currency, digital or not, can be removed from the world's activities. why would you ever want something that could plunge 30% in a day? even if it went up 5 billion percent, then what? everyone sells and it goes down? what's the point? it's like the most zero-sum activity imaginable. edit: I'm sincerely wondering what the va…

The point of Bitcoin is that the world's governments have weaponized money. If all you pay attention to is the ups and downs of the exchange rate, then it all probably seems pretty pointless. But if you look at it against the backdrop of sanctions, civil asset forfeiture, erosion of civil liberties, and monetary debasement, things look different.

> The point of Bitcoin is that the world's governments have weaponized money.

This. I like to think it as a monopoly game where a player has a cheat code to practically print infinite amount of money.

Bitcoin solves this problem; unfortunately the volatility (due to massive speculation game), transaction bottleneck, energy costs, etc. affects its function as a currency.

There are other cryptocurrencies trying to tackle these problems (e.g. eth2), but I believe the ultimate goal is that it replaces government controlled currencies.

Re: Bitcoin’s plunge intensifies, tanks 30% to $30k in single day

#88
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your self-admitted lack of understanding is not evidence there's no value in Bitcoin.

please, feel free to educate me. what's the value of bitcoin, other than the tautological argument around preserving its value?

I'm not an expert on this, but your position that bitcoin has no value is likely shortsighted and misguided. The big one that I see is decentralization. Bitcoin itself might not make it into the future of cryptocurrencies, but the possibility to democratize money and finance is huge. Take away the banks, money printers, middlemen, and give that power to the individual. It's not obvious now what the value of crypto will be but I would not discount the huge potential. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gipL_CEw-fk

Re: Bitcoin’s plunge intensifies, tanks 30% to $30k in single day

#89
post #48

Do any trading platforms allow for crypto margin trading? If so, there's going to be quite a few margin calls today.

I think a lot of the exchanges do. Kucoin for sure (I offer USDT for lending), haven't seen any losses due to margin calls not being fulfilled yet. Binance, Coinbase, etc. all offer margin trading
Post reply on HN