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Shorting Bitcoin

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181–190 of 334 posts

Re: Shorting Bitcoin

#181
post #43

I love this sort of thing. He’s making a bet, explains his reasoning, and does it in the open! That’s great. I disagree that there’s no tech here. IMO public ledgers that never sleep are far superior(thanks to the hard work of many people over the past decade), and their advantage over retail banking will only increase. My online banks keep getting worse, crypto keeps getting better. Think about this: banks are CLOSE…

My online banks keep getting worse, crypto keeps getting better. That resonates with me after my bank shut down my ability to transfer money (via eTransfer) because I hit their arbitrary $20,000 limit for the month. I had to wait THREE weeks before I could send another transfer.

where i live daily upper limit is $20k and transcation costs from 0 to 20 cents and money is transfered instantly.

It makes me belive USA is far behind when it comes to financial tech

Re: Shorting Bitcoin

#182
India and China have wonderful micro payments apps which means 3 billion people do not ever need bitcoin & co for online transcations or what not.

Re: Shorting Bitcoin

#183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where by “historically” you mean twice?

2013. 2017. 2021. Three in three.

Correlation isn't causation.

Bitcoin's network started January 3, 2009, so its halving cycles are roughly correlated with US presidential elections. Bitcoin is also global, and countries like France (home to Ledger and active bitcoin communities) have five-year presidential cycles. So I don't see a causal link to US politics.

However, I do think people falling down the bitcoin rabbit hole help them see the state for what it is, which might reduce the importance people place of federal politics, if it increases decentralization and local action.

Re: Shorting Bitcoin

#184
post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another curious thing to note is that the legal requirements on transaction delays are mostly regarding wealth control, scams and ensuring its difficult to launder money. Strictly speaking, if bitcoin was treated as a currency, or even a publicly traded derivative, internationally a lot of them would apply to bitcoin. Bitcoin of course cannot obey these by design, but the more popular it gets, the more countries will…

Having 51% of the network does not mean they can know your private key.

It does mean the ability to block transactions at will.

Re: Shorting Bitcoin

#185
post #178

Puts are fine but the swings will often get you liquidated if you use too much leverage. I personally wouldn't bet against Bitcoin knowing the state of the wider market (stocks at all time highs, inflation fears but also Fed rate hike fears). If inflation fears kick into high gear it could be enough to push BTC back to retest the ATH

> Puts are fine but the swings will often get you liquidated if you use too much leverage. Isn't that the same as saying "swings will often get you liquidated if you use too much leverage"? Whether puts or whatever else, if you use too much leverage, swings will often get you liquidated . Also, I don't think the author used any leverage. He just bought puts.

Yes puts or calls can get you liquidated by swings.

I was trying to get across that a lot of people are using high leverage right now to get-rich-quick and, especially in the crypto space, it is risky to the point of being unwise.. unless you have an edge with backtested, medium-term models that adequately account for the wide range of volatility, with automated take-profit / stop-loss in place.

Re: Shorting Bitcoin

#187
post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They don't "just take" it, it gets lent out to them by your broker, who charges the shorter a fee for this. This fee (amongst other things) subsidizes your free account and low trading costs. For large investors it is possible to share in this income, though not via one of the currently popular retail brokers as far as I'm aware.

Some broker do this, when customers don't even know about it and also get no lending mony.

Customers who have not read the terms and conditions of a service they are using to store a significant part of their net worth you mean? Every broker I have ever seen very clearly lists in the T&C that they do this.

Re: Shorting Bitcoin

#188
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it's so biased and opinionated, what is its value to HN readers? Is there any merit to his opinion? Is there any proof?

Maybe next month the guy can write another post: "How to lose money quickly" and gets on the front page again! Win-Win!

By his own analysis, he won't lose much, but enough to get annoyed. Looking forward to it! Anyway, I'll give the post this, though. It prompted some good replies, to no credit to the original author.

Re: Shorting Bitcoin

#189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Think about this: banks are CLOSED 77% of the time! Need to send a wire? 3/4 times bank will be closed Physical branches, sure, but I don't know of any online service that has ever closed, in the UK at least... We can send payments to other banks and they arrive almost instantly (or within 2 hours) any day of the week. For free. This is why I wasn't that impressed when US friends were excited about instant transact…

And with companies like Wise (previously trasnferwise) I can convert a USD balance into GBP in seconds, and then withdraw to a UK bank in a few more seconds.

Send money to chile and wise charges 5-8%. They mostly only good in OECD countries. Plus they don't support sending money out of hundreds of countries.

I figured that they changed their name to wise as their transfer business was not profitable in anticipation of their ipo.

People who don't get crypto typically live in countries with not corrupt or inept government officials.

Re: Shorting Bitcoin

#190
post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tether will work until the day comes when there is a net outflow from Tether. Then it will all come apart, because the backing assets aren't all there. Like Madoff's fund.

... or fractional reserve banking

You realize that modern economies haven't used fractional reserve banking for decades at least?
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