Live data from Hacker News

China bans new Bitcoin deposits

ft.com

121–130 of 131 posts

Re: China bans new Bitcoin deposits

#121
post #49
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

U.S.A. Suicide Hotline 1-800-273-TALK (8255). Remember, it's just money.

I love when people just like that are assuming that everything has to happen in U.S.A. and that world around it doesnt exist ;)

Your comment is only valid because that's a 1-800 number. 1-800 numbers are free to call in the USA, which is why many people have them, but their downside is that you can't call them from outside the USA.

Upon first discovering SIP addresses and that everybody on earth could have an email style phone number that would be free to call, I have been waiting and waiting for the world to transition to SIP addresses instead of phone numbers.

If such a thing occurs, someday, then publishing a phone address from one country will not be a problem. I'm sure the folks at the suicide hotline would gladly take calls from anywhere in the world, if they could do so for free. Sadly, as things stand now, they could publish a SIP address, but nobody would know how to use it.

Re: China bans new Bitcoin deposits

#122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Forgive me but why would you save money in a mutual fund and not pay off a car loan. Surely the interest on the loan is much higher than the interest you were getting from the fund. Prior to buying the coins that is.

Can't speak to GP, but my car loan interest rate is below the annual return on my mutual funds for the past several years. Depending on the deal you can get on your interest rates it can make sense (1.49% APR, after the 3 years I'll have paid less than 1 extra car payment as interest, or 1/36th the value of the loan as interest; any fund that rode out this recent stock market increase well will easily beat that).

ADDENDUM: I didn't state that very clearly. Start with a loan of $7200, split over 3 years of monthly payments it's $200/month. Go with the rate I actually have (1.49%) and the loan payment is $204.63/month. It works out to $166.59 in interest spent over those 36 months. I found a 3 year CD with an APY of 0.91%. If you invest that same $7200 it will be worth $7398.35 after the 3 year period. A profit of about $32. And that's with an ordinary CD, less conservative investments have a much higher potential yield. Of course you pay tax on those earnings, so the CD may not actually be profitable in this scenario, but a higher yield account almost certainly would be.

[1] Missed the edit window by this much.

Re: China bans new Bitcoin deposits

#123

I present, for your satisfaction, my comment from two weeks ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6829180 Along with this gem: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6858258 In summary, I invested $11k @ $1106/coin, predicting it'd rise to $1,500. Shazam! I've transmuted that $11k into... let's see ... $5,100. I feel pretty ill. Thought you'd all enjoy the schadenfreude, and perhaps learn from my example: "How to i…

Forgive me but why would you save money in a mutual fund and not pay off a car loan. Surely the interest on the loan is much higher than the interest you were getting from the fund. Prior to buying the coins that is.

At least recently, new cars loan often have interest in the range of But I think most importantly, a mutual fund is much more liquid than a car (or a house).

If I had the choice between pre-paying $11,000 towards a car loan and sticking money in the bank; I would probably choose to stick it in the bank or a mutual fund. I always have the option of paying down a car loan if I want, but once I pay it down, I no longer have the cash. Stuff happens, and the utility of having the cash is more than potential savings from not paying a small amount interest for a few years.

Re: China bans new Bitcoin deposits

#124
post #20

This move seems obvious. Bitcoin's popularity has far more negative consequences for Chinese government (or any other government) than benefit. Bitcoin might topple the dollar hegemony if popularized, which might be what China wants, but central banks lose their power to control the money flow in the system. Why would any government want that? Any money goes into Bitcoin is essentially money gone offline right now so…

"Bitcoin or any other crypto-coin has real chance of adoption only when it's sponsored by government." While I agree with your assertion that governments have no reason to support Bitcoin, I don't believe it follows that government sponsorship is necessary for the success of Bitcoin. I suspect most people betting on Bitcoin are aware that at some point, governments are going to act forcefully to kill Bitcoin, and the…

> governments are going to act forcefully to kill Bitcoin, and the fallout will be utterly unpredictable.

I don't think so. I think it's quite predictable that, if that happens, Bitcoin will lose. In the sense that it will ultimately become a cryptocurrency also-ran. Something else will probably rise to take its place after it's been bloodied, something designed to be resistant to whatever response the world's governments bring to bear.

Re: China bans new Bitcoin deposits

#125

I present, for your satisfaction, my comment from two weeks ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6829180 Along with this gem: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6858258 In summary, I invested $11k @ $1106/coin, predicting it'd rise to $1,500. Shazam! I've transmuted that $11k into... let's see ... $5,100. I feel pretty ill. Thought you'd all enjoy the schadenfreude, and perhaps learn from my example: "How to i…

Don't sweat about your mistake. Money comes, money goes.

Lessons learned: timing investments is really hard. Trying to buy from the bottom can be equally stupid.

Personal story: I got a bit of play money when we were acquired. Naive me thought that I understand how the world works. The first months of finance crisis had just happened. In US and selected European countries real estate prices had dropped, but in Finland market hadn't crashed. I reasoned that they eventually will, and it's a bad time to buy an apartment, but a good time to invest to finance stocks because they had already crashed. Among other investments I bought some Citibank stocks -"they are the largest, thus probably the safest". Boy I was naive.

Real estate prices in Finland never crashed, Citibank's free fall had just only started.

Re: China bans new Bitcoin deposits

#126

Yes, Bitcoin dropped 40% today- but keep in mind that on any average day it swings 20%. If you invest because you believe in the underlying technology, you'll have to ride out the volatility waves until it matures(or dies). But, it's going to take more than people holding onto their bitcoins and waiting for the value to go up- people need to spend them on things for it to work.

20% swings over the course of a day is not at all average, and is in fact seen as quite dramatical.

Re: China bans new Bitcoin deposits

#127
post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anyone visiting from Google sees the full article with no paywall. You can test this yourself: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&c...

Doesn't work for me. Get the sign up prompt. It may work the first time or two but after that....

That link doesn't send the right referrer for me (I also get the sign up).

If I click through from here I get a silly question and the content:

https://www.google.com/search?q=China+bans+new+Bitcoin+depos...

Re: China bans new Bitcoin deposits

#128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Bitcoin or any other crypto-coin has real chance of adoption only when it's sponsored by government." While I agree with your assertion that governments have no reason to support Bitcoin, I don't believe it follows that government sponsorship is necessary for the success of Bitcoin. I suspect most people betting on Bitcoin are aware that at some point, governments are going to act forcefully to kill Bitcoin, and the…

> governments are going to act forcefully to kill Bitcoin, and the fallout will be utterly unpredictable. I don't think so. I think it's quite predictable that, if that happens, Bitcoin will lose. In the sense that it will ultimately become a cryptocurrency also-ran. Something else will probably rise to take its place after it's been bloodied, something designed to be resistant to whatever response the world's govern…

In the same way that peer-to-peer file sharing lost?

Re: China bans new Bitcoin deposits

#129

I present, for your satisfaction, my comment from two weeks ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6829180 Along with this gem: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6858258 In summary, I invested $11k @ $1106/coin, predicting it'd rise to $1,500. Shazam! I've transmuted that $11k into... let's see ... $5,100. I feel pretty ill. Thought you'd all enjoy the schadenfreude, and perhaps learn from my example: "How to i…

Or you could buy another $10K worth of bitcoins now, then when you break even on the first set, you'll be up $10K.

But can you stomach the possibility of throwing good money after bad? After all, other states could start following China's example.

Re: China bans new Bitcoin deposits

#130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who is taking the other side of the trade with these Bitcoin/RMB exchanges? I mean, I often come across people who have RMB but want USD. Far less often do I come across people who have USD but want RMB.

Every time an American buys a widget made in China - a rather frequent event - that causes someone somewhere in the supply chain to have dollars and want RMB.

The government usually takes care of this by buying their RMB. They then usually use the dollars to buy treasuries...
Post reply on HN