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Crypto-currencies have lost 30% of their value in the last 3 weeks

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Re: Crypto-currencies have lost 30% of their value in the last 3 weeks

#101

Post by davidgerard »

libertine wrote: post #83
Twisell wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except that during crisis Gold is guarantee to fall back at worst to it's "practical" value as a metal being used for jewelry. Even tulips bulbs have a practical value as every gardener could tell you. However the practical value of a crypto currency is zero. And no technical small talk was able to contest this truth so far. EDIT: Downvote what you can't contest, how mature!

Gold has industrial usage as well - electronics, computers, even in space tech Gold it's used for it's unique properties. I don't get why crypto keeps being compared to a metal.

> I don't get why crypto keeps being compared to a metal.

Because Bitcoin was literally created to imitate gold, with the idea being to propagate crank goldbug conspiracy theory economics.

This is why the price is so volatile - as an imitation of the gold standard, bitcoin wants to be money but actually works like a commodity, with booms, busts and bubbles.

https://davidgerard.co.uk/blockchain/the-conspiracist-gold-b...

Re: Crypto-currencies have lost 30% of their value in the last 3 weeks

#102

Post by davidgerard »

Twisell wrote: post #53
Akujin wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unless said crises is global and the internet is dead world wide you would always be able to sell your cryptocurrency to someone in a stable economic market somewhere in the world. When the local fiat currency inflates to worthlessness cryptocurrencies shine.

I don't say cryptocurrency can't be a thing. If widely supported it can succeed as any other fiat currency. It's just that I think it's nonsensical to apply analogy between gold/bitcoin because of the lack of practical value of BTC. For instance if the Russian ruble lost 30% of it's value during late Cold War. Would you argue that it's like gold and that we should'nt worry? Well actually some people thought that way.…

> We should embrace the fact that we are totally in an unknown territory.

Well, not really.

One, we aren't - hugely volatile charts like this are usual in commodities, which cryptos are constructed so as to imitate.

But two, when people start saying phrases like "a whole new form of money" or "the old rules don’t apply any more", people get gullible and the ethically-challenged get creative. And a whole pile of old cons come back into the world.

The best book ever written on Bitcoin is still Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds by Charles Mackay, and that was written in 1841. Chapter 1 on tulip mania and chapter 2 on the South Sea bubble will seem eerily familiar.

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/24518

Re: Crypto-currencies have lost 30% of their value in the last 3 weeks

#103

Post by davidgerard »

gravypod wrote: post #6

Hopefully everyone looses confidence in mining and I can start buying cheap used GPUs.

Buying a GPU second-hand in the next year is a terrible idea.

"no no this totally wasn't used for mining swer on me mum" <-- was mined to hell and back.

Re: Crypto-currencies have lost 30% of their value in the last 3 weeks

#104

Post by davidgerard »

regulation_d wrote: post #96
anovikov wrote: post #47

Why am i not surprised? Nearly all or maybe all ICOs since May have been a deliberate scam. That is beyond the word 'bubble'. That is just it - collective scam. Crowdsourced Bernie Madoff.

This seems overstated. Civic seems interesting. EOS seems interesting. They are both longshots, but are they longer shots than your typical startup?

Have you read the EOS terms and conditions?

> The EOS Tokens do not have any rights, uses, purpose, attributes, functionalities or features, express or implied, including, without limitation, any uses, purpose, attributes, functionalities or features on the EOS Platform.

The legal EOS Token Purchase Agreement is a frankly amazing document. I'd link it but they've taken it down and put the URL in robots.txt. US citizens or residents are not to buy the tokens (though EOS assures us they totally don’t constitute a security – hear that, SEC?); the tokens are defined as not being useful in any manner whatsoever; forty-eight hours after the end of the distribution period, the tokens will no longer be transferable; the buyer promises not to purchase them for speculation or investment. If there’s any legal problems caused by you buying these officially worthless things, you agree to indemnify EOS.

People are still lining up to buy them. This says more about crypto fans than it does about the value of EOS.

Of course, all the action is in China. (People in the anglosphere tend to forget that almost all the action in cryptos is in China, and Western usage is basically a sideshow to that.) Here's a writeup of how the EOS offering actually works:

https://www.reddit.com/r/CryptoCurrency/comments/6ma3a4/the_...

Re: Crypto-currencies have lost 30% of their value in the last 3 weeks

#105

Post by libertine »

davidgerard wrote: post #101
libertine wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gold has industrial usage as well - electronics, computers, even in space tech Gold it's used for it's unique properties. I don't get why crypto keeps being compared to a metal.

> I don't get why crypto keeps being compared to a metal. Because Bitcoin was literally created to imitate gold, with the idea being to propagate crank goldbug conspiracy theory economics. This is why the price is so volatile - as an imitation of the gold standard, bitcoin wants to be money but actually works like a commodity, with booms, busts and bubbles. https://davidgerard.co.uk/blockchain/the-conspiracist-gold-b…

I understand it - even the term "gold rush" could be applied here, where people the get the fever and sometimes do irrational stuff to try to strike the good ol'gold nugget.

You can learn a lot from the psychology and sociology side of the Gold Rush event, and surely you can compare it to the crypto event (after all, that's what history is for).

But like you've said, Bitcoin was created to imitate gold... still it's not gold.

Re: Crypto-currencies have lost 30% of their value in the last 3 weeks

#106

Post by gravypod »

davidgerard wrote: post #103
gravypod wrote: post #6

Hopefully everyone looses confidence in mining and I can start buying cheap used GPUs.

Buying a GPU second-hand in the next year is a terrible idea. "no no this totally wasn't used for mining swer on me mum" <-- was mined to hell and back.

If you want to sell me a card used in mining for pennies on the dollar I'll take it. My email email is in my description.

RX 480/580 and GTX 1060/1070/1080 are all welcome as long as they start, are recognized by the computer, and haven't been overclocked.

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