A Cryptocurrency Website Changes Its Data, and $100B in Market Value Vanishes • Hacker News Board

Re: A Cryptocurrency Website Changes Its Data, and $100B in Market Value Vanishes

#111

Post by trhway » Wed, Jan 10, 2018, 12:40 AM UTC

brndnmtthws wrote: post #6

It's facetious (and bad 'journalism') to claim $100B vanished. It was never there to begin with: market cap isn't something you can cash in on. It's merely the result of price multiplied by supply. If you owned a significant portion of all the coins in the world, and tried to sell them all at once, you wouldn't end up with number_of_coins * price, it would (realistically) be a smaller number given the market slippage…

> It was never there to begin with: market cap isn't something you can cash in on. ... If you owned a significant portion of all the coins in the world, and tried to sell them all at once ...

until of course you can take a loan collateralized by the asset. Or get/sell some CDS/future/option based on the asset - that way you can even work with amounts larger than the market cap.

Re: A Cryptocurrency Website Changes Its Data, and $100B in Market Value Vanishes

#112

Post by ratsimihah » Wed, Jan 10, 2018, 12:51 AM UTC

cwkoss wrote: post #77

ratsimihah wrote: post #70

But can I do Dollar Cost Average with BTC?

Yes, Coinbase allows you to configure repeated buys or sells of a specified dollar amount.

Ohh thanks I should look into that. Aren’t the transaction fees huge though?

Re: A Cryptocurrency Website Changes Its Data, and $100B in Market Value Vanishes

#113

Post by soup10 » Wed, Jan 10, 2018, 12:54 AM UTC

dboreham wrote: post #65

I'm beginning to see how delusional it is to think you can make money by producing something useful or of value in people's lives. That's for lusers. Instead mess with the neural pathways of a large population such that they just give you their money.

The utility of bitcoin is that it's a global currency backed by an impartial computer system rather than a government. By being politically neutral it eases tensions and competition between countries. It makes commerce more efficient by taking national politics out of the heart of financial system.

Re: A Cryptocurrency Website Changes Its Data, and $100B in Market Value Vanishes

#114

Post by noncoml » Wed, Jan 10, 2018, 12:55 AM UTC

kfriede wrote: post #72

noncoml wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depends on what you want in life. If all you care about is money, then yes, your post makes sense.

Caring solely about money often has the side effect of making others' lives better. Amazon gainfully employs over 500k [1] people, giving them means to put food on the table. Not saying that wouldn't happen without Amazon, but more job availability is always better than less. Bezos just became the richest man ever recorded [2]. [1]: http://money.cnn.com/2017/10/26/technology/business/amazon-e... [2]: https://news.yco…

You are talking about making an actual business.

The GP was talking about essentially scamming people.

Re: A Cryptocurrency Website Changes Its Data, and $100B in Market Value Vanishes

#115

Post by andrepd » Wed, Jan 10, 2018, 1:07 AM UTC

Meekro wrote: post #107

dboreham wrote: post #65

I'm beginning to see how delusional it is to think you can make money by producing something useful or of value in people's lives. That's for lusers. Instead mess with the neural pathways of a large population such that they just give you their money.

Unless you're straight-up stealing, you have to persuade people to hand over their money. The way you do that is by convincing them that what they're getting in return is valuable. Unfortunately people tend make value assessments that I think are horrible, and that causes entire industries to pivot in ways I don't like. For example, I love Nintendo's $60 games that come with plenty of content and no microtransactions…

I'm quite sure people that don't spend thousands of dollars (or even a penny) on microtransactions aren't the minority.

Re: A Cryptocurrency Website Changes Its Data, and $100B in Market Value Vanishes

#116

Post by jshen » Wed, Jan 10, 2018, 1:08 AM UTC

kfriede wrote: post #72

noncoml wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depends on what you want in life. If all you care about is money, then yes, your post makes sense.

Caring solely about money often has the side effect of making others' lives better. Amazon gainfully employs over 500k [1] people, giving them means to put food on the table. Not saying that wouldn't happen without Amazon, but more job availability is always better than less. Bezos just became the richest man ever recorded [2]. [1]: http://money.cnn.com/2017/10/26/technology/business/amazon-e... [2]: https://news.yco…

You are making a big assumption which I don't think you can make which is ... that Amazon is the result of a person or people who solely care about money.

I don't think your assumption is true.

Re: A Cryptocurrency Website Changes Its Data, and $100B in Market Value Vanishes

#117

Post by andrepd » Wed, Jan 10, 2018, 1:11 AM UTC

kfriede wrote: post #72

noncoml wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depends on what you want in life. If all you care about is money, then yes, your post makes sense.

Caring solely about money often has the side effect of making others' lives better. Amazon gainfully employs over 500k [1] people, giving them means to put food on the table. Not saying that wouldn't happen without Amazon, but more job availability is always better than less. Bezos just became the richest man ever recorded [2]. [1]: http://money.cnn.com/2017/10/26/technology/business/amazon-e... [2]: https://news.yco…

https://i.imgur.com/k6ewk2L_d.jpg?maxwidth=640&shape=thumb&f...

My, how the world was improved by ruthless optimization and margin squeezing, centralization of commerce and retail, concentration of wealth, buying of legislators, invasions of privacy, etc.

Re: A Cryptocurrency Website Changes Its Data, and $100B in Market Value Vanishes

#118

Post by andrepd » Wed, Jan 10, 2018, 1:13 AM UTC

jshen wrote: post #116

kfriede wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Caring solely about money often has the side effect of making others' lives better. Amazon gainfully employs over 500k [1] people, giving them means to put food on the table. Not saying that wouldn't happen without Amazon, but more job availability is always better than less. Bezos just became the richest man ever recorded [2]. [1]: http://money.cnn.com/2017/10/26/technology/business/amazon-e... [2]: https://news.yco…

You are making a big assumption which I don't think you can make which is ... that Amazon is the result of a person or people who solely care about money. I don't think your assumption is true.

Well, what do you think they care about then?

Re: A Cryptocurrency Website Changes Its Data, and $100B in Market Value Vanishes

#119

Post by cwkoss » Wed, Jan 10, 2018, 1:14 AM UTC

ratsimihah wrote: post #112

cwkoss wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, Coinbase allows you to configure repeated buys or sells of a specified dollar amount.

Ohh thanks I should look into that. Aren’t the transaction fees huge though?

I think they are a bit over 1% right now. Not the cheapest way to get bitcoin, but not horrible.

Re: A Cryptocurrency Website Changes Its Data, and $100B in Market Value Vanishes

#120

Post by andrepd » Wed, Jan 10, 2018, 1:15 AM UTC

Latty wrote: post #108

kfriede wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Caring solely about money often has the side effect of making others' lives better. Amazon gainfully employs over 500k [1] people, giving them means to put food on the table. Not saying that wouldn't happen without Amazon, but more job availability is always better than less. Bezos just became the richest man ever recorded [2]. [1]: http://money.cnn.com/2017/10/26/technology/business/amazon-e... [2]: https://news.yco…

I mean, we have attempted (at least in part) to create a system where acting selfishly in pursuit of money forces you to create value for society. That's literally the intent of the idea of capitalism. It's a good idea - people will act selfishly instinctively, so if you can align that to make it good, then everything works. Of course, we know raw capitalism doesn't work (e.g: monopolies break it). So our systems hav…

>I mean, we have attempted (at least in part) to create a system where acting selfishly in pursuit of money forces you to create value for society. That's literally the intent of the idea of capitalism.

No that's completely false. Capitalism is the replacement (and logical continuation) of feudalism, after its collapse, as a system of social stratification. Saying that is trying to validate your thinking and ignoring the history of the matter.