141–150 of 688 posts
Haha, less than 24h after that article that hit the frontpage yesterday. https://etherscan.io/blocks The blocks look absolutely insane right now
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Have you heard of DEFI (decentralized finance)?
Ah, yes, it's taking over traditional finance except they still haven't figured out how to make loans, but never mind that.
Bitcoin is the ultimate, purely financial object. It has no revenues or profits. The supply is fixed -- unlike, say, gold, where high prices mean people will eventually start digging mines, BTC supply is entirely price-inelastic. The only thing that determines BTC price is demand. And over the past 13 years, we've seen reflexivity at work: The price has gone up, so more people want it, so the price goes up further, a…
That would only be true if bitcoin technology were protected by IP, which it is not. new coins effectively dilute existing holders of btc
I don't know why, it is probably highly irrational, but I always rejoice when the Bitcoin crashes.
Same. I hate the arrogant stupidity of the crypto cult.
Bitcoin is the ultimate, purely financial object. It has no revenues or profits. The supply is fixed -- unlike, say, gold, where high prices mean people will eventually start digging mines, BTC supply is entirely price-inelastic. The only thing that determines BTC price is demand. And over the past 13 years, we've seen reflexivity at work: The price has gone up, so more people want it, so the price goes up further, a…
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As someone with no real opinion on crypto the arrogant stupidity of the anti-crypto crowd (really prevalent on HN) is also quite tiring.
For me, it's because the hype isn't around the technology (which is the interesting part and for the most part, why we're on HN), it's around the speculation. From the outside, looks like a bunch of gamblers constantly getting each other off on whether their bets will make them millionares. It's just...sad...at a level.
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And that I can send money worldwide to anyone at any time with no middleman.
No, you can send arbitrary hashes to anyone at any time. It's just a mutual agreement that those hashes are worth anything at all.
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Stocks are a big Ponzi scheme too. Most people buying stocks aren’t interested in buying cash flow like stocks were meant to provide. People want capital gains. You only get capital gains when there’s a greater fool. I’m not against owning stocks. I’m just as concentrated as you. But, let’s not confuse luck and genius. We are just hoping to be the one that gets out before the music stops.
Please don’t “both sides” this. Stocks are not a Ponzi scheme because funds from early investors are not flowing to fresh investors. There is the actual value created by a company together with its future prospects and assets that combine to determine a stock price. Crypto meanwhile has the backing of whom and what assets?
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Same. I hate the arrogant stupidity of the crypto cult.
It may be arrogant sounding, but it’s not stupid. It is in the financial interest of Bitcoin holders to talk up Bitcoin and defend it to the death. The senior management of regular banks in many countries are often required by law to deny that the bank is in jeopardy right up until the moment they close the doors, as a way to prevent bank runs. Because crypto is distributed, every holder is a bank manager, and must d…
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> If $SPY dropped 40% we'd all call it a crash. This isn't that different If $SPY was 40% up since last month, would that be normal? ETH is still currently higher than its value from April 19th. Cryptocurrency market is extremely volatile. This isn't that far from normal.
SPY is up 50% since 2019 (pre covid crash). As someone partially invested in index ETFs, this worries me. Index funds aren't supposed to be nitro, they are supposed to be slow and plodding, and 10% annual is supposed to be huge. I think major indices should be nice, slow, inertial gains from ~6-7% annual, tops. Why? When at any point as an engineer or a scientist have you observed large exponential growth to be susta…
Wait, what? I don't see SPY below 250 for all of 2019. A 100% gain would be 500, but it's 406 now. (Its 2020 nadir was ~228, but it's still not up 100% from that.)