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Coinbase adds support for Litecoin

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171–180 of 257 posts

Re: Coinbase adds support for Litecoin

#171

Is there a reason a lot of these cryptocurrencies have suddenly started to skyrocket all at once?

1. BTC has been increasingly acting unstably: transactions cost a lot and take a long time to confirm. The BTC core development team has proven itself incompetent and unable to handle the situation properly. 2. In Litecoin's case: its activation of Segwit may attract BTC core and other BTC enthusiasts. 3. Ethereum's recovery from DAO hack. I personally think the swift hard fork in this scenario was a great call, and…

regarding #1, Core isn't incompetent; This is currently the exact situation they want to hold (preventing a hard fork and block size limit increase).

They have nefariously manipulated media communications for years to fool people into only accepting a soft fork because they've convinced people a soft fork is somehow safer and any hard fork is automatically contentious. As long as a hard fork is never initiated, they retain write access to the github repo and therefore maintain control of the "default" Bitcoin client. And as long as Greg Maxwell is in charge, he can continue to receive funding for his startup (blockstream).

But yea, crippling layer 1 intentionally and misleading people for their own benefit is incredibly fucked up.

Re: Coinbase adds support for Litecoin

#173
Litecoin is now back because of Segwit. It's Bitcoin's hope to push a final acceptance of Segwit on Bitcoin. But, it doesn't have a real value in my opinion. About cryptocurrencies in general I can say that I use them to get payments and to pay employees and I find them very useful and the user experience is much better than normal banking (fast international transfers and complete tracking) and no need for KYC.

Re: Coinbase adds support for Litecoin

#174
post #169

I don't really get the draw towards crypto-currencies - aside from mining them to bring more into the pool of available currency - is there a point to purchasing or using them to make purchases? Is there a reason I should start using these currencies? Aside from trading currencies to make a few bucks?

It is a radically new and experimental type of money with a unique set of strengths and weaknesses. In some situations it is currently superior to all other options.

Bitcoin is available anywhere the internet is available (so it cannot be censored), and has a relatively low, flat transaction fee. This gives it utility in money transfers. It is also secured with cryptography and anonymous (yet not completely un-traceable), giving it utility for storing value.

Re: Coinbase adds support for Litecoin

#175
post #169

I don't really get the draw towards crypto-currencies - aside from mining them to bring more into the pool of available currency - is there a point to purchasing or using them to make purchases? Is there a reason I should start using these currencies? Aside from trading currencies to make a few bucks?

No, really the only point of crypto-currencies are for speculating, playing stock market "lite", scams, and funding illegal transactions. I made my money on it ages ago, and it was nothing but a minefield.

Re: Coinbase adds support for Litecoin

#176
post #169

I don't really get the draw towards crypto-currencies - aside from mining them to bring more into the pool of available currency - is there a point to purchasing or using them to make purchases? Is there a reason I should start using these currencies? Aside from trading currencies to make a few bucks?

It is a value store which is insulated from manipulation by Central Banks and not speculatively dependent upon the performance of a particular company or nation. It is subject to precise, predictable, and slow inflation.

If you look at Greece where savings accounts got a haircut and ATM withdrawals were frozen, or Venezuela where staple commodities and health care are now in cases only available for Bitcoin due to their currency crisis, the robustness of it is apparent.

It does have technical risks, but those are simple and easily understood. Personally, I am excited about ethereum, which turns the global mining network into a Turing complete engine for arbiterless smart contracts, where payment is built into the process mechanically rather than obliged legally and bolted on by trust like in a traditional contract.

Re: Coinbase adds support for Litecoin

#177
post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's hard to find objective metrics. I would look at real-world usage and utility. The currencies fall in a very clear distribution there -- bitcoin and all others.

The ole e-commerce metric. Does anyone else hate when they have tunnel vision for years and are made aware of a really amazing opportunity they should have noticed earlier? Many crypto tokens are dividend producing assets, just like most separate corporate bonds have yields. Sure there may be somebody wishing the dutch east india company's bonds were successful in underpinning global finance for 500 years, but the re…

Fascinating analogy. Are you saying that the rise in Bitcoin's value recently is driven not by speculation so much as more people realizing Bitcoin's true value as an investible asset? And where are the yields coming from if not speculation ... ICOs?

Re: Coinbase adds support for Litecoin

#178
post #169

I don't really get the draw towards crypto-currencies - aside from mining them to bring more into the pool of available currency - is there a point to purchasing or using them to make purchases? Is there a reason I should start using these currencies? Aside from trading currencies to make a few bucks?

To be honest, for personal use they aren't too useful due to their volatility. However, systems like Ripple and Ethereum could have potentially very big impacts for banks and businesses. They replace a cumbersome lower layer for which settlement time is usually on the order of days

Re: Coinbase adds support for Litecoin

#179
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would like to hear your opinion why you think Bitcoin is more secure than Ethereum.

One could probably write several research papers on the topic. It would be more likely appropriate to have a discussion format, but I'll touch (not in depth) on a few of the major points: 1. Multiple popular clients implementing the same consensus algorithm. In theory, this means that bugs show up faster and you end up with something closer to the designed specification. In practice, if you ever find one tiny little…

Would you mind listing the other 10 things? This is the most cogent critique I've seen so far of ether and I'm keen to hear more of your thoughts on this!

Re: Coinbase adds support for Litecoin

#180
post #169

I don't really get the draw towards crypto-currencies - aside from mining them to bring more into the pool of available currency - is there a point to purchasing or using them to make purchases? Is there a reason I should start using these currencies? Aside from trading currencies to make a few bucks?

There's a growing interest in the underlying technology's implications for fintech. I think largely because transactions can be ultra fast, ultra cheap, and can execute auditable, but arbitrary custom logic. ACH is extremely old, very slow, inflexible, and still used across the world for large financial transactions.
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