171–180 of 231 posts
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You know you're citing articles that are almost a year old? Please also provide evidence that "all of the early buyers are selling".
Yes, I'm aware that an article from January 2017 has data backing up an assertion about global Bitcoin trading volume from 2012 to 2017. What is your point?
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So if you buy a bitcoin for $15K, and sell it for $16K, you are taking wealth away from the Chinese?
No because you buy for 15k from them and sell for 16k to someone somewhere else in the world
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>Just because you can do mostly everything that blockchain tech provides without one, doesn't mean it isn't incredibly valuable. If you can already do everything that it provides that's pretty much the definition of not having any extra value. This is just extending the hand waving. What transactions will you be able to do with cryptocurrencies you can't already do with the modern financial system?
Exactly that, you can do secure financial transaction without the modern financial system. I would say that's incredibly valuable, and the vast majority of people who don't have equal access to the modern financial system would probably agree.
At its core, the current cryptocurrency craze is simply an unprecedented wealth transfer to China from the rest of the world. Until the end of 2013, Bitcoin was predominantly traded for US dollars. However, after the crash of 2013, miners consolidated in China and Bitcoin mostly traded for Chinese yuan[1]. At the start of 2017, regulators in China cracked down on digital currency exchanges[2] and trading quickly move…
> At its core, the current cryptocurrency craze is simply an unprecedented wealth transfer to China from the rest of the world. Actually it's a wealth transfer from china to the US. The chinese are using bitcoins as a means to evade CCP capital controls. There's a reason why china cracked down on bitcoin. Do you think china would stop wealth transfer to china? Of course not. They are trying to stop wealth transfer fr…
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So bitcoin is like art-as-store-of-value, that makes sense, it could lose 100% of its value unlike national currencies which can only suffer 91% loss in case of a bank run and only 99.9% loss in case of hyperinflation. Does your portfolio account for nuclear war?
the reason why crypto is dangerous is because it's very, very easy to get a piece of it. it is open to anyone and you can buy for just a dollar. this drives up price unlike anything out there. yes anything can be a store of value with enough people believing in it. bitcoin succeeded in generating large enough followers to drive up its price like crazy. if it continues, it will suck up capital from all other asset cla…
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Sure, but unlike drugs or prostitution, aggressive police action doesn't harm any underprivileged classes, but rather a bunch of affluent tax evaders.
The people in Venezuela and Zimbabwe that are now using crypto as an opportunity not to starve now that their fiat currency is worth less than toilet paper disagree. http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/venezuelans-bitco... edit: Rather than downvote - could you please explain why you think crypto is not beneficial to the billions of people worldwide currently excluded from the financial system?
And then I'd like to see this contrasted with other hyperinflation instances were people abandon the local currency and start trading in either a neighbor's currency or even USD.
This thread reminds me that even on HN most comments on the internet are from people with very little understanding. I expected the "bubble", "tulip", "no value" arguments to come from the chicken littles on Forbes. If you think Bitcoin is overvalued, fine. Pour yourself a stiff drink and accept some people might lose some money. The sort of emotional hyperbole on here about "cryptocurrencies need to be banned by the…
> The sort of emotional hyperbole on here about "cryptocurrencies need to be banned by the loving, paternal, incorruptible government to save the world from ourselves" is not just getting old, its absurd. Why is it "getting old"? It's a fair concern that something so volatile should be examined critically and relentlessly. People don't just "get a stiff drink and accept they'll lose money" if it goes down---they jump…
I agree - but backed with concerns based on legitimate understanding not "price is going up quickly, must be a scam".
> I think governments/regulators should have some say the same way you'd want them to regulate any financial instrument and punish Ponzi schemers and pump-and-dumpers.
Because they did such a great job in 2008? When are they planning to punish the architects of the financial crisis? Who's going after the banks when they launder money for mexican cartels and ISIS? You really think these people are trying to protect the public?
> I'd like to think about the motives of both sides from being so passionate.
I can't speak for anyone else but I come to these threads hoping to find sensible insight and technical analysis not "THIS IS A BUBBLE! BAN IT!"
> For yaysayers, it's a bit more obvious---once the hype dies, they'll stop making money.
There may well be a huge correction but the overall market is anti-fragile and here to stay.
An article that sums up my thoughts: https://www.callmegwei.com/2017/11/24/crypto-price-isnt-an-e...
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The people in Venezuela and Zimbabwe that are now using crypto as an opportunity not to starve now that their fiat currency is worth less than toilet paper disagree. http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/venezuelans-bitco... edit: Rather than downvote - could you please explain why you think crypto is not beneficial to the billions of people worldwide currently excluded from the financial system?
I don't know why people are downvoting, but what I'd like to know is how prevalent Bitcoin usage is in each country. Is it 10%? 50%? Who is it leaving behind? The article suggests it's not based on a scientific sample. I also wonder what the skew is in usage demographically and geographically. And then I'd like to see this contrasted with other hyperinflation instances were people abandon the local currency and start…
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I agree that this might be a wealth transfer to China. Bitcoin inherently does not hold any value, it is a ledger. When someone buys bitcoin, someone else sells it and takes the cash out of the system. Right now, a lot of mining is still taking place in China since energy is cheap. These miners sell their coins outside of China and bring cash back into the mainland to pay for the energy and hardware used for mining.…
> Bitcoin inherently does not hold any value, it is a ledger. I just want you to be aware that those 2 sentiments are directly contradictory. A ledger has value -- an online, world-wide, decentralized, distributed, peer-to-peer ledger moreso. Estimate the value of the ledger (this is a significantly different endeavour than estimating market cap), divide that value by the total number of BTC in circulation, and you h…
Why? Based on what? That's like saying "a state machine has value". That might be true in some contexts, but an arbitrary implementation of a concept is not necessarily valuable. Certainly, the value prospect of the ledger has no relationship to how many cryptotokens the ledger accounts to one's balance (that is to say, buying up cryptotokens is purely speculative because owning more does not make the ledger more useful)