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Bitcoin Falls Below $20k for the First Time Since 2020

bloomberg.com

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Re: Bitcoin Falls Below $20k for the First Time Since 2020

#211

Post by hyperjeff »

uejfiweun wrote: post #201
lrvick wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The earliest match for this popular quotation appeared in an essay by Theodor Reik in 1965. Currently, he is the leading candidate for coiner of the saying. https://quoteinvestigator.com/2014/01/12/history-rhymes/

Ah, interesting. I just did a cursory Google search for the author of the quote and it said Mark Twain. Guess someone should file a bug for their knowledge graph team.

A cursory search might even give one the impression that Einstein had an opinion about bees. (Unkillable memes are pretty interesting.)

Re: Bitcoin Falls Below $20k for the First Time Since 2020

#212

Post by herbst »

sentirism wrote: post #164
herbst wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I may sound overly optimistic however crypto is still the most easy and often cheapest way to transfer money. I work in a weird field credit card providers don't like to work with. The only real international solution is Crypto, everything else are more local solutions with their own issues. Even thought I am losing money every day, I don't see any other solution to my, and some others, businesses.

I think we are just in a golden period like the 1920s before May 1, 1933 when gold was confiscated. Central bank digital currency seems inevitable. I imagine in the far future there will be central bank digital currency and illegal crypto currency that facilitates black market transactions. Crypto holders will be smeared in narratives as drug traffickers and criminals. At some point there will be risk outside of vola…

I guess it depends. Crypto in my country doesn't have such a negative attitude. Some places allow you to pay your taxes in crypto, our main Amazon competitor is accepting crypto for years now, even our 'old people paper magazin shop' accepts crypto.

In Switzerland you have banking privacy, no or high cash limits, you can privately buy a new car in cash without anyone raising an eye brow. Crypto isn't actually a real danger when your whole society is based on monetary freedom.

Re: Bitcoin Falls Below $20k for the First Time Since 2020

#213

Post by nathias »

cuteboy19 wrote: post #35
nathias wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you think the tech disappears when Bitcoin goes below some magical threshold?

It was fascinating 10 years ago but useless all along.

how is it useless if I've been using it for 10 years?

Re: Bitcoin Falls Below $20k for the First Time Since 2020

#214

Post by knorker »

forum_ghost wrote: post #205
knorker wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Two things: > You can't just compare bitcoin to a corporation and get something that makes sense. 1) I agree. I was replying to a comment that did. > Cash just as well "has no assets". 2) USD is backed, ultimately, by the full force of the nuclear armed state and multiple branches of the biggest military the world has ever seen. If you think the US government will allow USD to become irrelevant then you are going to…

Russia has a nuclear armed military also. Strong enough to deter the US from direct confrontation. Yet, somehow they have never been a prime destination for investment. Economy matters as well. And loss of faith in the USD cannot be fixed with a few mushroom clouds.

I know. And the USD is not just backed by the military. War is just diplomacy failed.

It's just the most obvious backing.

It's enough to send fines, most of the time. Actually just the threat of fines. If foreign then diplomatic carrots and sticks.

I'm commenting on the absurd notion that the USD is backed by nothing, commonly said with "but BTC is backed by math".

You're right. Mushroom clouds won't help the USD. But the implication of it helps.

Actual acts the US does are more subdued. Overthrow democracies and invade smaller countries.

But could the US do it if it had no nukes and a military the size of Mexico's?

The US even buys support, including keeping USD the medium of exchange (thus creating USD demand, thus giving USD value) including be providing military guarantees.

Russia and China have great militaries too, but the US is a league of its own in its ability to apply it anywhere on the globe.

Russia does not.

The reason the US (and USD) has been winning is, as I'm sure you'd agree, a complex and huge topic full of not just strategy but also history. But it doesn't change the fact that without the US military and its ability to project it worldwide it would be MUCH weaker.

Russia lost 50 million people in the war, at a time when the US was sitting as pretty the only major country not blown to bits, and it was holding the IOUs.

Re: Bitcoin Falls Below $20k for the First Time Since 2020

#215

Post by alkonaut »

TimJRobinson wrote: post #179
alkonaut wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If people are doing any kind of leveraged positions on Cryptocurrency then who the hell lent them the money?

You haven't heard of decentralized finance? It's a $250B industry mostly running on Ethereum. Constantly surprised how out of the loop HN is on this.

I wasn't aware that hedge funds operating on top of it were a big thing (i.e. leveraged risks). You'd think the volatility of these things are bad enough even if you are merely doing traditional investment funds (i.e. just investing people's money - not investing peoples money leveraged by further lending).

Re: Bitcoin Falls Below $20k for the First Time Since 2020

#216

Post by dangerface »

majani wrote: post #198
bsaul wrote: post #78

i wouldn't be surprised if eth survives but btc don't. Ethereum has actually built something on top of its coin, thanks to smart contract. To my knowledge, BTC is pure speculation.

Actually the presence of an active, neurodivergent figurehead for eth is a more existential risk than anything on btc's end.

True lots of people upset with Tesla and Space X simply because they are owned by Musk.

Re: Bitcoin Falls Below $20k for the First Time Since 2020

#217

Post by DickingAround »

somewhereoutth wrote: post #99
lrvick wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I run a high-risk security and applied cryptography consulting firm so naturally most of my clients are in the crypto-asset industry. Multiple offer payroll in crypto-assets to all staff, and one pays all employees in it exclusively to avoid hires that do not have an interest in the space. I pay most subcontractors in Bitcoin too. Unlike paying in company stock you do not deal with nonsense like AMT or blackout perio…

So the advantage of using crypto is that it is good for those that use crypto? Your argument is circular. > avoid hires that do not have an interest in the space > saves me having to buy from exchanges

Money is kind of like that; it's a delusion. The problem is something is always breaking that delusion by printing more of it. But not everything can be printed. If you can't print, the delusion can be pretty hard to break. If the delusion is never broken, it's actually a good thing to use as money.

Re: Bitcoin Falls Below $20k for the First Time Since 2020

#218

Post by DickingAround »

iLoveOncall wrote: post #14
drawingthesun wrote: post #11

Considering Bitcoin had never fallen lower than a previous cycles ATH (All Time High) until now, who is thinking that this might be a sign of the end of crypto? Each cycle goes higher was pretty much the only thing that kept the whole thing going. Now that is gone I think the space will dry up. Tether collapsing in the next couple weeks will likely put Bitcoin under $10,000

Tether collapsing would have a far larger effect than putting BTC to 10K, it would probably be the end of crypto. The vast majority of alt-coins cannot be exchanged against dollars and have a value only if they can be traded against USDT or other stablecoins.

I can't wait for Tether to fail. These 'stable coins' are just waiting for disaster; how many times have we tried to tie asset prices together, or tried to make a paper version of something else where there wasn't clear 1:1 relationship... it always ends in disaster. Better have that done away with sooner than later.

There is no way that will break Bitcoin; the network will keep running. And if bitcoin's fiat-price was too high because Tether existed, better to resolve that now as well.

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