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Litecoin and Ethereum buys and sells are temporarily disabled

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Re: Litecoin and Ethereum buys and sells are temporarily disabled

#221

Post by benmorris »

llamataboot wrote: post #182
berberous wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is definitely a speculative bubble. I think we are in a similar position as 1998. The technologists can see that [the Internet]/[cryptocurrencies] are very interesting technologies, with the potential to change the world. But retail investors are pouring in, without any understanding of the tech, and inflating both good and bad [companies]/[coins] in a pure speculative frenzy. If I had to bet, there is still lots…

There will be a lot of blood on the floor though. The rise of Bitcoin as a speculative asset (and its inevitable crash) will do some damage for sure. I'm bullish on blockchain technologies over the next decade or two, but we're gonna have to clean up for awhile. My hope is that blockchain enthusiasts are taking their profits and using them to invest in building something better. (There's also a lot to be said here ab…

I totally agree. I'm confident a crypto coin crash is coming to eclipse any we've had before. The combination of volume, transactions/second limits, and weak exchange infrastructure; when people want to get out things are going to get ugly.

Re: Litecoin and Ethereum buys and sells are temporarily disabled

#222

Post by baby »

zMiller wrote: post #150

This thread's audience is obviously a 'developed nations' one. From our perspective yes, Crytpo's use case as currency make absolutely no sense (yet), we tap our Visa card to pay instantly with no fees and no fraud liability, hard to beat. As a store of value however there is a very strong use case in the western world. Of the top my head, it is estimated that 10% of our GDP is in off shore havens, think about that i…

> Crytpo's use case as currency make absolutely no sense

Note that calling cryptocurrencies "crypto" doesn't make much sense either.

Re: Litecoin and Ethereum buys and sells are temporarily disabled

#224

Post by kinkrtyavimoodh »

wott wrote: post #75
phil248 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having purchased several cryptocurrencies recently, I can attest that I am certainly not acting rationally. But at least I'm having fun!

I should start a business selling thin air. Thin air from France, thin air from Japan, thin air from Mexico, and so on, you can collect them all, it is super fun. Then I could introduce cold captured thin air, warm captured thin air, etc. Wet thin air, dry thin air for year 3. More fun every year. Even better, I should sell just a paper (well, an electronic one) stating you own some thin air. Hey, geeks, how cool can…

You joke but I'd be happy to invest if I think that I could sell that thin air after a month for twice what I bought it for. So make THAT happen for thin air and we are good.

Re: Litecoin and Ethereum buys and sells are temporarily disabled

#225

Post by bthrn »

matte_black wrote: post #81
sedtrader wrote: post #15

A lot of emotion with LTC. People are downloading Coinbase and buying LTC simply because it is the cheapest on Coinbase. This is definitely a bubble, really cant deny that anymore. All emotional, non-rational behavior.

I disagree. Buying can be 100% rational as long as you believe some other fool down the line will buy it off you. As soon as the supply of irrational buyers dries up it’s game over. But that doesn’t look like it will happen anytime soon, just look around!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_fool_theory

Re: Litecoin and Ethereum buys and sells are temporarily disabled

#226

Post by nhaehnle »

where_do_i_live wrote: post #120
EGreg wrote: post #91

I wonder, what are these exchanges like GDAX, BitMex etc. doing with their dollar/euro/etc. reserves? They obviously need to keep dollars on hand in order to cash everyone out. But what if Bitcoin goes up in price? If there is a run on the exchange later they may have to sell their bitcoins on the spot market to cash people out. Banks reinvest money held into loans and other speculative investments. But what do you d…

Huh - that is nonsense. They hold the exact amount of USD that their customers have deposited. They are custodians - not fractional reserve banks.

Well, they probably moved some of those funds into longer term bonds, so there could be some liquidity issues. But those would be unrelated to the price of BTC, and would be only temporary. There should never be solvency issues for a vanilla exchange.

Things look different with margin trading though. Margin trading implicitly implies a loan from the exchange to the trader. If the market moves too much against the trader, exchanges typically automatically force their positions to be closed. The problem is that if the price moves too quickly, the proceeds from this transaction may not be enough to cover the loan to the trader. So then the trader can end up owing money to the exchange, and it may be difficult for the exchange to get that money. That can lead to solvency issues.

Re: Litecoin and Ethereum buys and sells are temporarily disabled

#227

Post by geofft »

zMiller wrote: post #170
bllguo wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Africa is actually more sophisticated than the US in many ways regarding fintech Anyway, this is a straw man. Who is saying cryptos are useless? People are saying that they are a bubble, that the valuations are irrational.

Totally Kenya's mobile payment system evolution from SMSing minute refill codes, to an actual legally recognized form of payment is the original Blockchain in my mind :) But that is exactly my point, in that market , there is demand and need for innovation that means crypto (while inflated right now) is here to stay. People who call Bitcoin a 'Ponzi scheme' , type of plant or apply whatever reduction on a very comple…

M-Pesa is a centralized service run by Vodafone, quite the opposite of blockchain. It only resembles blockchain in that it involves electronics and it's recent, but by that standard, we'd call credit cards or PayPal "the original Blockchain".

And as far as I know, it's denominated in Kenyan shillings, not in its own currency (i.e., hype about M-Pesa does not result in something with Bitcoin's to-the-moon valuation relative to the prevailing currency in the land).

I suspect that most Bitcoin detractors, whether those who call it a Ponzi scheme or simply those who oppose proof of work, will be absolutely thrilled with the growth of more centralized electronic money transfer systems that are denominated in existing fiat currency. I know that I've been personally happy to use Square Cash, Apple Pay, EMV cards, etc. in the US. No mining, no or low fees, high security, quick, and suitable for small transfers.

And the fact that this is how M-Pesa works is an extremely strong existence proof that Bitcoin is not needed by the "African farmer".

Re: Litecoin and Ethereum buys and sells are temporarily disabled

#228

Post by johnwheeler »

zMiller wrote: post #150

This thread's audience is obviously a 'developed nations' one. From our perspective yes, Crytpo's use case as currency make absolutely no sense (yet), we tap our Visa card to pay instantly with no fees and no fraud liability, hard to beat. As a store of value however there is a very strong use case in the western world. Of the top my head, it is estimated that 10% of our GDP is in off shore havens, think about that i…

> Of the top my head, it is estimated that 10% of our GDP is in off shore havens, think about that infamous 1% moving just half of that 10% into Bitcoin ..

The IRS would crack down on this as with any other tax avoidance scheme. Offshore havens are probably safer since many rely on loopholes.

Re: Litecoin and Ethereum buys and sells are temporarily disabled

#229

Post by and0 »

zMiller wrote: post #150

This thread's audience is obviously a 'developed nations' one. From our perspective yes, Crytpo's use case as currency make absolutely no sense (yet), we tap our Visa card to pay instantly with no fees and no fraud liability, hard to beat. As a store of value however there is a very strong use case in the western world. Of the top my head, it is estimated that 10% of our GDP is in off shore havens, think about that i…

But wouldn't transaction fees, which are already really rough for people making a first-world salary, be even more unsustainable if that fee is a whole day's wage (or more) in the places you're describing? And how would those areas of the world have that level of connectivity?

e: for making a huge sale of crops or something to another nation, then 1 transaction fee is not bad compared converting at a %, but you'd still need to convert from Bitcoin to a local currency to actually use the money you made.

Re: Litecoin and Ethereum buys and sells are temporarily disabled

#230

Post by martin-adams »

wott wrote: post #75
phil248 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having purchased several cryptocurrencies recently, I can attest that I am certainly not acting rationally. But at least I'm having fun!

I should start a business selling thin air. Thin air from France, thin air from Japan, thin air from Mexico, and so on, you can collect them all, it is super fun. Then I could introduce cold captured thin air, warm captured thin air, etc. Wet thin air, dry thin air for year 3. More fun every year. Even better, I should sell just a paper (well, an electronic one) stating you own some thin air. Hey, geeks, how cool can…

If you can make an app that has some variable change in the air investment every few minutes, hitting that dopamine high, you could be onto a winner.
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