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Bitcoin and almost every other cryptocurrency crashed hard today

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Re: Bitcoin and almost every other cryptocurrency crashed hard today

#251

Post by [deleted] »

icedchai wrote: post #249
cocktailpeanuts wrote: post #83

As someone who owns and believes in cryptocurrency, I'm actually glad this happened. I was getting sick of all the get rich quick people who've been driving the price lately, even for the coins that shouldn't be pumping. It was almost as if the entire cryptocurrency space had turned into a huge unregulated casino. I was at a couple of Bitcoin meetups recently and was surprised to find that most attendees were proudly…

Turned into? I think it's always been a huge unregulated casino. (BTW, I've been in bitcoin since 2011.)

[deleted]

Re: Bitcoin and almost every other cryptocurrency crashed hard today

#252

Post by CamelCaseName »

jcranmer wrote: post #226
monocasa wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And a big piece of gold's value is that it's been a store of value for longer than recorded history. Hell, if the world went belly up, Mad Max style, there's a good chance that whatever gold you have would be worth even more.

Serious question: what value would gold have in a post-apocalyptic world? If I'm selling something, why should I take gold in exchange for it, instead of something useful, like ammunition or food or water?

Because there's an expectation that you can use gold to buy something else you need.

This expectation may not hold, but whatever the post-apocalyptic world settles on first will likely be there to stay for a while.

Re: Bitcoin and almost every other cryptocurrency crashed hard today

#253

Post by lloyd-christmas »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #142
laythea wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am struggling to understand what currency you would define fundamental value - Loafs of bread?

Things you can walk to a shop to and buy things with. Things employers will pay you for. Things that are backed by a government and guaranteed by a national bank. Things that are protected by laws and monitored to prevent large value shifts. Things that can be transferred in many transactions (like, more than four per second) Things that don't need the energy production / consumption of a small country just to functi…

The cowry was used as an international currency for thousands of years and wasn't backed by any government. All it was was seashells that were a limited supply resource. In major usage, it was used all the way from Africa to Hawaii. I think most people look at currencies with an incredibly narrow view of history.

^ Worth noting, that this is relatively modern history. It's usage stopped as a currency in the mid 20th century. At the beginning of the 20th century, some african countries still accepted it as taxes

Re: Bitcoin and almost every other cryptocurrency crashed hard today

#254

Post by UncleMeat »

Klathmon wrote: post #160
mutteraloo wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

there are hundreds of crytocurrencies. what makes one of them rare?

There are hundreds of elements, what makes some of them rare?

Only a few of those are resistant to tarnish and shiny.

Re: Bitcoin and almost every other cryptocurrency crashed hard today

#255

Post by Klathmon »

mutteraloo wrote: post #193
bogomipz wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>"- not rare" Its not a commodity it's a currency. Why does it need to be "rare"? The US dollar is also not backed by anything "rare" and hasn't been since Nixon abandoned the gold standard in 1973. >"didn't have any government backing or big institutional backing in case the price dropped from 19,000 to 11,000" You realize this is the exact reason it was created right? That's the whole point. It's not coincidence th…

when you talk to a bitcoin enthusiast, at first it was 'well it's a currency'. then after seeing the transaction fee and time, it was 'well it's a store of value'. then after seeing the 80% price drop, it was 'well it's rare'. then after seeing hundreds of cryptocurrencies on coinbase it was '......?'

It sounds like you are talking to different people, who all think different things...

I personally see cryptocurrencies as a decentralized way to transact money. Yes, bitcoin is failing in this area currently, and while they have plans on how to fix it, they are not going to get here soon enough to keep this valuation up in my mind. If you ask a friend of mine, he will tell you that he has always thought of cryptocurrencies as a way of storing value, since the inability to do chargebacks means he doesn't want to use it as his daily currency ever.

Both of us can be right, because it's an opinion.

And there hasn't been an 80% price drop at this time, and coinbase doesn't have "hundreds of cryptocurrencies", they have 4 (3 up until a day or 2 ago).

Re: Bitcoin and almost every other cryptocurrency crashed hard today

#256

Post by aviv »

cs702 wrote: post #246
aviv wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My theory is still Saudi Arabia. The government as well as individuals fearing further confiscation of their assets.

It could also be Goldman: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-12-21/goldman-i...

Exactly. No surprise they set up shop there. Two way street is now open.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-goldman-sachs-saudi/goldm...

Re: Bitcoin and almost every other cryptocurrency crashed hard today

#257

Post by waytogo »

djsumdog wrote: post #161
gressquel wrote: post #19

Downvote me all you want, but HN really needs to cure this bitcoin-jealousy. Yes, people who invested early became millionares and billionares with a single mouse click. I know it feels unfair when you spend countless hours creating and innovating and not being rewarded. But some of you here needs to stop hating and being bitter. I have been watching HN and bitcoin related threads for months now. Same pattern.

Who is buying coin? Like if you seriously found 3 BTC you had on an old hard drive from years ago, remembered that password, who would pay you the $30k? You'd have to try different exchanges, try small amounts first, pay the insane transaction fees and wait for confirmation. Anyone who truly had a huge stash of like 400k USD in BTC would need to grab a lawyer, an escrow company and enter into a pretty strict legal co…

To liquidate 400k in BTC is a no-brainer. Just take the major exchanges with SEPA and go. If you have worries then just test the liq process with smaller amounts.

Re: Bitcoin and almost every other cryptocurrency crashed hard today

#258

Post by UncleMeat »

Klathmon wrote: post #203
mutteraloo wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

there could be thousands of crytocurrency next month.

And I could make thousands of kinds of physical coins next month, it doesn't mean physical money is worth less... I feel like I'm crazy here, how is the ability to make a new "thing" make something else less valuable? A toyota isn't worth less because I can make a new car company next week, Facebook isn't worth less because I could make a clone of it tomorrow, A company stock shouldn't be consitered "worthless" just…

There are two kinds of rarity. There is rarity of the thing itself and rarity of things like the thing. Consider an extremely rare thing used for some industrial application. It is very expensive because there is little supply. But if there is another thing that functions just as well then the price of the first thing drops, even though the supply of that thing is fixed.

The only differences between bitcoin and bitcoin2 after a fork are the miners. If the number of miners is sufficiently large to be confident in transactions, original bitcoins and bitcoin2s are just as good at being used for whatever. This is even worse if bitcoin2 has some new desirable properties that bitcoin does not have.

Re: Bitcoin and almost every other cryptocurrency crashed hard today

#259

Post by flgr »

navaati wrote: post #89
chillydawg wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a fairly standard order book view, with a nice log of trades on the right hand side. For most real exchanges (eg ones trading shares or commodities), this view would be impossible without some kind of downsampling as there would be too many trades/sec to display in real time. Your monitor probably isn't fast enough, let alone your browser rendering stack.

Oh the log is cool but I was more specifically referring to the order book with the spread, and the "green on the left, red on the right" view in the middle that shows the market. I would like to see such a view for regular stock markets but I don't know where to go. The stock exchange interface of my bank, for example, is far from showing such a nice thing, only a bare order book with only a few lines.

I found TradingView to be very good. I.e. https://www.tradingview.com/chart/?symbol=BITSTAMP:BTCUSD

They also have regular stock symbols.

Re: Bitcoin and almost every other cryptocurrency crashed hard today

#260

Post by qbrass »

crististm wrote: post #68
solotronics wrote: post #52

Buying on the way down, see you all on the upswing in about a year. I bought after the MtGox crash in 2013 and can't wait to buy this bear market!

Remember to sell before the Friday before 2018 Christmas

Better sell before the winter solstice, just in case.
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