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Bitcoin Surges Past $7,000 to Extend Record Rally

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Re: Bitcoin Surges Past $7,000 to Extend Record Rally

#281

Post by john_alan »

eigenvalue wrote: post #225
LyndsySimon wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Litecoin, zCash, Monero and most of the others are bitcoin forks. Nope. All of these are derivatives of Bitcoin, but none of them are forks. A fork, by definition, shares a genesis block with the parent currency. This is in contrast to a "client fork", where the Bitcoin codebase was modified to create a new blockchain with or without changes in protocol. Most forks of Bitcoin have been intentional, and the "lesser"…

I believe the parent poster meant fork in the sense of forking the codebase, not a currency fork. And in the case of Litecoin at least, that is true.

Monero is a novel codebase. Not a fork of Bitcoin

Re: Bitcoin Surges Past $7,000 to Extend Record Rally

#282

Post by tessierashpool »

LyndsySimon wrote: post #192
tom_mellior wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> (e.g. Monero, Ethereum) have replaced most of its usecases I use Bitcoin from time to time to order food and buy other stuff online (sometimes through gift cards bought with Bitcoin). It's tough enough to find sites that accept Bitcoin, but I don't think I've ever seen one that accepted Monero or Ethereum. Maybe Litecoin a few years back. I admit that I haven't searched, but I would have expected a correlation with…

I mostly use Bitcoin to buy things that I either don't want on my credit card bill or from merchants that I don't feel comfortable trusting with my credit card information. For me, that's generally things like gift cards, VPN and VPS rentals, etc. It also seems to be gaining significant traction on porn sites, both for memberships and for per-artifact transactions. I expect that it will continue to be useful in the c…

just FYI, HN doesn’t allow deleting or editing posts after a very short window. maybe you know this, and I doubt you’ll face consequences for this confession of “evading state control,” but seems like a worthwhile caveat in context.

Re: Bitcoin Surges Past $7,000 to Extend Record Rally

#283

Post by aw3c2 »

buchanaf wrote: post #121
pbhjpbhj wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's like a pyramid scheme in that so long as people keep buying in on the hope of a profit you'll keep making more and more. As soon as people say "hang on this is a con" and convert to another currency then this factor of the supposed value of Bitcoin could deflate to zero. It's not formalised like a pyramid or MLM scheme but it has some of the same structure.

A pyramid scheme involves some form of active (fraudulent) recruitment to help increase the price of the asset. Bitcoin doesn't have this. From what you described above, every single speculative/overinflated asset would be a pyramid scheme. That's not the case.

> A pyramid scheme involves some form of active (fraudulent) recruitment to help increase the price of the asset. Bitcoin doesn't have this.

Haha, have you ever looked at what Bitcoin owners/speculaters post online?

Re: Bitcoin Surges Past $7,000 to Extend Record Rally

#284

Post by SippinLean »

nickjj wrote: post #35
d__k wrote: post #21

I think the behaviour of Bitcoin price (not the technology) reflects some social phenomenon rather than the real economy. And it is precisely why it is interesting.

Yeah, it's pretty much what happened 500 years ago when people were selling everything they owned (including houses) to buy tulip bulbs[0]. Maybe it's not that bad yet, but it's looking to get that way. Spoiler alert: It ended really badly, but the people who got out early enough did make a lot of money. Plot twist: I did invest in bitcoins back when they were hovering around 2k and sold them for a small profit (~10%…

Someone HAD to get the Tulip comment out of the way, I saw pyramid schemes mentioned above, but did anyone call it a Ponzi in this thread yet?

Re: Bitcoin Surges Past $7,000 to Extend Record Rally

#285

Post by virtuexru »

goldenkey wrote: post #105
brndnmtthws wrote: post #30

To all the naysayers in this thread, I suggest you watch "Banking on Bitcoin" on Netflix, which is a great introduction to Bitcoin. It might change your thinking. Also check out Andreas Antonopoulos' videos on YouTube, which are easy to digest and very informative. Here's the place to start: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1si5ZWLgy0

Naysayers? Does that mean you are a yes sayer? Bitcoin is a question? Seems more like an overpriced valueless commodity controlled in majority by Chinese miners who have ASIC rigs only a couple companies in the world can produce. So its basically centralized even if the protocol isn't. How much stake do you have in Bitcoin? (Technical people can understand what Bitcoin is and yet despise the blatant canvasing by owne…

Yikes, someone sounds bitter.

Re: Bitcoin Surges Past $7,000 to Extend Record Rally

#286

Post by pc86 »

nickjj wrote: post #35
d__k wrote: post #21

I think the behaviour of Bitcoin price (not the technology) reflects some social phenomenon rather than the real economy. And it is precisely why it is interesting.

Yeah, it's pretty much what happened 500 years ago when people were selling everything they owned (including houses) to buy tulip bulbs[0]. Maybe it's not that bad yet, but it's looking to get that way. Spoiler alert: It ended really badly, but the people who got out early enough did make a lot of money. Plot twist: I did invest in bitcoins back when they were hovering around 2k and sold them for a small profit (~10%…

I bought in slightly after you but sold later (in at ~$2.5k, out at ~$4.4k or so for 1 BTC). It's so easy to get caught up in it and think "man, if I had just bought 10x as much and sold now, I'd have so much more!"

I also sold right before that dip to $3k for several weeks, I could have just as easily have lost half my gains.

Re: Bitcoin Surges Past $7,000 to Extend Record Rally

#287

Post by pc86 »

dandare wrote: post #3

I keep seeing my non-it friends boasting on FB how much they profited with Bitcoin this week. I am afraid this bubble will get way much bigger before it bursts.

As soon as the internet marketing types (who have no technical background nor skill) are shilling getting rich info products around BTC, it's time to get out, or at least stop actively buying.

Re: Bitcoin Surges Past $7,000 to Extend Record Rally

#288

Post by mrb »

njarboe wrote: post #266
mrb wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

" It's like a pyramid scheme in that so long as people keep buying in on the hope of a profit " You just described any investment. FX market, stock market, housing, etc. It doesn't make them "pyramid schemes".

Investment used to mean putting up capital to create or own something that, with some work, would return a stream of income. Farmland produces food with the work of farming. A factory produces goods with lots of people working. A mine produces iron or copper with lots of machines and effort. With the financialization of the economy, lots of people are increasing their "wealth" by speculation and skimming a percentage…

By your definition, this still leaves FX trading as a "pyramid scheme". Trading fiat for fiat doesn't "put up capital to create something".

Re: Bitcoin Surges Past $7,000 to Extend Record Rally

#289

Post by deadmetheny »

npongratz wrote: post #113
charlesdm wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it's intended to be a store of value, it's an asset, not a currency. Like property.

I think I do not understand. If I possess a certain amount of currency, is it not my property? And why would it matter what's the "intended" usage of it? Who determines intent? Might every holder of the asset/currency/property (whatever one calls it) have different intentions for it?

Things have meanings in legal terms that are different from conversational terms, you know.

Re: Bitcoin Surges Past $7,000 to Extend Record Rally

#290

Post by madamelic »

vanderreeah wrote: post #76
Slaul wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can, it's confusing but there is Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin Gold, and soon to be another one Bitcoin Segwit2x or some such. Each of these other "versions" of bitcoin were created by a fork. As far as I know, when a fork happens you get an equal number of "new coin" as you have original coin. Seemingly creating value out of nothing.

Ah I missed the different name. Thanks for the clarification. I was thinking of comments I've seen before where people say that if you have 100 bitcoins you'll have a hard time converting them to (e.g.) $700k cash.

You would.

If you put a sell order at 7,000 with a volume of 100, it would (likely) cause a flash crash

You can see flash crashes all the time when someone offloads a bunch of coins without balancing across exchanges.

Plus, you would have to find quite a few people that wanted to buy coins @ 7,000 and finding them before your order causes a flashcrash isn't likely.

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