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Bitcoin breaks above $20k

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Re: Bitcoin breaks above $20k

#291

Post by olalonde »

ur-whale wrote: post #95
olalonde wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's largely a collective delusion, it has value because people believe it has value. Fiat currencies and gold are arguably in that same category.

>Fiat currencies and gold are arguably in that same category. Anything trade-able is in the same category. Things only have value because someone, somewhere is ready to buy it. It's called supply and demand.

To clarify, what I meant was specifically "exchange value". The sole purpose of buying Bitcoin or USD is to exchange it at some later point in time. There are practically no other uses. As opposed to the many trade-able things which can be consumed, used, exploited, etc. Of course it's not black and white. Gold has some intrinsic value but its "intrinsic value demand" (e.g. industrial uses) only accounts for a tiny share of total demand.

Re: Bitcoin breaks above $20k

#293

Post by latchkey »

addaon wrote: post #139
latchkey wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ethereum [sic] is moving to PoS from PoW, but ETH doesn't suffer the same growth issue that BTC does because its hash algo is effectively tied to its hardware. It can run on PoW indefinitely and will likely do so for several more years until PoS is fully ready. There are a few asic's for ETH, but the hash algo is fundamentally executed through memory. Even if you build an asic for ETH, you are always tied to the spee…

> asics cost more to build than a commodity GPU Why would this be true? The R&D costs of a commodity GPU can be amortized across more customers than an ASIC, and the same is somewhat true for capital costs (masks, etc) -- but the manufacturing cost of an ASIC should be at worst the same as a GPU (with one fewer middleman adding a margin on top of those costs), and in general cheaper (since die size can be reduced, or…

Technically, a GPU is an ASIC.

It really boils down to economy of scale. AMD can produce chips (and solutions) at much more scale (and thus far less expensive) than relatively small Innosilicon can. AMD has closer relationships to the fabs.

It also is other factors that go into this. Like the critical memory controller component. AMD owns the patents. AMD can also buy memory chips in larger bulk (and thus less expensive).

Also, the R&D on GPU's is an already amortized cost. They already exist. ASICs have to be engineered from the ground up and do what GPU's already do.

At the end of the day, this is also beneficial because GPU's can be repurposed, while sha256 ASICs are just e-waste every time a new round of smaller nm tech comes out.

Re: Bitcoin breaks above $20k

#294

Post by ordinaryradical »

Aaronstotle wrote: post #45
marta_morena_91 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But it's really not. Bitcoin isn't anything special. If there were any real-world use cases for it (which there don't seem to be), this would have been done long ago or would have been done organically. As it stands, interest in bitcoin was largely null, until people realized that it's a great investment opportunity where everybody can get rich (tulips, anyone?)... The rest is history. Now alt coins were popping up l…

Are you aware that USD is the currency most frequently used for both fraud and crime?

There's a world of difference between "used for" and "designed to facilitate."

For instance, if USD had features designed to make life easier for counterfeiters, money launderers, and other kinds of financial criminals we would probably say that it has been designed for fundamentally the wrong ends.

Re: Bitcoin breaks above $20k

#295

Post by latchkey »

echelon wrote: post #180
latchkey wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ethereum [sic] is moving to PoS from PoW, but ETH doesn't suffer the same growth issue that BTC does because its hash algo is effectively tied to its hardware. It can run on PoW indefinitely and will likely do so for several more years until PoS is fully ready. There are a few asic's for ETH, but the hash algo is fundamentally executed through memory. Even if you build an asic for ETH, you are always tied to the spee…

Is Ethereum going to be worth more than Bitcoin (market cap) when people realize how technologically superior it is?

If I could predict the future, I'd be rich already! =)

Re: Bitcoin breaks above $20k

#296

Post by webinvest »

arithma wrote: post #87

Just a question, isn't all criticism against bitcoin applicable to gold? Money/Currency/Value in general can't be reduced or derived from first principles. You always have to take into account human nature, economic activity, and most unfortunately: psychology. So all criticism about how bitcoin inherently being pointless, sounds like off-tune. I want good reasons to/NOT-to buy in. First-world country citizens kind o…

Gold doesn’t become more expensive to transport as the price goes up.

Re: Bitcoin breaks above $20k

#297

Post by rhacker »

Pump and dump by some trillion dollar colluding whales. They're hoping people start going "huh- this might be my last chance to get in because there's probably NOT going to be a crash this time"

It's the largest vacuum cleaner in the world.

Re: Bitcoin breaks above $20k

#299

Post by agent008t »

nostrademons wrote: post #228
_sm6n wrote: post #94

It's kinda sad that the pricing or market capitalization is the only thing that is being talked about in the "cryptocurrency community", instead of focussing on how the technology can be useful for society. Like for example if you look at /r/Bitcoin, there's a sidebar with "Submit text/link NOT about price", yet virtually every post is about price, even if just indirectly (Paypal joins the cryptocurrency bandwagon an…

I think this is representative of a bigger problem within the developed world: the top problem on many people's mind is "Other people have money and I don't." This manifests in a lot of other areas as well: stock market speculation, people asking for government handouts, folks looking for get-rich-quick startup ideas, glorification of the "side hustle", etc. And I think the root cause of that is that productivity gro…

This makes me wonder. What is the optimal size of the population for a given country/territory/planet?

That is, the size of the population at which the welfare/wealth of the median individual is maximized.

Given that, as you say, prime land, prime housing, prime infrastructure, prime tourist destinations don't easily scale, yet more people enable better technologies/more efficient production of other consumer goods and services.

Have too few people (in the extreme - a dozen), and you cannot have many nice things - not enough people to create nice art, build houses and cars and computers. Have too many (in the extreme - 100 billion), and there is too much competition for the same houses and tourist spots and what not.

Re: Bitcoin breaks above $20k

#300

Post by staplers »

Imnimo wrote: post #151
_hdap wrote: post #15

I am NOT a fan of Bitcoin, but... Watch a real-time visualization of the global Bitcoin transaction flow, as it is happening right now: https://dailyblockchain.github.io/ Each square is a bitcoin address (like a cryptographic public key) Each graph component is a transaction. The components appear as transactions are broadcast into the bitcoin P2P network (but before they are verified and committed to the blockchain)…

I notice that some rando on github can make a chart of my financial transactions since they're all public.

Banks already sell that to advertisers and whoever is willing to pay.
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