Bitcoin is dead
Bitcoin has made a new all-time high price
291–300 of 343 posts
Re: Bitcoin has made a new all-time high price
#292So I suppose people must use it all the time to buy goods and services. Right?
I don't know about you, but I routinely pay for groceries with crypto. I just ask the checker for the store's wallet address and preferred currency. Sometimes we have to negotiate about which currency I use that they also use, but this is a detail that only takes 5-10min. Once we agree on a proper currency, I pull out my 2FA dongle to auth my phone wallet app, scan their QR code, check the address twice and click sen…
Can you provide the name and location of this grocery store? Or any grocery store that accepts btc?
I've never encountered ONE single grocery store, or store for that matter, that accepts bitcoin as payment.
Re: Bitcoin has made a new all-time high price
#293Note that it hit a new all-time high last night, but it's been in the ~$70ks since last March. The election results may have pushed it over the top, but it's been way up for a while. The people who predicted it would collapse appear to have been wrong, and the people who predicted it would come back appear to be right. My own position was that it's so volatile that it will always be a roller coaster, which is why I d…
It cannot even get to $100k despite endless predictions over the past 5+ years it would. Each cycle is getting subsequently smaller. If anything, it's reached the final stage in which the supply of new buyers to prop up the price, let alone new highs, is exhausted.
I suspect it's going to become increasingly normalized for people to put some fraction of their retirement accounts (perhaps 3% - 10%) into crypto, now that there are ETFs. I'm not saying the supply of new money won't eventually get exhausted, but there's still a ton of untapped boomer wealth out there that has yet to flow in.
Re: Bitcoin has made a new all-time high price
#294Earlier quoted context omitted.
Speculators buying from speculators and hoping today isn't the day the hot potato explodes.
The hot potato has gone 5000+ days without exploding and seems fairly non explosive.
The hot potato can remain non-explosive longer than you can remain armored.
Re: Bitcoin has made a new all-time high price
#295Earlier quoted context omitted.
I said _mathematical properties_ have no economic value.
Most paper money intrinsically has no value at all, even the paper it is printed on can't be used as toilet paper due to its lack of softness. It is only a medium of labor exchange. For me, Bitcoin is exactly the same, but in a very new form, backed by math instead of a government.
You're quite right that neither fiat money nor bitcoin have intrinsic value, though they both have exchange value (i.e. market value). This means there must be a demand that prevents the market value from falling to zero. In the case of fiat currency, the public demands fiat currency for transaction purposes and to pay taxes. In the case of bitcoin, the demand for transaction purposes is anecdotal, almost nonexistent. So the demand for bitcoin is almost entirely speculative. (There's no other possibility as far as I know, given no intrinsic value.) In other words, people demand bitcoin because they expect that the price of bitcoin will go up. Such a demand can be sustained as long as people continue to have the same expectations. When (or if) these expectations change, the demand can evaporate quite quickly, and the price will collapse dramatically as a result. So bitcoin is not backed by math. It's backed by a speculative demand.
Re: Bitcoin has made a new all-time high price
#296Earlier quoted context omitted.
Most paper money intrinsically has no value at all, even the paper it is printed on can't be used as toilet paper due to its lack of softness. It is only a medium of labor exchange. For me, Bitcoin is exactly the same, but in a very new form, backed by math instead of a government.
You're quite right that neither fiat money nor bitcoin have intrinsic value, though they both have exchange value (i.e. market value). This means there must be a demand that prevents the market value from falling to zero. In the case of fiat currency, the public demands fiat currency for transaction purposes and to pay taxes. In the case of bitcoin, the demand for transaction purposes is anecdotal, almost nonexistent…
Yes, but even speculative demand consists of many levels of speculation. For example, I speculate (based on history) that the world will always consist of corrupt governments printing money like crazy, so "digital gold" will be much better for their citizens than what they have to offer. How reasonable is my speculation? Other people speculate that Bitcoin will double in value, while others speculate it will increase tenfold. I believe their speculation has less merit than mine (at least, that's how I see it). I also speculate that a programmable, permissionless money system, similar to SWIFT, is a very interesting idea that opens up many research avenues and there is some non zero value in it. Another example: How many gatekeepers do you think someone in a poor country has to pass through to transfer dollars internationally using their bank account? You really think there is no value in avoiding all those proxies that charge you high fees? So yes, there is a pyramid of speculations, but some of those speculations are much more reasonable than others.
Re: Bitcoin has made a new all-time high price
#297Earlier quoted context omitted.
I know you are being snarky, but i think its worth pointing out that ever increasing prices is bad for a medium of exchange not good. The higher prices decreases the liklihood of it being used like a currency.
by that logic people would not buy TVs or memory cards
My logic is not that people won't but memory cards, but that they won't replace usd as a medium of exchange.
As far as i am aware nobody uses memory cards as a medium of exchange so looks like my logic holds.
Re: Bitcoin has made a new all-time high price
#298Earlier quoted context omitted.
What's the scenario where the government can take the digital money from your bank accounts but can't take the digital money from your crypto wallet?
Government cannot take money from a crypto wallet because of cryptography. They could only do it if they compelled you to hand over your secret keys against your will. They also may not even know you have a crypto wallet since it is not registered in your name and is very easy to hide. On the other hand, government can sieze funds from your bank account by seeking a court order or whatever legal instrument is needed…
What they can do is (in England & Wales, for example) is to impose a confiscation order on you so when you do end up liquidating your easily traceable crypto current, they will simply come after those assets.
Re: Bitcoin has made a new all-time high price
#299Earlier quoted context omitted.
You're quite right that neither fiat money nor bitcoin have intrinsic value, though they both have exchange value (i.e. market value). This means there must be a demand that prevents the market value from falling to zero. In the case of fiat currency, the public demands fiat currency for transaction purposes and to pay taxes. In the case of bitcoin, the demand for transaction purposes is anecdotal, almost nonexistent…
Yes, but even speculative demand consists of many levels of speculation. For example, I speculate (based on history) that the world will always consist of corrupt governments printing money like crazy, so "digital gold" will be much better for their citizens than what they have to offer. How reasonable is my speculation? Other people speculate that Bitcoin will double in value, while others speculate it will increase…
Speculation is always based on future price expectations. Whether such expectations are justified is a matter of debate of course. Personally I don't find any of the rationales convincing, quite the opposite. But, look, we already have examples of irrational behaviour such as in the case of lotteries. In principle, no rational person should buy a lottery ticket, since the expected value of a lottery ticket is negative. Yet many people buy lottery tickets. The world is full of gullible people who are willing to believe that they can get rich for free.
Re: Bitcoin has made a new all-time high price
#300Anybody have a reliable, up-to-date pc build guide, for a full node? I find very fragmented information everywhere. I get that "most pc's can run Bitcoin core" but I'd like some more detailed information.
Any computer will do (eg. Raspberry Pi), but I think you'll need an SSD drive or the initial sync will take ages. It's possible to move it onto spinning disk after sync, and keep it up to date. Umbrel ( https://umbrel.com ) is an easy way to run a bitcoin node, along with other software you might want on your home network.
This [0] seems to indicate that you can get away a hdd.
[0] https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1gito9r/how_long_i...