Litecoin and Ethereum buys and sells are temporarily disabled • Hacker News Board

Re: Litecoin and Ethereum buys and sells are temporarily disabled

#381

Post by baby » Wed, Dec 13, 2017, 12:13 AM UTC

lucaspiller wrote: post #290

xutopia wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Today I went to one bank to transfer 60k from one account to an account in a different bank. I paid 7.50$ to get a certified check from Bank A. Went to the Bank B near my house to deposit it there. Unfortunately the branch near my house isn't where my account is. They tried faxing a photocopy of my certified check to the other branch but the line was busy. They're going to continue trying until 3pm today when they cl…

Also I agree banks in the US really need to modernise their procedures, I don’t really see how this is an argument for cryptocurrncy. Here in Europe I can make a payment to any other EUR bank account in Europe, for free and it’ll usually arrive the same or next day. All I need is the recipients bank account number, and to enter that and the amount on my online banking - I don’t need to go and see anyone or fax anythi…

Here in the UK it's instantaneous, oh and my bank also supports litecoin, bitcoin and ethereum (Revolut bank).

Re: Litecoin and Ethereum buys and sells are temporarily disabled

#382

Post by lysp » Wed, Dec 13, 2017, 12:17 AM UTC

AznHisoka wrote: post #185

scurvy wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sell half after it doubles, then hold the rest until you need the money. Selling half returns your initial investment; what remains is pure profit and you can't lose money.

I think this is easier said than done. You most likely need to wait until it's close to 3 X the value you bought it because you'll need to pay short-term taxes after you sell it. And once that happens, why sell half of it, vs all of it? 3 times the current value is a LOT of money and that usually takes at least 8-10 years in the equity market. Now that it happens, you're cashing out just to recoup your costs? Cash ou…

It's a standard share trade strategy.

The net cost is 0 - cash in = cash out. And taxation is zero because your profit is (at the time) 0.

It also means you can do something else with your original investment.

If it goes up 100x - cash out whenever. If it goes down to 0 - you have lost nothing at all apart from some time.

Re: Litecoin and Ethereum buys and sells are temporarily disabled

#383

Post by charlesdm » Wed, Dec 13, 2017, 12:18 AM UTC

amscanne wrote: post #361

charlesdm wrote: post #347

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe not yet as of today, but they're coming. I have a friend (wealthy family with a substantial family office) who bought into crypto at the beginning of last year. His dad runs quite a large traditional investment fund and knows of people in his network working at pension funds that are looking at putting money into Bitcoin / Ethereum and others. The family has done private equity deals together with some of these…

Wow, pension funds should not be doing currency speculation. That's bad. The problem with crypto-_currency_ is that it's not a productive asset. A share of a business pays dividends over time and thus has intrinsic value (and _some_ speculative value), while a currency does not. A currency transaction is a zero-sum game, which is good because it minimizes friction. Buying cryptocurrency with the expectation of increa…

Crypto has been one of the better performing asset classes in the last 5 years. That is just a fact -- if looking in percentage terms.

Pension funds generally allocate up to 5% of their portfolio to alternatives, which could be smaller funds investing in art, watches, music royalty rights, farmland, wine, and the likes. This also includes crypto.

If you're an investment manager, it isn't necessarily crazy to allocate 0.2 or 0.5% of your portfolio to crypto and try to capture some of those gains.

Re: Litecoin and Ethereum buys and sells are temporarily disabled

#384

Post by junk_f00d » Wed, Dec 13, 2017, 12:26 AM UTC

ryanwaggoner wrote: post #331

junk_f00d wrote: post #323

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Which ones? ChainLink, as this project is aiming to incorporate outside data into the blockchain and smart contracts. This has plenty of real world use cases. This could be what the internet is to a computer, but for blockchain. Zen Protocol is also working on a similar idea, but they incorporate smart contracts into their project and have improved upon ETH's model a bit (not charging gas for failed contracts to nam…

I appreciate you sharing all this (genuinely), but you missed my point, which is that most of these will fade away. Having cool tech isn't enough. Personally, I don't see cryptocurrency ever going back to $0, the technology is better than existing models of centralized banking and middle men. Unless something comes along that disrupts the disruptor, I think it's here to stay for the forseeable future. I agree, but no…

I understand your point of the likelihood of it fading away, but the tech's always being taken more and more serious on an industry level and becomes more robust after every crash. Many of these solve unique problems, even if the majority of the market leaves and cashes out, blockchain still needs oracles (ChainLink), and there is still demand for the others I listed (currency agnostic low fee payment platforms, decentralized lending for 3rd worlders, faster transaction times, etc etc).

Maybe I'm biased because I place more of my portfolio on these, but I have witnessed lot of these alts becoming more and more established everyday and predict this trend continue if industry adoption continues at it's current rate (and there is economic incentive for it to do so).

Re: Litecoin and Ethereum buys and sells are temporarily disabled

#385

Post by zerostar07 » Wed, Dec 13, 2017, 12:27 AM UTC

This means that people are investing small amounts and going for the cheaper coins using coinbase. which means that cryptocurrencies may be having their facebook moment at this time , and their network effect is about to get a LOT bigger over the next months. While people may only invest small amounts (and coinbase can and should make sure they do), cryptocurrencies will come out of this extremely strengthened if a significant number of people end up owning even a small amount of any coin. Unlike tulips which wither, these people are not likely to sell their bitcoins even if there is a correction. A world scale network of people owning coins can be a giant leap for the world economy, as coins are much more resistant to censorship than the internet itself proved to be, and unless a new kind of gold is discovered , they may prove to be a much better, easier to transfer store of value. This bubble may never burst. All of this is speculation (of course) - I wish coinbase (which seems to carry the bulk of the wave of newcomers) would release statistics about their number of users.

Re: Litecoin and Ethereum buys and sells are temporarily disabled

#386

Post by saryant » Wed, Dec 13, 2017, 12:27 AM UTC

patmcc wrote: post #373

seibelj wrote: post #366

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have heard many anecdotes about finance money coming in. We are witnessing it. Also, rich Saudis are scared shitless about losing their wealth when political winds change. They put their money into crypto and it's much, much harder to take it from them, provided they own the private key. This is the best mechanism of wealth storage yet created, provided the value holds, which as more around the globe believe in, it…

>>>They put their money into crypto and it's much, much harder to take it from them, provided they own the private key. That's not exactly trivial - how do you store a private key in such a way that it's safe, accessible to you and only you, cannot be destroyed by your enemies, and can be passed on to your heirs upon your death?

Judging by the lifestyle of the playboy branch of the Bin Laden family[1], probably stick it in a safe deposit box at a bank in NYC or London.

[1] yes, there's such a thing: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2211931.The_Bin_Ladens

Re: Litecoin and Ethereum buys and sells are temporarily disabled

#387

Post by bllguo » Wed, Dec 13, 2017, 12:27 AM UTC

djtriptych wrote: post #264

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.

No it’s not. There are pockets, but virtually all of the innovation in Africa is happening in Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria, and South Africa. That’s a small slice of an enormous continent.

Sure, I will concede that. Africa as a whole is not ahead. But there is financial innovation there to a degree that surprises a lot of people in the West - just meant to spread awareness of this

Re: Litecoin and Ethereum buys and sells are temporarily disabled

#388

Post by junk_f00d » Wed, Dec 13, 2017, 12:33 AM UTC

garybro wrote: post #303

I've made about $110k profit this year in crypto on a $21k investment earlier this year, and I think this is all a giant bubble. I was at my parents' house for Thanksgiving and a commercial with Ron Paul talking about Bitcoin came on, which coincided with around the time it went to $10k, and it hit me really hard that this isn't going to last forever (and probably will hurt sooner rather than later). I liquidated eve…

Do you feel all crypto projects are included in the bubble you described?

Personally, I think many are extremely overbought (BTC, LTC, ETH, etc) but can't help but feel that those with real utility and industry value are (relatively) undervalued.

Re: Litecoin and Ethereum buys and sells are temporarily disabled

#389

Post by AznHisoka » Wed, Dec 13, 2017, 12:36 AM UTC

lysp wrote: post #382

AznHisoka wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this is easier said than done. You most likely need to wait until it's close to 3 X the value you bought it because you'll need to pay short-term taxes after you sell it. And once that happens, why sell half of it, vs all of it? 3 times the current value is a LOT of money and that usually takes at least 8-10 years in the equity market. Now that it happens, you're cashing out just to recoup your costs? Cash ou…

It's a standard share trade strategy. The net cost is 0 - cash in = cash out. And taxation is zero because your profit is (at the time) 0. It also means you can do something else with your original investment. If it goes up 100x - cash out whenever. If it goes down to 0 - you have lost nothing at all apart from some time.

why is your profit 0?

you buy 2 at $5k it goes up to 10k and sell 1.

profit is current value - cost basis

10k - 5k = 5k profit that will be taxed

Re: Litecoin and Ethereum buys and sells are temporarily disabled

#390

Post by btilly » Wed, Dec 13, 2017, 12:36 AM UTC

patmcc wrote: post #373

seibelj wrote: post #366

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have heard many anecdotes about finance money coming in. We are witnessing it. Also, rich Saudis are scared shitless about losing their wealth when political winds change. They put their money into crypto and it's much, much harder to take it from them, provided they own the private key. This is the best mechanism of wealth storage yet created, provided the value holds, which as more around the globe believe in, it…

>>>They put their money into crypto and it's much, much harder to take it from them, provided they own the private key. That's not exactly trivial - how do you store a private key in such a way that it's safe, accessible to you and only you, cannot be destroyed by your enemies, and can be passed on to your heirs upon your death?

Use Shamir Secret Sharing.

If you have enough trusted friends, that should work.