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Bitcoin Tumbles as PBOC Declares Initial Coin Offerings Illegal

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Re: Bitcoin Tumbles as PBOC Declares Initial Coin Offerings Illegal

#51

Post by CryptoPunk »

fastball wrote: post #50
CryptoPunk wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>Aren't ICOs more of an altcoin phenomenon? ICOs are an Ethereum phenomenon. Ethereum isn't a fork of Bitcoin's codebase and thus isn't an altcoin.

Altcoin hasn't referred to Bitcoin forks in years.

I've seen the term fall out of usage. Years ago, when Bitcoin made up 90% of the cryptocurrency market cap, and nearly every other cryptocurrency was a fork of Bitcoin, with a name that was some variation of *coin (e.g. Litecoin, Peercoin, Dogecoin, Novacoin, BBQcoin) it made sense. Not so much now anymore, with Bitcoin's market cap under 50%, and original projects being its major competitors.

Re: Bitcoin Tumbles as PBOC Declares Initial Coin Offerings Illegal

#52

Post by Taek »

modeless wrote: post #41
Lerc wrote: post #17

Aren't ICOs more of an altcoin phenomenon? How does this impact upon Bitcoin? To me It looked like Bitcoin just bounced off a psychological ceiling at 5000USD. It has done this with various round number levels in the past. It makes a bit of sense if you consider people are inclined to think something like "I'll sell when it reaches $5000" There also seems to be a tendancy to use evocative language (collapse,tumble,co…

People don't buy and sell ICO tokens with fiat, they do it with bitcoins. If a bunch of people want to sell their ICO tokens for fiat, they first end up with a bunch of bitcoins, and then they need to sell bitcoins for fiat. This pushes the price of bitcoins in fiat down. It's a temporary phenomenon, but the price going down can make the price fall farther, because there are a bunch of amateur traders who think it's…

Most ICOs actually trade Etherum, Bitcoin plays a role but it's usually secondary.

Re: Bitcoin Tumbles as PBOC Declares Initial Coin Offerings Illegal

#53

Post by Taek »

hnaparst wrote: post #45

In 2013, China's government declared Bitcoin to be illegal, and Bitcoin crashed from $1,200 to $425. I figured that it would be impossible for Bitcoin to succeed if China outlawed it, so I sold my Bitcoins at $425. I think I was the low trade. Now Bitcoin is at more than ten times that level. Let that story inform your decision making now.

Low trade was $220, and I think that price was late 2015. There was plenty of time to get back in.

Re: Bitcoin Tumbles as PBOC Declares Initial Coin Offerings Illegal

#54

Post by bduerst »

maxerickson wrote: post #42
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not disagreeing with that: Bitcoin isn't a sneaky way of doing forex unless the RMB used to buy bitcoin is being converted into dollars (or another convertible currency), which most definitely is cared about.

Mining operations can convert Chinese electricity into bitcoin. So use RMB to purchase electricity for mining bitcoin, convert mined bitcoin to currency outside of China (or sell for RMB to someone that wants to do that and use RMB to buy electricity to mine more bitcoin).

Aren't the bitcoin miners in China siphoning electricity off the grid for free?

Re: Bitcoin Tumbles as PBOC Declares Initial Coin Offerings Illegal

#55

Post by subru »

kobeya wrote: post #49
subru wrote: post #44

BTC has never-before seen volatility, biggest bubble of all time. If bagholders are all aboard, prepare for a dip below 2k for a swing. The market is very orderly (which is why I was able to predict both the price and time of peak, see my other account) using tech analysis only. Therefore there is sufficient evidence of a balanced disparity between insiders (brought to you by GS and company) and the uninformed. For t…

> BTC has never before seen volatility Hah!

Sorry bro on my phone didn't proofread. I have since edited the post and added the missing –.

Re: Bitcoin Tumbles as PBOC Declares Initial Coin Offerings Illegal

#56

Post by atomical »

Taek wrote: post #52
modeless wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People don't buy and sell ICO tokens with fiat, they do it with bitcoins. If a bunch of people want to sell their ICO tokens for fiat, they first end up with a bunch of bitcoins, and then they need to sell bitcoins for fiat. This pushes the price of bitcoins in fiat down. It's a temporary phenomenon, but the price going down can make the price fall farther, because there are a bunch of amateur traders who think it's…

Most ICOs actually trade Etherum, Bitcoin plays a role but it's usually secondary.

Are you sure that's the case for non-US crypto startups? Also, there are some ERC20 tokens that have better liquidity with the BTC pairing.

Re: Bitcoin Tumbles as PBOC Declares Initial Coin Offerings Illegal

#57

Post by atomical »

kobeya wrote: post #48
CryptoPunk wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>Aren't ICOs more of an altcoin phenomenon? ICOs are an Ethereum phenomenon. Ethereum isn't a fork of Bitcoin's codebase and thus isn't an altcoin.

It is an alternative coin. Hence "altcoin."

I think of blockchain currency as coins and currency issued by a blockchain as tokens (i.e. ERC20).

Re: Bitcoin Tumbles as PBOC Declares Initial Coin Offerings Illegal

#58

Post by atomical »

narrator wrote: post #33
cerved wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If your using btc to launder money you're likely converting it to other stable currencies

Except if they leave the money in bitcoin they don't have to explain where they got it. If they turn it into a foreign currency they have to tell a bank where it came from. Come to think of it, that's probably where all the ICO demand is coming from. These guys have money stuck in crypto and are desperately looking for a way to invest it.

Exactly. The bitcoin millionaires have a lot of unrealized gains. That's where the term whale comes from.

Re: Bitcoin Tumbles as PBOC Declares Initial Coin Offerings Illegal

#59

Post by prawn »

sgtnasty wrote: post #39
Lerc wrote: post #17

Aren't ICOs more of an altcoin phenomenon? How does this impact upon Bitcoin? To me It looked like Bitcoin just bounced off a psychological ceiling at 5000USD. It has done this with various round number levels in the past. It makes a bit of sense if you consider people are inclined to think something like "I'll sell when it reaches $5000" There also seems to be a tendancy to use evocative language (collapse,tumble,co…

What is an ICO?

Initial Coin Offering. An unregulated fundraising method.

Re: Bitcoin Tumbles as PBOC Declares Initial Coin Offerings Illegal

#60

Post by DennisP »

atomical wrote: post #56
Taek wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most ICOs actually trade Etherum, Bitcoin plays a role but it's usually secondary.

Are you sure that's the case for non-US crypto startups? Also, there are some ERC20 tokens that have better liquidity with the BTC pairing.

It's true of almost all ICOs launching ERC20 tokens because on Ethereum you can write code that automatically turns your ETH into ERC20 tokens. A couple pages of code and it all just happens on the blockchain by itself.

If you take bitcoin contributions, you need something offchain to track who contributed what, and issue a bunch of minting transactions.

Some ICOs do that, but if it's ERC20 that's generally in addition to automated minting via smart contract, and since the token and ICO are running on the Ethereum blockchain it's predominantly ETH that gets contributed.

Liquidity on exchanges later doesn't have much to do with any of that.

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