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The Cryptocurrency Industry Is 'On the Brink of an Implosion', Research Says

bloomberg.com

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Re: The Cryptocurrency Industry Is 'On the Brink of an Implosion', Research Says

#61

Post by LyndsySimon »

bluedevil2k wrote: post #26

Is there even any reason the world needs more than 1 cryptocurrency? I know there are dozens (hundreds?), but they all effectively do the same thing, right? Allow decentralized currency that can be used for legal and illegal transactions.

There are some goals that are mutually exclusive. or instance: a government might issue a cryptocurrency and require that their authority maintain the ability to issue new coins at their direction; another cryptocurrency (like Bitcoin) has "no centralized issuing authority" as a core design decision.

The vast majority of existing cryptocurrencies are just copies of others, or just sit atop Ethereum. Those will certainly end up being worthless or nearly so. That doesn't require that all future cryptocurrencies will necessarily meet the same fate.

Re: The Cryptocurrency Industry Is 'On the Brink of an Implosion', Research Says

#62

Post by s73v3r_ »

superkuh wrote: post #56
mancerayder wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The implication now is that there'd be no standing armies or other, as you say, tools of power? Do you believe this?

Not sure where you are going with this, but yeah, Bitcoin does not have a standing army. It secures itself from attack by proof of work.

Ok, cool. How does that secure the rest of us?

Re: The Cryptocurrency Industry Is 'On the Brink of an Implosion', Research Says

#63

Post by knicholes »

pvaldes wrote: post #58
coliveira wrote: post #24

Bitcoin and similars are the biggest waste of computing power and energy in the history of the planet. It will be nice for the environment when this is all over.

> the biggest waste of computing power and energy in the history of the planet If we except the tetris, or minesweeper...

Unless you consider its possible therapeutic effects: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/playing-tetris-cou...

Re: The Cryptocurrency Industry Is 'On the Brink of an Implosion', Research Says

#64

Post by atomical »

ramblerouser wrote: post #54
atomical wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Unfortunately Bloomberg as a whole doesn't know anything about cryptocurrency beyond the speculation side which is similar to their existing competencies. But that's all they see. They don't know anything? Even though they partnered with Mike Novogratz to create an index? https://www.bloomberg.com/professional/product/indices/bloom...

I agree Bloomberg knows a lot about it, but the financial industry as a whole would rather Bitcoin die because its a threat to their banking monopoly. Go read the Satoshi whitepaper. The recent buy-in from bloomberg and Goldman et al is just a "cant beat 'em, join 'em" strategy.

You are saying that they are only in it for the money, but they also want it to fail spectacularly. It doesn't make sense and works against their interest.

Re: The Cryptocurrency Industry Is 'On the Brink of an Implosion', Research Says

#65

Post by LyndsySimon »

liftbigweights wrote: post #49

Two anti-crypto stories on the same day? "Blockchain isn't about democracy and decentralisation – it's about greed " https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18219256 I'm not a fan of cryptos, but it's fascinating how so much of the media ( even in different countries ) push the same narrative in almost a coordinated fashion.

I'm a somewhat early adopter of Bitcoin, and believe in its long-term utility. Even so, I've been bearish for some time due to the influx of people who are buying coins or nothing more than speculation. I don't think that's "bad" per se, but it's not a sustainable means of growth.

I'm seeing more an more of these "the end is near" articles popping up. After witnessing a half dozen or so boom/bust cycle firsthand, my spidey sense is beginning to tingle that we're about to enter another one. After ten months of decreasing volatility and regression toward a mean price of $6,500 +/- 5%, I'm expecting a run-up any day now. It may not be another "to the moon!" run, but it'll happen. When it does, the new value will stabilize higher than it is right now.

Re: The Cryptocurrency Industry Is 'On the Brink of an Implosion', Research Says

#66

Post by Mithorium »

celticninja wrote: post #29
decentralised wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I saw a couple of comments today about the price of USDT so I think it's worth while explaining how it works just in case anyone is interested in knowing more. USDT is a pegged-currency. It's often described as a stablecoin but that's not correct because it doesn't have an inbuilt stabilisation mechanism unlike Maker's DAI for instance. The way it works is purely based on well known legal mechanisms that have no cryp…

Do you know if any tethers have ever been destroyed? I have not seen it confirmed that this has occurred and if people were withdrawing to the dollar via USDT I would expect there to have been destructions.

No tether has ever been destroyed. While tether in its terms maintains that Tethers are redeemable "provided that you are a fully verified customer of Tether" [1], there is no known case of this ever happening, in fact it is a running joke that the tether signup page [2] is permanently suspended. Nor does anyone know who is buying them (and causing their creation). For example, when $250m of them were printed in june [3], which customer was it that deposited $250m USD? Or did they print them out of thin air? Nobody knows for sure.

But if they are in fact backed 1:1 with USDs, then it raises the question: if the tether peg is slipping below $1, why doesn't Tether or one of these alleged "verified customers" buy them up at a discount, redeem and destroy them for USD, and bank the difference?

The answer to this question is left as an exercise for the reader.

[1] https://tether.to/legal/

[2] https://wallet.tether.to/app/#!/signup

[3] https://omniexplorer.info/tx/bd9520b9aea701e9606ad8a8f4d6852...

Re: The Cryptocurrency Industry Is 'On the Brink of an Implosion', Research Says

#67

Post by atomical »

superkuh wrote: post #42
atomical wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Unfortunately Bloomberg as a whole doesn't know anything about cryptocurrency beyond the speculation side which is similar to their existing competencies. But that's all they see. They don't know anything? Even though they partnered with Mike Novogratz to create an index? https://www.bloomberg.com/professional/product/indices/bloom...

I never said they don't know anything about finance or speculation markets. But if you (and they) think that's all cryptocurrency is then you're missing 90% of what's up. Bloomberg keeps trying to predict crypto's behavior based entirely on the most traditional looking speculation markets. Speculation markets aren't really a part of cryptocurency at all (they aren't on the blockchain(s)) but they are the only part of…

I'm sure Bloomberg has a huge archive of speculative articles on stocks.

Why are blockchain advocates so emotional? They should understand these articles because speculation is a core feature of the ICO boom and cryptocurrency in general.

Re: The Cryptocurrency Industry Is 'On the Brink of an Implosion', Research Says

#69

Post by LyndsySimon »

LyndsySimon wrote: post #65
liftbigweights wrote: post #49

Two anti-crypto stories on the same day? "Blockchain isn't about democracy and decentralisation – it's about greed " https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18219256 I'm not a fan of cryptos, but it's fascinating how so much of the media ( even in different countries ) push the same narrative in almost a coordinated fashion.

I'm a somewhat early adopter of Bitcoin, and believe in its long-term utility. Even so, I've been bearish for some time due to the influx of people who are buying coins or nothing more than speculation. I don't think that's "bad" per se, but it's not a sustainable means of growth. I'm seeing more an more of these "the end is near" articles popping up. After witnessing a half dozen or so boom/bust cycle firsthand, my…

Ha! After writing this comment, I checked the price history for the first time in a month or two. There was a spike in price and volume about 12 hours ago, that at first glance appears to be the largest in six months or so.

Re: The Cryptocurrency Industry Is 'On the Brink of an Implosion', Research Says

#70

Post by mopeloi »

School-Cotton wrote: post #57
Scoundreller wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Iunno, if i were a billionaire, the idea of having $50m under nobody’s control but my own that I can take anywhere, anytime, doesn’t exist anywhere else. I can’t do that with gold. Bank deposits are always available until they aren’t. But Coinbase can’t do this either.

Edit: I calculated this wrong, please ignore this comment

unless you have to cross a border with it?
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