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What's Happening with Bitcoin Prices

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Re: What's Happening with Bitcoin Prices

#71

Post by kristopolous »

spelunker wrote: post #63
kristopolous wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not claiming any of them are. On the contrary, I'm saying there's a risk that some of them could be partially operating like this and if they were, you wouldn't be able to tell. This is high risk. No kidding.

I guess. They could also be inventing the buy side entirely and just taking people's money. They also could be Nigerian princes who just really need my SSN to access their family inheritance. I still don't think selling "taking a few days" necessarily is evidence that there is a ponzi scheme going on, though. When I sell equities in my Schwab account, it takes two days to access the cash. I'm pretty certain Schwab is…

The idea is unlike having coins in a personal wallet, on an exchange you effectively just have a claim card placed with a central authority. It's put trust and centralization back into the system.

The claim card only needs to be satisfied when claims are made. Detaching the claim from the asset and then reattaching when claims are made IS how the exchanges work fundamentally.

Having 100% of the liabilities here is certainly possible but if you had only 20% of them, there'd be effectively no difference unless there's a market panic.

And when/if that happens, I bet that not all 124 or so exchanges have 100% of their liabilities on hand at the same time as the panic.

Re: What's Happening with Bitcoin Prices

#72

Post by 59nadir »

indubitable wrote: post #51
59nadir wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty much all of the money in Bitcoin was dumb from the get-go. These weren't economists figuring out that something was under-valued or the system could be gamed. It was people gambling back then and that's what's continuing to happen. Like you, I noticed an increasing amount of fairly oblivious people talking about Bitcoin a while ago in our office and that's the most certain marker of an impending crash, but in…

I think there's major inherent value in Bitcoin. Or at least was. I enjoy traveling and it's quite the pain with traditional banking. It ranges from the small things like facing account locks (even after informing the bank you'll be traveling) which take days to clear up, to getting absolutely gouged on access to your money. If you want quick access to your own money then you'll be facing artificially weakened exchan…

I think there is major inherent value in a decentralized currency and I think the technology is neat. There will be more practical value in Bitcoin after the crash when the speculative value has stopped being a factor.

Re: What's Happening with Bitcoin Prices

#73

Post by 59nadir »

snappyTertle wrote: post #49
59nadir wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty much all of the money in Bitcoin was dumb from the get-go. These weren't economists figuring out that something was under-valued or the system could be gamed. It was people gambling back then and that's what's continuing to happen. Like you, I noticed an increasing amount of fairly oblivious people talking about Bitcoin a while ago in our office and that's the most certain marker of an impending crash, but in…

What would you value a technology that aims to separate money and state? Does it have no value?

It has practical value once it's crashed and a real, stable monetary value can be established. A currency you shouldn't be spending because it can double in value in the next week is not a practically valuable currency. There are great ideas in blockchains and the whole decentralized financial system, but the current situation is not practical. It's useful only for its speculative qualities.

Re: What's Happening with Bitcoin Prices

#74

Post by 59nadir »

gt_ wrote: post #53
59nadir wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty much all of the money in Bitcoin was dumb from the get-go. These weren't economists figuring out that something was under-valued or the system could be gamed. It was people gambling back then and that's what's continuing to happen. Like you, I noticed an increasing amount of fairly oblivious people talking about Bitcoin a while ago in our office and that's the most certain marker of an impending crash, but in…

I don’t exactly disagree. But, until recently, the people I knew who were investing were techies with political bents. They appreciated the technology, wanted to support it, and invested small amounts that they could afford to lose. Would call this ‘dumb money?’ ...this changed over the summer/fall, of course.

Supporting something because you like the idea of it is not smart, no. It's honorable and a great thing to do, but in terms of investments it's certainly not smart. I didn't mean "dumb money" as in all the people who invested in Bitcoin are dumb, but rather that these were not well thought out investments with sound rationales.

Re: What's Happening with Bitcoin Prices

#75

Post by gt_ »

thisisit wrote: post #55
gt_ wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting. What happens if, say, Bitfinex runs out?

Runs out of what? If you mean Tether. They can keep doing "grant token" as long as they want. I will be publishing a blog on the market schemes of different token soon as there seem to be a lot of hype.

The difference between “new coin” and “grant token” is eluding me here.

Re: What's Happening with Bitcoin Prices

#78

Post by gt_ »

59nadir wrote: post #74
gt_ wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t exactly disagree. But, until recently, the people I knew who were investing were techies with political bents. They appreciated the technology, wanted to support it, and invested small amounts that they could afford to lose. Would call this ‘dumb money?’ ...this changed over the summer/fall, of course.

Supporting something because you like the idea of it is not smart, no. It's honorable and a great thing to do, but in terms of investments it's certainly not smart. I didn't mean "dumb money" as in all the people who invested in Bitcoin are dumb, but rather that these were not well thought out investments with sound rationales.

OK. Thanks for clarifying. You mean to say it’s not smart investing. You are judging intelligence based on purely selfish outcomes. I understand now.

Re: What's Happening with Bitcoin Prices

#79

Post by thisisit »

gt_ wrote: post #75
thisisit wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Runs out of what? If you mean Tether. They can keep doing "grant token" as long as they want. I will be publishing a blog on the market schemes of different token soon as there seem to be a lot of hype.

The difference between “new coin” and “grant token” is eluding me here.

"Grant token" is the command for generating new token/coin.

Re: What's Happening with Bitcoin Prices

#80

Post by tehlike »

StavrosK wrote: post #69
samsonradu wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Failing to understand how you could peg Tether to the USD and have people believe you. I was under the impression that pegging to a currency is something only a very big player, with close to unlimited resources can achieve, see People's Bank of China, Swiss Bank etc. Among others, you have to defend the currency against speculators and that requires a lot of capital. Even the Bank of England failed to maintain the p…

You can peg tether to the usd simply by offering to always exchange one tether for one usd and vice versa, no?

The problem is, sonfar they issued north of 800m with no proof of reserves, and no professional audit to support their claims.
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