Worries Grow That the Price of Bitcoin Is Being Propped Up • Hacker News Board

Re: Worries Grow That the Price of Bitcoin Is Being Propped Up

#71

Post by api » Thu, Feb 01, 2018, 4:27 PM UTC

throwaway30yo wrote: post #60

Could be the best buying opportunity of the year. As someone involved in bitcoin since 2012, these cycles are pretty standard. It went from $1000 to around $250 iirc at one point and recovered. No reason it cant go from $20000 to $5000 and recover. It may take many years, but its not as if all crypto will die overnight. I see crypto being big in the more distant future, 15-20 years away when many of the problems are…

Bitcoin could crash and never recover, but the tech and its descendants could indeed find uses in the future.

"Cryptocurrency is a massive bubble" and "cryptocurrency and the tech behind it is a major innovation in distributed systems and finance" can both be true.

Re: Worries Grow That the Price of Bitcoin Is Being Propped Up

#72

Post by petre » Thu, Feb 01, 2018, 4:27 PM UTC

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #39

ulrikrasmussen wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This article talks about suspicions that Bitfinex has "printed" large amounts of Tether (a so-called stable token which is supposed to be backed 1-1 to a supply of real USD) to buy up Bitcoin and artificially inflate the price.

You'd think that if they really did link 1:1 to the dollar, they'd encode some kind of proof in the tokens themselves - like idk, the registration number of banknotes, or a transaction number in a publicly viewable bank account (supported by a real, trusted bank). You need some way to verify the claim that "1 tether == 1 real USD" instead of just trust.

Money in a bank account doesn't have serial numbers. In fact, less than 10% of money in circulation is cash.

Re: Worries Grow That the Price of Bitcoin Is Being Propped Up

#73

Post by dharma1 » Thu, Feb 01, 2018, 4:27 PM UTC

mtgx wrote: post #41

jandrese wrote: post #7

“It’s a signal to the market of what those who have scrutinized the situation already believe: There is a problem here,” said Jill Carlson, a former trader at Goldman Sachs who now consults with a variety of virtual currency companies. “The dissolution of a relationship between an auditor and a company is very rarely a good sign that the company is behaving in accordance with market best practices.” When you're getti…

And yet they were able to print like 800 million USDT a month after being subpoenaed by the US government. Strange, no?

This is what I thought about too. So either they just thought screw it, let's make hay while the sun shines, the feds will never get us - or they are legit

Re: Worries Grow That the Price of Bitcoin Is Being Propped Up

#74

Post by sunseb » Thu, Feb 01, 2018, 4:28 PM UTC

throwaway30yo wrote: post #60

Could be the best buying opportunity of the year. As someone involved in bitcoin since 2012, these cycles are pretty standard. It went from $1000 to around $250 iirc at one point and recovered. No reason it cant go from $20000 to $5000 and recover. It may take many years, but its not as if all crypto will die overnight. I see crypto being big in the more distant future, 15-20 years away when many of the problems are…

Yeah crypto will be big in the future, but Bitcoin (and all the current coins actually) : not sure...

Re: Worries Grow That the Price of Bitcoin Is Being Propped Up

#75

Post by halloij » Thu, Feb 01, 2018, 4:28 PM UTC

throwaway30yo wrote: post #60

Could be the best buying opportunity of the year. As someone involved in bitcoin since 2012, these cycles are pretty standard. It went from $1000 to around $250 iirc at one point and recovered. No reason it cant go from $20000 to $5000 and recover. It may take many years, but its not as if all crypto will die overnight. I see crypto being big in the more distant future, 15-20 years away when many of the problems are…

Bitcoin is more like the million dollar homepage, except the homepage grows by a few pixels each day.

> its not as if all crypto will die overnight.

I think you'll be surprised.

Re: Worries Grow That the Price of Bitcoin Is Being Propped Up

#76

Post by yellow_postit » Thu, Feb 01, 2018, 4:28 PM UTC

duiker101 wrote: post #18

JohnJamesRambo wrote: post #5

If you haven't already, I recommend getting out of Bitcoin and into Ethereum immediately. There is a transfer of dominance rapidly happening. Market Cap Bitcoin $158,149,902,894 Ethereum $106,632,442,880

what is in your opinion the reason why bitcoin is failing? For the way I see it, it's because it lacks real world applications and value. I know Ethereum has it's own contracts etc... but I don't see how it really solves the base problem. Who's going to use this currency and why? Are the contracts enough to keep it afloat forever? From what i've heard they are not without issues.

Neither solve real world problems for folks in developed countries. In developing countries maybe there's a utility play but that's been getting undercut by the crazy fees and speculation.

Re: Worries Grow That the Price of Bitcoin Is Being Propped Up

#77

Post by JonnyNova » Thu, Feb 01, 2018, 4:28 PM UTC

mtgx wrote: post #41

jandrese wrote: post #7

“It’s a signal to the market of what those who have scrutinized the situation already believe: There is a problem here,” said Jill Carlson, a former trader at Goldman Sachs who now consults with a variety of virtual currency companies. “The dissolution of a relationship between an auditor and a company is very rarely a good sign that the company is behaving in accordance with market best practices.” When you're getti…

And yet they were able to print like 800 million USDT a month after being subpoenaed by the US government. Strange, no?

Not necessarily. I don't believe Tether has the backing they claim. Given that though, the subpoena wasn't public yet and it is plausible clients may have been continuing to send Tether money during that time.

Re: Worries Grow That the Price of Bitcoin Is Being Propped Up

#78

Post by LargeWu » Thu, Feb 01, 2018, 4:28 PM UTC

cm2187 wrote: post #47

misja111 wrote: post #43

"Hundreds of millions of dollars worth of new Tether were created; almost always when the prices of other virtual currencies were heading down." Doesn't this simply mean that when people were selling their virtual currencies, they chose to stall their money in Tether?

Perhaps I don't understand it correctly but I assumed that wouldn't result in Tether being created. A holder of Tether would exchange his Tether for BTC. Only a transaction of Tether for cash would result in Tether being created.

One of the claims here is that Bitfinex was somehow creating new Tether without a USD deposit. In other words, out of thin air. This Tether would then be exchanged for Bitcoin or other crypto, causing an artificial increase in demand for those coins, and causing their price to rise.

Re: Worries Grow That the Price of Bitcoin Is Being Propped Up

#79

Post by foepys » Thu, Feb 01, 2018, 4:28 PM UTC

swarnie_ wrote: post #62

beeskneecaps wrote: post #54

Better get in on GRLC now!

Is GRLC a joke/meme that just got out of hand?

Just like Dogecoin. First it was a joke, then it got serious.

But wrt Garlicoin, I think the creators know exactly what they are doing and use the gullible masses to make money by exploiting "memes".

Re: Worries Grow That the Price of Bitcoin Is Being Propped Up

#80

Post by jacquesm » Thu, Feb 01, 2018, 4:29 PM UTC

throwaway30yo wrote: post #60

Could be the best buying opportunity of the year. As someone involved in bitcoin since 2012, these cycles are pretty standard. It went from $1000 to around $250 iirc at one point and recovered. No reason it cant go from $20000 to $5000 and recover. It may take many years, but its not as if all crypto will die overnight. I see crypto being big in the more distant future, 15-20 years away when many of the problems are…

> Could be the best buying opportunity of the year.

It could be, but it also could not be. Content free comment.

As for cycles: the big mistake people make when they see a cycle is to believe it will repeat forever.