Topic: Anyone else interested in cryptocurrency?

[CaptainD]

Has this not all been revealed as a massive scam yet?

Probably, but only by:
1 - people who don't understand it
2 - people who have a vested interest in cryptocurrency failing
3 - people who hear that criminals have used it (which obviously they have) and conclude that cryptocurrency is for criminals.  Uh guys criminals use fiat currency too...  (I guess it's the supposed anonymity of crypto that's seen as helping criminals, and to an extent this may be true.)

Comments by a certain Bill Gates recently haven't helped things.

That doesn't mean there isn't a great deal of scamming done within the cryptocurrency community of course, because there are a lot of fraudsters around.  But the concept of a digital currency in itself is not a scam.  There still seems to be some uncertainty whether crypto should truly be viewed as a currency rather than a commodity.  People often think it's just "Bitcoin" but there's a dizzying number of other coins out there - of course some of these ARE scams (especially the ones with massive ICO / pre-mine).

Like most things it's far more complex and interesting than most people will ever realise!  (I only really understand the basics myself but find the concept rather fascinating.)

[Gord10]

I don't believe it will gain that much value in the future

Hmm interesting perspective. Why do you feel this way?

I'm no expert, my beliefs are only beliefs.
1. Today, everyone is in the Bitcoin stock market. I see people who are not familiar with digital world try to gain profit by cryptocurrency. I have suspicions about market being able to make so much people rich.
2. If Bitcoin would be accepted in major online markets, it would be great for us. But I don't think cryptocurrencies will be accepted as payment method in close future. Instead of that, some countries like China tries to ban it.

[milkanannan]

We need another WannaCry to make crypto popular again. Great time to buy right now, if you've kept the faith.

[Stupot]

Hasn't this ship sailed? Everyone seems to have quietened right down about crypto and none of them are driving Ferrari's yet.

[Danvzare]

Hasn't this ship sailed? Everyone seems to have quietened right down about crypto and none of them are driving Ferrari's yet.

Doesn't that make now the best time to buy then?
So then we can sell when it's popular again!
...
Or we could just get into the stock market. 
I honestly don't know much about crypto currency.

[Blondbraid]

An argument I haven't seen brought up here yet is the fact that they are horrible for the environment,
because bitcoin mining takes up huge amounts of computer energy and wastes huge amounts of electricity on a planet already starting to see horrific changes
to nature due to over consumption and using energy from dirty fuels, and that's a big reason I hope it doesn't become commonplace.

[CaptainD]

I haven't really kept up with it much, although with a combination of being patient and not expecting too much, I've still done pretty well out of it despite the price dumping dramatically compared to what it was.  I use it to get gift vouchers for stuff, it's been incredibly useful at a time in my life where money going out regularly exceeds what comes in unless I'm extraordinarily careful.

@Blondbraid - yeah the environmental impact is definitely a massive concern.  Since the last halving I'm pretty sure Bitcoin mining is not profitable to 99.99% of the world's population; I have a feeling it's close to impossible to mine Etherium profitably these days too.  It's not something I've every tried doing so I've not followed it much, but I've read the odd thing about it.  I don't know how much longer the "Proof Of Work" model is likely to be popular  I would hope that we will see the end of these gigantic "mining farms" but I guess it's a case of if someone can profit from it, they will do it whatever the environmental / social or other cost.

[selmiak]

afaik ethereum is switching to Proof of Stake soon to cut down on energy consumption. There are no plans like that for bitcoin afaik.

[Khris]

lol

Crypto exchange says it can't repay $190 million to clients after founder dies with only password

[milkanannan]

lol

Crypto exchange says it can't repay $190 million to clients after founder dies with only password

  (laugh)lol that's so awesome

[selmiak]

So did he fake his death to get away with the virtual savings of lots of people? 

[Mandle]

So did he fake his death to get away with the virtual savings of lots of people? 

Either way, he is in heaven... Oh, wait...

[Mandarinas45]

It's dying. It might be used for storage and transaction log, but I dont see it as a viable currency anymore.

[milkanannan]

It's interesting to look at market cap: https://bitinfocharts.com/comparison/bitcoin-marketcap.html

It's a litmus test of interest in cryptocurrency in general, and we can see here that it is very much leaning towards pre-2017 boom levels. I buy chunks of BTC and some alts here and there in general anticipation of the whole scene coming back someday. Anyone else doing the same?

[selmiak]

seems like it stays at some value for some time, fluctuates a bit and then drops further. It is better to buy at the lowest price, but who knows when the bottom is reached?

[Jack]

Now you'll see a select few sites and gurus telling you what a great time it is to buy bitcoin. They'll get more and more hysterical as time goes on. "At these basement prices you'd have to be INSANE not to buy the dip."

The truth is an alternative currency would've been great to have with what's about to happen with the world debt bazaar, if the design of it weren't so incredibly stupid.

By the way, I have this great currency based on burning tires you might be interested in. The pollution is a concern, but it's self-regulating.

[milkanannan]

Now you'll see a select few sites and gurus telling you what a great time it is to buy bitcoin. They'll get more and more hysterical as time goes on. "At these basement prices you'd have to be INSANE not to buy the dip."

The truth is an alternative currency would've been great to have with what's about to happen with the world debt bazaar, if the design of it weren't so incredibly stupid.

By the way, I have this great currency based on burning tires you might be interested in. The pollution is a concern, but it's self-regulating.

But Jack isn't Bitcoin sort of banking on energy in the world becoming greener with time? I get your point - at the moment you've got millions of computers using tons of energy to keep BTC alive. However, we can assume that at some point in the future (maybe decades or a century from now), this same energy is going to be generated from much more sustainable sources?

[milkanannan]

seems like it stays at some value for some time, fluctuates a bit and then drops further. It is better to buy at the lowest price, but who knows when the bottom is reached?

Yeah it is impossible to know. However, if you look at market cap, there are generally two year intervals between peak popularity and trough. The overarching popularity of Bitcoin keeps increasing, but the highs and lows relative to the period seem to oscillate around a two year iteration.

[selmiak]

I get your mathematical point of view, it all scales up. But then, afaik lots of people with lots of money invested at the end of 2017 to make the value rise only to sell their BTC shortly before the bubble did burst or shortly after. Lots of people did buy in shortly before the bubble burst to get their piece of the cake but actually lost hell of a lot of money. You need the same amount of "way too late"-people buying in again, and even more of them to make it scale in these mathematical proportions. But people and financial markets are chaos and not logical principles, thus the word risk investment. Though it would be awesome if that theory of amplified oscillation would be true, but for that it would need some resonating body to oscillate with, you know, some good press for it to get more mainstream adaption and people to buy in (again...). Maybe read some financial publications, these people might write some selffulfilling prophetic hype about it... or not...
My estimation is BTC will resonate around the 3k or 2k for the next few years and then either slowly rise or even fade into obscurity as better crypto currencies arrive, maybe even ether gets more mainstream adaption... Or bitcoincash... or or or

of course you could invest some 100k yourself and suddenly market cap seems interesting again as there will sure be a rise in value as demand increses for a short time. But then, send me some of your 100k and I'll invest it in better things.

[milkanannan]

Cool insight. Yeah I'm not saying sell the farm over this. But I'll maintain that profiting from the oscillating interest is likely to carry on into the foreseeable future. For example, I first heard about Bitcoin in 2013, which is 6 years after its launch. I watched at the sidelines while the price rose (I think $2K high or something) and then fell into obscurity and everyone said what you're saying now "there is no pattern to its growth" etc. But then WannaCry happened and everyone got excited again. I put money in and watched it go up 4x and then nose dive, and I'm sure there are plenty that watched the whole thing happen just like I did in 2013. The next build up and drop will rope these spectators in and the process repeats. Also, this same process happened several times even before I heard of Bitcoin in 2013 (if you map the Google trend searches for 'Bitcoin' with market cap and price charts you can see it's this constant oscillating in value as more and more people attempt to research BTC).

Anyway, you're right ~ there's definitely an irrational exuberance to it all. I highly doubt the majority of the money in BTC has any real idea of how BTC works. But I think the waves of interest and disinterest are far from over, and BTC is the only project with the branding and media attention to attract n00b capital, so from a purely speculative standpoint it is a likely bet that a few bucks in BTC will net something in the next few years.