I been watching it out of general intrest but didn't get in and not planning on.My thoughts is it's one big Ponzi scheme backed by nothing.
Did you buy Bitcoin and your thoughts
- Thread starter nickaluch
- Start date
MrQuackers
Site Donor 2023
PTB says DIY
I got some for my secret santa gift exchange with friends. It's lost about 25% since I received it 
Here's the deal with cryptocurrencies.
When they are introduced or generated, there is x number of "coins" available.
That number of coins (at least with bitcoin*) is fixed. Forever. No new coins will ever be issued.
The bitcoin "wallet" is a digital repository of someone's coins. Access to that wallet requires a password, and that password was encouraged to be "secure", so not simple.
An unknown number of people can't remember their passwords, but it's thought to be quite a few; bitcoin was introduced years ago.
They bought bitcoin at $100 and probably have some in that wallet, but it is inaccessible and therefore can be considered removed from the market, probably forever.
Re-read the sentence about "no new coins ...".
So the amount of coins available to be traded/held is some number less than the introductory issue. This in itself will result in a natural increase in value per coin.
It is believed that something like 90+ % of all bitcoin ever issued is owned by about 10 entities. This creates a huge risk of currency manipulation, and also a huge risk of a "bubble" or collapse of the virtual currency.
The short answer is, if you are planning to invest, is to not risk money you can't afford to lose.
You can also earn bitcoin by processing the transactions. This is computer-intensive, but requires no monetary investment by you. It's debatable if the added cost of electricity from high heat / high activity processing is offset by the coin you will earn, but it's an option worth considering.
There are many advanced actors who probe and steal bitcoin wallets from computers connected to the internet. You need a secure system, and it's advisable to keep your bitcoin wallet offline. People losing / erasing /failure of a usb stick containing a wallet is another way bitcoin are removed from the pool, raising the individual value of coins, etc. Many transactions involving bitcoin require you to be online. So there is a problem there as well.
Many websites use or are infected with JavaScript that, unbenowst to you, are "mining" (processing transactions) bitcoin and some other cryptocurrencies. They are more common than many people understand, so it's practically guaranteed that you have probably been "hacked" (while that webpage is open or in the background but not closed) and have processed bitcoin for others, earning them money by stealing your electricity and CPU cycles.
That's probably enough for now. Hope that helps.
* There are new cryptocurrencies being introduced, I would consider them higher risk than bitcoin. This is classic patterns of "bubbles" and increases the risk of collapse some point in the future, at least for these less well established coins. YMMV
I own a small amount, but I can't spend it because the transaction fee is greater than the amount I'm trying to spend.
Many may not care about Bitcoin specifically (or even crypto currency for that matter), but the underlying technology (Blockchain) has some good uses.
Blockchain is extremely useful, and it's almost guaranteed that it will play a large role in the digital future.
You might think of Blockchain being related to Bitcoin the way Napster is related to Skype (same technology) or uTorrent / BitTorrent to Spotify (founder's previous activities). That's not a perfect analogy, but it shows the two should not be considered one and the same.
Thanks Johnny2Bad for that great explanation .
Originally Posted By: Johnny2Bad
Here's the deal with cryptocurrencies.
When they are introduced or generated, there is x number of "coins" available.
That number of coins (at least with bitcoin*) is fixed. Forever. No new coins will ever be issued.
The bitcoin "wallet" is a digital repository of someone's coins. Access to that wallet requires a password, and that password was encouraged to be "secure", so not simple.
An unknown number of people can't remember their passwords, but it's thought to be quite a few; bitcoin was introduced years ago.
They bought bitcoin at $100 and probably have some in that wallet, but it is inaccessible and therefore can be considered removed from the market, probably forever.
Re-read the sentence about "no new coins ...".
So the amount of coins available to be traded/held is some number less than the introductory issue. This in itself will result in a natural increase in value per coin.
It is believed that something like 90+ % of all bitcoin ever issued is owned by about 10 entities. This creates a huge risk of currency manipulation, and also a huge risk of a "bubble" or collapse of the virtual currency.
The short answer is, if you are planning to invest, is to not risk money you can't afford to lose.
You can also earn bitcoin by processing the transactions. This is computer-intensive, but requires no monetary investment by you. It's debatable if the added cost of electricity from high heat / high activity processing is offset by the coin you will earn, but it's an option worth considering.
There are many advanced actors who probe and steal bitcoin wallets from computers connected to the internet. You need a secure system, and it's advisable to keep your bitcoin wallet offline. People losing / erasing /failure of a usb stick containing a wallet is another way bitcoin are removed from the pool, raising the individual value of coins, etc. Many transactions involving bitcoin require you to be online. So there is a problem there as well.
Many websites use or are infected with JavaScript that, unbenowst to you, are "mining" (processing transactions) bitcoin and some other cryptocurrencies. They are more common than many people understand, so it's practically guaranteed that you have probably been "hacked" (while that webpage is open or in the background but not closed) and have processed bitcoin for others, earning them money by stealing your electricity and CPU cycles.
That's probably enough for now. Hope that helps.
* There are new cryptocurrencies being introduced, I would consider them higher risk than bitcoin. This is classic patterns of "bubbles" and increases the risk of collapse some point in the future, at least for these less well established coins. YMMV
Originally Posted By: Wolf359
Well somewhat true, bitcoins have to be mined and they're released as they're mined. But the total number is fixed, they just haven't all been mined yet, about 80% of bitcoins have been mined so far. The difficulty with mining increases as the number of miners increase. It's hard to nail down the number but I think one number was around 3k to mine one bitcoin, may be cheaper in some countries with lower electric rates. I think at one point the miners went away when it wasn't profitable, then the difficulty decreased.
Originally Posted By: Warstud
Originally Posted By: Wolf359
Well somewhat true, bitcoins have to be mined and they're released as they're mined. But the total number is fixed, they just haven't all been mined yet, about 80% of bitcoins have been mined so far. The difficulty with mining increases as the number of miners increase. It's hard to nail down the number but I think one number was around 3k to mine one bitcoin, may be cheaper in some countries with lower electric rates. I think at one point the miners went away when it wasn't profitable, then the difficulty decreased.
Originally Posted By: Wolf359
Well somewhat true, bitcoins have to be mined and they're released as they're mined. But the total number is fixed, they just haven't all been mined yet, about 80% of bitcoins have been mined so far. The difficulty with mining increases as the number of miners increase. It's hard to nail down the number but I think one number was around 3k to mine one bitcoin, may be cheaper in some countries with lower electric rates. I think at one point the miners went away when it wasn't profitable, then the difficulty decreased.
Originally Posted By: PimTac
“Yup, except it's real money. And lots of it.“
Can I go to the bank and trade some for dollars? Can I go to the local supermarket or restaurant and pay with it?
It’s not real money.
Originally Posted By: ZZman
No. But step dad bought Ripple low and sold very high. Too bad he didn't buy thousands of it.
Anyone on these two exchanges?
https://www.kucoin.com/#/?r=1vKysI
https://www.binance.com/?ref=18161759
When they say "no more will be mined" who is going to ensure that? The 10 people that own 90% of them? The mining companies? The US Attorney General? It comes down to trust. The US Treasury can literally say they will print no more "physical" US Federal Reserve notes (fiat). Yet they can keystroke an unlimited number of them and move then back and forth. We'll never know as they publish the accounting data as well along with OCC/BEA/FED/etc. Now that the big banks can trade futures/options on bitcoins, expect them to take their share and fleece the little guys on fabricated market swings.
And even if there is a limit on a particular bit coin....there is NO LIMIT on how many different coins can come into existence. Last I checked I think the most popular coin was 65-85% of the market. There are now a thousand more different coins/entities. What if they all ramp up to the $100 BILL level? It's similar to one country having 1000 competing currencies but "limits" on how many of each there can be. For the world, only about half dozen fiat currencies are major players (USD, Euro, Pound, Yen, Yuan, Cando, Aussie Dollar).
Originally Posted By: 69GTX
When they say "no more will be mined" who is going to ensure that? The 10 people that own 90% of them? The mining companies? The US Attorney General? It comes down to trust. The US Treasury can literally say they will print no more "physical" US Federal Reserve notes (fiat). Yet they can keystroke an unlimited number of them and move then back and forth. We'll never know as they publish the accounting data as well along with OCC/BEA/FED/etc. Now that the big banks can trade futures/options on bitcoins, expect them to take their share and fleece the little guys on fabricated market swings.
And even if there is a limit on a particular bit coin....there is NO LIMIT on how many different coins can come into existence. Last I checked I think the most popular coin was 65-85% of the market. There are now a thousand more different coins/entities. What if they all ramp up to the $100 BILL level? It's similar to one country having 1000 competing currencies but "limits" on how many of each there can be. For the world, only about half dozen fiat currencies are major players (USD, Euro, Pound, Yen, Yuan, Cando, Aussie Dollar).
