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Author Topic: Bitcoin/crypto currency anyone here into it/understand it?  (Read 2104 times)

silencio789

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Re: Bitcoin/crypto currency anyone here into it/understand it?
« Reply #15 on: March 16, 2023, 08:20:36 AM »
Yes.
My advice, avoid.
It's betting but in a pool fixed by whales.
Now, over a ten year period you can probably make a return.
However you'd be better investing in the S&P 500 as an index over that ten years.
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Kiero

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Re: Bitcoin/crypto currency anyone here into it/understand it?
« Reply #16 on: March 19, 2023, 09:27:58 AM »
Crypto is no more of a "gamble" than investing in the stock market. Plenty of people lost their shirts investing in companies that turned out to be duds.

I have some crypto, it's lost a lot of value since my initial investment, but none of my coins have gone pop, so I'll continue riding out this current shitstorm. The crap times started with the war in Ukraine, which is hardly surprising since it's the Current Thing.
Currently running: Tyche's Favourites, a historical ACKS campaign set around Massalia in 300BC.

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atomic

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Re: Bitcoin/crypto currency anyone here into it/understand it?
« Reply #17 on: March 19, 2023, 08:13:58 PM »
It all depends on coin versus token and what that particular currency is trying to accomplish.  I'm a huge believer in Ethereum because of the smart contract technology.  See Title Insurance for an example of bullshit that shouldn't exist that smart contracts can do away with.

In general Bitcoin and others looking for transactional value are probably a fool's errand.  Taking 2.5 minutes at the fastest to complete a transaction is not good in practice.  Our modern financial system takes far longer than that for any non-cash transactions but for the point of sale contact it is pretty much instant now (god I love Tap technology).  Visa takes a day to settle transactions even after the merchant submits his record but the consumer gets their good/service much sooner.  Bitcoin's 10 minute settlement time is much faster than 1 day but the merchant likely won't let you leave with the goods or consume the service until the block is confirmed.

Similarly SWIFT, which gets hacked all the fucking time and is buggy as hell, takes upwards of 3 business days to settle transactions and has zero visibility for normal plebes.  Stock trading is even more dodgy and record keeping is crap so there are a crazy number of errors committed on something as simple as "does this person have 1 stock of this company to sell to that other person?"  The thing is that the plutocrats in charge of the current system make lots of money off owning these and gaming the system/outright theft (see the short selling and HFT controversies to see this in action) that they have a vested interest to keep it.

I think in the long run that blockchain and cryptocurrencies will be the future.  I'm not sure if any of the current ones will be the final version (rumor has it that the IMF is trying to create its own version to replace SDR) but just like the Dot.Com bubble it'll pop and then we settle into business as usual with the stuff that comes out the other end.

Bitcoin solves both the transaction speed and smart contract functions with "Layer-2" protocols built on top of the base blockchain.  The Lightning network is an example of this, allowing someone to by a $5 coffee without waiting 30+ minutes and gettting $3 in fees. 

When I first got interested in the space I was also attracted to Ethereum for the reasons you state, but the more I went down the bitcoin rabbit hole, the more Bitcoin Maxi I became.  It takes a long time to wrap your head around, because it's a combination of energy, psychology, cryptography, game theory, economics, and probably a bunch of other stuff.

atomic

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Re: Bitcoin/crypto currency anyone here into it/understand it?
« Reply #18 on: March 19, 2023, 08:24:04 PM »
I have done a bit of minor dabbling, and accidentally made a good bit of money (hit a 300 percent gain in a short turn around) and now just watch it.  I was curious if anyone here is following, has deep knowledge, invests alot, etc.   

   I read lots about it and can believe everything from it is a ponzi scheme to the next wave of peer to peer transactions.  I am a fan of decentralization, but not so convinced that the powers that be are going allow it to keep rolling.

I'm mostly focused on bitcoin.  From my perspective, it's the only one that's truly decentralized (all of the others have a team or foundation that has central control over it).  At this point, I think bitcoin is too big to be stopped, even by nation-states.  The crisis points it has survived (MtGox, block-size war, China mining ban, etc.) have served as empirical evidence to back up its deep theoretical roots.

Of course anyone can be wrong, so I recommend investing in an amount of bitcoin that you'd comfortable completely losing.  Accumulate via small, frequent buys, and never sell.

Mistwell

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Re: Bitcoin/crypto currency anyone here into it/understand it?
« Reply #19 on: March 22, 2023, 04:41:49 PM »
Yeah I have a small sum of BitCoin. I was basically buying a cup of coffee's worth a week for a while, though I stopped that after it started to dive several months ago. It's not much but it's interesting to keep an eye on it. At some point I will probably just want to convert it back to dollars.

Fheredin

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Re: Bitcoin/crypto currency anyone here into it/understand it?
« Reply #20 on: March 26, 2023, 05:10:57 PM »
I own a not insignificant amount of Ether, and have a dabble position in a variety of other coins, including BTC. But I only self-custody Ether.

The most important thing to know about blockchains is that after Ethereum, blockchains are not about being digital money. They are supercomputers designed to be available to the public, open to public code, and yet, paradoxically, highly secure. Once you understand that, it becomes clear that crypto isn't really trying to displace the US Dollar, but Amazon Web Services, and that crypto is a web backend designed to handle really important things securely rather than cheaply or at high speed the way Google and Amazon do it.

This is why I view Ether as a digital equivalent to an industrial catalyst. It does some extraordinarily powerful things, but you have to appreciate it exists in a different web paradigm.

That said, I have to add that this isn't really a good time to get into crypto if you are new. The SEC is practically declaring war on any crypto on-ramp entities, so I am expecting a pretty catastrophic crypto crash in the near future as VCs offload their bags before crypto gets disconnected from mainstream banking.
« Last Edit: March 26, 2023, 05:15:03 PM by Fheredin »

Doctor Jest

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Re: Bitcoin/crypto currency anyone here into it/understand it?
« Reply #21 on: April 04, 2023, 11:47:48 PM »
I own mostly BTC and ETH, but I also own and trade some alt coins.

I work in tech, and I understand the technology quite well, and I've made several thousand dollars a year trading alts using trading bots that use signals I programmed myself.

I also wrote a few Ethereum smart contracts mostly for fun.

My non-financial non-professional opinion is BTC is digital gold, LTC is digital silver, and ETH is digital oil. I own mostly BTC and ETH, some LTC since LTC is the most widely accepted by the most businesses at the moment.

Alts vary depending on utility from generally worthless to promising. The generally useless ones are, IMHO, the best to trade because they fluctuate within a limited price range, and setting up a trading bot to automate trades at price points up and down the curve is like printing money.

Chainsaw

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Re: Bitcoin/crypto currency anyone here into it/understand it?
« Reply #22 on: April 23, 2023, 12:38:08 PM »
Seems like a bad investment, but opinions vary.

Shrieking Banshee

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Re: Bitcoin/crypto currency anyone here into it/understand it?
« Reply #23 on: April 23, 2023, 11:56:13 PM »
It sounds like a reasonable tool thats being blown up by idiots. I reason some technology of it will be integrated into the future, but investment into it seems to be operating under "last fool standing" principles. It's valuable because people think other people think its valuable, not because people think its valuable. Its close, but not actually the same thing.

Kiero

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Re: Bitcoin/crypto currency anyone here into it/understand it?
« Reply #24 on: April 30, 2023, 07:58:39 AM »
Crypto is an easy way to transfer money across currencies without paying any of the usual exchange fees.
Currently running: Tyche's Favourites, a historical ACKS campaign set around Massalia in 300BC.

Our podcast site, In Sanity We Trust Productions.

KenCoxy

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Re: Bitcoin/crypto currency anyone here into it/understand it?
« Reply #25 on: February 15, 2024, 07:59:56 AM »
Hey @Kiero! I completely agree with you. Cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, have transformed the way we think about transferring money across borders. The beauty of crypto lies in its ability to facilitate seamless transactions without the hassle of traditional banking systems and hefty exchange fees.
If you're curious to learn more about the world of cryptocurrencies, there are plenty of resources out there to explore. Websites like 바이낸스 offer valuable insights, news, and educational content to help you navigate the exciting realm of crypto. So, whether you're a seasoned investor or just starting to dip your toes into the world of digital currencies, there's always something new to discover!
« Last Edit: February 15, 2024, 08:12:23 AM by KenCoxy »