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Cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, etc.)

surlybevo

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Nice Guy Eddie

Nice Guy Eddie 13506

Posted
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11 hours ago, Larry T. Spider said:

I know nothing about this stuff other than what I have read on this thread and a few others. Do you all use a Coinbase account linked to your bank account and just let it sit there until you sell it? 

Wheb you are looking for new coins what aspects makes one appealing?

It’s not recommended to leave coins in the exchange unless you are actively trading.  Most of the exchanges have been hacked at some point, and/or people have been tricked into giving up their passwords.   I know coinbase has a vault feature that delays withdrawals but that doesn’t mean that they couldn’t get hacked.  

the main recommendation is to use a hardware wallet.  They go for about $50-100.  The coin and balance info lives in the blockchain but the hardware wallet keeps the keys (think password.).  Next option is a software or web wallet.  Last resort is exchange.

wallets are a large topic and there is plenty of info online.  The main thing to remember is don’t forget the passwords and recovery words.  Write them down.

as for new coins,  I like someone that seems to have a quality team behind them potentially some venture capital money and well known advisors.  The only real small project that I’m betting on is Loki.  Australian group.  Young guys but one of their top developers was one of the most active Monero developers, which Loki is based on.   I also like that they’re very active in posting their weekly activities and progress.  

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Nice Guy Eddie

Nice Guy Eddie 13506

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(con't) as somoene that has invested in crypto for about a year now, I tell others to start with Bitcoin and Ethereum purchases on coinbase.   learn about wallets and how to transfer coins to the wallet.  you pay coins (small fractions) to do this so practice with small amounts.  This teaches you more basics.  Then you can transfer coins to other exchanges that allow you to buy all of the other coins.   look for tutorials on youtube or articles on medium.    

besides that, just ask questions here.  I've enjoyed learning about this over the last year.  even got into mining which is whole other beast within crypto.

 

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Nice Guy Eddie

Nice Guy Eddie 13506

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https://www.cnbc.com/2018/07/16/bitcoin-jumps-after-report-says-blackrock-exploring-cryptocurrencies.html

Story about the Blackrock CEO confirming that they have started a working group to look more into crypto and blockchain.  May turn into nothing but if/when the institutional investors get into crypto, it will skyrocket.   The CEO does state that he doesn't see a big demand for cryptos from his clients.   I find that confusing because I would assume clients are interested in profits.  They may not want to own cryptos directly but if they can see large returns, why wouldn't they want Blackrock to invest.

Currently cryptos have an overall market cap of ~$275B, down from a Jan high of 825B.    Blackrock has 6.2T under management.  Obviously they wouldn't  immediately invest 100s of billions in crypto but it doesn't take anywhere near that much to drastically raise or lower the market.

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Nice Guy Eddie

Nice Guy Eddie 13506

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5 minutes ago, RPM said:

The XVG I bought at 12 cents is now at 02 cents. 

yeah Verge is a POS.   

 

If you bought cryptos in Dec-Feb timeframe and didn't take some profit at that time, you're definitely down now.   However the past 6 months could be looked upon in the future as the last big, cheap buying period before many of the coins take off.  I can see a path for BTC to exceed 100K at some point as long as regulators in US and China don't work to crush it.  Or maybe it will be at 25 cents next July.  

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FWD

FWD 297

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After a couple of years of hype, big companies are losing interest.

 

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-07-31/blockchain-once-seen-as-a-corporate-cure-all-suffers-slowdown

Blockchain, Once Seen as a Corporate Cure-All, Suffers Slowdown

By 
July 31, 2018, 5:05 AM PDT
  •  
    Many companies will halt their blockchain tests this year
  •  
    The pullback could hurt IBM and Microsoft, analyst says
Corporate America’s love affair with all things blockchain may be cooling.
 
 

A number of software projects based on the distributed ledger technology will be wound down this year, according to Forrester Research Inc. And some companies pushing ahead with pilot tests are scaling back their ambitions and timelines. In 90 percent of cases, the experiments will never become part of a company’s operations, the firm estimates.

 
 

Even Nasdaq Inc., a high-profile champion of blockchain and cryptocurrencies, hasn’t moved as quickly as hoped. The exchange operator, which talked in 2016 about deploying blockchain for voting in shareholder meetings and private-company stock issuance, isn’t using the technology in any widely deployed projects yet.

“The expectation was we’d quickly find use cases,” Magnus Haglind, Nasdaq’s senior vice president and head of product management for market technology, said in an interview. “But introducing new technologies requires broad collaboration with industry participants, and it all takes time.”

Blockchain is designed to provide a tamper-proof digital ledger -- a groundbreaking means of tracking products, payments and customers. But the much-ballyhooed technology has proven difficult to adopt in real-life situations. As companies try to ramp up projects across their businesses, they’re hitting problems with performance, oversight and operations.

Hype Versus Reality

“The disconnect between the hype and the reality is significant -- I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Rajesh Kandaswamy, an analyst at Gartner Inc. “In terms of actual production use, it’s very rare.”

That could be bad news for makers of blockchain software and services, which include International Business Machines Corp. and Microsoft Corp. They’re aiming to make billions on cloud services that help run supply chains, send and receive payments, and interact with customers. Now their projections -- and investors’ expectations -- may need to be tempered.

“Blockchain is supposed to be an important future revenue stream for IBM, Microsoft and others in equipment sales, cloud services and consulting,” said Roger Kay, president of Endpoint Technologies Associates. “If it materializes more slowly, analysts will have to make downward revisions.”

IBM, which has more than 1,500 employees working on blockchain, said it’s still seeing strong demand. But growing competition could affect how much it can charge clients, according to Jerry Cuomo, vice president of blockchain technologies at IBM.

Microsoft also remains upbeat. “We see tremendous momentum and progress in the enterprise blockchain marketplace,” the company said in a statement. “We remain committed to developing cutting-edge technology and working side-by-side with industry leaders to ensure business of all types realize this value.”

So far, IBM and Microsoft have grabbed 51 percent of the more than $700 million market for blockchain products and services, WinterGreen Research Inc. estimated earlier this year.

For a large swath of companies, blockchain remains an exotic fruit. Only 1 percent of chief information officers said they had any kind of blockchain adoption in their organizations, and only 8 percent said they were in short-term planning or active experimentation with the technology, according to a Gartner study. Nearly 80 percent of CIOs said they had no interest in the technology.

 
 
 
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bernorange

bernorange 8359

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Over the past 24 hours, the crypto market has recorded a loss of $18 billion, as major cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin, Ether, EOS, and Bitcoin Cash dropped by 4 to 13 percent.
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While Bitcoin ended the day with a 4 percent decline in its value, Ether, the native cryptocurrency of Ethereum, plummeted by 13 percent against the US dollar, becoming one of the worst performing major cryptocurrencies alongside NEO.

Tokens recorded the steepest drop in their value on August 11, as most Ethereum-based tokens such as Theta Token, Aion, Pundi X, Aelf, DigixDAO, WanChain, and VeChain recorded a drop of around 14 to 18 percent.

For the first time in 2018, Bitcoin, the most dominant cryptocurrency in the global market, has obtained 50 percent of the market share, securing its year-to-date (YTD) high on the dominance index.

The sudden increase in the dominance index of Bitcoin which coincided with the spike in the volume of Tether have demonstrated that investors have become reluctant towards taking high-risk and high-return trades, mostly due to the lack of confidence in the short-term trend of the market.

Over the past few weeks, tokens have lost over 50 percent of their value against Bitcoin, which has also fallen by more than 20 percent since late July. For instance, EOS, dubbed the “Ethereum Killer,” has dropped 50 percent of its market valuation in the past 30 days, due to the instability and volatility in the market.
...

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/bitcoin-ethereum-fall-substantially-18-114225729.html

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phdhorn

phdhorn 6224

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I think my green stamps have done better the last six months.

I think in the future this stuff will be more reliable as the hipster generation decides they like this money better than real money, but for the next 5 years at least I wouldn't long-term it with a 10 foot pole.

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Nice Guy Eddie

Nice Guy Eddie 13506

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I believe we're at a point where some of the cryptocurrencies have to deliver on their use cases and see adoption of their technology.   Until then the crypto market will bounce around and most likely continue a downward trend.   

News about Saudi Arabia ban on trading because of scams are good for crypto in the long run because it will lead to some level of govt intervention or regulation.  I know some embrace the idea of a currency without govt intervention but people need protection.  

 

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RDCanecutter

RDCanecutter 26376

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10 hours ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

It’s about useful as gold when it comes to buying groceries.  In theory it works but isn’t practical.  Now it could be useful when buying a car.  Or House.  Or yacht. 

A few years back when Bitcoin was still valued at almost nothing, I googled up this little hippy town in New Hampshire where the local market and several other stores took Bitcoin, as well as a local "swap-labor" type widget, and a 1/4 oz .999 silver token banged out in a shed by a guy there who was on a crusade to get them circulated as Real Money (they were awesome, I bought a bunch and sold them for 2x melt on eBay as collectibles, but then he stopped selling them to punks like me.)

The guys who bought Mueslix with their silver or labor-coupons have no ragrats. I bet the ones who spent bitcoin feel like puking.

Anyway, I guess the "We Accept Bitcoin" thing stalled out in the US. Or is it still going strong somewhere?

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Nice Guy Eddie

Nice Guy Eddie 13506

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Posted (edited)

This verified tweet (by the guy himself) makes the rounds of crypto reddits from time to time:

OmJ29TI1_o.jpg

 

At the time of the tweet, his previously sold bitcoins were worth 13.5K.  Today's prices:  10.9M.  At one point, north of 32M.  but he made a cool $500.

Then you have the infamous story of the guy in 2010 that wanted to make a real-world purchase with bitcoin so he traded 10,000 bitcoins for 2 pizzas.  $64M today.

Edited by Nice Guy Eddie
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RDCanecutter

RDCanecutter 26376

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Didn't get around to stopping by the local gold/silver place that also has a Bitcoin ticker running on their website. During the big run-up I went in there and it had turned into Crypto-Feeding-Frenzy with customers sitting around with laptops, ignoring the coins and jewelry and talking about Etherium or whatever.

Anyway, I wonder if, right now, he'd actually part with gold if somebody paid him in crypto. I spect he would, then turn around 5 minutes later and get USD for it whatever way it is y'all do that stuff..

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XYZ

XYZ 2154

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What seems like a deal-breaker to use BTC as a medium of exchange is that let’s say you go to a store and want to pay in BTC, the “confirmation” can be fast or slow, or you might have to pay a smaller or larger bribe to the network. And I put confirmation in quotes because it seems from what I read that confirming a transaction is a somewhat ambiguous process, where you can get different degrees of confirmation from different nodes or whatever. Obviously I don’t know jack about this, but who the fuck would design a currency with those flaws? If you intended for it to be used as a medium of exchange, the “exchange” part has to be quick, and non-ambiguous.

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Nice Guy Eddie

Nice Guy Eddie 13506

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11 hours ago, XYZ said:

What seems like a deal-breaker to use BTC as a medium of exchange is that let’s say you go to a store and want to pay in BTC, the “confirmation” can be fast or slow, or you might have to pay a smaller or larger bribe to the network. And I put confirmation in quotes because it seems from what I read that confirming a transaction is a somewhat ambiguous process, where you can get different degrees of confirmation from different nodes or whatever. Obviously I don’t know jack about this, but who the fuck would design a currency with those flaws? If you intended for it to be used as a medium of exchange, the “exchange” part has to be quick, and non-ambiguous.

I don’t believe bitcoin was designed for quick transactions. It also was the first design so I imagine it could have been designed better based on what is known now.   

There isn’t a group behind bitcoin that can just decide to make it better.   Newer coins have foundations or teams that have more control to apply changes when flaws are discovered or they decide to realize a new version.  Bitcoin appears to have been an open source project with contributions from interested developers.    

Why another coin hasn’t surpassed bitcoin as the top market cap is a good question.  I suppose it’s because bitcoin isn’t looked upon by many investors as anything but digital gold.   And it’s the most universal trading coin.  You can’t easily buy the majority of coins with USD.  You almost have to buy bitcoin first and then trade for the other coin.  ETH is similar.  LTC to some extent.  

 

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Nice Guy Eddie

Nice Guy Eddie 13506

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News stories love to focus on inexplicable stories like this guy who claims that he's lost 96% of his investment in cryptocurrencies:  https://money.cnn.com/2018/09/11/investing/bitcoin-crash-victim/index.html

His facts don't make much sense.  Claims he invested $120K in Bitcoin in Nov 2017, when Bitcoin's price ranged from $7-11K.  He says his portfolio grew 4x over the next month.   That can't be true as BTC never went above 20K.  Then as bitcoin started to drop, he says he chased after other coins losing everything so now is portfolio is worth $5K.      

My guess is that the writer decided to leave some facts out as it would confuse the uninformed reader.  To lose 96% of his money, I can only assume that he fell for one or more of the following:  bought into ICOs, followed pump-and-dump schemes, or consistently sold underperforming coins and bought other coins at their top.   Not to mention that he quadrupled his initial investment in a month, and was too greedy to take some profit.    I guess he dreamed of Lamborghinis and French villas.  He could have easily pulled his original investment out and played with house money from there.  

 

 

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ztejas

ztejas 43411

Posted
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On 8/21/2018 at 9:28 AM, Nice Guy Eddie said:

I know some embrace the idea of a currency without govt intervention but people need protection.  

Then buy a government bond. One of the main tenets is that blockchain/crypto is independent of regulation. i.e. you are not beholden to a currency that can be inflated at the whim of a state actor.

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Nice Guy Eddie

Nice Guy Eddie 13506

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4 hours ago, ztejas said:

Then buy a government bond. One of the main tenets is that blockchain/crypto is independent of regulation. i.e. you are not beholden to a currency that can be inflated at the whim of a state actor.

I had to go back to understand the context of my comment.  I was referring to protection from scams not from blockchain itself.  But you knew that since you decided to not quote my two sentence paragraph.

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ztejas

ztejas 43411

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6 hours ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

I had to go back to understand the context of my comment.  I was referring to protection from scams not from blockchain itself.  But you knew that since you decided to not quote my two sentence paragraph.

I didn't need to quote anything else. The blockchain protects from "scams" by design.

It is not an issue of government regulation or state sponsored security and consequences - it is an issue of protecting the fidelity of the ledger. 

Quantum computing may make all of this a moot point, anyway. Blockchain is one potential solution for a post global-financial collapse medium of exchange - but is probably about as likely we revert to a physical, trade based economy in light of a worldwide revolution - as you basically laid out in this comment:

On 8/21/2018 at 10:33 PM, Nice Guy Eddie said:

It’s about useful as gold when it comes to buying groceries.  In theory it works but isn’t practical. 

If the federal reserve maintains its backing of every dollar printed cryptocurrency isn't something we need. If the federal reserve goes under - government regulation doesn't have a seat at the table.

I get this is more of a microeconomics/investing thread but the larger picture is very relevant.

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RDCanecutter

RDCanecutter 26376

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12 minutes ago, bernorange said:

Curiously, Ohio is now accepting Bitcoin as payment for taxes:

https://techcrunch.com/2018/11/25/ohio-becomes-the-first-state-to-accept-bitcoin-for-tax-payments/

I read that and it reminded me of about ten years ago when Georgia and some western state (Utah?) made gold and silver legal tender for paying debts to those states.

Both the gold and bitcoin payment proposals puzzle me-- if you believe either is superior to the US$, why would you part with them? Seems more like a scheme to prop up value of metal or bitcoin.

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