Cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, etc.)

[bernorange 8359]

2 hours ago, FirstTimeCaller said:

... Why would I want to spend BTC to buy pizza when it's gained significantly since inception? That $20 pizza could be worth $2,000 one day (or $0) ...

https://beincrypto.com/learn/bitcoin-pizza-day/

[Guest]

20 minutes ago, bernorange said:

https://beincrypto.com/learn/bitcoin-pizza-day/

Yep, that's why I used the pizza example.

[Thetexashammer 1062]

7 hours ago, FirstTimeCaller said:

I think the value of BTC as a currency is quickly leaving in the rear-view mirror. It's at best a store of value and at worst, a speculative asset. Why would I want to spend BTC to buy pizza when it's gained significantly since inception? That $20 pizza could be worth $2,000 one day (or $0)

The tax situation as well is a huge hindrance. Nobody wants to have to calculate their cost basis for a pizza.

So let me see if I understand you.

1. The price has bitcoin has increase a lot (more money to spend).

2. Ownership of Bitcoin is expanding from a small niche to a very broad ownership base (more people to spend money).

3. Large institutions, for the first time ever, have an interest in the success of Bitcoin (resources to develop).

4. Bitcoin is receiving tremendous "free advertising" (FOMO).

5. Technology is making new POS technology easier by the day.

Having evaluated the wherefors and whathaveyous, you decided based on these facts that there is basically no chance in hell anyone will develop a POS Bitcoin application to spend the increasing billions people have accumulated in capital gains.

Do I have this right?

[Guest]

10 hours ago, Thetexashammer said:

So let me see if I understand you.

1. The price has bitcoin has increase a lot (more money to spend).

2. Ownership of Bitcoin is expanding from a small niche to a very broad ownership base (more people to spend money).

3. Large institutions, for the first time ever, have an interest in the success of Bitcoin (resources to develop).

4. Bitcoin is receiving tremendous "free advertising" (FOMO).

5. Technology is making new POS technology easier by the day.

Having evaluated the wherefors and whathaveyous, you decided based on these facts that there is basically no chance in hell anyone will develop a POS Bitcoin application to spend the increasing billions people have accumulated in capital gains.

Do I have this right?

They can create the tech all they want and I'm sure it will/is created.

Will spending BTC day-to-day have wide adoption? Not until (if ever) the price has stability and the tax issue is resolved. A one-off large transaction like buying a home with BTC? Sure, I can see that. Going to the convenience store and buying a couple of drinks and a tank of gas? No. 

[Nice Guy Eddie 13510]

4 hours ago, FirstTimeCaller said:

They can create the tech all they want and I'm sure it will/is created.

Will spending BTC day-to-day have wide adoption? Not until (if ever) the price has stability and the tax issue is resolved. A one-off large transaction like buying a home with BTC? Sure, I can see that. Going to the convenience store and buying a couple of drinks and a tank of gas? No. 

While I agree it's overkill in buying a coke at the corner store which creates a capital gain taxable event, it's not like we haven't solved the sales tax event. And if there was one technology that could solve small capital gain transactions, it's crypto. And while I don't agree with it, the federal govt could even get paid during the transaction, and later reconcile the actual tax amount.

 

[Cum Rocket 136]

A handful of small sovereigns are known miners.  The next big shoe to drop in mining world will be when Saudi Arabia or Russia announce that they've been mining Bitcoin. 

[Blotto 23497]

I need to figure out a way to hedge my  BTC and ETH holdings, as they have once again become a non-trivial asset. I'd prefer a different strategy next price collapse than sitting around with my dick in my hand while crypto falls 80%. I dont see any liquid options markets on ETFs, just the miners and oddball companies like MSTR. Anyone have a decent hedging strategy they want to share?

Also, I was just poking around in my coinbase account and was laughing at some of the shit coins I still have in there. I don't even remember how or why I acquired some of this crap. I think some of it was probably freebies for watching 2 minute videos on coinbase. Its probably around $1000 total with the majority being Solana and Cardano. I'm thinking I should just liquidate it all and convert to BTC with it. Is there any compelling story behind either Solana or Cardano? I stopped paying attention to alt coins years ago and likely didnt have good reasons for buying it back then. 

I also have about 4M Shiba Inu burning a hole in my pocket. Thats right bitches... four. million. doggo. coins.

I think I bought a bunch when it was in that hyper-volatile stage, sold most for a 10%  gain and left myself with 4M of those bad boys.....aka $70 USD. Apparently its up 70% this week so it may be a Sizzler weekend. Looks like the closest one is in Gallup, NM. 

 

[bernorange 8359]

Solana and Cardano have active developments ongoing.  Solana is touted as a technically superior competitor to Ethereum.  I thought Cardano was mostly dead, but it seems to be performing well lately so someone likes it.

SHIB jumped recently because of development news, but I'm not very familiar with what is happening on that platform.

[Zwylde 812]

Which one of you is this?

 

 

[Thetexashammer 1062]

On 3/1/2024 at 8:58 AM, FirstTimeCaller said:

They can create the tech all they want and I'm sure it will/is created.

Will spending BTC day-to-day have wide adoption? Not until (if ever) the price has stability and the tax issue is resolved. A one-off large transaction like buying a home with BTC? Sure, I can see that. Going to the convenience store and buying a couple of drinks and a tank of gas? No. 

If you are suggesting that there we are going to order a pizza in Satoshis, nobody is arguing that. The normal unit of currency will always be dollars, except as you point out for large transactions like houses.

However, you will absolutely be able to swipe a POS sale application and pay with BTC. It may be as simple as large banks allow you to pay your credit card statement with BTC. However, there are already a few POS BTC applications from small companies. I don't think the Lightning Layer 2 solution is technically ready yet, but there is VERY little reason to believe it can't be worked out. And by worked out, I mean it solves the transaction cost problem one way or another.

The tax thing is a complete nonissue.

Now, probably YOU won't be buying stuff in BTC. But there are >50 million Americans, many of whom hold highly large volumes appreciated BTC. You could be right, big companies no longer care about profits. However, I think they do. Now that large institutions are involved it is only a matter of time.

Edited March 3 by Thetexashammer

[Captainant 27653]

25 minutes ago, Thetexashammer said:

However, you will absolutely be able to swipe a POS sale application and pay with BTC. It may be as simple as large banks allow you to pay your credit card statement with BTC. However, there are already a few POS BTC applications from small companies. I don't think the Lightning Layer 2 solution is technically ready yet, but there is VERY little reason to believe it can't be worked out. And by worked out, I mean it solves the transaction cost problem one way or another.

My dude, they have been saying lightning will be ready in 2 weeks for like 5 years now. BTC transactions are horrible for consumer purchases because of the 10+ minute transaction confirmation time due to the core mechanism of the BTC blockchain, not to mention the immense potential for fraud and transaction theft because there is no recourse once a transaction is processed into the blockchain. 

The reason to believe "it can't be worked out" is because of the horrendously energy inefficient, expensive, and complicated process of participating in a bitcoin transaction, doubly so when compared to modern payment processing systems 

[Guest]

15 hours ago, Thetexashammer said:

Now, probably YOU won't be buying stuff in BTC. But there are >50 million Americans, many of whom hold highly large volumes appreciated BTC. You could be right, big companies no longer care about profits. However, I think they do. Now that large institutions are involved it is only a matter of time.

Lulz. I'd like to see the math on that. I own a fraction of a BTC and I am in the top 10% of holders on the planet. The market is dominated by whales.

[Nice Guy Eddie 13510]

64k (BTC) and 3.5k (ETH) were ceilings over the past week, and both just broke. 

[nycHorn 3006]

Apparently the ceiling hits back.

[bernorange 8359]

Tested, not broken

[Nice Guy Eddie 13510]

All time not far now.

[MonkeyDoughnut 10232]

Gotta have a correction first I think, too many of the traders will want to start cashing some. I expect that sub 50k like others are predicting (before going back up again)

[bernorange 8359]

2 minutes ago, MonkeyDoughnut said:

Gotta have a correction first I think, too many of the traders will want to start cashing some. I expect that sub 50k like others are predicting (before going back up again)

Maybe.  What's different this (halving period) time is the institutional buying via the spot ETFs.  The $1.3B liquidation of Gemini BTC holdings over the last week or so didn't even cause a dip.  IIRC, Mt Gox was supposed to release some BTC related to their bankruptcy, but I'm having trouble finding clarity on how much, when and how that will happen.  Point is... the spot ETF inflows seem to be mitigating the effect of whale sales.

[Captainant 27653]

11 minutes ago, bernorange said:

Maybe.  What's different this (halving period) time is the institutional buying via the spot ETFs.  The $1.3B liquidation of Gemini BTC holdings over the last week or so didn't even cause a dip.  IIRC, Mt Gox was supposed to release some BTC related to their bankruptcy, but I'm having trouble finding clarity on how much, when and how that will happen.  Point is... the spot ETF inflows seem to be mitigating the effect of whale sales.

Yeah, the ETFs are providing enough new money for the whales to cash out. Wasn't that the plan all along? 

[Cum Rocket 136]

21 minutes ago, BeardIP said:

I appreciate your consistency.

 

CaptainAntifa is the perfect mid curve crypto hater. 

 

24 minutes ago, BeardIP said:

BTC is a scam! Saw this coming a mile away

This is their energy. 

25 minutes ago, BeardIP said:

Also, here is a hot sports opinion-- SBF, while still being an unethical and fraudulent liar, was actually right and had he been able to juggle the balls in the air better (and had better timing) he'd still be getting Times magazine covers for being a crypto billionaire and leader versus having his vegan diet and facing 100+ years in the clink being the topic of discussion.

That was an expertly executed hit by CZ from Binance. 

[Captainant 27653]

It wasn't a "hit" from CZ - FTX was operating a fraudulent business with a $6,800,000,000 hole in their books and stole billions of dollars of customer funds. He shined a light on it, but he's not the person who made them steal money to make a bunch of terrible longshot bets.

 

And lulz GRUhorn, is that you?? Must be building up your post count before you post some more russian propaganda in the Ukraine War thread, eh?

[Parliament 14255]

1 hour ago, BeardIP said:

 

Also, here is a hot sports opinion-- SBF, while still being an unethical and fraudulent liar, was actually right and had he been able to juggle the balls in the air better (and had better timing) he'd still be getting Times magazine covers for being a crypto billionaire and leader versus having his vegan diet and facing 100+ years in the clink being the topic of discussion. 

All while porking a troglodyte.

[Nice Guy Eddie 13510]

Part of the massive ETF growth is due investors fleeing the Grayscale bitcoin ETF. The amount is impossible to fully calculate. If true then the new ETF growth may start to slow.

But you also have other factors coming into play

• other ETF firms reportedly investigating the creation
• moving towards ETF investors being allowed to borrow against the bitcoin ETF holdings
• more and more investment firms recommending their investors put 1-5% into crypto

[bernorange 8359]

8 minutes ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

Part of the massive ETF growth is due investors fleeing the Grayscale bitcoin ETF. The amount is impossible to fully calculate. ...

GBTC outflows have slowed significantly:

https://www.theblock.co/data/crypto-markets/bitcoin-etf/spot-bitcoin-etf-flows

[Cum Rocket 136]

49 minutes ago, Captainant said:

It wasn't a "hit" from CZ - FTX was operating a fraudulent business with a $6,800,000,000 hole in their books and stole billions of dollars of customer funds. He shined a light on it, but he's not the person who made them steal money to make a bunch of terrible longshot bets.

 

And lulz GRUhorn, is that you?? Must be building up your post count before you post some more russian propaganda in the Ukraine War thread, eh?

The Ftx financial situation wasn't public knowledge until CZ brought it to light with a tweet. Then the run on Ftx started and it was game over. 

 

Love these Dave Portnoy Bitcoin cope clips. 

 

 

[Tailgate 3021]

Beast mode incoming.

[Captainant 27653]

6 minutes ago, Cum Rocket said:

The Ftx financial situation wasn't public knowledge until CZ brought it to light with a tweet. Then the run on Ftx started and it was game over. 

So just to be clear: it's your contention that as long as people don't know about a fraud, there's no fraud happening and it's all totally legal and totally cool?

[Cum Rocket 136]

A good day to be Michael Saylor. Microstrategy up 20%. This guy will end up looking like a genius and one of the richest men on the planet. All because he “got it” and had big enough balls to go all in with large amounts of money. 

 

6 minutes ago, Captainant said:

So just to be clear: it's your contention that as long as people don't know about a fraud, there's no fraud happening and it's all totally legal and totally cool?

This is a good heuristic I like to use online. 

If someone starts a comment or question with So…, 99% of the time that person is wrong. Either they're imagining something you said, or trying to insert words into your mouth. 

 

I only commented on it being a hit by CZ. Made no comment on SBF’s fraud or the nature of fraud itself.

 

The fact remains that if he had made it through to the next bull market, the fiat value of all his tokens would've been able to paper over his fuck ups. Would he then have learned his lesson and straightened things up? I guess we'll never know. 

[Captainant 27653]

27 minutes ago, Cum Rocket said:

The fact remains that if he had made it through to the next bull market, the fiat value of all his tokens would've been able to paper over his fuck ups. Would he then have learned his lesson and straightened things up? I guess we'll never know. 

Is it your contention that if the fraud has been papered over it would be of no consequence? You seem very unwilling to answer this yes/no question. 

[Nice Guy Eddie 13510]

If someone commits fraud but is somehow able to cover it up, it's still 100% wrong and illegal. However we all know that there must be situations where this occurs and the criminal gets away with it. 

[Nice Guy Eddie 13510]

With this rise in crypto prices, I believe the FTX victims will basically be made whole even though they won't feel like it. Let's say bitcoin was $20K in Nov '22 when FTX collapsed and you had 1 bitcoin on their site. The recent rise in price will most likely allow you to eventually get $20K back. I realize that the victim wants 1 BTC back and not $20K.  They most likely will get paid in bitcoin but it will be whatever BTC fraction = $20K.

It's impossible to give everyone back their money based on today's valuations because they don't have that much in assets.

[Cum Rocket 136]

On 2/28/2024 at 7:33 AM, Nice Guy Eddie said:

for what it's worth, I saw the following on crypto youtube today. SIAP.

Fidelity in Canada is packaging their crypto ETFs within their other ETFs.

As these scenarios start to become more and more common, especially with retirement plans, this is when you have an automatic flow of funds popping into the market every payday. I imagine crypto in 401ks is still looking like 2026 or 27.

As an aside, when Canada shows "Global", they mainly mean the US.

Another one. 

 

[Tailgate 3021]

SHIBA INU saying don’t forget about me…

[Cum Rocket 136]

 

[Nice Guy Eddie 13510]

what's with bitcoin's price not going up today? Something broken?

[nolongerU2horn 763]

1 hour ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

what's with bitcoin's price not going up today? Something broken?

it made an all-time high today

[MonkeyDoughnut 10232]

On 3/4/2024 at 11:01 AM, Nice Guy Eddie said:

Part of the massive ETF growth is due investors fleeing the Grayscale bitcoin ETF. The amount is impossible to fully calculate. If true then the new ETF growth may start to slow.

But you also have other factors coming into play

• other ETF firms reportedly investigating the creation
• moving towards ETF investors being allowed to borrow against the bitcoin ETF holdings
• more and more investment firms recommending their investors put 1-5% into crypto

Another reason for ETF growth is because traditional trading firms smell opportunity and would love to be able to short crypto as well as go long.  Hard for them to short Spot BTC, much easier to short an ETF.

[Cum Rocket 136]

2 hours ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

what's with bitcoin's price not going up today? Something broken?

 

[Cum Rocket 136]

 

[Parliament 14255]

10 hours ago, Cum Rocket said:

 

[Cum Rocket 136]

10 minutes ago, Parliament said:

I’m annoyed that UTIMCO isn’t on it. They already hold physical gold. 

[bernorange 8359]

17 minutes ago, Cum Rocket said:

I’m annoyed that UTIMCO isn’t on it. They already hold physical gold. 

I emailed UTIMCO in December inquiring about their gold holdings and was told by Adam Wright, "We divested our gold holdings several years ago."

[Blotto 23497]

13 minutes ago, bernorange said:

I emailed UTIMCO in December inquiring about their gold holdings and was told by Adam Wright, "We divested our gold holdings several years ago."

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/texas/article/The-Texas-Bullion-Depository-sold-as-a-gold-mine-16416032.php

Quote

When state lawmakers decided in 2015 that Texas needed to be the only state to have its own precious metals depository, supporters said there were plenty of reasons the project would be a gold mine.

The University of Texas/Texas A&M Investment Management Co., which handles the schools’ endowment, owned hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of gold as an investment, stored for a fee in a New York City vault. A state-owned depository “will repatriate $1 billion of gold bullion from the Federal Reserve in New York to Texas,” Gov. Greg Abbott said.

Residents, too, were clamoring for an independent-minded location they could trust with their valuables. “When I first presented this, to be honest with you, we got hundreds and hundreds of people from all over the world, really, who wanted to be able to put their gold in something that has the Texas banner above it,” said Rep. Giovanni Capriglione, R-Southlake, the bill’s author. “This doesn’t work in Wisconsin, it doesn’t work in Idaho.”

Best of all, because the state would find a private partner to build and own the physical depository, it would cost taxpayers nothing. The enterprise would even reap a big profit for Texas. “We estimate that we could raise tens of millions of dollars in fees,” Capriglione testified.

Lets check in the progress, lulz.

Quote

More than three years after the depository opened, none of those things has happened. Yet this year, state lawmakers quietly voted to let the state borrow millions of dollars to bail out a project created to fix a problem that didn’t exist and which they had vowed would cost nothing.

“It’s ridiculous,” said Sen. Kel Seliger, R-Amarillo, one of only two senators to oppose the bill. “I don’t think the state of Texas should be in the commercial real estate business or the gold bullion business.”

The UT/A&M investment company liquidated its gold more than a year ago without moving any bullion back to Texas. A spokeswoman said the agency currently owns no precious metals and so has no need for storage. No other state entity has metal at the Texas depository.

 

[Cum Rocket 136]

Womp womp. 
 

Still, with the large bitcoin community in Austin and the larger mining community across the state, it would seem to be a natural fit. 

[Nice Guy Eddie 13510]

Major ceilings at 70K/4K for BTC and ETH. 70K was briefly passed (new all time high) before the entire market fell down a couple of hours ago. Looks to be rebuilding steam. 

Makes me think that if these two resistance amounts are surpassed, we could see a major bump upwards. Of course I'm reading into the data what I want to see.

[Captainant 27653]

On 3/7/2024 at 12:33 PM, Cum Rocket said:

Womp womp. 
 

Still, with the large bitcoin community in Austin and the larger mining community across the state, it would seem to be a natural fit. 

Problem is, that "mining community" exists just to suck up free corporate welfare bucks from our regulatory captured state

https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/texas-crypto-miners-lawsuit/

Quote

When it is very hot or very cold, ERCOT pays large users to power down. Riot Platforms, a large miner in the Central Texas town of Rockdale, said it earned $189 million mining Bitcoin last year and $71.2 million from ERCOT. This isn’t pocket change. Riot told investors this was “integral to our overall strategy.”

It's just ridiculous how much free shit we're giving away just to attract a bunch of migrated chinese BTC mining operations

[Cum Rocket 136]

6 hours ago, Captainant said:

Problem is, that "mining community" exists just to suck up free corporate welfare bucks from our regulatory captured state

https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/texas-crypto-miners-lawsuit/

It's just ridiculous how much free shit we're giving away just to attract a bunch of migrated chinese BTC mining operations

Cry harder for me 

 

How often does the federal Govt reverse course and admit it was wrong when litigation is brought against them? I don’t know for certain but my guess would be almost never. 
 

That column you posted was a joke. 

[52-80 19150]

Real gold and “digital gold” went bonkers this month

[Nice Guy Eddie 13510]

On 3/8/2024 at 11:45 AM, Nice Guy Eddie said:

Major ceilings at 70K/4K for BTC and ETH. 70K was briefly passed (new all time high) before the entire market fell down a couple of hours ago. Looks to be rebuilding steam. 

Makes me think that if these two resistance amounts are surpassed, we could see a major bump upwards. Of course I'm reading into the data what I want to see.

Felt like lifetime of not being able to break 70/4 and I wake up to 71 and 4. 

as Americans are groggily waking up today after the time change, I predict it could pop up to 75 (only a 4.6% gain from now) today before settling closer to 71. Should be a good day for the ETFs and micro strategy stock.

[Cum Rocket 136]

GM from Spring Break vacation.