Cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, etc.)

[Wally Fairway 5541]

4 hours ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

Dangers of working for crypto.

TLDR: Binance's African regional mgr detained in Nigeria because the govt demanded a list of Nigerian Binance traders reportedly due to money laundering and terrorism activities. He was under house arrest but allowed to attend services at a nearby mosque. He never returned and left the country on another passport. Nigeria also is filing tax evasion charges against Binance and this mgr.

TLDR squared: Nigeria is not a crypto friendly country.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-68656119?utm_campaign=mb&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_source=morning_brew

Or if the guy really was funding terrorist activity with untraceable payments, then maybe Nigeria is not a terrorist friendly country (then again it could be both)

[52-80 19147]

This is hilarious. 

Matt Levine, who writes a fantastic column for Bloomberg, often jokes that the best thing a brokerage can do for its clients is to prevent them from trading. The simple reason being that stocks tend to go up and people overtrade themselves into a loss so its better to just HODL. 

From the Financial Times:

[bernorange 8359]

FWIW:

Quote

...
“Dips in #Bitcoin keep on getting shorter and shorter. Meanwhile, rallies are lasting longer and moving quicker,” said analysts for The Kobeissi Letter. “This is a textbook sign that shorts are being squeezed as we hit fresh all-time high territory.”

Because of this, the analysts warned that Bitcoin may be setting up for a short squeeze.

“Currently, the gap between institutional longs and hedge fund shorts is at a record high,” they said. “While hedge funds hold nearly 15,000 in net short contracts, institutions hold nearly 20,000 in net longs.”
...
Based on analysis from crypto market intelligence firm CryptoQuant, the pressure on shorts is likely to continue moving forward as the Bitcoin market continues to move closer to a liquidity crisis.

“Bitcoin demand has soared to unprecedented levels this year. We estimate monthly Bitcoin demand has increased from 40K Bitcoin at the start of 2024 to 213K Bitcoin as of the time of publishing,” the firm said in its latest Weekly Crypto Report. “An important factor behind this demand growth is ETF buying, but as of late other large investors have also increased their Bitcoin allocation.”

“On the supply side of the equation, the total Bitcoin readily available for selling continues to decline,” they noted. “The total ‘visible’ amount of Bitcoin at key entities stands at 2.7 million Bitcoin, down from an all-time high of 3.5 million Bitcoin in March 2020.”

“Record Bitcoin demand paired with declining sell-side liquidity has resulted in the liquid inventory of Bitcoin plunging to its lowest ever in terms of months of demand,” the report said. “We estimate that the present Bitcoin sell-side liquidity inventory is only enough to cover the current rate of demand growth for six to twelve months. A declining liquid inventory would support higher prices.”

There is even less liquidity available when exchanges outside of the U.S. are excluded from the calculation.

“The Bitcoin liquid inventory drops to six months of demand if we exclude the Bitcoin on exchanges outside the US,” the report said. “We exclude these exchanges considering that US spot Bitcoin ETFs will only source Bitcoin from US entities.”

According to CryptoQuant founder and CEO Ki Young Ju, sell-side liquidity is now “much lower” than it has been historically relative to demand. ...

https://www.kitco.com/news/article/2024-03-27/bitcoin-price-dips-after-coinbase-staking-lawsuit-decision-analyst-warn

 

[Guest]

If Bitcoin is all about supply and demand, opening up the ETFs is just a huge influx of demand from people who didn't know or want to go through the trouble of purchasing on Coinbase, etc. (It's much more cumbersome than simply buying an ETF through your existing brokerage account.)

Meanwhile, supply is drying up. 

[Captainant 27633]

21 minutes ago, FirstTimeCaller said:

If Bitcoin is all about supply and demand, opening up the ETFs is just a huge influx of demand from people who didn't know or want to go through the trouble of purchasing on Coinbase, etc. (It's much more cumbersome than simply buying an ETF through your existing brokerage account.)

Meanwhile, supply is drying up. 

More dumb money coming in to fuel longtime holder exits is how line go up

[Daddy Fat Sax 53]

30 minutes ago, FirstTimeCaller said:

If Bitcoin is all about supply and demand, opening up the ETFs is just a huge influx of demand from people who didn't know or want to go through the trouble of purchasing on Coinbase, etc. (It's much more cumbersome than simply buying an ETF through your existing brokerage account.)

Meanwhile, supply is drying up. 

It really is that simple. 

Barring a black swan event like some catastrophic bug in the software or the accidental leak of an engineered virus from a foreign lab, this year is going to be huge. 

 

9 minutes ago, Captainant said:

More dumb money coming in to fuel longtime holder exits is how line go up

Yes all that dumb hedge fund and wall St money coming in. 

Listen I get it, for once the little guys were able to frontrun Wall St and you didn't participate. In fact, you did the opposite and hated on it for YEARS instead.

I’d recommend taking the L and joining in. In a year you can buy your wife something nice. Maybe do some big renovations or something. She’d appreciate it. 

 

 

[Guest]

37 minutes ago, Captainant said:

More dumb money coming in to fuel longtime holder exits is how line go up

Serious question -- we have any evidence that big accounts have dumped coins in large amount? I haven't seen that and considering that BTC has gone from pennies to literally tens of thousands of dollars, it seems like it would have happened so far. If you were early and scooping up BTC for $5 a coin, would you not dump it at $1K or $10K? 

From what I've seen, a huge chunk hasn't moved in a long, long time. I'm actually wondering if it hasn't moved because it simply can't (lost keys).

https://blockworks.co/news/bitcoin-movement-three-years

Is it a situation where people say there are 19 million coins mined but far, far fewer are actually able to even be sold? I honestly don't know.
 

[HRSchenker 2268]

25 years for SBF

[Snake Diggity 4619]

54 minutes ago, FirstTimeCaller said:

Serious question -- we have any evidence that big accounts have dumped coins in large amount? I haven't seen that and considering that BTC has gone from pennies to literally tens of thousands of dollars, it seems like it would have happened so far. If you were early and scooping up BTC for $5 a coin, would you not dump it at $1K or $10K? 

From what I've seen, a huge chunk hasn't moved in a long, long time. I'm actually wondering if it hasn't moved because it simply can't (lost keys).

https://blockworks.co/news/bitcoin-movement-three-years

Is it a situation where people say there are 19 million coins mined but far, far fewer are actually able to even be sold? I honestly don't know.
 

It is an odd thing.  Far different from USD or gold and any other financial instrument.  If more and more people are using it as currency and there’s no increase in supply, the price will continue to go up which seems like it would become severely deflationary.  If Bitcoin’s value is in its use as a currency, but its price continues to rise to the point that it cannot be used as currency…….

Clearly a lot of people have made money on Bitcoin, and I have not made any, so maybe that means my opinion has no credibility.  I’m certainly no expert on blockchain or crypto.  But I still remain skeptical, if for no other reason than every single loud proponent of Bitcoin that I personally know is a fucking idiot.  I also believe that change control and government intervention are real risks to its value.

My opinion is that Bitcoin is a store of value.  An alternative to inflating USD and overpriced stocks.  It’s having a moment.  I’m not going to try to time that and if Bitcoin continues to go up forever, I am comfortable continuing to miss out.

Edited March 28 by Snake Diggity

[Guest]

12 minutes ago, HRSchenker said:

25 years for SBF

Woof. Made an example, didn't they? Might be the best thing they could do for the future trust in the market. 

[Guest]

27 minutes ago, HRSchenker said:

25 years for SBF

 

13 minutes ago, FirstTimeCaller said:

Woof. Made an example, didn't they? Might be the best thing they could do for the future trust in the market. 

No to go CR, but how they SBF get arrest, tried, convicted in seemingly no time at all while folks like Paxton and Trump see their stuff go on forever?

[Daddy Fat Sax 53]

1 hour ago, FirstTimeCaller said:

Serious question -- we have any evidence that big accounts have dumped coins in large amount? I haven't seen that and considering that BTC has gone from pennies to literally tens of thousands of dollars, it seems like it would have happened so far. If you were early and scooping up BTC for $5 a coin, would you not dump it at $1K or $10K? 

From what I've seen, a huge chunk hasn't moved in a long, long time. I'm actually wondering if it hasn't moved because it simply can't (lost keys).

https://blockworks.co/news/bitcoin-movement-three-years

Is it a situation where people say there are 19 million coins mined but far, far fewer are actually able to even be sold? I honestly don't know.
 

blockchain analysis is an inexact science imo. But here's an older breakdown. coins have distributed slowly over time. Still, the vast majority of coins haven't moved over years.

The Ultimate Guide to Bitcoin Whales (glassnode.com)

24 minutes ago, Snake Diggity said:

It is an odd thing.  Far different from USD or gold and any other financial instrument.  If more and more people are using it as currency and there’s no increase in supply, the price will continue to go up which seems like it would become severely deflationary.  If Bitcoin’s value is in its use as a currency, but its price continues to rise to the point that it cannot be used as currency…….

Clearly a lot of people have made money on Bitcoin, and I have not made any, so maybe that means my opinion has no credibility.  I’m certainly no expert on blockchain or crypto.  But I still remain skeptical, if for no other reason than every single loud proponent of Bitcoin that I personally know is a fucking idiot.  I also believe that change control and government intervention are real risks to its value.

My opinion is that Bitcoin is a store of value.  An alternative to inflating USD and overpriced stocks.  It’s having a moment.  I’m not going to try to time that and if Bitcoin continues to go up forever, I am comfortable continuing to miss out.

Saylor's description of bitcoin is as digital property. Less emphasis on currency. Then it causes less confusion in people.

Now if there ends up being some hyperbitcoinization event, then it will be end up a currency with more stable value at the end. That would be far off though.

Here's an interesting interview I'm about halfway through. I don't expect anyone to watch, it's long but anyway here it is.

 

He makes some interesting points about the definition of currencies. There's the 3 points. Medium of exchange. Store of value. Unit of account.

Out of all the currencies in the world there's only 3 or so units of account. USD, Euro, CNY.

None of the global currencies, including USD, are really stores of value. Anyone with any amount of assets tries to hold as little cash in checking account as possible. You buy stocks, or real estate, or gold or whatever to store value. 

[Daddy Fat Sax 53]

7 minutes ago, FirstTimeCaller said:

 

No to go CR, but how they SBF get arrest, tried, convicted in seemingly no time at all while folks like Paxton and Trump see their stuff go on forever?

Good point. I'd think maybe the laws around a private citizen committing brazen fraud are more clear cut and less open to frivolous procedural challenges that muck things up with someone in a public office.

[RDCanecutter 26381]

1 hour ago, FirstTimeCaller said:

From what I've seen, a huge chunk hasn't moved in a long, long time. I'm actually wondering if it hasn't moved because it simply can't (lost keys).
 

I suspect anti-social people keeling over from one Jolt Cola and Dorito too many, without a thought of how their friends or family might benefit from any inheritance.

This is not uncommon with a certain type of gold bug. Some dude lives his whole life in a 1960's ranch house, sitting on ammo boxes full of Gold Philharmonics. Dies. But in his case, his stash might turn up again even if inside the wall. Anything digital, I dunno. 

[Nice Guy Eddie 13508]

Inactive wallets are impossible to fully categorize in terms of why are they inactive. Recently there was a story that an inactive wallet moved its entire balance (1,000 BTC?) for the first time in over a decade. Previously those 1,000 BTC would have been considered lost by many.

"Satoshi" is estimated to have between 600K and 1.1m in BTC. There is a range because of the uncertainty of whether all of the potential wallets are his.  That range equates to $44-73B USD.

If there was a withdrawal from those wallets, it would destabilize the price. The lost coins are effectively built into the current price.

 

[52-80 19147]

13 minutes ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

"Satoshi" is estimated to have between 600K and 1.1m in BTC. There is a range because of the uncertainty of whether all of the potential wallets are his.  That range equates to $44-73B USD.

Brb changing my first name on Tinder to Satoshi

[MonkeyDoughnut 10229]

1 hour ago, FirstTimeCaller said:

 

No to go CR, but how they SBF get arrest, tried, convicted in seemingly no time at all while folks like Paxton and Trump see their stuff go on forever?

I'm guessing it's a case of no one is really debating the facts in the case and the facts show clear crimes combined with his entire executive team singing to the prosecutors.

[RDCanecutter 26381]

I feel for the former pizza delivery guy who tossed a scrawled tip code into his apartment of roommate squalor back when Bitcoin was a dollar.

[Thetexashammer 1062]

4 hours ago, Snake Diggity said:

My opinion is that Bitcoin is a store of value.  An alternative to inflating USD and overpriced stocks.  It’s having a moment.  I’m not going to try to time that and if Bitcoin continues to go up forever, I am comfortable continuing to miss out.

Consider all the various asset classes. Stocks and bonds and the largest classes of investments. In a place where the government goes into a financial crisis, which class outperforms? The Federal Reserve is engaged in financial repression, you will have a negative real return on bonds. Stocks will suffer because the economy will be crushed, growth will die. Cash, it needs little explanation. If you wish to hold cash while the Fed prints a trillion in fiat every couple months, good on you. 

Levered real estate is not a bad option. Debt values are fixed, rents depend mostly on nominal dollar salaries. Real estate will perform well, but you have to be levered before interest rates rise. It's a dicey proposition, but not bad at all.

Gold has storage costs but it is a decent inflation hedge. But you are likely paying a 20% premium up front and you can't do much with it. Overall, I don't like it, but I understand it for purposes of diversification, it has a negative correlation with financial assets. 

Bitcoin, however, is fixed in supply. You can buy stuff with it. There is no significant cost to buying or selling, and no storage cost. Maybe later we can get some interest. There is limited ability to pay for retail purchases, but that will change very shortly (at the very least, there will be a "Bitcoin" credit card where you pay the bill in Bitcoin). And it is new, people are buying it for the first time every day.

It is the best asset class to buy and hold for the reasons I gave above. And the best thing is, a lot of people haven't figured that out yet. 

[Snake Diggity 4619]

2 hours ago, Thetexashammer said:

Consider all the various asset classes. Stocks and bonds and the largest classes of investments. In a place where the government goes into a financial crisis, which class outperforms? The Federal Reserve is engaged in financial repression, you will have a negative real return on bonds. Stocks will suffer because the economy will be crushed, growth will die. Cash, it needs little explanation. If you wish to hold cash while the Fed prints a trillion in fiat every couple months, good on you. 

Levered real estate is not a bad option. Debt values are fixed, rents depend mostly on nominal dollar salaries. Real estate will perform well, but you have to be levered before interest rates rise. It's a dicey proposition, but not bad at all.

Gold has storage costs but it is a decent inflation hedge. But you are likely paying a 20% premium up front and you can't do much with it. Overall, I don't like it, but I understand it for purposes of diversification, it has a negative correlation with financial assets. 

Bitcoin, however, is fixed in supply. You can buy stuff with it. There is no significant cost to buying or selling, and no storage cost. Maybe later we can get some interest. There is limited ability to pay for retail purchases, but that will change very shortly (at the very least, there will be a "Bitcoin" credit card where you pay the bill in Bitcoin). And it is new, people are buying it for the first time every day.

It is the best asset class to buy and hold for the reasons I gave above. And the best thing is, a lot of people haven't figured that out yet. 

Thats an interesting point.  I am not an expert and all the crypto bros say “no way” but I’m not convinced that the code can’t be changed in a way that undermines its value.  Buying Bitcoin is an act of higher faith than buying USD (or gold or stocks) imho.  I also look at how much the US is vested in the USD as the worlds primary method of exchange and the worlds reserve currency, and I don’t see them letting Bitcoin undermine that.

People aren’t using Bitcoin to transact to any meaningful degree.  Its use as a currency is not at all reflected in its current price.  I think it’s current price simply reflects the fact that there was a shitload of capital out there with no reasonable place to put it; if Bitcoin’s price keeps going up or remains stable if/when the world economy goes into severe recession then that will be proven wrong to a large degree.

[Daddy Fat Sax 53]

33 minutes ago, Snake Diggity said:

I am not an expert and all the crypto bros say “no way” but I’m not convinced that the code can’t be changed in a way that undermines its value.

Sound reasoning. 😆 

Here ya go 

 

[Daddy Fat Sax 53]

On a related note, Tl;Dr but here you go. 

 

https://medium.com/@lopp/who-controls-bitcoin-core-c55c0af91b8a

[Snake Diggity 4619]

7 minutes ago, Daddy Fat Sax said:

On a related note, Tl;Dr but here you go. 

 

https://medium.com/@lopp/who-controls-bitcoin-core-c55c0af91b8a

Crypto bro immediately chimes in with link to crypto bro’s blog post.

[Daddy Fat Sax 53]

1 minute ago, Snake Diggity said:

Crypto bro immediately chimes in with link to crypto bro’s blog post.

Sorry let me find something from a non expert, who's not convinced of things that are written in the code. Do you have a blog?

[Snake Diggity 4619]

Just now, Daddy Fat Sax said:

Sorry let me find something from a non expert, who's not convinced of things that are written in the code. Do you have a blog?

Nah not yet, lemme get banned like 10 more times like you and then I’ll start one.

[RDCanecutter 26381]

3 hours ago, Thetexashammer said:

Gold has storage costs but it is a decent inflation hedge. But you are likely paying a 20% premium up front and you can't do much with it. Overall, I don't like it, but I understand it for purposes of diversification, it has a negative correlation with financial assets. 

You may be right about everything else in the post, but this one jumped out at me. If you are willing to poke around, and you want gold, you can get it with a 0% to to 3% mark-up. I don't doubt that the elder-abuse crowd are flogging it at 20 (to 50?)% percent mark-up. Pretty much if it's on a national radio show or TV, run.

[Daddy Fat Sax 53]

3 hours ago, Snake Diggity said:

Nah not yet, lemme get banned like 10 more times like you and then I’ll start one.

 I like how this is brought up like I’m such a distasteful person.
 

Let’s say I get 1000 negs. Easily 80% are from like 10-12 posters. So if 10 people here hate me I shouldn’t be able to post on the forum?

 

I like talking about this stuff here, and I’ve helped other posters make money. I think my contributions to the site are a net positive. 

[Thetexashammer 1062]

7 hours ago, RDCanecutter said:

You may be right about everything else in the post, but this one jumped out at me. If you are willing to poke around, and you want gold, you can get it with a 0% to to 3% mark-up. I don't doubt that the elder-abuse crowd are flogging it at 20 (to 50?)% percent mark-up. Pretty much if it's on a national radio show or TV, run.

It's not really my argument. I am probably 80% on it. There are some underlying assumptions, some have great evidence, others not so much. The basic point seems true, insofar as it's better than gold surely. Better than bonds? Almost 100%. Stocks? I am not even sure there is a real bubble. I made some decent money on an E&P stock trading at 3x earnings. Meta trades around 25x current earnings. Not insane to me.

I was really referring to physical gold, which is the best analogue to bitcoin in a wallet. You can buy gold stocks, which are a proxy. Or you can do futures, which are basically frictionless, however, that probably requires active management and some financial sophistication. I think you can still take physical delivery of a gold contract. However, you have to store it and you have to get a metallurgist if you want to sell your brick.

I am not a gold bug, but if you know how I could buy (and sell) coins without a huge markup I would probably be into that. Having some gold in the safe would be cool. But I feel like buying gold is like buying a car, meaning you lose 30% when you drive off the lot.

Edited March 29 by Thetexashammer

[bernorange 8359]

Dealer spreads on gold Maples and Eagles are not that high.  As long as you buy bullion and not graded/slabbed numismatic stuff, you can do just fine with coins from just about any precious metals dealer (though some do have lower pemiums or shipping costs than others, so it is best to compare prices).

[Snake Diggity 4619]

11 hours ago, Daddy Fat Sax said:

 I like how this is brought up like I’m such a distasteful person.
 

Let’s say I get 1000 negs. Easily 80% are from like 10-12 posters. So if 10 people here hate me I shouldn’t be able to post on the forum?

 

I like talking about this stuff here, and I’ve helped other posters make money. I think my contributions to the site are a net positive. 

The site has an ignore feature.  The fact that you circumvent that by continually creating new accounts makes you a very distasteful person in this arena.

Also, color me extremely skeptical that anything you’ve ever posted has “helped other posters make money”.

Kindly fuck off.

Edited March 29 by Snake Diggity

[RDCanecutter 26381]

8 hours ago, Thetexashammer said:

It's not really my argument. I am probably 80% on it. There are some underlying assumptions, some have great evidence, others not so much. The basic point seems true, insofar as it's better than gold surely. Better than bonds? Almost 100%. Stocks? I am not even sure there is a real bubble. I made some decent money on an E&P stock trading at 3x earnings. Meta trades around 25x current earnings. Not insane to me.

I was really referring to physical gold, which is the best analogue to bitcoin in a wallet. You can buy gold stocks, which are a proxy. Or you can do futures, which are basically frictionless, however, that probably requires active management and some financial sophistication. I think you can still take physical delivery of a gold contract. However, you have to store it and you have to get a metallurgist if you want to sell your brick.

I am not a gold bug, but if you know how I could buy (and sell) coins without a huge markup I would probably be into that. Having some gold in the safe would be cool. But I feel like buying gold is like buying a car, meaning you lose 30% when you drive off the lot.

I am a simple caveman when it comes to stocks, especially on things like gold stocks, so I'll leave that side be.

On buying actual coin-sized chunks of gold at low premiums, I'll share what I know.

Bad deals are entirely possible, like your example of 30% mark-up. Fakes are possible (bars are easier to fake than coins.)

It pays to have two or three things you are interested in, that you learn all you can about. So you can spot a prize if it is on special. The saying is "Buy the book before you buy the coin," which can involve a lot of internet perusing as well.

Get to know brick-and-mortar coin shops. You might catch one on cash-flow-crunch day when they've bought a ton of stuff under spot. Or use the old "what's the price if I get 5 at once? angle.

If your friends realize you are interested in an occasional gold coin, you might get offers to buy things they hid away. I usually offer spot, or in between what they'd get and what I'd pay. We both do a little better. I have even (rarely) bought gold at under spot from a friend because he wanted it gone and we had already done a couple of deals.

There used to be tricks like using eBay bucks where you could get even small fractional coins at spot. Those appear to be extinct, but some of the guys scoring gold on Costco appear to get the price down via credit card kickbacks and what-not. I am a recovering heroin I mean CC addict so I let that pass.

[Daddy Fat Sax 53]

2 hours ago, Snake Diggity said:

The site has an ignore feature.  The fact that you circumvent that by continually creating new accounts makes you a very distasteful person in this arena.

Also, color me extremely skeptical that anything you’ve ever posted has “helped other posters make money”.

Kindly fuck off.

I don’t have to share the receipts.

At the time of my first post on this forum bitcoin was 7k. If you don’t think that six years and 10x later, that I’ve helped anybody make money then I don’t know what to say. 
 

 

[Thetexashammer 1062]

1 hour ago, RDCanecutter said:

I am a simple caveman when it comes to stocks, especially on things like gold stocks, so I'll leave that side be.

On buying actual coin-sized chunks of gold at low premiums, I'll share what I know.

Bad deals are entirely possible, like your example of 30% mark-up. Fakes are possible (bars are easier to fake than coins.)

It pays to have two or three things you are interested in, that you learn all you can about. So you can spot a prize if it is on special. The saying is "Buy the book before you buy the coin," which can involve a lot of internet perusing as well.

Get to know brick-and-mortar coin shops. You might catch one on cash-flow-crunch day when they've bought a ton of stuff under spot. Or use the old "what's the price if I get 5 at once? angle.

If your friends realize you are interested in an occasional gold coin, you might get offers to buy things they hid away. I usually offer spot, or in between what they'd get and what I'd pay. We both do a little better. I have even (rarely) bought gold at under spot from a friend because he wanted it gone and we had already done a couple of deals.

There used to be tricks like using eBay bucks where you could get even small fractional coins at spot. Those appear to be extinct, but some of the guys scoring gold on Costco appear to get the price down via credit card kickbacks and what-not. I am a recovering heroin I mean CC addict so I let that pass.

It looks like Monex has some pretty tight spreads around the 1oz American Eagle gold coin. I will probably buy a couple soon just for fun.

[bernorange 8359]

There are many dealers listed here if you want to shop around before buying:

https://www.pmbug.com/forums/marketplace.8/?prefix_id=1&order=rating_avg&direction=desc

[RDCanecutter 26381]

2 hours ago, Thetexashammer said:

It looks like Monex has some pretty tight spreads around the 1oz American Eagle gold coin. I will probably buy a couple soon just for fun.

Just bear in mind how high gold is right now. 

[Daddy Fat Sax 53]

The coil is tightening. Big breakout in BTC coming soon. 

[Daddy Fat Sax 53]

On 3/31/2024 at 8:40 PM, Daddy Fat Sax said:

The coil is tightening. Big breakout in BTC coming soon. 

welp this was wrong. a little more patience required.

[Captainant 27633]

two weeks, amirite?

[B00M 6413]

Have any of you crypto folks sold any and then done your taxes? I had to use an outside service (ZenLedger) to get an accurate gain/loss report. It was $50, still painful, but I would definitely recommend their service because of the customer support. Figuring out my cost basis and capital gains for BTC and ETH required uploading or linking all my transactions across every exchange until the beginning of time. PayPal was the worst “exchange” or whatever the fuck they technically are, to work with because the spreadsheet they export is not formatted correctly to work with TurboTax or ZenLedger so you’re having to clean up a .CSV, upload, error, try again…
 

This is not currency — every transfer or transaction is a taxable event. If I thought crypto was impractical before, I fucking hate it now. 

[bernorange 8359]

#NonHODLworldproblems  😛

[bernorange 8359]

Quote

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“The overall market for computing services is expected to grow significantly over the next decade, driven by AI applications across a number of industries. Enterprise spending on cloud infrastructure services reached nearly $74 billion in 2023, with generative AI clearly being one of the main drivers. We’re excited to launch the first hybrid cloud-edge AI computing platform that’s powered by one of the largest distributed GPU networks and the leading Web3 community for AI, media, and entertainment,” said Mitch Liu, co-founder and CEO of Theta Network.

The First Hybrid Edge Cloud AI Network at Global Scale

EdgeCloud delivers a global-scale edge network and a cloud-based GPU infrastructure necessary for running today’s largest AI models. While chatbots like ChatGPT and other large language models are compute-intensive, new generative AI models such as text-to-video, text-to-3D, and sketch-to-3D require 10-100x the amount of computational power. The combined GPU compute power of EdgeCloud is sufficient to run more than 300-1000+ AI models concurrently, arguably holding the keys to the world’s most valuable and disruptive asset: global GPU compute.
...

https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2024/05/01/2873491/0/en/Theta-Network-Launches-EdgeCloud-the-First-Hybrid-Cloud-Edge-Computing-Platform-for-AI-Video-and-Rendering.html

I've been running the Theta Edge Node software on a couple of PCs for a few weeks now.  It's pretty cool tech.  

[Nice Guy Eddie 13508]

14 hours ago, bernorange said:

https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2024/05/01/2873491/0/en/Theta-Network-Launches-EdgeCloud-the-First-Hybrid-Cloud-Edge-Computing-Platform-for-AI-Video-and-Rendering.html

I've been running the Theta Edge Node software on a couple of PCs for a few weeks now.  It's pretty cool tech.  

Outside of learning more about their tech, what exactly do you earn in $/mo in running a node? I’m reading online about people estimating $1/mo assuming an average PC/GPU.

[bernorange 8359]

42 minutes ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

Outside of learning more about their tech, what exactly do you earn in $/mo in running a node? I’m reading online about people estimating $1/mo assuming an average PC/GPU.

"Running a node" can range in sophistication from installing their software on a PC that you run in the background while you use the PC for other things, to building dedicated (racks of) PCs with purpose built hardware specs.

A little over a month ago I simply downloaded the Edge Node software onto a laptop that I use sporadically to give it a test.  I have been running the laptop during the day (I shut it down over night).  This laptop is nothing fancy (it's *not* a gaming rig with NVIDIA CUDA enabled GPU).  It's generating around  0.4 TFUEL a day.  I doubt this covers the cost of electricity, but maybe - I'm not sure how much the laptop is drawing to be honest.

A few weeks ago, I grabbed a refurbished PC off amazon with an NVIDIA CUDA supported GPU for just a little more than what the graphics card would have cost by itself.  I set it up as my new email/internets browsing machine (I needed to replace my old machine anyway) and keep it running 24/7.  It's earning around 1.2 TFUEL per day since May 1 (when they started rolling out 3D rendering jobs).

I learned just this morning that if you stake 10,000 TFUEL on your Edge Node, supposedly you will get 4x more jobs (and consequently, TFUEL).  I have not tested that out.

What I can say is that the Edge Node software is pretty much dummy proof easy to install and run (no real configuration options/issues) and it works seemlessly in the background while you use your PC like you normally would.  Essentially, there is zero reason not to run it if you are working on a computer all day anyway.

[Captainant 27633]

5 minutes ago, bernorange said:

A few weeks ago, I grabbed a refurbished PC off amazon with an NVIDIA CUDA supported GPU for just a little more than what the graphics card would have cost by itself.  I set it up as my new email/internets browsing machine (I needed to replace my old machine anyway) and keep it running 24/7.  It's earning around 1.2 TFUEL per day since May 1 (when they started rolling out 3D rendering jobs).

I learned just this morning that if you stake 10,000 TFUEL on your Edge Node, supposedly you will get 4x more jobs (and consequently, TFUEL).  I have not tested that out.

What I can say is that the Edge Node software is pretty much dummy proof easy to install and run (no real configuration options/issues) and it works seemlessly in the background while you use your PC like you normally would.  Essentially, there is zero reason not to run it if you are working on a computer all day anyway

I'd be interested to see that plugged into a Kill-A-Watt to get power consumption for the rig. If it's an older PC there's a good chance you're losing money once you factor in the heat put off by the machine that you have to run your AC to clear. 

[bernorange 8359]

The PCs are not running 100% all the time.  I can hear the fan kick on for about 10-15 seconds when it processes a job once an hour or so.  It's really not taxing the computer or generating excessive heat. 

[Howlin wolf 133]

Not a lot going on price-wise. A lot going on as far as regulation and enforcement.

 

The Executive Branch has been attacking on multiple fronts. The current one is openly hostile. I agree with Bully here. SEC also DOJ. 

They arrested the founders and operators of the Samourai wallet and whirlpool mixing service. 

It all harkens back to an old legal fight. Due to precedent, I (non lawyer) don't think it will be quite the slam dunk that the usual fed money laundering cases are. 

 

 

 

[Howlin wolf 133]

Also, this is incredible. Social engineering hacker caught and interviewed. Moral of story for you coiners, be very careful out there. 

 

 

[bernorange 8359]

For the Surly crypto "no value / use case" derp crowd:

Quote

Vladimir Putin just won his fifth term as Russian president, though the 87% landslide election victory has been labeled preordained, stage-managed and a farce.

Now, exiled opposition leader Mark Feygin is leading an effort to give Russians an anonymous, blockchain-powered way to register a "protest vote" against Putin.

The results of this effort would, of course, have no legal weight in Russia and would not end Putin's presidency per se, but the referendum could, in theory, give a public relations boost to efforts to oust him. And it gives Russians a way to voice criticism in a nation where the consequences of dissent can be high; opposition leader Alexei Navalny recently died while jailed in an Arctic penal colony.

The vote will be conducted on an app called Russia2024, built using Rarimo’s Freedom Tool, which will use the Arbitrum blockchain and zero-knowledge cryptography, making voters' identities untraceable.

“Dissent in Russia is growing more risky and public opinion harder to track,” Feygin said in a statement. He was exiled from Russia years ago, termed a foreign agent in 2022 and remains a wanted person in Russia. He is a former lawyer for the founders of the protest collective Pussy Riot. “It is critical that we provide reliable, surveillance-proof avenues for protest and polling. Russia2024 and its underlying technology has enabled that,” he added.

Only holders of Russian passports will be able to cast their vote. Around 34.6 million Russians have a valid passport.

Users will need to download the Russia2024 app and prove their citizenship by scanning their passports with their phones. The passports have a biometric chip that the tool uses to confirm the voter's identity and facilitate an anonymous vote. If a person doesn’t own a smartphone, a single phone can be used as a shared voting machine.

Voting will be allowed for about two weeks, and the backers behind the tool are “sure” it is a secure way to vote and that voters don't need to fear repercussions.
...

https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2024/05/10/exiled-russian-opposition-leader-launches-blockchain-based-referendum-on-vladimir-putins-election-win/

Arbitrium is a layer 2 blockchain that is built on Ethereum.

[Captainant 27633]

40 minutes ago, bernorange said:

For the Surly crypto "no value / use case" derp crowd:

https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2024/05/10/exiled-russian-opposition-leader-launches-blockchain-based-referendum-on-vladimir-putins-election-win/

Arbitrium is a layer 2 blockchain that is built on Ethereum.

 $20 in gas fees to register a vote that doesn't matter? 

[Pam Cummings 9639]

And if(when) big vladdy finds out you participated, off to the gulag you go.