Can someone explain this to me?
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OK, I'm a retired old fart.
I use credit cards, a checking account, etc.
(please type really slowly so I can get this)
Can someone please explain Bitcoin to me? Other than anonymity, what's the point?
"Bitcoin mining?" WTF is that.
Should I be concerned, or just ignore?
"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08
The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.
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For some, it’s about the anonymity. For others, it’s about a decentralized currency. And for others, it’s about investing.
As I understand it, Bitcoin is just the leading cryptocurrency…which is just a “blockchain” currency where every creation and usage is tracked on a universally accessible ledger. In theory, it’s decentralized (not controlled by anyone) and it’s transparent (can’t be faked by anyone).
Some crypto coins have a fixed supply, others don’t.
At the end of the day, the value (price per coin) seems to be old school supply and demand.
IMO, crypto is absolutely here to stay. I have a small investment in a few coins.
Also IMO the real long term value will be in NFT (non fungible tokens) which Ethereum (the 2nd most popular crypto coin) is based. NFTs essentially the same idea of cryptocurrency except instead of coins, you are selling a unique ID tracker that can be attached to anything, such as a work of art. I think it will be a long-term solution for creating unique IDs to attach to digital content that would otherwise be copied and forged easily.
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There's lots of technical reasons why people think it's a good store of value.
It's mostly a speculative asset at this point.
Aside from facilitating international payments and (and illegal transactions) - I see no advantages over the current payment networks (e.g., credit cards).
If every US retailer started accepting a specific cryptocurrency tomorrow, it wouldn't make my life any better.
Plus it takes as much electricity as all of Argentina uses just to run Bitcoin. I dunno how climate change people reconcile that with themselves.
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@george-k said in Can someone explain this to me?:
"Bitcoin mining?" WTF is that.
It's the Bitcoin way of how to deal with the initial distribution of currency and the growth of the money supply. The idea is that you can create new Bitcoin by solving computationally expensive problems.
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I'm none the wiser after reading all that.
I do know that I can't buy a decent video card for love nor money.
Proud supporter of Plan 2525. Everything you think, do and say will be in the pill you took today.
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@doctor-phibes said in Can someone explain this to me?:
I'm none the wiser after reading all that.
You took the words right out of my keyboard, Phibes.
I felt like a 4-year-old listening to Uncle Einstein explain relativity.
Success is measured by your discipline and inner peace. – Mike Ditka
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@catseye3 said in Can someone explain this to me?:
I felt like a 4-year-old listening to Uncle Einstein explain relativity.
I felt like a 4 year old listening to a bunch of people who don't really understand relativity trying to explain relativity.
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@klaus said in Can someone explain this to me?:
@george-k said in Can someone explain this to me?:
"Bitcoin mining?" WTF is that.
It's the Bitcoin way of how to deal with the initial distribution of currency and the growth of the money supply. The idea is that you can create new Bitcoin by solving computationally expensive problems.
It seems to me that there's a fundamental flaw with a currency that requires you to do something completely pointless and damaging to the environment in order to create wealth.
Then again, I guess you could say the same thing about gold mining.
Proud supporter of Plan 2525. Everything you think, do and say will be in the pill you took today.
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@doctor-phibes said in Can someone explain this to me?:
@klaus said in Can someone explain this to me?:
@george-k said in Can someone explain this to me?:
"Bitcoin mining?" WTF is that.
It's the Bitcoin way of how to deal with the initial distribution of currency and the growth of the money supply. The idea is that you can create new Bitcoin by solving computationally expensive problems.
It seems to me that there's a fundamental flaw with a currency that requires you to do something completely pointless and damaging to the environment in order to create wealth.
Then again, I guess you could say the same thing about gold mining.
I doubt that the inventor of mining had the current situation in mind when he came up with the idea.
If you leave off the unfortunate ecological consequences, the idea of mining is pretty interesting. I wouldn't know a better way to control initial distribution and growth of the money supply in a different way that is both decentralized and "fair" in a certain sense.
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@klaus said in Can someone explain this to me?:
I doubt that the inventor of mining had the current situation in mind when he came up with the idea.
Software engineers aren't engineers.
Proud supporter of Plan 2525. Everything you think, do and say will be in the pill you took today.
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@axtremus said in Can someone explain this to me?:
Is/was the inventor of Bitcoin an engineer?
Nobody knows....
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satoshi_Nakamoto -
@doctor-phibes said in Can someone explain this to me?:
Software engineers aren't engineers.
Indeed, whenever I get tech support on a piece of software that's not behaving, the person says, "I'll relay this to the engineers."
It takes all of my self-restraint to not ask what kind of locomotive...
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@doctor-phibes said in Can someone explain this to me?:
I'm none the wiser after reading all that.
And for @Catseye3 , how about this description:
Bitcoin is a type of "crypto currency". Aka digital money you can't hold, and that isn't owned by anyone or any government.
It's internet money. Enough people have decided it's real enough that they use it like real money to buy/sell things, and so the "equivalent dollar price" of what a bitcoin is worth has gone up based on the demand to have one.
Every time a bitcoin is created or used, it updates this magical internet ledger so every transaction and every bitcoin ever is tracked using the internet.
To create a bitcoin, which 99.999% of bitcoin users do not do because it's so expensive, you have to run lots of computer actions that conform to the bitcoin software rules.
Right now the energy it takes to run all of those computer actions is approximately the same energy used by a US household for 53 days.
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“I am fond of pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.” ~Winston S. Churchill
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@mik said in Can someone explain this to me?:
I'm taking the Buffett approach - if I don't really understand it I don't invest in it.
Ok how about this.
Let's pretend every post by @George-K is a Cheddarcoin, tracked by the post ID. How much money would you spend to own a Cheddarcoin? Once enough people buy his Cheddarcoins, @Klaus announces that TNCR officially supports the use of Cheddarcoin in TNCR transactions. For example, it might cost 5 Cheddarcoins to see a picture of @Doctor-Phibes drink a non-alcoholic beer, or 10 Cheddarcoins to force @mark to buy a Dell off of a Best Buy shelf. Or maybe 50 Cheddarcoins to see a picture of @Aqua-Letifer 's sister, but 100 Cheddarcoins to remove it. How many Cheddarcoins would you pay to watch @Larry wear a BLM shirt or for @Jolly to hire someone to chop down a small maple tree?
