The Bitcoin/Crypto Thread
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And if I needed any further convincing:
Bitcoin: Initially, this is confusing for people, but unlike dollars, euros, pesos, and pounds, not only is there no physical Bitcoin, but there’s no digital Bitcoin either — nothing you can point at and say, “Look, there’s a Bitcoin.” Instead, the Bitcoin is just represented by the ledger saying that the Bitcoin exists. In January 2009, information was added to the Bitcoin ledger — this is what’s known as the Genesis Block — saying, in effect, “50 Bitcoins were added to the ledger.” From then on, Bitcoin existed because the ledger said so!
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Haha yup, what a concept. One could say the same thing about dollars, or gold. It's valuable because everyone says it's valuable. When the government prints more money, it's not like they found a stash of gold bars to base it on. They just made it up, printed it, and gave it to people. For me, bitcoin is like holding digital gold. Or monopoly money in a game that doesn't end.
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Haha yup, what a concept. One could say the same thing about dollars, or gold. It's valuable because everyone says it's valuable. When the government prints more money, it's not like they found a stash of gold bars to base it on. They just made it up, printed it, and gave it to people. For me, bitcoin is like holding digital gold. Or monopoly money in a game that doesn't end.
@89th said in The Bitcoin/Crypto Thread:
Haha yup, what a concept. One could say the same thing about dollars, or gold. It's valuable because everyone says it's valuable. When the government prints more money, it's not like they found a stash of gold bars to base it on. They just made it up, printed it, and gave it to people. For me, bitcoin is like holding digital gold. Or monopoly money in a game that doesn't end.
Not quite. There is a difference between fiat currency and precious metals. There is a reason the metal is worth something. It is worth something because of things you can do with it. Imagine the manufacturing world without gold, silver, platinum or even metals such as copper.
I'm with Mik, give me something I know what it is and so does everybody else...
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I don't disagree, and crypto isn't even 1% of what I am invested in, but still... what about diamonds? Relatively useless (I know, drilling... and jewelry...) but diamonds are basically pretty lumps of coal that everyone has agreed is worth tons of "money".
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But blockchains those are real! And are needed to do… stuff! Important stuff! Like… crypto security! Yeah! You need blockchains to protect your information on crypto markets, so you should definitely invest into crypto markets because you’ll need them to keep safe on the crypto markets!
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A lawyer was talking about the "Hawk Tuah" crypto thing.
"Someone lost a lot of money and said, 'I really don't understand how crypto works.' Well, guess what, you don't have to know how a blender works to not stick your dick in it."
"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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https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/12/teen-creates-memecoin-dumps-it-and-earns-50000/
Teen creates memecoin, dumps it, earns $50,000
This being a zero-sum game, the teen "earns" $50,000 means other people "lose" $50,000 elsewhere.
After all these years, it seems cryptocurrencies still have only one application: speculation.
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A lawyer was talking about the "Hawk Tuah" crypto thing.
"Someone lost a lot of money and said, 'I really don't understand how crypto works.' Well, guess what, you don't have to know how a blender works to not stick your dick in it."
@George-K said in The Bitcoin/Crypto Thread:
A lawyer was talking about the "Hawk Tuah" crypto thing.
"Someone lost a lot of money and said, 'I really don't understand how crypto works.' Well, guess what, you don't have to know how a blender works to not stick your dick in it."
Outstanding observation.
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https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/12/teen-creates-memecoin-dumps-it-and-earns-50000/
Teen creates memecoin, dumps it, earns $50,000
This being a zero-sum game, the teen "earns" $50,000 means other people "lose" $50,000 elsewhere.
After all these years, it seems cryptocurrencies still have only one application: speculation.
@Axtremus said in The Bitcoin/Crypto Thread:
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/12/teen-creates-memecoin-dumps-it-and-earns-50000/
Teen creates memecoin, dumps it, earns $50,000
This being a zero-sum game, the teen "earns" $50,000 means other people "lose" $50,000 elsewhere.
After all these years, it seems cryptocurrencies still have only one application: speculation.
That is certainly how it seems to me.
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https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/12/teen-creates-memecoin-dumps-it-and-earns-50000/
Teen creates memecoin, dumps it, earns $50,000
This being a zero-sum game, the teen "earns" $50,000 means other people "lose" $50,000 elsewhere.
After all these years, it seems cryptocurrencies still have only one application: speculation.
@Axtremus said in The Bitcoin/Crypto Thread:
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/12/teen-creates-memecoin-dumps-it-and-earns-50000/
Teen creates memecoin, dumps it, earns $50,000
This being a zero-sum game, the teen "earns" $50,000 means other people "lose" $50,000 elsewhere.
After all these years, it seems cryptocurrencies still have only one application: speculation.
You forgot money laundering.
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It is speculating, but it’s not blind speculation. Emerging blockchain technologies do look to have very promising applications in secure data transfer. Healthcare systems are looking at using it for faster and more secure methods of transferring patient data, banks and credit card processors are investing into it for better and more secure financial transactions. There are applications that could make blockchains one of the most critical technologies developed in first half of the century, which could have significant financial implications. Tossing a few bucks into the pot doesn’t necessarily hurt. Especially with a pro-crypto admin coming in.
The Brad
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My "investment" or "wager" in Shiba Inu is currently almost twice what I have invested. I am waiting this cycle out, to see if it gets close to ATH. If it does I will cash out with 2 - 3 x the "lunch money investment" I made and still have 40 million of them
for which I will have spent zero "real coins"I have already cashed in 50% of my original wager in fiat dollars issued by the Federal Reserve Bank.
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It is speculating, but it’s not blind speculation. Emerging blockchain technologies do look to have very promising applications in secure data transfer. Healthcare systems are looking at using it for faster and more secure methods of transferring patient data, banks and credit card processors are investing into it for better and more secure financial transactions. There are applications that could make blockchains one of the most critical technologies developed in first half of the century, which could have significant financial implications. Tossing a few bucks into the pot doesn’t necessarily hurt. Especially with a pro-crypto admin coming in.
@LuFins-Dad said in The Bitcoin/Crypto Thread:
It is speculating, but it’s not blind speculation. Emerging blockchain technologies do look to have very promising applications in secure data transfer. Healthcare systems are looking at using it for faster and more secure methods of transferring patient data, banks and credit card processors are investing into it for better and more secure financial transactions. There are applications that could make blockchains one of the most critical technologies developed in first half of the century, which could have significant financial implications. Tossing a few bucks into the pot doesn’t necessarily hurt. Especially with a pro-crypto admin coming in.
I don’t see the connection between the general value of an algorithm and the value of an application of that algorithm into a gambling game. The gambling game might still be useless.
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What ultimately gives fiat currencies value is that governments require you to use them to pay taxes. No such equivalent for crypto.
@jon-nyc said in The Bitcoin/Crypto Thread:
What ultimately gives fiat currencies value is that governments require you to use them to pay taxes. No such equivalent for crypto.
Slightly imprecise framing IMO. I would say that fiat currencies have value because they are defined as valuable by entities with authority to impose violence on you, if you do not provide them that value upon request.
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https://fortune.com/crypto/2025/01/30/errol-musk-memecoin-elon-tesla-donald-trump-crypto/
Elon Musk’s father Errol looks to monetize his famous name with ‘Musk It’ memecoin: ‘I’m the head of the family’
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A close look into a cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme that took a town in Argentina, one of hundreds such schemes around the world.
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https://www.pcworld.com/article/2767705/bitcoin-mining-is-no-longer-profitable.html
... the basic equation is that it now costs more in electricity to “mine” a single Bitcoin than that Bitcoin is currently worth—by a significant margin. Due to the nature of the Bitcoin protocol, which started the better part of two decades ago, it was inevitable that we’d reach this point eventually. The pool of minable Bitcoins shrinks as more are mined, and as that happens, the cryptographic work needed to “find” new ones becomes increasingly harder.
Coinshares, via reporting from Overlclockers.ru and PCGamer, reports that we’re now past that point—well past it, in fact. The math says that mining a new Bitcoin in 2025 costs approximately $137,000 USD in electricity, even if you have the (very expensive) computer power to do it, while that Bitcoin is worth about $95,000 on the open market. Even at its all-time high of over $100,000 earlier this year, and assuming ideal conditions with access to cheap power and hardware, it’s a losing game.
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That doesn't make sense to me. The difficulty of mining a Bitcoin is adjusted every two weeks to get a block time around every 10 mins. That should make that situation very unlikely and self-correct quickly. Also, I believe the miners get something extra from the transaction costs.
