Bitcoin (cryptocurrency)

BusterPhillips said:
Legal tender right now is on its last legs, look at the world wide debt we are currently in and it will get worse. Decentralised currently will protect people against hyper inflation if there is a collapse of an economy.

I would say we are 5 - 10yrs away from a shift in the way everyone manages their finances and currency.
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How will decentralised currency protect against hyperinflation? The price of Bitcoin has had 50% drops in one day previously. A shift to 'virtual' currency will increase the risk of hyperinflation. Sure there could be other countries that end up like Zimbabwe, but that is so unlikely in the UK/EU/USA that it's a redundant point for most people on this board.

What do you think will happen if crypto takes over? Suddenly there are no public funds available (because no one pays tax as it's all hidden), no NHS, no police, no defence budget, no roadworks, no welfare, no schools etc.

My honest opinion is crypto is the most recent dot.com boom and subsequent crash. People are throwing good money into absolute rubbish, hoping someone else will be even dafter and pay more for it in the future. There are very few people buying it because they actually think it will be a useful tool - people aren't buying into the idea, they are trying to become bitcoin millionaires (but that ship has sailed).
 
Gaudion M said:
What is an Alt season?

On the basis nothing happens ever in the lifetime of a crypto asset how does it have a season and how can you predict anything?
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I guess the only thing you can predict with crypto is that someone, somewhere, with a hell of a lot of media attention *cough Elon Cough Musk* will wait until the 'value' drops (as people lose interest), stick a few million more into it and then post online about it - whipping their followers into a rush to make a profit in this new spike.... before they cash out and make a few million more.
 
What I don't understand is that crypto is supposed to be a currency that's cheaper to use because there's no banking overheads yet it's so volatile that the price of any goods or services paid for by crypto must be constantly updated to keep pace with the volatility. Surely that would add a bigger overhead than traditional banking costs? On the other hand I've not seen much about crypto being used for normal commercial transactions and it appears to be mostly used for speculative trading. If that's the case surely it will become apparent one day that the whole idea is almost pointless and has limited use in the real world. There's a good chance also that I don't have a clue what I'm talking about.
 
Agree with above - the term Crypto Currency is a misnomer. It is more like a Crypto speculation / bet.

The technology is interesting but at the same time it is part of the problem. The decentralisation means it takes massive computer processing power, and to fund the use of power the price of the coins has to go up. Also a whole industry has sprang up around it - but what funds that industry other than speculative value growth (and/or fraud). The system has exponential growth built into it and that will only end one way.
 
Gaudion M said:
What is an Alt season?

On the basis nothing happens ever in the lifetime of a crypto asset how does it have a season and how can you predict anything?
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Alt season is when people take their latest profits from Bitcoins price rise thats run out of steam, and then pile it into all the other coins hoping for 10x 100x rises.
 
Manchester33 said:
How will decentralised currency protect against hyperinflation? The price of Bitcoin has had 50% drops in one day previously. A shift to 'virtual' currency will increase the risk of hyperinflation. Sure there could be other countries that end up like Zimbabwe, but that is so unlikely in the UK/EU/USA that it's a redundant point for most people on this board.

What do you think will happen if crypto takes over? Suddenly there are no public funds available (because no one pays tax as it's all hidden), no NHS, no police, no defence budget, no roadworks, no welfare, no schools etc.

My honest opinion is crypto is the most recent dot.com boom and subsequent crash. People are throwing good money into absolute rubbish, hoping someone else will be even dafter and pay more for it in the future. There are very few people buying it because they actually think it will be a useful tool - people aren't buying into the idea, they are trying to become bitcoin millionaires (but that ship has sailed).
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A decentralised currency such as Bitcoin is protected against hyperinflation because there is a finite supply. You can’t suddenly mine loads more once the 21 million have been mined.

With fiat currencies the government can print more therefore inflating the currency to reduce national debt like in Zimbabwe. How much has the US printed in the last 12 months? Or the UK with QE. You can’t do that with Bitcoin.

Cryoto is becoming more and more regulated all the time. So much so that the SEC will probably approve a BTC ETF in the next few years. It’s not all hidden and people do pay tax on it. The percentage of transactions done in crypto that are ilegal is far less than with fiat currency.
 
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Wafty Cranker said:
A decentralised currency such as Bitcoin is protected against hyperinflation because there is a finite supply. You can’t suddenly mine loads more once the 21 million have been mined.

With fiat currencies the government can print more therefore inflating the currency to reduce national debt. How much has the US printed in the last 12 months? You can’t do that with Bitcoin.

Cryoto is becoming more and more regulated all the time. So much so that the SEC will approve an ETF in the next few years. It’s not all hidden and people do pay tax on it. The percentage of transactions done in crypto that are ilegal is far less than with fiat currency.
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So who actually decides that you can't suddenly mine loads more after reaching 21 million? Surely it's just code at the end of the day and can always be edited. That's only bitcoin too, that might not be the right horse to back. A good example is to look at the internet giants in the early naughties and see which ones are still around.

Also, it's incredibly unrealistic to consider Bitcoin (or other cryptocurrencies) will actually function as a currency when the value fluctuates significantly from one day to the next.

I think in the next 10 years physical cash will be a thing of the past, most transactions will be digitalized and governments will heavily restrict transactions in crypto because they can't regulate it (if they impose a way to regulate it, it essentially makes it pointless, so there wouldn't be a need for anyone to buy it). You'll still be able to buy and trade crypto, but you won't be able to buy your weekly shop with it, for example.
 
Wafty Cranker said:
A decentralised currency such as Bitcoin is protected against hyperinflation because there is a finite supply. You can’t suddenly mine loads more once the 21 million have been mined.

With fiat currencies the government can print more therefore inflating the currency to reduce national debt like in Zimbabwe. How much has the US printed in the last 12 months? Or the UK with QE. You can’t do that with Bitcoin.

Cryoto is becoming more and more regulated all the time. So much so that the SEC will probably approve a BTC ETF in the next few years. It’s not all hidden and people do pay tax on it. The percentage of transactions done in crypto that are ilegal is far less than with fiat currency.
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Who pays for the processing once all the coins are issued? What is the incentive to keep the blockchain going?
 
Gaudion M said:
Who pays for the processing once all the coins are issued? What is the incentive to keep the blockchain going?
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The miners who run the network are rewarded in bitcoin, the supply cannot go over its all run on a mathematical equation that's well above my comprehension.

Bitcoin is the biggest due to being the first, the technology is better now Bitcoin needs to die eventually.
 
Scottyboi said:
The miners who run the network are rewarded in bitcoin, the supply cannot go over its all run on a mathematical equation that's well above my comprehension.

Bitcoin is the biggest due to being the first, the technology is better now Bitcoin needs to die eventually.
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This is the question that i have never seen answered in any kind of satisfactory way. It takes massive processing power to keep the blockchain going. Without that it all falls down. That processing is paid for by issuing new coins. So the supply has to go up to pay the cost. But at some point that increasing supply will start to dent the value and it could easily get to a point that mining is not sustainable. If the miners bail out on mass then the game is up. Value is nil overnight.

In any normal investment asset class there is some underlying value. Even a bond in a defaulted company might get paid out as it goes through the insolvency process. Bond holders in Lehman Brothers got fully paid out in the end.

In crypto there is nothing to stop a total collapse.
 
Gaudion M said:
This is the question that i have never seen answered in any kind of satisfactory way. It takes massive processing power to keep the blockchain going. Without that it all falls down. That processing is paid for by issuing new coins. So the supply has to go up to pay the cost. But at some point that increasing supply will start to dent the value and it could easily get to a point that mining is not sustainable. If the miners bail out on mass then the game is up. Value is nil overnight.

In any normal investment asset class there is some underlying value. Even a bond in a defaulted company might get paid out as it goes through the insolvency process. Bond holders in Lehman Brothers got fully paid out in the end.

In crypto there is nothing to stop a total collapse.
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When you send Bitcoin you pay a fee to the miners to move it/update the blockchain/whatever it is they do.

If some miners stopped doing it then the price of sending Bitcoin would go up. What would happen then is more miners would be attracted due to the increased reward for mining.

It’s like that at the moment when there is a sudden change in price and people start moving it around. The cost to do so goes up.
 
Manchester33 said:
So who actually decides that you can't suddenly mine loads more after reaching 21 million? Surely it's just code at the end of the day and can always be edited. That's only bitcoin too, that might not be the right horse to back. A good example is to look at the internet giants in the early naughties and see which ones are still around.

Also, it's incredibly unrealistic to consider Bitcoin (or other cryptocurrencies) will actually function as a currency when the value fluctuates significantly from one day to the next.

I think in the next 10 years physical cash will be a thing of the past, most transactions will be digitalized and governments will heavily restrict transactions in crypto because they can't regulate it (if they impose a way to regulate it, it essentially makes it pointless, so there wouldn't be a need for anyone to buy it). You'll still be able to buy and trade crypto, but you won't be able to buy your weekly shop with it, for example.
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I don’t disagree with most of this. It’s capped at 21 million because of the source code. To be honest I’m not sure of the process to change it.

I agree we won’t be using Bitcoin for the weekly shop. You might use it for the odd high value purchase, like a Tesla maybe, but we don’t use gold to make purchases either. Bitcoin is more like digital gold.

Other cryptos will be suited to everyday transactions in future in my opinion. Mainly because of smart contracts and being able to cut out middlemen in transactions and automate processes.

There are so many shit coins for sure that won’t be around for long. I think there are also some really good projects that can coexist along side Bitcoin that serve a purpose fiat currency does not.
 
Put 515 into Euthereum on saturday account is now sitting on 547. Not major money but a nice bit of interest, tempted to buy a whole coin it doesn't look like it is coming down anytime soon. What are other peoples stratergies, do you dabble with more than one coin?
 
oman0115 said:
Put 515 into Euthereum on saturday account is now sitting on 547. Not major money but a nice bit of interest, tempted to buy a whole coin it doesn't look like it is coming down anytime soon. What are other peoples stratergies, do you dabble with more than one coin?
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been buying BTC,ETH, XRP,ADA for about 2 years now. Dollar cost averaging with any spare money I've had. Expected ETH to be higher by now tbh, but expect it to be 10k a coin by Dec.
 
Gaudion M said:
This is the question that i have never seen answered in any kind of satisfactory way. It takes massive processing power to keep the blockchain going. Without that it all falls down. That processing is paid for by issuing new coins. So the supply has to go up to pay the cost. But at some point that increasing supply will start to dent the value and it could easily get to a point that mining is not sustainable. If the miners bail out on mass then the game is up. Value is nil overnight.

In any normal investment asset class there is some underlying value. Even a bond in a defaulted company might get paid out as it goes through the insolvency process. Bond holders in Lehman Brothers got fully paid out in the end.

In crypto there is nothing to stop a total collapse.
Click to expand...
You are talking about proof of work, massive output of many miners which has a big c02 footprint.

PoW block chain mining will become obsolete in the coming years, proof of stake or proof of validation are much friendlier on the environment and require much less processing power and its one of the reasons Eth is switching to PoS I'm later 21
 
BusterPhillips said:
You are talking about proof of work, massive output of many miners which has a big c02 footprint.

PoW block chain mining will become obsolete in the coming years, proof of stake or proof of validation are much friendlier on the environment and require much less processing power and its one of the reasons Eth is switching to PoS I'm later 21
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But if that is the case Bitcoin would be obsolete and its value Nil. Are crypto coins going to survive the death of Bitcoin?
 
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