Let's talk about Cryptocurrencies

[accord1999]

I don't see an underlying economic reasons why this should cause a boom in prices; it may just be a self-fulfilling prophecy where because there was a boom that coincided with an earlier Halvening, now people trade in expectation of it repeating and therefore causing the new boom, followed by another cycle of FOMO and YOLO.

[Winsor_Pilates]

Bingo!
There's no inherent value in the split, there's no inherent value in Bitcoin at all.
But there us a predictable pattern of buying and selling points amongst it's investors, so I get why someone might trade it simply based on that.
I can see that predictibilty attractive for betting on.

[dino7c]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

So why is the split increasing it's value? Isn't it just like a stock split, with the added negative that it gets twice as hard to produce?

How is this a negative? Bitcoin being limited is the whole point

Meanwhile governments around the world are printing money to hand out

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by dino7c

How is this a negative? Bitcoin being limited is the whole point

Meanwhile governments around the world are printing money to hand out

I'd guess the negative is that it is more expensive and less efficient to mine, which means mining gets consolidated into fewer and fewer large operations. Does this not increase the possibility of the 50% attack? Nevermind the increasing power consumption, which is the biggest waste of resources in human history.

Beyond increasing scarcity, how does its increase the value? Just because something is scarce, doesn't mean it has value.

[GGG]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

I'd guess the negative is that it is more expensive and less efficient to mine, which means mining gets consolidated into fewer and fewer large operations. Does this not increase the possibility of the 50% attack? Nevermind the increasing power consumption, which is the biggest waste of resources in human history.

Beyond increasing scarcity, how does its increase the value? Just because something is scarce, doesn't mean it has value.

While people believe in it Bitcoin functions like gold.

So if you double the mining cost you double the price to acquire a bitcoin not currently on the market. Provided there is demand for this additional coin you double the value.

[Jason14h]

Banks were recently paying negative interest rates .

Having alternate stores of value has a large appeal to a lot of people across the world

Virtual currency is easier to acquire and hold then physical assets

As long as people continue to believe it has value . But that is no different that any currency

[Resolute 14]

The theory for the rising price when the block size gets halved is that demand remains steady (or rises) as supply declines. Thus the bump up. It's still just a tulip and the value is still based on collective insanity, but there's plenty of whales taking advantage of it to profit in real money.

[afc wimbledon]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

The theory for the rising price when the block size gets halved is that demand remains steady (or rises) as supply declines. Thus the bump up. It's still just a tulip and the value is still based on collective insanity, but there's plenty of whales taking advantage of it to profit in real money.

Except you can plant a tulip, it looks nice and in a pinch you can eat the bulbs.

[cral12]

Tell us about Bitcoin "halving"?

I haven't dove in on this subject, but saw it "trending" today...interested to learn more.

[afc wimbledon]

Originally Posted by cral12

Tell us about Bitcoin "halving"?

I haven't dove in on this subject, but saw it "trending" today...interested to learn more.

The people that 'make' bitcoins, the miners, get a certain amount of bit coin for their efforts, that amount is going to arbitrarily half from 12.5 to 6.25 for no reason I can determine other than to attempt to drive the price up.

They make less money therefore less miners will bother, therefore the price goes up I assume. like everything else about bitcoin it makes no sense, seems to be obvious market manipulation and reeks of scam.

[dino7c]

There are a finite number of bitcoins (21 Million) at some point there will be no more bitcoins to be mined. For every 210,000 blocks mined the "reward" given to bitcoin miners is cut in half...this has been planned all along.

The point is a fixed supply and inflation schedule set in stone unlike the government just printing money whenever they feel like it. In theory the bitcoin price inflates over time therefore the return for mining needs to be reduced.

The supply of USD has Tripled in the last 20 years (talk about market manipulation) Bitcoin will never change...21M max


Agree or not this is why, the schedule was set in stone from the start

[Krovikan]

Each government has a defined plan for printing money, and this largely affects the stability of the currency. Just like each cryptocurrency has their rules, and in turn the stability of the coin is affected by that plan.

Unlike FIAT currency, some coins build in specific rule changing events like Bitcoin.

Canada for example prints 2x it's GDP every 5 years and destroys 90% of what they print every year in old bills.

So no governments that want stable currencies don't just print money.

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[afc wimbledon]

Originally Posted by dino7c

There are a finite number of bitcoins (21 Million) at some point there will be no more bitcoins to be mined. For every 210,000 blocks mined the "reward" given to bitcoin miners is cut in half...this has been planned all along.

The point is a fixed supply and inflation schedule set in stone unlike the government just printing money whenever they feel like it. In theory the bitcoin price inflates over time therefore the return for mining needs to be reduced.

The supply of USD has Tripled in the last 20 years (talk about market manipulation) Bitcoin will never change...21M max


Agree or not this is why, the schedule was set in stone from the start

Of course as there is an unlimited supply of different types of bitcoin it some what undermines the concept

[Resolute 14]

Ehh, I don't quite agree with that, AFC. An unlimited supply of Zimbabwean currency won't affect the US Dollar. Likewise, jokecoins - or even bitcoin forks - don't really impact Bitcoin for the same reason. If anything, Bitcoin is itself the US Dollar standard of the crypto world.

The problem Bitcoin is always going to have is the fact that it is backed by hopes and dreams, not the assets and reliable history of any nation-state.

[dino7c]

Originally Posted by Krovikan

Each government has a defined plan for printing money, and this largely affects the stability of the currency. Just like each cryptocurrency has their rules, and in turn the stability of the coin is affected by that plan.

Unlike FIAT currency, some coins build in specific rule changing events like Bitcoin.

Canada for example prints 2x it's GDP every 5 years and destroys 90% of what they print every year in old bills.

So no governments that want stable currencies don't just print money.

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

That is Canada, one of the worlds most responsible governments...still nothing is set in stone

Remember BTC is a worldwide currency...rules need/needed to be set in stone. Talk to someone from the Philippines or Macedonia, try paying people in these places.

Bitcoin may not be useful for some of you but as a tech business owner with global clients and employees Bitcoin has an everyday practical use for me.

[Krovikan]

Originally Posted by dino7c

That is Canada, one of the worlds most responsible governments...still nothing is set in stone

Remember BTC is a worldwide currency...rules need/needed to be set in stone. Talk to someone from the Philippines or Macedonia, try paying people in these places.

Bitcoin may not be useful for some of you but as a tech business owner with global clients and employees Bitcoin has an everyday practical use for me.

I never stated Bitcoin doesn't have any purpose, I use it for certain purposes and I have investments in both my TSFA in Eth and in multiple cryptocurrencies. Right now in Canada, liquidity of cryptocurrency is a huge issue, but TMX may solve that at some point. Which is why I don't use it as much anymore.

But saying Bitcoins rules are set is also not true, the network can change its rules, which could cause a hard fork which could cause more chaos then a FIAT currency being devalued.

Canada has motivation to keep its curency at about 3/4 of the US dollar due to our trade relations, so it tries to do this. As for Philippines or Macedonia those two examples ignore posts, there are lots of currencies that have ####ty rules as well, and in those countries a secondary FIAT currency usually is used like USD.







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[Resolute 14]

Yeah, saying Bitcoin rules are set in stone is laughably wrong. The entire system is based on consensus. Consensus changes, rules change. Enough people get mad, the currency gets forked - which in turn reduces reliability and confidence in the system. Which, in turn only reinforces the tulip nature of the project.

[Fuzz]

I don't think cryptocurrencies, in general, are bad or useless. It's just that Bitcoin has serious problems, like proof of work that consumes ridiculous amounts of power to produce nothing.

[Krovikan]

Ya I read a report on how Afghans use cryptocurrency due to lack of a solid banking system it was really needed in that country. A good standard of a global secure digital currency is good, I don't think Bitcoin is it though, it is as good as we get for now though. Eth could have had the crown but the developers and Vitalik particularly lack focus and discipline to get it moving off of PoW and keep working on the new shiny thing.

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[Resolute 14]

It largely goes back to the problems of the consensus model. You pretty much either need a centrally controlled currency - a la what Facebook tried to do, but the entire world turned around and said 'F that' - or you try to hang on as long as you can before the very nature of consensus-based systems undermines you. Especially in this case where whales wield massive amounts of control to the point that it is almost controlled by an oligarchy.

As a democratic process, Bitcoin is an utter failure.