The Bitcoin Hard Fork Fast Approaching, SEGWIT2X, is a BAD DEAL. #NO2X!

I remember when it first came out. Lots of talk and maybe a thread or two here about "mining" them using using some super performing computer stuff.

But lets say I did want to take a chance and invest in a fraction of a bitcoin, where would one make such a transaction? What would one get to prove he has 1/2 bitcoin?

Bitcoin is at best useless, at worst, a fraud. It is insanely difficult and risky to "buy" and absolutely impossible to sell for actual currency. You probably can get some sketchy "exchange" to take your actual money to sell you Bitcoin, but good luck trying to sell Bitcoin lol. Also (still) next to zero businesses take Bitcoin.

a reply to: eXia7

I wouldn’t say it’s a scam. You could sell your bitcoin shares right now for cold hard cash

Back in 08 I had a chance to buy 2k worth of bitcoin....I should have, looking back now buying that junker motorcycle wasn’t worth it ...as it would be worth 1.5 billion US dollars right now

A serious mistake on my part...

However, longevity? Who knows. I think crypto is here to stay, in what format only time will tell....

One way to look st it, is right now it’s being backed by other currencies, so technically it is backed

And again if you think further, what exactly are other currencies backed by now days? It’s not gold, it’s all fiat...so in essence bitcoin isn’t much different in that regard

originally posted by: tinner07
I remember when it first came out. Lots of talk and maybe a thread or two here about "mining" them using using some super performing computer stuff.

But lets say I did want to take a chance and invest in a fraction of a bitcoin, where would one make such a transaction? What would one get to prove he has 1/2 bitcoin?

Check out coinbase.com. You can purchase and sell there and they explain all the questions you just asked

It's that it's a learning model, rather than the silver bullet.

It was only ever meant to be a concept to be improved upon, but people have tried to push it as much much more.

You know, NAMECOIN has more to it, since it's a decentralized DNS! Websites ( .bit ) and all.

But you don't know about it, because of it's lack of marketing like BTC, just remember, marketing = money.

I work in SEO, some client spend 1 - 5 million dollars a MONTH on Google Adwords, because they they make double that back a month or as an average annually.

This is why I have always felt wary about BTC being a bank, graphic chip manufacture or a government.
As you can see how they would benefit, onto of being able to regardless of a 21million cap, large holders of bitcoin cam sway the price via buy and sell walls easier than hyping a pump and dump could ever hope to do.

Then these forks, are NOT A SIGN OF HEALTH, they are a disagreement in the community, which didn't end well, basically its people majority kicking the minorities out, under the guise of a new branch coin, but it won't ever go as far. Just because its bad marketing, if amazon split into amazon and moobs, highly doubt you're going to remember moobs over amazon.

Until I see a cryptocurrency able to be mined and profited the same across economic boards, then it's not decentralized, because last I checked, I can use linux the same or better than a rich guy using linux, that's not the same for cryptocurrency, larger you are, the more you can sustain the costs, which scream rich becoming the banks.

There is much more that I mean by that, of course they won't handle your money, but if big enough, they can determine the price by perceived demand or lack there of, with those buy / sell walls.

originally posted by: CriticalStinker
a reply to: eXia7

The USD is a fiat currency with no backing.

Its faith backed just like bitcoin.

The difference is they continue printing more money, making it less valuable.

Bitcoin will be capped at 21 million, hence why each individual unit costs so much.

actually Fiat currency has more value than bitcoin because its backed by real human labor/time. Not a computer running simulations at a server farm.

Bitcoin will be capped at 21 million, but the only people who can get the most bit coins are people running commercial mining operations.

The average user has 0 chance of making a profit from mining bitcoins. All you can do is trade real money for digital money. basically trading tangible value for 1's and 0's

a reply to: ManBehindTheMask

The other thing newcomers should bear in mind is you don't have to buy 1 whole bitcoin. It's divisible by 100 million (known as satoshi). So buy as much or as little as you can afford - preferably money you wouldn't miss if the bottom fell out, which imho is highly unlikely.

One issue now is awareness. As the market cap increases, 1 bitcoin becomes worth more and more - as there's only 21 million of them - and we're still around 4 million away from that. I personally think it needs some kind of rebranding - such as setting the denomination to mBTC - or millibitcoin - at the exchanges. That's worth about $6 - which is a lot easier for newcomers to digest, rather than saying buy 0.001 of a bitcoin. I know buying 0.001 of anything would put me off - there's something about owning a whole '1' of something.

It's exciting times!

a reply to: eXia7

Bitcoin is backed by current currency, which is generally backed by physical goods, real estate, or precious metals.
So in the end bitcoin is rather worthless. I still can't grasp the concept.

originally posted by: strongfp
a reply to: eXia7

Bitcoin is backed by current currency, which is generally backed by physical goods, real estate, or precious metals.
So in the end bitcoin is rather worthless. I still can't grasp the concept.

Its like going around your elbow to get to your ass#

originally posted by: sprtpilot
It is insanely difficult and risky to "buy" and absolutely impossible to sell for actual currency. You probably can get some sketchy "exchange" to take your actual money to sell you Bitcoin, but good luck trying to sell Bitcoin lol. Also (still) next to zero businesses take Bitcoin.

Absolutely wrong.
If I wanted to buy bitcoin right now it would take me about 10 seconds. The same goes for selling it and getting the equivalent amount of money deposited straight to my bank account.
The best exchanges, such as Coinbase (which is the largest in the world apparently) are licensed and regulated just like any other currency exchange. It is by no means "sketchy".
And yes, every business that accepts Visa takes bitcoin. You can get credit cards linked to your cryptocurrency accounts and buy with bitcoin anywhere Visa is accepted.

Do some basic research.

a reply to: eXia7

Buying bitcoin is backed by dollars ,euros and every other currency which is made by time labor etc

NES pas?

originally posted by: tinner07
I remember when it first came out. Lots of talk and maybe a thread or two here about "mining" them using using some super performing computer stuff.

But lets say I did want to take a chance and invest in a fraction of a bitcoin, where would one make such a transaction? What would one get to prove he has 1/2 bitcoin?

Coinbase is the most popular exchange, and easy to use from what I see. Just set up an account on there and buy away. Let's say you buy $100 of bitcoin; you'll get $100 worth of a bitcoin at the current price. So, just for example, let's say $100 happens to purchase 0.055 bitcoin. Now you have 0.055 bitcoin stored in an online vault, regardless of it's value. The 0.055 does not change. If the price of bitcoin doubles since you made the initial purchase, then your 0.055 bitcoin is now worth $200. There was a time when bitcoin was a fraction of a cent, and people were holding many bitcoins. They're now filthy rich, as the price of a single one is over $6,000. People are cashing out and spending their lives buying mansions and travelling the world. The person who invented it is estimated to be worth over 6 BILLION dollars.

originally posted by: ManBehindTheMask
a reply to: eXia7

Buying bitcoin is backed by dollars ,euros and every other currency which is made by time labor etc

NES pas?

So.. whats the point of creating a digital currency backed by a fiat currency? How much have you actually profited from investing in bitcoin that you couldn't have gotten from putting the money in an Annuity or ROTH IRA or mutual fund?

originally posted by: trollz
Absolutely wrong.
If I wanted to buy bitcoin right now it would take me about 10 seconds. The same goes for selling it and getting the equivalent amount of money deposited straight to my bank account.
The best exchanges, such as Coinbase (which is the largest in the world apparently) are licensed and regulated just like any other currency exchange. It is by no means "sketchy".
And yes, every business that accepts Visa takes bitcoin. You can get credit cards linked to your cryptocurrency accounts and buy with bitcoin anywhere Visa is accepted.

Do some basic research.

Yeah as is typical in these threads you get the peeps that have clearly no clue on what they're talking about yet feel they're qualified in coming here to spew their ignorance as fact and try and deter the more honest folk from even bothering to actually research the topic. Bloody annoying.

originally posted by: Navieko

originally posted by: trollz
Absolutely wrong.
If I wanted to buy bitcoin right now it would take me about 10 seconds. The same goes for selling it and getting the equivalent amount of money deposited straight to my bank account.
The best exchanges, such as Coinbase (which is the largest in the world apparently) are licensed and regulated just like any other currency exchange. It is by no means "sketchy".
And yes, every business that accepts Visa takes bitcoin. You can get credit cards linked to your cryptocurrency accounts and buy with bitcoin anywhere Visa is accepted.

Do some basic research.

Yeah as is typical in these threads you get the peeps that have clearly no clue on what they're talking about yet feel they're qualified in coming here to spew their ignorance as fact and try and deter the more honest folk from even bothering to actually research the topic. Bloody annoying.

Be sure to lay a pillow on the ground so when you fall off your high horse you don't break your ego. You can't call people ignorant for being skeptical of a ponsi scheme system that converts real money into digital money.

You can trust in paper or plastic money, even internet 'coin' if you like.

Me, I'm going to the fleamarket this weekend and buy a few more pre '64, US 'junk' silver coins to add to my intrinsic matter.

originally posted by: eXia7

originally posted by: ManBehindTheMask
a reply to: eXia7

Buying bitcoin is backed by dollars ,euros and every other currency which is made by time labor etc

NES pas?

So.. whats the point of creating a digital currency backed by a fiat currency? How much have you actually profited from investing in bitcoin that you couldn't have gotten from putting the money in an Annuity or ROTH IRA or mutual fund?

Because digital currencies and payment systems are the future of global finance. Cash is being phased out in favor of digital. The underlying blockchain technology is so useful across the board that it's like the invention of the internet all over again.
I've profited by the way, but I'm not telling you how much, how, or where. Let me just put things in perspective for you... If you had invested in bitcoin just 3 months ago, your money would have more than doubled by now. Longer than 3 months, and your gains would be even more impressive. In March of this year, bitcoin was under $1,000. Imagine having invested $5,000 into it and be withdrawing $30,000 right now. $25,000 gain for 7 months of sitting there watching your money grow.

a reply to: eXia7

My inniial investment was 500 bucks a few years ago, ive made almost 3k

But like I said , had I bought 2k worth which I almost did in 2008, I could have made $1.5 billion by now in current conversion...

Trust me an investment mistake I wish I could correct!!!

I’d say that’s considerably more than an annuity or IRA in just under 10 yrs

Now will the growth ALWAYS be that much, almost certainly not, it’s Bound to level out at some point, we just don’t know when or how much growth between now and then

originally posted by: trollz

originally posted by: eXia7

originally posted by: ManBehindTheMask
a reply to: eXia7

Buying bitcoin is backed by dollars ,euros and every other currency which is made by time labor etc

NES pas?

So.. whats the point of creating a digital currency backed by a fiat currency? How much have you actually profited from investing in bitcoin that you couldn't have gotten from putting the money in an Annuity or ROTH IRA or mutual fund?

Because digital currencies and payment systems are the future of global finance. Cash is being phased out in favor of digital. The underlying blockchain technology is so useful across the board that it's like the invention of the internet all over again.
I've profited by the way, but I'm not telling you how much, how, or where. Let me just put things in perspective for you... If you had invested in bitcoin just 3 months ago, your money would have more than doubled by now. Longer than 3 months, and your gains would be even more impressive. In March of this year, bitcoin was under $1,000. Imagine having invested $5,000 into it and be withdrawing $30,000 right now. $25,000 gain for 7 months of sitting there watching your money grow.

Then one day, bitcoin is worth nothing. Then what, you lost everything for what? It's all based on speculation. At this point you won't be able to invest enough into BTC to get a significant return vs a traditional investment.

The golden days of bitcoin are over. If you weren't doing it at the start with your own mining rig, and not investing money into it from day 1, you don't stand a chance.

and as another poster mentioned, it can be manipulated by somebody with a lot of money.

Bitcoin is not a scam, it was a legitimate effort to make a currency outside the control of government and the banking system to isolate people from their misdeeds. It is not bitcoins fault it trades at an unreasonable valuation due to speculation any more than it is Amazon's fault their stock is valued 20 times what it should be. People bid up what they see as disruptive technology far beyond it's true value - Just realize when the market collapses they will take the biggest losses.

In many ways this Bitcoins goals are very noble, and blockchain is an outstanding technology that is in the process of becoming huge. Banks and governments are acting incredibly irresponsibly and are in enormous amounts of debt that are not remotely healthy. One large default and the entire world economy could be destroyed and the people claiming I like my regular dollars, won't feel so great about them at that point. Quite frankly this is highly likely to happen in the not to distant future, but I don't really believe having your assets in bitcoin would help you once that happens, because the government would then be highly motivated to destroy it's existence or the ability for anyone to use it at that point.

By the way Bitcoin is no less valid than any other currency, pretty much none of them have any real backing any longer, they are all just digits in a computer.

However, because of the very nature of Bitcoin, that it desires to stay out of the control of the banks and governments, it will not be allowed to survive, because of the threat it presents to them.

See the truth is - and most people do not want to admit this - money is really just backed by force. Usually this takes the form of laws and courts, but when it comes right down to it, it will be backed by legit raw violence if necessary - and the military has a monopoly on that, more now than at any other time in history.

I think Bitcoin is in the process of being replaced now - all major banks are working on their own crypto currencies, and etherium (ether) is about to blast off to the moon with it's superior technology which can be used for much more than just currency, and the support it is getting from Microsoft and Intel's ability to allow far faster transactions - supposedly up to 1600 per second.

XRP - by Ripple is taking the track of being used by banks - and has already signed up 100 to use it. It is optimized for faster transactions and is the third largest crypto currency. If you want to invest this has the highest potential upside, but it is the most risky since the major banks are doing their own currencies and may eventually corner the market.

Bottom line though is Bitcoin is going to be made obsolete for 99% of the public who really don't care if the currency is outside the bank's and government control. You can definitely argue they should care, but again, I am not sure it would matter because at the end of the day the government is highly likely to get their way because they have a monopoly on force.