NYT Bitcoin plug teases - Everyone is getting Hilariously Rich, but you're not

a reply to: neo96

I'm not interested in the wealth, I am interested in the de-centralized applications.

a reply to: seasonal

The point I am getting at is bitcoin is fragile. Sure it's making people wealthy or somewhat, wealthy now, but it's unsustainable.
Just look how unstable it is. It's backed by nothing more than current USD, which is governed by actual assets. What will bitcoin do is we fall into another housing market crash? Or when the USD falls?
People will have all these random forms of cryptocurrecny just floating around doing nothing. What will happen when the plumber comes to fix your toilet and demands money? Or the union of iron workers demand physical money? Guess no buildings will go up, and your bitcoin is worthless.

That's only the tip of the iceberg for the issues that can arise, it's fragile, it delicate, it's worthless when you think about it, it's only worth is what people with actual money throw into is.

a reply to: IgnoranceIsntBlisss

you know you can short it right?
like if you are really so sure bitcoin is gonna burst, then put your money where your mouth is, show us your short positions, profit from its downfall.

unless you wouldnt take that bet as you know it will continue to climb?

originally posted by: SkeptiSchism
See I see the technology applying to something that you produce. Lets say you write an article and then that article is linked to several websites. Then each time someone reads your article or it's linked somewhere else you generate some income from the article.

That's the benefit I see in encrypted databases. But exchanging my limited wealth now for coins that have no real tie to the economy doesn't interest me.

Let's take ripple.

They have a system using a computer program (block chain and RapidX) and a web based coin (XRP). A bank would use ripple tech and buy coins. They use the coins (XRP) to send money around the world fast and cheap. Right now it takes 3 days and at a cost of (at my bank) $25.
With ripple it takes 4 seconds and costs .0004 cents or XRP ( I can't remember). Faster, cheaper more secure and verifiable almost instantly. That is why Ripple has gone up in value by over 700% in a month.

originally posted by: neo96
a reply to: strongfp

He has an investment in Coca Cola... how is that not tangible?

Bershire Haythaway is a holding company.

Doesn't make anything.

Doesn't produce anything.

When he goes to buy his stakes he's borrowing money from BANKS.

The allow those company's to produce goods and make shareholder decisions. They still technically own a small portion of that company that produces goods.

Bitcoin isn't owned by anyone, it's just a random bunch of fake digital currency that people put actual money into and trade it around. Here's some food for thought, where is the capitalistic value of bitcoin in the real world? How does it create competition to better a society? All I see it does is take peoples actual money and hold it for what ever reason, it doesn't do anything, it just sits there accumulating the banks digital money tax free.

a reply to: strongfp

Seems that way to me as well, the value of encrypted databases lies in the exchange of real world assets or services without a banking intermediary.

So for instance, Russia sets up a trade with Iran to trade oil for steel. In the virtual contract they create coins each coin has a real world value associated with it, say gold. Along the way they reach milestones and amend the database as necessary depending on the execution of the trade.

At the end of the trade they compare coins and whoever has the 'most' then gets that amount of gold from their trading partner. There would probably have to be some kind of warehousing intermediary or firm that handled the final contract settlements. But throughout the trade expenses could be paid in the digital coins.

That's how world trade occurred with gold bills of credit before banks usurped gold's utility as money.

a reply to: seasonal

also the tulip bubble only burst because the king ruled tulip trading illegal, had he not done that the tulip market would have continued to thrive, eventually lowering in value but not bursting entirely, the only thing that stops a market entirely like the tulip craze, is something like a king ruling it illegal.

so tulip mania is a very poor example of a bubble unless you consider the act of kings to be equivalent to free market movements... seems the MSM doesn't mind such correlation... oddly...

a reply to: strongfp

With all due respect your post reads as being uninformed. There are alt coins that work 24hrs a day 7 days a week. One is Ripple.

People will have all these random forms of cryptocurrecny just floating around doing nothing.

Fiat currency is as susceptible to this as bitcoin. But Bitcoin is bought/sold world wide and there is no Fed pumping more bitcoins like they are with $$$.

People will have all these random forms of cryptocurrecny just floating around doing nothing. What will happen when the plumber comes to fix your toilet and demands money? Or the union of iron workers demand physical money? Guess no buildings will go up, and your bitcoin is worthless.

originally posted by: SkeptiSchism
a reply to: JinMI

Aye that's the rub.

Surely. There's not many investment strategies that don't require a measure of risk.

Fledgling industry makes and breaks people all the time. Doesn't matter whether it's the dot.com boom, real estate, cryptocurrency, or whatever... If you don't understand financial management like the wealthy, you are much more likely to lose it all through mismanagement. I've lost count of how many "millionaires" just spend, spend, spend themselves into bankruptcy because they are clueless to the differences between real assets and liabilities.

I wouldn’t be convinced to get into all this until I knew how much the Bitcoin creator(s) is/are worth, and who they actually are.

We don’t know any of that which is a dangerous game to play, in my opinion.



Another problem I have with the cryptos is the fact that there is a limit that could reach circulation, Bitcoin’s is expected to be reached about 2045.

So sure, as an alternative used between likeminded folks who don’t mind trading between each other, it’s a decent idea.


Fact is it will never be profitable, or even the slightest bit useful, to the world as a whole.
So at best, it could be described as a useful alternative for a few folks, and at worst it would be merely a bandaid on the uneven reality the disadvantaged face in gaining wealth under our current currencies.



But I wouldn’t really say it has no value...

Some of The Bank Of England’s early major shareholders bought their shares with nothing but a piece of wood.
Then they became obscenely ultra-wealthy as a result.

Don’t believe people used to use a piece of wood as currency?
Here you go...
en.m.wikipedia.org...



Almost nothing on this planet begins with value.
They can only be manipulated into value.

That repeats with the cryptos.





A God damn piece of wood??????
Mate. Hahaha.

a reply to: JinMI

This is the kind of coin I'd be interested in purchasing;

According to OneGram’s website, initially each OneGram coin (OGC) is backed by one gram of gold and can be used for digital payments, just like Bitcoin.

The total number of OGCs is fixed and won’t change after the ICO. The digital transaction fees (minus admin costs) will be reinvested to buy more gold.

“Therefore,” states the website, “the amount of gold backing each OGC will increase with time.” Plus, of course, a rising gold price and the growing acceptance of OneGram in the market are also poised to pump up its value.

www.zerohedge.com...

Thats a kind of old article so I don't know what happened to the company if it took off or not but it would be easy to have ATMs that dispensed gold coins if you wanted to cash in your crypto coins

originally posted by: NobodiesNormal
a reply to: seasonal

also the tulip bubble only burst because the king ruled tulip trading illegal, had he not done that the tulip market would have continued to thrive, eventually lowering in value but not bursting entirely, the only thing that stops a market entirely like the tulip craze, is something like a king ruling it illegal.

so tulip mania is a very poor example of a bubble unless you consider the act of kings to be equivalent to free market movements... seems the MSM doesn't mind such correlation... oddly...

You just described what the Fed/treasury is doing the the US $$$. And it is all digital and is devaluing the us currency by an average of 8% annually.

a reply to: seasonal

Yup since 1933, so it's STRUCTURAL

a reply to: Hazardous1408

You can now buy houses with bitcoin.

Bitcoin fever hits US real estate market
www.france24.com...

There are some car dealers starting to take bitcoin for autos

From 6 Places where you can buy cars with Bitcoin
99bitcoins.com...

a reply to: SkeptiSchism

1913

And with bitcoin the coins can not be "created" to dilute the pool or total. Meaning that there will be no coin inflation.

a reply to: seasonal

They can't be counterfeited either.

Crypto has a lot going for it.

originally posted by: neo96
a reply to: worldstarcountry

The most likely candidate will be Ripple, which ironically is tied to the Central Bank system now, isnt it?

My largest holding by coin,but I'm not so sure.

Plenty of other contenders.

Really, like what? I have researched a bunch of crypto's and quite frankly I haven't found one I think holds remotely the promise of ripple.

It has the whole package, great performance, low fees, great programming team, best use case I know of, working with regulators instead of against them, deals with 100+ banks and financial institutions.

I mean my next two would probably be etherium and stellar lumens. Etherium has nice momentum in smart contracts - but quite frankly they are inferior to other offerings, Including ripples codius - which they are soon to start promoting. And stellar is basically a poor mans ripple, One of the original Ripple founders / coders went off and started his own ripoff coin. But his organization, leadership and connections are vastly inferior.

originally posted by: strongfp

originally posted by: neo96
a reply to: strongfp

He has an investment in Coca Cola... how is that not tangible?

Bershire Haythaway is a holding company.

Doesn't make anything.

Doesn't produce anything.

When he goes to buy his stakes he's borrowing money from BANKS.

The allow those company's to produce goods and make shareholder decisions. They still technically own a small portion of that company that produces goods.

Bitcoin isn't owned by anyone, it's just a random bunch of fake digital currency that people put actual money into and trade it around. Here's some food for thought, where is the capitalistic value of bitcoin in the real world? How does it create competition to better a society? All I see it does is take peoples actual money and hold it for what ever reason, it doesn't do anything, it just sits there accumulating the banks digital money tax free.

Look I understand your dislike for crypto, even though I am an investor in it.

But what people do not grasp is all money is now digital. Really almost none is backed by anything, and the paper bills are being actively phased out as less and less people use them. Actual bills make up a tiny percentage of the worlds currency like 2% if I remember correctly.

What gives it value is the countries / industry backing it. This is why I agree the privacy coins will never be more than a small niche and they have no possibility of succeeding in a major way. However something like Ripple that actually wants to be used by the banks, and allows them to get rid of up to 27 trillion dollars sitting in nostro accounts doing nothing means it has tremendous potential.

I will actually agree with you that in my opinion 1380 of the 1400 or so cryptos that exist are scams to make money, just like all the .com company's with no real business plans back in the late 90's. However Amazon was one of those company's, and it is now one of the largest and most powerful in the world.

The winner in crypto has just as much potential if not more.

a reply to: proximo

Agree with you on ripple.

There are a few others that have great claims, but it is still only claims Iota, Cardano (I own some of this one) come to mind.
Ripple very well could be a massive game changing tool moving $$$ around the world, and it could be sooner than any of us think.