What is Cryptocurrency and what's it backed by, anyway?

originally posted by: TinfoilTP
It's backed by crazy market hysteria.

They are worth the energy consumed by warehouses full of NVidia gpus crunching numbers to solve an algorithm. They create a huge carbon footprint for a useless number stored in a database somewhere.

So every time you bid on a coin, you contribute to killing the environment and global warming. Millennials love it though, they have visions of jetsetting the world like Al Gore as they feast on Crypto bids.

Ohhh, so you mean like you're phone and the PC you're posting on? And pretty much every other modern appliance, electric lines, just about everything of the modern world too, huh? What about all those bank accounts that keep track of your bank balance, eh?

Boy, you sure are smart.

originally posted by: projectvxn

originally posted by: Planette
Thanks all for the links and info

So it IS e-Fiat!

Is there a google gcoin or pple/iphone iCoin yet? im thinking at least that would be backed by alphabet or apple, rather than something never heard of like 'bit' me thinks.

It requires energy to mine.

It is not fiat. Please read up on proof of stake and proof of work protocols.

It probably takes more energy to mint coins and print paper than it does to mine bitcoin.

You can “mine” ant sh# too but doesn’t mean it would have any value until you convince someone too gullible otherwise.

a reply to: TheLotLizard

Please at least make an effort to understand why people place so much value into cryptocurrencies.

Otherwise, it's just a one-sided discussion.

a reply to: Planette

"What is Cryptocurrency and what's it backed by, anyway?"

Algorithms.

originally posted by: projectvxn
a reply to: TheLotLizard

Please at least make an effort to understand why people place so much value into cryptocurrencies.

Otherwise, it's just a one-sided discussion.

People believe that bitcoin can be unregulated by the government which is completely false. All they have to do is make crypto currency illegal in the same manner that owning gold was illegal in the 20th century.

Doing so would make the currency completely worthless overnight.

Even without making it illegal fully, the government could make you register your wallet taking the anonymity away from the bitcoin. Then once that is in place the government can start taxing the currency as it flows from person to person. It would be fairly easy to do, make a campaign that bitcoin is used to fund terrorists and drug/human trafficking and the population would eat it up. They would pass new laws without hardly any resistance.

Then what would be the point in even using it? Just because it has a bitcoin limit?

Can poo poo it all you want, but many feel it is the future of money to come. And some of us are betting they are right (but not betting the farm on it).

Granted, many others who have chimed in here know FAR more than I on the subject, but over the past couple of weeks, I have been educating myself on it, and while I knew the return potential was good....that...just doesn't describe it. So, I dipped my toe into it, just the other day, as it was crashing a lot, LOL... Hopefully though, like buying stocks low, it will work out.

We'll see, but even if not, it wasn't more than I could afford to lose.

I think that will be the real driver this year of this....folks that never got into it before, like me, dipping a toe in.

But MILLIONS dipping a toe in.....(and businesses starting to form partnerships with it, etc.)

a reply to: projectvxn

Well take the entire grid down for a couple minutes and see how well encrypted cloud databases deal with it.

What? Worldwide? Good luck with that.

Crypto currency is backed by demand for it, as it is the modern tool for laundering drug money.

The price is driven by high-school kids paying 20% over spot, in exchange for obtainable currency (usually in the form of Greendot/MoneyPak)

More bitcoin is sold over spot than at market value, which drives the value. As teenagers who want to get high usually don't have bank accounts to purchase the coin directly.

Drug dealers are the majority of crypto dealers. Hardly any trading takes place on exchanges. They sell to buyer 10-20% over spot as the laundering fee. The dealers get legal cash from bitcoin, they are literally drug bucks sold to the customer, like tokens you might be required to purchase at an amusement park or pizza arcade. The entire system is created controlled and manipulated by the drug industry. From international players to high school kids, Crypto = drug money.

a reply to: AdKiller

You know there are rules on ATS for knowingly posting false information right?

Because you just made up that entire wall of useless text.

originally posted by: projectvxn

originally posted by: Planette
Thanks all for the links and info

So it IS e-Fiat!

Is there a google gcoin or pple/iphone iCoin yet? im thinking at least that would be backed by alphabet or apple, rather than something never heard of like 'bit' me thinks.

It requires energy to mine.

It is not fiat. Please read up on proof of stake and proof of work protocols.

Money takes energy to print

Crypto currency is backed by demand for it, as it is the modern tool for laundering drug money.

The price is driven by high-school kids paying 20% over spot, in exchange for obtainable currency (usually in the form of Greendot/MoneyPak)

None of this is even remotely accurate. Have you ever gone through the steps to purchase crypto currency, or set up a digital wallet, because this is all way off. While I don't doubt that some illicit activities use crypto, it's hardly the market driver. If it was, you wouldn't see industry leaders start paying attention and making deals, such as Moneygram and Ripple.

Before I educated myself about what cryptocurrency is, and more importantly, WHY it came about, the problems it was designed to solve, I too thought of it like many of you do....but the more I understand it, the more convinced I am that this is going to be the money of the future. I could be wrong. But even if I am, I'm out no more than I can afford to lose. But if I'm right....well, maybe it'll pay my property taxes this year or something.

a reply to: prevenge

It does come down to energy. You need energy to mine and process any crypto, it is an attempt to de-centralize systematization of money but it requires increasing systematization.

I guess we'll see if that dichotomy works.

I'm still confused, what is the energy?

While I don't doubt that some illicit activities use crypto

Well, there's a safe bet that Monero (that cryptocurrency) is used for a LOT of illegal activity, so I'll grant that caveat....lol.

It's still one of the 10 I wouldn't mind going into though. I'm only into 5 right now, so the next 5 by the end of the month. Only putting a small initial investment into it.

originally posted by: Stormdancer777
I'm still confused, what is the energy?

The skyrocketing value of Bitcoin is leading to soaring energy consumption. According to one widely cited website that tracks the subject, the Bitcoin network is consuming power at an annual rate of 32TWh—about as much as Denmark. By the site's calculations, each Bitcoin transaction consumes 250kWh, enough to power homes for nine days.

arstechnica.com...

That's probably exaggerated, because it's propaganda to spur legislation to regulate bitcoins via cap and trade laws but in general it's true. The energy use comes from the computers that mine the coins and then later process transactions.

a reply to: SkeptiSchism

Well take the entire grid down for a couple minutes and see how well encrypted cloud databases deal with it.

I do not believe that, you sir, have a full understanding of how this works...would have to madmax it/kill the internet to knock this thing out - many many computers and ledgers participating - could knock them out an exchange a time but that'd be like playing whack-a-mole

a reply to: Planette
Here's Solari Report Publisher Catherine Austin Fitts take on it:

The Bitcoin Op
Catherine sees most of the upper level financial elites moving into buying Gold and Land while they entice the general population into an unstable cryptocurrency that, although it may hold short term capital gains, will ultimately be the a contrived pump and dump of historic levels.

She points out that Bitcoin is not the currency for the people it pretends to be and that much of the hype around it is devised to help the Central Banking powers consolidate their gains and entice the population to use a digital currency. She outlines the danger of using digital money when the current system of finance has no integrity and that people who work with Bitcoin, Blockchain and Cryptocurrencies know it's unsafe and subject to hacking with FDIC insurance.

Here's the whole interview by Daniel Liszt:

a reply to: Planette

Not exactly fiat is mandated by law.

a reply to: coldkidc

What if you did it another way? There are 2 atomic clocks that work synchronously to provide time for the internet, take out either one of those clocks and you essentially take out the internet.