Bitcoin & cryptocurrency

**^Rb** · 12-07-17, 20:16

Any of you guys Bitcoin/crypto holders? Curious, as oddly enough this topic has never been brought up here.

(Back-story: I've been a long-time investor in Bitcoin since '11/Ethereum since '15; in short, it's enabled me to retire young; I'm 31.)

Surely, I'm not the only Libertarian-minded gun-loving dude on this board who's into it..... Anybody else? Curious to hear thoughts (especially in light of this recent bubble/mania phase).

**scooter22** · 12-07-17, 20:39

Where can I find the best explanation for how it works?

Official Kremlin Transmission

**dmd08** · 12-07-17, 20:48

Originally Posted by ^Rb

Any of you guys Bitcoin/crypto holders? Curious, as oddly enough this topic has never been brought up here.

(Back-story: I've been a long-time investor in Bitcoin since '11/Ethereum since '15; in short, it's enabled me to retire young; I'm 31.)

Surely, I'm not the only Libertarian-minded gun-loving dude on this board who's into it..... Anybody else? Curious to hear thoughts (especially in light of this recent bubble/mania phase).

Do you trust cryptocurrencies enough to keep your retirement funds invested in them or have you transitioned to more traditional investment vehicles for stability?

**Crow Hunter** · 12-07-17, 21:02

Originally Posted by scooter22

Where can I find the best explanation for how it works?

Official Kremlin Transmission

Imagine that someone figured out a way to create a ostensibly unique, infinitely divisible tulip bulbs mathematically via a computer.

Then convinced enough people that these mathematic tulip bulbs had value as an intermediary of exchanging value between two people.

Then, because, ostensibly this mathematic tulip bulb is limited in numbers due the to amount of time needed to "construct" said tulip bulbs, others began buying it and you get runaway "deflation". So these 100 unique tulip bulbs that originally cost about $100 each are now worth $12,000 each because everyone wants one the value keeps going up and those that have those tulip bulbs can then turn them into fiat currency and make a tidy profit. (which is a very obvious demonstration of why going back to the Gold/Silver/Cowrie shell standard is a BAD idea).

Until, at least, the rug gets pulled out from under it by either hacking (unlikely), the new beanie baby block chain+ currency (more likely) or legislation which makes it illegal (most likely).

Crytocurrencies are the modern version of bank/state/city issued bank notes that are backed via mathematical algorithms rather than specie (gold/silver).

And, just like those now defunct currencies are subject to the whims of the central banks.

People, obviously, can and have made A LOT of cash with them. However, they are just like a fiat currency that isn't backed by the full faith and credit (industrial capacity/GDP) of a country. As long as someone is willing to give you something for them and it isn't made illegal by your country of domicile, it is fine. Pull a Jenga block out of that block chain and suddenly you don't even have a fiat cash bill that you can wipe with, you just have a series of numbers in cyberspace and there are A LOT of Jenga blocks built into the value of cryptocurrencies.

It isn't something for the faint of heart.

Hopefully those that have made a "killing" on Bitcoin and others have been taking appropriate measures to secure their future. As in diversifying widely across other asset classes and not keeping everything in cryptocurrencies assuming it will continue to rocket upwards forever.

**Firefly** · 12-07-17, 21:03

Its too late.
The bubble will burst.

But if you got involved back in 2011....Mazeltov!

**elephant** · 12-07-17, 21:50

I have a friend that has several identical water cooled computers, linked to an air gap server through a secure and encrypted internet connection, dedicated to bitcoin mining 24 hours a day/ 7 days a week. There's no money in it anymore- too many players, too many miners, not enough transactions and the bitcoin blocks released every 4 years and are split in half from the previous 4 years. Last year there was 0.03% revenue for mining, but the bitcoint block is 4 years from reaching zero, when it reaches zero, Bitcoins protocol states that they will cap the bitcoin to 21 million and will not mine any more. Its an upside down pyramid scheme.

**pinzgauer** · 12-07-17, 22:10

Way back before they were using gpus to do so I cranked up a mining program on a Linux sever. I couldn't tell you if I ever mined one or not. I want to say the value was about $80 then. That machine has not been booted in years, maybe I'll dig it out.

Meanwhile, hot off the press: $70M in Bitcoin stolen this week: https://www.wsj.com/articles/million...ist-1512625176

And this is only the most recent. Millions have been lost due to mathematical errors/software glitches, Forgetting the codes, etc. And then there's the big chunk missing from the designer.

Crowhunter has the analogy right.

Block chain technology is important. Cryptocurrency? Time will tell. Right now methinks is tulipmania. When the focus shifts from production to short-term trading of the rise and falls and derivatives, that to me is an overheated Market.

Meanwhile, steam just stopped taking it to buy games. A virtual seller of a virtual product stopped taking a virtual currency.

**Co-gnARR** · 12-07-17, 22:14

I started looking into bitcoin a few years back when I read about people in Crete exchanging most if not all their assets into bitcoin when there was political turmoil that was crushing their economy. Prices skyrocketed and some people become much wealthier in short order. The price of bitcoin soon returned to about what they were prior and while I beleive most people were ok, some speculators got cleaned out. Currency speculation is a risky game, I've been told, and I decided to stay away. Then I read about this fiasco:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mt._Gox

That was enough to turn me away for good. Still, with all the recent hub bub in the news about bitcoin I'm curious to learn more about crypto currencies. Not as investment potential but more as a means of a possible future currency for when I travel overseas. Imagine how convenient it would be to have an account funded wirh a digital currency that can be seemlessly transferred to purchase goods/services anywhere without ever having to handle physical cash or go through a currency exchange. No wallets to be pickpocketed or lost, instant access to funds without worrying about exchange rates (bitcoin is a universal currency and goods would be priced according to local market value but the currency itself does not need to be converted), etc...Thing is, I think we are a long way of from seeing crytpocurrencies become widely accepted by big business, and until then, it is really just a crapshoot as to how stable the currency is. If the major valuation swings would stabilize I think we could possibly have a legitmate currency. Just today in fact I read the due to wild swings in valuation Ubisoft is halting bitcoin coin as a means of purchasing software and services. So until we see the roller coaster speculation die off I will stick with my fistfull of fiat greenbacks and keep my investments in the traditional realms of established stock markets, real estate and precious metals and commodities.