EDIT: This thread is about cryptocurrency as a whole, not just bitcoin. It seems like people cannot separate the two.
I understand the skepticism related to the cryptocurrency structure and future, but I’m interested in knowing why so many here seem to be completely against it, especially since it can yield some decent quick profits.
My philosophy is that if I can make a quick buck or two, I will. So, I determined how much money I could comfortably flush down the toilet, and then bought a bunch of cryptos that seemed to have valuable technology behind them. I did this knowing that I could lose every last penny I spent, but deciding I would leave it until it hits a specific profit, and then pull it all. So far, I’ve been in for 68 days and my profit is 350% of my initial purchase. I hope to see 700% before I exit the game.
So, my question is, why is there not more interest in playing the crypto market like this, with the goal of making some nice and quick profit.
Because it’s all made up thin air and there is no intrinsic value. If you own cryptocurrencys you effectively own nothing.
The only thing cryptos have going for them is that a speculator like yourself can try to sell them to a greater fool and make a profit. That’s a fun party when they are going up in value but when there are no fools left the price starts going down, no one will want to own them, and the price will collapse.
Like any pyramid scheme those that got in early will have big profits at the expense of those that come in late who are stuck with huge losses.
I think the problem with it is that too many people think that bitcoins are like are an investment and put their money in them without understanding the risks involved. So the ‘hate’ is people rightfully pointing out that its really just a speculative bubble.
There might also be some scorn and trepidation about them based on their purely digital nature. Like the “made up thin air” point made above.
If you buy a cryptourrency with the same attitude as I’d put 25 cents into a slot machine in vegas then I don’t see any harm in it.
But I think too many people are treating it like buying stock or even gold which is surely isn’t.
The cryptocurrency fad is also really a wasteful use of electricity.
If they wanted to at least do some good, they would find out a way for the calculations to be put towards one of the many distributed computing projects. Right now it’s just wasted, at least from the stance of the public good.
Are you sure you are not confusing cryptocurrency in this context with bitcoin? If major corporations and banks are using the technology, networks and apps that are fueled by the crypto, can it really be said that it has no intrinsic value. Also, not all cryptos are mined.
AFAIK they’re using the blockchain technology, not cryptocurrencies. Of course some are involved in cryptocurrency, but I think you’re referring to the blockchain.
Most of the legitimate businesses. The only real market for paying with these things is the black market or dark web. That’s about the only place anyone actually pays with bitcoin or any of the others.
Correct. Im more interested in Ripple XRP, which is working with a lot of financial intitutions, Ethereum, for the ability to run smart contracts, and Stellar Lumens, for P2P payments. They are all very different than bitcoin.
I have access to free energy. Right now I transform it into heat, but when the heating season is over, I could quite easily create electricity. But I saw something about it’s not like the old days, there’s some kind of threshold to enter the blockchain, not sure if it’s speed or volume or what. I’d be interested in what the minimum requirements are these days.
“I determined how much money I could comfortably flush down the toilet”
This is where I start to have an issue. I have lots of uses for money and don’t have any thoughts like this. I also have an issue with wasted electricity (mostly coal generated of the most dirty sort) and also have a problem with it being the perfered payment for ransomware. I guess you can say that is just Bitcoin and I should research the hundreds of various coins but I’d rather spend that time looking into assets that produce intrinsic value.
I think that one of the core problems, specifically with Bitcoin, is that was marketed as a means to control inflation. What they didn’t plan for was all of the copycat cryptocurrencies that would pop up. So, really, inflation keeps happening because it is all of the cryptocurrencies.
Another issue is with transaction processing. It is tied to mining, today, which makes it very expensive. It needs to be decoupled from mining to lower the transaction fees. I would turn my system loose as a transaction processor right now if that were possible. Long-term, it should just be that you should process two transactions for every single transaction that you want to make. Really problematic.
There is “intrinsic” value in cryptocurrencies… they make illegal transactions a lot easier. So, BTC is being propped up by all of that activity. If another coin starts being used, BTC will take a large hit, which could happen just about any day.
Interesting, was not aware of this. I imagined that banks and some other organizations were looking at it so as not to be left in the dust, but I wasn’t aware they were seriously using these. I guess that would go boost the argument that there is intrinsic value. At least if enough banks become involved, they aren’t going to let the price of their currency crash.
Hate? It’s not “hate”. It’s people who have seen a bubble inflating before and are trying to warn folks about it. The fact you think it is an easy profit source is exactly the problem that it has created.