blog: to bitcoin or not to bitcoin?

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nikos
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blog: to bitcoin or not to bitcoin?

Post by nikos »

here's the comment area for today's blog post found at
http://zabkat.com/blog/bitcoin-for-idiots.htm
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Re: blog: to bitcoin or not to bitcoin?

Post by dunno »

Bitcoin.....No sovereign country allows a alternate currency to exist unless it is created by that Sovereign state, translated;

A very powerful entity created bitcoin and has allowed it to exist in the west, note that Russia, China, and India don't allow bitcoin to flourish, (Indians prefer physical gold anyway), this leads me to believe that bitcoin is a creation of the US government, its their prototype cyber currency, If Bitcoin didn't have the backing of the US government it would be SQUASHED in a nano instant.
The Secret Service is tasked with protecting the integrity of the US dollar, the US regards the fidelity of its currency as paramount so much so that the Secret Service with presidential privileges tracks down forgery around the globe. why would they allow a parallel currency to exist without their blessing ?.

Bitcoin has a serious flaw, the creator can manufacture bitcoins at will as they have the keys to the blockchain, they can increase or decrease supply to suit themselves. I see bitcoin a major project by the US to eliminate the cost of production of physical money, its a sad day when the cost of production of coins exceeds their face value. Paper money is a bitch to manufacture and with modern printing techniques more difficult to prevent forgery of the bills, hence a digital currency, inexpensive, no physical over heads, easily distributed, easy to keep track of, easy to keep track of who spends it and on what, makes it difficult for mobsters to use.
Will bitcoin become mainstream, NO because organised crime doesn't want its street money monitored and one can't snort a line up a roll of bitcoins. America arrogantly assumes that its version of a crypto currency will dominate the scene, problem is dollar dude's petro dollar is and will be challenged by the BRICS, it's already happening, so there will be crypto currencies but the big players will have their own versions of it, and if the CIA can convince the mobsters to trade narcotics in crypto then all will be good in the land of uncle sam.

Mark Twain put it quite elegantly, "ALL currencies are based on the manure standard, some are smellier than others".
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Re: blog: to bitcoin or not to bitcoin?

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indicative customer reviews of the most popular bitcoin exchange :o
https://www.trustpilot.com/review/coinbase.com
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Re: blog: to bitcoin or not to bitcoin?

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I only invest in real stocks. Looking forward to the Bitcoin bubble bursting. I'll make sure that there is enough popcorn.
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Re: blog: to bitcoin or not to bitcoin?

Post by Kilmatead »

What's curious here is not the cynical conservatism regarding bitcoinage, but rather the lack of recognition that it's going to change the world we live in whether we want it to or not.

Despite his reiterated negativity on the broader subject, Nikos' continued interest betrays his baser instincts: while it would be more honourable for him to espouse a philosopher's (if not an adventurer's) curiosity instead of (what I believe to be) simple avarice, he is, at least, remaining honest to himself. :wink:

And while our Germanic friend is comfortably secure looking at the world from the (de-facto) economic capital of Europe, yet he may bemoan the lack of his own personal stake in that wealth, he knows better than most how abandoning the Gold Standard influenced the Weimar Republic's future favours - and if there's one thing the Teutonic are good at, it's learning from history and paying attention to trends.

To wit: it starts with the little things. The rise of bitcoin has captured the superficial attention of the non-tech public, and that can splinter into more insidious interests rather quickly, eschewing the temporal gains yet sparking a more organic adaptation in the long run; the fact remains that what started out as a programmer's curiosity has gotten the attention of the outside world, and the lady Pandora never looks like what the classical painters might pretend whence she appears.

The advent of currencies which (optimistically) cannot be co-opted by governmental agencies is far more important in a cultural sense than an economic one. Economists will flap their lips endlessly in the next couple of decades as their world begins to disintegrate out of historical proportion, but revolutions always happen in spite of experts, not because of them. :shrug:

Don't get me wrong - bitcoin in itself will probably just fade away soon enough (whether it crashes or not is irrelevant), but its future seeds have already sprouted enough root to undermine the status-quo... as Alexis de Tocqueville proved a more apt observer of market forces than history gives him credit for, it's not impossible that unregulatable electronic currencies could do more to unfetter Charlemagne's contribution to Western cohesiveness than any of us would find comforting in our old age.

And I, for one, welcome that particular apocalypse - especially as I'm old enough now to not have to live through its eventual cultural aftermath. :D
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Re: blog: to bitcoin or not to bitcoin?

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Praising currencies which (optimistically) cannot be co-opted by governmental agencies misses the "bigger picture" though, that being that of course one can "regulate" the wannabe currencies. I'll leave out the obvious discussion about how "real" money is not quite real as well, given that there are no real values bound to it anymore. I do not intend to make this too easy for our magniloquent Kilmatead. Sorry, not this time. 8)

The numerous founders of new "virtual currencies" are usually those who co-opt them. I'm sure that the mysterious Satoshi guy owns more than enough BTC, the Ethereum, XEM, ZCash et al. ecosystems have a similar design problem: There is always one person who could just make them pointless over night. The only people who gain advantage from the rise (and, sometimes, fall) of "cryptocurrencies" (BINGO!) are those who bear them.

Also, SomethingCoins don't solve one of the most annoying bugs with "real money": People are dumb. There is no security against storing the "wallet" on other people's computers (a.k.a. "the cloud", because "other people's computers" would not sell so well, I guess) or accidentally leaving it on a thumbdrive which can and will be lost. Even worse: Some of those "currencies" added a concept called "multisig", basically a protocol extension that allows multiple people so access one wallet. Guess what happens?

I wish there was a good, vendor-independent alternative to digital payments over PayPal/Patreon (et cetera), especially since PayPal/Patreon (et cetera) have a history of stealing money. SomethingCoins are not designed to be this alternative.
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Re: blog: to bitcoin or not to bitcoin?

Post by dunno »

There is no doubt that crypto currencies WILL prevail and wars will be waged over which crypto currency will be the worlds reserve currency, that is the crux, heart and soul of the problem, Dollar Dude is desperate to have his version of "crypto" assume the mantel of the worlds reserve currency that way Dollar dude can continue to print money (without consequences) with which to feed his spending binges, but how does dollar dude stop any sovereign state from developing their own cyrpto currency, he can't, he's fvcked. he is going to get bent over by the BRIC's and they'll all have a turn.

*Grabs some rum flavored popcorn*
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Re: blog: to bitcoin or not to bitcoin?

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I came to the conclusion that despite my own logical arguments and negative gut feeling with the long term utility of bitcoin, it wouldn't hurt to do a little hedge based on the stoopidity of the masses to push crypto prices even higher. So I spent the day yesterday trying to see in practice how you could buy a small amount (in euros) but the whole experience is disheartening even for experimentation

1. which one do you buy? there are hundreds of them

2. where do you buy "it" from? see above for the customer satisfaction of the biggest exchange. All the others paint similar pictures. You don't know if these guys are thieves, they delay passing you the coins because they use them themselves for profit, or they are just snowed under by the surge in interest and transactions

3. how do you keep it safe? You cannot trust the public wallets, software wallets are vulnerable, and the hardware ones are only partially safe as eventually you must connect them to a PC to do any buying and selling. As the stakes go higher, even if mr miyagi (sorry Satoshi :)) didn't put a back door to the whole thing, regular hackers will have a field day and steal lots of money.

I don't mention privacy considerations because I don't care about them. But for money, I won't put even 1000 euros in it for experiment. Shambles!
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Re: blog: to bitcoin or not to bitcoin?

Post by Tuxman »

Plus, the obvious winners won't give you much anymore (BTC won't have another one million percent rise). Invest into real companies instead. 8)
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Re: blog: to bitcoin or not to bitcoin?

Post by dunno »

nikos wrote: 2017 Nov 17, 06:42it wouldn't hurt to do a little hedge based on the stoopidity of the masses to push crypto prices even higher.
To hedge you must have a underlying asset to hedge against, what exactly are you hedging against?, you can Long or Short something then hedge that bet with a appropriate option, that's what options are designed for they're insurance for a speculative position in a "something".

Green and Gold streaked Tulips were THE rarest of all.
When the shoe shiner says buy, SELL and run for the hills.

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Re: blog: to bitcoin or not to bitcoin?

Post by nikos »

hedge in the sense of my pet negative theory being wrong
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Re: blog: to bitcoin or not to bitcoin?

Post by nikos »

you've all seen the "correction" in bitcoin hyperinflated prices, now time to dismantle the blockchain hype
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Re: blog: to bitcoin or not to bitcoin?

Post by Tuxman »

A few years too late.
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