Do you trade cryptocurrency?

[I_royalty_I]

@(you need an account to see links) - probably made like $30-40 overnight, yeah?

Price per ETH jumped like $50 overnight. Another almost 1k added to my holding value haha

[Aura]

Yeah, $30. This is fun already


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[OakTree]

You know I have been following but never did I understand why people buy it, to this moment this is still a mystery to me.
See a 'currency' is no different than pieces of paper, in this case bits, bits which I can make trillions of under the name of oaktreecoin in literally seconds.
What gives it value, for example for the dollar is people willing to trade it, with dollars it's obvious why.
There are thousands of billions of contracts with dollar figures written on them right now.
Say I were to hold all the dollars, in order to fulfill any contract, holders will have to come to me, so say they want to pay for a house they bought for 2 dollars and I hold all the dollars then I can ask them to give me a chicken and a cow per dollar
And no one else got dollars in this example so Imma be enjoying a big farm with 2 chickens and 2 cows in no time!

dumb example yes but so long as people need x to pay for y and they already agreed - then y is hold up the value of x.

No one, no one, is signing long term contacts with bitcoins, not even drug dealers, it's all instant, right now.
If you weren't allowed to make any future deals at all with dollars - their value wouldn't be wiped completely, as current contracts must be held, some contracts are there for decades too (Although obviously the 'spare' dollars floating around will be forced to compete on being spent on the contracts existing which will crush the dollar despite not wiping it out) however if bitcoin is only allowed with contacts done before time x, then it's dead, gone, goodbye.

And it's hilarious to me to think that people are 'oh no but the tech it's paypal for free' I agree! it's amazing tech! it's very smart! IT'S DOWNLOADABLE FOR FREE GO MAKE COINS.
In fact it should be assumed that this tech is so good that within a few years banks WILL adopt them, they will not trade with bitcoin they will trade with bank-name-here-coin or central-bank-coin and each such virtual coin will be linked to real currency thus forcing currency to be regulated which will allow for long term contracts.
At that point normal people will all have bit-wallets, in their bank accounts, with which they can do whatever whenever for free and no one will use any other coin, even drugdealers can just move coins from wallet to wallet if banks are smart they won't subject their coins to any tracking because it's better to hold the cash and close your eyes than to not hold it at all - and bankers know it.

So imo... this is insanity, illogical and bound to be wiped at some point.
But you know what? after years of holding opinion I also understand 1 more thing - people are sheep, they'll buy air if everyone else does and cryptos are a heaven filled with sheep you can eat.
The only question is - can you avoid becoming wolf food yourself, the crypto market is what would happen to NASDAQ if it wasn't supervised at all - people set traps and pull triggers and if you are agile enough to get in when a new wave is starting and humble enough to pull out before those moving the market to their own advantage pull out - you stand to make a real fortune.

Still to be fair this is gambling and I am not sure I want any part of it (for example say you put 1k dollars in bitcoin when it first rose to 1000, would you be able to hold until today to recover from the drop to 500? would you otherwise be fine losing 500$ in a failed gambit? ) would you be ok losing all your money when the site you entrusted your money to (since again 100% not regulated) decides to close and take your money?

I advice against such adventures unless you are humble, have self control, are very vigilant with price checking and above all - are willing to lose every cent you put in.
If you got what it takes... yeah, you can win big, but this is how people become addicted to gambling, so watch out - in this sort of stuff you are your own enemy, learn when to say 'sweet, I got it, enough for me, thanks'

[kaito]

I'm currently thinking about getting into cryptocurrency as two of my best friends started to get into that aswell.
Sadly my budget currently is too low to start it, but I think it would be a good investment. Atleast according to my friends

[I_royalty_I]

@(you need an account to see links) - you are looking at it all wrong. Yes, you can go make your own coin and make as many of them as you want... but nobody is going to want your coin unless it provides some sort of value. You don't simply buy into a coin just because. That's why it took Bitcoin so long to become a bit more mainstream. Way back when, it was looked at as something illegal, used only by drug dealers and shady individuals. There is much more to it now with smart contracts and the decentralization factor. Yes, it certainly is the wild west wild like you eluded to, but that is by design. One of the most important features of bitcoin as well as all the other cryptos is that they are decentralized. There are plenty of projects right now that are doing amazing things. I won't touch on any in particular, but some quick research will bring a wealth of information.

Just like ANY investment, you shouldn't really put in what you aren't prepared to lose. You could invested in stocks, which are regulated, and the companies you invest in could all start performing poorly and your investment will lose it's value. You could invest in an ICO (new coin) and the developers could walk away or it could get pump&dumped and you could lose what you put in. That's why it's important to do your research, understand where you're putting your money and with whom you are going to be investing. Get to know the developers. What did they do prior, where do they want to take the project? What sort of value does the project provide the crypto space? Society as a whole? There's a reason why some of the biggest names in the world are backing these ideas and investing in these developments.

You can make a TON of money, but you can lose a ton of money. It does take discipline, due diligence, along with good timing and a bit of luck to be successful. That's generally the same across the board for anything though. It's my belief that this time next year, we will be having a very different discussion and many people will wish they had gotten involved sooner. That's just me though, everyone else may have a different opinion.





&& I originally came back to bump this thread to see if anybody was watching the bitcoin fork tonight/today? Trying to figure what position I want to take once this wild ride slows down.

[OakTree]

Nah, looking at it correctly, you are missing a huge point - a major success will force the hands of governments which will make coins worth exactly one of their currency.

All else equal do you rather own a weird coin or a dollar coin, a coin worth 1 dollar which you can cash into a dollar no questions asked issued by a real bank?

The end game seem obvious to me, regulation is what prevents pump and drops because that's literally illegal in the real stock market and can be sued for.
And the dollar's price is clearly of way higher stability.

The tech gives you a free and anonymous safe PayPal, for most people that's all they could want, a dollar coin will send every existing coin packing, thd only question is will it ever happen and how long until it does, it's not that clear cut here, but if you believe in cryptos then this becomes an inevitability, it's a step that will happen should virtual coins ever threaten real ones.

[I_royalty_I]

Nah, looking at it correctly, you are missing a huge point - a major success will force the hands of governments which will make coins worth exactly one of their currency.

All else equal do you rather own a weird coin or a dollar coin, a coin worth 1 dollar which you can cash into a dollar no questions asked issued by a real bank?

The end game seem obvious to me, regulation is what prevents pump and drops because that's literally illegal in the real stock market and can be sued for.
And the dollar's price is clearly of way higher stability.

The tech gives you a free and anonymous safe PayPal, for most people that's all they could want, a dollar coin will send every existing coin packing, thd only question is will it ever happen and how long until it does, it's not that clear cut here, but if you believe in cryptos then this becomes an inevitability, it's a step that will happen should virtual coins ever threaten real ones.

Theres already a coin that you can trade 1:1 for a USD - it's called Tether. This hasn't slowed things down at all. The government is already trying to regulate the market, but the wonderful part is that they can't. The SEC can try to declare initial offerings as securities but not every coin falls under that definition.

Cryptos (arguably) are already a major success. They have broken $100billion market cap in the past and I'm sure will reach that point and beyond in the very near future. There's no way the government can force coins to be worth one of their currency. They don't own and can't control the coins. That's the beauty of them being decentralized. Of course there are places like Coinbase and other exchanges that allow you to buy coins with usd.. they can mess with those. Beyond there, they can't get everyone's private keys and manipulate that way.

Nobody really minds the pump and dumps and manipulation. Well, that's not true, they do, but most are smart enough not to get caught up in that. Those are just the scam coins. There are lots of them now a days but they are usually fairly easy to point out. The new and stupid money is just too eager to buy into things that they claim will go to the moon.

Personally I've diversified into over half a dozen different coins and am very happy with where I sit. There is much more than simple wealth storage going on here. That's the most basic of the basic. These smart contracts will enable so many cool things moving forward.

[TexasLonghorns]

Because of the mining and the use of high end graphics cards to create these. I bought 2 graphics cards a few months ago for $500 a piece. The same ones are now selling for $2000 a piece. I'm tempted to sell them, but my computer is so badass now, I don't think I can part with them.

[I_royalty_I]

Because of the mining and the use of high end graphics cards to create these. I bought 2 graphics cards a few months ago for $500 a piece. The same ones are now selling for $2000 a piece. I'm tempted to sell them, but my computer is so badass now, I don't think I can part with them.

I've never actually tried mining before but been curious about trying. Apparently recent changes are going to change how different coins are mined and I haven't kept up with it. I've heard similar things from coworkers though. I heard you can get a decent used one though because lots of people were trying to sell the old ones to get some cash to buy new ones. I'd hang onto them and just enjoy them now that you have them

[I_royalty_I]

Damn... turned .5BTC into just about 2BTC overnight thanks to this fork. Was definitely not expecting that!