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Thread: Market Disruptions Thread (aka Millennials ruin EVERYTHING!)

  1. #61
    Relaxing and enjoying life MR2 Fan's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by TheBenior View Post
    IMO, Bitcoin is going to crash.

    The value is all based on speculation, not it's utility, and even it's utility is hampered by the ever-growing amounts of electricity it takes to process transactions. As far as I can tell, the only utility Bitcoin adds is avoiding taxes and buying illegal things (even that is going to be limited when said illegal things are physical goods and not say, child pornography).

    My wife mentioned somebody saying that it would be useful in countries being plagued by hyper-inflation where prices fluctuate wildly on a daily basis, but more stable currencies like the Euro and USD can already serve that role. They also aren't dependent upon internet access to confirm transactions. Bitcoin isn't immune to robbery; there's nothing to stop roving bandits from making you transfer Bitcoin from your wallet. Countries undergoing hyperinflation don't tend to have the most stable utility or security situations.
    Bitcoin is accepted in a lot of places that aren't illegal.

    https://99bitcoins.com/who-accepts-b...take-bitcoins/

    Anyway, I thought the electricity issue was more about mining than transferring sale data.

  2. #62
    Spiny beast TheBenior's Avatar
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    Just because lots of places take it doesn't mean that there's any added utility over normal currencies. Given the current volatility, I would argue that there's less utility.

    The mining is indeed what uses the extreme amount of electricity, but you can't entirely separate that from the transactions.

  3. #63
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    I was taking with a friend about it's viability in a market crash, it *could* be a safe hiding place for money in the right scenario, like 2008.

    But I doubt it. Because when shit hits the fan, you want stability. A made up currency, which they all are, without any real standard or support, is useless.

  4. #64
    Director Freude am Fahren's Avatar
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    There are some safeguard to a bitcoin crash, I think. From what I understand, you can't just "cash out" everything. There are limits (I think $50k/day, or some other time period).

    I thought about getting into, in order to play online poker a while after it was outlawed in the US. I just didn't understand it enough, and didn't want to fall down some dark well or something.

    Valve's reason for getting rid of it are kinda funny. Apparently transaction fee's and time are too big. And with it so volatile, when someone purchased something using bitcoin, by the time the transaction went through, the value was significantly different.

    I think high-end car dealers and realators are taking bitcoin these days.

    There was a Big Bang Theory episode last week about it all. They mentioned the price at $5,000. It doubled by the time the episode aired. Then doubled agains since!

  5. #65
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    Quote Originally Posted by MR2 Fan View Post
    Anyway, I thought the electricity issue was more about mining than transferring sale data.
    As far as I'm aware, the two are intrinsically related.

    Quote Originally Posted by Godson View Post
    A made up currency, which they all are, without any real standard or support, is useless.
    Rocks. Invest in rocks.

    A friend of mine posited that you could buy up a heap of BTC, wait 'til it triples, then sell it and buy gold. When the market eventually crashes, all the smart people will flee and go back to gold like they always do when market crashes happen and drive its price up. Win-win.

    Quote Originally Posted by Freude am Fahren View Post
    Valve's reason for getting rid of it are kinda funny. Apparently transaction fee's and time are too big. And with it so volatile, when someone purchased something using bitcoin, by the time the transaction went through, the value was significantly different.
    Yeah, the thing I read said that BTC transaction fees are up to $20 per transaction, they were about $0.20 when they started using it. It's wildly uneconomical for cheap items like games, plus its value would change like crazy while a transaction was taking place, leading to funding shortfalls during both sales and refunds.

  6. #66
    Relaxing and enjoying life MR2 Fan's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by TheBenior View Post
    Just because lots of places take it doesn't mean that there's any added utility over normal currencies. Given the current volatility, I would argue that there's less utility.

    The mining is indeed what uses the extreme amount of electricity, but you can't entirely separate that from the transactions.
    I agree, I'm just saying it's not just for illegal activities.

    In a way this reminds me of when the internet first came out and I had (mostly older) people talk to me about it as I ran a website company and they were afraid it was a lot of illegal activity going on. I think much of this is that it's a very complicated thing to understand, and not something we've really dealt with before.

  7. #67
    Ripple is one to watch. It's having a bit of a spike right now.

    It's interesting to me because some banks are experimenting with it.

  8. #68
    Senior Member Leon's Avatar
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    So today would be a bit interesting to a lot of newbies who have just dived in.

  9. #69
    Member Member 21Kid's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by 21Kid View Post
    It's going to crash... HARD!
    A bitcoin sell-off is gaining momentum, with a quarter of its value evaporating in just the past 24 hours.

  10. #70
    Administrator dodint's Avatar
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