BITCOIN as an alternative to regular currency

[Euler]

It was funny, but uncannily realistic

[Kafkaesque]

I think it was a bit of a piss take.

Fair enough, makes me feel ever so slightly better I'm among the few holdouts not using Facebook so couldn't watch the video.

[ruthlessimon]

I'm among the few holdouts not using Facebook so couldn't watch the video.

Ditto, been facebook clean for 3yrs

[ShaunWhite]

I'm among the few holdouts not using Facebook so couldn't watch the video.

Ditto, been facebook clean for 3yrs

I've never used Fleecebook, Chatnumpty or Instagranny either. Never understood why anyone would what to know where I am, what I'm doing, or what I'm eating.

"Look at me I'm watching Star Wars"

[megarain]

Xmas Special

btc-xmas-special.jpg

[Zenyatta]

Bitcoin seems like its crashing. Look at the famous attached graph of a 'bubble' or 'hype cycle'. Bitcoin price chart seems to match it exactly - we've moved from the peak of the mania phase to the 'blow off' phase, and we've just come out of the 'bull trap'.

Look at the small price move back upwards just after the crash starts (denial), fooling naïve speculators into thinking that's it's going back up- 'the bull trap' (return to normal), only for it to nosedive once again soon after....

https://www.coindesk.com/price/

hype_cycle.jpg

[ShaunWhite]

From a couple of days ago....
Exmo Bitcoin exchange manager kidnapped in Kiev

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-42505261

[Trading96]

Bitcoin seems like its crashing. Look at the famous attached graph of a 'bubble' or 'hype cycle'. Bitcoin price chart seems to match it exactly - we've moved from the peak of the mania phase to the 'blow off' phase, and we've just come out of the 'bull trap'.

Look at the small price move back upwards just after the crash starts (denial), fooling naïve speculators into thinking that's it's going back up- 'the bull trap' (return to normal), only for it to nosedive once again soon after....

https://www.coindesk.com/price/

hype_cycle.jpg

That's the thing you've got so many people buying the dip that it may take a very long time for it to crash fully. Add to that if bitcoin recovers to the 20k usd mark then the FOMO is gonna be huge. As it will appear invincible.

[Euler]

Charlie Munger isn't exactly a fan

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AXg6K-pguE

[Euler]

When things don't make any sense (Ripple)

http://awealthofcommonsense.com/2018/01 ... any-sense/

[mcfc1981]

When I was on my travels recently I learnt a friend of mine was accepting payment in BitCoin's as a gimmick. Remarkably he collected over 1000 so he is now a BitCoin millionaire. I've told him to sell them, but as we all know emotion often overrules common sense so it's not entirely impossible that he will hold them until such time as he losses it all again!

Did your friend sell the 1000 Bitcoins back in 2013?

[RicHep365]

When things don't make any sense (Ripple)

http://awealthofcommonsense.com/2018/01 ... any-sense/

I'm holding ripple, i know it technically has no value, but while people are still clambering to find the next bitcoin, I'm happy to hold on. Same goes for Stellar Lumens, got to try and call the top, or just tap out when you're happy with your profit.

[Zenyatta]

When things don't make any sense (Ripple)

http://awealthofcommonsense.com/2018/01 ... any-sense/

Well, look *something* has to be driving those price movements. The question is what? the most popular theory is that the prices of the crypto-currencies are mostly being driven by people in Asia - China, Japan and South Korea. So then the question is why are the coins so big in Asia? The best idea seems to be that people in China often want to move money in and out of the country in order to escape the controls of the authoritarian Chinese govt.

Bitcoin also became popular in places such as Venezuela where the far left government totally destroyed the economy to the extent that Bitcoin is actually *more* stable than the hopeless local currency.

This does high-light an important point - sometimes it's actually *valid* to have something to hide, if a government is seriously dictatorial or has ruined the economy through gross mismanagement.

So these valid reasons do I think show that the crypto-currencies do have *some* minimum value as an alternative store of value to government fiat money?

[Euler]

Market cap of joke cryptocurrency Dogecoin surges above $2bn (There is no upper limit on issuing Dogcoin's)

https://www.ft.com/content/b2012d2a-002 ... 8eaef9cac0

Dogecoin, the cryptocurrency based on an internet meme of a Shiba Inu dog, almost doubled in value over the weekend, bringing its market capitalisation to more than $2bn on Sunday.Launched as a joke digital currency in late 2013 by self-described “data geek” Jackson Palmer, Dogecoin describes itself as the “fun and friendly internet currency”.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-42602038

[Euler]

So these valid reasons do I think show that the crypto-currencies do have *some* minimum value as an alternative store of value to government fiat money?

Prof Ethan Ilzetzki at the London School of Economics told the BBC: "A digital unit of currency has no intrinsic value unless it can be used in transactions, and I cannot name a single cryptocurrency that is more useful in transactions than a credit card that's denominated in dollars or pounds or yen.