Is Bitcoin the Next Big Thing?

[dee]

http://www.hl.co.uk/shares/shares-search-results/x/xbt-provider-ab-bitcoin-tracker-eur

And goldman sachs are seemingly looking into starting a crypto desk

 

[aZooZa]

Bought Ripple today and made 10% already.

 

[dee]

Bought Ripple today and made 10% already.

good timing. Theres a big conference this month and people are expecting good news.

 

[Lovekraft]

I've had some ripple for a while. The upcoming Swell conference may well lend itself to a short term boost. I'm holding for the long term mostly.

 

[dee]

I've had some ripple for a while. The upcoming Swell conference may well lend itself to a short term boost. I'm holding for the long term mostly.

Me too. Although not a huge amount. Unlikely it will ever get over a couple of bucks though it seems

 

[Marcoose]

I've started a site on ICO investing and cryptocurrency in general if anyone is interested (see my signature). Looks like a good time to be getting into alts as prices have been depressed lately due to the hard-fork which has now been called off, thankfully. Most of my portfolio is in double digits today .

 

[boxerdog]

Has anyone invested in Monero? seems to be doing well at the moment

 

[bulkcorn]

$300m ETH stolen: https://www.theguardian.com/technol...al&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

 

[dog]

"In 2017, .io and .me are hot and cool, .com is established, but stale and boring."

-Vitalik Buterin

https://mobile.twitter.com/VitalikButerin/status/897617043784073216

 

[Admin]

"In 2017, .io and .me are hot and cool, .com is established, but stale and boring."

-Vitalik Buterin

https://mobile.twitter.com/VitalikButerin/status/897617043784073216

???

 

[dog]

Buterin posted that Tweet. He built the Ethereum blockchain.

 

[martin-s]

.io and .me are cool with startups who can't afford .com, basically

 

[mat]

lol, Just was looking back at the first page of this thread at what certain people were saying when the price of bitcoin was around $225. Just shows how quickly things can change.

 

[dee]

lol, Just was looking back at the first page of this thread at what certain people were saying when the price of bitcoin was around $225. Just shows how quickly things can change.

bitcoin is up and down more often than my missus moodswings at the mo. Some healthy swings lately

 

[Admin]

they are just short term swings. Irrelevant if you hold for the medium or long term, bitcoin is just an upward curve and its surprising how often you can say its another all time high....oh like now!

 

[dee]

they are just short term swings. Irrelevant if you hold for the medium or long term, bitcoin is just an upward curve and its surprising how often you can say its another all time high....oh like now!

View attachment 1720

Interestingly this latest push is due to whats happened with Mugabe they reckon. People looking for a safe haven before the currency comletely tanks.. Which for a crypto is a big deal, obviously easier to deal with than gold.

 

[Murray]

lol, Just was looking back at the first page of this thread at what certain people were saying when the price of bitcoin was around $225. Just shows how quickly things can change.

Have any of you guys held on to Bitcoin if you bought at that price?

I sold at £1000 for the most part as that was the amount I had hoped for when I bought a couple at £350ish

I do look at it now and of course I think I should have held on, but realistically I would never have been able to keep hold above £2000

 

[mat]

I am honestly on the fence with cryptocurrency as an investment. Could it soon completely drop to what some would argue is a more reasonable price or could it quickly rise to $20k? But I certainly don't think there is any denying that this kind of setup will be a part of our future.

One thing that worries me is that although cryptocurrency is different to metals, the major hype building around it and so many people buying it based around this is VERY similar to what happened to gold/silver around 2011 and those who remember will also notice that some of the same people are hyping the "IT'S GUNNA GO TO 100K!!!!" who went very quite after metals dropped and went out of the limelight.

It could very well drop to say $3k and stay there for the next 10 years and sensibly go up over time....

That being said, people who buy and hold any of these things over time because they truly believe in it rather than trying to make a quick profit hopefully do well.

 

[dee]

Have any of you guys held on to Bitcoin if you bought at that price?

I sold at £1000 for the most part as that was the amount I had hoped for when I bought a couple at £350ish

I do look at it now and of course I think I should have held on, but realistically I would never have been able to keep hold above £2000

never actually bought bitcoin. Im in on some xrp . Its still only at 0.2

 

[ausername]

I think cryptocurrency will always have a place in this world, as a tool for money laundering, trade/purchase of illicit goods, and a means of moving wealth out of countries to tax havens (and out again).

But any notion that it is the "new gold", or will ever be used as a common means of exchange for everyday goods is pie in the sky in my opinion.

And Bitcoin being the first mover does not guarentee that it will remain the crypto of choice, perhaps the technology is in its infancy, many on here will remember using Alta Vista for internet searches, didn't stop Google from monopolising that sector.

One massive flaw in the system which will prevent it from ever replacing fiat currency is that its value will always be measured against the value of..... fiat currency.

It is a useful tool for some to avoid taxation or other regulatory burdens, and to keep illicit activity out of the watchful gaze of authorities (although the Tor network is funded by the US government, so who are they kidding?), but what real world everyday purpose does it serve to an everyday person or business?

OK so some hipster coffee shop can use it as a handy gimmick, sticking a bitcoin sign up and selling the odd coffee for digital currency, but even those merchants exchange straight back into fiat.

Another flaw is that the price is artificially inflated by those who hold on to the currency as an investment, in the hope that it will one day be worth a lot of (fiat) money.

The problem with the hoarders is that in order to survive as a currency it needs to be used as a currency, and people don't like spending their bitcoin in case they become that person who spent 10000 bitcoin on a pizza.

That's what puts me off a deflationary currency actually. When bitcoin hit $1000 that guy was thinking about his $10m pizza.

I think that having fiat in savings, growing at a slightly lower rate than inflation due to low interest rates, is infinite times more attractive as a proposition than having to spend the rest of your life remembering the time that you spent $10m on a pizza.

This is my old account, and my opinion hasn't changed.

BUT.... I sold my bitcoin not long after this for $600.

Gutted to have done so of course, when its worth $7000 today.

But it kind of still proves my point, that in order to function as a currency people can't be afraid to spend it.

The idea of purchasing a £20,000 car in bitcoin, and the car then being worth £10,000 a few years later.... and the bitcoin expended being worth £100,000....

That remains the flaw in my opinion. A currency that people are afraid to spend?

I think that blockchain technology can and probably will form the basis upon which transactions are carried out in the future, in fact a transaction tax could be collected! Could revolutionise taxation, how about just 5% of everything any human ever spends on anything?

But that we'll still be using pounds, dollars and euros, and that central banks will still have some control over supply and set inflation targets and interest rates.