The Cryptocurrency thread

[coupleonapkins]

I got lost reading up on Bitcoin the other night, but the most interesting part of it was the whole "true" identity of its creators which was pretty entertaining (also way cheaper to strand that whole narrative together anyway, David Fincher-style).

Did you live through the dot com boom? Because that's seems to be what's happening, and the bubble will burst eventually, since it's basically history repeating. But! The key of any kind of investing is to know that your losses will outweigh your gains on the average, but like chank said, you might want to diversify your portfolio while you still have a chance and/or actual holdings that may or may not disappear into thin air.

[Ugly Nora]

Yeah, as usual, Chanks investing advice is spot-on.

[JereFuzz]

Is this like Bitcoin which I opted out of like a fucking moron when it came out. My buddy and I were talking about that. We'd both be fucking millionaires right now because you could set up you PC to mine the shit when it first came out. 1 bitcoin is worth about 8700 USD right now.

One thing to note is there have been a lot of other "currencies" like this that just outright took peoples money and ran away. So, it's like gambling. If you got it, do it, if you don't, then well, don't.

If there are no barriers to entry how valuable can any of them (crypto currencies) be in the long-run? Gold/silver has a barrier to entry - exploding stars that create them. And as shtf option ... you need computers for them to work - not so for gold/silver ... still an interesting idea

[JereFuzz]

Yeah this stuff is a total gamble. If it works out, you can strike it rich. If it doesn't, you could be wearing a barrel. No one knows. Same thing with marijuana stocks. Pick the right one and you could be living the high life.

I’ve already seen some “how I turned $xyz into $(xyz x 1000) in bitcoin...” ebooks ... a possible sign of a bubble ... these type of books always show up during market run-ups ...

[codetocontra]

This is frustrating to see the price so high. I almost invested a chunk of money into bitcoin many years ago, instead I bought an old Fender Twin. If I had bought Bitcoin I could sell most of it and pay off my house. This notion makes me want to burn the Twin. Another poor choice. And now I am afraid to buy into it because it seems too high now.

[Ugly Nora]

Sure it seems like an epic boner in retrospect, but the more likely scenario is that you would have gotten greedy and let it ride until the bubble burst and you lost all your money and then bought a secondhand Gorilla.

[Strange Tales]

Can this bubble just burst already? I've been saying for 5 years that this won't work out and I'm tired of being wrong and seeing how much this is worth now.

It's really frustrating that this is jumped $9000/coin in an 11 month span. IT ISN'T GOD DAMN FEASIBLE HOW DO THEY KEEP ON DOING IT

[UglyCasanova]

Can this bubble just burst already?

I'm still waiting for the internet bubble to burts.

[JereFuzz]

I read that as more transactions occur for bitcoin the processing power to complete the transaction, and the corresponding energy cost, will skyrocket. Once this day comes, and if it comes, won't the cost of mining exceed the payout of mining? If so, the jig is up ...

[Ugly Nora]

Interesting article about power consumption and value.

https://www.dailysabah.com/finance/2017 ... -countries

Amid increasing demand for Bitcoin due the skyrocketing prices in the last months, the global energy consumption used in the production process of the virtual currency known as "mining" surpasses the individual consumption of 159 individual countries.

Research by the U.K.-based energy tariff comparison service PowerCompare.uk states that as of Nov. 20, Bitcoin's current estimated annual electricity consumption has reached 29.05 terawatt hours (TWh), equal to 0.13 percent of the world's energy consumption.

Although this number may seem small, it is larger than the electricity consumption of Nigeria—Africa's most populous country of 190 million, the largest economy in the continent and 20th largest in the world.


The study puts the price tag of total annual cost of mining at $1.5 billion. However, this number is based on a global average. When the U.S. average retail price is considered, this number could easily reach $3 billion, whereas with average prices in the U.K. it could easily hit nearly $4 billion.

The estimated annual global mining revenues currently stand at $7.2 billion, the study says, noting that Bitcoin's price increased more than 40 percent over the last month, greater than the increase in electricity prices.

The study states that in October alone, Bitcoin mining-related electricity consumption is estimated to have increased by 29.98 percent, and if it keeps increasing at this rate, Bitcoin mining will consume all the world's electricity by Feb. 2020.

An article by Business Insider on the report states that some 80 percent of Bitcoin mining is being carried out in China—a country heavily dependent on fossil fuels, extensively coal, for electricity consumption.

The Bitcoin mining process involves powerful computers solving cryptographic problems. However, due to the limited nature of the system, as the scope of the currency expands, more complex computation will be needed to procure Bitcoin, requiring more powerful computers consuming more time, thus increasing power consumption.

This dilemma has raised environmental concerns over Bitcoins, in addition to those stemming from their legal status.

[UglyCasanova]

It's a big issue with BitCoin for sure. Everyone predicts that it has to go at some point in the near future, and that crypto that requires less processing power to mine will have to take over. But this shit is everywhere, like lhe average percentage values for the local grid power available to Apple's data centers as disclosed in the report for 2014 include 34.8% coal and only 10.6% renewable energy.

[UglyCasanova]

Also, since I started this thread four days ago my profit has gone up 37%, from 75% to 112%. The risk sure is high, but my brain's reward center is having serial orgasms.

[Ugly Nora]

Yeah the article is a bit lacking without context and comparison to other currencies. How much energy and cost does it take to make the USD equivalent of 1 bitcoin ($11000 ish). I assume less, but it would be nice to know to put things in perspective.

[Ugly Nora]

Also, since I started this thread four days ago my profit has gone up 37%, from 75% to 112%. The risk sure is high, but my brain's reward center is having serial orgasms.

I've seen predictions it could reach $40,000 by end of 2018.

[Chankgeez]

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/20 ... 904696001/

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... cord-rally