Discussion
The Spruce goose said:
i would say both, it is a medium of exchange and storage value.
But are people buying it as a medium of exchange or a store of value, as you say, or in the expectation of it CREATING value?I would guess that it is the latter, which means that it doesn't do the former.
for everyone it means someone different i would say. Some are buying to use it, some buy to exchange for alt coins. some are buying to store value and then move it. Some buy as it means you have total control over your money.
I don't think it fits the traditional models which is why people find it hard to define.
I don't think it fits the traditional models which is why people find it hard to define.
Crypto currencies are so new that we're unlikely to find a truly long term one any time soon. A large number of them don't appear to have any real world usage yet either. To me it's all huge guess work and highly volatile as an investment platform. You might get lucky, but chance are you won't. You have more chance if you invest large amounts and can move it quickly to take advantage of the rapid changes. Anyone with small investments can't move it fast enough to gain too much (obviously there are outliers to this, and people that have been lucky, eg. early investors). Bitcoin I'm not sure I see the long term stability for. Yes it's the biggest right now, but we're at the very beginning of this movement, and the downsides of Bitcoin (eg. long transaction times) will likely cause it problems.
However, I would say I'm tempted to put a little £ into it. Though with the understanding that it's basically gambling, and maybe I'll get lucky, but probably not! XRP looks somewhat inviting.
However, I would say I'm tempted to put a little £ into it. Though with the understanding that it's basically gambling, and maybe I'll get lucky, but probably not! XRP looks somewhat inviting.
Ayahuasca said:
The Spruce goose said:
i would say both, it is a medium of exchange and storage value.
But are people buying it as a medium of exchange or a store of value, as you say, or in the expectation of it CREATING value?I would guess that it is the latter, which means that it doesn't do the former.
It's hard to answer your question because the answer will vary depending on one's personal viewpoint. I suppose the short version is that the idea of BTC was to be a decentralised digital currency for day to day use. What actually happened was that no-one used it for its intended purpose because it was well before its time and there was not (and still is not) any infrastructure in place for people and businesses to handle payments in a timely and cost-effective manner. As a result it's become a storage medium where the only people "using" it now are speculators looking to make a quick buck and people simply buying it to exchange for other crypto coins that can only be purchased with BTC.
Whether or not you believe it has any future is something for you to do your own research on. Ardent supporters (usually with significant holdings) will tell you it's the Holy Grail and not only will you become very rich but also that it will become the number one crypto currency in the future. However it's fair to say that BTC doesn't really have anything going for it anymore as there are countless other crypto currencies that do everything BTC does but better. The proponents will argue that BTC has history, solid foundations, tried and tested etc, whereas other currencies do not - and that would be a fair argument if not for current turmoil where it's suffering from an identity crisis.and its day-to-day value is fluctuating by thousands of dollars.
It could be argued that BCH (Bitcoin Cash - the fork of BTC) is what BTC was originally intended to be, however this is also quickly turning into clone of BTC as speculators are jumping on this bandwagon looking to make a quick buck just like they've done with BTC!
Ted2 said:
it's fair to say that BTC doesn't really have anything going for it anymore as there are countless other crypto currencies that do everything BTC does but better
Security is an absolute fundament of any financial software. It's a very good reason why developments take a relatively long time. Far too long for the impatient (including many VC investors), who typically want features yesterday and don't mind things being buggy as long as they hit the market early.High quality software takes time to build. Secure high quality financial software takes even longer. The risk of not doing this can be cataclysmic. I think you allude to this in your post but, imo, it ought to be explicitly clear.
Ted2 said:
It's hard to answer your question because the answer will vary depending on one's personal viewpoint. I suppose the short version is that the idea of BTC was to be a decentralised digital currency for day to day use. What actually happened was that no-one used it for its intended purpose because it was well before its time and there was not (and still is not) any infrastructure in place for people and businesses to handle payments in a timely and cost-effective manner. As a result it's become a storage medium where the only people "using" it now are speculators looking to make a quick buck and people simply buying it to exchange for other crypto coins that can only be purchased with BTC.!
Not entirely true. Writers of ransomware and drug dealers on the dark web will happily accept bitcoin. plasticpig said:
Ted2 said:
It's hard to answer your question because the answer will vary depending on one's personal viewpoint. I suppose the short version is that the idea of BTC was to be a decentralised digital currency for day to day use. What actually happened was that no-one used it for its intended purpose because it was well before its time and there was not (and still is not) any infrastructure in place for people and businesses to handle payments in a timely and cost-effective manner. As a result it's become a storage medium where the only people "using" it now are speculators looking to make a quick buck and people simply buying it to exchange for other crypto coins that can only be purchased with BTC.!
Not entirely true. Writers of ransomware and drug dealers on the dark web will happily accept bitcoin. 
k with BTC as it's causing endless arguments with buyers whose money is getting stuck on the blockchain and by the time it arrives it's short by some margin (past 2 days at least).No. That's totally appalling.
Check here for a real exchange - https://www.bitstamp.net
The spread is often a dollar or less.
Check here for a real exchange - https://www.bitstamp.net
The spread is often a dollar or less.
The ball is rolling... http://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/11/09/quantum_co...
For those holding crypto currencies as an investment - good luck over the next few months.
For those holding crypto currencies as an investment - good luck over the next few months.
toastyhamster said:
The ball is rolling... http://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/11/09/quantum_co...
For those holding crypto currencies as an investment - good luck over the next few months.
Terrifying. For those holding crypto currencies as an investment - good luck over the next few months.
So ten years. Maybe. At a guess.
Hold me.
toastyhamster said:
More coming, be patient, next few months will be interesting for crypto currency.
seriously - even from that quote they say half a million qubits - the current record is circa 50.and even of they do manage to build it then crypto is the bottom of the list of worries - every form of encryption in use today is worthless overnight.
x5x3 said:
seriously - even from that quote they say half a million qubits - the current record is circa 50.
FUD indeed. Counting bits is misleading. Achieving 50 or half a million won't progress much because quantum bits are inherently unstable. The major challenge in this field is to mitigate errors, not produce more Qubits. You can identify an error but not its value as the act of measuring destroys it. My understanding finishes at about there 
The article is amusing as they state so matter-of-fact that basically it will be crypto-currency's undoing. Presumably they haven't considered that the programmers would simply change the "code" to make it far more complicated and thus nigh on impossible to crack.
In short, it's just scaremongering nonsense.
In short, it's just scaremongering nonsense.
x5x3 said:
toastyhamster said:
More coming, be patient, next few months will be interesting for crypto currency.
seriously - even from that quote they say half a million qubits - the current record is circa 50.and even of they do manage to build it then crypto is the bottom of the list of worries - every form of encryption in use today is worthless overnight.
And is this not a variation on the P vs NP issue, in which case bitcoin is the least of our worries.
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