Surprises to see this isn’t an off-topic discussion. For those not in the know: 1. Crypto currency is growing exponentially... current market cap for all currencies combined is over $200 Billion... $100 Billion alone of that is Bitcoin. 2. There are online exchanges right now that are mindblowingly easy to sign up to and start trading. 3. Very volatile market due to lack of liquidity but also lots of opportunities for huge profits 4. Just for reference, Bitcoin was less than $1 per coin in 2010... today it’s over $7,000! Other competitors currencies are also emerging with better features and technology... 5. It’s an extremely fast growing industry and this is the early adopters phase. Here’s a good link to get an idea of what bitcoin is in specific but crypto in general: http://lopp.net/bitcoin.html For those in the know, what coins do you currently own? What are your recommendations for good long term holds? Also what exchanges do you use and are you strictly BTC or do you dabble in alts mostly?
I don't see Bitcoin as something I'd like to "own" long-term. Its value is determined strictly based its use as an exchange mechanism. Long-term ownership wouldn't make sense unless I was a dealer.
The way I've seen some people manage Bitcoin are like Foreign Exchange traders. They are constantly buying and selling the different forms of currency to try to get more of the other in a short amount of time. Like you said, it's been quite volatile as more and more versions start to emerge. I'm not to savvy into the technical details, but the one I heard most recently was Bitcoin Cash, which was a "fork" off of Bitcoin, and it recently took off the past 2 months. I would like to personally start myself, but I currently have no time or interest to research it unless someone told me about something early on enough to buy in easily at a low price, as with any trading.
I had some I bought for my identity change, but after I bought my fake ID and passport and successfully created a new life, I didn't feel it was a safe place for my illegally obtained funds.
Careful with this stuff. There is no government to enforce this. Investing in currency (any sort) is dangerous.
The news that it hit $13,000 obviously influenced people to buy. You're right. The bubble will pop, but it could get to $20 or 25K beforehand. That's what they are hoping for. Imagine investing $1000 in them in 2010. You'd have $16 million today.
Is the point of crypto currency to essentially avoid paying taxes and hide your money from the government?
When I bought my first bitcoin and was at a shop to buy a burner phone (great story for another time), the clientele that came into use the "bitcoin" atm were more than slightly shady. I'm sure some use it to avoid the ups and downs of fiat currency inflation/deflation, but in the US that's not so much an issue. I think it's primarily for illegal activity and now speculation. Pretty interesting.
I customize some CRM software, and it's interesting how some vendors are only accepting payment in bitcoin. And payment gateways are buying in to participate in order to charge fees. Pretty sure it's here to stay.
Welp, guess I've started my venture into some Alt Coins. I'm currently into Ripple (XRP) and Tronix (TRX) because of their low price points and recent buzz. I'm not in for much, in for the kicks and giggles to see what I can do.
https://cheddar.com/videos/facebook-plans-to-create-its-own-cryptocurrency Facebook is exploring the creation of its own cryptocurrency, a virtual token that would allow its billions of users around the world to make electronic payments, people familiar with Facebook’s plans told Cheddar. “They are very serious about it,” said one of the people, who asked not to be identified discussing unannounced plans. Facebook started studying blockchain almost a year ago, when a member of its corporate development team, Morgan Beller, began looking at how the social platform could use the emerging technology. At the time, Beller was the only Facebook employee devoted to studying blockchain, the digital and decentralized ledger that underpins cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum. Her work was thrust into the spotlight this week when Facebook announced that the vice president in charge of the Messenger app, David Marcus, would lead a new team to “explore how to best leverage blockchain across Facebook, starting from scratch.” Marcus leads a team of less than a dozen Facebook employees working on blockchain. Before joining the company, he was the president of PayPal, which facilitates transactions between users in Facebook’s Messenger app. Marcus is an early Bitcoin investor, and in December he joined the board of Coinbase, which runs one of the most popular cryptocurrency exchanges. Recode first reported the creation of Facebook’s blockchain team earlier this week. Executives at the company regularly talk about future initiatives with their employees, and they tout the company’s 10-year roadmap in public presentations. But plans for blockchain have been omitted from that roadmap, and top executives have been tight-lipped about any plans for crypto, the people familiar with the discussions said. In an internal post earlier this week announcing the blockchain initiative to Facebook employees, CEO Mark Zuckerberg didn’t explain what specifically the team would be working on. “Like many other companies Facebook is exploring ways to leverage the power of blockchain technology," a Facebook spokesperson told Cheddar after this story was first published on Friday. "This new small team will be exploring many different applications. We don’t have anything further to share.” Facebook’s work on blockchain technology and cryptocurrency will likely take years to materialize. People familiar with the matter said the social network doesn’t have plans to hold a so-called initial coin offering (ICO) by offering a limited number of virtual tokens for the public to buy at a set price. Facebook will likely need to make acquisitions in the blockchain and cryptocurrency space to develop its own virtual currency, one of the people said. Blockchain technology could also be used to help Facebook verify the identity of accounts and encrypt data. The social platform has experimented with virtual currency before. In 2009, the company released Facebook Credits, which could be used to purchase virtual goods in popular games like Farmville. But the feature never gained traction, and Facebook shut it down two years later. During an interview at a conference in February, Marcus said Facebook didn’t have plans to integrate cryptocurrency into its apps anytime soon. "Payments using crypto right now is just very expensive, super slow, so the various communities running the different blockchains and the different assets need to fix all the issues, and then when we get there someday, maybe we'll do something,” Marcus said.
FWIW: Bitcoin is at $8500 today. Fallen way off from when we were discussing this, but hasn't crashed and burned. I'm interested to see what FaceBook does with this.
Another problem I have with cryptocurrency is that digital storage is still problematic. The top corporations in the world still use a 90 year old technology to archive their digital data. Magnetic tape drives. Magnetic tape was invented in Weimar Republic, Germany in 1928 and hit their peak in the 1970's and 1980's with audio cassettes, VHS, and 8-track. Nobody uses them anymore except for data storage since nobody in the tech sector can find a more reliable way to archive data. If stored properly, magnetic tape can last a minimum 15 years to a maximum 30 years. If I truly want my cryptocurrency to remain safe, I'd have to make 2 backups and then backup again 15 years later to ensure that I don't lose my money. It would be easier just to dig a hole in the ground, drop a bag of gold into the hole, cover it up, and dig it up whenever I need it. Gold never corrodes, and nobody will ever find where I buried it.
