You seem to forget about a very important aspect or factor

That of a decentralized trustless environment where no one trusts anyone else that these solutions are expected to operate in. If you remove this key factor from the equation, you can build more reliable and cheaper solutions which would guarantee the integrity of your data and redundancy of its storage

Really, why would you need that additional layer (adding unnecessary overhead and incurring deployment as well as maintenance costs) if you are the only one who is supposed to add, alter, or delete the data? Regular distributed databases will do the trick just wonderfully

There exists a very simple reality check

So anyone who wants to check the current health status of the American dollar can easily do it with a couple of clicks. For that, you don't need to read arcane explanations and lengthy textbooks. There is a metric which instantly tells us how well the dollar is at the moment. It is the USD index (USDX) which is a benchmark measuring the value of the dollar against the basket of top 6 currencies in the world. If anything, it has been performing pretty good recently

Вообще-то, это самый важный фактор

Даже наши (кто бы мог подумать) за одного убитого случайно залетевшим снарядом местного жителя в Ростовской области закопали дивизию хохлов (ну или сколько их там было). Амеры в таких случаях подгоняют свой 6-ой флот и равняют все, что шевелится. А что не шевелится, то шевелят, а потом равняют. И надо отдать им в этом должное. И, кстати, после второй мировой войны "хехемону" конкретно так настучали во Вьетнаме, и, полагаю, что без ракет там точно не обошлось


Не нужна США прямая военная конфронтация с Ираном. И аятоллам тоже не нужна. Так и будут по-мелкому пакостить друг другу по возможности


Может и Саддама в Голливуде повесили? Который, если что, однажды каким-то чудом очень удачно попал скадом в американскую казарму


Хазин, перелогинься

Один хомяк сезона не делает

Поэтому и не никакого альтсезона - это своего рода проверка действительностью (reality check). Думаю, в данном случае мы имеем дело с так называемой ошибкой отбора (selection bias). Кроме того, кто громче всех кричит "держи вора!"? Правильно, сам вор и кричит. Поэтому те, кто публично что-то там заявляет, может в реальности действовать совсем в другом направлении, а в данном случае - в направлении продажи альтов на отскоках и скупке битка. Поэтому альты падают, а биток растет (зачеркнуто) падает не так сильно. Правда (зачеркнуто) сила на стороне больших батальонов (зачеркнуто) хомяков

Well, as much as I would love that to be true myself, it is still mostly wishful thinking

People desperately need fiat to pay for their daily expenses, and taking into account that the vast majority of the world population live paycheck to paycheck (and many of them on credit at that), they are not interested in cryptocurrencies. This is simply the way things are, whether you, me, or whoever else likes it or not

We don't even know how much of the recent spike in Bitcoin's price is actually due to the showdown between Iran and America because cryptocurrencies as whole play a very small role in the global affairs, and thus are pretty insignificant in the larger picture to reach any definitive conclusion on the matter

Оно так и оказалось

Теперь выяснилось, что иранцы за три часа до атаки фактически открытым текстом предупредили янки о ракетной атаке, чтобы те попрятаться успели. Оказалось, что аятоллы-то далеко не самоубийцы, как многие полагали. Если бы действительно завали пару сотен звездно-полосатых тушек, ответка была бы неминуемой и кровавой, так как утереться Трампу при таком раскладе никто бы не позволил

А так у всех свой профит (ну кроме пассажиров хохлопепелаца, которых опять принесли в жертву). Амеры завалили занозу в заднице у себя, саудитов и Израиля, а аятоллы им должны только спасибо сказать (может сами и сдали), у них местный генералитет тоже в печенках сидит. Пример соседнего Пакистана (и Турции), где местные вояки на раз-два меняют власть (или пытаются поменять), видимо оказался весьма убедительным


Я бы не стал на этот счет обольщаться. Крипта, как и любой другой спекулятивный актив, полетит вниз стремительнее домкрата

Да, я сейчас на лавке догами барыжу

Там плюс в том, что вывод дешевый - комса два дога всего, если мне не изменяет память (удобно арбитражить), но плохо то, что стакан практически не шевелится - сделок немного. На Ебите торги идут поживее, но платить 500 догов за вывод - это самоубийство (зачеркнуто) издевательство (зачеркнуто) грабеж среди бела дня

Зато оттуда можно без проблем выводить рубли напрямую на кошелек Яндекс.Денег, иногда даже бесплатно (и вывод моментальный, в течение нескольких секунд). Поэтому кому надо выйти из битка в рубли с выводом на Яндекс.Деньги, то Ебит сейчас самый адекватный выбор (если не рассматривать OTC площадки)

Полагаю, что не поэтому

Доги раньше пампили только в путь. Я думаю, дело здесь в другом. Когда большая часть монет обслуживает "реальную экономику", т.е. не крутится исключительно на бирже, пампить оказывается себе дороже. Много найдется дураков пампить доллар или евро, например?

А дураков покупать при таком пампе найдется еще меньше, поскольку любой памп (равно как и дамп) быстро разбивается о реальность, которую диктует неспекулятивный спрос (и предложение). Но если кто-то хочет прокачать доги в 2-3 раза, то я не против налить им

So you admit that you belong to the first camp

I mean, the ones who claim that everyone who is gambling is looking for profit (at the end of the day), i.e. there is always a profit-earning incentive involved even with the games of chance (what gambling is essentially all about). I for one don't think so as there are strong and valid reasons as well as reliable and confirmatory evidence to believe that it is not always the case and further from truth than many of us are inclined to assume

For example, it is a universally accepted view that due to the house edge, you are set to lose in the long run. However, there are people who have been gambling years on end with small amounts, and given that they have been losing money all this time, you wouldn't really expect them to be looking for profits as this assumption implies these individuals are irrational bordering on outright insane (unless they are looking for something else, of course)

This market is way smaller than 200 billion (dollars)

In fact, any market is smaller than the reported number as this number is mostly an illusion (or mathematical abstraction of sorts if you please). For example, the gold market is said to be over 7 trillion dollars, but if everyone decided to sell their gold and liquidate, they wouldn't be able to get even half of that money

But with cryptocurrencies it is way worse than that, so I'm not sure you would be able to get even 20 billion dollars out of this market if all crypto were to be sold out completely. The point is, there is little to no real use in cryptocurrencies (unlike gold) which would prop up the prices at a certain level, so when everyone sells out, the price goes to zero

Technically, we don't know that

Commentators are just making deductions and drawing conclusions, but that's simply how we like things (explained), and how our minds internally work (to explain things with plausible reasons). We are prone to look for and see causal relationships where there's only a statistical correlation or just a coincidence (remember, correlation doesn't mean causation). This is known as selling the narrative, and if you are buying it, stop doing that and think for yourself. Bitcoin is rising and falling for no apparent reason so often that you should instantly question the validity and veracity of this narrative, or any such narrative. It can be a trigger, though, but then anything can be

There should be something. I've been thinking about it, and now as a step forward and toward the resolution of the questions raised in the OP, I came up with a simple reality check. That is, if it was really nothing at all, and you just wanted to fulfill your inner longings to have some excitement, why would you not use a gambling bot like Seuntjies DiceBot using it for that purpose in test mode only, i.e. without actually gambling and losing anything? If it were only for fun, why don't you run it instead of gambling in a real casino, most likely losing money there?

This is a question for all

Старого хомяка на мякине не проведешь!

Он уже научен на своем собственном горьком опыте, что есть только один достойный альт, и имя ему биток (ну можно еще в доги и лайты небольшим тиражом вложиться). Поэтому, как уже отмечалось, любой локальный памп всего, что еще шевелится, используется либо для выхода вообще (как говорится, вход - рубль, выход - два), либо для перекладывания в преимущественный альт (про который я уже написал). Поэтому и пампы теперь стали похилее и профиты победнее, поскольку дураков (зачеркнуто) хомяков нет


Любой человек, действительно умеющий считать деньги (и риски), предпочтет разобраться со всеми этими вопросами, чем взять на себя риск дефолта эмитента всех этих коварных инструментов - это только вопрос времени (про что уже неоднократно писалось и что неоднократно подтверждалось практикой)

I wouldn't discard and throw away this factor altogether

With assets as speculative and volatile as Bitcoin, emotions play a major part in their price dynamic. We should remember (whether it feels good or bad) that most of Bitcoin's value as reflected by its price has no real backup in the form of goods and services which can be bought with it (that's basically the definition of speculative)

All in all, it means that we can see huge price moves caused or triggered by however small influencing factors (which is known as the butterfly effect), and not necessarily in the direction we expect most (read, Bitcoin could easily fall instead of rising on these tensions and how they have developed) 

It can be a stress-reliever of sorts

However, there are many stress-relievers out there (as they say, drugs, sex, and rock'n'roll), and each approach to this goal of relieving stress is markedly different from others. Put differently, there are various ways of dealing with stress, and what I'm interested in is finding out what makes gambling a stress-reliever, i.e. what emotions it causes, or rather, what idea triggers a particular emotion that makes us feel happy after a win


That's the whole point. There are many ways that provide personal enjoyment (or state of bliss), but it is not something which comes on its own, with the implication being that there should necessarily be something else, an assumption or belief, which makes this process possible in the first place

You don't specify which currency you compare Bitcoin with

You see, there are over 200 countries in the world (and counting), while the total majority of them have their own currencies (apart from a few exceptions like Panama and a small number of other massively dollarized nations). And you know what? The performance of most currencies in the world are fucking ridiculous compared to Bitcoin on a long enough time scale, going to outright pathetic in like a dozen of years. Fiat is intentionally made to be depreciating with time, so it is only a matter of time (pardon the tautology)

Bitcoin is insanely volatile for a currency, a currency like the American dollar, British pound, or Swiss franc. But these are crème de la crème among currencies of the world. Besides, Bitcoin is volatile in the truest sense of the word, i.e. its price (say, in dollars) can go down but then it inevitably rebounds, and often with a vengeance at that. This is definitely not the case with regular currencies which can only sink and then sink lower, at different rates -- some fast, some slow, and some collapsing like the Venezuelan bolivar or Zimbabwean dollar

But I'm not talking about reason here

It is more about feeling that way, i.e. feeling all-powerful, supreme, and godlike. We can't tame luck but when we win after losing, we feel like we are finally able to, even if for a brief moment. Indeed, this is all false objectively. But what we feel can't be fake or false subjectively, i.e. how we actually experience it. We are made to trust our feelings. Technically, this is how our brains are wired. That's also the reason why there are so many scams and frauds out there because they appeal directly to emotion which obfuscates and clouds our reason


But that's what I'm talking about. You understandably feel good, but what is that feeling good made of? If you get the feeling that the universe is on your side, doesn't it mean that you are controlling your chances, i.e. things bending to your will and happening how you envisage them?

To be explicit and begin with, by gambling I mean playing only the games of chance (think dice here), i.e. games where your skill doesn't matter, where the outcome is determined by luck alone

As the debates and discussions here clearly show, there are two major camps in respect to the question why people are gambling. The first camp claim that people gamble because they are looking for ways to earn money (something like the notorious "get rich fast" scheme). The other camp say there are as well people who gamble just for the fun of it (to be clear, they don't deny the monetary incentives of some, or most, of the players). Let's call such an attitude personal enjoyment as that seems to be the established term (you're welcome to come up with a different name for it)

To reassert, I'm not discarding the possibility that quite a few people may be looking into gambling as a source of easy money (whether it actually is, or can be, is another question), or that it can in fact be their primary incentive. But this topic is not about such people. In this topic I want to dissect and analyze the other group of gamblers (and their motivations), the one that is actually playing for its own sake, for personal enjoyment and entertainment. And here's the question (a few questions) to muse over while taking a break from rolling the dice

What is exactly meant and understood by this "personal enjoyment" generic category? Is it one feeling, or are there many? What do people actually feel when gambling with motives other than purely financial? What do they get out of it? My take is that they are feeling in control of their fate, even if only for very brief moments. Simply put, that they are not losers, and luck is on their side, at least sometimes. Indeed, we all know that this feeling is fleeting and false overall, but it is so nice and pleasant that we are ready to pay for it, up to a point where we get addicted to it

So what's your take on this? What's in the game for those of us who are not looking for anything other than personal enjoyment and amusement? Be specific!

This chart is as misleading as it can be

Taking year 2010 as a reference point (what this chart essentially does) is a very naive approach unless it was done on purpose, of course. If anything, you should only consider the period when Bitcoin became mainstream, and that was not earlier than 2015. But if you take that year as a reference point, you will easily see that Bitcoin has recently been as volatile as ever (since it went mainstream)

In fact, we don't even need to bother checking the charts as only a week ago Bitcoin plunged below 7k, and just a few days later it is already worth more than $8400, which, for a moment, is a 15% increase within less than a week. Not something that you could plausibly label or term as volatility going away

These charts essentially tell us what we already know

That Bitcoin (not speaking of other cryptocurrencies) is primarily used for speculation (with Dogecoin for gambling as an exception to the rule). And that answers your question why the amount held in exchange accounts surges during the times of volatility (i.e. not necessarily in the pump phase alone). Consequently, in less volatile times it makes no sense to keep coins on exchanges, so people reasonably withdraw bitcoins from their accounts