You do not really need to understand everything about bitcoin to get some and use it. Fully understanding all aspects would require degrees in economics, computing, psychology, computing sciences... There are so many aspects just on the technical side that it is quite difficult to apprehend. The good news is that it is not at all necessary to understand all these aspects, you just need to understand how to keep your keys safe and how to make the basic operations. Let me put a simple example, you do not need to know how to make antibiotics, you do need to trust them and know how to take a pill.

Re adoption, there is no more end game that there is for Euro or USD.

Progressive adoption at this point does not need any further catalysts (the name usually given to those events that make everyone realise the value of an asset). It is much more about progressive adoption at this point since I believe that the value, as of now and for bitcoin, is well assessed. The next likely event that may drive crypto could potentially be any announcement by any of the large techs, but it can sumply be anything once the level of demand is there. I am tired of stupid justifications for bitcoin price movements, most of the times they do not correspond to a single event.

There is something that needs to be clarified: Staying in something for the long or short term (which are already not equal to  everyone), does not make you an speculator or an investor. Speculation is mostly about thinking that someone else is going to pay more for the stuff than what you paid, can be short or long term, for the stuff you buy. An investors believes that the stuff he or she is buying is worth more than the price being paid and that is based on some short of systematic study, more or less well done.

I consider myself an investor.

Si vais por la Alts section vereis que hay algunos post con chincheta. Uno de ellos advierte del cuidado q hay que tener con las alts y esta escrito por un usuario q pone su nombre tal cual (supongo q es auténtico pq es del 2011 y tiene sentido).

Este usuario es Gavin Andersen, como se puede ver con entrada propia en Wikipedia. Me pareció curioso q justamente fue uno de los que apoyaron bitcoin cash porque consideraron que la red bitcoin había perdido el propósito original de ser un medio de intercambio peer-to-peer y había pasado a ser algo que no era la intención original de Satoshi. Sin embargo lo que le costó el perder su derecho a hacer "commits" en el GitHub del proyecto fue el entrar en la discusion de "quién es satoshi".

Como yo no tengo ese acceso no me importa pensar que esto salió de la Universidad de Princeton y si quisiera saber más empezaría a tirar del hilo por ahí

I have been there, yes, we buy tokens with the fine intention of getting 200% plus in a week... and sometimes it does happen, and most times it does not. But apart from purely gambling to this, sometime there are projects out there that really seem to have a future. You have read many times: look at the team, the code, the community,... but there is something you really have to look into and this seems to be forgotten many times: the economics.

- A coin or token that is limited stands a better chance of gaining in value with time. However, if no more is produced ever, there may be growth problems as people think they are out and would rather support some other newer projects.
- PoS and PoW are both payments for safety of the network. Safety only matters if the network is used. - Demand is key.
- The so called "DeFi" and others will not work unless they are stable - nobody wants to owe 200% more next month.
- If you are getting "yield" by staking, that needs to come from somewhere. Either the system is printing tokens - coins or it comes from transactions. Does the transaction level justify that or will it ever?

Just think carefully if you dare to hodl for the long run.

It is often said by fund managers and stock owners that it is more difficult to know when to sell a stock that has done well but it is past its growth than actually finding something to buy that might be interesting. However, if you are referring to bitcoin specifically without saying, I would argue there is an excellent case for having a good hodl for now. I think it is far from its full potential ... but who knows, after all and as I said, knowing that is more difficult that just buying.

The COVID for now has been just a bump, however the long term effects will certainly come to greet us, starting with an immense level of debt.

I believe I have one user on my ignore...I am not even sure. To make it to my ignore list someone needs to show absolute lack of critical judgement plus a general lack of understanding of most aspects of the world together with an evident lack of desire to correct, rethink or defend rationally the views he (or she) expresses. Some extra points are awarded to those who have a political stance that is biased to the point of not being able to tell truth from fiction or simply repeats slogans with simple answers to complex problems or just follows a party doctrine like a troll-farm labourer.

Merit does not mean that I like or share the opinions, contents,.. simply that I appreciate that there is at least a minimum sense behind them or put forwards information worth my time.

In short, the fact of being a merit source does not oblige me to waste my time or distort my thought by injecting crap in my prefrontal lobes, thus my ignore list may be empty, but the door is not closed.

I think that comparing Cuba and Venezuela is already a bad idea. The story behind these is quite different. Venezuela was in fact one of the richest and most prosperous countries in Latin America, but it could not absorb the inevitable result of the purely capitalist models - people left outside the system - and eventually bred an authoritarian regime, which is not the main issue really but rather that they are also mostly illiterate, inept and unable to run a school patio, nonetheless a country as rich and marvellous as Venezuela could have been.

Is absolutely senseless to have such a discount unless there is a massive risk underlying that discount. This would fit only a project that has little to show and requires money. Kick a stone and you will find a thousand of those. For example, projects that do not yet have a community, a repository an experienced teams with probable success, etc... In those cases, to be honest, the chances of success are so minimal that even a 75% is too little of a discount. For project that make sense, you will not see that level of discount at all.

There is certainly a case for banks or institutions or SICAVs staking ether and other PoS based chains. The fact remains that interest rates are near zero or sometimes below zero and they institutions and clients are desperate to find yield producing assets so ETH and other may cover that space of investment needs. These has obvious problems: firstly, the yield is based on paying for the security of the network which means that if the demand lowers so does the yield. Also, if real world interest rates of fixed rent assets improve their yields, Eth would become uncompetitive.

I would not say hate really, binance like any other business that sells to the general public will have some detractors and some people who like it. Personally, I used binance many times and it worked quickly and without any issues. However, it was ridiculously expensive and it is not even close to being my favourite. I also dislike Coinbase... to large to complex and more oriented towards business now that is trying that strategy with funds, cryptocustody, etc... and loosing focus on their primary clients.

Up to what point does this compete with crypto would be a question to examine. Crypto as we understand it is based on the individuality of the holding, being your own bank, having a currency that cannot be used by the will of a political party, etc... The digital CB issued coins do not seem anything like that and carry certain risks of privacy.

I would like to learn the answer to questions like who would be free to open a digital account? Only residents, only companies, everyone in the world? How would KYC be enforced if enforced at all on the owners of CB issues crypto?

I am eager to get the results from the trial and further trials as there are so many implications for people, countries and the world economy.

On one side, you have an authoritarian regime in Cuba, which also replaced a previously authoritarian dictatorship (Batista). The economy of the country is struggling, their people lack the fundamental freedoms and the regime can only claim that they all have a home, a job and the right to study. In the old days, medicine was also top class but that finished when US strengthened the embargo.

Some people would be surprised to know that Cuba developed their own vaccine for COVID. On the other side, you got the US embargo - lasting decades and varying on intensity - a can of worms that no president of USA dares to kick for the electoral backslash.

Are Cuba protests due to the embargo or due to the government?

An on crypto, would bitcoin play actually in favour of the government, by allowing purchases anonymously or to possible insurgents?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_embargo_against_Cuba

Well, we will never know if that people agrees that they are cared for since they are not able to speak about it?

What you describe i an already tested way of government called "enlightened absolutism" - but it was in the XVIII century. Basically, you care a lot about the people, except that you do not ask them at all.



Really? Free press, free speech, free movement of people, free movement of capitals, freedom to invest, freedom to dissent, freedom to present yourself to any political role... But yeah.. that will be gone in 1 or 3 years sure. And yeah, go an question the level of freedom on the EU and then say that China is much better. You know how to tell the difference... I can criticize the EU and so can you. Try that in Hong Kong with China and tell me about the experience.

 You can see the EU democracy being dismantled? Well then put your money where your keyboard is and short sell the media outlets in EU... you would be rich in 1 to 3 years. But you are not going to do so and we both know it.


No is not "imperfect like all", is authoritarian like many. The question is how long will harmony be able to be imposed as opposed to agreed and debated.

It is good news I rekon, however any move by the "1% of the 1%" must be taken cautiously. One of the key rules these families and individuals use is to diversify their investments. As you said, they own stuff of all shorts and all over. Most of is seems to be real state, stocks and the category of alternative assets. Within this category is bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin offers scarcity, while ethereum is offering a future yield.

The fact is that these large fortunes can afford to bet and go wrong while many of us cannot. Still, a good thing that they want to bet on crypto even if it is just a tiny fraction of their massive wealth and assets.

Not really. Lets say that "bitcoin is in a bubble" - the amount of bitcoin in the economy compared to other magnitudes is insignificant. Just for the shake of comparison, and I do not consider Bitcoin like tulips, when the crash of the tulips bubble happened, the economy of the country itself did not suffer much. An unlikely massive crash of bitcoin as of now would not make a significant dent on the worlds economy - albeit it would in individual economies including mine.

End of game has been called endless times for bitcoin at 100, 1000, 10000 and perhaps it will be called again at 100.000. The fact is that non of us understands or can predict where this is going long term because it is still a innovative market and ecosystem - 10 years is nothing in the history of money. Demand is a strong driver of bitcoin, since the supply is known a fixed. That demand as of now is much higher than it was 5 years ago or even 2 years ago because investment funds are buying into the idea. The next step is widespread adoption and that may take another decade... a decade of growth.

Absolutely bollocks. A devaluation is not a "bold move" or a "good thing for the country", but rather the recognition that the economy is no longer competitive enough to maintain the level of imports that the citizens of the country are currently enjoying. The equivalent in a domestic environment would be the parents deciding that they need to spend less because they are not getting enough to keep with the expenses - it is as simple as that.

Devaluation is the last resort and is a defeat under any prism. Politicians tend to mask that reality since the beginning of times saying "this will help our economy", "we will sell more", etc... That is just to avoid saying you need to consume less imports because your products and services are not competitive.

Unfortunately or fortunately the wild west is becoming more like the West Coast. Tether dealt a huge blow to the credibility of the stable coins, or better said, coins that are "fiat-stabilised" by pegging the value, which is not in my view a real stable coin - which would be related to a basket of goods and services. Anyway, there are good reasons for the OPs news and even if we do not like intervention in the crypto world, it is going to happen because there is always someone that will try to take advantage until that happens.

This is an old topic but I decided to update.. my biggest earning to date have been .071 bitcoin... as of today that is around 2000 USD. This was a one off and it was on a game that happened on this forum. I only had to make a simple prediction: price of bitcoin at a certain moment a month into the future and miraculously I got it right to the nearest 10USD. Not bad for a 1 minute job of posting a result and a 1 minute time of setting up a bitcoin address.