From the article: "[The United States] is the country that has the largest number of cryptocurrencies hodlers"

Interesting.

So while the article seems to say that the US *government* isn't crypto friendly, the individuals are.

If it was 2009, 2010, or 2011 and I was getting 1-10 cents worth of bitcoin, then yes.  Just as it wasn't "wasting time" to learn about bitcoin and mine then for only a dollar worth of bitcoin per day.

You sound like the people in July 2010 who were saying it was worthless and would never hit $1, and then 6 months later saying it would drop under $1 and never come back.  The FUD was wrong then and is now.

Will it go that high?  No one knows, but placing bets against it has been a losing proposition for more than a decade. 

Halvings have led to orders of magnitude growth in fiat price each time so far. Much decreased new supply (halved), increased demand follows the supply-demand curve.

Thank you for the TLDR, I wonder if they'll publish a story every time someone does something stupid.

e.g.  Person using the euro fiat network loses 40,000 euros after they burn the money while trying to start a campfire.

"Need"? No.  Something beneficial to the entire ecosystem, yes. 

Will it be approved?  Something will eventually, sometime soon?  That is anyone's guess. 

The good thing is that there are a fair number of groups who have attempted this and each time more of the (supposed) issues are dealt with.  Some of those issues won't be dealt with until the market is more mature.  The somewhat ironic thing is that adding an ETF to the mix would tend to stabilize the global bitcoin market and make it less prone to manipulation on some of the sketchy exchanges because it would add a lot of volume and a lot of ballast in the form of people buying for protection which is something that would be beneficial to everyone. 

Not to mention an ETF would allow more people to take part safely in future appreciation.  While it certainly is doable to purchase it on your own, if people can purchase an ETF from their brokerage account, it makes things much simpler.

They aren't NOW, but responding to the article and the potential designs discussed, they will be, which was the point.

An advantage of sidechains adding features is that it is then secured by the full value of bitcoin, thus it is distributed and has a lot of value securing it as compared to a new alt coin that has very low value and therefore lower security.

I agree right now it isn't really useful or practical, but IF (and that is a big if, admittedly) they continue to update it in 5 or 10 years, it might be practical and they will have experience dealing with it. 

As far as the data plan, maybe it is smart enough to avoid the full node being active while on cellular and only activate it while on wifi?  I don't know, and agree it isn't practical, but it is nice to see people pushing things out that may not be useful now, but will be later.

At some point in the future - perhaps another 1 or 2 orders of magnitude in fiat price - bitcoin will stabilize and it will become much more prudent to use in commerce.  Personally, if someone wants to pay me in bitcoin today, I am fine with holding it and using it.  Never transferring to to fiat is the goal.

The people using it as a store of value today will in all likelihood be well rewarded while we get to the point of stability in fiat terms.  Or it will implode and be worthless, however, that likelihood decreases by the day.

The 'real bitcoin' is not meaningless.  I agree there have been some changes to "what satoshi implemented himself" - certainly the overflow bug was a change in the implementation (that was about a month after I first read about bitcoin on slashdot and started mining), but there have NOT been meaningful changes to what Satoshi *designed* himself.  Implementations may have bugs, designs may have poor design choices, but the root design precepts have not.  Even if all the miners pass it, that alone is insufficient to make that the 'real' bitcoin, see the UAHF and UASF previously.

 

A few reasons, maybe only one good in my opinion:
1. As a safe asset - even if they lose money, people believe they'll lose less than potentially elsewhere.
2. Greater fool theory - that there will be people who will buy it later and become the bag holders.
3. Cross currency hedges, obvious.  And perhaps a reasonable one.
4. Rolling down the yield curve.  A short term, risky strategy.

People do it all the time. The rates on many bonds are less than the inflation rate so you are guaranteed to lose money on them.

These negative rates only make it worse.

Imagine a 1000 ($, Euro etc) bond. They might've paid 2% per year, so you'd get back 1020 after one year.  Inflation ran 3% so your purchasing power is less than 1000.

For a negative rate bond, you'd put in 1000, and get back 990 or something.  Inflation again ran 3% so, you lose even more purchasing power. 

Plus, unless the bonds are tax exempt, you had to pay taxes on the extra 2% or 20 in the first scenario even though in reality you lost money.  It would depend on the jurisdiction as to whether you'd get a deduction for the loss on the second.

For the people who want inflation in bitcoin, go elsewhere.

Anyone is welcome to fork bitcoin and add inflation, but it will no longer be bitcoin, it will be something else.
Inflatecoin, whatever.

What is best for bitcoin is to not follow fiat down the road of inflation. It might start at 1%, but then the arguments will be it should be 2,5, or 10% in order to be "fair" and the rate will change and it will have no advantage to fiat.

Please, fork it and go elsewhere and don't try to destroy the real bitcoin.  There are plenty of people who will stick with bitcoin or inflatecoin.

Another few years of "failure" like the last 10.75 would be quite welcome.  😂.  

I quite like an appreciating store of value vs one that is having its value inflated away every year like fiat.  Under their definition, fiat has failed as a store of value since you lose value every single year.

If bitcoin is to reach a "stable" value it will do so in the upper six or low 7 figure USD range. Then it will appreciate slower than in the past so it will be still increasing in value vs inflating away.

Great response as had previously been the case in your replies. Good to see you back after 18ish months!

And they are better off not knowing about TA since it is a bunch of subjective mumbo-jumbo anyway.

I love how they say he "foresaw the financial crisis."  He has been predicting a financial crisis for decades, hence the moniker "Dr Doom".  A stopped clock is right twice a day too. Just because eventually he is correct, doesn't mean he foresaw it.  If a 20 year old predicts a financial crisis "this year" EVERY January 1st, eventually she'll be correct even though it had NOTHING to do with being prescient, just persistently wrong for many years before being right eventually.

I'd agree about Buffett.  He should be disrespected as a hypocrite and liar, not just because he has pontificated about bitcoin when he understood nothing about it.  He wants everyone else to pay higher taxes, but when he has the chance to do so he put tens of billions into his foundation so it doesn't have to pay taxes.  Just like Bill Gates and a lot of other billionaires on the left, they have a "do as I say, not as I do" mentality - lower your carbon emissions, never mind that I have 100,00 sq meters of living space, fly private jets around the world, and have a fleet of cars.

Your answer isn't that bitcoin did anything, it is right here:
"my brother stole that money for Bitcoin Dice."


What can you do now?  Realize that even family and people you care about can scam you. Also find something you can do that someone else is willing to pay you for.  Computer programming, web design or something else. Go to a library and read and learn.

In short, take control of your own life and don't rely on others. As soon as you stop feeling like a victim and start providing something of value, you'll have some power and feel much better.

Not just Hong Kong, but many places the world over.  And there are plenty of people who don't need to convert to fiat, if I was selling something, I'd take bitcoin and not convert.