A Noobs thoughts on BTC

[Stedsm]

-wider usage . Btc needs to be able to be used to be able to purchase anything that traditional fiat is able to. This is obviously a no brainer. Btc needs to be spread out in the hands of more people

Bubbles? They don't seem bubble to me, because as the usage and number of users is getting increased day-by-day, so should the price to maintain the equilibrium.

- price needs to stabilize - the fluctuation in price is insane and needs to stabilize, in order for this to happen btc needs further distribution. Hoarders (chinese farmers and early miners) are a negative, see below.

And why so? Price is already priced in, and has been stabilizing itself since we see no reasons for a fallacy or a jump upstairs. Distribution would get an increase in price, so why think that stabilization could attract more people? Don't you like free market which gives you an opportunity to sell an "asset" you hold, at your price?

- fiat currency needs to disappear- this is obviously a radical thought but fiat cannot be an option. The reason is, guys like the mysterious satoshi nakamoto, chinese btc farmers, the vinklevoss twins etc or anyone holding a significant amount of btc can literally tank the btc ecosystem by trading out a large sum of btc to lets say us dollars.

No need, because fiat is the only thing which gives Bitcoins a value currently, if it disappears, what will you exchange Bitcoins for?
Wait, are you thinking that Bitcoins will take Gold's place and will work just like Gold did when once there was a time we had Kings and Queens?

[lionheart78]

A few years I had those same thoughts and concerns until I got to experience the pitfalls and the advantages of using this technology for myself.

The volatility is just a part of this technology and you quickly get use to that and then you start using that to your advantage. You have your

pessimists with all new technologies, until they learn more about it. Mass adoption will eventually happen, when we have done the leg work to

promote it properly and explain it to more people. 

Volatility is what makes Bitcoin exciting, removing it from the equation then it will get boring.  At this current state, Bitcoin has not proven its scalability, if bitcoin price become stagnant, then probably it is the end for Bitcoin.   The main reason why Bitcoin gets more popular everyday is because of its wild volatility,  investors and traders saw that as an opportunity and I see it as a way to encourage people to hop in while the road for better Bitcoin is being laid.

[Quantus]

Only invest in Bitcoin almost all the alt-coins are pump and dumb trash.

[zimmah]

Litecoin has always been useless, their whole premise is wrong "litecoin is silver to btcoins gold"

the only reason you need silver, s because gold is very valueable and not easily divisible. Bitcoin is easily disable, so 'silver' isn't needed. 

Litecoin has shorter block times, but that's not really an advantage anyway.

so litecoin will never get big, because it doesn't add anything new.

ETH will stay big, because it offers value, but it's not a currency and therefore not a bitcoin replacement.

bitcoin might stay big, if the blocksize debate gets solved soon enough. And if they can keep nnovating. Otherwise altcoins like dash will take over.

[Kyraishi]

A few years I had those same thoughts and concerns until I got to experience the pitfalls and the advantages of using this technology for myself.

The volatility is just a part of this technology and you quickly get use to that and then you start using that to your advantage. You have your

pessimists with all new technologies, until they learn more about it. Mass adoption will eventually happen, when we have done the leg work to

promote it properly and explain it to more people. 

Volatility is what makes Bitcoin exciting, removing it from the equation then it will get boring.  At this current state, Bitcoin has not proven its scalability, if bitcoin price become stagnant, then probably it is the end for Bitcoin.   The main reason why Bitcoin gets more popular everyday is because of its wild volatility,  investors and traders saw that as an opportunity and I see it as a way to encourage people to hop in while the road for better Bitcoin is being laid.

I dont agree that bitcoin without being volatile would be a boring financial instrument, It would still remain a very interesting way to invest your funds.
The price of bitcoin is currently pretty stable, according to the history, however if you are looking for a long-term investment, then volatile assets are not the best option you can choose, it is better to go with stable, safer asset that will surely bring you profit, but the smaller gains, instead of unnecessary risk.

It depends what exactly are you looking for in bitcoin, if you want it for trading purposes, then you have found a great place because the fluctuating price can give you dozens of opportunities to enter a trade.

[bitcoindusts]

Litecoin has always been useless, their whole premise is wrong "litecoin is silver to btcoins gold"

the only reason you need silver, s because gold is very valueable and not easily divisible. Bitcoin is easily disable, so 'silver' isn't needed. 

Litecoin has shorter block times, but that's not really an advantage anyway.

so litecoin will never get big, because it doesn't add anything new.

ETH will stay big, because it offers value, but it's not a currency and therefore not a bitcoin replacement.

bitcoin might stay big, if the blocksize debate gets solved soon enough. And if they can keep nnovating. Otherwise altcoins like dash will take over.

You got a point on LTC and ETH.  Litecoins being silver is not needed since Bitcoin can be divided and further divided if the developer wants it and consensus has been agreed.  ETH, I do not know but well it does not have any appeal to me.  Maybe because of its history and its distribution system.

[lionheart78]

A few years I had those same thoughts and concerns until I got to experience the pitfalls and the advantages of using this technology for myself.

The volatility is just a part of this technology and you quickly get use to that and then you start using that to your advantage. You have your

pessimists with all new technologies, until they learn more about it. Mass adoption will eventually happen, when we have done the leg work to

promote it properly and explain it to more people. 

Volatility is what makes Bitcoin exciting, removing it from the equation then it will get boring.  At this current state, Bitcoin has not proven its scalability, if bitcoin price become stagnant, then probably it is the end for Bitcoin.   The main reason why Bitcoin gets more popular everyday is because of its wild volatility,  investors and traders saw that as an opportunity and I see it as a way to encourage people to hop in while the road for better Bitcoin is being laid.

I dont agree that bitcoin without being volatile would be a boring financial instrument, It would still remain a very interesting way to invest your funds.
The price of bitcoin is currently pretty stable, according to the history, however if you are looking for a long-term investment, then volatile assets are not the best option you can choose, it is better to go with stable, safer asset that will surely bring you profit, but the smaller gains, instead of unnecessary risk.

It depends what exactly are you looking for in bitcoin, if you want it for trading purposes, then you have found a great place because the fluctuating price can give you dozens of opportunities to enter a trade.

Definitely each on their own.  I was stating that, if Bitcoin do not scale then, long term investment will be a failure.  How can it be a financial instrument if it cannot scale? a store of value? I would rather have gold as store of value at least it has been proven for centuries   than Bitcoin that miserably failed its purpose. (This is, if bitcoin failed to scale.)

[Investforprofit]

I am sure that bitcoin will be in that time also a really good crzptocurrency because it is reallz hard to beat bitcoin now and It is impossible in short term to do It so bitcoin is best type of investment in coins.

[Victorycoin]

I don't look into the future as far as you do. To me the important is here and now (2-3 years) and I hope my investments will bring some profits in that period.
20 years is a very long time for a technology and it will have to evolve to continue being used. I'm sure electronic payments are the future and cryptos are going to survive, but will it be Bitcoin? I doubt it. To me Bitcoin is a big truck that goes through all the mud and dirt to mark the way for new currencies that will follow.

I share your point of view, Bitcoin needs help and fast else it would end up a just a pioneer and light bearer for a more robust and well developed coin. To those projecting  donkey years to wait out for explosion in price of Bitcoin, well  good luck!  A clue from Microsoft lunch a new version of their software every year, within few years, they became a force.

[aeternus]

Bitcoin does not need fiat to disappear to stabilize its price, the price of bitcoin is unstable because there are huge whales with huge stash that can manipulate the price at will the only way for that to change is the price to go up and for the whales to take the opportunity to get out of bitcoin .

[Hatuferu]

Bitcoin does not need fiat to disappear to stabilize its price, the price of bitcoin is unstable because there are huge whales with huge stash that can manipulate the price at will the only way for that to change is the price to go up and for the whales to take the opportunity to get out of bitcoin .

We all need fiat to convert our bitcoin and that is why bitcoin will never replace the fiat system. Please be realistic, we are happy
when we see the value of bitcoin is increasing because it gives us the opportunity to cash out with a profit.

[Sadlife]

When it comes to bubbles and votality Bitcoin is probably the best in the game
Bitcoin crypto currency has experienced countless ups and down.
But still it survive and has been soaring up until now it may face many obstacles right now like Bitcoin scaling, chinese miner mafia. But im sure bitcoin will overcome it and will still continue to survive even after 10-20 years and many years to come. Long live Bitcoin!

[xuan87]

Fiat will never disappear, bitcoin can only act as sub currency and because it is decentralised then the price will never be stable, but we can get profit by this situation, the one that I agree is we need wider usage, we need a lot of user so bitcoin can develop further and we can't predict too far but for 2 or 3 years in front, I predict it's​ still profitable to invest in bitcoin

[Eebertay]

So i was skeptical back in 2013 when btc made their initial splash into the mainstream radar.  

You mean you heard about it in 2013. Bitcoins initial big splash happened years before that when two articles, one in Galker and one in slashdot, let everyone know they could buy drugs at Silk Road anonymously online with Bitcoin.

I recently became interested in cryptocurrencies because i was finally able to wrap my head the ideas behind blockchain and now firmly believe it is the future.

I went out and bought some BTC, ETH and LTC

Why? Out of all the investments you could have made you chose crypto? Was it fast bucks, drug money or ideology?

Obviously Japan recognizing BtC as a form of currency is huge but i am wondering which of these cryptocurrencies will be around in 10-20 years time.

Does it matter? You'll most likely have three kids, a mortgage and a wife spending all your cash as fast as she can by then. Worry about today, that's more than most people can handle.

Most holders of these cryptos are in it for purely speculative reasons and in turn, creating large bubbles.

All "holders" are speculating but day traders/forex traders are creating the bubbles.

The only way thes bubbles will resolve is from 3 things that need to happen:

Wrong, these cryptos are playing in the world economy. It's almost infinitely complex. There are a mountain of reasons why bubbles happen. Here's one you might not know about: an exchange operator called Mark Karpeles used two trading bots and created a bubble because he was covering up his incompetence.

-wider usage . Btc needs to be able to be used to be able to purchase anything that traditional fiat is able to. This is obviously a no brainer. Btc needs to be spread out in the hands of more people

Would help but can't guarantee no bubble.


- price needs to stabilize - the fluctuation in price is insane and needs to stabilize, in order for this to happen btc needs further distribution. Hoarders (chinese farmers and early miners) are a negative, see below.

Bubbles are created by traders. I already covered that. Without trading watch cryptos shrink to nothing in short order.

- fiat currency needs to disappear- this is obviously a radical thought but fiat cannot be an option. The reason is, guys like the mysterious satoshi nakamoto, chinese btc farmers, the vinklevoss twins etc or anyone holding a significant amount of btc can literally tank the btc ecosystem by trading out a large sum of btc to lets say us dollars.

Not in your lifetime.


This would create a huge price instability, loss of public trust and then we circle back to square one.

Just wanted to share my thoughts.

I am in as a skeptical long term buyer but did want to address some possible pitfalls to btc

The items you mention aren't a downside or a pitfall. They are a normal aspect of commodity trading. Gold has been traded since forever and still has massive swings in price when trading is heavy. I don't mean this as a jab against you but If you're skeptical and unsure of your decision try something more stable and safe. Try a long term investment like government bonds. If you like the ideology behind Bitcoin stay and don't spend more money than you can afford to lose.

Not sure what you are gettin at, 2013 is when a great majority of people heard about bitcoin.
Im not an idiot and understand it was around since 2009 but BTC did not enter the popular conversation till mainstream outlets wrote into it

Also, i dont think you understand the fundamental concept of what a bubble is.
Lots of speculation and not being used.

Bitcoin and most other cryptos falls under this right now

The great majority of people still don't know what Bitcoin is. Sure they may have heard about it but they don't know what it is. It really became something useful and exploded in use when the Slashdot and Galker articles were released. Silk Road put Bitcoin on the map.

You didn't read everything I wrote. Bitcoin acts as both a currency and a commodity at the same time. You only like the currency part of that equation. Bubbles are normal for commodities and they mean Bitcoin is being used. To say bitcoins are being used for speculation and bitcoins are not being used in the same sentence is an oxymoron.

Sorry for the late reply. Busy with work etc

to call bitcoin a commodity. I get it, maybe you heard someone say it was a commodity but BTC is not a commodity and i dont think you understand what a commodity is

[Eebertay]

Bitcoin does not need fiat to disappear to stabilize its price, the price of bitcoin is unstable because there are huge whales with huge stash that can manipulate the price at will the only way for that to change is the price to go up and for the whales to take the opportunity to get out of bitcoin .

This is my point exactly...how are these huge whales able to "manipulate the price"? It is because there are other currencies they can trade into, namely fiat.

The whole currency ecosystem is a zero sum game.

if you want to consider forex trading as an example, trillions of of dollars are traded every day on the forex exchange, yet the dollar moves fractions.

This is because the wealth is spread about

I mentioned in my initial post that people with high concentrations of wealth like satoshi nakamoto, chinese BTC farmers and others are an insane negative.

Consider this scenario - the btc ecosystem reaches 1 trillion in market cap.
To get to this point, we have great public awareness, merchant integration, and government acceptance.

Now consider XyC bitcoin farmer in china decides to unload a considerable amount of btc for usd or satoshi nakamoto decides to unload his 1 million btc.

Do you have any idea what this would do?

It would basically wipe out all of the trust built up to that point and completely devastate the btc economy

[krishnapramod]

Blockchain as a technology has a lot of potential, I mean there are so many ways in which this technology can be implemented, even banks have been experimenting on it. As far as BTC, ETH, or LTC is concerned no one could say what would happen to them in the next 10 or 20 years. I started using BTC in 2014, was ignorant about the basics, but got familiar with the term "bubble" and today I know a bit of the basics and still consider bitcoin as a bubble.

Japan has legalized bitcoins what about other countries, most of them consider it as Ponzi pyramid scheme, unstable, currency of the criminals, so do not expect bitcoin to garner a wider audience anytime soon.

At least price is a bit stable now compared to huge fluctuations in BTC when it was between $200 to $400

Fiat is not going to disappear. When crypto users start using cryptos just not for the sake of speculation it might be able to coexist in a stable manner with Fiat . The problem is the crypto community is mainly centered around two things trading and gambling. What are the day to day things you can do with crypto compared to Fiat? This is where mass adoption fails, rather than concentrating on starting exchanges upon exchanges and gambling sites some effort should be put on making crypto available for everything that Fiat can do.

I read some where that Satosh Nakamoto had said that his/her coins should be considered lost. Yeah, the rest of the elites are definitely pushing BTC to a centralized environment. Just hope that the next bubble burst would not be anytime soon.

[BitcoinHodler]

...
Sorry for the late reply. Busy with work etc

to call bitcoin a commodity. I get it, maybe you heard someone say it was a commodity but BTC is not a commodity and i dont think you understand what a commodity is

i can not explain it in better English that the following two links:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodity
www.investopedia.com/terms/c/commodity.asp

and in my opinion bitcoin doesn't have to be only one thing. it can be a commodity and a currency at the same time.
many people call it commodity maybe because in US, the IRS has recognized bitcoin only as a commodity to tax it easier!
but as we can see at the same time on the other side of the world in Japan they have recognized bitcoin as a currency.

[jtipt]

Only invest in Bitcoin almost all the alt-coins are pump and dumb trash.

Meh, Yeah more or less that is true. I have tried 3 alt coins so far i.e LTC ETH and XMR. Sold ETH and XMR as soon as I was making a profit over 50% (yeah i did hold them for some amount of time). Still, have my LTC its seems to go hand in hand with BTC, probably it is the only altcoin worth investing for long time.

[QuestionAuthority]

So i was skeptical back in 2013 when btc made their initial splash into the mainstream radar.  

You mean you heard about it in 2013. Bitcoins initial big splash happened years before that when two articles, one in Galker and one in slashdot, let everyone know they could buy drugs at Silk Road anonymously online with Bitcoin.

I recently became interested in cryptocurrencies because i was finally able to wrap my head the ideas behind blockchain and now firmly believe it is the future.

I went out and bought some BTC, ETH and LTC

Why? Out of all the investments you could have made you chose crypto? Was it fast bucks, drug money or ideology?

Obviously Japan recognizing BtC as a form of currency is huge but i am wondering which of these cryptocurrencies will be around in 10-20 years time.

Does it matter? You'll most likely have three kids, a mortgage and a wife spending all your cash as fast as she can by then. Worry about today, that's more than most people can handle.

Most holders of these cryptos are in it for purely speculative reasons and in turn, creating large bubbles.

All "holders" are speculating but day traders/forex traders are creating the bubbles.

The only way thes bubbles will resolve is from 3 things that need to happen:

Wrong, these cryptos are playing in the world economy. It's almost infinitely complex. There are a mountain of reasons why bubbles happen. Here's one you might not know about: an exchange operator called Mark Karpeles used two trading bots and created a bubble because he was covering up his incompetence.

-wider usage . Btc needs to be able to be used to be able to purchase anything that traditional fiat is able to. This is obviously a no brainer. Btc needs to be spread out in the hands of more people

Would help but can't guarantee no bubble.


- price needs to stabilize - the fluctuation in price is insane and needs to stabilize, in order for this to happen btc needs further distribution. Hoarders (chinese farmers and early miners) are a negative, see below.

Bubbles are created by traders. I already covered that. Without trading watch cryptos shrink to nothing in short order.

- fiat currency needs to disappear- this is obviously a radical thought but fiat cannot be an option. The reason is, guys like the mysterious satoshi nakamoto, chinese btc farmers, the vinklevoss twins etc or anyone holding a significant amount of btc can literally tank the btc ecosystem by trading out a large sum of btc to lets say us dollars.

Not in your lifetime.


This would create a huge price instability, loss of public trust and then we circle back to square one.

Just wanted to share my thoughts.

I am in as a skeptical long term buyer but did want to address some possible pitfalls to btc

The items you mention aren't a downside or a pitfall. They are a normal aspect of commodity trading. Gold has been traded since forever and still has massive swings in price when trading is heavy. I don't mean this as a jab against you but If you're skeptical and unsure of your decision try something more stable and safe. Try a long term investment like government bonds. If you like the ideology behind Bitcoin stay and don't spend more money than you can afford to lose.

Not sure what you are gettin at, 2013 is when a great majority of people heard about bitcoin.
Im not an idiot and understand it was around since 2009 but BTC did not enter the popular conversation till mainstream outlets wrote into it

Also, i dont think you understand the fundamental concept of what a bubble is.
Lots of speculation and not being used.

Bitcoin and most other cryptos falls under this right now

The great majority of people still don't know what Bitcoin is. Sure they may have heard about it but they don't know what it is. It really became something useful and exploded in use when the Slashdot and Galker articles were released. Silk Road put Bitcoin on the map.

You didn't read everything I wrote. Bitcoin acts as both a currency and a commodity at the same time. You only like the currency part of that equation. Bubbles are normal for commodities and they mean Bitcoin is being used. To say bitcoins are being used for speculation and bitcoins are not being used in the same sentence is an oxymoron.

Sorry for the late reply. Busy with work etc

to call bitcoin a commodity. I get it, maybe you heard someone say it was a commodity but BTC is not a commodity and i dont think you understand what a commodity is

Yes, I'm completely clueless.

Definition of commodity
plural commodities
1
:  an economic good: such as
a :  a product of agriculture or mining agricultural commodities like grain and corn
b :  an article of commerce especially when delivered for shipment reported the damaged commodities to officials
c :  a mass-produced unspecialized product, commodity chemicals, commodity memory chips
2
a :  something useful or valued that valuable commodity, patience; also :  thing, entity
b :  convenience, advantage
… the many commodities incidental to the life of a public office … — Charles Lamb
3
obsolete :  quantity, lot
4
:  a good or service whose wide availability typically leads to smaller profit margins and diminishes the importance of factors (as brand name) other than price
5
:  one that is subject to ready exchange or exploitation within a market
… stars as individuals and as commodities of the film industry. — Film Quarterly

Source: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/commodity

Commodities Speculators
The second type of commodities trader is the speculator. These are traders who trade in the commodities markets for the sole purpose of profiting from the volatile price movements. Theses traders never intend to make or take delivery of the actual commodity when the futures contract expires. Many of the futures markets are very liquid and have a high degree of daily range and volatility, making them very tempting markets for intraday traders. Many of the index futures are used by brokerages and portfolio managers to offset risk. Also, since commodities do not typically trade in tandem with equity and bond markets, some commodities can also be used effectively to diversify an investment portfolio.

Source: http://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/commodity.asp

Commodities trade on an exchange whereas foreign exchanges are over-the-counter and traded through brokers or in the interbank market. By trading on an exchange, commodities have daily range limits. When these limits are exceeded, the markets are said to be limit up or limit down, and no trades can be placed. If you are a commodity trader on the wrong side of one of these limit moves, you basically are watching your account dissipate in front of you without the ability to act.

Compromise: A trader looking for a compromise could trade commodity-based currencies. These currencies include the Australian dollar, the Canadian dollar, and the New Zealand dollar. Historically, the Australian dollar has a positive correlation (though the strength of the correlation varies over time) to the price of Spot Gold.

The dairy reliant New Zealand economy has a similar positive correlation with whole milk powder prices. Lastly, the Canadian dollar has a positive correlation with the price of crude oil. Therefore, with the strong trends in oil in 2014 through 2016, the Canadian dollar has similarly seen strong moves.

Another subset of the foreign exchange market is that of emerging market currencies. Emerging market currencies also reflect commodity growth and tend to have an inverse correlation with the US dollar. Commodity currencies also pay higher rollover then developed market currencies.

Source: https://www.thebalance.com/forex-trading

[webtricks]

So i was skeptical back in 2013 when btc made their initial splash into the mainstream radar.

- price needs to stabilize - the fluctuation in price is insane and needs to stabilize, in order for this to happen btc needs further distribution. Hoarders (chinese farmers and early miners) are a negative, see below.

This is something I can condemn completely. Volatility is the essence of Bitcoin and main reason why we are seeing huge attraction towards Bitcoin. Stabilizing the Bitcoin prices by any mean is like cutting the wings of bird because it was flying too above the ground and expecting that it will return back to home soon now !!