Bitcoins the Future or a Flop?

[InventiveMeasures]

I don't think it'll ever flop but my prediction is that a better alternative will be available on the Ethereum platform in the future.

[ONCHEhap]

It will fail someday,but before that,it's a goldmine to those who know how to use it

[Acidbaron]

Once people start to cash out large amounts, that's when i see it falling apart. Could be wrong but i don't see this growth being sustainable.

[Celista]

Good grief. I hope you slapped them tremendously. Especially arts related things are usually a 90% chance to be an eternal net money sink. You do such things as passion projects if you have money to spare, but you don't invest them o.O Oh boy...

I am going to make a thread on it in off-topic because it's a bit of an interesting story, but yeah they are very stubborn and aren't listening to advice from others. They have actually tried to jumpstart this project using their current living space and weren't able to make any revenue beyond around $100 from art class signups from friends and family. It is indeed the most terrible of terrible ideas, much like watching a trainwreck in ultra slow motion.

[Kaleredar]

See I hear about people having "bought it early" and having some-odd hundreds of thousands of dollars worth stashed... but that "hundreds of thousands" or what have you isn't worth anything until they actually cash it out, the prospect of which none of them actually want to do because they want it to keep going up, which it will continue to do until someone attempts to take out a lot of that money, in which case it will spiral downwards and crash.


It's like a bunch of people with their hand on the buzzer, and the first person to hit it makes a lot of money and everyone else loses almost everything.


You can tell it's a bad idea when tons of people are convinced that they're all gonna make a ton of money off of it.

[Bigbazz]

Let me know when you can pay your mortgage with bitcoins or pay your employees with them.

We get some rich folks coming into our gallery to buy art offering bitcoin, until recently we had turned them down but it's becoming increasingly unwise to do so. Infact last month a guy bought a painting for a few thousand £ and we have effectively lost money by not having taken his bitcoin payment and instead taking cash. I think for low cost purchases it just doesn't make any sense at all, but for big investment items it's making more and more sense at the moment.

The thing is with bitcoin is that it does have a real value and is used in trade of services and goods, and while it can't be used directly to pay for a lot of things it can still be traded off for real money that you can then use to pay for them. Like I said, our (or to be clear my family's) gallery already lost money by not accepting bitcoin, it's an alternate currency.. It's like I can't pay my rent with gold either, but gold has a value and can be exchanged for money.

Once people start to cash out large amounts, that's when i see it falling apart. Could be wrong but i don't see this growth being sustainable.

It will grow for quite some time yet, it's only just starting to become mainstream. I think the next couple of years will see steady growth on average. Who knows what happens beyond that, obviously it can't keep growing forever, it will most likely just stabalise though and then rise/fall naturally.

[Corroc]

To answer your question: The mining process doesn't do anything else for the real world than providing the means to mathematically make it possible to have further transactions in the blockchain. Nothing else is gained by it. But it isn't nothing. You wouldn't scoff at a mechanic charging you for the work they put into fixing your car, above the mere bill of materials he used. It's the service you pay for, and miners provide the service of being able to use bitcoins. And for that they are reimbursed with a small amount of "new" bitcoins, to incentivise people to do the mining (which is very much crucial to the system) in the first place.

Except the miners get payed less and less for the same work they are doing all the time. They are putting same effort in everyday and they are getting less out of it. My whole point was that the value of bitcoins is not made up by the value of service. How can you actually say that the work that the miners are doing is more valuable now than it was earlier while they get less out of it?

[Infinitiz]

Except the miners get payed less and less for the same work they are doing all the time. They are putting same effort in everyday and they are getting less out of it. My whole point was that the value of bitcoins is not made up by the value of service. How can you actually say that the work that the miners are doing is more valuable now than it was earlier while they get less out of it?

isn't it that the value of 1 Bitcoin is far more than it was in the past therefor even a fraction of 1 Bitcoin is worth more than previously. So although you may only mine 0.0000001 Bitcoin every 10 mins it's still worth more or perhaps the same amount relatively.

I doubt it's less

[Corroc]

isn't it that the value of 1 Bitcoin is far more than it was in the past therefor even a fraction of 1 Bitcoin is worth more than previously. So although you may only mine 0.0000001 Bitcoin every 10 mins it's still worth more or perhaps the same amount relatively.

I doubt it's less

Its not, right now bitcoins are being mined by companies because its too expensive to mine alone. Individuals can sign up to farm for companies that pay for them some amount that is far from the current value.

[Varitok]

People that invest all their saving into one thing only need to have a desire for having their lives destroyed. That, or be completely stupid, in which case it's also a good thing their money is taken in such a harmless way. The main aspect here: It's personal failure, not that of a system.

And it also looks like most of you have little to no understanding of what BC is and/or does, what it wants to be, and where its applications are. And no, completely replacing fiat currency isn't what BC can or is thought to be. This is not a flaw.

Another thing: Some seem to assume extreme cases (having millions in BC or trading minute amounts many times a day) to be the norm and construct all their argument around them. But you're arguing using maybe 0.01% of the user base, some very lucky and some very stupid. Your normal run-off-the-mill BC owner has maybe 1-5%, maybe 10% of their assets in BC at most, and trades being done once a month or so. And with these parameters, they currently ARE a viable investment.


I agree that catching the point where it'll drop off a lot is part of the game if you want to play until the end (you don't HAVE to). BC's end will eventually come, but the concept of crypto currencies seems to be a thing to stay. It may or may not replace fiat in the far future, or just supplement it. The stark swings in value will be dealt with ince the "important" governments are done canning them into he same corset of laws and regulations fiat are under.
We're in the phase where cryptos are the early first models, like with cars. They aren't for everyone, many are super sceptic, they guzzle a lot of fuel but a talking point to everyone.
Yes the whole thing might fail. But for the moment it looks quite well, and some were able to make some bank. A hand full were super lucky and got rich. While those are the prominent cases, they do not represent the users by a landslide. For most an amazing gain in value is a small nice addition to, and a stark drop a small dent in the portfolio. If you're too stupid to money, of course you'll go bankrupt. If not with BC, then with something else shortly after. But you can't blame bitcoin for people being idiots.

And as with everything: If you don't understand what you put your money into, and if you don't plan on diversifying, better leave it be. But don't shit on systems and other people for trying out. It's what progress is made of.

See the problem is with your statement, You're referring to diversifying, I am referring to the currency irrevocably disappearing overnight or the market being flooded by people trying to offload. This isn't like a governments funds.

I don't like how you try to demean my knowledge on the subject without referring to my other posts. What is BC trying to accomplish by existing? Cryptocurrency in general? The best use of it is for illegal and illegitimate practices. This is a system where it is extremely easy to launder money. The problem also is producing bitcoin, The cost of creating a bitcoin is about to outpace the profits of earning them.

I need to know what they do that is really special. All I ever see is spouting about cutting out the middle man that is banks. Which isn't really an alternative, considering banks offer far more securities on your money than cryptocurrency does. I store some currency on a hard drive and subsequently lose that drive to damage? Goodbye life savings. Say I trust it with a bitcoin storage place, You're basically putting it in a less secure bank (See the 70 million dollar heist that just happened). If I lose my bank card or if my local bank burns down, that doesn't destroy my lifes savings.

I'll trust my government backed and federally secured bank system. I won't be investing in currencies that have no tangible benefits outside of saving me a bit of money in fees.

[dwarven]

It's been printing money for the last 5 years. Where have you all been?

[haxartus]

Bitcoin can't be a currency. It can be a digital asset for storing value, but not a currency.

For a currency to work, people should be encouraged to spend it. It should have inflation. Instead, bitcoin is encouraging people to buy as much as they can and hold it as much as possible. That's not how economies work and how currency works.

The problem with it as a digital asset for storing value is, mostly, that it's useless for anything else. If, for example, I buy a house, it is likely going to cost much more in 10 years. This is a good asset for storing value, as it will likely always be useful outside of it's financial value.

Bitcoin's value is entirely dependent on it's perceived value, which can go up or crash to 0 extremely quickly.

[Mittens]

It's official Bitcoin has been declared the biggest bubble in humanity's history.



http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-1...-world-history

[Deleted]

Crypto currency is the future, Bitcoins specifically are likely not.

[isuridedes]

A lot would have to change in order for any crypto-currency to have long-term standing.

A major step in its current iteration would be large-scale adoption by a major retailer; like Amazon or Wal-mart. If either of those companies began accepting any form of cryptocurrency as a valid payment method that currency would be more 'legitimate' and would lead to adoption by other businesses.

Currency is really only as useful as how easy it is to spend after all.

Another even more major step would be for the currency to have its own value, rather than having to rely on the value of a federally-backed currency. The U.S. Dollar, the Chinese Yuan, Euro, Yen, Ruble .... they are all backed by massive governments and their respective federal reserves. That strength allows society to trade pieces of paper for labor and services.

Cryptocurrency is only as valuable right now as people are willing to pay using other currency.

For Crytocurrency to survive long term either it has to become a federally backed currency, or the fundamental structure of our society needs to radically change.

[Raakel]

Because it's all over the news my colleagues at work now got crazy about BCs as well and started buying....

I asked them if they new what it is and how it works. They said >no< and that they just want to join the party as it lasts.

So that's what it is.

[Corroc]

Because it's all over the news my colleagues at work now got crazy about BCs as well and started buying....

I asked them if they new what it is and how it works. They said >no< and that they just want to join the party as it lasts.

So that's what it is.

And that's how the price goes up.

[melodramocracy]

Flop. It's a limited currency, so dead in the water right out of the gate. It will continue to be volatile, and be usable for a small minority of purchasing power, and that's about it.

[Macaquerie]

A lot would have to change in order for any crypto-currency to have long-term standing.

A major step in its current iteration would be large-scale adoption by a major retailer; like Amazon or Wal-mart. If either of those companies began accepting any form of cryptocurrency as a valid payment method that currency would be more 'legitimate' and would lead to adoption by other businesses.

Currency is really only as useful as how easy it is to spend after all.

Another even more major step would be for the currency to have its own value, rather than having to rely on the value of a federally-backed currency. The U.S. Dollar, the Chinese Yuan, Euro, Yen, Ruble .... they are all backed by massive governments and their respective federal reserves. That strength allows society to trade pieces of paper for labor and services.

Cryptocurrency is only as valuable right now as people are willing to pay using other currency.

For Crytocurrency to survive long term either it has to become a federally backed currency, or the fundamental structure of our society needs to radically change.

The main use of cryptocurrency right now is to pay for illegal stuff, though even the utility of that ultimately depends on being able to convert it back to real money at some point. Though who knows, maybe one day we'll end up with some John Wick-esque underground economy that runs on bitcoins...

[Elegiac]

As said prior; flop. Cryptocurrencies are impossible to control in terms of money supply which, as we've seen historically, makes for highly volatile economic conditions and isn't very good for market growth.

There are reasons why reserve banking and fiat currencies are predominant at this point, and that is because human understanding of economics has grown significantly over time. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies represent a regressive fad.