2014 Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Discussion

Trolling over particularities does not an argument make. Your graphs are still logarithmic and you carry yourself like it's no big deal.

dew said:

Trolling over particularities does not an argument make. Your graphs are still logarithmic and you carry yourself like it's no big deal.

What do you mean? I merely pointed out that your fundamental application of logic is flawed. I'm merely trying to help you out, buddy.

;)

Mr. Freeze said:

If every Bitcoin needs to be converted into fiat money, why not use the fiat money in the first place?

The per-trade profits in the international money market are small change compared to what could potentially be made in an unregulated market like Bitcoins, especially if you manage to pull of a Mt. Gox sized pump-n-dump. Fiat currencies are the safe haven that any half-smart speculator transfers their Bitcoin profits to, they're far less volatile, have value in the Real World and are backed by the State.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=591724.0
Kinda interesting, an altcoin where you mine by playing a game. One dude from the Elma community made almost 1 BTC there. But the golden period is over, now mining is much harder, less rewarding and everything is dominated by bots. I only made lik 0,03 BTC from hours of playing.

Now, that's real Cryptocurrency!

Found this vid interesting. Bloomberg reporter admits that when they put out stories about crypto, they do tend to focus on the negative because it makes for a more exciting headline:

Doesn't surprise me, in general the news media appears to favour negative reporting.

Congratulations on the new custom title.

Exactly, a lot of times when the topic of virtual currency appears in US cable news reporting, the inevitable question is posed, "Could bitcoin (or xyz virtual currency) usurp the US dollar?" It's like, could your worldview be any more simplistic? Virtual currency is a long way from replacing everyday market transactions; certainly there is a market to be tapped into who would be interested in collecting virtual currencies and using them as a medium of exchange. There are all kinds of grey market items available over the net which vendors would be wary to sell face to face. And it's not just drugs and porn. There are items for sale that, if the vendor opened up shop, there would need to be specific permits and regulations to be followed in order to be open to the public. On the internet there is little need for permits of regulations (as of yet).

There is a certain amount of "prestige" that people hold in "tangible" currency, the rise of one form of currency does not mean the demise of the current standard.

Keep in mind there were people who claimed that paper money was going to die off as a medium of exchange and everything would turn into virtual credit, people just swiping cards that tap into bank accounts. Yet paper money is still alive and going strong in most economies.

GreyGhost said:

Congratulations on the new custom title.

Perhaps I've not been worshipping at the altars of Doom enough lately, heh.

...Sage advice from Technician:

https://i.imgur.com/MmNClGD.jpg

Well I'm losing my shit AGAIN on X P god damn muthafuckin M. You can only buy xpm low, you can never sell it high.

EDIT: wow, thank you if some 'bitcoin millionaire' read that and pumped xpm for me. It went from like 53 up to 72.

Just watched this video, which makes for some interesting consequences.

If you're a proponent of Bitcoin, it now means you have to admit Fox News aren't always wrong about everything ever because you actually agree with them for once, which is surely a sign of the apocalypse.

If you're an opponent of Bitcoin and it succeeds, you then have to admit that even some of the idiots at Fox saw the light before you did. Choose your side carefully. :D



In other news, the auction for the seized Silk Road coins went to a single bidder, who plans to use the coins as collateral for services in emerging markets, so that people can secure themselves against weakening domestic currencies.

People had raised concerns that the coins might be sold well below their current value and that a deluge of cheap coins being dumped on the market would increase volatility. But this news alleviates those concerns entirely and provides some positive media attention as well. Of all the conceivable outcomes, this one is probably best case scenario, I'd say.

gggmork said:

Well I'm losing my shit AGAIN on X P god damn muthafuckin M. You can only buy xpm low, you can never sell it high.

I know the feeling. Saw that VeriCoin was having a really strong day and was up like 53% in a 24 hour period, so I thought "sure, I'll jump on that bandwagon". But no, that was the all-time-high and it's now dropping again, heh. Only threw a couple of bucks at it, though, so no major loss if it doesn't turn around.

there needs to be an option for debit/credit cards and maybe checks

Pure Hellspawn said:

there needs to be an option for debit/credit cards and maybe checks

Maybe next year when I start a 2015 thread and remove Ripple and Litecoin... because they're arguably dead.

Gold should be another option too.

Doom Marine said:

Maybe next year when I start a 2015 thread and remove Ripple and Litecoin... because they're arguably dead.

Gold should be another option too.

Litecoin's price might be tumbling, but I'm not sure I'd call it dead just yet. It's still actively traded, with approximately $9,400,000 USD worth changing hands within the last 24 hours. Still holds the second highest market cap as well.

http://www.cryptocoincharts.info/v2/coins/graphicalComparison

Litecoin is dead because it's been ASIC'ed. The scrypt algorithm promised ASIC resistance, and now that we have scrypt-ASICs, the vision of decentralized mining in your garage with GPUs is gone, so scrypt now provides no advantage over sha2.

The 2.5 minute block discovery target (over bitcoin's 10) has its advantages and disadvantages, such as greater resistance to a double spending attack over the same period as Bitcoin, if both networks had the same computing power, but the drawback is increased blockchain size, and an increase in the number of orphaned blocks. In the end, it's a tradeoff rather than an optimal solution.

With the two promised features over bitcoin in question, litecoin is now looking for a reason why it should exist.

There has been a bunch of good news in the virtual currency space in the past few months and everyone is silent... but when there's bad news, all the haters are all over them like flies on shit... I guess I'll volunteer myself to represent the good virtual currency news:

+ California makes it legal to pay with virtual currency
That's right, and no sooner than ratification did a CA-based company started to...

+ Newegg accepts bitcoins, gives 10% off to bitcoin users
The 10% off comes from not having to deal with chargebacks, credit card fraud, or credit card fees. The savings are thusly passed down to the consumer, creating incentive and a virtuous cycle for a closed-loop bitcoin economy.

+ Expedia accepts bitcoins
'nuff said.

+ New York laying down the groundwork for bitcoin licenses
Prediction: before the end of 2015, a US bitcoin exchange will come online, triggering another massive rally and adoption cycle.

+ Dell accepts bitcoins, gives 10% off to select Alienware items
Biggest company to accept bitcoins so far. Not only that, but they went on to say: “If you’re a retailer, there’s really no reason not to accept Bitcoin at this point”.

+ Nick Szabo, most likely Satoshi Nakamoto, applauds radio broadcasting of blockchain
Two things: security, and not having to compete for bandwidth. This is absolutely brilliant engineering solution to some key blockchain issues.

With legitimization in the States followed by massive merchant adoption, the writing is on the wall. Just like the early internet, list all of the problems bitcoin faces, and they will be solved, one by one...

And if we do have to focus on bad news in this thread, because it generally grabs more attention, it should include fiat too:

+ The Immorality Of Paper Money
Government printing press money distorts economic reality, dilutes morality and is the true source of “income inequality.”

+ World Risks Second Crash Due To Soaring Debt, Warns Top Watchdog
Cover all your bases, diversify your assets. The worst is yet to come.

Looks like Bitcoin has been taking a tumble. Currently at $356 USD last I looked, $328 USD at the time of this article:

http://www.cityam.com/1415215686/bitcoin-bust-why-investors-should-abandon-doomed-cryptocurrency

See, that can only be good for bitcoin, because.

edit: Reading bitcoin.txt at work can be dangerous.