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“What the hell is a bitcoin?”

Started by Kate the Bionic Uterus, December 20, 2013, 11:35:32 PM

"Hong Kong-based bitcoin exchange MyCoin has allegedly shut its doors and stolen HKD 3 billion ($386.9 million) in the process.

The South China Morning Post reported Monday that 30 MyCoin clients approached a local lawmaker with complaints that the company had fled with funds from up to 3,000 investors.

The reports coming out of Hong Kong would seem to indicate that there may have been a Ponzi scheme at play. "

http://www.cnbc.com/id/102410095#.

zeebo

Quote from: Mind Flayer Monk on February 11, 2015, 06:33:39 PM
"Hong Kong-based bitcoin exchange MyCoin has allegedly shut its doors and stolen HKD 3 billion ($386.9 million) in the process....

I'm guessing this is the part where "untraceable" is kind of a downside.

area51drone

For those still keeping score, bitcoin is currently at $219. 

Introducing the latest in hypno-currency: Demonoid Disk.

Ya place ya bets, ya takes ya chances and spin spin spin.

[attachimg=1]

Gd5150

Quote from: zeebo on February 11, 2015, 06:51:34 PM
I'm guessing this is the part where "untraceable" is kind of a downside.

Wow, who'duh thunk.



Lord Grantham

Quote from: area51drone on February 11, 2015, 10:19:45 PM
For those still keeping score, bitcoin is currently at $219.

Current BTC to USD: 1 to 2552.87

What sucks is that I had the money to buy in a couple of years ago...


zeebo

Quote from: Lord Grantham on July 09, 2017, 12:27:47 PM
Current BTC to USD: 1 to 2552.87

What sucks is that I had the money to buy in a couple of years ago...

Around that time I thought about buying a single bitcoin, just as a whimsical side bet.  The problem I had though at the time is I honestly couldn't figure out how to do the transaction.  There was this weird process where you had to like get a money order, and fax it to some bank, then get some receipt back and send in a confirmation number to a bitcoin broker or something.  If I could've just bought one with paypal I'd have done it.

Lord Grantham

Quote from: zeebo on July 09, 2017, 10:34:32 PM
Around that time I thought about buying a single bitcoin, just as a whimsical side bet.  The problem I had though at the time is I honestly couldn't figure out how to do the transaction.  There was this weird process where you had to like get a money order, and fax it to some bank, then get some receipt back and send in a confirmation number to a bitcoin broker or something.  If I could've just bought one with paypal I'd have done it.

I started really looking into it this weekend and it's still a pain in the ass. A couple of the exchanges that accept USD for bitcoin aren't licensed to accept money from Michigan residents, then the ones who will do that exchange are based out of Lithuania or Slovakia and want scans of your passport. Might as well cut out the middle man and post those scans directly onto the dark web, so those are out. I'm leaning towards buy.bitcoin.com, but have yet to see what hoops I need to jump through there.

Then there's the whole issue with tax reporting where you have to keep your own records on the value you bought for and what you sold for, for the duration of the time you own the coins. And it's not entirely clear if trading BTC for some other crypto currency counts as a capital gain, or as a like for like exchange.

Quote from: Lord Grantham on July 10, 2017, 06:41:43 AM
I started really looking into it this weekend and it's still a pain in the ass. A couple of the exchanges that accept USD for bitcoin aren't licensed to accept money from Michigan residents, then the ones who will do that exchange are based out of Lithuania or Slovakia and want scans of your passport. Might as well cut out the middle man and post those scans directly onto the dark web, so those are out. I'm leaning towards buy.bitcoin.com, but have yet to see what hoops I need to jump through there.

Then there's the whole issue with tax reporting where you have to keep your own records on the value you bought for and what you sold for, for the duration of the time you own the coins. And it's not entirely clear if trading BTC for some other crypto currency counts as a capital gain, or as a like for like exchange.

Check out http://www.bullionstacker.com/. It's a precious metals discussion and trading forum. There's an active alt-coin discussion area that includes bitcoin. You can also buy/sell alt-coins from other members, even trade precious metals for alt-coins. We've been around for 8 years and use a feedback system like ebay.

You'll need to make a free account to see most of the site, but I promise your information is kept confidential. Disclosure: I'm an admin at bullionstacker.


Lord Grantham

Quote from: Lord Grantham on July 09, 2017, 12:27:47 PM
Current BTC to USD: 1 to 2552.87

What sucks is that I had the money to buy in a couple of years ago...

And within a week it's down to $2000. Talk about a risky, speculative, investment.

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

Quote from: Lord Grantham on July 15, 2017, 03:10:14 PM
And within a week it's down to $2000. Talk about a risky, speculative, investment.

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

Tulip mania indeed! I've never owned a crypto-currency and I certainly don't recommend them to anyone. Way too risky for me.

Lord Grantham

Quote from: Radio⚡Activity on July 15, 2017, 03:54:16 PM
Tulip mania indeed! I've never owned a crypto-currency and I certainly don't recommend them to anyone. Way too risky for me.

And within a day it's 1,800. With this Aug. 1 upgrade, split, whatever uncertainty I wouldn't be surprised to see it drop to under $1,000 by the 30th.

As an investment, I wouldn't put my life savings into it, or bank on it for retirement. But as a side gamble, say $50 to $100 per month, divvy it up between a few different currencies (Etherium {which probably has more stability long term}, Dash, and Litecoin), why not?

Quote from: Lord Grantham on July 16, 2017, 08:56:43 AM
And within a day it's 1,800. With this Aug. 1 upgrade, split, whatever uncertainty I wouldn't be surprised to see it drop to under $1,000 by the 30th.

As an investment, I wouldn't put my life savings into it, or bank on it for retirement. But as a side gamble, say $50 to $100 per month, divvy it up between a few different currencies (Etherium {which probably has more stability long term}, Dash, and Litecoin), why not?

Earlier today it was over $2650.

Lord Grantham

Quote from: Radio⚡Activity on July 20, 2017, 12:41:07 PM
Earlier today it was over $2650.

I finally bought in last week when it was in the 2100 range, along with some ETH and LTE. I'm going to do small dollar weighted average purchases every month. See how it plays out.

Well, I'm really eating shit after writing these things off completely after the last boom.

WOTR

Nice to see you again, Mr. Orange... And thanks for reminding me to actually look at litecoin prices.  Yipes.  :)

Quote from: WOTR on September 13, 2017, 12:12:32 AM
Nice to see you again, Mr. Orange... And thanks for reminding me to actually look at litecoin prices.  Yipes.  :)
Ahoy! Nice to see some familiar faces around these parts :)

Lord Grantham

Quote from: Lord Grantham on July 24, 2017, 06:42:07 AM
I finally bought in last week when it was in the 2100 range, along with some ETH and LTE. I'm going to do small dollar weighted average purchases every month. See how it plays out.

I bailed out today. $8,000 for BTC is insane. After doing some reading into the South Seas Company of the 1600's and the mania for stock offerings in that era it's just too damn similar to what's happening now.



It's too bad I didn't have more liquid assets at the time (I was gearing up to buy a house so emptying my savings wasn't an option). I could have made bank (even though it would have been a risky af move)

Quote from: Lord Grantham on November 21, 2017, 08:21:05 AM
I bailed out today. $8,000 for BTC is insane. After doing some reading into the South Seas Company of the 1600's and the mania for stock offerings in that era it's just too damn similar to what's happening now.



It's too bad I didn't have more liquid assets at the time (I was gearing up to buy a house so emptying my savings wasn't an option). I could have made bank (even though it would have been a risky af move)

Nice!   Good thing you got out.  Now you'll have enough Capital Gains to finance Falkie's 3rd [or is it 4th?] Apple Airport router.  Heck there might be
enough room in the there for a TracFone or two and perhaps even a bucket of Hormel Ribs.    Good job!  The Big Man appreciates it I am sure..............



WOTR

As somebody who likes the concept of crypto currencies, I am a little worried that they have been completely corrupted by an already corrupt financial system.  The potential is there of a stable form of payment.  Something that can be used to screw over the big banks and something that will allow the transfer of funds between individuals and nations working around the money changers at the Goldman temple.

However, with unlimited fiat and the ability to print as much as they want, I can see this is going to be a way to sink the experiment.  I hope that I'm wrong.  But the way they are hyping it right now I can see a number of people who have no idea what it is jumping in, getting burned in a "correction" and a huge number of people never trusting crypto again... Better to just stick to buying your money order at Wells Fargo and never trust that unstable bitcoin ever again.  ::)


albrecht

Quote from: WOTR on November 28, 2017, 12:52:16 AM
As somebody who likes the concept of crypto currencies, I am a little worried that they have been completely corrupted by an already corrupt financial system.  The potential is there of a stable form of payment.  Something that can be used to screw over the big banks and something that will allow the transfer of funds between individuals and nations working around the money changers at the Goldman temple.

However, with unlimited fiat and the ability to print as much as they want, I can see this is going to be a way to sink the experiment.  I hope that I'm wrong.  But the way they are hyping it right now I can see a number of people who have no idea what it is jumping in, getting burned in a "correction" and a huge number of people never trusting crypto again... Better to just stick to buying your money order at Wells Fargo and never trust that unstable bitcoin ever again.  ::)
Admittedly I do not understand the whole "blockchain" deal but from the various "experts" on shows and articles I don't understand why some consider this some kind of subversive or anonymous currency? According to what I've heard every transaction is "recorded" in the chain. Not that I plan any criminal enterprises or transactions but it would seem things like cash (assuming the serial numbers aren't recorded or marked) are far more anonymous. Bitcoin, to me, seems like a government's dream to curtail tax evasion, money laundering, or criminal activity. Being able to "see" every transaction ever can be seen in the Bitcoin itself?

I like the idea though of being able to transfer money between countries and currencies without the bank fees, delays, forms, etc (where legal) but don't see how this technology is some kind of underground, anonymous currency.

Lord Grantham

Quote from: albrecht on November 30, 2017, 11:56:10 AM
I like the idea though of being able to transfer money between countries and currencies without the bank fees, delays, forms, etc (where legal) but don't see how this technology is some kind of underground, anonymous currency.

There are still fees. You're just paying them to a data miner to process your transaction instead of a bank.
http://mashable.com/2017/08/28/bitcoin-transaction-fees/#tZfHZH_V.kqF

albrecht

Quote from: Lord Grantham on November 30, 2017, 12:47:11 PM
There are still fees. You're just paying them to a data miner to process your transaction instead of a bank.
http://mashable.com/2017/08/28/bitcoin-transaction-fees/#tZfHZH_V.kq
Always a catch. A recent guest on C2C, Stan Larimer, was mentioning the problems of computing power with regard to transfers and payment processing for merchant. He and his son, apparently, have some other kind of digital currency supposedly that helps solve this problem? I have no idea if this was/is true.

I guess there also is going to be some kind of cost with money transference it is just trying to figure out the cheapest/safest way. I just find it hard to believe it is so 'costly' for banks to 'wire' money or convert between currencies considering it is all just on a computer (basically) anyway and much of the stuff can be done automatically, even compliance with tax and countries' laws. Even hawala involves a commission, though is likely more anonymous than some other systems (though various agencies are watching these guys very closely considering recent history!)

Gd5150

The hilarious crackup is the ignoramouses who blame Bush and deregulation for the financial collapse of 06-08, are in favor of this obvious pyramid with zero regulations and no government or financial backing. When it collapses all the left winger techies and hedge funders will blame the governemnt. When really it was their own greed and stupidity that motivated them to buy in to the this obvious junk.

Like I did with the predictable mortgage collapse of 06, I’m looking forward to the junkcoin demise.


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