Is this 'Bitcoin' the real deal?

[How bad boy]

When you think about how absurd the production of the bitcoin is, it really is mind-diddling. Using electricity to open an electronic puzzle box that contains computer code which is inherently valueless.

Crypto bros would tell you the same is true of FIAT money. Which is kinda true, stuff is only ever worth what people think it is worth. If everyone buys into that concept then yep, it's worth something, even if objectively that appears to be nonsense.


There's an island in Micronesia where massive stones are currency.

The tiny island with human-sized money

The Micronesian island of Yap has a famously unusual currency: hundreds of giant discs of rocks scattered all over the island, many of them too heavy to move.

www.bbc.com

This is literally this village's bank:

Money is very, very weird stuff and it gets weirder the more you think about it.

I stand by my earlier assessment of this

IMO, crypto is the biggest pyramid scheme in history.

It's just very very different to those that came before. The fact that it underpins a huge amount of the criminal economy means I'm pretty certain it will never be killed off.

I heavily dislike cryptocurrency for a number of reasons:

1. It wastes a vast amount of power. Bitcoin alone burns more energy than Argentina

2. It's great for crime, shit for everything else. You want to launder money, go buy crypto currency, can move it across borders and wash it very quickly and effectively. Transaction costs are stupidly expensive for normal transactions, but incredibly cheap for money laundering.

3. The currencies (except for stable currencies which are another bag of cats) are useless as a means of exchange, especially as it's highly volatile relative to the real economy. Having 50% value changes on the up and down in a year is a useless currency.

4. People claim it's secure. It very fucking much isn't. The core blockchain might be secure, but 95% of people aren't using that. They're using wallets set up by techbros who are classic examples of the Dunning Kruger effect. There's wallets compromised every single week.

5. People claim it's decentralised. See point #4. For most, they centralise around the wallets.

6. I really need to reiterate how fucking stupid crypto mining is. It's idiotic, "waste enough power and you might get a reward". Fucking hell.

7. Bitcoin is limited to 7 transactions a second. Visa does approximately 1,700 transactions a second and can peak to a hell of a lot more

8. You can replicate a blockchain with an append only timeseries database. You can do a million small writes to an AWS Timestream time series DB for 50 US cents.


it needs to die, for the sake of society, but I think the organised crime and gullible fools will keep it going for the foreseeable future.

Think bitcoin value spikes are going to be an ongoing thing, because fundamentally it's not going away and every once in a while, there'll be a bit of a rush, loads of folk pile in, those who bought before the rush sell out, value collapses again, rinse repeat.

 

[Ghoti]

Crypto bros would tell you the same is true of FIAT money. Which is kinda true, stuff is only ever worth what people think it is worth. If everyone buys into that concept then yep, it's worth something, even if objectively that appears to be nonsense.


There's an island in Micronesia where massive stones are currency.

The tiny island with human-sized money

The Micronesian island of Yap has a famously unusual currency: hundreds of giant discs of rocks scattered all over the island, many of them too heavy to move.

www.bbc.com

This is literally this village's bank:




Money is very, very weird stuff and it gets weirder the more you think about it.

I stand by my earlier assessment of this


Think bitcoin value spikes are going to be an ongoing thing, because fundamentally it's not going away and every once in a while, there'll be a bit of a rush, loads of folk pile in, those who bought before the rush sell out, value collapses again, rinse repeat.

The standout aspect of bitcoin is the electricity waste, yep. Argentina? Holy fuck.
Money, of course, is mad, but at least (and I'm not saying I'm in favour of the complete abandonment of cash) most of it is just 'reflected' digitally and there are no mining shenanigans involved.

How crypto is realised seems really self-destructive to humanity.

 

[How bad boy]

The standout aspect of bitcoin is the electricity waste, yep. Argentina? Holy fuck.
Money, of course, is mad, but at least (and I'm not saying I'm in favour of the complete abandonment of cash) most of it is just 'reflected' digitally and there are no mining shenanigans involved.

How crypto is realised seems really self-destructive to humanity.

That is true for Bitcoin.

It isn't true any more for some other crypto currencies, Ethereum moved to Proof of Stake rather than Proof of Work in 2022.
Basically, instead of solving maths puzzles, Ethereum now gets holders of it to stick some of into a "smart contract" where they then get a return for validating transactions.
Idea being, someone need to do the computing work to validate transactions. They use the fact that you already own ethereum as the basis for it, then you get a reward for doing the computing required to do that validation.

It still uses a hell of a lot more energy than a standard database, but it's nowhere close to the catastrophic levels of Proof of Work in Bitcoin.

It does mean that in theory, someone can come along, buy up 51% of Ethereum and control the entire thing. Not a massive problem at $400+ billion for Ethereum, but a major problem for minor coins.

Of course, a government could secretly pick up that level in the background, but what would be the point?

Regardless, my points 2, 3, 4, 5 and 8 are still valid for Ethereum.

 

[J.R.R. hartley]

Up to 80 now.

You deserve it, m8.

 

[Jimmy the Gent]

Crypto is the wild west. Serious money to be made but extremely high risk. So many scammers in the space.

 

[TheOutdoorThreadmill]

Crypto is the wild west. Serious money to be made but extremely high risk. So many scammers in the space.

Absolutely, the fluctuations are mad, just enjoy the ride. I've got out several times and gone back in less exposed every time, haven't played with my only money in years. Have had a few shite coins but you just leave them sit there coz you never know. Have one that this morning is up nearly 550% since I bought it and another two down 28% and 23% respectively.

 

[Jimmy the Gent]

Absolutely, the fluctuations are mad, just enjoy the ride. I've got out several times and gone back in less exposed every time, haven't played with my only money in years. Have had a few shite coins but you just leave them sit there coz you never know. Have one that this morning is up nearly 550% since I bought it and another two down 28% and 23% respectively.

Yeah, taking out your initials is essential. Not only to offset the risk but to also lessen the stress of watching the fluctuations.

Getting into a decent project early, taking out your initials and watching that baby grow is quite the buzz.

 

[TheOutdoorThreadmill]

Yeah, taking out your initials is essential. Not only to offset the risk but to also lessen the stress of watching the fluctuations.

Getting into a decent project early, taking out your initials and watching that baby grow is quite the buzz.

Yeah deffo, and the outside factors as well, one of mine could explode when a court case with the SEC is finally concluded, could tank as well though. Dragging on a bit now

 

[Jimmy the Gent]

Yeah deffo, and the outside factors as well, one of mine could explode when a court case with the SEC is finally concluded, could tank as well though. Dragging on a bit now

XRP?

 

[PussyinBoots]

gone up to around $65,000 for one bitcoin.
Stone mad.
Wish I had more than 44 euro invested mind you.