Bitcoin reached a 1 trillion dollar market cap today!

[thebes]

What troubles me is the massive amounts of energy being consumed to "mine" these cyber currencies.  It's massive and there is no way for the current marketplace to account for it's cost, environmental impact, or it's percentage of the actual production of these "currencies". If you factored all of this in, bitcoin etc. probably cost more to make, degrade the planet and undermine tax supported government programs than any other currency.

[Schu]

there IS a way for the current market place to account for it's costs... those costs are the MAIN factor in determining viability of starting and running mining farms. it's the main reason that a majority of farms are based in a specific region of mainland china... it's the only reason. The Chinese aren't better at it than anyone else... they have cheaper electricity than anyone else.

 

a bit of information about the velocity of money... the government DOES NOT depend on the tax implications to run.

[geoff.]

Question... wouldn’t the first person to have access to the first quantum computer pretty much snipe all the available Bitcoin left to be mined?

 

And what’s really being mined? 

 

...all of our passwords? lol

[thebes]

6 hours ago, Schu said:

he Chinese aren't better at it than anyone else... they have cheaper electricity than anyone else.

What's the primary source of electricity in China?

 

Coal you idjut!🙂

[thebes]

If I become a "miner" I'll subcontract my work to original zeros and ones, those plucky Japanese:

 

 

 

[Schu]

8 hours ago, kellypea said:

Do you think it is worth taking a small loan to invest in Bitcoin?

With rates at NEAR zero, that's how the establishment/commercial investors do it.

 

Of course you could always leverage if you are knowledgeable, but lately there is a real battle between the longs and the shorts that is wrecking havoc on the longs even though BTC will go higher.

 

if you do option for a line of credit or a loan, you NEED to be sure you can make the obligation on those payments before considering the idea because it's going to be a multi-year proposition for BTC at these levels.

[thebes]

Recent report about China's bitcoin mining. Projected to peak in 2024 at about 297 terawatt hours, generating about 130 million metric tons of carbon emissions.

 

The Fed can produce about $1 trillion in dollars for about $5 in computer time. A trillion in actual physical currency, for a few million dollars.

Paper money you can at least wipe your butt with it, if inflation goes crazy like in the Wiemar Republic.  Silver and gold, have other, probably better uses than using them as currency, and digital currency has no intrinsic value but can certainly help wreck the planet.

 

Once again capitalism, run-amok, greed and the gullibility of the masses triumphs over all.

[JJkizak]

14 minutes ago, thebes said:

Recent report about China's bitcoin mining. Projected to peak in 2024 at about 297 terawatt hours, generating about 130 million metric tons of carbon emissions.

 

The Fed can produce about $1 trillion in dollars for about $5 in computer time. A trillion in actual physical currency, for a few million dollars.

Paper money you can at least wipe your butt with it, if inflation goes crazy like in the Wiemar Republic.  Silver and gold, have other, probably better uses than using them as currency, and digital currency has no intrinsic value but can certainly help wreck the planet.

 

Once again capitalism, run-amok, greed and the gullibility of the masses triumphs over all.

 

Thank God that they haven't gone Metric yet. But then again maybe they have.

JJK

[geoff.]

Are there unsold Bitcoin still available? 

 

If not, someone has to think it is a prudent decision to sell theirs.

 

Who is selling such a sure thing that others are buying?

 

 

 

 

[RickFL]

I will trust in the tangible

[Schu]

it's not polite to laugh at the clueless when it comes to these new concepts...

 

 

I've never been accused of being overly polite.

 

I can however answer legitimate questions for those that wish to learn.

 

 

Next up in Market Capitalization... Silver (BTC=1.1789T vs Silver=1.388T) will fall very soon, maybe as soon as a week or two.

[Jeff Matthews]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-04-18/bitcoin-falls-as-much-as-15-biggest-intraday-drop-since-feb?utm_source=url_link

 

It's this kind of volatility that makes Bitcoin unsuitable as a medium of exchange.

 

Sure, it might go up, up and away over the longer term, but you can't count on it tomorrow morning.  If you need to buy a new car tomorrow, or close on a house, or loan a family member a chunk of dough, you're at the mercy of a fickle market.

[Schu]

bitcoin isn't meant to be a 'medium of exchange'... it may have initially been designed as a decentralized payment system, but it isn't that any longer... and hasn't been for a LONG time. you MAY use it to pay for something,  but that would be a bad idea because as btc continues to consume financial energy, it will continue to go up in valuation... making that 6$ cup of coffee cost orders of magnitude more expensive as that bitcoin you use rises in value.

 

 

the entire market was down more than 25% in total market capitalization (but it is still over two trillion in cap), but it was merely a pimple of a dump and has come back significantly... and btc was only down about 12% at time of the flash crash.

 

HERE is the reason for the momentary dump... it was a move to crush the leverage traders long positions. those leverage traders lost more than 3 billion in leverage and was the biggest wrecking in the history of the crypto space... bitcoin is fine and strong.

[Schu]

amazingly enough... doge coin held up better than almost any asset other than a stable coin yesterday.

[Jeff Matthews]

11 minutes ago, Schu said:

bitcoin isn't meant to be a 'medium of exchange'... it may have initially been designed as a decentralized payment system, but it isn't that any longer..

Right.  "Currency" is a misnomer.

 

Now, it's just a concept to which people have acribed value.  It's really interesting.  When it was a loophole to be used to export wealth from nations like China, I could see a purpose.  Now that the loophole is closed, I wonder what its purpose is - other than "to grow in value."

[Jeff Matthews]

There's so many of them, now.  Why not Poody-toin?

[Jeff Matthews]

https://www.cnet.com/news/dogecoin-the-meme-that-somehow-became-a-real-cryptocurrency/#:~:text=Dogecoin is a cryptocurrency%2C a,Bitcoin is ground-breaking.

 

From the creator of Dogecoin:

 

"Dogecoin," says Markus, "from 'that seems like it's funny' to actually doing it, took about three hours. It's almost trivial to create a new cryptocurrency." 

 

It was a find-and-replace job.

 

Ctrl+F 'Bitcoin,' replace with 'Dogecoin.'

 

Markus freely admits to finding large chunks of bitcoin's source code completely incomprehensible, but knew enough to change a few core elements for Dogecoin. For example, Markus created 100 billion dogecoins (as opposed to bitcoin's 21 million) and made them easier to mine. (Dogecoin is already close to being mined out, while bitcoin's final coin will be mined in 2140.)

 

He changed the font (to comic sans of course) and changed every mention of the word 'mine' to 'dig' (because dogs don't mine, they dig...).

 

And then, during his lunch break, Markus set Dogecoin live.

 

"Cryptocurrency is a solution in search of a problem," he says.

 

What problem did Dogecoin solve?

 

"I don't think it solves anything," he says. "If anything, it exists as an educational tool. It's a reminder that we can't take this stuff seriously.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

[geoff.]

Once again I will ask this question.

 

If bitcoin is such a sure thing, and there are only the coins left to be mined to be bought as new.

 

Who is selling such a sure thing?

[Jeff Matthews]

13 minutes ago, geoff. said:

Once again I will ask this question.

 

If bitcoin is such a sure thing, and there are only the coins left to be mined to be bought as new.

 

Who is selling such a sure thing?

That's a rhetorical question.  Everyone dies in the long run.

 

I'm not into Bitcoin, but I sure wish I bought a few grand worth 10 years ago... back when people were likewise claiming how great it would be.

[Jeff Matthews]

1 hour ago, Schu said:

HERE is the reason for the momentary dump... it was a move to crush the leverage traders long positions. those leverage traders lost more than 3 billion in leverage and was the biggest wrecking in the history of the crypto space... bitcoin is fine and strong.

Compare to this:

 

"The drop appears to coincide with reports that the US Treasury is planning to tackle financial institutions for money laundering carried out through digital assets." 

 

Source:  https://finance.yahoo.com/news/bitcoin-price-sunday-18-april-us-treasury-digital-assets-ethereum-litecoin-coinbase-doge-094926937.html

 

Once government controls the flow, the product is as useless/useful as a dollar, and the game is over (IMO).