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Brennan Voboril
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 15 January 2011
Posts: 1734
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| Posted: 04 December 2017 at 5:03pm | IP Logged | 1
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Some Beanie Babies sold for 5k a piece and some people whipped themselves into a frenzy about them too.
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Neil Lindholm
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 12 January 2005
Location: China
Posts: 4940
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| Posted: 04 December 2017 at 5:26pm | IP Logged | 2
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QUOTE:
| If all Bitcoins are trackable then what happened to the ones the hackers stole? They could never use them, could they? |
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Not easily. Every transaction since the beginning of bitcoin has a permanent record. We might not know who has these coins but they know where they are and they can be flagged if they surface at an exchange. It is much harder to cover your tracks in the digital world than by simply using cash, which is completely anonymous. Another reason why governments, especially repressive ones, don't like the idea. Corruption is reduced dramatically when there is a chain for every transaction.
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Neil Lindholm
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 12 January 2005
Location: China
Posts: 4940
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| Posted: 04 December 2017 at 5:28pm | IP Logged | 3
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QUOTE:
| Some Beanie Babies sold for 5k a piece and some people whipped themselves into a frenzy about them too. |
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Please explain how Beanie Babies were a disruptive technology that could completely revolutionize society?
Edited by Neil Lindholm on 04 December 2017 at 5:28pm
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Jason K Fulton
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 23 September 2016
Location: United States
Posts: 698
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| Posted: 04 December 2017 at 5:51pm | IP Logged | 4
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Understanding an investment before purchasing it is usually a good plan.
I don't know that I'd throw my long term savings into something out of a Neil Stephenson novel - but good luck to you!
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Neil Lindholm
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 12 January 2005
Location: China
Posts: 4940
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| Posted: 04 December 2017 at 7:20pm | IP Logged | 5
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Completely agree. I have read articles about people who don't invest in Apple because they don't understand computers. Fair enough. There are many books and articles about Bitcoin available. The entire blockchain technology is fascinating and the possibilities are staggering.
The big problem is that it makes a lot of functions currently done by government and banks obsolete and we all know that won't change without a struggle.
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Wilson Mui
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 27 June 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 4526
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| Posted: 04 December 2017 at 7:32pm | IP Logged | 6
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Neil, Is bitcoin very popular in Asia? I
read that nearly 70% of the coins mined is
in China.
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Neil Lindholm
Byrne Robotics Member
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Location: China
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| Posted: 04 December 2017 at 7:49pm | IP Logged | 7
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Big time. Korea and Japan have embraced the idea and are actively investing in it. The Philippines loves it since remittances are such a huge fact of life there and the banks suck massive user fees for transferring funds. Bitcoins are instantaneous and cost almost nothing to use. A lot of Asian countries see the chance to bypass Western countries and leap to the new technology. India has zero faith in government money after the last fiasco and is gaining popularity as well.
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Neil Lindholm
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 12 January 2005
Location: China
Posts: 4940
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| Posted: 04 December 2017 at 7:59pm | IP Logged | 8
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Coins are mined in China since electricity costs are so low. There is talk about moving a lot of these mining farms to northern countries since China is being China and the higher north you are, the less you pay for air conditioning. Iceland is big on mining as well.
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Steve Gumm
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 10 May 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 1453
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| Posted: 05 December 2017 at 7:25am | IP Logged | 9
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For those wanting to know a bit more. Netflix has a documentary that covers it's concepts and history - Banking on Bitcoin.
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Brennan Voboril
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 15 January 2011
Posts: 1734
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| Posted: 05 December 2017 at 7:53am | IP Logged | 10
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Neil I am sure you are familiar with the terms speculative mania and financial bubble when it comes to economics.
You don't believe Bitcoin is a bubble and sing its praises, even linking to a site that sells them.
Time will tell which one of us is correct. |
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Peter Martin
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 17 March 2008
Location: Canada
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| Posted: 05 December 2017 at 7:55am | IP Logged | 11
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Tulips were not a new technology and they had no useful qualities, other than being pretty.------------------------------- They had value and they were pretty, meaning they had one more quality than Bitcoin.
Bitcoin has value, but only because people currently ascribe value to it. It has use as currency -- but far less use than a normal currency like USD or GBP. You will always be able to buy goods in the US with USD. What guarantee is there that vendors will always accept Bitcoin?
Bitcoin has been driven up massively in value by positive sentiment (i.e. the upward curve of the bubble as more people pile on as they see the increasing value). My question is, when the inevitable big correction occurs, what stops the vicious cycle of people selling when they see the value diving? There is no backstop as far as I can see.
If the USD starts to lose value, foreign investment flows into the US economy to buy US goods that are now cheaper, this props up the value of the dollar and eventually you get an equilibrium. If Bitcoin drops, the cost of things you can buy with it will not get cheaper. The prices will just rise to equalise the decline in the value of Bitcoin, meaning there will be no flow of equity into Bitcoin to help prop it up. It seems to me anyway...
Edited by Peter Martin on 05 December 2017 at 7:57am
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Neil Lindholm
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 12 January 2005
Location: China
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| Posted: 05 December 2017 at 8:08am | IP Logged | 12
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There are many economists, whose entire life work has dealt with studying a system that is controlled by governments and central bankers. Quantitative easing, fractional reserves, rampant inflation. Look at Zimbabwe, Venezuela, Greece and Cyprus. India with their messing around with their currency. Bankers manipulating markets for their own gain. Now imagine a currency that is decentralized, impossible to inflate. A currency that is anonymous yet will track every transaction, eliminating the massive corruption prevalent in so many planned economies. This is the system the old-time economists desire to maintain. They attack what they do not understand.
What is a currency? The USD has a value because people have faith in it. It is backed by nothing more than the belief that the US government will always be around and will do the right thing. Running the printing presses and racking up trillions in debt? You still trust them?
When Bitcoin corrections occur, people rush in and buy. This has been going on for years and years. And remember, there is a fixed amount of bitcoins, unlike the US dollar. Would you rather have a currency that is stable and secure or one that can be manipulated at the whims of whoever is in charge? Since 1933, when the US government abandoned the Gold standard and turned on the presses, the inflation rate since then is 1797.4%. This is a better system?
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