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Bitcoin discussion

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  1. #61

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    Serious question. What is the point of bitcoin? I mean there is all this talk of it being valued at this that and the other, but so what?

    I thought bitcoin was set up as an alternative to fiat currencies. But does anyone actually use bitcoin to buy and sell stuff and if they do, how do they get round the crazy valuations.

    Full disclosure, I once owned a bitcoin back in something like 2010. It however got stolen.

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  2. #62

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    APMEX is accepting it though
    You can now buy gold using bitcoins, which I think is incredibly ironic

    "I believe blockchain is a technology that will be widely adopted in many transactional systems" I fully agree with this. Banks will get together and use blockchain technology to make fiat payments easier and cheaper, and bitcoin will no longer have any reason to exist.

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  3. #63

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    Quote Originally Posted by pin:
    Serious question. What is the point of bitcoin? I mean there is all this talk of it being valued at this that and the other, but so what?

    I thought bitcoin was set up as an alternative to fiat currencies. But does anyone actually use bitcoin to buy and sell stuff and if they do, how do they get round the crazy valuations.

    Full disclosure, I once owned a bitcoin back in something like 2010. It however got stolen.
    How did your bitcoin get stolen?

    From what I understand, people who actually use bitcoin for buying and selling goods are usually those from poorer countries who do not have a stable economy, government and banking system. Venezuela for example with crazy inflation, people are using bitcoin to keep their money safe.

    I guess the overall goal is to get bitcoin into the hands of people, mass adoption and then hopefully have more merchants accepting bitcoin. The problem is, no one wants to use their bitcoin because they feel it will only increase in value, so they want to hold. Remember that guy spending 10,000 for a pizza? No one wants to be that guy again. If I spend 0.1 for a new computer, what if that 0.1 bitcoin increases by 100%, then I should have just held the bitcoin and paid in fiat. The other problem is the transaction fee. $20 for a $20 worth of bitcoin transaction is not worth it at all.

    What needs to happen is, stabilize the prices and limit the volatility. This is hard since it works as a supply and demand so there needs to be another way, which I have no clue how.

    The fees also need to come down and the big exchanges and wallets need to integrate segwit to do so. There is also another promising protocol called Lightning Network which will vastly reduce fees and transaction time, but again, the big exchanges need to adopt that
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  4. #64

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    Original Post Deleted
    You're right! I guess I am a spectacular. But I figure I put aside what I can risk and if it goes up another 2000%, great. If it goes to $0, well I'm ok.
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  5. #65
    Original Post Deleted
    I agree with his reasons however he somehow thought my suggestion of using Cold storage to protect savings was some sort of Fanboying over BTC.
    Last edited by FatBoyHKG; 07-12-2017 at 02:03 PM. Reason: Clarity

  6. #66
    Original Post Deleted
    Please kindly share which banks you are storing your cryptocurrency with. Unless you store them in one of the few swiss banks that offer it to their richest clients... Until then the safest place for cryptocurrency savings in my book is as you say "under the mattress".

  7. #67
    Original Post Deleted
    Definitely things can go wrong but this is the risk of investing in potentially the start of cryptocurrency as a viable alternative.

    You mentioned that you are positive with cryptocurrency and blockchain technology yet you are essentially telling people not to invest into cryptocurrency because there are no "real" safe storage systems or government backing in place for savings.

    If people (not trying to attack you, please don't take it the wrong way) think that way then why would people build the infrastructure or institutions that support cryptocurrency...

    Supply and demand right?
    Last edited by FatBoyHKG; 07-12-2017 at 02:37 PM. Reason: Clarity

  8. #68

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    Original Post Deleted
    From my understanding, there's two major types of storage. One is with an exchange where the exchange manages and controls the cryptocurreny. Then there are the wallets where the user has the private and public keys and hence controls it -- with both private and public keys, the user should be able to log into any wallet and transfer or use funds, albeit you need to trust the source that you are inputting your password.

  9. #69

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    There's a third type, cold storage offline on a Trezor or Nano Ledger. This is the safest by bar notwithstanding losing the device.

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  10. #70

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    Original Post Deleted
    Very true, but this goes back to money is only as valuable as people "believe" it is. Bitcoin was the start and with limited supply and growing demand for cryptocurreny, bitcoin becomes the normal default in many cases.

    Trades might be conducted in altcoins but many will revert to Bitcoin in the end thus pressing on the supply and demand issue.

    There are better applications to use blockchain and definitely do think they will come out but bitcoin remains as the most well known coin.

    Just like Apple can ride on their brand name but not innovate anything and still make money.
    FatBoyHKG likes this.

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