Bitcoin - Virtual Currencies and the future of Cash

[fillipino_wannabe]

Bitcoin is junk as a payment processor, high fees, slow, can't process many transactions and it uses an obscene amount of electricity. Literally every other coin is better as a payment processor, it's just high because it was the first.
Blockchain technology will definitely be used heavily though, banks are already investing in it.
Crypto is obviously in a bubble but I think it will keep rising for a fair while yet.
China banned it and at the same time the most well known banker in the world called it a fraud and that just caused a little blip in the price before it started to soar again.
Can't really see what will stop it for a while if that didn't.

[Mike J]

The problem I see is that the huge rise in value for these digital currencies is based almost entirely on the belief that the value will continue to rise.  People who have bitcoins not only want to hold them as they increase in value, they seek to buy even more, more, more!  They have no practical "use" for the currency, it is strictly an investment.  What you are seeing is "panic buying" driven by euphoria.  Now there are new digital currencies being touted everyday as being the better, more useful, etc. choice over bitcoin.  There will soon be a tsunami of these new currencies available.  Remember baseball cards, Avon bottles, beanie babies, collector coins, McDonald Happy Meal toys, etc.  It may be true that bitcoin has a self limiting supply, but the overall supply of digital currency has no physical limit at all.  The only real limit is common sense and right now that seems to be in short supply.  People are buying bitcoin because they think it will increase in value not because of any inherent value, utility, or plans on buying something with the coins.  The dream is to "catch the wave baby", sell at the top, and turn them back in dollars, euros, etc.  The longer they dream, the more likely they are to drown when that wave crashes.

[sonjack2847]

Lots of people have said that they paid 1 for bitcoin and now it is worth 10 but how do you cash in your profit.The figures I used are just an example.

[earthdome]

3 hours ago, sonjack2847 said:

Lots of people have said that they paid 1 for bitcoin and now it is worth 10 but how do you cash in your profit.The figures I used are just an example.

There are many ways to cash in. I use Coinbase.com. They run the largest US bitcoin trading platform GDAX.com. I exchange bitcoin <-> USD there, sometimes as an active trader with multiple trades per day. I link up my bank account to transfer USD to/from GDAX/Coinbase. You can also trade Litecoin, Ethereum and very soon Bitcoin Cash (BCH) there. FYI Coinbase has over 13 million accounts and recently has had100,000 new accounts created per day. They have received over $100 million in venture capital.

I also cash out using bitcoin to purchase things from Amazon at a discounted price. There are many people outside the US who do work for Amazon that receive amazon credits. Many of those people would prefer something they can spend on rent, etc. rather than using the credits to buy something from amazon. Some of those people would like to trade their amazon credit for bitcoin, buying you a gift from your wishlist in exchange for you paying in bitcoin at up to 33% discount on the cost of the items from Amazon. Learn more at SaveAtPurse.com.

There are also people who trade bitcoin's in person using LocalBItcoins.com.

Those are just a few examples. There are 100's of exchanges around the world for buying/selling  crypto currencies. Some very reputable like coinbase and some who may not be as reputable.

My common disclaimer. Only invest money you can afford to lose and do your own due diligence. With a note to beware of all the scams.

 

[sonjack2847]

22 minutes ago, earthdome said:

There are many ways to cash in. I use Coinbase.com. They run the largest US bitcoin trading platform GDAX.com. I exchange bitcoin <-> USD there, sometimes as an active trader with multiple trades per day. I link up my bank account to transfer USD to/from GDAX/Coinbase. You can also trade Litecoin, Ethereum and very soon Bitcoin Cash (BCH) there. FYI Coinbase has over 13 million accounts and recently has had100,000 new accounts created per day. They have received over $100 million in venture capital.

I also cash out using bitcoin to purchase things from Amazon at a discounted price. There are many people outside the US who do work for Amazon that receive amazon credits. Many of those people would prefer something they can spend on rent, etc. rather than using the credits to buy something from amazon. Some of those people would like to trade their amazon credit for bitcoin, buying you a gift from your wishlist in exchange for you paying in bitcoin at up to 33% discount on the cost of the items from Amazon. Learn more at SaveAtPurse.com.

There are also people who trade bitcoin's in person using LocalBItcoins.com.

Those are just a few examples. There are 100's of exchanges around the world for buying/selling  crypto currencies. Some very reputable like coinbase and some who may not be as reputable.

My common disclaimer. Only invest money you can afford to lose and do your own due diligence. With a note to beware of all the scams.

 

Thanks for that I appreciate it.

[earthdome]

4 minutes ago, sonjack2847 said:

Thanks for that I appreciate it.

One more service I use from time to time called ShapeShift.io. Normally I use this directly through the wallet I use on my phone called coinomi . Coinomi supports dozens of different crypto currencies and using ShapeShift.io allows you to convert from one to another. Shapeshift will take a one half of one percent fee for the conversion.

The last few days my alt coins (not bitcoin itself) have done very well. I even cashed out some of them to capture some of the profit. .

[Reboot]

Bitcoin has been an excellent speculation but the underlying technology, as implemented in Bitcoin, is obsolete. One wonders how that will impact its long term value once the mania subsides.

[earthdome]

6 hours ago, Reboot said:

Bitcoin has been an excellent speculation but the underlying technology, as implemented in Bitcoin, is obsolete. One wonders how that will impact its long term value once the mania subsides.

I don't think the tech bitcoin was introduced with is obsolete. Improvements have been made over its 9 year life and can be made in the future if consensus can be reached between miners/users/developers. There are some of the coins which are alternatives to bitcoin (alt coins) which have introduced improved technology and features. Some of them are starting to gain wider adoption and recognition. But bitcoin has the first to market advantage which is a great deal for another coin to overcome. Though I could be wrong. We are still very early in the adoption of this new technology and things can change rapidly. Plus there is no requirement that there be only one coin. There very well could be dozens of different coins which are successful in the long term as they present different value propositions and features than bitcoin.

I have more capital invested in my alt coin portfolio than in bitcoin itself. And it has done very well the last week. Actually that capital investment is all profits, my original investment plus some extra are in cash now.

[sonjack2847]

On 12/15/2017 at 7:38 AM, Happyhorn52 said:

If your bitcoin account suddenly disappears who helps you get your money back?

You may soon have the answer to that question.I read earlier that the Bitcoin exchange in Korea was hacked and 20% of investors lost their money.So that exchange has filed for bankruptcy.I cannot find the story now and earlier I could not get on here so no link or additional inf I `m afraid.

[earthdome]

43 minutes ago, sonjack2847 said:

You may soon have the answer to that question.I read earlier that the Bitcoin exchange in Korea was hacked and 20% of investors lost their money.So that exchange has filed for bankruptcy.I cannot find the story now and earlier I could not get on here so no link or additional inf I `m afraid.

Yes, there have been many exchanges startup and later close for various reasons with customers losing funds. Just like there were many people who invested too much of their money in .com startups in 2000 who lost a great deal of money. A few years ago I had a friend who lost a great deal of money when MF Global failed. Who protected him from that loss?

What happens depends on the exchange, how reputable it is and the laws of the country where it operates.

You should only keep coins/cash in an exchange while you are actively trading. I have a wallet on my phone which holds most of my coins so I am the one with the responsibility for keeping those coins in my phone wallet secure. For long term secure storage you can use what is called a paper wallet or one of the newer secure hardware wallet devices. Don't keep all you coins in one place and don't let someone else like Coinbase maintain custody of all your crypto assets for you.

Edited December 20, 2017 by earthdome