OT: Any crypto currency investors? Blockchain technology is taking off
Blockchain technology has been called "the Internet 2.0". It is a way to decentralize not just finances but information as well. Here is a super simplified youtube video explaining it but there are also great Ted Talks about blockchain in general for further information.
Bitcoin first introduced blockchain in 2008 as an answer to the banking crisis. I remember hearing of it in 2009/10 in some of the less-then-legal websites for a very reasonable price. It is now going for over $4400. Many other companies have started their coins asking for investors in their ICO. Some have great ideas while others have been scams.
There is huge potential for gains in crypto right now. I have put very little over the past two months (mostly over the past two weeks) and am up 50%.
Businesses such as Bank of America (filed numerous blockchain patents over the past few months), VISA, Apple (looking to connect with Dash), MasterCard, housing industry from mortgages to insurance, Walmart and even the US Government (for keeping track of visas and refugees etc) are looking to establish blockchain networks.
So, any other crypto daytraders or holders (hodlers) out there? What coins do ya' have, what do you like?
I am holding onto:
- Bitcoin: because it is constant and well established
- Monero: One of their features in the fungibility. But what peaked my interest is the true anonymity of the coin. Even the government who busted one of the leaders of the biggest darkweb sites could not truly tell how much XMR (monero) he owned.
- Iota: It allows for fast micro transactions and is looking to be an easy factor for online gambling and forums
- NEO: Because they give you GAS coins for holding onto NEO coins. Businesses in turn use the GAS.
As I'm only putting little bit at a time because with great gains can come super fast losses. The crypto market is 24/7.
I'm looking to add Ethereum as their network and contract setups is a baseline for other businesses and coins as well. It is also another constant heavy hitter. Litecoin as another constant. I need to research Lisk (LSK) but they are making huge gains recently.
August 25th, 2017 at 3:57 PM ^
8 hours and the liberal OT season ends.
August 25th, 2017 at 4:01 PM ^
For the record I hold both BTC and ETH. But this topic is WAAAAAY OT for this board, and there is hardly a shortage of places on the interwebs to discuss it.
August 25th, 2017 at 4:21 PM ^
I appreciate it. You're right, I could talk crypto with other people into it. My reason was hoping to get input from people not trying to shill their coins or pump up price before dumping. I also had an idea of the kind of reaction this post would get but was curious as well. Some have known of bitcoin while some have only recently heard of it but could not say anything about it.
It was actually a post on MGoBlog about buying silver and gold with various sites etc that really helped open my eyes again to what I thought was something that was out of reach for me.
August 25th, 2017 at 4:25 PM ^
This. Some asked in an earlier post what annoys you most on this board. GIFs, pictures, facepalms, pictures of facepalms, etc. So Stephen A doing a pseudo-facepalm? Might be the worst thing I've ever seen. The only people I know in real life that communicate this way are middle school girls.
August 25th, 2017 at 3:56 PM ^
Embed for the board
August 25th, 2017 at 3:57 PM ^
August 25th, 2017 at 4:31 PM ^
username and avatar check out
August 25th, 2017 at 4:46 PM ^
Cranky does not know about computers, or how they are made (ICs) . . . .
August 25th, 2017 at 5:41 PM ^
August 25th, 2017 at 4:53 PM ^
Gold has lots of intrinsic value. Many technological applications.
August 25th, 2017 at 8:12 PM ^
August 25th, 2017 at 9:22 PM ^
No legit businesses actually accept payment in bitcoin. Being able to pay in bitcoin doesn't mean a business is actually receiving bitcoin. Any bitcoin you are trying to pay with is being converted into a real currency prior to payment acceptance.
August 25th, 2017 at 3:57 PM ^
I've been very intently watching the split that occurred August 1st between Bitcoin (BTC) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH).
BCC seems to solve many of the transaction fee/scaling issues, but the emergency adjustment difficulty is both a curse/blessing for it...That and since the run up of last weekend, the price continues to hover around $600ish.
I'm placing my money in Ethereum (ETH) - it seems that ETH really just lacks the drama of BTC and BCH - 'it just works'. They've got some smart devs working on some contracts/other stuff I'm not smart enough to comprehend, but it looks very promising.
Not really knowledageable in other altcoins.
August 25th, 2017 at 5:32 PM ^
I agree that ETH feels like the better long term bet -- but we're still in such early stages it's hard to tell. That said, I still think BTC eventually ends up worth around $25K-30K.
August 25th, 2017 at 5:35 PM ^
1000 times this. If you ever want to know why people will NEVER take any crypto currency or whatever serious is comments like this.
how can you have any basis for this in any sort of rational world.
August 25th, 2017 at 5:58 PM ^
Bitcoin has gone from $227.48 to $4,300+ in 2 years
There are definitely safer ways to invest your money, but there could be a huge reward in taking a risk
If i spent $1,000 on it back then I could cash out for $19k today. Just sayin
August 25th, 2017 at 6:04 PM ^
history. what you stated was a fact. it has grown. Now saying its going to increase again 5 fold? Without any rational reason as to why other than BLOCK CHAIN IS COOL!!! CRYPTO CURRENCY! FIAT!!!! IT GREW LIKE TONZ MANNN
Point to a true rational real reason as to why it will continue to grow at this pace without any of the above and maybe it will be taken more seriously.
As I noted below we are literally reliving the lessons of monetary history; just doing it digitlaly and way faster.
August 25th, 2017 at 6:28 PM ^
You misunderstand, I don't care if you or anyone else take it seriously or not
August 25th, 2017 at 6:34 PM ^
if the masses don't take it seriously then it will never approach that level. unless you are trading the volatility of it and have enjoy a nice ride up.
but this is your catch 22; in order for it to truly and stably appreciate, even if you never intend to use it as a cash equivelant, you need it to be.
August 25th, 2017 at 11:02 PM ^
don't understand your point. Biscoin has incresed 20 fold in the past 2 years and over 1000 fold in the past 10 years. It's value increases based on perception the same way any currecy value increases. Bitcoin doesn't have to deal with government manipulation or inflation, and it's high volitility is what gives it strength, There are plenty of reasons to think it will continue to grow in value.
August 25th, 2017 at 11:06 PM ^
If blockchain were truley without utility then I would agree with you. I'm not interested in price changes for price changes sake. However I personally believe decentralized distributed ledger technology will have extremely high real utility in the future. In the same way it was difficult(and still is difficult for many) to perceive how a bunch of websites like facebook and twitter could be so valueable it is similarly difficult to grasp such the potential of cutting edge new technologies like ethereum or IOTA or even the simpler bitcoin.
There's a pretty high knowledge barrier required to really "get it" -- maybe a few days of research depending on how quickly you pick these things up. And of coruse an army of naysayers guaranteeing you that its all vaporware (even though they all also say they don't really understand it -- I've never seen any knowledgeable nasayers).
My advice is to do your own research with an open mind about THE most exciting technological advancement going on right now (machine learning, VR, etc look boring in comparison to me now). And if you're as inspired as I was then maybe make an investment while understanding the inherent high risk nature of the asset. 1-5% of your portfolio in digital currencies could easily end up being the best investment you've ever made. It has been for me. It's ok if you don't want to invest though old timers something has to transition the monopoly of wealth from the high age brackets back down to us youngin's saddled with student loan debt.
August 25th, 2017 at 9:28 PM ^
And if you bought Enron stock at the right time you'd be have a million plus or be broke. You know I heard about this great investment back in the 1600s, Tulips, Tulips were the future.
August 25th, 2017 at 11:08 PM ^
Some people thought the internet was tulips.
https://thenextweb.com/shareables/2010/02/27/newsweek-1995-buy-books-ne…
August 26th, 2017 at 10:29 AM ^
August 25th, 2017 at 4:12 PM ^
August 25th, 2017 at 5:18 PM ^
Your money is already 1s and 0s.
August 25th, 2017 at 5:23 PM ^
about 8 million pages of regulation surrounding it. you put that level of scrutiny on bitcoin and then putting your trust in 1s and 0s changes a bit
August 25th, 2017 at 6:07 PM ^
August 25th, 2017 at 6:15 PM ^
mt Gox?
August 25th, 2017 at 6:25 PM ^
that kind of exists already. if you own a share of stock and receive a dividend, or proxy statement etc; you have seen this "technology" in action. This is for sure faster, mainly because it dosn't have the decades of legacy processes included, but its not terribly unique. Everyone just says they are looking into it because it sounds cool and buzzwordy with kidz these dayz
August 25th, 2017 at 9:32 PM ^
A blockchain does none of that. It is literally just an immutable transaction record. Quite really the very thing that neither consumers NOR businesses actually want (we want reversability of a whole host of reasons not the least of is theft). And it doesn't remove the need for regulation at all.
August 25th, 2017 at 4:22 PM ^
It's pure speculation at this point.
There is definitely money to be made - 100%, people have made millions - but I would call it gambling more than investing until it stablizes over the next 5-10 years. Bitcoin/ether are all the rage right now until the next best things come out. If that happens the value of older cryptos will essentially dissolve into thin air. Gambling on hot new coins can make you or lose you a ton of money.
There are still too many vulerabilities and not enough practical real-world business applications for blockchain outside of finance right now (yes blockchain can be used for all types of things, but at this point there is not enough advantage to move entire systems to blockchain technology, outside of some obvious applications mostly in finance). I do agree this will change in the future as it is superior technology, we're just not there yet as a society.
To be honest with you, the real money right now is in ICO's; it's completely unregulated, not sure how long that will last.
Once it stablizes in the future, blockchain will be prevalent especially in data and transaction heavy industries such as healthcare.
August 25th, 2017 at 4:48 PM ^
I was about to make a separate post, but you mentioned some of what I was about to write, so I'll piggyback here.
Crypto currencies use blockchain, but that is not the reason large financial institutions are investing in blockchain as a technology. Blockchain (the technology) is good for permanent and public (or network-wide, in the case of private blockchain) data recording. Once a record is in the blockchain, it cannot be altered. There are significant applications to this in terms of financial/accounting record-keeping to prevent fraud.
There are other applications outside the financial arena, also, as it can be used for keeping permanent records of myriad data types. It's even being explored in human resources for things like recruiting (George O'Leary wouldn't have been able to get away with falsified educational records had blockchain been used to keep track of candidate data/histories). But it's nascent and very immature.
August 25th, 2017 at 5:16 PM ^
I don't trust Bitcoin at all...outside of the Mt. Gox hack, the possibility of a split in Bitcoin is all too real and the difficulty to make speedy transactions feel like fatal flaws that will either allow another crypto-currency to surpass it or simply causes its dissolution.
August 25th, 2017 at 5:27 PM ^
August 1st IICR.
August 25th, 2017 at 5:42 PM ^
you're right....don't know how I missed that. I thought they made a deal with the miners to stave this off at the end of July...
August 25th, 2017 at 4:21 PM ^
August 25th, 2017 at 4:48 PM ^
yea you gotta watch out for all those criminals over at Microsoft, Subway, Overstock.com, Newegg, and hundreds of other retailers - they only sell drugs and porn there!
EDIT: ok I know this will get Subway/Jared Fogle comments...
August 25th, 2017 at 4:54 PM ^
Drugs and porn at Subway? Clearly places like Which Wich and Jimmy John's are missing the mark here, although it does explain why the one dude from up the street seems to spend his entire weekend trying to get a foot long BMT and a pop.
August 25th, 2017 at 5:25 PM ^
Because you're either stupid or you're a troll. If you spend a bitcoin today to buy a refrigerator you're making a large bet that the "currency" will either go down in value or will be stable in the near to medium future. Othwrwise , you're making a big investment mistake because you could just as easily spend dollars with their relatively stable value. Every time someone actually "spends" a bitcoin he makes this investment decision.... One that isn't made with conventional currencies.
August 25th, 2017 at 5:40 PM ^
Point taken, but there are, and have been, many countries where citizens make that "investment decision" every day with their fiat currencies. People made those decisions in the USA in the 1930s. It's still early in the game.
August 25th, 2017 at 5:47 PM ^
happen to be in a country that as unstable as our county is, has a very stable currency. I have a hunch if the USD were no longer the reserve currency, the answer wouldn't be BTC, or Gold, it would be that we are all in deep. s....
all money regardless of what form (gold, cash, credit) is based on trust. if the most trrusted currency fails then people would default trust another; they won't trust anything. This is EXACTLY how bank runs happen. bank X failed, so bank Y must also be bad even if its not
August 25th, 2017 at 6:34 PM ^
especially concering trust/bank runs. The Brexit vote plunged the Britsh Pound to lows not seen since the '08 financial crisis. It still hasn't recovered. Every time a Eurozone country has debt issues (Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain) the euro swings with volitility. Bank runs in Greece were frightening enough then add to the equation the many other countres supported by the Euro. It's sobering to think that when one country sneezes, the rest of the eurozone (and world) could get the flu.
August 25th, 2017 at 4:23 PM ^
Yep.
Bitcoin - I pulled $1700 winnings out of my online poker account back in January and used bitcoin to do it. I couldn't exchange it for $$ fast enough as it is/was so volatile. The price then was around $1,000 per bitcoin, now over $4,000. Oops.
Ethereum - I decided to fuck around a bit and bought $500 in Ethereum on July 24th. that got me 2.2 Ethereum. at around $227 per. The price is now at $328 and that $500 is now at $718. I plan to let this ride for a long time, or until it hits $1,000,000. Whichever happens first.
August 25th, 2017 at 4:23 PM ^
August 25th, 2017 at 6:55 PM ^
August 25th, 2017 at 11:12 PM ^
And people made a lot of money investing in apple, amazon, and facebook.
August 25th, 2017 at 4:26 PM ^
In fact I just started getting into crypto over the last month. I have some Bitcoin but mostly Ethereum. I'm wanting to also invest in Lisk as well, as it's the ETH equivalent for javascript. Also looking into Siacoin and Golem - both super super cheap right now
You MUST add Ethereum
I think it's funny how many people bash cryptocurrency. My father in law thinks only criminals use bitcoin. UGH! Bitcoin is being accepted at hundreds of normal retail places now. I think it has a big place in the marketplace of the future and this is a great time to get in on it early.
I don't have a developer's background and may not understand the ins and outs of each coin and network, but I research as much as I can and I know numbers and to see these kinds of gains out of Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and others is just crazy. Yes it is HIGHLY volatile (A few days ago, Bitcoin dropped down from $4,200 to $3,700 and is now back up above $4,300) so don't put money in that you cannot afford to lose!
OP is right, I almost bought Bitcoin 3 months ago when one Bitcoin was just over $1,000 and now it's trading at $4,300+