Author Topic: Bitcoin: An Interesting Case of a Classic Bubble?  (Read 74466 times)

arebelspy

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Re: Bitcoin: An Interesting Case of a Classic Bubble?
« Reply #200 on: April 06, 2015, 12:22:15 PM »
Apparently his goat can do advanced hash verification processes in his head, thus earning him bit coins.

Duh.
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Daley

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Re: Bitcoin: An Interesting Case of a Classic Bubble?
« Reply #201 on: April 06, 2015, 01:00:22 PM »
I'm embarrassed to say this but.... I don't get it :-(

That's okay, it's Snuffy Smith. When you refer to "punchlines" in legacy strips like that, it's done only in the most abstract as they ceased actually being coherent or funny some time around the Korean War.

I will admit that I did "get" the "joke", but I didn't want it.

Far too many sarcasm quotes there...
« Last Edit: April 06, 2015, 01:02:15 PM by I.P. Daley »

dsmexpat

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Re: Bitcoin: An Interesting Case of a Classic Bubble?
« Reply #202 on: April 06, 2015, 01:15:05 PM »
Since the thread has been resurrected by someone else, I no longer feel guilty about necroposting so I'm adding this...

Thoroughly stolen from Joshua Fruhlinger, The Comics Curmudgeon on March 30, 2015:
Quote
Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, 3/30/15



Hey, are you vaguely aware of bitcoin, the distributed cryptocurrency that very few people care about but the ones who do care about it care about it a lot and won’t shut up about it? Were you wondering when it would stop being a thing? Well, good news, it’s a punchline in Snuffy Smith, so I’m pretty sure it’s officially not a thing anymore.

I'm embarrassed to say this but.... I don't get it :-(
The goat literally bit the coins.

arebelspy

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Re: Bitcoin: An Interesting Case of a Classic Bubble?
« Reply #203 on: April 06, 2015, 01:17:30 PM »
Oh.  Snap!

That's actually funny.

And I feel dumb.  Thanks dsmexpat for the explanation!  :)
I am a former teacher who accumulated a bunch of real estate, retired at 29, spent some time traveling the world full time and am now settled with three kids.
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dsmexpat

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Re: Bitcoin: An Interesting Case of a Classic Bubble?
« Reply #204 on: April 06, 2015, 01:34:51 PM »
Bitcoin's bubble and implosion is fairly sad to the geek in me because they are conceptually very clever. They recreated cash online which doesn't sound like much until you try and think of your own solution to that which doesn't rely on a third party to hold an account owned by each of them and move deposited funds from one to the other. Instead a token of nominal value mutually agreed upon by the two parties can be exchanged directly from the one to the other without involving any outside authority, with no oversight, securely. It's a really clever solution to a very difficult problem.

The degree to which we needed cash online in the increasingly cashless economy is questionable and the huge fluctuations in value caused by speculation have rendered it useless as a means of exchange but it's still a cool solution to an interesting problem. I always get frustrated when people, particularly older people, view something like gold, which is priced far above its industrial uses would suggest, as a rational token for exchange and yet panic at the idea that the US government isn't backing up the value of bitcoin. The value of gold is an ongoing greater fool theory, people are happy to buy gold at a price far above the utility they expect to get from it because they are confident that if they had to they could find someone at least as stupid as themselves to take the gold off their hands for an equal or higher price. The difference between bitcoin and gold, if we ignore the marginal industrial utility of gold which bears very little relation to the price at which it is exchanged, is that bitcoin has a smaller supply of fools.

tooqk4u22

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Re: Bitcoin: An Interesting Case of a Classic Bubble?
« Reply #205 on: April 06, 2015, 01:49:41 PM »
The difference between bitcoin and gold, if we ignore the marginal industrial utility of gold which bears very little relation to the price at which it is exchanged, is that bitcoin has a smaller supply of fools.

Gold did spend several thousands of years building its base of said fools....

shotgunwilly

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Re: Bitcoin: An Interesting Case of a Classic Bubble?
« Reply #206 on: April 06, 2015, 03:03:30 PM »
The difference between bitcoin and gold, if we ignore the marginal industrial utility of gold which bears very little relation to the price at which it is exchanged, is that bitcoin has a smaller supply of fools.

But.... It shiny!

scottish

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Re: Bitcoin: An Interesting Case of a Classic Bubble?
« Reply #207 on: April 06, 2015, 05:38:45 PM »
And corrosion resistant.

Spork

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Re: Bitcoin: An Interesting Case of a Classic Bubble?
« Reply #208 on: April 06, 2015, 06:21:01 PM »
and not so abstract...  You can see it and touch it.

And it won't evaporate if your hard disk crashes or if another crypto currency pops up.  Yes, you have other precious metals that might be perceived as "better" ... but they are not as likely to absolutely replace it. 

dragoncar

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Re: Bitcoin: An Interesting Case of a Classic Bubble?
« Reply #209 on: April 07, 2015, 06:44:15 AM »
Since the thread has been resurrected by someone else, I no longer feel guilty about necroposting so I'm adding this...

Thoroughly stolen from Joshua Fruhlinger, The Comics Curmudgeon on March 30, 2015:
Quote
Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, 3/30/15



Hey, are you vaguely aware of bitcoin, the distributed cryptocurrency that very few people care about but the ones who do care about it care about it a lot and won’t shut up about it? Were you wondering when it would stop being a thing? Well, good news, it’s a punchline in Snuffy Smith, so I’m pretty sure it’s officially not a thing anymore.

I'm embarrassed to say this but.... I don't get it :-(
The goat literally bit the coins.

LOL... they looked like hearts to me.

GU

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Re: Bitcoin: An Interesting Case of a Classic Bubble?
« Reply #210 on: March 01, 2017, 02:47:27 PM »
Bitcoin is at $1,200 today.  I agree that purchasing Bitcoin should be classified as speculation, not investment.  But I do think there is some value for already wealthy people to hold Bitcoins as a hedge against inflation and/or the U.S. hitting a rough patch.  Wouldn't ever make it a big part of my portfolio though.  The cocky dismissal of Bitcoin in this thread seems a bit misplaced. 

p.s. in case you're wondering why I'm commenting on this old thread, I came about doing a search for "bitcoin" because I was curious if any MMM posters had discussed it.

Cassie

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Re: Bitcoin: An Interesting Case of a Classic Bubble?
« Reply #211 on: March 01, 2017, 04:18:50 PM »
I took a lot of crap in this thread if I am remembering correctly about Bitcoin and we sold some of it off a while back. WE are super happy that we held some as did my son and DIL. We don't intend to sell until it is much higher. Not a huge amount of our $ but enough to make us happy.

jim555

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Re: Bitcoin: An Interesting Case of a Classic Bubble?
« Reply #212 on: March 01, 2017, 04:20:41 PM »
I remember looking at it when it was $13.  Couldn't figure out how to buy it.

Cassie

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Re: Bitcoin: An Interesting Case of a Classic Bubble?
« Reply #213 on: March 01, 2017, 04:26:23 PM »
My son did everything for us all since he was really into it and mined for a long time.  We didn't buy the bitcoin but earned it mining a bunch of different coins.

trollwithamustache

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Re: Bitcoin: An Interesting Case of a Classic Bubble?
« Reply #214 on: March 01, 2017, 04:35:23 PM »
How likely do you guys think it is the SEC approves the Bitcoin ETF? I'm considering taking advantage of the price spike to sell mining equipment but holding the Bitcoin.  If the ETF happens, I could see bitcoin going  a lot higher, if it doesn't happen, I'd happily hold the bitcoin as its usage and popularity keep growing.

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Re: Bitcoin: An Interesting Case of a Classic Bubble?
« Reply #215 on: March 01, 2017, 04:41:11 PM »
We sold all of our equipment.  My son thinks it will happen.

Syonyk

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Re: Bitcoin: An Interesting Case of a Classic Bubble?
« Reply #216 on: March 01, 2017, 05:12:19 PM »
But I do think there is some value for already wealthy people to hold Bitcoins as a hedge against inflation and/or the U.S. hitting a rough patch.  Wouldn't ever make it a big part of my portfolio though.

That's about where I am.  I hold some of what I mined as a long term hedge against USD collapse.

I'm considering taking advantage of the price spike to sell mining equipment but holding the Bitcoin.

I made most of my bitcoin money selling mining equipment.  It's a nice niche if you can find a good supply.

gp_

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Re: Bitcoin: An Interesting Case of a Classic Bubble?
« Reply #217 on: March 02, 2017, 07:23:14 AM »
How likely do you guys think it is the SEC approves the Bitcoin ETF? I'm considering taking advantage of the price spike to sell mining equipment but holding the Bitcoin.  If the ETF happens, I could see bitcoin going  a lot higher, if it doesn't happen, I'd happily hold the bitcoin as its usage and popularity keep growing.

i read that the likelihood of the ETF being approved is 30% - that was about a month ago. i would definitely sell your mining equipment now as it's no longer cost effective. HOWEVER, if you're able to mine ETH (ethereum) with it, i'd suggest doing that. ETH is bitcoin's biggest rival and their business model is geared towards smart contracts and business (if you didn't know). the price is up like 90% in 1 month... wish i bought more last year.

UPDATE: just read the likelihood from another source is pegged at 40% (an ETF investment group). another group analyst said if the ETF was approved, the price of 1 bitcoin could go to $3,300. this was calculated by an estimated $300M in new funds going into an ETF. fingers crossed.
« Last Edit: March 02, 2017, 07:49:13 AM by gp_ »

trollwithamustache

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Re: Bitcoin: An Interesting Case of a Classic Bubble?
« Reply #218 on: March 02, 2017, 08:15:02 AM »
Thanks all for the equipment comments.

The 3k and higher Bitcoin prices strike me as a bit optimistic. My understanding is the Winklevie already have the first chunk of Bitcoin stashes somewhere to put in the ETF when it IPOs. So, the initial fund will not actually be buying Bitcoins out of the market. If the fund is successful and the fund needs to create new shares, then yes it will start to buy Bitcoins steadily and price should go up. This could take months or years.

And of course requires the SEC approval not yet obtained!

gp_

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Re: Bitcoin: An Interesting Case of a Classic Bubble?
« Reply #219 on: March 02, 2017, 09:18:34 AM »
Thanks all for the equipment comments.

The 3k and higher Bitcoin prices strike me as a bit optimistic. My understanding is the Winklevie already have the first chunk of Bitcoin stashes somewhere to put in the ETF when it IPOs. So, the initial fund will not actually be buying Bitcoins out of the market. If the fund is successful and the fund needs to create new shares, then yes it will start to buy Bitcoins steadily and price should go up. This could take months or years.

And of course requires the SEC approval not yet obtained!

yup, i realize everything hinges on SEC approval, let's hope a fund is approved. i too think 3k+ is a bit optimistic, just reiterating what 1 analyst said. it's a very exciting time for bitcoin! do you hold any ETH?

trollwithamustache

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Re: Bitcoin: An Interesting Case of a Classic Bubble?
« Reply #220 on: March 02, 2017, 11:30:00 AM »
I've looked at ETH and in principle I like the smart contracts ideas. As a nutty enough libertarian to actually pay party dues, I love the idea of being able to do private transactions without the bank being involved and the market developing the security we need for large economic transactions this way. But in practice I'm leery about any currency that goes through a fork.  None of these digital currencies really have real world widespread acceptance, so loosing users seems like a huge problem.  Given how close bitcoin is to a real ETF, you just can't compare ETH to that in terms of mainstream acceptance and ease of mainstream buy in. I mean, my dad could buy a hundred shares of a bitcoin ETF. He's pretty sporty with investments sometimes, so he might actually do it.  ETH, no way.

There is a very real risk that this is a dutch tulip type bubble right? A real currency is always worth something as a minimum because your government says you can pay your tax obligations with it.  BTC and ETH are just tables of numbers sitting on someone else's server. hmm, maybe I should stop poking fun of the guys at work in the lottery pool looking for lucky numbers!

bacchi

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Re: Bitcoin: An Interesting Case of a Classic Bubble?
« Reply #221 on: March 02, 2017, 12:08:41 PM »
Bitcoin's bubble and implosion is fairly sad to the geek in me because they are conceptually very clever. They recreated cash online which doesn't sound like much until you try and think of your own solution to that which doesn't rely on a third party to hold an account owned by each of them and move deposited funds from one to the other. Instead a token of nominal value mutually agreed upon by the two parties can be exchanged directly from the one to the other without involving any outside authority, with no oversight, securely. It's a really clever solution to a very difficult problem.

The underlying software is open source: https://intelledger.github.io/introduction.html

A distributed ledger system is very cool.

Quote
While Bitcoin is the most popular distributed ledger, the technology has been proposed for many different applications ranging from international remittance, insurance claim processing, supply chain management and the Internet of Things (IoT).

gp_

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Re: Bitcoin: An Interesting Case of a Classic Bubble?
« Reply #222 on: March 02, 2017, 04:47:01 PM »
I've looked at ETH and in principle I like the smart contracts ideas. As a nutty enough libertarian to actually pay party dues, I love the idea of being able to do private transactions without the bank being involved and the market developing the security we need for large economic transactions this way. But in practice I'm leery about any currency that goes through a fork.  None of these digital currencies really have real world widespread acceptance, so loosing users seems like a huge problem.  Given how close bitcoin is to a real ETF, you just can't compare ETH to that in terms of mainstream acceptance and ease of mainstream buy in. I mean, my dad could buy a hundred shares of a bitcoin ETF. He's pretty sporty with investments sometimes, so he might actually do it.  ETH, no way.

There is a very real risk that this is a dutch tulip type bubble right? A real currency is always worth something as a minimum because your government says you can pay your tax obligations with it.  BTC and ETH are just tables of numbers sitting on someone else's server. hmm, maybe I should stop poking fun of the guys at work in the lottery pool looking for lucky numbers!

bitcoin isn't immune to an intentional/unintentional consensus fork. the thing with consensus forks is that a significant owner(s) are the ones with the voting power (no different than with fiat currencies, haha). it's rumored the winklevoss' own 1% of all bitcoin in circulation. part of me believes it.

ethereum is gaining so much traction it's unreal. everyone from microsoft to chase are now building enterprise versions / applications on the ethereum blockchain. in terms of a cryptocurrency used for a unit of exchange between you and i, bitcoin (and some others), seem like a more reasonable route than ethereum, however i suspect ethereum will be the go-to facilitator of financial transactions in the future (optimist). i hold ethereum strictly as an investment and bought awhile ago. i would definitely still buy at the current price, as it's price isn't astronomical.

Aggie1999

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Re: Bitcoin: An Interesting Case of a Classic Bubble?
« Reply #223 on: March 02, 2017, 08:33:52 PM »
I remember looking at it when it was $13.  Couldn't figure out how to buy it.

I remember selling 100's of BTC when it was anywhere from a couple dollars to 30 dollars. :(

Syonyk

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Re: Bitcoin: An Interesting Case of a Classic Bubble?
« Reply #224 on: March 02, 2017, 08:36:19 PM »
*shrug* I sold an awful lot around $100.  In retrospect, I wouldn't do anything different.  I cashed out of bitcoin into other wealth stores as I mined, made a lot of money selling mining hardware, and held some as a long term hedge.  Regardless of Bitcoin going to $1000 or going to $0, I'd extracted useful wealth from my involvement.

OthalaFehu

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Re: Bitcoin: An Interesting Case of a Classic Bubble?
« Reply #225 on: March 02, 2017, 09:30:34 PM »
I think the problem is that bitcoins are still too far ahead of their time. Still I wish I would have made a nice safe play in the beginning.

accolay

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Re: Bitcoin: An Interesting Case of a Classic Bubble?
« Reply #226 on: March 03, 2017, 12:36:38 AM »
Reminds me when I was in the Middle East in 2003/2004 timeframe, some people were buying shitloads of Iraqi currency... like thousands of US dollars worth.

cerat0n1a

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Re: Bitcoin: An Interesting Case of a Classic Bubble?
« Reply #227 on: March 03, 2017, 01:29:53 AM »
My son did everything for us all since he was really into it and mined for a long time.  We didn't buy the bitcoin but earned it mining a bunch of different coins.

Yep, my teenage sons mined a lot of bitcoin, a few years back. Cue a lesson from dad about bubbles, speculation and why they should sell now and consider themselves lucky. I get reminded about it less often now, maybe only once a month ;-)

Syonyk

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Re: Bitcoin: An Interesting Case of a Classic Bubble?
« Reply #228 on: May 08, 2017, 09:21:39 PM »
So, uh... there went the $1700 mark.

seattlecyclone

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Re: Bitcoin: An Interesting Case of a Classic Bubble?
« Reply #229 on: May 08, 2017, 11:26:33 PM »
Wow, and those XRPs I thought were almost worthless are not quite so worthless anymore. Let's see if I remember my password...

Syonyk

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Re: Bitcoin: An Interesting Case of a Classic Bubble?
« Reply #230 on: May 08, 2017, 11:37:31 PM »
Good luck!

In any case, I can't say that was expected from the $400-ish a year ago.  Supposedly Japan is related?  The joys (and curses) of a commodity with a very small market cap, I suppose.

seattlecyclone

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Re: Bitcoin: An Interesting Case of a Classic Bubble?
« Reply #231 on: May 16, 2017, 10:39:58 AM »
Yes, I did remember my password, and the XRP continues its surge in value. It had been pretty flat for about two years, ranging from half a penny to a full penny, rarely outside that range and not by much. But since the beginning of April it has gone crazy, and is now trading at $0.325 according to coinmarketcap.com.

Can anyone who has been following this stuff more closely offer an explanation? Are big banks seriously starting to adopt this particular network?

Cassie

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Re: Bitcoin: An Interesting Case of a Classic Bubble?
« Reply #232 on: May 16, 2017, 02:52:29 PM »
A year ago we all sold some of ours and made $. However, we each held onto some and don't plan to sell until it is at least 10k/coin.  Nothing to lose and everything to gain since we bought cheap.

gp_

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Re: Bitcoin: An Interesting Case of a Classic Bubble?
« Reply #233 on: May 17, 2017, 07:38:44 AM »
Yes, I did remember my password, and the XRP continues its surge in value. It had been pretty flat for about two years, ranging from half a penny to a full penny, rarely outside that range and not by much. But since the beginning of April it has gone crazy, and is now trading at $0.325 according to coinmarketcap.com.

Can anyone who has been following this stuff more closely offer an explanation? Are big banks seriously starting to adopt this particular network?

yes, banks are adopting ripple's RCL.

recently, this is what I believe is attributing to xrp's rise

- ripple just confirmed a 55B xrp lock up using a middle-man free RCL escrow feature. this should enable market trust.
- ripple just demo'd the first eth-to-xrp interledger escrow payment (huge deal)
- many foreign exchanges recently added xrp
- fomo from missing the boat on bitcoin
- people "buying the rumor"

consensus 2017 is in 4 days (blockchain summit). ripple is demo'ing / unveiling something the world has never seen before.

exciting!