The Crypto coin thread

[Rob D]

Just sticking this up to 'share the love' really....

 

I heard about Bitcoin a couple of years ago but only just started trading and learning about crypto currency the last few months. Bear in mind I have done a good 3 months of reading online, watching videos, trading - it is a MASSIVE subject that still the large majority know nothing about. And I have only scratched the surface...

 

But this will be bigger than the internet, bigger than mobile phones... (IMO ) - possibly the biggest 'thing' there has ever been...

 

Bitcoin has been out since 2009 - and already it is starting to show it's age. If you think about chainsaws and how they have developed over the years, none of us are using the first chainsaws ever produced... and same with cryptos - new and dynamic ones are being launched all the time. But I'm sure the very first chainsaw would have a large price tag - it just wouldn't be that useful these days..

 

For the conspiracy folk on here crypto currency was designed to take power away from government and banks and put it back into yours and my hands. But since then it is starting to literally explode with new possibilities..

 

At the moment the crypto currency world is something of an unregulated wild west but that will change and (because of the internet) it will change rapidly. Next year will start to see the start of practical adoption of these crypto coins. At the moment it's more just about the coins themselves being traded.

 

So what? What are you telling us for - I'll learn about them when they become mainstream...

 

I suppose there is no one answer to that - maybe start looking into it all and make your own mind up. I would not pay too much mind to the 'yeh that Bitcoin is a scam innit' 'criminals use Bitcoin though so it must be bad' 'etc etc etc.

 

The more I find out the more mind blowing the possibilites and implications on how we will live in the future are. Plus if you do your research well and properly you can also make a few quid out of it.

 

 

Hence thought I'd start a crypto thread

 

PS and you never know someone out there may have got paid in Bitcoin a few years ago , forgotten about it, and this may jog their memory!!

 

 

 

 

[Will Heal]

I traded on trading 212 for a couple of months
I used the £10000 demo account to start with, can’t remember whether I made or lost with it, but then opened a real account with £200 of my own real money. I made £150 in the first two days trading bitcoin but then it dipped, I lost my nerve and closed my account having made a £15 loss.
It’s shot up since! If I’d have held on to it I might have been rich by now[emoji23]
Unlike rob I didn’t do months of research and don’t really understand it. So I’m out

[Burgess]

I bought 10 bitcoins back in 2011 when it  was like $2.50 each and sold them about a year later for 10... My brother did something similar (he being the one encouraging me to get some) but I think he had about 150.

 

Not that bitcoin isnt a huge bubble They're worth about 11k dollars now though...

Edited December 1, 2017 by Burgess

[tony_t3d]

I work with a lad who trades in this stuff, he tries to explain it but it all sounds like witchcraft to me.

I'm sure there is money to be made but for the likes of me who Isn't tech savy in the slightest im too wary to try.

[Mick Dempsey]

Bloke who worked/works occasionally for me trades in BC and some other currency, I’m interested, but too stupid to really “get it”

 

If you were to explain it Rob, there’s a few on here who would be grateful.

[Woodworks]

This put me off https://interestingengineering.com/a-single-bitcoin-transaction-now-consumes-as-much-electricity-as-your-house-does-in-a-week

 

Nephew works in internet security and recommended I give it a wide birth. On the other hand  my sister in law will have made a small fortune if price stays high or goes higher.

[dan494]

I've looked into is and it seems like a worldwide pyramid scheme. Everywhere you look people are banging on about how much you'll make. How whatever you buy now will be worth double before long.. sound familiar?

This stuff has no value beyond convincing they next guy you sell it to that its worth more than you paid for it because it'll be worth even more in the future. If you took that sales point away would anyone buy any? IOt reminds me of the dot com boom in the 90s, people investing in websites that don't generate a profit an then losing the lot when it goes south..

I read an interesting article about john f kennedys dad, who just before the great depression, noticed everyone spending too much on stocks that had little value and everyone becoming an expert all of a sudden, so sold the lot and escaped the crash.

http://www.exploringmarkets.com/2014/11/how-joe-kennedy-avoided-stock-market.html

[tree-fancier123]

46 minutes ago, dan494 said:

I've looked into is and it seems like a worldwide pyramid scheme

so  a computer farm wired up to the mains and the net can use its processing power to run mathematical software that slowly churns out new bitcoins - these bitcoin 'mining' operations ruin it for me - its not like real mining where there is only so much metal in the ground, theoretically unlimited number of computers can be made to 'mine' new bitcoins, the demand may increase further with media hype, but so can the supply.

47 minutes ago, dan494 said:

reminds me of the dot com boom in the 90s

an early purchase of Amazon, Google or Ebay would have been nice, needle in a haystack, as you say nearly all were lossmaking and most of the companies shares went to zero. Like with anything if it is a real winner the temptation to sell the lot when its gone up a bit prevents people from hitting a home run. I can imaging what with  how volatile bitcoin is if Id bought £100 worth at say $50 each I'd have sold the lot  way before it  ever hit $1000, people buying now to get the same bonanza only need bitcoin to get to $200000 each, maybe one bitcoin will soon be worth a cool million

[Rob D]

Yep well you're right there are now pyramid type selling schemes getting involved with Bitcoin and yes it has now become an industrial process to mine them almost like mining for gold and other minerals. Hence if you ever think of getting involved do your research first...

 

 

 

 

Few points though - what makes you £ or $ note worth anything? It is simply a bit of paper or numbers in your bank account - but you believe in it right? Those pound notes have zero value other than convincing the next guy that they are worth something... but because the next guy does think those bits of paper are worth something they will take them.

 

Bitcoin - there are a limited finite number ($21 million) - that is in stone - you can't replicate them, you can't copy them, you cannot hack them. There an only be a maximum number. No one controls Bitcoin. No one owns bitcoin apart from you if you have some.

 

 

 

Money we use now - you can replicate it, some copy it, you can print more if you want to. The more you compare the two the more you see that the £s we use and spend now have less value and less meaning than Bitcoin! (Am NOT saying we don't need £ - am saying if you believe that £ notes have a value then Bitcoin and the like have more reasons to have value.

 

Bitcoin - you can send bitcoin to anyone anywhere in the world with access to the internet. There is NO INTERMEDIARY - no middle man, it is secure. Currency - there is one bitcoin not different types of bitcoin in different countries (like $,Yen,Euros) - it is universal.

 

Money - you can only send it to other people in the world that have a bank account. There is a middle man taking a commission.

[Rob D]

4 minutes ago, tree-fancier123 said:

so  a computer farm wired up to the mains and the net can use its processing power to run mathematical software that slowly churns out new bitcoins - these bitcoin 'mining' operations ruin it for me - its not like real mining where there is only so much metal in the ground, theoretically unlimited number of computers can be made to 'mine' new bitcoins, the demand may increase further with media hype, but so can the supply.

 

Nope! - it is EXACTLY like gold - there is a finite number of Bitcoin - and each year it gets harder and harder to mine it and less and less is mined until 2040 when it will be unable to be mined.

 

It is impossible to increase this figure.