Official cryptocurrency thread (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Altcoin)

[Jon MW]

I wonder how many people who bought these when they were really cheap, say $100 still hold them now?

I know they've soared in value but surely most people get out when they 10x their initial investment?
 

Not quite that but my boss knows someone who bought 6 at $200 and they're still not considering selling them. Not quite sure what their end game or exit strategy might be.

[rinswun]

I wonder how many people who bought these when they were really cheap, say $100 still hold them now?

I know they've soared in value but surely most people get out when they 10x their initial investment?
 

I've got a mate who had two at 100 quid each, and another who had eight even earlier, who are both pretty gutted atm.

Not to outdo you but one of my friends used to be a bit of a party boy and regularly used Silk Road back in 2010/11. He recently worked out that he'd put the equivalent to $2mm up his nose! If that isn't a 'don't do drugs kids' tale, I'm not sure what is!

[DropTheHammer]

Wonder how many silk-road drug dealers are sitting in prison praying that the bubble doesn't burst before they can get out and sell their Bitcoins...

[tikay]

Bitcoin's rapid gains mean that twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, founders of the Gemini digital currency exchange, are likely the first well-known bitcoin billionaires. The twins together had $11 million in bitcoin at $120 a coin in April 2013. With bitcoin above $11,700, that holding is now worth just over $1 billion.

[The Camel]

So I finally got round to doing some reading about this.

I understand how it works pretty much, but I still have next to no clue about:

1. Apart from to buy contraband, why would anyone want to use this form of currency above traditional methods?

2. Why is the value exploding so much? (assume this linked to point 1, if I knew why people wanted to use it, I'd understand why it's value is going up)

3. Can a virus on your computer wipe or steal your bitcoins?

[The Camel]

Another question.

Why don't one of the big internet companies, (Google, Amazon, EBay for example) set up their own cryptocurrency?

[TightEnd]

Bitcoin's market cap just passed Coca-Cola's.

Founded in 1886
4th most valuable brand in the world
123,000 employees
$42 billion in revenue
1.9 billion drinks/day consumed worldwide

[TightEnd]

“I may have missed the Bitcoin boat but new boats are coming and I want to hop on those,” said a 77-year-old Korean man

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/03/technology/virtual-currency-south-korea.html?smid=tw-nytimes&smtyp=cur

[tikay]

Bitcoin's market cap just passed Coca-Cola's.

Founded in 1886
4th most valuable brand in the world
123,000 employees
$42 billion in revenue
1.9 billion drinks/day consumed worldwide

That puts the whole thing in context.

It's really hard to get my head round all this. One is real, & the other, well I don't know what it is.

Not knocking those who are on the ride, good luck to you all, but it's really tough to make logical sense of. To me, anyway.

[Longines]

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC), one of the world’s largest accounting firms, has accepted its first ever bitcoin payment for its advisory services.

An ever-growing embrace of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology among its clients has seen PwC accept bitcoin as a payment in Hong Kong. According to a Wall Street Journal report, PwC in Hong Kong revealed it is working with a number of startups involved in bitcoin and the wider cryptocurrency industry, prompting the firm to accept the world’s most widely-known cryptocurrency. Notably, PwC also confirmed its advent into advising clients about crypto funds and investments, cryptocurrency exchanges and initial coin offerings –  a radical new form of fundraising powered by cryptocurrencies.

https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/big-4-accounting-giant-pwc-accepts-first-bitcoin-payment/

[TightEnd]

How the Winklevoss twins became the world’s first bitcoin billionaires

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/shortcuts/2017/dec/04/winklevoss-twins-bitcoin-billionaires-mark-zuckerberg?CMP=twt_gu

[SuperJez]

when's it gonna be worth £5k a coin? flittering around for weeks, I WANT FIVE KAYZ A COIN YO.

This worked before can you do it for ten k please thank you bye.

[DropTheHammer]

£10,000 then.

[DropTheHammer]

An interesting thing about bitcoin is that developers/communities fork the coin into their own version, if they're not happy with the vision/tech aims.

There's been about three main forks this year.

When it forks, you automatically get new coins, in the forked coin (related to your btc holdings).

This year, forks have provided this additional coin:
Bitcoin cash: £1,100
Bitcoin diamond: £320
Bitcoin gold: £220.

So 1btc has also provided £1600+ in forked coins.

[muckthenuts]

An interesting thing about bitcoin is that developers/communities fork the coin into their own version, if they're not happy with the vision/tech aims.

There's been about three main forks this year.

When it forks, you automatically get new coins, in the forked coin (related to your btc holdings).

This year, forks have provided this additional coin:
Bitcoin cash: £1,100
Bitcoin diamond: £320
Bitcoin gold: £220.

So 1btc has also provided £1600+ in forked coins.

How do you actually get the coins?