Official cryptocurrency thread (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Altcoin)

[GreekStein]

For me with Bitcoin I think there's two viable options.

1) short term buying and selling based on inside news, articles, whispers, patterns, buying when dipping and selling when rocketing

2) put 5-25% of your net worth in and just let it be and hopefully be rich

I see so many people with let's say less than 10 bitcoins who are just thinking and reading and chatting all day about it and spending infinite time on it.

If you're fully invested, like 50%+ I get it.

Why would you invest like 50%+ without doing all the reading, researching and talking that you described formerly? That's how I started I guess. Invested a bit as a punt. Saw some crazy returns, read and talked a bit and decided to invest more.

[EvilPie]

Honestly, Evilpie your ideas on cryptocurrency are amazingly off base. It seems like you have absolutely no understanding in this area at all. Why wouldn't you bother to read something before posting? Its really off putting to be relatively happy to discuss something only to have someone with zero knowledge just shout ponzi before you. Its not that your even necessarily that wrong, lots of the smaller coins are revived projects from the last boom which bring little economic or technological value and are just desperately trying to jump on the train. They are also probably worth about 2% total of the overall space.

Tell me what it's actually for then? It seems to have huge potential for buying and selling goods across different currencies. I can see how incredible that is of course I can and in that case it could and probably should be the future.

Unfortunately all I seem to read about is people buying them purely in the hope that the value will go up and they can make a killing selling them. By doing this aren't they discouraging the real 'purpose' of bitcoin by making it seem more like a commodity than a currency?

How much bitcoin is used for actually purchasing stuff as opposed to being trading purely to make money? Are those figures out there?

Don't get me wrong I understand that all currencies are trading massively and this is no different. I'm just trying to understand bitcoin specifically.

Oh and by the way I referred to Ponzi a bit tongue in cheek. I know (think) this isn't a Ponzi scheme but the way some people push it doesn't half make it do a bloody good impression

[TightEnd]

What will the value of bitcoin be on 12/31/17?

$3,001 or more  -150
$2,001 to $3K  +115
$1K to $2K  +660
$1K or less  +1700

prices from @bookmaker_eu

[booder]

What will the value of bitcoin be on 31/12/17?

$3,001 or more  -150
$2,001 to $3K  +115
$1K to $2K  +660
$1K or less  +1700

prices from @bookmaker_eu

FYP

[GreekStein]

What will the value of bitcoin be on 12/31/17?

$3,001 or more  -150
$2,001 to $3K  +115
$1K to $2K  +660
$1K or less  +1700

prices from @bookmaker_eu

What are the max bets on those?

[youthnkzR]

Hey guys, wheres the best place to get some btc from... looking to buy a few altcoins on friends recommendations for a punt... maxed the card limits on coinbase and coinmama fees seem ridiculous (as you can tell im a total noob to all this) but lets have go anyway 

[lucky_scrote]

The multiple different coins thing is definitely where it's all getting a bit weird. Without knowing a lot about the possibilities of the technology will make it seem pointless since most people who aren't involved think that bitcoin and crypto is just all about currencies and spending money, hence why it would seem daft to have so many different currencies.

The reason why there are multiple different coins is because different coins have different technologies. Some coins are created to counter problems that other coins have stumbled across, what often happens though is that you just have a lot of coins that have lots of problems. Some of them are outright scams too, just people trying to cash in, these are usually labelled shitcoins.

I can imagine in the future, say 10 years, there are only 3 or 4 different coins. I strongly suspect bitcoin will be one of them, but as for the others who knows.

Another negative thing about this craze is the amount of nonsense and lack of knowledge floating about. I know next to nothing compared to some people, but most people just read whatever they want to read and go with that. I think poker players have a great advantage of separating the emotional attachment of money and trying to make good decisions, but even then I find myself making rash decisions (I have dived into new coins without knowing about them, getting too excited and suffering with FOMO (fear of missing out). There is definitely going to be some crazy variance in the markets short term, the next 6 weeks could be really sickening.

One thing I am very confident of is that it is not a bubble. We are all people that use message boards and frequent the internet so we are seeing a lot more of this crypto hype. A lot of poker players are also involved meaning most people on this forum are going to have heard people talking about it. The amount of money being invested into crypto and the amount of new users is growing very very rapidly. Whereas the userbase in crypto has been rising exponentially in the past 3 months, the prices have not. Bubbles often occur when the opposite is true.

[lucky_scrote]

Yes but what happens now if someone hacks my HSBC account and transfers 10k to a named account?  HSBC refund me but presumably they go after the named person who did it?

This is definitely where having regulation is an advantage. If you get money stolen from you (providing you weren't incredibly negligent) then you get it back.  Banks and 3rd parties like visa have to make their money by charging the consumer though, so the consumer pays overall for this, and it's the most careless that get stung on average. I think I've been done for 50 quid at a petrol station before because the owners of the garage had a fake pin thingy set up, but you aren't going to get me by sending me a phishing link. Still, I am not really putting up a good argument here, and I think that this is something that will take some work for a lot of people to get into cryptoland because of the apparent higher risk and lack of regulation.

BTW to answer a previous post about BTC being stolen and it being considered property because you have to pay capital gains on it- you have to pay taxes if you cash out back to a "real" currency and make profit on it. I think legally crypto is considered just lots of 0's and 1's at the moment. Don't quote me on that!

[lucky_scrote]

For me with Bitcoin I think there's two viable options.

1) short term buying and selling based on inside news, articles, whispers, patterns, buying when dipping and selling when rocketing

2) put 5-25% of your net worth in and just let it be and hopefully be rich

I see so many people with let's say less than 10 bitcoins who are just thinking and reading and chatting all day about it and spending infinite time on it.

If you're fully invested, like 50%+ I get it.

I don't mass ivory believe in Bitcoin or overly doubt it, I don't even read too much about it. I think the way I see the world changing over the last 5 years or so and how politics is changing both in Britain and internationally is that people don't believe in governments, they don't trust banks. The new generation are very tech/computer savvy and people like to follow things that are fashionable. Every year there is more people working freelance and people are more than ever reliant on using things that are easy. People don't like having to call banks to give passwords or codes or wait 15 minutes to verify transfers and people don't like paying fees/vigs. In Eastern European companies like Hungary you will be surprised at how difficult it is to transfer money to another bank internationally without the government getting involved and without spending 30 minutes explaining the transfer or verifying it's actually you. Countries like Greece have very little faith in their banks and government.

All above to me makes very logical sense why a crypto currency will be successful.

The biggest thing Crpyto has taught people is variance and dealing with swings. I have a friend in Vegas and on his app (blockfolio) he has all his Crpytos set up how much he has etc and it shows you your wallets worth, he has around $2m in it and every day his app shows him winning/losing between 10-50k (sometimes more Ofc) somebody who successfully manages to make good decisions with crpyto will likely be able to be very successful in lots of other things in future.

I don't think there is a set way on how much people should invest. I always say to only invest what you're prepared to lose. I was lucky that I had some smart friends that I could rely on tell me what to do, then I spent the next few months reading up as much as I could. I don't have 50% of my net worth in it but I find it all very interesting and I have the time to take in as much information as possible.

Short term and crypto is mighty tough at the moment, especially since a lot of the exchanges crash when crypto starts to freefall. I wouldn't recommend anyone to do it, and people that do trade short term and make a killing certainly wouldn't be posting on the internet about it .

Your friend with 2m in crypto must be a very good friend and trust you not to tell anyone who he is, because anyone that exposes themselves as being super rich in crypto are putting themselves at risk, it's not quite like walking down the street with 2m in your pocket but you make yourself a target to hackers. People have spent a lot more time and effort going for a lot less! Unlike poker people in crypto are a lot more humble and hush hush . BTW there would have been two occasions in the past 4 weeks where your friend would have lost up to 500k in a day depending how his portfolio is spread. :O

[lucky_scrote]

Tell me what it's actually for then? It seems to have huge potential for buying and selling goods across different currencies. I can see how incredible that is of course I can and in that case it could and probably should be the future.

How much bitcoin is used for actually purchasing stuff as opposed to being trading purely to make money? Are those figures out there?

It's a lot more than just buying and selling across different currencies and countries. That is definitely one of the perks though.

I would imagine that the amount being traded massively outweighs money being spent. Hardly any vendors accept bitcoin currently and the cost of small transactions is extortionate. If a day comes where vendors accept it like they do visa currently then the price will be huge. There will be some challenges to get this far, but the day will come.

[lucky_scrote]

Hey guys, wheres the best place to get some btc from... looking to buy a few altcoins on friends recommendations for a punt... maxed the card limits on coinbase and coinmama fees seem ridiculous (as you can tell im a total noob to all this) but lets have go anyway 

I can direct you towards a company if you have a euro account but that's all I can offer. I know kraken is another popular exchange for Europeans but when I last looked on there I wasn't sure if they were accepting GBP anymore.

[youthnkzR]

Hey guys, wheres the best place to get some btc from... looking to buy a few altcoins on friends recommendations for a punt... maxed the card limits on coinbase and coinmama fees seem ridiculous (as you can tell im a total noob to all this) but lets have go anyway 

I can direct you towards a company if you have a euro account but that's all I can offer. I know kraken is another popular exchange for Europeans but when I last looked on there I wasn't sure if they were accepting GBP anymore.

Ahh I've sorted it thanks mate

[titaniumbean]

https://uetoken.com   

[StuartHopkin]

these are usually labelled shitcoins

Amazing!

[EvilPie]

Tell me what it's actually for then? It seems to have huge potential for buying and selling goods across different currencies. I can see how incredible that is of course I can and in that case it could and probably should be the future.

How much bitcoin is used for actually purchasing stuff as opposed to being trading purely to make money? Are those figures out there?

It's a lot more than just buying and selling across different currencies and countries. That is definitely one of the perks though.

I would imagine that the amount being traded massively outweighs money being spent. Hardly any vendors accept bitcoin currently and the cost of small transactions is extortionate. If a day comes where vendors accept it like they do visa currently then the price will be huge. There will be some challenges to get this far, but the day will come.

Isn't it more likely that VISA will just develop their own version of crypto currency/blockchain and with their globally known and trusted brand just eclipse the market? Could they just be letting bitcoin and shitcoin run all the beta testing before buying one of them for billions and making it their own?

A lot of what I've watched talks about how amazing the instant transactions are and how much better it is than cash. I don't remember last time I had to make a UK based transaction that wasn't instant. Credit cards are now contactless and it's just a beep and you're done. Were some of these videos perhaps made in the early days of bitcoin when instant transactions were a bit more difficult?