Official cryptocurrency thread (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Altcoin)

[SuperJez]

Absolute bloodbath.

[Marky147]

Could you chuck up some figures, Super Jez.

Mainly for fishcakes like me, that only follow the thread.

Thanks in advance

[SuperJez]

Most alt coins are around 90% down from their high points.  Doge coin seems to have done ok and held its own in comparison as does bitcoin cash but that's about it.

Ethereum (ETH) which is the second biggest crypto is down to £170 per token from a high of £1100.  It is at roughly the same price now as when this thread was started.  It's being absolutely pounded at the minute.  Down over 20% in the last 24 hours.

Bitcoin is down a lot as well at £5,000 from its high of £14,500.  It has however done significantly better than pretty much every other coin out there.  When this thread was started it was around £1500 a coin and people were screaming it was over valued at £2,000 per coin.  Even after this huge crash it is still way above those levels.

Personally I always thought most alt coins deserved to die but I am surprised at how far ETH has fallen.  Bitcoin will survive and flourish imo.  The greatest threat to bitcoin is another crypto overtaking it eventually.  Not at all surprised by dogecoin as it has such a huge following.  Glad I invested in that last year.

Have a look at www.coinmarketcap.com to see current figures and graphs for yourself.

[Marky147]

Hero <3

Thanks very much, that's great.

[lucky_scrote]

When I first stumbled across BTC and begun to understand it better I was sure it was massively undervalued. After the ATH back in December and the flash crash I was also very sure it was undervalued. The way I change my stance now is that I agree with whatever the price is day to day since that is completely out of control or explanation, yet I believe the price in years to come will continue to increase (dramatically). I would say that if and when there is the next hype run where people start to get excited with how hardware and software functionality become more user friendly, people have better understanding of what BTC stands for as well as the standpoint of countries and states on BTC, that we will see exponential growth.

Buy volume through brokers is increasing a lot in the last month and sell volume has grinded to a halt, yet I still believe the price won't move much month by month for the rest of the year. The last crash is still etched strongly into the back of too many peoples minds and they will sell as we see strong price movements in the green.

[acegooner]

When I first stumbled across BTC and begun to understand it better I was sure it was massively undervalued. After the ATH back in December and the flash crash I was also very sure it was undervalued. The way I change my stance now is that I agree with whatever the price is day to day since that is completely out of control or explanation, yet I believe the price in years to come will continue to increase (dramatically). I would say that if and when there is the next hype run where people start to get excited with how hardware and software functionality become more user friendly, people have better understanding of what BTC stands for as well as the standpoint of countries and states on BTC, that we will see exponential growth.

Buy volume through brokers is increasing a lot in the last month and sell volume has grinded to a halt, yet I still believe the price won't move much month by month for the rest of the year. The last crash is still etched strongly into the back of too many peoples minds and they will sell as we see strong price movements in the green.

The institutions rule the roost now, this bear market isn't over by a long shot. Ethereum sub $100 this year is more likely than the laughable $10k that was quoted earlier this year. Bitcoin in the circumstances is holding up quite well, but that $6k level is support that could be breached any time.

It will take years for any of these coins to hit their all-time highs again, just like during the tech bubble the tree shaking will carry on until only the legitimate case uses remain. More pain ahead IMO.

[lucky_scrote]

What do you mean that institutions rule the roost?

Yes sub $100 eth is more likely than $10k. I would take that bet too (who said that, can't find it).

Bitcoin has indeed done very well each time it has been tested at the 6k level, it goes without saying the more often it is tested and holds the more it says about what people think it is worth. I can offer some input regarding this. I actually now work for a bitcoin broker in the Netherlands and last month was the biggest drop in seller % and largest increase in buyers. That trend means a lot given that the hype has gone away. The hype will return just like it has done in 6 or 7 cycles previously. I feel very very bullish for BTC in the next few months and am very excited to see what happens. Maybe someone wants to take a friendly bet that BTC will break 10k before Dec 31st with me? We probably keep testing support but I feel pretty good about the worst case scenario being hovering around 6-7k for a while.

I do agree with the state of a lot of coins not reaching their ATH's for a long time, I would also disagree and say that a lot of them will never reach their ATH again, this is of course easy feel this way during such a bear market. The future is very unknown and I have never felt confident about the value of a lot of alts in terms of their dollar value, however, I don't believe that makes their value redundant.

[nirvana]

What do you mean that institutions rule the roost?

Yes sub $100 eth is more likely than $10k. I would take that bet too (who said that, can't find it).

Bitcoin has indeed done very well each time it has been tested at the 6k level, it goes without saying the more often it is tested and holds the more it says about what people think it is worth. I can offer some input regarding this. I actually now work for a bitcoin broker in the Netherlands and last month was the biggest drop in seller % and largest increase in buyers. That trend means a lot given that the hype has gone away. The hype will return just like it has done in 6 or 7 cycles previously. I feel very very bullish for BTC in the next few months and am very excited to see what happens. Maybe someone wants to take a friendly bet that BTC will break 10k before Dec 31st with me?

I do agree with the state of a lot of coins not reaching their ATH's for a long time, I would also disagree and say that a lot of them will never reach their ATH again, this is of course easy feel this way during such a bear market. The future is very unknown and I have never felt confident about the value of a lot of alts in terms of their dollar value, however, I don't believe that makes their value redundant.

Let's hope the hype returns so more people can get rich and still more get turned over - always hated brokers and market makers - genuinely nothing personal like

[lucky_scrote]

always hated brokers and market makers - genuinely nothing personal like

Well, we actually need brokers because we are converting a centralised currency into a decentralised one. For as long as people want to buy bitcoin and own a fiat currency they are going to need a method where they trust a person or entity.

Most brokers are dog shit but some are really good. The one I work for is one of the only non-custodial brokers around, the others out there are doing a great injustice to people who hold their coins- but people will have to continue learning the hard way.

I think the biggest step forward is for people to become knowledgeable and comfortable with:

• Why bitcoin is safe
• How to buy bitcoin
• How to keep your bitcoin safe and understanding how a wallet works

For the most part, a lot of people will never understand why bitcoin is safe or how a wallet works but there will eventually be wallets that everyone is comfortable with using. There is a theory that once 25% of a group of people or population agree with something, the others follow.

BTW my job for this particular company is to create tutorial videos for people answering many questions or doubts they may have, in particular how to set up and use a bitcoin wallet. There are many ways of storing your bitcoin out there such as:

A hardware or cold wallet (such as a nano s or trezor)
An online wallet (such as BTC.com or blockchain.info)
A software wallet (such as bread wallet on your android)
A piece of paper with your private key or seed phrase written down
Your memory

What is cool is that when you store your bitcoin, it is not stored in a particular wallet per se, nor is it only accessible from that location. The private key code is simply stored on that device or server. A seed phrase is often used instead of a private key (because it is impossible to remember something like 1FWxRbArGUsbmdXRwgVwWoHjwgU2tQMug6 is impossible (that is my public bitcoin address for my phone, I actually bought €200 of bitcoin today for it ). A seed phrase is also known as a mnemonic phrase and then you might have 12 words which are an encryption of your private key.

So, if you don't actually store bitcoin anywhere and it is just passwords to prove you own that private key, it is completely feasible to store bitcoin in your brain. Yes, you can now store a commonly traded store of value in your own memory. If you were to be dropped in the middle of nowhere completely naked, as long as you could get access to a smart phone, you could simply download any wallet app and get access to your bitcoin if you know your recovery seed. Ok this is getting a bit silly now, but you get the point.

If there are any questions I would be very willing to help.

[lucky_scrote]

Oh and I thought you might be interested how I have stored my memory seed. I used my own form of encryption.

I was given 12 words as my recovery seed and I emailed myself a story with those 12 words mixed in there so that if that email were to be compromised somehow, it would mean nothing to them. In another email (with and to different addresses) I sent an email with the word number that correlates to my recovery seed. It is a basic form of cryptography.

I am going travelling in SEA for 6 months soon and if shit ever hits the fan, I just need access to an email to recoup my funds. I don't need to make any phone calls, just find someone willing to exchange my bitcoin with me for food and shelter. Ok, it would be easier to exchange it for FIAT and then buy my food and shelter .

[EvilPie]

The hype will return just like it has done in 6 or 7 cycles previously

There's no chance whatsoever of the hype returning like it did this year.

The reason I'm so certain that I'm right and you're wrong is that this time the hype somehow reached people who genuinely didn't give a shit, people like me.

The reason it went so crazy this time is because it reached pretty much every person on the planet via the monster that is social media. Instead of a few reasonably clued up people buying lots of the stuff suddenly millions of f**king idiots were buying little bits of the stuff thinking they were going to get rich. Those idiots won't get involved again because they've been bitten. You may say that it's still up from when you first started this thread and that's true but the true idiots didn't get involved until it was over $10k and still soaring.

If I know about bitcoin then there's pretty much nobody left for it to get out to who has no knowledge of how volatile the stuff can be. Your idiots have gone and there aren't any left to make it do what it did just a few months ago.

The good thing about this is it'll now be a lot more stable so potentially has a chance of becoming a useful alternative to cold, hard cash.

*All in my opinion of course..... 

 

[EvilPie]

Oh and I thought you might be interested how I have stored my memory seed. I used my own form of encryption.

I was given 12 words as my recovery seed and I emailed myself a story with those 12 words mixed in there so that if that email were to be compromised somehow, it would mean nothing to them. In another email (with and to different addresses) I sent an email with the word number that correlates to my recovery seed. It is a basic form of cryptography.

I am going travelling in SEA for 6 months soon and if shit ever hits the fan, I just need access to an email to recoup my funds. I don't need to make any phone calls, just find someone willing to exchange my bitcoin with me for food and shelter. Ok, it would be easier to exchange it for FIAT and then buy my food and shelter .

So the days of 'password1' are behind us then?

[lucky_scrote]

The hype will return just like it has done in 6 or 7 cycles previously

There's no chance whatsoever of the hype returning like it did this year.

The reason I'm so certain that I'm right and you're wrong is that this time the hype somehow reached people who genuinely didn't give a shit, people like me.

The reason it went so crazy this time is because it reached pretty much every person on the planet via the monster that is social media. Instead of a few reasonably clued up people buying lots of the stuff suddenly millions of f**king idiots were buying little bits of the stuff thinking they were going to get rich. Those idiots won't get involved again because they've been bitten. You may say that it's still up from when you first started this thread and that's true but the true idiots didn't get involved until it was over $10k and still soaring.

If I know about bitcoin then there's pretty much nobody left for it to get out to who has no knowledge of how volatile the stuff can be. Your idiots have gone and there aren't any left to make it do what it did just a few months ago.

This wasn't the first time that bitcoin was doing the rounds. In 2012 and 2013 it was in the news a lot because of silk road. There is a good chance you would have seen it mentioned and since forgotten about it. I, like 99% of people who were exposed to it then, didn't dive any deeper into bitcoin. It was associated with criminals and drugs and since nobody knew about it, it wasn't explained or talked about on the internet (unless you knew where to look) or via news outlets.

2017 was very different. A lot more people are now interested in bitcoin but that number is still extremely small. You say that "even people like you" had heard about it meaning the hype has no chance of returning. Well let me tell you something, still to this date very few people understand how brilliant or truly life changing bitcoin is going to be. The excitement from 2017 was because everyone was saying to invest without having a clue what bitcoin is. The price was obviously speculatively driven. The short time frame to which this happened (definitely thank SM for that one) meant that there was an extreme buying pressure which pushed the price up substantially. Most of these people are greedy people but it is also an effect where there are plenty of smart people around explaining what bitcoin is and why you should buy it. Nobody buys it. Then it's on the news every day and the price is rising by 50% a month- suddenly idiots are talking about it. By this time the real fear of missing out has reached the people that are half witted and feel obliged to buy.

The use case of bitcoin has now been shown it is possible and the knowledge is slowly spreading. When billions of people across the planet now have access to an instrument where they can trade an asset in exchange for food and shelter, then that will be the final hype and perhaps speculative rush. For me, the writing is on the wall, but the fact that a lot of people (and should I say some smart people) disagree with me, further confirms to me that we aren't even close to where we are going to be with bitcoin in the future.

[Jon MW]

There's always an opportunity for another bubble whatever the investment.

I'm only sad because I only found out last week that my wife knew about bitcoin in 2010 and could have bought some for pennies but she was too scared to buy/invest on things on the internet - such a missed opportunity.

[lucky_scrote]

There's always an opportunity for another bubble whatever the investment.

I'm only sad because I only found out last week that my wife knew about bitcoin in 2010 and could have bought some for pennies but she was too scared to buy/invest on things on the internet - such a missed opportunity.

That would have been sweet as hell. I wonder if there were many who weren't really clued up but bought some and forgot about them. What is more likely is people bought them and had no idea how to store them (tbf, that still stands now) and lost them on their hard drive or didn't save their private key.

Then you would have had to be brave and not sell them when one of the 7 bubbles burst until now, the only people I know who have gotten through so many bubbles are people who took their time to understand what bitcoin is, rather than buying it as a quick rich scheme. If you invest it for the latter, then you will inevitably get scared and sell on the way down. I know of a couple people who bought at around the 10-12k level last year and are looking to sell once they break even. Kinda funny really.