Bitcoin, really?

Anti-money laundering regulations should be updated to include Bitcoin and other virtual currencies, the UK Treasury has said.
The Metropolitan Police says criminals are using crypto-currency cash machines to launder money in London.
The government's aim is part of a broader update to the EU rules which are under negotiation.
The update, revealed in Parliament last month, would mean that traders would no longer be able to operate anonymously.
'Self-police'
Bitcoin expert Dr Garrick Hileman, a research fellow at the University of Cambridge, said that in jurisdictions such as New York, crypto-currency is already subject to tighter regulation.
"I think these announcements have a powerful signalling effect and put the industry on notice that the 'cop on the beat' is concerned and watching crypto-currencies more closely now," he said of the Treasury news.
"This in turn will motivate companies to more effectively self-police bad actors."
At a press briefing, Scotland Yard warned about the currencies' popularity among criminals.
"Organised criminal groups have been early adopters of crypto-currencies to evade traditional money laundering checks and statutory regulations," said Det Supt Nick Stevens, from the Serious and Organised Crime Command.
"Criminals have also used crypto-currencies to purchase illegal commodities on dark market sites with anonymity."
A Treasury spokesman said that there were already "clear tax rules" for legitimate crypto-currency users.
"We also intend to update regulation to bring virtual currency exchange platforms into anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing regulation," he added.
Bitcoin billionaires
The value of Bitcoin has continued to climb after reaching a landmark value of $10,000 (£7,400) and at the time of writing was trading at more than $11,200.
Bank of England deputy governor Sir Jon Cunliffe has advised people to "do their homework" before investing.
"People need to be clear this is not an official currency. No central bank stands behind it, no government stands behind it," he told the BBC last week.
US twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss are reported to have become the world's first Bitcoin billionaires, having invested $11m in the currency in 2013.
That stake would now be worth $1.01bn, according to The Times.
The brothers settled a legal dispute with Facebook in 2011 after claiming that Mark Zuckerberg stole their idea for a social network.

Anything that threatens the entrenched system, which is designed entirely and exclusively to benefit central banks while "enslaving" debtors (i.e. most of us), will be attacked from all quadrants, in very aggressive ways (i.e. proportional to the degree of threat those "in charge" perceive cryptocurrency to be, to their stranglehold on all things monetary). So while I'm sure there are plenty of nefarious actors using cryptocurrency to do "bad stuff," which is an issue of course, I also think it's important to keep in mind that the central banks are also doing "bad stuff" with our current currency system that they have exclusive control of; problem is, the "bad stuff" the big banks are doing affects us ALL negatively...which is all that should probably be said publicly...

Steve

So the currency goes up 40% in 40 hours... kinda like we’ve seen many times over with penny stocks.

The Chicago Board Options Exchange, will begin issuing Bitcoin futures contracts on Sunday, letting sophisticated investors bet against the asset more easily than ever before. This new instrument, along with similar upcoming offerings, could pave the way for a serious bitcoin correction. New futures trading in bitcoin will open the market to professional traders; current bitcoin holders are the gazelles in the plain, and the tigers and lions are about to get released.

Short-selling bitcoin can be even riskier than owning it because when you buy an asset, the most you can lose is your initial investment. When you sell an asset short, your losses are potentially infinite, limited only by how high the price goes.

When I hear that 40% of Bitcoin is owned by only a few thousand entities and some other crypto currencies have 90% of it owned by a dozen or so entities I will have to pass. The ones with the most can pump and dump at will.

I hope everyone that got in early took some profits off the table.

Block chain technology is here to stay. Crypto currencies and all it's derivatives are a different story in my opinion.

Bitcoin Monday it seems.

Think I will pass.

Wish it were Equinox Monday instead.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/11/2017 03:00PM by Sod-buster.

therover61 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> When I hear that 40% of Bitcoin is owned by only a
> few thousand entities and some other crypto curren
> cies have 90% of it owned by a dozen or so entitie
> s I will have to pass. The ones with the most can
> pump and dump at will.
>
> I hope everyone that got in early took some profit
> s off the table.
>
> Block chain technology is here to stay. Crypto cur
> rencies and all it's derivatives are a different s
> tory in my opinion.

Hi rover61,

Yes, a smaller group of people own Bitcoin. But you should look at that group of people. They are not the Clintons, the Gates, the Rotschilds, etc. They are the early adopters, the pioneers and most of them were not wealthy at the time. They were Cypher Punks, Nerds, etc. They created this, and for a better world.
Don't discount a tech, because others got there before you. (Yeah, tech, Bitcoin is a protocol, not an investment, though at this point it can be.) Are stocks, gold, silver, etc. less valuable because people got to them first? Self interest stops that.


These people who you say can pump and dump at will - That is becoming less and less probable, in part because BIG money (e.g. Hedge Funds, bankers, wealthy people) are starting to move into Bitcoin and those early adopters have freedom loving backgrounds (Most Bitcoin early adopters wanted a better money, a better world - not to become rich.),
If early adopters dump, you should be happy, as that will lower the price (very temporarily) so you can buy some.


You want a money that is spread evenly? Not gonna happen till we remove a lot of bad people first. That is gonna take a lot of time. When we mature as the human race, then we won't be talking about money, much less Bitcoin. Bitcoin is just a better money (for starters), not a solution.

You misunderstand blockchain technology. Without the underlying asset (e.g. Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, etc.) there is no value in securing the blockchain. Your blockchain then is just a distributed slow database. What secures that? B of A?
All of this blockchain talk we see on T.V. (i.e. The technology behind Bitcoin is good, but not the bitcoin) is mostly promoted by banks and due to a lack of undestanding. Those messages are getting fewer and fewer though, as they are starting to get it.

How can you better secure a blockchain (i.e. distributed immutable database) but to make it prohibitively expensive and requiring more super computers than are available, to attack?

You think a company firewall is gonna secure a blockchain? (See how that worked out for Edward Snowdens old boss.) Or maybe Bank of America distributing it and calling it a decentralized ledger? Database companies had that decades ago, that is not blockchain.

You are picking and choosing ways to weaken what Bitcoin is and you are missing the point. You are being handed a store of value, while banks steal from you, and yet you are complaining that someone "beat you to it."

Bitcoin is a baby (market cap wise). Don't look at it as an investment and don't focus on its price. Look closer...

Albert,

I respect your opinion and knowledge of this technology. I am always grateful when you comment on this thread because it gets me a bit closer understanding SOME of this.

I am pretty much done looking at it. For the last 35-40 of my investing career it has been in stocks that pay me (ie, dividend yielding...which I re-invest the dividends) and technology stocks since that is the business I am in. Got in Apple, Oracle and Cisco early on so I have done well there. Also have hard assets as well, so my portfolio is pretty good.

Long time ago Peter Lynch stated invest in what you understand....I do not understand this so I am steering clear. If my 18 year old son wants some seed money to buy up a few fractions I will give it to him. Not me. Not a trader, not a speculator in the markets.

However, I am glad others can understand this and profit from it. I just don't like when I hear, no matter WHO it is, that 40% own most of it...and in some other crypto's close to 90%. That means they can manipulate it a lot easier than most. Plus there are these 'forks' that create another type of crypto, be it Bitcoin cash or whatever....guess that's like a stock spin off ?

They now want to start futures trading on this. Will naked shorting be next ? If so, will those 40% start to naked short and then dump ? Who knows.

Store of value....I believe that is in the eye of the beholder. A billion people in India value gold. A hundred million starving people value food. Most all of us value health, peace and happiness.

Whatever the case, keep up on this thing and keep chiming in. Always good to hear from you and no matter what...KEEP SWINGING THAT DETECTOR !

Up here North people are buying pot related stocks, bunch of Potheads that's all we need more impaired drivers on the road, dumb lib gov.



Canadian reporter: "Have you experienced marijuana?"
Trudea: "No ,have you got some"



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/12/2017 12:21AM by guvmore.

Looks like the Bitcoin mania is coming to an end. Down $7000 from its peak a few days ago. I hope you guys got out near the top!

Bitcoin has lost about $110 billion of its total market value in less than a week, twice the market cap of Tesla Inc.

Oops...

What did the late Dick Enberg use to say?

"Oh my!"

Bitcoin Finds Floor After Worst Selloff Since 2015

Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency by market value, shook the nascent trading world of digital coins on Friday when its interday plunge reached 30 percent. The previous day, competitor litecoin recovered some of a 43 percent intraday fall.

[www.bloomberg.com]

How are you getting on with this, Albert ?
Have you bought any more at current levels? Did you sell any anywhere near the end-2017 high ?

I came across this interesting chart a few months ago, showing power useage by miners:
[digiconomist.net]

It shows a noticeable drop in consumption during last year, which is intriguing. I got the impression this was due to less people actually mining, due to it being less profitatable, rather than a sudden increase in energy-efficiency of mining rigs.

I wonder how Albert "Earthmansurfer" is doing ? BTC is on a surge at the moment, reaching 27 000 US Dollars, looking rather over-bought and a good time to think about taking a profit, on some of his holding, anyway. Then he can buy that Spanish Villa in the sun, ready for his retirement.

Remember early in this thread, when Albert was encouraging us to take interest, at 150 Dollars. But it seemed expensive ...



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/21/2021 08:34PM by Pimento.

I apologize. Still don’t understand it but I apologize.

I suspect most users of it don't really understand it, but they have enough faith in it to use it. Plus, in the past 18 months, Government fiscal policy has caused many to lose faith in their own national currency. This applies especially to the US Dollar, but here in Europe, the Euro, and British Pound have all seen 'money printing' in some form or other. So inflation at 5%, but bank savings rates at sub-1% means your Dollars etc are becoming slowly worth less. Alternative places to place some of your wealth start to look appealing.

It seems there's still a complexity-related 'entry barrier' to Bitcoin, though. It was not surprising in 2013, but it's still quite complex, today. Plus there are more sophisticated thieves today, obviously drawn to it by the surging value, so you need to be very sure of what you're doing.

Many folks are pinning Bitcoin's future success on so-called 'second layer' transaction systems, notably the 'Lightning Network'. This is designed for small everyday payments, where speedy settlement and very low transaction costs are important. It's backed by real bitcoins in some fashion,, something similar to how banknotes used to be backed by real physical gold in the US governments vaults.
El Salvador is currently seriously involved in a 'second layer' system, changing laws to make bitcoin a legal currency there.