Bitcoins (?!)

[Conor Dary]

If you want a primer on Bitcoin etc., a pretty good book is Crypto Dad by J. Christopher Giancarlo who I happen to know. He was Chair of the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). He was appointed to the CFTC by Obama and then as Chair by Trump. He went to Washington thinking he’d spend his time working on swaps and Agricultural futures. Instead, crypto became the big thing.

Right.... sounds like a crypto nut.

CryptoDad is Giancarlo's own personal story, detailing his forays into the world of Wall Street to his tenure as the 13th Chairman of the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), where he pushed for the agency to recognize the digitization of markets. His growing fame as a Twitter presence in this essential debate has given Giancarlo a platform to makes a case for the future of cryptocurrencies as the natural successor to America’s current failing financial market infrastructure.

https://www.amazon.com/CryptoDad-Fut.../dp/111985508X

[gh]

An Appalachian town was told a bitcoin mine would bring an economic boom. It got noise pollution and an eyesore.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/busin...3m114nf3ba2t6j

[gh]

bitcoin cratering?


https://www.consumeraffairs.com/news...00-051222.html

[lonewolf]

bitcoin cratering?
https://www.consumeraffairs.com/news...00-051222.html

I don't understand cryptocurrency. I have been spared any gain/loss because I am too dumb to figure out how to dabble in it. I cannot grasp the concept of sending an unknown someone real, usable American dollars in exchange for what?, electronic bits?, trusting someone will return my dollars on request.
We may be running out of tulip bulbs.

[DoubleRBar]

You're smarter than you think, lonewolf.

[guru]

The volatility has been great for daytrading. Today I made 42% realized gain on Apecoin. Inevitably it will drop tonight/tomorrow. Then it's just a matter of watching for the next uptrend. Rinse and repeat. I would never invest long in Ape but it's good for day fun. As for the more "established" cryptos it's a great opportunity to get in on a serious dip. I'm keeping my eye on Ethereum, waiting for it to drop under $1500(currently at around $1900, down from it's peak of $4587 last fall).

For pure speculation throw a few bucks down on Terra, which is supposedly a "stablecoin", pegged to the dollar, but for reasons not worth getting into here totally cratered from $95 last week to .01 today. Just for the hell of it I'm putting $100 in. If it ever approaches it's all time high of $115 last year I'll make $1,149,900.00

[lonewolf]

I remember commenting months/years ago that this is an ideal day trader vehicle. Once/if you get ahead just confine your bets to house money.

[18.99s]

bitcoin cratering?

https://www.consumeraffairs.com/news...00-051222.html

I'm laughing at the people who were saying bitcoin is a hedge against inflation.

[Atticus]

I'm laughing at the people who were saying bitcoin is a hedge against inflation.

Beware the last-laughers. The cryptos are nothing if not volatile. It will rise again - catching the swings is key (not that I will!)

[jazzcyclist]

IMO bitcoin investing is akin to sports betting except that sports are more predictable.

[guru]

Beware the last-laughers. The cryptos are nothing if not volatile. It will rise again - catching the swings is key,,,

Exactly. My most dependable day trade wins the last few months have been on cryptocurrencies(primarily apecoin). Considering settlement requirements it generally works out perfect - funds from a day trade sale are going to be sidelined for the next day anyway.

[18.99s]

I don't understand cryptocurrency. I have been spared any gain/loss because I am too dumb to figure out how to dabble in it. I cannot grasp the concept of sending an unknown someone real, usable American dollars in exchange for what?, electronic bits?, trusting someone will return my dollars on request.
We may be running out of tulip bulbs.

It is indeed the 21st century equivalent of the tulip craze.

Cryptocurrency advocates say it's just like government-issued currencies which aren't backed by gold or any other tangible asset. What they're missing is that government-issued currencies are backed by something else, namely the power to tax and to require other fees and fines to be paid in government currency.

If you get paid in gold, you still have to convert a portion of it to dollars to pay income tax, property tax, car registration etc. If you get a speeding ticket you need dollars to pay it. If you run a business which accepts clam shells as payment, you have to convert a portion of them to dollars to pay sales tax, corporate tax, business licenses, etc. Cryptocurrencies don't have that power to forcibly generate their own demand.

The crypto fans also say each cryptocurrency has a finite cap on how much of it can be mined, or a tight cap on the annual growth rate of the supply, unlike government currencies which have neither. The trouble there is that although each individual cryptocurrency may be limited in that manner, the number of cryptocurrencies out there is unlimited and unregulated.