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Crypto Currency


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Can someone please explain in simple terms what a Crypto currency means? I think I know how the basics of economics works but this is a whole new thing for me. Someone in Iceland has started the 'Auroracoin' which I get is something like bitcoin but what does it mean? Is it something that could work, in an ideal Star Trek universe or is it just fanciful?

Is it all just pish and wind or is there something in it?

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FFS dinae tell the Nawbags about this. They will just use it to sow more seeds of doubt, uncertainty, confusion and risk. Don't forget RISK. Anything as new as this must be really, really RISKY.

Can you come back to this in 3 weeks, once it's safe? ;)

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Can you come back to this in 3 weeks, once it's safe? ;)

Aye, OK. I quite like the concept of bitcoins. It's all based on "mining" prime numbers. I like prime numbers. Of course the Nawbags would just spread fear about them saying stuff like "What's going to happen when all the prime numbers run out?"

I haven't heard anything about the Auroracoin. Sounds interesting though.

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  • 10 months later...

Been reading up on Bitcoin and I have to say I don't really understand it. Typed it into the search bar to see if it had been discussed here before. Could it be a viable option for an Independent Nation? Scotland or any other.

No. Too complicated for folk to understand, including me.

Edited by Orraloon
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No. Too complicated for folk to understand, including me.

Certainly seems that way! Quite an interesting idea right enough. Says online that a lot of criminals use it to buy things on the dark web. About 9% of all Bitcoin transactions according to wiki.

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Certainly seems that way! Quite an interesting idea right enough. Says online that a lot of criminals use it to buy things on the dark web. About 9% of all Bitcoin transactions according to wiki.

It is very interesting. I read some interesting stuff a while back about how it was linked to prime numbers. The whole idea sounds far too dodgy for the general public to ever accept for a national currency. It maybe ok for criminals and money launderers though as they are quite prepared to take a few risks. Wouldn't be surprised if quite a few Tories were keen on the idea.

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  • 2 years later...

Been dabbling in crypto last 6 months or so (worst possible time to start) and it's like the Wild West. You need to be very careful what coins you trade or invest in and you have to be prepared for massive volatility. Bitcoin gets all the press but there are literally hundreds, if not, thousands of different currencies - the vast majority of which are either scams or questionable derivatives of Bitcoin. 

Kinda hard to explain crypto without getting into cryptography and digital signatures. Suffice to say the same maths that ensures you can do online banking securely allows you to buy/own Bitcoin (or fractions of a Bitcoin). Secret keys (effectively long, complicated passwords) which only you have access to (and are relatively impossible for a third party to calculate) allow you "use" (exhange) the Bitcoin you own. Hardest part about crypto (aside from trying to make sense of the huge number of Bitcoin alternatives) is managing/maintaining your digital wallet/secret keys - lose these (either by mismanagement or to hackers) and your crypto is gone.

Last 6 months have been a bit of a blood bath so I'm pretty happy I've managed to make a tiny profit/break event but I quickly learned it's sometimes just as important to sell it all and wait to buy in at certain low points. Digital currency definitely has a future but it's next to useless IMO until it finds some stability - and that's very difficult to achieve without some kind of regulation. And regulation itself is difficult because the whole point of most digital currencies is that no one person/body/authority can control it. Best thing that could happen is most of the scam coins and cheap derivatives die out and serious money starts investing in the coins that have a realistic use-case/future. Will be a while before that happens though. Some serious money to be made but only in the medium to longer term.

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23 minutes ago, Toepoke said:

Thought Jonny had rejoined us for a minute...

 

So did I. But upon opening the thread last night, found it had been resurrected by that Debora poster: "Good evening. While waiting for a bus I overheard two people discussing bitcoin and they recommended this site … <some link or other>". Obviously a bot, so I made a post pointing this out. Woke this morning (my time) to find that both posts had been deleted (and at least one more as I had a notification that Ally B had quoted my post) … then I forgot about it as we had a bit of an earthquake, and a 6.1er tends to monopolize the concentration.

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  • 3 years later...

A bit of a huge bump, but interested to hear if anyone on here holds some or don't (and hate it, even) but what's peoples general thoughts on this? Always good to hear differing views, IMO.

I would say crypto has exploded since the last post in here! Bitcoin is at $39,000 or so right now - in a very slow market, or bearish one (still, not too sure what I think of all these terms though! Its being adopted almost every day by a different corp, country. Ukraine (the country) are airdropping! NFTs are here and everyone is jumping aboard.

Yet at the same time, its not exactly a topic round every pub. e.g Inter had Inter Coin on the shirt on Wednesday, how many people who watched that match knew what that even was/is/the idea in general?

 

Edited by weekevie04
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  • 1 month later...

Starting to get a very bad feeling about cryptos. 

That Non Fungible Token market is utter bullshit. Made up crap that is being sold as if it is worth something. And it seems like it was created in order to give crypto currencies somewhere to be spent. And that is real bad sign about cryptos if true.

They seem to rely on the Bigger Fool model and resemble a ponzi and/or pyramid scheme. I dare say some people will make money before it goes bad but I am not touching them at this point. It is the feeling you are 'missing out' while others get rich is the only thing I can identify about cryptos that make you think about investing in them. They are not even useful apparently. That is classic ponzi scheme stuff, people keep buying because they believe the price will keep going up... not based on fundamentals or anything tangible just that belief. Someone is going to end up holding the baby (the biggest fool). If you have made money I'd get the fuck out of them.

The amount of utter bullshit waffled about them as well is another alarm bell. 

Yahoo Finance has over 10,000 different cryptos listed... This is nonsense to me. 😀

https://finance.yahoo.com/cryptocurrencies

 

Edited by thplinth
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