Anyone earned money with them? How effective are they for this? I'm curious to try so would be grateful to hear about your experience.
What do you think about such cryptocurrencies as bitcoin?
- Thread starter Radiowave
- Start date
I would sooner invest in beanie babies.
If I'm not mistaken crypto currencies like Bitcoin were created or "invented" in order to allow parties to transactions to remain anonymous. The main idea was not to see a huge rise in the "value" of the currency. I suppose they figured it would rise in value as more people sought to use it and given the fixed and limited amount of the currency in circulation, the increase in valuation was probably inevitable. So, maybe that was a major element of its creation. I don't own any. I don't understand it enough. And I find it to be too volatile and unstable for someone in the final 10 years or so of my career. And to follow Mac, I'll invest in the Pet Rock before Bitcoin.
kelbro
Alfred Spatchcock
Sounds like another one of those things where you read about people making money and then *poof* they are all going, 'what happened to my money' , 'I thought it was safe' along with a multitude of other whines.
The kinda large scale cryptographic bingo system the mining encourages seems environmentally irresponsible. Ethereum is a little more interesting than bitcoin at the moment.
Money can be made but the market is far from stable and mining is likely not profitable unless you have a serious set up and a cheap power supply. It is an interesting market to keep an eye on.
Money can be made but the market is far from stable and mining is likely not profitable unless you have a serious set up and a cheap power supply. It is an interesting market to keep an eye on.
I don't understand it at all. I personally would not touch it but that is me. I am 53 and my superannuation fund keeps inviting me to partake in retirement seminars now let alone me worrying about Bitcoin. But I digress. I would be too scared to buy into it as with my luck of late it would crash.
An effective way to earn money? I don't know if effective is the right word since that implies some sort of certainty of success and there's only one certainty with bitcoin in particular and that its ridiculously unstable. Personally I would only look at buying (I can't use the term investing as that implies you actually own something tangible) bitcoin the same way I would look at going to Vegas. For the casual participant who doesn't track & analyze all the minutiae of why its value might be going up or down you're simply along for the ride and its gambling.
But that's just bitcoin and I think you need to look at all cryptocurrencies (CC) from several points of view including what is the fundamental intent of that particular CC, who's endorsed it or has it been underwritten in some way and does it abide by any current or future legislative requirements.
With that in mind I don't believe that bitcoin in particular is unsustainable. I think its deviated from its original intent of being an open source non-cash payment platform to an investment scheme based on electronic magic beans being mined & traded by a collection of questionable private & straight players. There has been too much hype around bitcoin and very very little thought given to its real world fundamental cash value. While some banks have dipped their toe into bitcoin waters none have it integrated into their mainstream operations. Its actively avoided any regulatory oversight so its just begging to be smacked down by governments who do not like this sort of rogue activity.
That said I think there is a very real & legitimate place for some cryptocurrencies, in particular Ethereum. Unlike bitcoin its not intended as this pure anti-cash alternative, rather its a way to augment existing traditional banking & cash functions in particular using it as an alternative to the out dated SWIFT wire transfer process for moving cash from one banking system & currency to another.
But that's just bitcoin and I think you need to look at all cryptocurrencies (CC) from several points of view including what is the fundamental intent of that particular CC, who's endorsed it or has it been underwritten in some way and does it abide by any current or future legislative requirements.
With that in mind I don't believe that bitcoin in particular is unsustainable. I think its deviated from its original intent of being an open source non-cash payment platform to an investment scheme based on electronic magic beans being mined & traded by a collection of questionable private & straight players. There has been too much hype around bitcoin and very very little thought given to its real world fundamental cash value. While some banks have dipped their toe into bitcoin waters none have it integrated into their mainstream operations. Its actively avoided any regulatory oversight so its just begging to be smacked down by governments who do not like this sort of rogue activity.
That said I think there is a very real & legitimate place for some cryptocurrencies, in particular Ethereum. Unlike bitcoin its not intended as this pure anti-cash alternative, rather its a way to augment existing traditional banking & cash functions in particular using it as an alternative to the out dated SWIFT wire transfer process for moving cash from one banking system & currency to another.
I think idea was more decentralization than anonymity. The blockchain is a public ledger. It avoids your bank/paypal/visa etc and allows the instant sending of funds anywhere without caring much about who verifies the transaction....any one of millions of miners.
Same principle. Cryptocurrencies are bought on the assumption that you can convert that back to goods or money. Speculation is based on thinking it might go up. But if people suddenly cool on cryptocurrencies, they aren't worth anything. It's very much like fiat currency, but with only speculation to back them up.
I've noticed the value of bitcoin has gone down since the end of last year from about 19K US to about $6.8K US. So as a currency it is highly unstable.
Here is some info from a bitcoin website. I don't understand it, but I believe this answers the question of what it takes to mine 12.5 bitcoins (which you don't mine directly, because you mine a bitcoin block instead):
Now that I've fully explained bitcoin, what other mysteries can I clear up? 
Here is some info from a bitcoin website. I don't understand it, but I believe this answers the question of what it takes to mine 12.5 bitcoins (which you don't mine directly, because you mine a bitcoin block instead):
To mine bitcoin you need Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) equipment that has been made just for mining bitcoin.
To achieve a whole block (12,5 BTC) with solo mining in a month you’re going to need about 3000 TH/s.
Total hashrate: 14Million TH/s divided by 6*24*365/12 = 4380 blocks a month = 3000TH/s
So you need about 115x AntMiner S9s which cost about US$ 1,288 each, so US$ 148,120
To achieve a whole block (12,5 BTC) with solo mining in a month you’re going to need about 3000 TH/s.
Total hashrate: 14Million TH/s divided by 6*24*365/12 = 4380 blocks a month = 3000TH/s
So you need about 115x AntMiner S9s which cost about US$ 1,288 each, so US$ 148,120
No interest.
I'm a firm believer in tangible assets. If you don't have it physically in your possession then you don't really have it.
I'm a firm believer in tangible assets. If you don't have it physically in your possession then you don't really have it.
Hi Radiowave,
I did make some money with Bitcoins but this was rather accidentially...
Somewhere around 2011 I read about it and played around with mining, which was at that time possible with a middle-of-the-road graphics card. So over a few months I managed to get about 1.5 Bitcoin (with a value of about 30$ at that time...) and later forgot about it.
Fast forward to beginning of 2017 - what? A Bitcoin is traded for more than 1k now ???
After a few days I managed to recover my wallet from backups, remember the password and found a site where I was able to sell my stuff - needless to say I was a bit angry for not waiting a few months more by end of 2017...
Reminds me about the Dutch hype about tulips a few centuries ago :=)
br,
tom
I still do not trust credit cards (looks like for a good reason based on all of the recent breaches)
Bit-BS..... don't think so.
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Bit-BS..... don't think so.
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I don't even online bank.
I know the chain block/lock? technology is suppose to be extremely secure but why are we going this root?
I'm waiting for the day all this goes for a crap and 90% of us won't be able to buy a stick of gum!
Relying so heavily on technology has already caused massive headaches for flying, ministry/government etc. and these are minor in the grand scheme of things. Wait until its a big failure, it will paralyze us all.
Never leave the house without a few bucks in your pocket. I see people buy a pack of gum or a single battery or even a coffee on their debit. Not a dime on them - sad.
I know the chain block/lock? technology is suppose to be extremely secure but why are we going this root?
I'm waiting for the day all this goes for a crap and 90% of us won't be able to buy a stick of gum!
Relying so heavily on technology has already caused massive headaches for flying, ministry/government etc. and these are minor in the grand scheme of things. Wait until its a big failure, it will paralyze us all.
Never leave the house without a few bucks in your pocket. I see people buy a pack of gum or a single battery or even a coffee on their debit. Not a dime on them - sad.
From what I gather the cryptographic stuff that is used to keep things 'secure' is the same mathematics that the bank already uses to keep your money and any card payments or transfers made 'secure'.
There is an argument that technology has been rather instrumental in getting humans to fly and maintaining the current huge amount of people in the air. Depending on the apocalypse scenario you envisage a decentralized method of relatively secure payment that extends far beyond your bank/government/currency, and in unaffected by the total collapse of either, may be worthwhile.
I keep cash in my wallet and pay for my coffee/lunch/weeklyshop/bartab with my card or phone. The cash is there for when things don't work.
It’s simple, as with any investment....don’t invest more than you are willing to loose.
Crypto currency is only worth what someone is willing to pay. Right now it’s not too bad. But down the road it could be a lot worse. It’s not backed by anything. No banks, or feds, or stocks, or bonds, or gold, or.....anything. It’s only value is literally what ever folks are willing to pay for it.
IMO, a scam. Invest in something else.
Crypto currency is only worth what someone is willing to pay. Right now it’s not too bad. But down the road it could be a lot worse. It’s not backed by anything. No banks, or feds, or stocks, or bonds, or gold, or.....anything. It’s only value is literally what ever folks are willing to pay for it.
IMO, a scam. Invest in something else.
Not all technology is bad, never said it was.
My point was we have totally lost the ability to do things the old way or any way for that matter when things do break down.
More than a few times in my life I have been told " the computers are down and there's nothing we can do." "I can't sell anything right now", "I can't process anything right now". I've seen stores virtually shut down because the computers were down. I've seen those from the younger generation that couldn't calculate change for a 10 without a calculator. This is my point!
Well, we did it before the computer age!
My daughter was 1.5 days behind on a vacation because of a "glitch" at Pearson. Nobody had any answers, nobody new what was going on and nothing could be processed.
There should ALWAYS be a back up plan. We are moving away from any alternative at all and becoming too reliant on tech and tech alone.
As far as getting humans to fly and keeping the huge amount of people in the air, well, these calculations were done with the human brain and slide rules - no 3D computer graphics. My grandfather worked on the instrument panel on the Avro Arrow. No laptop - go figure.
Not that these things didn't help advance the cause, just saying.
My apologies, my comments are more based on technology and not about the thread topic of Crypto currencies.
With relation to that alone, while it may be secure (bitcoin) I will not be investing in a currency that I cannot physically see or hold and is only of value in a virtual world.
It's your money though spend or invest it how ever you see fit.
My point was we have totally lost the ability to do things the old way or any way for that matter when things do break down.
More than a few times in my life I have been told " the computers are down and there's nothing we can do." "I can't sell anything right now", "I can't process anything right now". I've seen stores virtually shut down because the computers were down. I've seen those from the younger generation that couldn't calculate change for a 10 without a calculator. This is my point!
Well, we did it before the computer age!
My daughter was 1.5 days behind on a vacation because of a "glitch" at Pearson. Nobody had any answers, nobody new what was going on and nothing could be processed.
There should ALWAYS be a back up plan. We are moving away from any alternative at all and becoming too reliant on tech and tech alone.
As far as getting humans to fly and keeping the huge amount of people in the air, well, these calculations were done with the human brain and slide rules - no 3D computer graphics. My grandfather worked on the instrument panel on the Avro Arrow. No laptop - go figure.
Not that these things didn't help advance the cause, just saying.
My apologies, my comments are more based on technology and not about the thread topic of Crypto currencies.
With relation to that alone, while it may be secure (bitcoin) I will not be investing in a currency that I cannot physically see or hold and is only of value in a virtual world.
It's your money though spend or invest it how ever you see fit.
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I never understood the inability to process transactions without the computer. All they have to do is say we can’t take credit cards. Cash only. And then just use your brain. Nothing wrong with using a calculator to add up all the items that are being bought. But no need to use it to calculate change. That’s just sad. And don’t they realize that the computer going down is saving them money? If all you are processing is cash transactions, who’s to know?
Just be sure to save some of the profits to cover the gain.
as seen on reddit: I just discovered that I owe the IRS $50k that I don't have, because I traded in cryptos.
as seen on reddit: I just discovered that I owe the IRS $50k that I don't have, because I traded in cryptos.
