What The Fuck Is Happening To Bit Coin?

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/05/08/bitc...ys-losses.html

I will admit I don’t understand Bit Coin. I own a business, I work and get paid in US currency. If I buy something, I pay for it in US cuttency.

From the outside looking in, these Crypto Currency deals look a awful lot like a Ponzi scheme.
Chung Tran's Avatar
It is exactly that. A Ponzi scheme designed to steal from the ignorant.

I have railed against bitcoin and other crypto since last Summer in the Dallas Forum. Someone started a thread... ''The crypto craze''. I challenged posters to explain why it is valuable, how you know what it is worth? None could tell me. Most responded with ''it is going to be the new currency''. I asked why did it crash in 2018? Crickets.

The funniest shit I hear about bitcoin and crypto, is that it's an inflation hedge, a store of value. Huh?? Man, people can be so ignorant.
There is value in transaction verification. Like if you have bitcoin and want to pay for something, you send to that address and after a few minutes the transaction is confirmed.

There is investment opportunity. There is mining opportunity, passive income. Miners get paid to confirm transactions.

What is mind boggling is all the alt coins out there. I can see bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, etc.

Ethereum has value in smart contracts. These are kind of like escrow transactions where when the contract is fulfilled the transaction is finalized. There are a lot of altcoins based on ETH.
dilbert firestorm's Avatar
It is exactly that. A Ponzi scheme designed to steal from the ignorant.

I have railed against bitcoin and other crypto since last Summer in the Dallas Forum. Someone started a thread... ''The crypto craze''. I challenged posters to explain why it is valuable, how you know what it is worth? None could tell me. Most responded with ''it is going to be the new currency''. I asked why did it crash in 2018? Crickets.

The funniest shit I hear about bitcoin and crypto, is that it's an inflation hedge, a store of value. Huh?? Man, people can be so ignorant. Originally Posted by Chung Tran
they can't explain because they don't know.


the value has to do with the blockchain security.


the harder it is to crack it, the more valuable it is. i think its something like that.


the stuff about mining "bit"s is kind of goofy.
they can't explain because they don't know.


the value has to do with the blockchain security.


the harder it is to crack it, the more valuable it is. i think its something like that.


the stuff about mining "bit"s is kind of goofy. Originally Posted by dilbert firestorm
Mining is what runs bitcoin and maintains a ledger (blockchain) of all transactions that logs who owns what bitcoins. The ledger is distributed and stored on all mining computers. Groups of miners called Pools verify transaction algorithms. These are 256bit encrypted (SHA-256). As algorithms get solved and bitcoin transfers are confirmed, miners are paid in bitcoin. The difficulty of these algorithms is ever changing to maintain a steady flow of bitcoin rewards. As more hash power (computing power) is added to the network the difficulty goes up.

The transactional security is from the number of miners in the network that have to confirm a transaction. You can't just hack one and steal the transfer. You'd have to guess which miners are involved out of hundreds of thousands to be able to intercept a transaction.

The network is self sustaining, as the BTC price drops it actually can become unprofitable to mine. It can be better for miners to turn off their machines as it takes more electricity to run the miner than the btc reward they can get. As less hash power is available the difficulty auto adjusts to maintain a steady flow of BTC rewards. A miner losing money is still paid Bitcoin so a lot leave them on still, as the BTC price increases they can still turn a profit.

Every 4 years the reward amount is cut in half. Usually a large increase in price of BTC follows. One day in next 10-20-30 years 1 BTC will be worth in the millions. But it will fluctuate.
Chung Tran's Avatar
There is value in transaction verification. Like if you have bitcoin and want to pay for something, you send to that address and after a few minutes the transaction is confirmed.

There is investment opportunity. There is mining opportunity, passive income. Miners get paid to confirm transactions.
Originally Posted by royamcr
Groan.. Here we go again.

There is value in my telling my Grandmother ''happy birthday''. There is value when my Dod wags its fucking tail when I come home.

How do I value bitcoin? What should I pay for the coin? How did you arrive at the price?

It earns nothing, produces nothing, pays no dividends. Why should I buy it?

Oh, I know.. Because there is a Sucker who will pay me more than I paid.. Got it.
Chung Tran's Avatar
Mining is what runs bitcoin and maintains a ledger (blockchain) of all transactions that logs who owns what bitcoins. The ledger is distributed and stored on all mining computers. Groups of miners called Pools verify transaction algorithms. These are 256bit encrypted (SHA-256). As algorithms get solved and bitcoin transfers are confirmed, miners are paid in bitcoin. The difficulty of these algorithms is ever changing to maintain a steady flow of bitcoin rewards. As more hash power (computing power) is added to the network the difficulty goes up.

The transactional security is from the number of miners in the network that have to confirm a transaction. You can't just hack one and steal the transfer. You'd have to guess which miners are involved out of hundreds of thousands to be able to intercept a transaction. Originally Posted by royamcr
Terrific. You told us how it works. Now tell me why it's valuable to me as an investment.
It is like a stock. Buy low, sell high. Or hold long term.

It is good for world wide transactions also, except for countries that have banned it. Some of the price drop is from Russia banning it.

I have a Russian crypto wallet, it shut down for a few weeks cause they had to move. I don't have a lot in it but I'm sure there are some large accounts in there.

Also it is a relatively anonymous way to send "value". It is traceable, some coins are harder to trace than others, like Monero and zCash.
It earns nothing to you because you didn't buy any when it was a buck a coin 12 or so years ago. It is like any stock that might be a few bucks at one point, then a few years later it is 1000...

Unlike the US dollar that we can seemingly print as much as we want with nothing to back it up. Bitcoin supply is fixed. Last bitcoin will be mined in like 100 years.

It is also a relatively inexpensive way to transfer funds. Ever paid to wire transfer money to someone and it costs $50 to do it and a trip to bank, paper work to fill out, etc? Bitcoin might cost a couple bucks and a matter of logging into a wallet putting the amount and address in and bam 20 minutes later sent.
The_Waco_Kid's Avatar
It is exactly that. A Ponzi scheme designed to steal from the ignorant.

I have railed against bitcoin and other crypto since last Summer in the Dallas Forum. Someone started a thread... ''The crypto craze''. I challenged posters to explain why it is valuable, how you know what it is worth? None could tell me. Most responded with ''it is going to be the new currency''. I asked why did it crash in 2018? Crickets.

The funniest shit I hear about bitcoin and crypto, is that it's an inflation hedge, a store of value. Huh?? Man, people can be so ignorant. Originally Posted by Chung Tran

it's not an inflation hedge. it's not a ponzi scheme either. it was designed to be a internet based currency using the blockchain mining concept to make it an independent and open source banking mechanism.


Mining is what runs bitcoin and maintains a ledger (blockchain) of all transactions that logs who owns what bitcoins. The ledger is distributed and stored on all mining computers. Groups of miners called Pools verify transaction algorithms. These are 256bit encrypted (SHA-256). As algorithms get solved and bitcoin transfers are confirmed, miners are paid in bitcoin. The difficulty of these algorithms is ever changing to maintain a steady flow of bitcoin rewards. As more hash power (computing power) is added to the network the difficulty goes up.

The transactional security is from the number of miners in the network that have to confirm a transaction. You can't just hack one and steal the transfer. You'd have to guess which miners are involved out of hundreds of thousands to be able to intercept a transaction.

The network is self sustaining, as the BTC price drops it actually can become unprofitable to mine. It can be better for miners to turn off their machines as it takes more electricity to run the miner than the btc reward they can get. As less hash power is available the difficulty auto adjusts to maintain a steady flow of BTC rewards. A miner losing money is still paid Bitcoin so a lot leave them on still, as the BTC price increases they can still turn a profit.

Every 4 years the reward amount is cut in half. Usually a large increase in price of BTC follows. One day in next 10-20-30 years 1 BTC will be worth in the millions. But it will fluctuate. Originally Posted by royamcr

perfect description of the bitcoin environment and the mining process, without the mining process which was meant to keep crypto independent there is no bitcoin. and the built in factors regulate the value and prevent control i.e. keeping the concept independent.


and most importantly viable as a transaction currency


Terrific. You told us how it works. Now tell me why it's valuable to me as an investment. Originally Posted by Chung Tran

why do you buy a stock? because you think it's going to go up in value. if it does your investment goes up. of course like corporate stocks the value goes up and goes down. unlike stocks bitcoin does not pay a dividend to you as a holder. it does pay a dividend to miners. which keeps it self sustaining as a transaction currency.


the key to holders of bitcoin as an investment is to cash out at peaks and buy at lows. sound familiar? just like the stock market.


while bitcoin has no tangible assets like a corporation it has tangible profits to miners who sustain the process. the mining process makes bitcoin (and all other crypto) self sustaining like a corporation that is profitable.
If you say so.... lol WTF happened we agree on something.
The_Waco_Kid's Avatar
If you say so.... lol WTF happened we agree on something. Originally Posted by royamcr

because you are right and Chung isn't. yeah it's that simple
I was wrong in saying the blockchain logs who owns what. Bitcoin holders either individually or through an exchange have keys which are a set of numbers that coincide with which blocks they own... There are a large number of bitcoin that are lost forever because the keys were lost or discarded or simply forgotten about when the value was very low.
Miners invest in equipment just like any business with an expected ROI at some point. Mining hardware is getting more and more powerful and efficient so at some point mining hardware is replaced. You can still sell the old hardware, someone can still make money off of it but the value is diminished.
Chung Tran's Avatar
Guys, I get what bitcoin is, and its functionality. Miners are not paid dividends. They are paid to mine. Dividends are paid from earnings and profits.

You say it is like a stock? Yeah, I get it, what you are saying. But again, how do you decide what to pay for it? You keep ducking me on that question.

Bitcoin is down 60% in 14 months. And in a bit of a free fall as I type. Why?

Don't say ''it's a risky asset''.. No shit it is. Why would I buy it today? Is $30,000 a good entry point? Why?