BITCOIN

Zola.

Reaper said:

Scottex99 said:

BTC now legal tender in El Salvador and DOGE is a sh11tcoin yep 

It's an utterly ridiculous announcement. I can only imagine it's PR. Bitcoin is completely wrong as a currency, not least because it is volatile and can't handle large numbers of transactions.

If he had announced a StableCoin was to be used as a national currency then I might have thought he was serious. Still unwise but serious. But Bitcoin as a nation currency is a joke.

Not really. They will use the Lightning network for speedy transactions. Its happening.. 

Zola.

me1000uk said:

What I'm not sure about is why many in the crypto space aren't just honest about what they want from it. 

Currently:
cyptopeople: Sell your  homes, sell your body, invest everything in the new gold otherwise have fun staying poor - NOT FINANCIAL ADVICE.
Translation : I have invested plenty of money in this emerging technology and needs further investment to fuel prices for my benefit. I will claim it isn't financial advice but it really really is because it benefits my finances.

low income investor: Hmm  is it worth investing in cryptocurrency? Seems a bit of a gamble but plenty seem to be doing it.
Translation: People have made so much money and these mega rich kids on twitter must be on to something, hopefully if I listen to their advice I'll get rich quick before the world catches on.

The middle ground is just obfuscation and debates related to various forms of investment.

Whilst it may have a future, and it's interesting to be involved in something ever-changing. I feel it is important to ignore the obfuscation and analogies about gold and stocks and shares or the perils of fiat currency and just be honest about what this space entails.

People want to invest a thousand hoping it'll turn to 50,000 instead of 200, is completely different to people investing a thousand hoping it'll turn to 2500 instead of 200. As decentralised as the claims are, the method of purchase/storing/transacting is done via exchanges that essentially are single points of failure with no legislative backing; there's ways to increase security but the exchanges are dominant. For exchanges to be regulated or the money to be usable it absolutely will need some form of developed government backing in which case it ceases to become what it should be and inevitably loses value? 

I'm not anti crypto conceptually and feel there is a future with it, but I guess I'd want the space to be more honest with people's livelihoods instead of the MLM style hype. I would love recommendations of educational and honest commentators on crypto rather than hype merchants (Do they even exist?). In my opinion the likes of MSE should absolutely treat it as a gamble at this stage and tell people it's an absolute gamble, and the pro-crypto people should focus on educational content rather than piggyback on the safety of government backed assets/banks/companies and claim crypto is remotely in the same ballpark.  Is it not a glaring aspect that 'cryptocurrency' isn't now a currency when it was supposed to be one? 

People only use exchanges to buy their crypto. Noone in the right mind would leave significant amounts on the exchange. They are generally sent to a non custodial private wallet where it is 100% decentralised and not controlled by anyone, except the owner (or if you give someone your seed phrase they will have control).

Blue_Sky

Scottex99 said:

BTC now legal tender in El Salvador and DOGE is a sh11tcoin yep 

I don't know how accurate some of the details in the article linked below are, but it makes for interesting reading.
El Salvador to adopt proprietary payment network denominated in Bitcoin – Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain (davidgerard.co.uk)

Scottex99

Adyinvestment said:

Scottex99 said:

BTC now legal tender in El Salvador 

This could be very interesting, if (not been approved yet) this comes to fruition this has got to be huge for Bitcoin.

Would that mean that Bitcoin would not be subject to capital gains tax as it would be a foreign currency? 

Supposedly no CGT as you said. But El S is basically a failed state and it's not been approved so remains to be seen how this will play out, interesting though

Zola.

Would agree, whether it works out for them or not is one thing, but many developing countries with a large number of unbanked citizens will be looking at this and wanting to get in on it. 

Zola.

Paraguay now suggesting they will do the same...

https://twitter.com/carlitosrejala/status/1401712725886132224

Blue_Sky

I wonder how the US managed to get back the ransom paid in bitcoin from the bad guys?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-57394041

China clamping down on crypto currencies, probably because they want to introduce their own.
https://www.theguardian....judgment-day-for-bitcoin

[Deleted User]

Cryptocurrencies continue to be volatile as they plunged on Tuesday morning amid a sell-off after former US president Donald Trump said bitcoin was a "scam".

“Bitcoin, it just seems like a scam,” he told Fox Business. “I don’t like it because it’s another currency competing against the dollar… I want the dollar to be the currency of the world. That’s what I’ve always said.”

Back in 2019 when he was president, he had said he was “not a fan” of cryptocurrencies.

In a tweet, he had said at the time cryptos “facilitate unlawful behaviour, including drug trade and other illegal activity”

Bitcoin was down 8.5%, to trade at $32,871 ($23,252).

Ethereum (ETH-USD) — the world's second largest crypto by market cap — fell about 9% and was trading at $2,498. Meme-inspired dogecoin (DOGE-USD) plunged 12.6% to trade at $0.324.

I reckon the biggest danger to cryptocurrencies is the reality that politics always trumps economics, if you can excuse the pun.

Zola.

The US dollar is crumbling before our eyes, over 35% of the total supply has been printed in the last year alone. 
Bitcoin and other cryptos are a genuine threat to the petrodollar, especially with countries like Russia not wanting to touch dollars now, along with developing nations wanting to get into Bitcoin.

That's why Donald can't make his mind up, is it a "scam", or is it "competing" with the US dollar? Surely it can't be both. 

I genuinely worry that we are fast headed for a massive global social-economic collapse. 

[Deleted User]

The USA can, and will, print as many more dollars as it deems favourable because it has the military hardware and the real estate to back it up. All the money in the world wouldn’t buy Wyoming. So stop worrying about $ and start worrying about bitcoin, Zola. All the bitcoin in the world couldn’t buy Facebook.