BITCOIN

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.

Zola.

Bitcoin can never be destroyed, but we may be entering a long bear market now until the next cycle, who knows. Everyone has an opinion. I have a modest personal goal with my bitcoin and I will pound cost average in every month regardless until I make it. So right now it's a great buying opportunity. Bitcoin only represents 5% of my investments, so it's a good hedge in my view.

On the money printing, governments can't keep printing forever at anywhere near this scale without serious ramifications. 
History shows us that currency debasement is how empires collapse. 

[Deleted User]

Do you agree Alaska is worth more than the $2 million USA paid for it, Zola?

Would you have sold it for $4 million, the year after?

lozzy1965

Zola. said:

On the money printing, governments can't keep printing forever at anywhere near this scale without serious ramifications. 
History shows us that currency debasement is how empires collapse. 

Agree with your 5%...good hedge comment, and stance.
I have been thinking about the 'governments printing money' thing for a while now.  Can I throw this thought out there for comment:
If one, or a limited number of countries print lots of money, then their currency devalues against 'the rest'.  If ALL countries are printing money (or at least all the significant ones) then there is no devaluation, because there is no 'rest'?

Funnily enough, whilst typing this, the thought occurred to me.  What is Bitcoin mining if it isn't essentially 'printing money'?  

Scottex99

lozzy1965 said:

Zola. said:

On the money printing, governments can't keep printing forever at anywhere near this scale without serious ramifications. 
History shows us that currency debasement is how empires collapse. 

Agree with your 5%...good hedge comment, and stance.
I have been thinking about the 'governments printing money' thing for a while now.  Can I throw this thought out there for comment:
If one, or a limited number of countries print lots of money, then their currency devalues against 'the rest'.  If ALL countries are printing money (or at least all the significant ones) then there is no devaluation, because there is no 'rest'?

Funnily enough, whilst typing this, the thought occurred to me.  What is Bitcoin mining if it isn't essentially 'printing money'?  

Mining is receiving a reward for maintaining the network and verifying transactions. All within the fixed supply of 21m BTC, total.

To compare it to money printing is the equivalent of some miner mining a further 10m BTC out of the blue therefore crashing the price of the asset as it's no longer a scarce store of value.

On the FBI thing, the DoJ will always be vague as it's clear they got access to the private guy by requesting it from a 3rd party, like an exchange. If they'd truly hacked it, BTC would already be at 0 as all the wallets in the world would be at risk

Zola.

Yeah they totally got that via an exchange sharing the information,  at the end of the day transactions can be seen transparently on the blockchain by anyone, so the narrative that it will be used successfully by cybercrime in this format will eventually change.
That's why the KYC regulations came about on exchanges ultimately, to catch people doing dodgy stuff when they actually try to cash out and they have followed the digital trail...