Cryptocurrencies

[roughlyright]

"So you should ask yourself, what has changed to cryptos in the span of 12 months to justify such move?"

Four major things changed for Bitcoin during 2017:
1) Attained critical mass. Coming together of enough early adopters outside of the IT/developer community, for social media to take it main stream. 12 months ago it was just a 'thing', now everyone wants to know how to buy/sell them.
2) 'Asset' recognition. Individually, we may be positive that Bitcoin is a 'tulip'; but if the folks that matter declare Bitcoin to be an 'asset', our opinion really doesn't matter.
3) It became credible in NA. Bitcoin was the example, that moved business conversation onto the blockchain technology that runs it. 
4) It became mainstream. R3 Corda ledger tests were successful, providing the pipes to enable financial regulators/institutions to 'safely' participate in crypto currency investment. The outcome has been derivatives on Bitcoin, that enable institutions to control risk.

Given the large quantity of really bad ICO's issued in 2017, & the bad taste they are leaving; most would expect 2018 to see some of the air leave the bubble. The point here is that adoption 'events' are determining the valuation, not the technology itself.

SD

For example gold and human beings coexisted on this planet a long time before gold was used as money.  What happened? Gold didn't change, but all of the sudden it had value where it previously did not.

very well said Rkbabang!

[Liberty]

https://twitter.com/matt_levine/status/951187218621747200

[Liberty]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-01-12/crypto-exchange-kraken-goes-dark-and-user-anxiety-surges

[rkbabang]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-01-12/crypto-exchange-kraken-goes-dark-and-user-anxiety-surges

Considering they went down for scheduled maintenance and haven't come back up, I'm assuming that they haven't been hacked (you don't usually schedule being hacked) and are just having unexpected technical difficulties with their upgrades.  But as I've said a bunch of times by now: Don't leave any balance in an exchange.  If you must use an exchange, make a deposit, make a trade, make a withdrawal.  The whole process should take about 10-30min depending on the coins involved.  Get in then get back out as quickly as you can.

[gary17]

rkbabang- It seems hard to avoid exchanges outright as to buy a crypto one must use an exchange... right?   The only other option I know of is a crypto ATM.

i have been reading lots and learning and playing around with a tiny amount just so i know what's going on.  still a big philosophical thing for me to see how the government couldn't just come in and say no more crypto...   trump could just tweet tomorrow he's going to outlaw crypto and this thing could free fall IMO....  hmmm  i haven't been convinced how it could be completely independent of government.

[clutch]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-01-12/crypto-exchange-kraken-goes-dark-and-user-anxiety-surges

Considering they went down for scheduled maintenance and haven't come back up, I'm assuming that they haven't been hacked (you don't usually schedule being hacked) and are just having unexpected technical difficulties with their upgrades.  But as I've said a bunch of times by now: Don't leave any balance in an exchange.  If you must use an exchange, make a deposit, make a trade, make a withdrawal.  The whole process should take about 10-30min depending on the coins involved.  Get in then get back out as quickly as you can.

https://www.google.ca/amp/s/blog.kraken.com/post/1449/kraken-returns-with-free-trading/amp/

[UNF2007]

http://www.businessinsider.com/buying-bitcoin-from-las-vegas-atm-2018-1

Just read this article, is this true about the transaction fee being 40-45$ now? If so it seems absurd anyone would use this as a medium of exchange for small transactions.

[Gamecock-YT]

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/13/style/bitcoin-millionaires.html

At a jazz bar a few days later, I run into Mr. Fickel’s personal trainer, Alan Chen, who is now running in this crypto circle. Mr. Fickel had convinced Mr. Chen to put his savings into Ethereum.

“I’m retired, man,” Mr. Chen said. “I’m moving to L.A. next week. I got a penthouse on Marina del Rey.”

“Don’t say I’m retired,” he added. “I’m going into business now. I’m going to use blockchain to help personal trainers.”


nuts

[UNF2007]

Read through that article, it's interesting they say 95% of the crypto money is owned by 5% of the 13 million investors. Very top heavy. The guy talking about ICO's ( initial coin offering) was also crazy, people inventing new cryptocurrency and then selling it to the public, taking the money and cashing out. In my mind they are basically bypassing the valuation problem, by calling stuff currency. If you were trying to IPO a business, that had no assetts, cash flow etc. that would be a tough sell, but instead of shares call it xxxcoin and your golden.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/13/style/bitcoin-millionaires.html

At a jazz bar a few days later, I run into Mr. Fickel’s personal trainer, Alan Chen, who is now running in this crypto circle. Mr. Fickel had convinced Mr. Chen to put his savings into Ethereum.

“I’m retired, man,” Mr. Chen said. “I’m moving to L.A. next week. I got a penthouse on Marina del Rey.”

“Don’t say I’m retired,” he added. “I’m going into business now. I’m going to use blockchain to help personal trainers.”


nuts

[Liberty]

https://techcrunch.com/2018/01/15/researchers-finds-that-one-person-likely-drove-bitcoin-from-150-to-1000/

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16152050