Bitcoin has 21 million coins. That’s it, no more can be created. They’ve only actually released a certain amount of that.
If the Euro was a standalone currency like Bitcoin,(even in physical form),then it would have been easily acceptable to all nations.The exchange rate would be set individually against nations currencies,and bingo,no EU-inspired debt-fuelled Greek lunacy
This is very true but an inseparable element of both investment and speculation is risk. Bitcoin is currently a bubble, it is drawing in speculators who hope to make profits but to sell bitcoin there has to be a buyer willing to pay a price, sooner or later those buyers will become fearful and there will be a price collapse to a more reasonable level. At these elevated valuations it probably is a zero sum game and there will inevitably be some big losers holding overvalued bitcoin along with some winners who have sold some or all of theirs.
i will add, my mate stu who develops the tech and buys in to bitcoin was always at the pyramid sales game back in the day. tho he couldn't convince me. and i loves a wee flutter on a sure thing .
The interesting technology behind bitcoin is blockchain where each and every transaction becomes part of the total record and therefore cannot be falsified. There is a chain of blocks going back to the very first transaction and each and every subsequent transaction has been coded in such a way as to be unbreakable. I don't claim to understand anything about how it is done but the concept is pretty amazing.
That's not quite the whole story though. Right now,if I had a particularly valuable car or whatever to sell,(I don't),and some rich feller wanted to buy it and pay me a lot of cash, if I wanted to store it safely questions may well be asked by my bank,(on behalf of the Government), as to where I had obtained the cash. Notwithstanding Bradders points about criminality & yada yada yada,my personal view is,what the hell is it to do with the government what I sell my stuff for and to whom,and for how much. But if I accept Bitcoin as payment,(apart from taking the risk as to whether the value of the BC rises or falls-my choice),no one knows how much I have,nor how I obtained it,nor,(without passing the relevant security locks which are pretty tight),can they take it away from me. At the moment HMRC appear to see buying Bitcoin as an investment and making money as a gamble and therefore betting regulation applies,i.e there is no tax on gambling profits, nor can the losses be offset against profits,but that currency speculation gains are taxable.Yeah...I know...difficult to work out which is which... Enthusiasm for Crypto or the opposite could almost be described as political (amongst the honest): if you like big government and you don't mind them poking their noses and regulating everything that moves,you'll be against. If,(like me),you think that government should be as small as possible and only deal with things that only government can do,you are probably a fan.
Exactly what it is. I hope people haven't sunk their life savings into this or make life changing decisions based on it...
The slight difference is that a pyramid leaves nothing behind when it collapses whereas with bitcoin you are left with something tangible albeit it is based upon ones and zeros and the value of bitcoin is unlikely to fall to nothing.
Definitely. Control of currency is about more than economics. Already in France it is illegal, IIRC, to pay for anything in cash for more than 1000 Euros. In an earlier thread I remember @Pete1950 saying Bitcoin was essentially a currency for criminals and the black economy (or words to that effect) and he is right but I also agree with you @Lightning_650 that what I do with my money, as long as I have obtained it legally and paid the relevant taxes, is nobodies business but my own. However the reality is that we are all serfs.
Look some fructose synthetic sugary chocolate containing lots of GMO-corn syrup that the american people are not allowed to know is in its ingredients.
Which sounds all very social justice warrior self importance, till you notice they were made in Holland
Absolutely. However July 2011 was the first big rise and fall for the bit coin went from a dollar to $31 a coin and not long after went back down to £2
Socialism and Communism are philosophies based upon the right of the State to steal from it's citizens,and that any attempt by individuals to keep assets the State wants is a crime. Therefore everyone must be suspected/controlled/governed. Conservatives/Republican philosophy is to allow the individual to keep the fruits of their labours,(or at least it was: this Government is far more like New Labour,and less like a conservative,than any Tory government I've ever known). Criminality takes place under both types of government...if anything that's an indictment of how pathetic governments of both hues and the juduciary have become in their response to dealing with crime. I don't believe that everyone should be denied something because of the actions of a few,and cryptocurrency is a good example of why not.
To quote Keynes “Lenin is said to have declared that the best way to destroy the Capitalist System was to debauch the currency. By a continuing process of inflation, governments can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens. By this method they not only confiscate, but they confiscate arbitrarily; and, while the process impoverishes many, it actually enriches some. The sight of this arbitrary rearrangement of riches strikes not only at security, but at confidence in the equity of the existing distribution of wealth.” The price or value of 21Million Bitcoins is set by the users of Bitcoin, unlike sovereign currencies. Governments cannot print more just because it suits their short-term objectives, but then printing money is occasionally an essential element of managing an economy.
