Posted on 03/18/2017 2:08:03 PM PDT by Jyotishi
Just under $2 billion has been wiped off the value of bitcoin in under three days as a fight over the future of the technology underpinning the cryptocurrency wages on.
Bitcoin was trading at around $1,142.60 at time of publication, giving it a market cap of $18.53 billion, according to CoinDesk data. This is down from highs of $1,255.32 on Tuesday, which valued the total bitcoin pile at $20.36 billion.
Meanwhile, rival cryptocurrency ether is up over 84 percent from highs of $29.87 on Tuesday to trading at all-time highs of around $55 on Friday, according to Coinmarketcap.com. The market captilization shot from $2.68 billion to $4.95 billion. It is the only other cryptocurrency to be valued at over $1 billion.
Much of the inverse price movement stems from traders' worries over the future of bitcoin and the underpinning blockchain technology.
What's happened?
To understand the issue, it's key to look at how bitcoin transactions are processed. Transactions by users are gathered into "blocks" which is turned into a complex math solution. So-called miners, using high-powered computers work these solutions out to determine if the transaction is possible. Once other miners also check the puzzle is correct, the transactions are approved and the miners are rewarded in bitcoin.
But there's a massive backlog of transactions in bitcoin that are waiting to happen. The number of outstanding transactions is up more than four times from just six months ago, according to data from bitcoin wallet Blockchain. This is bad for a system that has promised fast and cheaper transactions than the traditional financial system.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnbc.com ...
Can somebody explain in plain English what bitcoin is and how it works?
I’ve read a couple articles about it. And I read the Wikipedia entry for it, and I still don’t understand.
Sorry if I sound like an idiot but I’m just not comprehending what it is, why bitcoin has value, or why people consider it an asset similar to cash.
I totally do not understand that.
When Bitcoin colapses, because it must, because it is such a lucrative target for hackers, even government supposed ones, “investors” will be the first to demand government relief.
Remember, like Florida Swamp Land, the people telling how safe it is, how great it is, and how much money they made.... are the people trying the hardest to scam you!
It’s some kind of internet currency which has nothing to back it up such as a gold standard.
I have no idea what gives it its value.
You can use this stuff to buy and sell and trade on the internet for real things from what I understand.
I am going to the following site to understand it myself:
Still Don’t Get Bitcoin? Here’s an Explanation Even a Five-Year-Old Will Understand
http://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-explained-five-year-old/
What makes bitcoin worth anything at all?
I can help with the Economics of Bitcoin. ALL forms of money represent three and ONLY three things.
1) It is a sub-divisible medium of exchange. This means that other people will accept it in exchange for the goods or services provided to the buyer. Furthermore the the form the money takes can be subdivided sufficiently to provide a fine granularity. You can think of this as getting change back from your dollar.
2) It is a store of value. This means that the money you accepted holds its value in anticipation of a future transaction. Think of this as saving your wages to buy a car.
3) It is a means of accounting. Think of this as just a relative measure of how successful you have been in trading goods and services relative to meeting your basic needs.
This is what money is. It is nothing more. The physical form, or in the case of bitcoin, lack of form is irrelevant provided that it meets the three tests above.
"Ceterum censeo Islam esse delendam."
Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)
I’ve read article after article, I understand more about quantum mechanics than bitcoins. Goofiest thing out there, bitcoins.
Quarters, Dimes, Nickles, and Pennies just seem SO much simpler to understand ...
Crude Oil would seem to work fairly well as money...
“What makes bitcoin worth anything at all?”
nothing more than the greater fool theory.
I was going to buy some until I read that China is going for its own digital coin.. Also, the Fed is talking about too.
Maybe it should have been written by a 5 year old for better instancing. Looks like a scam.
BFLR
What's in your safe?
“In multitasking operating systems, processes (running programs) need a way to create new processes, e.g. to run other programs. Fork and its variants are typically the only way of doing so in Unix-like systems. For a process to start the execution of a different program, it first forks to create a copy of itself. Then, the copy, called the “child process”, calls the exec system call to overlay itself with the other program: it ceases execution of its former program in favor of the other.”
:-)
“if you see a fork in the road, take it”.
———————Yogi Berra————————
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.