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 ...
“But this is exactly what happens when you accept Federal Reserve Notes in payment for goods or services. :)”
And yet I’ve never yet been screwed a single time using this stuff for currency, other than slow inflation.
But you lost about 10% of your value almost instantly, for no external reasos, as shown in the core article
this thread.
Why even play in such an arena?
When I lived in Switzerland we used to love to watch Alf on tv in English. Then, a year or so ago, I was walking out of a medical plaza in Hollywood, and the man next to me spoke. THAT VOICE COULD ONLY HAVE BEEN THE VOICE OF THE OLD MAN WHO LIVED WITH ALF. Yep, it was him. Such a funny blast from the past.
On any one of the exchanges. Coinbase will do that as part of their merchant programs.
A solar emp would only take out half of the earth. You would have to take out the entire world to shut it down.
An argument could be made that ANY currency is useless then. Except for maybe silver which could be used to build motors to get us going again.
You do not know what you are talking about.
True but walking around with a drum in your pants isn’t comfortable. ;-)
It is backed by the same element that backs the US dollar. Gullibility. At least the US Dollar is lying on the furniture of empire. How many aircraft carriers do the supporters of bitcoin have. As with all of the madnesses of crowds, the nimble will do well.
It’s Greek to me!
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