Posted on 01/01/2021 7:51:20 AM PST by AggregateThreat
The figures underscore what many have described as an ongoing liquidity squeeze in Bitcoin, where large buyers suck up any available supply and remove it from circulation, sending it to cold storage for long-term hodling.
As Cointelegraph reported, the phenomenon was already visible in November, but December saw a clear increase in demand from Grayscale and other institutional entities.
(Excerpt) Read more at cointelegraph.com ...
Tell that to the GFX card market.
The utility of the blockchain is the value of bitcoin.
The uses are not even beginning to hit mainstream. The blockchain will eventually become the arbitrator of “truth.”
The easiest example is the transfer of local asset titles to the blockchain. A land title search that took days and cost $500 can be confirmed in seconds for no cost. Because of the nature of the system, it provides value.
A dollar had value because it is backed by the government. But the government continually devalues the currency by adding more. Bitcoin’s value is what two parties agree what it is. It is the simplest form of barter known to man.
Do not confuse the bitcoin network with general digital currency or crypto currencies. Those are very different flavors. And as soon as “Central Bank Digital Currencies” are issued, people will realize that Bitcoin does the same stuff—only better and without government intervention.
I urge folks to learn about this and not dismiss it out of hand.
“Who or what stands behind Bitcoin?”
Same thing that makes gold a store of value. The rarity and impossibility of creating a fake. And the ability for it to stay the same even if your central government/bank fiat collapses.
It’s not like pieces of paper or ledgers in a bank that someone can easily alter. The value of crypto is in the uniqueness of the inherent mathematics which cannot be altered by any entirety in this universe. Math is math nomatter what.
Just as the value in gold is the rarity of it’s atomic structure. It exists that way and always will now nomatter what anyone does.
Until advanced quantum computers can break encryption, it will remain a store of value for this reason.
Just like gold will have value until particle science can cheaply create gold.
Is the market for crypto currency open to influence from central governments? Of course. But only in the exact same way gold is influenced by government- by changing the fiat currency relationship to gold, outlawing gold or buying/dumping vast amounts of gold on the market. If it exists, nothing is 100% safe from government power.
“If you had to pack your bags and flee someplace, which would you prefer? Dollars? Or, Bitcoin?”
Depends on the place and political situation but many expats today use bitcoin precisely for that reason. It can’t be found by customs or taxed if used with proper anonymous precautions.
But with bitcoin you can anonymously transit anywhere on the planet with near infinite amounts of value with only a hash number. As long as anonymous access to the internet remains possible.
Gold has the benefit of being decentralized and valuable even if the internet is fully shut down. But you will NEVER slip a substantial amount of gold past any customs.
Of course ANY circumvention of government fiat control would become impossible in a total digital surveillance state. Gold, bitcoin, wampum, barter could all be outlawed in theory if they can watch 24/7. That is why fighting for privacy at every turn is so important
I wonder if your landlord noticed the difference. Can I buy a miner and have you hook it up? LOL.
First, you need to really read up on the tulip craze...the Madness book got it almost all wrong.
Second, you don’t seem to understand the fundamentals of how this works and how it is a superior form of currency and transfer system.
Either that or meth.
You may have noticed the recent decline in the dollar index. The number of markets running away from the dollar is escalating. BTC might not be the answer...but trillion dollar deficits don’t seem to be working either.
Bitcoin is a Ponzi scheme.
“ As most responsible investors realize Bitcoin is selling “fresh air in a can”. Even with China trying to make their crypto the reserve currency of the world so arms and drug dealers don’t have to use dollars, the scam is not going to work. There is no legitimate use case for anonymous currency transactions.”
Using your post to springboard into some comments...
1. The vast majority of “responsible” investors have no frame of reference for blockchain. They are buying unmanaged indexes and assuming the markets will grow to the sky with no safety controls. Time will burst their self-fulfilling bubble.
2. All Gov’t currencies will eventually be crypto tokens. The reserve currency will likely be a basket of various country crypto-currencies.
3. There are no anonymous transactions with Bitcoin for US citizens. The IRS tracks US citizen Bitcoin transactions. The IRS treats Bitcoin as an asset. Other countries treat it as a currency with no taxes due on buys or sells. Actually makes more sense.
4. Bitcoin is a fantastic way to transfer money cheaply and quickly. I paid a bill in Asia from here in less than 5 minutes - with no cost to do so, as an example. Wiring payment through my bank is expensive, invasive, and my bank would’ve had to fill out a suspicious transaction report. Perfectly legal, but the US is bureaucratic as is our banking system.
5. Other blockchain cryptos like ETH are being used for all kinds of serious business applications - self-executing contracts, whole companies formed only online and business conducted only online.
6. Nothing grows to the sky forever... including BTC. Despite the justifications for $100k/ coin.
7. It’s not going away.
Know a guy who mines. Electrical costs, noise, and expense of new machines/pc tech to mine make it difficult to compete with rooms of racked mining machines/PCs.
He’s spent too many coins and now regrets it, of course.
“ Bitcoin is a Ponzi scheme.
Social Security
I’ve mortgaged the house and bet all of my money into tulips. laugh now but they’re going to be real big before long.
That’s the problem with bitcoin as a currency. Because of its limited supply nobody will want to use it to buy things. They would rather hoard it for appreciation.
The same thing would happen to gold if we returned to a gold standard.
Yeah, but as soon as the United States ceases to exist that "willingness" would be gone probably even before it happened, and stay that way for a century or more.
(Not so with US issued silver or gold coins.)
ML/NJ
Thank you for best post on this thread. TRUTH.
My son a computer genius got me into cryptocurrency when it first began, was mining his own until electricity bill was more than what he mined.
My crypto gambles (NOT an investment) have returned me more than 20x what I put in. No investment I ever did had that return. No complaints here.
Son says Bitcoin will go to $50k. Maybe even $100k someday.
Probably not. Just look at how popular dollars are in the third world. You think any of them give a damn about the existence of the US? What matters is other people will take them. The history of currency is the history of the masses willingness to accept a transitional product in barter. Issuers, governments, none of that matters. Look up the history of counterfeit British coppers. People were willing to take money they KNEW was counterfeit, for a lower value than the real thing, but still willing to take it in trade, and spend it. The counterfeits were so popular that THEY got counterfeited. There developed a whole layers value system: real coppers, high end fake coppers, lower end fakes, it was wild. Government’s got nothing to do with it. People decide what money they’ll take, and it’s based on their ability to give it to others.
I knew I’d find one person who would make the analogy.
Bitcoin is exhibiting characteristic money panics, which were common when the dollar was fixed to gold. The Reserve Bank was supposed to cure that, but only succeeds when it uses inflation to restart a money panic recession.
Back to the future.
They might be mining Alt coins. News to me.
I think it’s great that lots of people are making money with this but it is a ponzi scheme.
Yes lots of dollars are being printed and sent around the world. The reason for that is the dollar is the reserve currency and in order to maintain that status the dollars need to flow to other countries. We can do that in several ways. One is to send money directly overseas. Another is to have businesses and military bases set up in lots of countries to dump dollars into their economies.
I haven’t looked but is there really a correlation between the dollar and BTC? What happens if the dollar is replaced? Whats a bitcoin worth then?
IMO the only reason this is taking off is it is now easier than ever to invest on the exchange. This may very well go to 100k and i could just as easily go to 1 dollar if everyone decides to dump it.
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