$260 billion ‘cryptocalypse’ as cryptos plunge 30 per cent amid fresh China, South Korea fears

news.com.au ^ | 1/17/2018 | Frank Chung

[RightGeek]

THE cryptocurrency market has lost $US206 billion overnight in what traders are describing as a “cryptocalypse”, with bitcoin heading back towards its $US10,000 milestone first reached last November.

But it was smaller currencies including ripple, ethereum and bitcoin cash that were the hardest hit in the latest sell-off, which was sparked by fresh fears of a crackdown on virtual currencies by governments in South Korea and China.

At the time of writing, ripple was down nearly 50 per cent on the previous day, ethereum had lost nearly 34 per cent of its value, bitcoin cash was down nearly 37 per cent and bitcoin was down 27 per cent to just under $US10,200.

The market capitalisation of more than 1300 cryptocurrencies has dropped by around 30 per cent over the past 24 hours, down from $US702 billion to $US496 billion, according to Coinmarketcap.

[SNIP]

[RightGeek]

From Australia where it is 1/17 already.

[DoughtyOne]

Admittedly, I know nothing about BitCoin, but it has seemed to me to be a fleecing just waiting to happen.

[raiderboy]

I have no sympathy for idiots that do santa clause or bit coin. I am very familiar with this scam and I want to assure you that it is bull $hit and tulip bulbs. The human mind is so easily duped into insane stupidity as when they voted for obama but here it takes their money and future and grinds it into nothingness, If you have bit coin do your best to get some of your money out . It is very difficult but hang in there until actual money is retrieved. This illusion is going to zero value quickly.

[PlateOfShrimp]

I have no opinion or stake in this game, but considering that Bitcoin was considered to be a “bubble” when it was at $100, and likewise at $1000, I am not sure I would call dropping back to “only” $10k to be an “apocalypse”

[Inyo-Mono]

I’m glad that I never fell for the BitCoin scam. I mean really, how can one realistically “mine” money from the internet?

[Crucial]

Knew this was coming.

[Deaf Smith]

I read mining as stealing other’s bitcoins that are not well secured in cyber vaults.

[Lurkinanloomin]

It has always struck me as completely imaginary money.
It’s no surprise if it goes “poof”.

[DoughtyOne]

I picture some guy in a small dark back room with a visor saying, “What’s mine is mine, and what’s yours is mine.”

That’s how you mine on the internet.

[Flick Lives]

The Virtual Tulip Craze

[DoughtyOne]

I’ve seem some explanations of what was backing it.

It didn’t seem to be a very strong case, but I honestly haven’t studied it much.

The highs and lows sort of speak for themselves > IMO.

[DoughtyOne]

Two words that should probably never go together.

crypto & currency

[Gasshog]

Ripple was down.

I take it this one is not the Champagne of cryptos.

[Gasshog]

Ripple was down

I downed some Ripple myself once and sure enough it came back up! Buy and hold it works!

[Keyhopper]

Fool & money?

[DoughtyOne]

I remember one night at a high school dance, and someone who handed me a gallon size bottle of the cheapest wine known to mankind.

Ah, those were the days...

[DoughtyOne]

Yes, but someone will always come along to separate those two.

LOL

[JoeRed]

Regarding Ripple, for those with an open mind:
https://ripple.com/xrp/

[NorseViking]

Wait till it would be back to $11 and think about people who bought for $11000.

[who_would_fardels_bear]

Real mining involves large numbers of people and/or huge equipment tearing masses of ore out of the ground and refining it into useful metals.

Internet mining is computers using ever-increasing amounts of energy to solve evermore difficult math problems. Those who solve a particular problem first win a coin. The problems are made ever harder so that the growth of the coin supply is approximately logarithmic.

This guarantees that the demand will over time outstrip the supply so long as the hype is sustained.

Besides the amount of power required to solve problems, there is also the amount of power required to energize all of the servers that maintain the encrypted coin information. Evidently every bit of information on every coin is stored on every server in order to guarantee the integrity of the coinage. This means that over time the amount of disk space required will grow exponentially.

There is a real fear that if cryptocurrency becomes a sustained form of currency that the world will quickly run out of sufficient energy to keep all the servers running.

So the idea that bitcoin, etc. are ephemera would actually be a good thing. There will be cries among global warmists to end cryptocurrency, not only because of the wealth hiding /tax evasion issues, but also because it could kill polar bears.