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Bitcoin’s last stand
The European Central Bank Blog ^ | 11/30/2022 | Ulrich Bindseil and Jürgen Schaaf

Posted on 11/30/2022 7:43:46 PM PST by catnipman

Bitcoin's conceptual design and technological shortcomings make it questionable as a means of payment: real Bitcoin transactions are cumbersome, slow and expensive. Bitcoin has never been used to any significant extent for legal real-world transactions.

Bitcoin is also not suitable as an investment. It does not generate cash flow (like real estate) or dividends (like equities), cannot be used productively (like commodities) or provide social benefits (like gold). The market valuation of Bitcoin is therefore based purely on speculation.

Speculative bubbles rely on new money flowing in. Bitcoin has also repeatedly benefited from waves of new investors. The manipulations by individual exchanges or stablecoin providers etc. during the first waves are well documented

It’s also worth noting that the Bitcoin system is an unprecedented polluter. First, it consumes energy on the scale of entire economies. Bitcoin mining is estimated to consume electricity per year comparable to Austria. Second, it produces mountains of hardware waste. One Bitcoin transaction consumes hardware comparable to the hardware of two smartphones. The entire Bitcoin system generates as much e-waste as the entire Netherlands.

(Excerpt) Read more at ecb.europa.eu ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Crime/Corruption; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: bitcoin; btc; crypto; ecb; eu
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To: catnipman

Bookmarked for the purpose of explaining to my daughter’s husband why I originally refused to get into bitcoin. He was all over it when Bitcoin was at $67,000 a share, and the whole thing made my spidy-sense kick into gear. I wanted no part of it, and still feel the same.


41 posted on 12/01/2022 3:58:22 AM PST by Chuzzlewit
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To: All

That makes #467:

https://99bitcoins.com/bitcoin-obituaries/

And the beat goes on...


42 posted on 12/01/2022 4:03:42 AM PST by Drago
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To: catnipman

——USD lives in FDIC insured and regulated banks-—

The US$ effectively resides on the electronic ledgers of insured and regulated banks. and many other such ledgers

Orlin J Grabbe is rolling over in his grave


43 posted on 12/01/2022 4:14:52 AM PST by bert ( (KWE. NP. N.C. +12) Juneteenth is inequality day)
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To: STJPII

“I am really watching Cathie Wood closely, she is either the smartest person in the room or the dumbest, after doubling down on Grayscale last week”

sounds like you’re paying attention ... as best as i can tell cathie wood is the dumbest, as she has an incredible record of picking major losers across the board ... she’s also made insane claims, like bitcoin was going to go to one million dollars each ... grayscale is a total loser: it’s a closed end fund whose shareholders can sell only to other people who want to be shareholders and is selling at about 46% discount to the underlying bitcoin that it holds, and has pretty much no chance of every being worth anything unless it can be converted to an ETF, which has been repeatedly rejected by U.S. regulating bodies ...


44 posted on 12/01/2022 4:28:37 AM PST by catnipman (In a post-covid world, ALL "science" is now political science: stolen elections have consequences)
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To: Organic Panic

“Invest in what you know.” yep, as per Mr. Peter Lynch formerly of Magellan Fund at Fidelity

“I am not wealthy by any means but aluminum, steel, and carbide have treated me well.”

for me it’s oil ... i bought into Shell big time for the dividend back during the covid crash when ALL stocks got thrown away for no good reason ... oil stocks were the babies in the bathwater ... shell was about 1/3 price from before the crash and selling for less than book value ... it’s one i had been studying for quite a while and that was the one and only perfect time to buy it ... my investment is yielding about a 7% dividend return in the 2nd biggest corporation in the world, and the stock price has nearly tripled

the world will always need industrial commodities and they all have built-in scarcity ...


45 posted on 12/01/2022 4:39:07 AM PST by catnipman (In a post-covid world, ALL "science" is now political science: stolen elections have consequences)
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To: Duke C.

of course, those who bought bit coin a year ago have lost 76% of their money ... some “investment”, hey?


46 posted on 12/01/2022 4:40:50 AM PST by catnipman (In a post-covid world, ALL "science" is now political science: stolen elections have consequences)
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To: Chuzzlewit

“spidy-sense” = if it’s too good to be true, then it’s too good to be true ...

and on top of that, you have a useless and nearly incomprehensible “technology”, the blockchain, being touted as the next greatest thing since sliced bread, and yet no one has found a good use for it since it was invented 14 years ago, and no one would miss it if it disappeared tomorrow except all the fraudsters and hucksters ...

as i wrote, when “celeb” fools like Kim Kardasian and Matt Damon are paid big bucks to try to convince you how fabulous an investment is, run away from it, run far away while SCREAMING ...


47 posted on 12/01/2022 4:48:12 AM PST by catnipman (In a post-covid world, ALL "science" is now political science: stolen elections have consequences)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

“They sound skeert of a monetary standard they can’t control.”

OTOH, there’s a different group of world-class economists who disagree with the ECB and who are proponents of the incredibly valuable monetary standard of crypto, including Kim Kardasian, Matt Damon, Tom Brady, Larry David, Sam Bankman-Fried, Caroline Ellison, Alex Mashinsky, Philip Eytan, Zac Prince, and Mark Marie Robert Karpelès, etc.


48 posted on 12/01/2022 5:25:57 AM PST by catnipman (In a post-covid world, ALL "science" is now political science: stolen elections have consequences)
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To: catnipman

Only a government cargo-cultist would believe a government fiat currency backed by nothing is any different than a non-government fiat currency backed by nothing.


49 posted on 12/01/2022 5:29:34 AM PST by E. Pluribus Unum (The worst thing about censorship is ████ █ ██████ ███████ ███ ██████ ██ ████████.)
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To: Fido969

“ Bitcoin isn’t going to help you when you’re burning wood for fuel, and getting into a gunfight with your neighbors over your canned food stash.”

At that stage it is doubtful a fistful of paper fiat currency would do much for you either.


50 posted on 12/01/2022 5:31:18 AM PST by bk1000 (Banned from Breitbart)
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To: catnipman

I agree with what you wrote except there is one value that you missed and which Bitcoin contains is religious value. Many have it because of faith in computers and lack of faith in government.


51 posted on 12/01/2022 5:44:00 AM PST by Raycpa
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To: catnipman

The initial mistake is to consider Bitcoin an “investment.” It’s not.

The second is to conflate “tokens” based on the Etherium network to be Bitcoin.

The absolute ignorance of this author is stunning. His arguments are based on false assumptions.


52 posted on 12/01/2022 6:18:05 AM PST by Vermont Lt
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To: catnipman

You don’t know what you are talking about.


53 posted on 12/01/2022 6:18:59 AM PST by Vermont Lt
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To: GunRunner

And the XRP platform is already being implemented by financial institutions. Sssshh. Don’t tell anyone.


54 posted on 12/01/2022 6:21:38 AM PST by Vermont Lt
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To: Vermont Lt
I’m buying like crazy. XRP doesn’t work if the liquidity pool is small; it has no choice but to go up.

Freeper crypto threads are hilarious. You have a couple of people who know what they’re talking about, and at least a dozen or so folks who refer to ‘tulips’ or ‘greater fool’ and think they’re being insightful. It’s like listening to Democrats talk about gun control; strong opinions on something they know nothing about.

55 posted on 12/01/2022 6:26:42 AM PST by GunRunner
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To: BipolarBob

If you have bitcoin use it to purchase hard assets.


56 posted on 12/01/2022 7:27:28 AM PST by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose of a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped)
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To: GunRunner

I have been following this stuff since Bitcoin was $4. I was an executive in a pretty large bank. I understand how “money” works. After a few years I became pretty jaded.

The thing I found appealing about bitcoin was the prospect of being able to move money from point A to point B without having to hand over a chunk of every transaction to some institution. I also found the inability to inflate the “count” of units at a whim.

I find it frustrating to see the “investment” gurus try to stick the entire crypto universe into a single pigeon hole. They try to apply standard investment standards to something that isn’t an investment—but rather a tool. Its like wondering why a shovel isn’t a good investment based on their standards.

Are there scams in the process? Absolutely. Are there “greater fools?” Yes.

And the crap about the power usage has been debunked many times over—yet it persists.

I have never advocated anyone buying any crypto. I pared my holdings significantly a year ago. These “crypto winters” are pretty standard over the past 9 years. Will it go back to its peaks? I have no idea.

What I do know is that the blockchain technology will be integrated in a lot of day to day things because it is simple, immutable, and transparent. If people want transparency in their governments, moving the budgets, payments, and tracking to a block chain would achieve much. We would be able to see where every penny was spent. THAT would rattle some cages.

Buy it, or don’t buy it. Its not about an investment. Its about the technology and process. It’s not only coming to a future system...its being integrated today.


57 posted on 12/01/2022 7:42:06 AM PST by Vermont Lt
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To: catnipman

Your mental habit of defining “money” as a particular national fiat currency is somewhat arbitrary. Actually they still have their bitcoins (unless they lost the key), so they haven’t lost any money. They may have lost 80% of their purchasing power in the past year, but that’s a different matter.


58 posted on 12/01/2022 7:50:03 AM PST by devere
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To: catnipman

With an Automatic Teller Machine, and traditional on-line banking, I can legally do everything BTC can do — without currency risk.


59 posted on 12/01/2022 8:10:49 AM PST by Andy from Chapel Hill (Wind energy windmills remove the energy from the wind, which causes global warming.)
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To: KarlInOhio

Charlie Ponzi, is that you???? ;)


60 posted on 12/01/2022 8:34:33 AM PST by mywholebodyisaweapon ("Carthago Delenda Est")
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