What Happened To Bitcoin?

Things go up, things go down, you got screwed, you can either take your losses or hope it goes back up. Just like stocks.

Ha ha

This truly is a pyramid scheme

8/10

Think Beethoven's Fifth: Dum Dum Dum DUMB.

Does that mean my smug friend who said he was gonna be a millionaire will be selling fruit on a freeway off ramp?

Depends on when your smug friend bought it. When you start hearing bartenders talk about bitcoin/gold/latest to stock is exactly the time to sell.

Not if he sold his bitcoins to you, r6.

Whoa, whoa whoa, WHOA! I put all of my money into Bitcoin because there was a guy on Datalounge the other day insisting it's the currency of the future and it's going to ONE MILLION DOLLARS!!! He told me I had to get in immediately or I'd be priced out forever!

R4 is far too generous.

What r3 said.

Sounds like you didn't read up enough and get well informed enough on cryptocurrency before you invested. In either case, Bitcoin will be back where it was and beyond shortly. Don't drop your money into something before understanding what it is and how it works..

It appears lots of people are off today and done with shopping. More time for creative trolling on DL

Bubble happens again.

Sell now! It's crashing

Always sell low and buy high!!! Be a winner!

There's a sucker born every minute!

I bought some bitcoin n in early November when it was around £5500... I cashed out when it rose to £14000 ... I made quite a bit on that trade but had to pay 12.5% of my profit on "transaction fees" with Coinify...I'm looking for somewhere else now to buy and sell it... you have to buy it when it dips and sell it when it peaks... I'll wait for it to dip lower before buying more...

Wheeeeeeeee!!!

Cryptocurrencies are enormously volatile and they are not a good investment because the government could come in tomorrow and decide to regulate the hell out of it, in which case its value will crater.

A simplified guide to investing in Bitcoin:

Thanks. That commercial sums up Bitcoin beautifully!

My fucking barber was talking about it last week. It was bound to crash.

Tulips

When will people learn...?

If it sounds to good to be true, IT FUCKING IS!

Here's what I've never understood: How does the Bitcoin blockchain actually create and store value? Ten years ago there was a real estate bubble (and we all know how that worked out). But at least we understand how real estate reflects some value. Twenty years ago there was a dotcom stock bubble, and although it burst at least we all understand the idea of stock price value. I suspect a lot of people have jumped into crypto-currencies without really understanding what is really going on. It's hard enough with real estate or financial assets, and I think the idea of blockchain value is just beyond most investors.

R21, priceless.

[quote]How does the Bitcoin blockchain actually create and store value?

It doesn't store value any more than a dollar bill does.

The problem is people need to think of it as a currency, that is doing the opposite of hyperinflation.

For instance, in Zimbabwe ten years ago, if you had a ten dollar note, you would not save it because the value went down quickly. For example, on Monday your ten dollar note could buy 10 porno movies. On Tuesday it would only buy five porno movies, by Friday it would only buy one porno movie. On Saturday it wouldn't buy any.

Bitcoin was being used as a commodity not a currency. So you had the effect on Monday, your one bitcoin would buy ten porno movies, on Tuesday it would buy 100 porno movies, on Friday it would buy 10,000 porno movies and on Saturday it would buy 100.000 porno movies.

Currencies can be trades to gain money but the fluctuation in value is usually minor. This is why in Zimbabwe they abandoned their own currency and now use several foreign currencies such as the US Dollar and the South African Rand.

Bitcoin blockchain is not use to create anything. For example, if you buy something with a credit card, which was issued by Bank of America, and go to a store, that store will have a bank that processes the credit card, let's say Wells Fargo. So you go and charge something, when you swipe your fee, Wells Fargo and Bank of America (the store's credit card processor and the bank that issued your credit card) verify the transaction.

Wells Fargo will charge the store a fee, and in some cases, the store passes the fee on to you directly, but more likely they build the cost of the fee into the price of the item.

In bitcoin there are no banks, so they have to have a way of verifying the transaction is legit. This is where the blockchain comes in. When you have bitcoin in a wallet, when you want to pay for something (let's say a store), you're transferring it from your wallet to the store's wallet.

This is where "mining" comes in. If you run a "miner" you allow your computer to be used to verify that transaction. So if you're buying something with bitcoin from a store, and I run a miner, I use my computer to verify the transaction between the store and you is legitimate.

For this use of my computer, I am allowed to assess a fee and for a reward I get a small part of a bitcoin.

When bitcoin first came out, it was easy to mine because it was new, now as the blockchain grows it's more difficult to solve and takes more computing power to solve. In most cases, the cost of mining outweighs the cost of the electricity it costs to run your computer.

Think of it like this

The first chain to solve was 2+2=4. 4+4=8. 8+8=16 and so on. As you can see if you were trying to do this in your head, soon it is going to be very difficult as the numbers grow. And the algorithms used to verify transactions are millions of times more complex.

I oversimplified somewhat to make it easy to understand but that's it in a nutshell.

Bitcoin by the way is very transparent. Everyone can see your transactions. What makes it private is you have a private key and while each transaction is transparent, no one knows which one of those is your transaction.

Also bitcoin has never been hacked. However if your store your bitcoin in "bank" like Coinbase (it's not in any sense a bank that stores currency but rather like a virtual piggy bank), THAT bank can be hacked. This is because in order to store it there you're giving up your password to your account.

Beanie Babies

Thanks R28. That helps some.

Helps a bit, but...

BUT I WAS TOLD I WAS GOING TO BE A BITCOIN BILLIONAIRE!!! Who do I talk to about getting reimbursed for my losses? The FDIC?

Actually this is good for bitcoin

I like the Long Island Ice Tea company that changed its name to Long Blockchain and saw its stock value rise something like 300%. Classic! So many suckers out there. I like that company’s chutzpah, even if they get in trouble with the SEC. Worth it.

OP you got into the ponzi scheme late and you got screwed.

Tulip bulbs Beanie Babies Tickle Me Elmo Stocks Real Estate Bitcoin

R28 I think I get it? Thanks!

You bumped a three-year-old thread for that?

R38, R28 is a good explanation for any other eldergays trying to wrap their minds around this.

TurboTax asked etoday if I bought or sold any cryptocurrency this year, and I had not. But I gather that it requires special tax treatment.

You REALLY bumped a three-year-old thread for that?