Bitcoin

After reading g my comment above, I'm glad myself from the past was too broke to invest in btc lol I would have for sure sold early or held on too long and ultimately would be left standing there a fool lol

Yeah not much movement in the rate for the past few months, I think there was only once a huge raise to about over $9000 if I remember right but it's usually staked to about $6-6,5.

I still own some coins but not enough to be broke even if it falls further.

There is a lot of interesting technical development going on in Bitcoin now. One example is the Lightning Network which is a p2p instant payments network that is like a layer on top of Bitcoin. It is kind of analogous to how world wide web works on top of the internet's TCP/IP protocol. If it works as intended it will make instant p2p transactions with almost zero fees a reality, and won't have the same scaling issues that the Bitcoin blockchain ran into at the start of the year.

The exchange rate has dropped but it seems to have settled down and been relatively stable in recent times. Maybe that is a good thing and people can be more rational about it instead of going with the mania. There is definitely value in the technology there, pricing it is the difficult thing.

Yeah I heard already of the new system (didn't know any details though) but if that becomes reality don't you think many people (even any online merchants) would start using bitcoin as a main payment tool which on it's turn would again increase the rate and make the bitcoin rates unstable again?

So, could that become a vicious cycle in the end?

I don't think we will see retailers using bitcoin instead of fiat currency for a long time. Most likely they will accept both at the same time and from what I have read the majority of retailers that do accept crypto currencies convert them back to fiat currency immediately. So while that means there must be buy pressure to acquire the bitcoin, there is also sell pressure from the retailers converting it back. So I don't think it would make much difference to the exchange rate either way.

I think increases in value are going to come from finding uses where Bitcoin is better than traditional currency. The gambling industry is a great example with the extra fees and difficulties people have in using credit cards, plus the risk of chargebacks on the business side. So bitcoin is a better solution all around for everyone. Another one is the rip-off money transfer services like Western Union, they must be sweating seeing at what Bitcoin is capable of for almost zero fees. Or for people living in countries with a failed currency like Zimbabwe or Venezuela that is making their money worthless the longer they hold it. Those sorts of things will drive changes in the exchange rate over time.

I think everything you're saying about retailers sounds pretty logical and right now using bitcoin as a main or supporting currency is quite uncomfortable for them because of the deviance in rates of the cryptos as a whole and like you said buy and sell /rates/fees would of be also a factor.

I noticed (maybe I'm wrong?) that the highest the value of bitcoin is the more people start using and trading it which I think influenced the rates?? but certainly the fees of transactions in the Blockchain system which lead to a transactions(miner) fees of about 10-20$ which of course was ridiculously high fees for a small transactions of under 200$ let's say, so hopefully under the new network the load won't make any impact over the fees (and potentially rates) which I think could make the bitcoin a very sustainable currency..which could on it' turn make the third parties like WU or even some E-wallets in fact needless...or at least I hope so.

Anyway I think all the people sending money online one way or another (probably that's literally everybody) could benefit from the new btc network and wouldn't need to pay needless and too high fees for their transactions.

Thought I would post a little bit coin joke to spread some humor on this Friday morning to start the weekend off on a good note

Ha-ha, good one mate as long as you not one of those 👍

CL-Ed wrote:

I don't think we will see retailers using bitcoin instead of fiat currency for a long time. Most likely they will accept both at the same time and from what I have read the majority of retailers that do accept crypto currencies convert them back to fiat currency immediately. So while that means there must be buy pressure to acquire the bitcoin, there is also sell pressure from the retailers converting it back. So I don't think it would make much difference to the exchange rate either way.

I think increases in value are going to come from finding uses where Bitcoin is better than traditional currency. The gambling industry is a great example with the extra fees and difficulties people have in using credit cards, plus the risk of chargebacks on the business side. So bitcoin is a better solution all around for everyone. Another one is the rip-off money transfer services like Western Union, they must be sweating seeing at what Bitcoin is capable of for almost zero fees. Or for people living in countries with a failed currency like Zimbabwe or Venezuela that is making their money worthless the longer they hold it. Those sorts of things will drive changes in the exchange rate over time.

Oh, what a nice explanation you made here.
BitCoin can be a great alternative for gamblers and online casinos! 🙂

Even though Western Union's service is convenient, the fees are unacceptably too high. I had a few experiences with them.

And your point on failed currencies is really interesting, which is in record related to the value hike of BitCoin right after Brexit vote took place 🙂

Great.

blck wrote:

I know that Bitcoin is quite popular but somehow I haven't tried them out. Seems too complicated for me.

Better don't. Try it only if you have experience and knowledge in investing. But as you said it seems complicated so don't.

danbilzeriangambling3 wrote:

Better don't. Try it only if you have experience and knowledge in investing. But as you said it seems complicated so don't.

Bitcoin is a more and more expanding currency and no one said you have to use it just for investments, it would be a good way to use it just for any kind of online or even offline payments and you don't have to be a genius to do that.

The problem with bitcoin is the transaction fees. Along with that, many United States Casinos have banned it's use. For example, New Jersey recently states that it will not be used in its casinos, both land based and online, until it gets regulated.

Many offshore casinos use it, but you already know the risks.

I disagree on the fees. Looking at the mempool (basically the list of transactions waiting to be confirmed) right now shows that you can get confirmed in the next block for 1 sat/byte, which is almost nothing. This of course varies with timing and demand but if you don't need money transferred urgently you can always wait a short while for a low fee to get confirmed. Of course if a significant chunk of the world decides to use Bitcoin then the fees are going to rise. That is why they are trying to build the lightning network which, if it works as intended, will make fees almost meaningless.

The thing is, no-one can regulate or control Bitcoin. Sure governments can try to ban people from using it, or force exchanges like Coinbase to hand over names to the IRS (which they have done) but its decentralised nature means that it can't be stopped so long as someone can run a computer somewhere to keep the blockchain going. This is why there is opposition towards it from some less enlightened governments and people with vested interests like bankers. They don't want control of the world's money taken out of their hands. We live in interesting times.

Quote:

They don't want control of the world's money taken out of their hands. We live in interesting times.

I've never been a conspiracy theories believer but for me that's true..money rules, so...!

From what I've noticed over the years there's always an increase in fees where the bitcoin price going up but that's quite normal I think because of the network load increased simultaneously with the value.

But I could live with that..most of the e-wallets charge the users more anyway.

I guess you shouldn't have invested in Bitcoin.