Bitcoin et al.

[Edward64]

Has anyone here used bitcoin and have an opinion?

Just noticed that newegg.com is accepting bitcoin and wondering if its becoming more mainstream now.

[Toddzilla]

I used to "mine" for bitcoins. I had it run 24x7 for a few months and ended up with just over 0.00035 bitcoins.

[BishopMVP]

I trust it as much as I trust Paypal/Venmo for realtime payments. Very skeptical about the long term value with the dual threats of government crackdown and more hardcore/surreptitious cryptocurrencies like ZCash.

[kingfc22]

Based on the posts in this thread it appears most were like me and simply overlooked Bitcoin in the past. Now with Bitcoin about to cross $9000 in the next hour(s)/day(s) did anyone invest early enough to make this an extra nice holiday season?

[jbergey22]

Originally Posted by kingfc22

Based on the posts in this thread it appears most were like me and simply overlooked Bitcoin in the past. Now with Bitcoin about to cross $9000 in the next hour(s)/day(s) did anyone invest early enough to make this an extra nice holiday season?

I invested a little bit when it was just over 4k(2-3 months ago). Its a roller coaster ride that is for sure. The fact that it could just all bottom out in a heartbeat is the scary aspect of it. It has that feeling that you are either going to multiply your investment numerous times or end up with zero with no in between so it would only be for an ultra aggressive investor.

[lungs]

I started paying attention about a month ago. Bitcoin was $5600. Figured I'd missed the boat. So I've been putting some money into XRP and Litecoin.

XRP (Ripple) seems to have a good use case. Plenty of big banks are adopting some of Ripple's tech. Plus I like that they are cheap right now. About $0.24 will buy you an XRP. Feels like you've accomplished something instead of buying 0.08 bitcoin! Of all the alt coins out there, this one just struck me more than the others as being a decent long term bet.

Litecoin I bought on a hunch a few days ago at $72.00. It's up to $84 right now.

[MrBug708]

My brother put in about 5k back in July, so he has a healthy profit going

[lungs]

Looks like it is crossing $10,000 tonight.

All the alt coins I own are riding the coattails.

[cmp]

Started my coinbase account back in November of 2013. Bought a little bit. Sold it a few months later. Regret it now.

[cmp]

Originally Posted by lungs

Looks like it is crossing $10,000 tonight.

All the alt coins I own are riding the coattails.

Litecoin, IOTA, XLM, Agrello and Cardona have been great recently for me.

[kingfc22]

I’m in on IOTA and EOS. Cardona I hadn’t seen until today

[lungs]

Originally Posted by cmp

Litecoin, IOTA, XLM, Agrello and Cardona have been great recently for me.

I put a little into XLM about a month ago @ $.035. Nice to double my money. I still think XRP is ahead of them in terms of use case. But XRP hasn't seen the astronomical gains the past few days like XLM.

Picking up some gambling winnings today at the local tavern. Might just plop that into crypto and gamble some more. Debating on which one is a good buy at the moment.

[Icy]

IOTA through the roof now, peaked at 60% profit today and now it's down to around 26% vs yesterday. Too bad I didn't invest on it but now it might be a good time before it rebounds again after some investors stop selling for profit, specially with the news about big companies Microsoft, Samsung, Fujitsu, Cisco & Wolkswagen supporting it.

I have a few k invested on BTC, ETH, LTC, XRP and XLM but it was just as a way to force myself to learn about blockchain technology that at some point will affect my business.

If I had the time now, I see a good time to speculate and work on a trading algorithm connected by API to the exchanges. I did some day trading for a few days and got a few hundred $ while having fun but it was way too stressing doing it manually and don't have the time to focus on it right now.

It's like the stock market on steroids and based more on emotions than real base by now, so it means high profit potential at high risk too, never invest whatever you're not ready to lose.

[lungs]

Waiting for some USD to get put into my Coinbase account. Probably going to buy some NEO and maybe some ETH. Those two look like decent buys at the moment.

XRP hasn't moved much during this craziness, in fact I'm a little in the hole on my XRP investment. Right now that's the biggest part of my little portfolio so I think I'm going to go after a few different ones that I don't have.

XLM has been crazy. I'm at almost 300% return in a month and a half. Wish I would have a few extra zeroes after my initial investment. I thought about getting more at $0.10 but now it's up around $0.14 so I might hold off to see if a correction is coming. Same with IOTA. That's just a little too crazy for me at the moment.

[kingfc22]

Yea, I'm up a tidy 150% in one month. Mainly thanks to IOTA and EOS but I've also recently added XLM to my mix.

Hoping to get ARK moving in the right direction...

[Arles]

I bought in a little on bitcoin back when it was at 10K. I'm not really sure what to do. The reality is I could lose every penny and be OK, so I will probably ride it out in a fairly risky manner. I have to admit, I'm not sure about any of the other currencies on coinbase. I've only noticed Ethereum and Litecoin - are there more available?

[lungs]

Originally Posted by Arles

I bought in a little on bitcoin back when it was at 10K. I'm not really sure what to do. The reality is I could lose every penny and be OK, so I will probably ride it out in a fairly risky manner. I have to admit, I'm not sure about any of the other currencies on coinbase. I've only noticed Ethereum and Litecoin - are there more available?

Those are the ones available on Coinbase. Other exchanges will have some more variety. Kraken is where I got my XLM. Bitstamp has the three that are on Coinbase plus XRP. I've opened an account on Binance in order to get some NEO.

Be careful, there are some shady ones out there. I'm soon moving all currency to a Ledger Nano S to get them off the exchanges.

[cmp]

Binance is what I've been using to buy IOTA.

[Logan]

Can someone answer a real simple question for me: if I got in early on Bitcoin
(I didn't) and had 10 of them (I don't), and wanted to sell all 10 at the moment you are reading this (I wish), could I?

[PilotMan]

It's hard to concede that something that isn't really anything has any value just because someone made it and said it was valuable. It's like a modern day Beanie Baby.

[PilotMan]

https://www.wired.com/story/bitcoin-...keeps-growing/

By July 2019, the bitcoin network will require more electricity than the entire United States currently uses. By February 2020, it will use as much electricity as the entire world does today.

[Arles]

Originally Posted by PilotMan

It's hard to concede that something that isn't really anything has any value just because someone made it and said it was valuable. It's like a modern day Beanie Baby.

I would say it's the modern version of junk bonds. But, you can still make some money. I sold a portion of my investment at 16K (bought in at 10K).

Originally Posted by Logan

Can someone answer a real simple question for me: if I got in early on Bitcoin
(I didn't) and had 10 of them (I don't), and wanted to sell all 10 at the moment you are reading this (I wish), could I?

I use Coinbase to trade. I'm not sure the max you can sell there, but I've been able to buy and sell fairly easily so far (at my fairly modest amounts).

[Gary Gorski]

Is there any vehicle to buy something like a put against Bitcoin?

[kingfc22]

Originally Posted by Gary Gorski

Is there any vehicle to buy something like a put against Bitcoin?

Yes. https://www.cnbc.com/2017/12/08/with...g-to-work.html

[Groundhog]

I'm kicking myself for not getting in on Bitcoin early when a guy I know who is usually bang on with these type of things told me to get in a few years ago. I grabbed a token amount a little while ago just to follow along really.

I did pick up some litecoins a few days ago when they were a little over 100 AUD a coin, and they've nearly doubled in value overnight.

[kingfc22]

Curious to see what happens over the weekend and into Monday with the new Futures trading of Bitcoin. I'm personally expecting a bit of a dip but who really knows.

[law90026]

BTC unstoppable at this time.

Similarly really upset I didn't get into this in 2013 when a Friend was telling me he had started mining. Hindsight and all that

[Icy]

Originally Posted by law90026

BTC unstoppable at this time.

Similarly really upset I didn't get into this in 2013 when a Friend was telling me he had started mining. Hindsight and all that

Litecoin is even better right now, 82% up in the last 24 hours, Ether also going up a lot as do other alt coins.

The whole thing it's crazy bubble that at some point will explode, but even with huge margins already if i sold, the greedy side of me is not willing to sell but to forget about the investment I did (a few $k) and see if they ever reach 100x value again or if I just lose everything.

[lungs]

I bought two more Litecoins yesterday at $198. Thought I was making a mistake as I didn’t wait for a dip. Well, it’s almost $350 this morning....

I’ve almost doubled my money in cryptos now. And that’s without the majority of my holdings (XRP) doing much of anything and not holding any bitcoin. This is all since the end of September.

[lungs]

XRP finally making a nice run.

[law90026]

Originally Posted by lungs

XRP finally making a nice run.

An extremely nice one!

[Icy]

After xrp now it’s eth turn!

[Arles]

I've been assuming everyone has been doing this from the start, but I will make a quick post reminding people to trade on GDAX instead of Coinbase. Coinbase charges fees between 1.5% and 5% for trades and/or adding money. You can trade on GDAX (with your coinbase account) for free by using the Limit/Stop method of trading. I've made 5-6 different trades over the past 24 hours via GDAX and not paid a cent. Here's a YouTube video on how it is done if you guys haven't used GDAX yet:

[JPhillips]

Nearing 12k and falling fast.

Is this a temporary drop or has the bubble popped?

[Arles]

I think it's a factor of all the crap CNBC and others laid on Coinbase for the whole Bitcoin Cash fiasco. Plus, I think there has been a fraction of people pulling out money for Christmas going on over the past week.

Just google "reason bitcoin dropping" and you will see a ton of stories over the past 2-3 years panicking about a 30+% drop in a short period. I think a lot of short term investors panic when they see it starting to drop. If you are in it for the long haul, just keep cashing out small pocked of profits after a certain number and let it ride. I've cashed out about 70% of my original investment through the good times of late and bought back in this morning at 12.5K again. It seems like this is par for the course with bitcoin - I'm guessing it will be back to 15-17K by the New Year.

[lungs]

Probably due for a correction anyway.

XRP got over $1.00 but has come back down to ~$0.90ish right now. I still think XRP is going to have a big year in 2018. Considering I bought in at $0.24 in October, I won't panic that it's come down a bit.

[Edward64]

What bitcoin wallets do you recommend?

[kingfc22]

Originally Posted by Edward64

What bitcoin wallets do you recommend?

Hardware wallet: Ledger Nano S

[lungs]

Originally Posted by kingfc22

Hardware wallet: Ledger Nano S

This.

And.... I'm pretty much back to where I was two days ago in terms of value of my coins.

[Edward64]

Any predictions?

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/interne...-crash-n844056

Bitcoin plunged below $8,000 on Friday, a whopping 60 percent drop from its high less than two months ago, before rebounding.

After skyrocketing to a record $19,000 per bitcoin in December, the digital asset has endured a series of steep drops, drastic for even the notoriously volatile crypto trade.

Smaller cryptocurrencies were down, too, with Ethereum off more than 25 percent, Ripple down 30 percent and Bitcoin Cash down 24 percent at some points.

The cryptocurrency markets were joined by the U.S. stock market. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped more than 650 points on Friday, finishing its worst week in two years.

Those people who held on to their bitcoins enjoyed some relief, though, with bitcoin's price rebounding to trade around $8,700 as of Friday afternoon.

But the broader decline has stoked fears that bitcoin skeptics were right to call its rise a bubble. If bitcoin is a modern-day "tulip mania," the bloom appears to be off the rose.

[sabotai]

Originally Posted by Edward64

Any predictions?

[lungs]

It'd be silly to think it was going to continue on the same trajectory it was on. I'm not in Bitcoin but with my entry point being the end of September 2017 into cryptos, I'm still at 125% profits. Yeah, the people who bought in when BTC was touching $20,000 are hurting but the people who bought at $1000 one year ago are still sitting pretty good.

I'm in buy mode right now after taking a break during the craziness of that bull run.

[sabotai]

(edit: not)-dola,

Not really predicting anything, I just think of that scene every time someone asks for predictions.

[JPhillips]

I just don't understand the purpose of these cryptocurrencies other than speculative investment vehicles. The wild swings in valuation make them terrible choices for currencies.

[digamma]

Money laundering, payment for black market items, drugs, etc.

[PilotMan]

Originally Posted by digamma

Money laundering, payment for black market items, drugs, etc.

Transfer of money to/from sanctioned countries/individuals. Transfer of money in support of terror or terror regimes. It wouldn't surprise me if the government spent a ton on bitcoin for the black budget projects for the military.

[Chief Rum]

Originally Posted by PilotMan

Transfer of money to/from sanctioned countries/individuals. Transfer of money in support of terror or terror regimes. It wouldn't surprise me if the government spent a ton on bitcoin for the black budget projects for the military.

The coding that allowed for the electronic anonymity on the Dark Web came from a U.S. naval research facility, and the U.S. is behind a lot of the funding that keeps it running, because that anonymity allows for communication with assets in sanctioned regions or ones where their anonymity protects them. I don't think it's even a secret, just a poorly communicated one.

U.S. (and allies) covert operations more or less accept that the anonymity is a requirement for the work they're doing. But that anonymity needed to be available to others in general, otherwise everyone would know that someone who was untracrable online was almost certainly a U.S. agent. That of course means putting it out there for the general public to use, including criminals and geopolitcal enemies.

Strangely enough, one hand of the U.S. foots a big portion of the bill behind the elements that keep the Dark Web up, while another part of the U.S. government works to track down enemy actions on that same Dark Web (counter-intelligence, antiterrorism) and criminal activities (FBI, DEA).

Bitcoin is also probably propped up by the U.S., but I suspect the primary funder is China. From what I understand, crypto really got its start and support there, and some of the biggest cryptomining and blockchain operations are in China because the People's Republic works to keep them hidden while also partaking of their services.

Bitcoin (and cryptocurrencies in general ) was a business necessity once online anonymity became a thing because financial transactions could be tracked even if online identities could not. Dark Web users needed the protection provided by both elements (online and financial).

So the U.S. has an immense role in the existence and even support of crypto. Which is why I think it's here to stay, just as the Internet is. I do suspect a lot of the current valuations and price volatility in crypto and particularly Bitcoin are a result of a bubble founded on greed and uncertainty by the vast majority of crypto owners, but over the long haul, it is likely to settle down and move up and down in a similar fashion to basic stocks.

I highly recommending giving a listen to the Dark Web series available for free to Prime users on Audible. It is fascinating and scary at the same time. There is a ton on there about Bitcoin and crypto.

[PilotMan]

Downloaded it, going to give it a listen. Thanks for the suggestion.

[cartman]

[Edward64]

Classic!