Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:https://futurism.com/future-society/bitcoin-crashing-miners-unplugging-equipment
I thought the price automatically adjusts higher when there are fewer miners, or the solution gets easier using less electricity?
Ha ha where did you hear that?
DP. Yes, that's how bitcoin works. That is, the work to mine the next blocks gets easier if there are fewer miners.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:https://futurism.com/future-society/bitcoin-crashing-miners-unplugging-equipment
I thought the price automatically adjusts higher when there are fewer miners, or the solution gets easier using less electricity?
Ha ha where did you hear that?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:https://futurism.com/future-society/bitcoin-crashing-miners-unplugging-equipment
I thought the price automatically adjusts higher when there are fewer miners, or the solution gets easier using less electricity?
Anonymous wrote:https://futurism.com/future-society/bitcoin-crashing-miners-unplugging-equipment
Anonymous wrote:It has been tanking and now the press claims it's because there is "pessimism in crypto's function".
Growing investor caution comes as many of the sensationalized claims about bitcoin have failed to materialize. The token has largely traded in the same direction as other risk-on assets, such as stocks, particularly during recent geopolitical and macroeconomic flare ups in Venezuela, the Middle East and Europe, and its adoption as a form of payment for goods and services has been minimal.
To this day, I still don't really understand the practical utility except for a couple of specific instances:
- Sending money internationally much cheaper than through the normal banking system...but the recipient usually just turns it into the local currency immediately upon receipt;
- Paying for digital items like say you want to license somebody's photograph, well now you can use the blockchain to pay for the item and you receive a specific "locked" copy. Again, for the most part, the recipient takes the Etherium and just converts into $$$s or whatever basically immediately.
Neither of these are massive actual use markets.
So, there is some utility for a "digital" currency...but few using it in real life are speculating on its value. They would probably prefer it didn't fluctuate in value.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Crime and speculation are the primary use cases at the moment.
It does have some value for those who do not trust the banking system and its ability to handle electronic payments. It also has value in third-world countries with poorly managed national currencies and/or weak banking systems. It can make carrying "money" across national lines possible (one can, in principle, memorize a Bitcoin wallet key, and cross a national border with nothing to confiscate and nothing to trace).
The primary barrier to its use for daily transactions is the transaction time (minutes or longer) and the failure to agree on which cryptocurrency to use.
I personally see it as a dumb "investment," but it does have some valid use cases.
This. But don't underestimate speculation -- that defines the stock market as well to a much larger extent than most understand.
Anonymous wrote:Crime and speculation are the primary use cases at the moment.
It does have some value for those who do not trust the banking system and its ability to handle electronic payments. It also has value in third-world countries with poorly managed national currencies and/or weak banking systems. It can make carrying "money" across national lines possible (one can, in principle, memorize a Bitcoin wallet key, and cross a national border with nothing to confiscate and nothing to trace).
The primary barrier to its use for daily transactions is the transaction time (minutes or longer) and the failure to agree on which cryptocurrency to use.
I personally see it as a dumb "investment," but it does have some valid use cases.