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Author Topic: Trivial things you don't understand/mildly annoy you  (Read 5048147 times)
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« Reply #27030 on: Tuesday, December 12, 2017, 16:32:49 »

you can buy part bitcoins. a guy here invested £100 and now on paper has £200.

thing is to me it seems like a big bubble/ponzai scheme ripe to burst. but when? that's the gamble.

so in short I may invest in what I can afford to lose for a laugh. but I wouldn't invest with any expectation other than the likelihood of losing it.

that's just me though. I could be completely wrong
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Samdy Gray
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« Reply #27031 on: Tuesday, December 12, 2017, 20:46:39 »

It's speculating rather than investing. The idea and the technology is fascinating and could be the currency of the future, that's what interests me the most.

I put a bit of money into a Bitcoin tracker fund recently. It's up 120% in four weeks. It could be worth nothing tomorrow, but I'm in it for the long term rather than short term gains.

£100 four years ago would be worth several million now, but the chances of that kind of growth happening again are almost non existent.
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The Artist Formerly Known as Audrey

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« Reply #27032 on: Tuesday, December 12, 2017, 20:51:23 »

Apparently, at the beginning of this year 1 bitcoin cost £700 - now its nearly £15,000. For some reason I don’t understand there is a finite number of bitcoins and we are approx 2 thirds there now. So, when the maximum number is reached it will either implode completely or have even more increased rarity value.

Unlike regular currencies, countries just can’t print a never ending supply of notes. I’m very tempted but haven’t really got the bollocks to actually do it.
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Bogus Dave
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« Reply #27033 on: Tuesday, December 12, 2017, 21:43:06 »

You’ll probably get better returns if you put that on litecoin

I put £60 or so in litecoin and ethereum the other week (diversifying my portfolio like the wolf of moredon road) and that’s currently at £150. I only have a loose understanding of how it works, but eyhereum isn’t solely a currency in the way bitcoin and litecoin are - it’s used to develop new ‘ways of doing things’ like storing your personal information, or running a search engine which, if it takes off in the future, would be quite a gamechamger

Bitcoin will correct soon - the big banks have started spouting off how it needs to be regulated (ie we are scared, let’s stamp this out), which will probably make it less attractive
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« Reply #27034 on: Tuesday, December 12, 2017, 22:24:04 »

not heard of ethereum before. must check out out.

I agree the long term gamble of a losable amount on bitcoin might be worth a go, can't see it maintaining growth myself. but the original question was would you sink 15k into it. er, not unless I had a lot of money!!

oh and Audrey, to cut a long story short increasingly complex mathmatics are needed to 'mine' (solve) new bitcoins (unique numbers, well sort of... just go with it).  the issue is it's now so complex it takes a very very long time to solve in computer terms. at some point it's going to be computationally infeasible.

put another way, it's like any scarce resource, it'll eventually end. just like you said.

my biggest problem with bitcoin is it's not yet widely accepted to buy anything. it's increasing in that regard but if it's got limited use then why is it worth so much....


compare that to a scarce natural resource, gold for example....
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Barry Scott

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« Reply #27035 on: Wednesday, December 13, 2017, 00:22:02 »

Bitcoin causes me such pain of regret, but hindsight is a wonderful thing.

I used to frequent a forum in 2011 when they were less than a dollar and a few members were mining them back when the task was easy. Some had loads.

One lad wrote a lengthy guide about mining, using gpus and how it’d be worth a fortune. (He’s still around and didn’t reach millionaire status, he sold years ago, but did make a lot. He also lost loads with the MtGox scam/problem.)

Back then I didn’t really care to understand it, but did write an email to a friend in 2012 passing on some info and saying it looks interesting. (Which I now like to mention to people like I was ahead of the curve or some bollocks.)

That’s about as far as I ever went, but seeing the movements and prices of some of these crypto currencies does cause massive fear of mising out. Although saying that the volatility is hateful and I wouldn’t be able to stomach any of that.

Here’s a good article if anyone wants to learn more.
https://medium.com/the-mission/the-top-10-cryptocurrency-resources-for-non-technical-people-3efb42eb7be6
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jayohaitchenn
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« Reply #27036 on: Wednesday, December 13, 2017, 06:33:00 »

The limited number of bitcoins is actually arbitrary. They are trying to create a currency that doesn't rely on inflation.
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« Reply #27037 on: Wednesday, December 13, 2017, 07:59:58 »

Bitcoin causes me such pain of regret, but hindsight is a wonderful thing.

I used to frequent a forum in 2011 when they were less than a dollar ...

Ditto, though $271 not $1. Nearly started investigating it, but didn't. I'd have bailed at $1000 dollars anyway and regretted it more now mind.:

https://forums.thedigitalfix.com/forums/showthread.php?t=626017&highlight=bitcoin
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Barry Scott

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« Reply #27038 on: Wednesday, December 13, 2017, 08:59:38 »

Ditto, though $271 not $1. Nearly started investigating it, but didn't. I'd have bailed at $1000 dollars anyway and regretted it more now mind.:

https://forums.thedigitalfix.com/forums/showthread.php?t=626017&highlight=bitcoin

Shitter, isn’t it?!

My issue is I can see it happening again. Was poised to buy Ripple yesterday, and it’s doubled in price since.

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Barry Scott

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« Reply #27039 on: Wednesday, December 13, 2017, 09:16:04 »

Biggest problem I see with bitcoin is it needs some sort of hard fork, in its current iteration it’s too slow and won’t ever cope with modern day amounts of transactions.

I’ve read books on Bitcoin sometime back, so haven’t fact checked this and aren’t entirely sure if I’m correct, but Bitcoin can only process 7 transactions a second, or could.

It only needs to process 1 per second currently, but as the block size has increased, it’s slowed transactions down and it can now only do just under 4 per second.

Visa does 22,000 transactions a second, so something needs to give.

Then there’s the fact that about 40% of Bitcoin is owned by about 1000 people.

Also, saw this on Twitter.

Quote from: Twitter bloke
Bitcoin really hasn't turned out even remotely as it was intended to.
- Rather than a currency, it's become a speculative asset.
- Rather than efficient, the energy and CPU costs are extravagant
- Rather than decentralised, ownership and mining power are hugely concentrated
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Pax Romana

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« Reply #27040 on: Wednesday, December 13, 2017, 12:19:25 »

I'd have bailed at $1000 dollars anyway and regretted it more now mind.:


Yes good point.   It's easy to sit there fantasising at what you could have made but how many people hold out for the top price even if they managed to get in at the bottom.

I bought some shares in my last company in the mid 80's for what (after dilution) became 15p.  I sold them 3 years later at 80p to buy a car and thought myself to be very smart.  They rose to £4 by the mid 90's and peaked at £18 in 2000 just ahead of the tech stocks crash.  That would have bought me a fair few cars.  
« Last Edit: Wednesday, December 13, 2017, 12:21:06 by Pax Romana » Logged
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« Reply #27041 on: Wednesday, December 13, 2017, 13:27:13 »

Some people's reaction to Peter Kay cancelling all future activities due to a family issue (in the minority thankfully).

Yeah I'm sure its nothing at all serious. Dicks.
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Saxondale

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« Reply #27042 on: Wednesday, December 13, 2017, 13:32:47 »

We rescheduled a gig on Sunday.  Kodaline in Birmingham.  Up to our knees in snow.  Likely that only 30% of people would be able to make it.  No public transport running.  Police advising not to travel.

The amout of abuse and threats the venue and the band got was a bloody joke.

People can be arseholes.
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« Reply #27043 on: Wednesday, December 13, 2017, 13:58:42 »

We rescheduled a gig on Sunday.  Kodaline in Birmingham.  Up to our knees in snow.  Likely that only 30% of people would be able to make it.  No public transport running.  Police advising not to travel.

The amout of abuse and threats the venue and the band got was a bloody joke.

People can be arseholes.

I imagine Lee Power feels the same way after Saturday....
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Posh Red
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« Reply #27044 on: Wednesday, December 13, 2017, 15:05:42 »

Some people's reaction to Peter Kay cancelling all future activities due to a family issue (in the minority thankfully).

Yeah I'm sure its nothing at all serious. Dicks.

As you say it must be something serious for him to cancel shows into 2019.

That said, it Will be interesting to see how much of the admin & postage fees the ticket companies refund, very little I would imagine
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