I suppose it's possible. Is there any other digital information that is totally immune to governments, corporations, citizens, criminals, and natural disasters?
Anything is possible, but color me skeptical of >1,000,000 USD per Bitcoin. About a 100-fold increase relative to today's prices.
I believe the supply of bitcoins will increase in a few years. I also suspect that volatility will go down, assuming something crazy doesn't happen.
But I f so, brilliant for the folks who've invested. Not sure how many actual Bitcoin investors we have vs folks just talking. But to those actual investors I salute you. I was a skeptic early on and shouldn't have been!
Non-brilliant for 4got!
I had a friend encouraging me to buy in when it was $1,400. Kicking myself for not doing so. He bought a coin when it was $600 and is loving the investment.
There will be a maximum of 21 million Bitcoins in circulation, many of which have been lost already. So say there are 18 million. At 1 million each that would be 18 trillion USD of Bitcoin. Total amount of money in the world is between 80 and 100 trillion. So it's definitely possible but nothing likely to happen quickly or without a great deal of resistance.
More than half of the bitcoins have been mined. It is close to 16 million out of 21 million total if I recall correctly. The bitcoins get harder to mine with each one found.
Once all bitcoins have been found, there will be no reward for mining other than transaction fees. The current estimate is that the last bitcoin will be found in 2140. Some bitcoin experts believe this will be the death of the system as it may not be profitable. I suspect that enough people will keep miners up even if it isn't profitable.
Why not create more? You would need to convince at least half of all nodes to adopt the new limit. There is some debate around this and some believe you would need all nodes to do this. Doing so would almost certainly destroy the bitcoin ecosystem and render all bitcoins worthless. The block chain cannot be extended indefinitely. IMO, More likely is the number of decimals will be increased to permit smaller transactions. These smaller units will get a useful name and we will get prices not in bitcoins but in whatever we call these smaller units.
While it is true to some degree that bitcoins are immune to many of the disasters that real money is susceptible to, there are a variety of ways in which a bitcoin can become un-spendable. The most likely way is someone protects their bitcoin with a private key and loses the key.
^^^So what you seem to be saying is top of the market for bitcoin will occu about 2138 or thereabouts so a selloff will begin about 2133 unless the fractional SA gain traction.
I would never make such predictions. But there are many that agree with you.
IMO bitcoin will continue until governments find a way to stop it. I don't think this will happen until the Chinese stop mining them in their bitcoin factory mines.
if governments don't stop bitcoin, it will continue as a means covert money exchange. In a drug deal I show up with a suit case of cash and you show up with a suit case of drugs. With bitcoin the risk stays only with suitcase of drugs. there is little to no risk of the money being intercepted.
At some point people need to be able to cash out their bitcoins. I don't see this as a serious problem. There will always be some one that has cash or other items of value and needs bitcoins for an illegal transaction.
At this point, again, IMO, if the transaction fees are enough, people will set up a node and make a small profit. If not, the people that want bitcoin to still be usable will ensure the existence of enough nodes.
As an aside, I believe block chain and distributed ledger systems have some amazing potential. If we can ensure the security of the serial number, we can reduce the expense and risk of physical money. I don't want to do away with physical money. But there is no need for piles of it to be printed and sit in a vault changing ownership only on paper.
Distributed ledger systems have the potential to reduce the risk of embezzlement and theft.
I hit post a little too soon,
I am very interested in virtual currencies. I believe misinformation is the biggest threat to virtual currencies.
anyone that is considering investing in any VC should understand the technology and the product. Not just in general but the specific product they wish to purchase. That means do not take my advice. do your own research and perhaps consult an expert. If you are still confused or unsure, perhaps you should not invest.
@K I had brought some when it was under 3000 a few months back and it went to about 4500 and the wild swings irritated me so I unloaded at that point I have been researching this on and off for about a year so I again brought in at about 7700 but this time I brought a fractional amount and I’m going to just hold it for 6 months and then reevaluate my decision I’ll either unload again or I’ll buy some more and use it to hedge some of my more conventional holdings. With me it’s a process I’ll continue to educate myself. I’m always grateful for people that are willing to share market knowledge, I believe the more you know the better you do.
twentyfive,
My comments about education were not directed at you. I know others may read this.
I make my living in IT for financial services companies. my investments are closely monitored and I may only use approved investment houses and investments. Sadly, Bitcoin is not one of them. People ask me all the time about virtual currencies and I point out that I am not an investment professional. The most I can say is that if I were allowed to invest in bitcoin, I would consider it for now.
I recently took a business trip to various European countries. I saw bitcoin ATM machines in the strip clubs and some hotels in Slovenia, Slovakia and Hungary. I did not notice them in Austria, Germany, Spain or Portugal. I did not use them but as I understand it, you can transfer bitcoins or withdraw local money and strip club money. I saw them used several times.
I don't think governments are able to stop Bitcoin. They may try but that will just accelerate the trend to make it even more decentralized and anonymous. Best they can do is put up a competitor and hope to take business away from it. But it's hard to think that the government will be able to come up with something better than 1000+ projects working on their own coin can. (i.e. Government should know better than to try and beat the "private" (yes, pun intended) sector).
Question to all. I really have no idea about "bitcoin".
The reason is due to my introduction to the term. Sometime ago I was in my watering hole and some fellow I'd seen around but not really talked to ended up sitting beside me on a busy night. As the conversation progressed, he mentioned bitcoin and his brother's dealing with it. I don't recall all the particulars me mentioned, but for the one important question I asked, he had no answer. I asked him what backs it up as a "currency". He had no idea, so I sort of chalked bitcoin up to the rantings of a drunk.
Clubber
bitcoin is marketed as a currency but regulatory agencies have determined it is a commodity. It has value only because people have decided it has value. Nothing backs Bitcoin. If everyone wakes up tomorrow and decides it is worthless, then it will in fact be worthless.
@K you could have added that most commodities only have value because people decide that they have value and the same would apply to gold, silver, diamonds or even coal and oil even steel.
Dougster used to post about the boom of 2015, and how there wouldn't even be young women to be whoring in our strip clubs anymore.
It would seem then that the Crisis in Capitalism, long predicted, is indeed upon us.
One good thing about bitcoin is that being digital, when it crashes, even if it takes 1,000,000 coins to buy a loaf of bread, you won't need to have a wheel barrow to carry those around in.
SJG
"True but most commodities have a use. Bitcoin has no use what so ever. You cant make anything with a bitcoin. You cant eat bitcoins."
- Seriously? I think a little education is in order, K. Why don't you find out how so many Venezuelans use Bitcoin to survive? Why don't you figure out why Bitcoin is so popular in South Africa? Australia? The Netherlands?
. Other people clearly understand my point so i dont think it is me. You are either an idiot or just want to argue. You are able to string words together into sentences so I dont think you are an idiot. Why do you enjoy annoying other people? What does it accomplish?
What use does bitcoin have other than a means of exchange? Diamonds, gold and silver can be used in industrial purposes. Corn can be eaten. Bitcoin has no such purpose. I stated this and you even quoted me.
Bitcoin - Another Tulip frenzy. At least a Tulip could be touched. Reminds me of the real estate frenzy in the early 2000's when one of my neighbors said their 1400 sq foot house would soon be worth 500k. I think that property was short sold for around 75k a few years later.
I wonder when "the king has no clothes" moment will come.
No problem, Lone_Sheep, you just keep being skeptical and wrong. We'll just keep raking in the money.
LOL!
An "the moment" will not come when 80% of everyone is still skeptical.
K, it's one thing to say that Bitcoin is not a commodity. It is a completely different thing to say that Bitcoin has no use. I think you've confused utility with tangibility. I suggest that you USE some TIME to think more carefully about this topic. I suggest you USE your MEMORIES as a guide for future actions. I also suggest you use your dick to fuck yourself.
For what it's worth, I do agree with one of your remarks; you certainly cannot eat a Bitcoin.
Last weekend I decide to open a new checking account at a new bank and thought about the time it took compared to just get "an account" for a crypto currency. One merely has to do something like that after using crypto currencies or send a payment to understand crypto currencies value.
Bitcoin is running up a bit to fast into the availability of futures trading, IMO. I think it would be a good idea to take some profits here and get into alt coins. I've stated some of my favorites before, but, honestly, do your due diligence and buy one that you have firms convictions in after doing so. If you have weak convictions, guaranteed is going test you and probably shake you out close to the bottom.
^^^^ Notice that he doesn't talk about the stock market anymore. What could this possibly mean?
SJG
Truck Stop Strippers
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How Capitalism is Destroying Itself
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Gimme Shelter
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Neil Young and Pearl Jam - Rockin' In The Free World
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^^^^^^ Following in the foot steps of your mentor, Bernie Madoff?
SJG
Marxism 101
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Yardbirds
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Stones, Tempe, 1981, Under My Thumb, awesome well known performance
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1981 Tempe playlist. These guys set the benchmark in how their live performances offer an interpretation on their studio albums.
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I used to have to argue with Dougster that beyond some sane P to E rations, the 'pop', that the stock market was a Ponzi scheme. With bitcoin, no need to even argue this.
But what does this new emphasis say about the actual state of our economy?
SJG
Jeff Beck
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Economy's fine where I am @SJG. You been having some trouble finding work? If so I doubt it's the economy's fault. The real fault lies in the fact that your a psycho that nobody wants to hire.
LOL!
Bitcoin has gone parabolic. No one will need to talk about tulip mania years from now. There will be Bitcoin. I swear I looked at something related to Bitcoin this evening and the stock price range today said 0.74 dollars back to $1700 dollars. If that's related to Bitcoin, wow. Maybe it was a mistake on the chart. I don't remember the ticker symbol but could find it.
On the contrary, @SJG. We have you figured out completely. You are just a chapter in a psychology textbook. The chapter on malignant narcissism. Fits you too a 't'.
@SJG you never answered the question of whether you have enough knowledge about Bitcoin to know if it's a ponzi scheme or not. What are your qualifications to speak on the matter? Why should anything you say carry any weight? Especially after you've been wrongly calling the stock market a bubble for years and lost all credibility there?
Well what is it @SJG? Show us your incredible knowledge by giving us a quick description. LOL! And no cheating and going to wikipedia first. Tell us what you know right as of this second.
I know whatever stock ticker I was looking at wasn't Bitcoin but was wondering how it was related. Guess I will need to find the ticker to get more input.
I mentioned it last week, but thought I should reiterate today. It looks to me like the rotation from Bitcoin in altcoins has started. I've mentioned some good ones in the past: ZEC, LTC, DASH, NXS, and ETH, but can't recommend specific ones for specific people. You'll need to do you own due diligence and buy something you have firm enough conviction in to be able to ride out the volatility. At the same time you'll have to not be blind to happens in the market and understand when a fundamental thesis about you altcoin has failed and it's time to exit the party.
GLTA in 2018! Let's continue to give those skeptics the ass fucking they deserve!
What Capitalism has brought us to, its demise, and led by economic parasites like our own @Dougster.
SJG
Marx, biography:
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more
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Marx was right
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Stalinism is the deformity of Communism.
Fascism is the deformity of Capitalism.
And I add, "Neoliberalism is Neofascism."
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