How do you decide which crypto currency to buy?

Well I’m out; turns out it wasn’t money I was prepared to lose when it came to it! (£500, spread amongst about 10 different coins, and a normal earning person for context). I was a believer in holding, but my waters are telling me to get out now before I start losing money – really feel for the poor sods that have.

It’s really tanking now! I’m actually still slightly in profit. Not going to sell, will hold for the long term…… It might pick up again 😳

The whole idea of Cryptocurrency just isn’t going to collapse based on one bad week.

Everyone is panicking and prices are reflecting that. It’ll be back up but may take months.

The whole idea of Cryptocurrency just isn’t going to collapse based on one bad week.

Everyone is panicking and prices are reflecting that. It’ll be back up but may take months.

Don’t disagree (actually, I don’t pretend to understand any of it) but as a basic principle people panicking in either direction drives the price of something up or down! 🙂

The whole idea of Cryptocurrency just isn’t going to collapse based on one bad week.

True, but then buying currencies isn’t that. Buying bitcoins/ethereium/dodgecoin isn’t an investment in some future technology, it’s probably going to be like buying betamax but already knowing one day netflix will win.

Except in this case betamax is a bad idea only actually seem to appeal as a product to drug dealers and ransomware hackers.

Netflix has a problem. It’s streams from centralised servers. When demand is high it can’t keep up. It could deploy more capital to inc capacity – but the capital would not produce return when demand is low.

So everynow and again we have a little wait. Ok when watching box set. Very much not ok when streaming live sports or porn.

What if Netflix was decentralised like bit torrent? It would stream the video to get it out there. By the time these 010101s gets to me it’s not directly from Netflix servers but from my neighbors feed – whom is from down the roads feed etc. So the more people watching, the more places I can get my 01001s from – the more resistant the video stream??? The more people watching the better it is?? Complete opposite of the current model!

What if no-one on the network has the 3seconds I need? Well Netflix will stream that out to me directly thank you.

Word on the street is Netflix and Sky Sports are looking at using a crypto currency blockchain (which you can gamble some money on) to do exactly this. Well that’s what my son tells me from tiktok.

Apparently my original post hit a nerve with some one.

So I would like to rephrase it as a plannet “when a mummy and daddy love each other very much they like to practice wrestling moves on each other”-ly bad idea.

Word on the street is Netflix and Sky Sports are looking at using a crypto currency blockchain (which you can gamble some money on) to do exactly this. Well that’s what my son tells me from tiktok.

Except that’s not what gambling on bitcoin is. If netflix finds a use for the tech in some other way that gamble on bitcoin wont pay off. You’re not going to get a dividend because someone at netflix bought a textbook on how to code blockchains.

In the meantime ….. more greenhouse gas emissions than a middling country and actually real industries cant get parts because all the silicon factories can’t make enough gpu’s and asic’s. For what?

so I kinda get paid to know about this stuff

you come across terribly, I can only read your posts in a Swiss Tony voice

…can someone pop the plug back in the Cryto currency bath! Ta! 🤪 🛀

Apparently Trump has declared bitcoin a scam and that’s lead to a collapse. Surely Trump’s words should do the opposite nowadays!!

He must be driving the price down before he buys a load then!

Netflix has a problem. It’s streams from centralised servers. When demand is high it can’t keep up. It could deploy more capital to inc capacity – but the capital would not produce return when demand is low.

They use Amazon AWS to serve the video as its probably the biggest CDN out there. AWS will spin up servers / BW as required and charge Netflix accordingly based on the SLA etc.

It wouldn’t make sense to build a CDN network of your own as these things benefit from economy of scale, makes more sense to just use one of the biggest in existence.

Apparently Trump has declared bitcoin a scam and that’s lead to a collapse. Surely Trump’s words should do the opposite nowadays!!

Well China is banning all social media posts about Crypto..

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jun/07/china-blocks-cryptocurrency-weibo-accounts-in-judgment-day-for-bitcoin

Rumoured they’ll really outlaw all transactions.

Plus people are slowly realising that BC isn’t ‘outside’ the law and the law can crack accounts and confiscate funds etc:

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/07/us-recovers-some-of-the-money-paid-in-the-colonial-pipeline-ransom-officials-say.html

Well China is banning all social media posts about Crypto..

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jun/07/china-blocks-cryptocurrency-weibo-accounts-in-judgment-day-for-bitcoin

Rumoured they’ll really outlaw all transactions.

This is definitely for the best. And in other great news, the Chinese can now have more than one child without fear of forced sterilization. (They wait till after the second?)

So El Salvador have now made Bitcoin legal tender – along side the USD. (If you want to buy a Tesla there the dealer must accept Bitcoin). Obviously the full infrastructure is not there yet but the intent is.

More importantly – what will this do for the political and economic stability of Latin America as other countries are watching hard? I’m (uneducated) guessing the US will have less influence/control?

I’m (uneducated) guessing the US will have less influence/control?

Given that most just over half of El Salvadors debt is in USD I would think the adoption of Bitcoin will make absolutely zero difference!

More importantly – what will this do for the political and economic stability of Latin America as other countries are watching hard?

Adopting a wildly unstable non currency as a currency. Hmm, do I think that will make things better or worse? Let me think real hard about that one….

(If you want to buy a Tesla there the dealer must accept Bitcoin)

Given that 30% of the population live in poverty, I can’t see this being much of an issue…

You do know that El Salvador is a tiny, poor, heavily indebted third world country? It’s a sign of despration that they think jumping on the BC bandwagon will somehow improve things for their country.

Adopting a wildly unstable non currency as a currency. Hmm, do I think that will make things better or worse?

yes it is wildly unstable – but for whatever reason – BTC is working well enough for them in the field that they have decided to make it official.

(If you want to buy a Tesla there the dealer must accept Bitcoin)

Given that 30% of the population live in poverty, I can’t see this being much of an issue…

Of course it also applies Ford’s, GM’s, phones, kettles and everything else sold there where the parent company is US owned. In a way it forces these international companies to interact with BTC. I recall that M&S used to take the euro at the till.

yes it is wildly unstable – but for whatever reason – BTC is working well enough for them in the field that they have decided to make it official.

They don’t currently use it for anything that I’m aware of.

Of course it also applies Ford’s, GM’s, phones, kettles and everything else sold there where the parent company is US owned. In a way it forces these international companies to interact with BTC. I recall that M&S used to take the euro at the till.

Well local retailers might have to, but I suspect 99.9% won’t as its mainly a cash in hand economy. It’s a very poor country..

You really are clutching at straws if you think this makes any difference.

Back in the real world….

Global regulators are calling for cryptocurrencies to carry the toughest bank capital rules of any asset, arguing that requirements for holding bitcoin and similar tokens should be far higher than those for conventional stocks and bonds.

Banks with exposure to volatile cryptocurrencies should face stricter capital requirements to reflect the higher risks, said the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, the world’s most powerful banking standards-setter.

Its intervention came in a report released on Thursday as policymakers around the world step up plans to regulate the fast-emerging market.

The Basel committee acknowledged that while banks’ exposure to the nascent crypto industry was limited, “the growth of crypto assets and related services has the potential to raise financial stability concerns and increase risks faced by banks”.

Among the risks it cited included market and credit risk, fraud, hacking, money laundering and terrorist financing risk.

https://www.ft.com/content/3fe7be31-179a-47dd-9a61-8f4ea42b9c62

Is BTC wildly unstable?
It fluctuates wildly compared to USD.
Is this because we use USD as the base?
If we, or El Salvador or whoever’s, used BTC as the base it would look as though USD was fluctuating wildly, it’s risen loads against BTC in the last month or so after plummeting for the previous six
.
I’m not saying it’s a good idea, just pointing out that it depends what you use as your reference point.

I’m not saying it’s a good idea, just pointing out that it depends what you use as your reference point.

You normally use whatever currency most of your debt / trade is in as that is what keeps your economy going on a daily basis. Pre-covid ES owed something like 70% of GDP in US/Euro denominated debt, so even a very small fluctation in price of those currencies or respective interest rates will have a big effect on their economy, whereas BC could collapse to zero and no one in ES would even notice.

NB People used to think the sun orbited around the earth.

For what it’s worth I don’t think the FBI have said the got the logkey for that account via the backdoor they pulled in one of the middle men and he
A. gave it up
B. Wrote it down to keep it safe and was nicked with it in his jeans Pocket.
C.went via a US owned server to get IP addresses then nicked said middle man.

El Salvador folk have been using crypto of some form for a long time 3ish years, making it legal was just a rubber stamp the people have been given the rough end of the stick for years corruption everywhere so crypto becomes another assest to be exploited.

Crypto is no better or worse for crime than cash it’s just easy to hide large amounts on a flash drive.(and no laundry bill from the swiss)
Criminals will be criminals and take whatever is valuable at the time.
I do think paper cash is dead or on life support at least everything is just a number after that,and that’s a huge problem that may impact very poor people in well off countrys who don’t have access to banking/internet, NI numbers ect because they are dirt poor or non citizens.

And as for China come back to me when they stop running concentration camps*(sorry re education) and using north Korea to conduct state wide digital terrorism.

Sorry not a huge fan of China’s government after reading some of the diplomatic wires countrys sent home after Tiananmen square.
Buts that’s a different thread.

Crypto is no better or worse for crime than cash it’s just easy to hide large amounts on a flash drive.(and no laundry bill from the swiss)

Crypto is great for crime! As you say, easy to launder, easy to send across borders, easy to get millions of dollars of ransom payments without having to collect it from someone under a bridge or even visit their country, easy to buy drugs and child porn online, easy to set up scams, ponzi schemes and all manner of other schemes to separate people from their cash.

There are a lot of pro’s and cons to crypto, but you can’t say it’s not absolutely superb for crime.

You really are clutching at straws if you think this makes any difference.

Back in the real world….

NB People used to think the sun orbited around the earth.

Very WOW much scary language!

BC could collapse to zero

You keep saying BTC could collapse to zero.. Yet… it hasn’t…. Yet…. 😀

Very WOW much scary language!

It wasn’t meant to be scary, I’m merely pointing out that an impoverished 3rd world country adopting BC is probably not a significant tipping point….

Global regulators requiring banks dealing in Crypto to hold much bigger reserves is probably more significant…..

Crypto is great for crime! As you say, easy to launder, easy to send across borders, easy to get millions of dollars of ransom payments without having to collect it from someone under a bridge or even visit their country, easy to buy drugs and child porn online, easy to set up scams, ponzi schemes and all manner of other schemes to separate people from their cash.

There are a lot of pro’s and cons to crypto, but you can’t say it’s not absolutely superb for crime.

What makes bitcoin good money full stop is also what makes it good money for crime. What makes it bad money – i.e. its completely traceable on the block chain is also why the latest gang got caught. How they actually recovered the coins however was probably more due to a iron wrench than a cracking an algorithm. There is no defense from that.

Given the reputation for corruption, is it not likely that the rulers of el Salvador have bought a load of bitcoin and are hoping this announcement will inflate their investments? (So they can cash out and buy stuff in usd)

Crypto is great for crime!

Crypto (or at least non-privacy coins but even then…) is terrible for crime.

Once the authorities tie you to your crypto wallet they can see exactly what you have been doing with your money.

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/03/why-criminals-cant-hide-behind-bitcoin

Sure, if you and absolutely everyone you interact with is very very careful and makes no mistakes then it’s great. I have yet to meet anyone who never makes a mistake.

On a related note, this is an interesting twitter feed to get a feel for how Cyrpto is moving: https://twitter.com/whale_alert?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

It’s particularly interesting now that we seem to be in an accumulation phase for institutions.

Given the reputation for corruption, is it not likely that the rulers of el Salvador have bought a load of bitcoin and are hoping this announcement will inflate their investments? (So they can cash out and buy stuff in usd)

Possibly.

Another possibility is that it just makes sense for them, as a country, to accumulate as much Bitcoin as possible.

If the value of Bitcoin continues to go up and US inflation continues then their debt will evaporate.

What could possibly go wrong?

What could possibly go wrong?

I take it you’re long on fiat currencies.

What could possibly go wrong?

Crypto (or at least non-privacy coins but even then…) is terrible for crime.

And yet apparently a quarter of Bitcoin users and 46% of transactions are used for illegal purposes, making crime it’s second most common use after speculation. Makes you think…

Possibly.

Another possibility is that it just makes sense for them, as a country, to accumulate as much Bitcoin as possible.

If the value of Bitcoin continues to go up and US inflation continues then their debt will evaporate.

OK, so pre Covid their foreign denominated debt was 70% of GDP. How are they going to pay for enough BC to hedge against 70% of GDP?

It’s bad enough having debt in a stable foreign currency, a few % rise in interest rates on the USD or Euro will seriously hurt them. But, having debt in the roller coaster ride of BC would be completely insane.

I take it you’re long on fiat currencies.

Given thats what keeps the world’s economies going, yep, I’m long on them along with several other billion people.

I wouldn’t describe myself as long on fiat, because I’m not a currency trader. But living in the UK I find GBP works for all my currency needs.

If you are not being blackmailed or if you are not buying drugs, then why would you buy cryptocurrency?

https://www.forbes.com/sites/joewalsh/2021/05/01/warren-buffetts-deputy-calls-bitcoin-disgusting-and-bad-for-civilization/

And yet apparently a quarter of Bitcoin users and 46% of transactions are used for illegal purposes, making crime it’s second most common use after speculation. Makes you think…

I don’t have access to that paper. What’s the gist?

OK, so pre Covid their foreign denominated debt was 70% of GDP. How are they going to pay for enough BC to hedge against 70% of GDP?

It’s bad enough having debt in a stable foreign currency, a few % rise in interest rates on the USD or Euro will seriously hurt them. But, having debt in the roller coaster ride of BC would be completely insane.

No one who has bought Bitcoin and kept it for four years has lost money. Ever.

It could, of course, go to zero. So far it has followed a fairly predictable cycle tied to the halving (roughly every four years). The time from bottom to peak of each cycle has increased each time and the ROI has reduced each cycle.

The recent collapse was expected given that we have been well ahead of the previous cycle for over a year. I suspect the reason for that is because this is the cycle where institutions begin adopting crypto which is adding another element into the mix.

It’s only a roller coaster if it eventually goes back to where it started.

Given thats what keeps the world’s economies going, yep, I’m long on them along with several other billion people.

I know you’re long. In fact, I’d go so far as to say you’re a zealot. Most of the rest of us on this thread are realists and are interested in hedging our bets. You are a true believer.

I wouldn’t describe myself as long on fiat, because I’m not a currency trader. But living in the UK I find GBP works for all my currency needs.

And hopefully things will continue as they are. I hope you don’t mind if some of us aren’t comfortable betting our entire financial futures on that.

If you are not being blackmailed or if you are not buying drugs, then why would you buy cryptocurrency?

Like all good meme’s, ‘Haha, money printer go brrrrrrr’ is based on an element of truth.

And yet apparently a quarter of Bitcoin users and 46% of transactions are used for illegal purposes, making crime it’s second most common use after speculation. Makes you think…

Probably true – at this stage. I guess that the majority of the 46% is drug related. How much of that is for individual use? What was the % of £20 notes that had traces of coke? What’s the 2nd most used function for Tesco Club cards? And if are talking about buying mushrooms and pot with Bitcoin, then yes its a illegal transaction in UK but the same transaction is not illegal in many US states.

Illegal is defined by government – depends on what – depends on where.

If I was concerned about the collapse of traditional currencies and existing global financial systems, I wouldn’t bet on a cryptocurrency to save me from the absolute chaos that would ensue.