Thoughts on Cryptocurrencies?

I'm sure lots of you heard about Dogecoin sponsoring John Wise to race in NASCAR (via reddit). This sparked my interest in cyrptocurrencies. When bitcoin was first traded in 2009, I checked it out and didn't think much of it. It was literally worth nothing when I first heard of it. Since then, Bitcoin peaked at $1,132.01USD/1BTC and proceeded to crash with a low of $363.12/1BTC since then. I've been doing a lot of research for the past few weeks on cryptocurrencies and it's really intriguing me. Here's just a tad of information:

At the time of this post, 1 Dogecoin is worth 0.0004455 USD.
At the time of this post, 1 Bitcoin is worth 430.7 USD
That being said, here are some statistics that are blowing me away:

Total Dogecoins 76,193,801,001 DOGE
Market Capitalization $33,483,214 USD
Addresses richer than 1/100/1,000/10,000 USD   180,766 / 24,100 / 2,935 / 204
Top 100 Richest Addresses 37,662,648,012 DOGE ($16,550,776 USD) 49.43% Total


Total Bitcoins 12,719,749 BTC
Market Capitalization $5,372,650,600 USD
Addresses richer than 1/100/1,000/10,000 USD   1,295,217 / 457,212 / 191,324 / 77,071
Top 100 Richest Addresses 2,432,355 BTC ($1,027,394,163 USD) 19.12% Total


All statistics and charts can be found here: http://bitinfocharts.com/

I'm interested in seeing who else is watching cryptocurrencies. I've personally been trading currency since I was 8 years old. My father taught me how to use FOREX trading platform and had me enter BUY/SELL offers for years while also updating an algorithm of his. Naturally, a new form of currency is very important to me. I'm currently setting up a few dogecoin miners to test the waters. I don't really plan on making anything from mining, but I'm interested in investing and observing trends.

What do you all think of cryptocurrencies? Is it here to stay? Where do you see bitcoin in 1 year? Dogecoin? I personally think it's the future of currencies, but I'm not familiar enough to provide an accurate assessment. Not yet at least.

Also, if you're interested in investing in this market. BE WARY. CRYPTOCURRENCY IS IN IT'S INFANCY AND IS EXTREMELY VOLATILE!!!

For reference, at the time of completing this post Dogecoin is worth 0.0004474 USD
Also, I have 125.00000000 DOGE ($0.07)
Greatest thing about this currency is the simplicity.

Below is my address I have created specifically for this post. If you were to send Dogecoins to this address, I would receive them.
DLJFJwfcH4KMqAJFvaFNt7MsMAfqfEYUyd
I understand if Admins don't want these addresses here in the future, but until then, it shall remain.

Lol @ your signature.

Snow and I are both into Bitcoin 24/7 and we believe in its potential to change the world.

I watch what happens with the other cryptocurrencies but have no interest in them as in the end, all of them are dependent on Bitcoin in some way. When people speak of cryptocurrency, they usually speak of Bitcoin. If Bitcoin falls in price right now, the other cryptocurrencies will probably do the same. You can see proof of it here: https://coinmarketcap.com/
Check at any time and you will see how in the big line of things, other cryptocurrencies (of significant worth) follow the pattern Bitcoin does.

The exception atm is Ripple, since they had a lot of press yesterday and people are finally beginning to understand the direction Ripple wants to go in.

Like you said, it's in its infancy and we have a long way to go before it can grow and become a real global success. One thing is 100% certain though, an internet type of money is here to stay. Even if all the existing cryptocurrencies would fail (which would be odd, since they can be updated to include any future improvements), there would be something new because the technology now exists and it has the disruptive potential to change and improve the world.

Banks are quietly shitting their pants atm and are trying to learn from the Blockchain (the Bitcoin network) to see how they can apply it.

There is so much more I could say about it, but I'll leave it at this.

Divine wrote:Snow and I are both into Bitcoin 24/7 and we believe in its potential to change the world.

I'm really interested in what makes you think it has potential? I have my own reasons to believe the same, but I'd like to know from someone who has been doing it as long as you have. (how long btw?)
Also, what is your method for mining? Are you mining in an MPOS pool? How many miners do you and Snow have each? What's the mining rate? Is it more effective to mine with more people? So many questions!

Divine wrote:I watch what happens with the other cryptocurrencies but have no interest in them as in the end, all of them are dependent on Bitcoin in some way. When people speak of cryptocurrency, they usually speak of Bitcoin. If Bitcoin falls in price right now, the other cryptocurrencies will probably do the same. You can see proof of it here: https://coinmarketcap.com/
Check at any time and you will see how in the big line of things, other cryptocurrencies (of significant worth) follow the pattern Bitcoin does.

I'm watching Dogecoin just as much as Bitcoin, but that's because I'm really interested in seeing a smaller currency develop. Bitcoin is the leader for sure. However, I'm beginning to wonder how having multiple currencies will in turn affect Bitcoin rather than the other way around. There are obvious reasons for multiple currencies in the real world, but why multiple cryptocurrencies? It seems like a "because we can" type of scenario playing out where everyone and their dog can make a currency of their own. I've met a few people chatting in rapidhash IRC with their own coin and I'm wondering what sort of long term affects - if any - it will have on Bitcoin?

Bitcoin & Dogecoin?

I wouldn't invest in BTC personally, or reccomend people to, as it has known to go from $450 --> $300 in a matter of seconds... you can even watch the price on preev ( http://preev.com/ ) and you'll see that BTC will rise and fall, so suddenly.

I believe I gave Snow my $0.50 worth of BTC when it was at it's peak...

I doubt any CryptoCurrencies will ever become a globally recognised currency, where it's accepted in all countries, as a global currency, as people mining from their own CPU or GPU are currently sitting at a loss and have done for the past number of months. The only people profiting from the 'mining' of a cryptoCurrency is people who have massive botnets.

I also think there are far too many CryptoCurriencies and honestly it isn't good, because all these mining pools are seperating = less miners = less profit overall, really, due to less blocks being found by the pool.

Have you seen the price of other CryptoCoins at the moment, anyways?
OmniCoin was introduced to the trading market with the price of around $1 = 70 OMC
Now you'll be lucky if you can find 20 OMC for $1...

NOTE: If there's anything breaking the forum rules, please delete this post or feel free to edit it out.

Frekwency wrote:

Divine wrote:Snow and I are both into Bitcoin 24/7 and we believe in its potential to change the world.

I'm really interested in what makes you think it has potential? I have my own reasons to believe the same, but I'd like to know from someone who has been doing it as long as you have. (how long btw?)
Also, what is your method for mining? Are you mining in an MPOS pool? How many miners do you and Snow have each? What's the mining rate? Is it more effective to mine with more people? So many questions!

Divine wrote:I watch what happens with the other cryptocurrencies but have no interest in them as in the end, all of them are dependent on Bitcoin in some way. When people speak of cryptocurrency, they usually speak of Bitcoin. If Bitcoin falls in price right now, the other cryptocurrencies will probably do the same. You can see proof of it here: https://coinmarketcap.com/
Check at any time and you will see how in the big line of things, other cryptocurrencies (of significant worth) follow the pattern Bitcoin does.

I'm watching Dogecoin just as much as Bitcoin, but that's because I'm really interested in seeing a smaller currency develop. Bitcoin is the leader for sure. However, I'm beginning to wonder how having multiple currencies will in turn affect Bitcoin rather than the other way around. There are obvious reasons for multiple currencies in the real world, but why multiple cryptocurrencies? It seems like a "because we can" type of scenario playing out where everyone and their dog can make a currency of their own. I've met a few people chatting in rapidhash IRC with their own coin and I'm wondering what sort of long term affects - if any - it will have on Bitcoin?

It is the first time the Byzantine Generals problem has been solved, which results in being able to trust complete strangers over the internet. It has so ridiculously many possibilities that we don't even know of yet, that it will undoubtedly change the world.
Storj is an example of this, decentralized storage where you can rent out your spare space on your harddrive for a Bitcoin reward.
There are many challenges that need to be tackled, but the possibility exists and is just one out of so many.

I believe in Bitcoin because it is the first thing to really challenge the banking and financing leeches.
The people with the true power who are using the rest of the world to enrich themselves.

I do not and won't ever be mining, it is not my field of interest in Bitcoin.
I suggest you to read up on it, but there is one thing to keep in mind about mining, it's that you don't do it to profit right now (since that's getting harder and harder), you do it because you believe the price will rise in the future. It's an investment.

In my eyes multiple "serious" cryptocurrencies only weaken the cryptocurrency idea as a whole. It makes it look like too much of a complex world to outsiders and there is no real need or use for the others on a serious level.

If they are experimental it's fine with me, that way great ideas come up which can help to improve the system.
This system can be updated to incorporate any future improvements, which is why there is little use for there to be other "serious" altcoins in my eyes.

Oxodium wrote:Bitcoin & Dogecoin?

I wouldn't invest in BTC personally, or reccomend people to, as it has known to go from $450 --> $300 in a matter of seconds... you can even watch the price on preev ( http://preev.com/ ) and you'll see that BTC will rise and fall, so suddenly.

I believe I gave Snow my $0.50 worth of BTC when it was at it's peak...

I doubt any CryptoCurrencies will ever become a globally recognised currency, where it's accepted in all countries, as a global currency, as people mining from their own CPU or GPU are currently sitting at a loss and have done for the past number of months. The only people profiting from the 'mining' of a cryptoCurrency is people who have massive botnets.

I also think there are far too many CryptoCurriencies and honestly it isn't good, because all these mining pools are seperating = less miners = less profit overall, really, due to less blocks being found by the pool.

Have you seen the price of other CryptoCoins at the moment, anyways?
OmniCoin was introduced to the trading market with the price of around $1 = 70 OMC
Now you'll be lucky if you can find 20 OMC for $1...

NOTE: If there's anything breaking the forum rules, please delete this post or feel free to edit it out.

With all due respect, the first argument is a bit ridiculous.
If you look at it that way, countless companies could go bankrupt within a year now and you should never invest in any of them.
We might as well ditch investing as a whole then, since there are always large risks.
We could also ditch banks then, since they high risk invest with the money we put into them.
Oh and if they screw up, guess who has to bail them out while their leaders have billions tucked away in tax paradises?

The idea, like with any investment, is that you research it properly before you get into it.
I would also highly advise anyone who doesn't understand Bitcoin against getting into it until they do understand.

Yes it is volatile, but merchanting on RS can be too. If you know what you're doing however, it can actually be profitable.
This is more along the lines of flipping though, while you are speaking of investing.

Investing is long term, and a move of $450 to $300 should not matter much in this case.
I've bought part of my Bitcoin at $800+ and have made back a large part of the loss on those already.

It is the long term possibilities and future prospects that matter.

I've been interested in Bitcoin for a while, but I always dismissed it, as Oxodium does, based on the fact that mining is a losing game for most. It's not solely botnets that are profiting, in fact that's really a non-issue at all, but, person to person, most people mining bitcoin are losing. A lot of what is going on is kids buying these ASICs to mine... but they are using their parent's electricity to mine. The kids make back their investment, so they are happy, but they are not factoring in the electricity costs they are literally stealing from mommy and daddy. To me, this signaled as a fundamental problem and an inherent overpricing. As time has gone on, however, bitcoin mining has turned into a highly professional field.

To answer one of Frek's questions, I do not mine. I suggest you do not mine either. You can run a small node on the side just to support the network, but do not view it as profitable. It will not be for you... Based on the laws of competition that support the backbone of Bitcoin's very security, someone like you MUST not be able to profit from mining bitcoin. The people who will profit are those who are able to get contracted energy in a de-regulated energy market, like that of Texas, or those who have professional knowledge surrounding ASICs and a thorough understanding of the specialized task at hand. You must custom build... and I do not mean custom build a computer like going out and buying the hardware, I mean building the chips themselves.

As for my role with bitcoin, I am just an investor who believes in the technology and the problems the technology solves. I also run an automated trading investment fund with bitcoin that basically keeps me de-facto invested in it. It's got 16 investors at the moment and about $200K worth of BTC. That all started in December 2013, so very very recent, and at the very latest peak. I didn't intend to originally run the fund, I had an investor approach me to do it for him, and then it went from there.

I never had faith in Bitcoin before because I didn't bother giving the time to research it, because I had my feelings about miners. After reading the original whitepaper, and having encryption knowledge and programming knowledge already, my "eyes were opened" so to speak. I don't know anyone who has read, and understood, the original whitepaper for bitcoin who still does not believe in it.

I do not know if it will be bitcoin the currency that will be THE cryptocurrency, or if bitcoin the currency will just fade out to be replaced by something else, but I do know that the technology's scientific breakthrough is here to stay and will change the world forever...it already has. Bitcoin the currency just happens to be the best option at the moment, and I want to support the technology with the best voting power known to man: currency.

I suggest you read the paper. If you have trouble with the paper, here's a video from my programming tutorial youtube channel that breaks the full paper down. You can get the main ideas from just watching the first video, which just covers the paper's abstract section.

Divine wrote:

Frekwency wrote:

Divine wrote:Snow and I are both into Bitcoin 24/7 and we believe in its potential to change the world.

I'm really interested in what makes you think it has potential? I have my own reasons to believe the same, but I'd like to know from someone who has been doing it as long as you have. (how long btw?)
Also, what is your method for mining? Are you mining in an MPOS pool? How many miners do you and Snow have each? What's the mining rate? Is it more effective to mine with more people? So many questions!

Divine wrote:I watch what happens with the other cryptocurrencies but have no interest in them as in the end, all of them are dependent on Bitcoin in some way. When people speak of cryptocurrency, they usually speak of Bitcoin. If Bitcoin falls in price right now, the other cryptocurrencies will probably do the same. You can see proof of it here: https://coinmarketcap.com/
Check at any time and you will see how in the big line of things, other cryptocurrencies (of significant worth) follow the pattern Bitcoin does.

I'm watching Dogecoin just as much as Bitcoin, but that's because I'm really interested in seeing a smaller currency develop. Bitcoin is the leader for sure. However, I'm beginning to wonder how having multiple currencies will in turn affect Bitcoin rather than the other way around. There are obvious reasons for multiple currencies in the real world, but why multiple cryptocurrencies? It seems like a "because we can" type of scenario playing out where everyone and their dog can make a currency of their own. I've met a few people chatting in rapidhash IRC with their own coin and I'm wondering what sort of long term affects - if any - it will have on Bitcoin?

It is the first time the Byzantine Generals problem has been solved, which results in being able to trust complete strangers over the internet. It has so ridiculously many possibilities that we don't even know of yet, that it will undoubtedly change the world.
Storj is an example of this, decentralized storage where you can rent out your spare space on your harddrive for a Bitcoin reward.
There are many challenges that need to be tackled, but the possibility exists and is just one out of so many.

I believe in Bitcoin because it is the first thing to really challenge the banking and financing leeches.
The people with the true power who are using the rest of the world to enrich themselves.

I do not and won't ever be mining, it is not my field of interest in Bitcoin.
I suggest you to read up on it, but there is one thing to keep in mind about mining, it's that you don't do it to profit right now (since that's getting harder and harder), you do it because you believe the price will rise in the future. It's an investment.

In my eyes multiple "serious" cryptocurrencies only weaken the cryptocurrency idea as a whole. It makes it look like too much of a complex world to outsiders and there is no real need or use for the others on a serious level.

If they are experimental it's fine with me, that way great ideas come up which can help to improve the system.
This system can be updated to incorporate any future improvements, which is why there is little use for there to be other "serious" altcoins in my eyes.

Oxodium wrote:Bitcoin & Dogecoin?

I wouldn't invest in BTC personally, or reccomend people to, as it has known to go from $450 --> $300 in a matter of seconds... you can even watch the price on preev ( http://preev.com/ ) and you'll see that BTC will rise and fall, so suddenly.

I believe I gave Snow my $0.50 worth of BTC when it was at it's peak...

I doubt any CryptoCurrencies will ever become a globally recognised currency, where it's accepted in all countries, as a global currency, as people mining from their own CPU or GPU are currently sitting at a loss and have done for the past number of months. The only people profiting from the 'mining' of a cryptoCurrency is people who have massive botnets.

I also think there are far too many CryptoCurriencies and honestly it isn't good, because all these mining pools are seperating = less miners = less profit overall, really, due to less blocks being found by the pool.

Have you seen the price of other CryptoCoins at the moment, anyways?
OmniCoin was introduced to the trading market with the price of around $1 = 70 OMC
Now you'll be lucky if you can find 20 OMC for $1...

NOTE: If there's anything breaking the forum rules, please delete this post or feel free to edit it out.

With all due respect, the first argument is a bit ridiculous.
If you look at it that way, countless companies could go bankrupt within a year now and you should never invest in any of them.
We might as well ditch investing as a whole then, since there are always large risks.
We could also ditch banks then, since they high risk invest with the money we put into them.
Oh and if they screw up, guess who has to bail them out while their leaders have billions tucked away in tax paradises?

The idea, like with any investment, is that you research it properly before you get into it.
I would also highly advise anyone who doesn't understand Bitcoin against getting into it until they do understand.

Yes it is volatile, but merchanting on RS can be too. If you know what you're doing however, it can actually be profitable.  
This is more along the lines of flipping though, while you are speaking of investing.

Investing is long term, and a move of $450 to $300 should not matter much in this case.
I've bought part of my Bitcoin at $800+ and have made back a large part of the loss on those already.

It is the long term possibilities and future prospects that matter.

I completely understand what you mean here, but I think you've missed what I meant in that.

I wasn't meaning BTC is not for everyone, I more mean people viewing the thread and thinking that BTC will rise in price and will invest money in it.

BTC, like other CryptoCurrencies can make a massive profit to those who know what they're doing. But if a random person who has no knowledge on the CryptoCurriencies and looks at the current price of BTC being around $430 and it peaked at over $1000 - people might just see the figures and jump in and buy BTC, and BTC does rise and fall ALOT, and you CAN miss your chance to sell for a $100 profit by literally seconds... And even with doing research, you can still lose alot of money - it's next to impossible to pick the peak price, unless you've got millions of dollars worth of BTC to dump.

Not trying to offend you in any way, just spaking up the debates, since it's the debate section... you know?

Snow wrote:I've been interested in Bitcoin for a while, but I always dismissed it, as Oxodium does, based on the fact that mining is a losing game for most. It's not solely botnets that are profiting, in fact that's really a non-issue at all, but, person to person, most people mining bitcoin are losing. A lot of what is going on is kids buying these ASICs to mine... but they are using their parent's electricity to mine. The kids make back their investment, so they are happy, but they are not factoring in the electricity costs they are literally stealing from mommy and daddy. To me, this signaled as a fundamental problem and an inherent overpricing. As time has gone on, however, bitcoin mining has turned into a highly professional field.

To answer one of Frek's questions, I do not mine. I suggest you do not mine either. You can run a small node on the side just to support the network, but do not view it as profitable. It will not be for you... Based on the laws of competition that support the backbone of Bitcoin's very security, someone like you MUST not be able to profit from mining bitcoin. The people who will profit are those who are able to get contracted energy in a de-regulated energy market, like that of Texas, or those who have professional knowledge surrounding ASICs and a thorough understanding of the specialized task at hand. You must custom build... and I do not mean custom build a computer like going out and buying the hardware, I mean building the chips themselves.

As for my role with bitcoin, I am just an investor who believes in the technology and the problems the technology solves. I also run an automated trading investment fund with bitcoin that basically keeps me de-facto invested in it. It's got 16 investors at the moment and about $200K worth of BTC. That all started in December 2013, so very very recent, and at the very latest peak. I didn't intend to originally run the fund, I had an investor approach me to do it for him, and then it went from there.

I never had faith in Bitcoin before because I didn't bother giving the time to research it, because I had my feelings about miners. After reading the original whitepaper, and having encryption knowledge and programming knowledge already, my "eyes were opened" so to speak. I don't know anyone who has read, and understood, the original whitepaper for bitcoin who still does not believe in it.

I do not know if it will be bitcoin the currency that will be THE cryptocurrency, or if bitcoin the currency will just fade out to be replaced by something else, but I do know that the technology's scientific breakthrough is here to stay and will change the world forever...it already has. Bitcoin the currency just happens to be the best option at the moment, and I want to support the technology with the best voting power known to man, currency.

I suggest you read the paper. If you have trouble with the paper, here's a video from my programming tutorial youtube channel that breaks the full paper down. You can get the main ideas from just watching the first video, which just covers the paper's abstract section.

What about the mining rigs, like the Blackberry pie's or whatever the hell they're called (LOL)

I've looked into a fair bit, and it's a very interesting. I'd like to get into it in the future, but it is a very risky market with a fair bit of potential. I personally think its a great thing.

Divine wrote:I do not and won't ever be mining, it is not my field of interest in Bitcoin.
I suggest you to read up on it, but there is one thing to keep in mind about mining, it's that you don't do it to profit right now (since that's getting harder and harder), you do it because you believe the price will rise in the future. It's an investment.

Snow wrote:To answer one of Frek's questions, I do not mine. I suggest you do not mine either. You can run a small node on the side just to support the network, but do not view it as profitable. It will not be for you... Based on the laws of competition that support the backbone of Bitcoin's very security, someone like you MUST not be able to profit from mining bitcoin. The people who will profit are those who are able to get contracted energy in a de-regulated energy market, like that of Texas, or those who have professional knowledge surrounding ASICs and a thorough understanding of the specialized task at hand. You must custom build... and I do not mean custom build a computer like going out and buying the hardware, I mean building the chips themselves.

Directed at both of you:

I'm not interested in mining for profit. I think it's good to have an understanding of how mining works and what actually goes into collecting coin. I'm just interested in the technical aspect of it. So, I'm going to run a miner until I feel I have nothing to gain from doing so. It would be ludicrous for me to expect any sort of profit from mining.  

Snow wrote:As for my role with bitcoin, I am just an investor who believes in the technology and the problems the technology solves. I also run an automated trading investment fund with bitcoin that basically keeps me de-facto invested in it. It's got 16 investors at the moment and about $200K worth of BTC. That all started in December 2013, so very very recent, and at the very latest peak. I didn't intend to originally run the fund, I had an investor approach me to do it for him, and then it went from there.

When I feel comfortable with cryptocoin, I will invest (or not, depending on a lot of things). Hopefully we can speak more about numbers and actual projections you and Divine have in the future. I am very interested in seeing where Bitcoin takes you two. I will probably post a follow-up thread in a month asking how things are going compared to how they're going now.

Mainly I'm just thrilled to see SM members invested in Bitcoin! I was completely expecting some of the more knowledgeable RSGP merchants to be working with Bitcoin, and I was correct. If you guys are ever in IRC, send me a message. I'd like to speak in real-time about this.

Snow wrote:I suggest you read the paper. If you have trouble with the paper, here's a video from my programming tutorial youtube channel that breaks the full paper down. You can get the main ideas from just watching the first video, which just covers the paper's abstract section.

Video:

I'm saving that video for the weekend as I'm at work all day, everyday. I did watch the first 5 minutes and plan to read the paper alongside the video. Thanks for the resource, Snow!

If anyone is reading this thread and would like to know more about Cryptocurrencies, leave a message with your questions! I (or whomever) will answer your questions, whatever they be!

Apparently bitcoin, as useful as it is, is relatively limited. well very limited in fact.
You can make your own if you have the know how, mining software based on your GPU, since the CPU cannot cope/do it as fast. IDK i was completely blitzed when my colleague was explaining it (he mined bitcoins in the past, got fired from his job for utilizing office computers in a dead room for it too) -

it has a limited amount of growth - and they are very unstable.
As many fiscal examiners and experts said, if any currency did what bitcoin did, especially the usa and the UK - they would be bankrupted, entirely.

All the time you invest time into dogecoin or bitcoin mining, keep with it all the time you are making cash. - invest minimal, only investing the profit you make from it. its too tempting when trading stocks to buy a little more "never put all your eggs into one basket" cause if the poor sod who lost $850k in one sitting buying bitcoins is anyone to learn off, idk who is.