What do you think of Crypto Currencies?

[rgbecker]

Here's Senator Warren's discussion on the topic.

[link:

Link to tweet

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Thinking of the environment? One transaction with a Bit Coin cost 53 days of average US household's electrical usage. Make sense?

I don't think so. I agree with Warren it needs to be stopped along with all the criminal intent that Crypto Currencies are trying to cover up.

[TheFarseer]

1. YES!

100% agree. Also, the only thing it seems to be really good for in enabling cybercrime and ransom ware attacks. I hope cryptocurrencies die a quick death.

[soothsayer]

2. Since the fbi was able to get into one bad actor's Bitcoin wallet, maybe there's hope

[ShazamIam]

3. I don't know enough to comment about that particular issue but I don't think the internet itself,

is secure enough for a crypto. I agree it has a scamy feel.

[Pinback]

4. I want no part of crypto.

These currencies are wildly speculative as an investment, as well as environmentally destructive. They're beloved by Libertarians, Dark Web denizens, and ransomware criminals -- three of my least favorite categories of humans.

[fescuerescue]

21. And institutional banks

Goldman Sachs is investing heavily into it. And several European banks are now doing traditional bond offerings over it.

It's not much different than cash. Criminals still favor cash since it's anonymous and untraceable. Cryptos are just partially anonymous but fully traceable.

https://www.coindesk.com/european-investment-bank-issues-121m-digital-notes-using-ethereum

[rownesheck]

22. My thoughts exactly.

Seems like a lot of "bro" type younger guys are way too interested in it. That's not a good sign.

[Bettie]

5. Not backed by anything

of course, some make the argument that US Currency isn't backed by anything either. I don't buy that one, since it is backed by the government that circulates it.

Lack of regulation seems like it benefits criminals more than most people. Easy to use for money laundering, cyber crime (like those ransomware attacks).

Also, I need a new video card and I can't find one because they get bought up within seconds of restocking by fucking bitcoin "miners".

[Thyla]

6. Sheesh

Last edited Thu Jun 10, 2021, 02:30 PM - Edit history (1)

Tough crowd.

lol

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[TlalocW]

7. I kind of get it because a computer programmer friend of mine

Does work related to the Blockchain for his company, but I don't think I would ever invest in it. However... Once January 1, 2022, rolls around, and the Former Guy is not re-installed as president, I will win the wager of one Bitcoin... If the guy who stupidly believes in YouTube prophets predicting the Circus Peanut's return is honest.

TlalocW

[unblock]

8. There are more energy-efficient cryptos

Bitcoin happens to have an extremely energy-intensive proof of work requirement for each transaction, but that level of energy consumption is not required by all crypto currencies.

Ripple, for instance, uses about 1/10,000th of the energy bitcoin uses.


As for the criminal element, this is rather overstated. Law enforcement can usually see when you exchange dollars for crypto and vice-versa; and it is possible to discover someone's key, at which point every transaction ever done with that key is available in the blockchain in all its gory detail.

There's a pseudo-anonymous aspect that has superficial appeal to criminal activity, but it is not a huge help.

Really, it's not much different than handing over physical dollars in a drug deal. In fact, handing of physical dollars is more anonymous because without witnesses, there may be no record of the transaction anywhere, whereas crypto records absolutely everything.

[marble falls]

9. You can buy $.01 worth of bit coin. Shoulda, it'd be worth a coupla grand by now. But no to Bitcoin.

[brush]

10. Besides the energy drain, they're much too volatile to me.

Values fluctuate wildly at times and one can be wiped out quickly. I'll pass.

[48656c6c6f20]

11. Holy crap, we better shutdown the internet

And cloud providers too. That's got to be a waste.

[Maraya1969]

12. Can someone dumb this down for me please? What energy? Besides computers

running there seems to be no actual product here. How does that waste energy?

And if they are backed by nothing how did they start? Did someone just make a website and start selling "money" in the form of what I can only understand as neurotransmitters for the computer?

I seriously do not understand this shit. Of course I have not tried too hard.

[WarGamer]

15. I can give you the Reader's Digest version.

Bitcoin was originally designed as a token that is generated by a computer solving a set of mathematical calculations.

Back in the olden days, your desktop computer might generate a handful of Bitcoin daily.

The concept behind Bitcoin is that the more tokens are produced, the more complex the mathematical equations become.

So now... a warehouse of fast computers might make a few bitcoins a WEEK.

Warehouses of computers consume MASSIVE amounts of electricity.

The eventual amount of Bitcoins is defined, I believe 75% have already been mined.

The last bitcoin mined may take 10 years for a computer to generate.

[fescuerescue]

19. No. the last bitcoin mined will take 10 minutes

The difficulty of the network adjusts every 2,000 blocks, so that no matter how much, or how little computing power is applied, it will take 10 minutes.

The last bitcoin will be mined sometime in 2140. I highly suspect that in the next 120 years the network will migrate to proof of stake.

Ethereum will be there by late 2022. Cardano is already there.

[WarGamer]

25. You're technically right...

But when I was crunching F@H in 2010 and switched one rig over to BTC mining, I mined 100+ coins in 3 weeks.

That same computer would probably take 1000 years to mine 1 bitcoin now.

The difficulty to obtain coins increases due to halving, etc...

My point remains, even if the wording was inaccurate.

[fescuerescue]

28. Yea weird things can happen with sparsely mined coins

Some of the less popular alt-coins have gotten stranded at a high difficulty level when mining power abruptly shifts.

This happens because it taxes X blocks to readjust the difficulty (downwards), but because there isn't enough mining power, it take might take years to mine X blocks. And since the difficulty is too high, nobody wants to waste hash power on it.

I could see that happening with bitcoin if for some reason 90% of the hash power is removed (either by legal means or technical reasons)

[rdking647]

16. the computing power required is huge

the idea if that computers have to solve an extremely complex problem in order to verify the authenticity of a bitcoin transaction. as an incentive for trying to solve the problem whoevers computer solves it is rewarded in bitcoin. its designed so that there is a limit of 21 million bitcoin that can ever be produced so as more and more are made the complexity of teh problem to solve is increased. Its gotten to the point that stacks of high speed computers are needed to solve the problem. they require enormous amounts of energy to run.



as for how they started you basicaly hit the nail on teh head. a guy came up with the idea of bitcoin . no one knows his actual identity. for several years bitcoin was more of a curiosity with little value. it then exploded

as for it being not an actual product so basically is the idea of the dollar. the dollar only has value becasue teh government and the people say it has value.

bitcoin only has value because peole say it does.

[rdking647]

13. i have a small amount invested in them

I own Bitcoin,etherium and litecoin
i look at them as no different then gold. a store of value in case the shit hits the fan. I didnt get into them until late last year and sold enough when they exploded to cover my original investment.

as for warrens plan idea to stop it i dont think its feasible. the horse has already left the barn.

[WarGamer]

14. the cynic in me says that governments across the planet hate the idea of money they can't regulate.

[fescuerescue]

17. The environment argument is specious. But cryptos are the future in ways unrelated to currency

The environment aspect is specious simply because the #1 cost in mining bitcoin power. It's why I stopped mining bitcoin back in 2014. The power just got to be too expensive.

The miners nowadays are using geopower, hydroelectric and other cheap sources of power. There are of course some criminals using stolen power which is already a crime.

Also the top cryptos are moving to proof of stake, instead of proof of work. Ethereum (the #2) will be there next year and Cardano is already there. Those use about 0.1% of the current power of POS.

Currently all cryptos use about the same power as the banking system. Which IS substantial. The banking system however continues to grow, while cryptos are rapidly moving green.

I read somewhere that bitcoin uses about the same amount of power worldwide as the world-wide footprint of video games (xbox etc)

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Personally, I do not believe crypto-currency will be how we trade money in the future. However smart contracts and other securities wrapped in crypto blockchain is likely how we will trade stocks and bonds in 20 years.

There are already some european banks making bond offerings over ethereal.

The genie is out of the bottle with cryptos. Now that banks and institutional money worldwide is going into it, there is no stopping it.

The real money out there will not allow law makers to stop it.

[Tommy Carcetti]

18. ............

[RandiFan1290]

20. I can send XRP anywhere in the world in 3 seconds

it barely uses any electricity.

[chriscan64]

23. It's hard for me to think of it as a currency

when it takes several times my life's savings to get one coin.

[leftstreet]

24. I think of it like skeeball in an 80s arcade

You throw the balls just right and it pumps out tickets.

You turn those tickets in for teddy bears

[LanternWaste]

26. I give it the same credibility as I did pet rocks and MS-DOS 4.0

PT Barnum and his boys made some good cash off that stuff. Everyone else thought they did too... until they realized a sucker really is born every 22 seconds, and had to buy their wives a t-shirt reading 'I'm with stupid.'

[Yavin4]

27. In the end, no one knows for certain the future of Crypto Currencies

Some will be wrong, and some will be right. Whoever is right will be celebrated and will mock whoever is wrong.

[JCMach1]

29. Asking in the wrong place... 99% of DU is either anti-crypto,

Or doesn't understand it...

Or both.

[Thyla]

30. +1

Anti crypto because they don´t understand it is my guess.

[Marrah_Goodman]

31. I really don't understand how they work

SO I can't really answer.

[Polybius]

32. I love them

Several years back, I bought two Bitcoins for $250 each. Now I can get a house.