The media is pushing bitcoin to devaule the dollar and America !

I've not bought any bitcoin, yet I've made almost a years salary off of other crypto currencies. my guess, you haven't read up on the future uses and applications.

 

Roger might be right about its value in the long run, but I still think it's in for another crash. We'll see how it plays out. It'll definitely be interesting.

 

Pyramid schemes enrich the founder and early adopters of an idea. All that fuels it is more and more people buying into that idea with their own resources. At some point there is nobody left to support the system, it will be played out because there is little no underlying intrinsic value. That can't be said for stocks (ownership of a business, including sticks and bricks) or nations currency as their economies national net worth's back the paper. This is why there are both rich and poor countries. The poor country's currency are often not worth the paper it's printed on. (see Venezuela)

 

Bitcoin is libertarian not leftist you sillies..

BTC gives you the freedom to do whatever you want with you money without having to ask anybody anything.. Completely under your own control and unstoppable by any known force..

It's more anarchy than big government..

 

I'd never invest more than I could afford to lose that's for sure.

 

I completely agree, but caveat emptor. I would say it sounds like great fun and the possibility of a lightening strike of becoming wealthy, but I'd damn sure not base my retirement on it.

At what point do you players decide it is time to cash out?

 

By your definition even the stock markets a pyramid scheme but less loosely interpreted crypto currency is not a pyramid scheme.

pyr·a·mid scheme
noun

1. a form of investment (illegal in the US and elsewhere) in which each paying participant recruits two further participants, with returns being given to early participants using money contributed by later ones.

 

Come to daddy.

Remember not to invest more than you're up for losing because you will lose and don't forget that if it ever threatens the bankster class they'll eat you all for breakfast and won't even burp.

 

I invested retirement money earmarked for very risky get rich or go broke investments. Crypto fits the bill nicely. If and I say if my investment hits a million I'm out!!!!

 

Anarchy is the unknown. People fear the unknown. The instinctive reaction of humans to what they fear is to attack it or run away from it.

 

That's smart. Diversification. As for stocks being pyramid schemes, they aren't. They are offerings to investors for a share of a business, the intent to raise capital for expansion and growth. When corporations become highly successful they will even buy stock back. It's an ownership concept, that is only worth perceived value of the business. If corporation consistently loses money, fails to pay dividends, or loses any hope of growing the business to make it's net worth bigger, then it's value will plummet. But there is underlying value, including physical assets. I don't believe bitcoin fits any of those criteria.

 

It's possible, yeah, but it's also possible that there are tigers somewhere who live on oranges. That being said, I don't think the MSM is pushing bitcoin.

 

True Bitcoin is not like a stock.its more like a commodity and betting on future value. As of now it's worth nothing on it's own but the speculation is that in the future it may become widely used and at that point have real value. I'd say it's like flipping a coin right now as to that. Worth putting a little disposable money in though too me . I figure if I lose it won't effect my retirement but if I win it definitely will.

 

I've heard of people mortgaging their homes to invest in crypto. Very very stupid!

 

I'll "cash out" when I can hit the road with my BTC and live off of it for the rest of my life..

 

What makes you think it's so worthless as it is right now?
What makes you think it isn't already quite widely used and has many many valuable implications?

Sure a lot of it is speculation on the future, buy you better brush up on the value that it already has, and it is a lot..

 

So educate me on this. I'll admit know very little about crypto currency and the more I learn the better. My understanding is it's worth nothing right now. Enlighten me.

 

I have a question for those who are more into it than I am.

Does anyone know how many active wallets there are, or how to find that out? Or, more to the point; how would we estimate the number of active users?

 

BTW I have been a Bitcoin believer for YEARS, I have been around for the worst of times and the best of times..
This isn't just a bubble, the entire crypto economy is getting fatter, it may go down some from here for a while but it is up for good, the next bottom will be higher than people imagined it would go 2 years ago..

Imagine you lived in North Korea and had access to an internet proxy to be able to speak to the outside world beyond the control of your oppressive governent..
Bitcoin does that for finance what that does for freedom of speech and the ability to access information..
Imagine you were a Jew in germany under hitler and had Bitcoin to get out with instead of shoving gold in your ass..
Imagine you were to be sent to the goulags of stalin and had access to Bitcoin to fund your escape from russia..
Imagine you are a poor person in venezuela but someone can send you Bitcoin so you can feed your family..
Imagine you lived in zimbabwe and you could easily hedge your wealth in Bitcoin instead of it being destroyed by runaway inflation..


Imagine you are in south korea right now and your country is under threat to be obliterated by north korea, and event that could destroy the value of your countries fiat currency and leave your nest egg worthless..
Pretty nice to have Bitcoin to hedge against..

Imagine your sister is traveling in africa and needs money NOW to get the hell out of there because a war broke out, or a disease..

Bitcoin HAS VALUE NOW!!

 

See my last post for a little about Bitcoins current value..

You know I would love nothing more than to be able to sit down and explain everything about cryptocurrency to every eager learner, and I have done it many many many times, to so many people I can't count..

It is quite a complex subject if you want to get into all of the things you can do with crypto, all the ways to do things, how they work from a basic useage standpoint to the innerworkings of the decentralized network..

If I could make a living wage helping people understand crypto I'd be all over it but it is just an endless rant and rerant and rerant to explain it over and over and I could do it for the rest of time nonstop their are so many things to say to so many people..

I can't just go about explaining it all every time someone wants to hear it, I'm sorry, but I do encourage you to do some research and reading and learn about it..
I'll drop you some links..

Read this like 5 times..
https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf

Watch this..


That should give you a heck of a good start to learning and allow you enough information to make intelligent searches from there on out..

 

Number of Unspent Transaction Outputs chart
https://blockchain.info/charts/utxo-count?timespan=all

Confirmed Transactions Per Day chart
https://blockchain.info/charts/n-transactions?timespan=all

That should answer your question pretty good but go ahead and check out all the other statistic charts there on blockchain.info under data-charts..
https://blockchain.info/charts

Hey, maybe do some reasearch and leanr what a block explorer is and how to use it while you are at it, learn to trace BTC transactions and read the blockchain like a real spook

 

This is very true for the rush of new "investors" but don't count out the notion that their are also true cryptocurrency expert investors and traders also.. Not that I claim to be an expert, I don't care what most coins even are as you say and I do not invest in them..

If you want to gamble sure buy whatever sounds fancy to you, but if you want a real stake in the future then BTC is the only option..

I have seen 100s of altcoins come and go, BTC is forever..