Bitcoin, Do You Understand It?

[RATTER15]

I just watched a youtube video explaining bit coin, I'm none the wiser!

[murraymints]

nope not a bit.. lol... some folks do and seem to be making dosh...and read money laundering loophole ?

[bhg481]

http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/business/a-guide-to-bitcoin-the-amazing-investment-based-on-dream-gold-invented-by-a-wizard-20171208140575

[DarceyK123]

My junk email is always full of this so I assumed it must be a scam.

[johnny37]

Normal money is backed up by gold, held in Fort Knox i think. Gold has always been considered precious. Dont know why- its just a metal. Britcoin must have some form of back up. The basic amount of Britcoin available must be held on the computer which created it. (where has never been explained). The value I assume is controlled by the amount the computer creates/holds. If the people who are buying all this stuff, suddenly found nobody wanted it, it would lose value. Please tell be I am on the right track!

[EDDIE51]

I have no idea how it works.

[Zacs-Master]

Well, if you got the name right, you’d be closer, Johnny.

If you think about it, the whole concept of money is a little strange. Small bits of metal and paper / plastic that you can use to exchange for goods.

[kvalidir]

My Dad and some of my brothers are heavily into it and think I should be too, but I am, alas, too thick to understand it :(

[hc4361]

I assume you are in the US, johnny.
You're on the right track, anyway. There is absolutely no security in bitcoin

[Zacs-Master]

That’s not quite true hc. The ‘security’ comes in the form of a ledger that, unlike a The ledgers in a bank, can be seen by everybody. Anywhere. 24/7. There can be no cheating otherwise the system wouldn’t work.

Having said that, there’s still a lot of debate about whether it’s a fashion/fad or an actual currency.

[Old_Geezer]

Hopefully though, you are now better informed.
Seems to me to be an Internet based bubble. Alternative currencies have advantages, but I suspect mostly for the criminal element.

[johnny37]

theres a fairly good article in today's Sunday Times business section, if you can find one this late on sunday. Waitrose are open until 5pm.

[EDDIE51]

How do you change it for 'real money' that you can actually buy things with?

[jno]

it doesn't seem to get spent much in the real world. You buy it and hope someone will pay you more for it than you paid yourself. Anyone who got some at the start will be wealthy now. But hold onto it a day too long and you'll be broke.

[Gromit]

I tried to gen up on bitcoin earlier today. To me it looks like a bubble (about to burst).
Only problem was, the only people saying it does not make sense, are the people with most to lose if it succeeds. There are plenty of analysists, bankers, finance journalists and hedge fund managers saying it is worthless. But they are the very ones who willl be most disrupted if it is indeed a real alternative.

But at the end of the day, I was still pretty much in the dark whether bitcoin and the other cryptocurrencies are viable.

[jno]

this might help

https://blog.moneysavingexpert.com/2017/11/30/invest-bitcoin-four-things-need-know/

[sevenOP]

I tried to find out about it too but still do not really understand it. It was as complex as trying to understand exactly how the internet works.
Bitcoin has no intrinsic value, much like fiat currency and like the internet it can be hacked
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/dec/07/bitcoin-64m-cryptocurrency-stolen-hack-attack-marketplace-nicehash-passwords

" approximately 4,700 bitcoin being stolen, worth about $63.92m at current prices," just a few days ago and "Mt. Gox shut down in February 2014 having lost approximately 850,000 bitcoins, potentially to hackers." which at the price that the 4,700 bitcoin stolen would be just under 12.5 billion $.
And last week Bitcoin was allowed into the 'futures' market - derivatives and all the chicanery that opens up.

Gold backed currency johnny37 ceased to be with Nixon 'shock' in early 1970's and it would be fantasy if it still existed as now the 'paper'/ futures/derivative/ gold is possibly valued at a hundred times the value of all the actual physical gold that has been mined on earth.

[RATTER15]

Still none the wiser, what can you actually do with it, can you spend it in the real world?

[sevenOP]

Perhaps asking what They' can do to it is worth considering

https://www.naturalnews.com/2017-12-10-evidence-points-to-bitcoin-being-an-nsa-psyop-roll-out-one-world-digital-currency.html