7 ms·

One of my unemployed friends just told me he's putting everything into bitcoin.

earthtolazlo 6y ago
Has he heard of Tether? It might be worth telling him that the entire cryptocurrency market it being propped up by 10 billion “dollars” of what is essentially Monopoly money.
- thisisnico 6y ago
  Market cap of Bitcoin is: 117.81 billion U.S. Market cap of Tether USDT: $9.16 billion Tether would account for 7.8% of all Bitcoin. Not sure if that would count as being propped up. It's significant but not entirely propped up, there is a ton of real money in there too.
  - mattmanser 6y ago
    Doesn't that make it much worse? Only a certain amount of the tether is real, making it a tiny chunk, that's propping up a small chunk, that's propping up the large chunk. If the tiny chunk goes, it all goes tumbling down?
    - tossAfterUsing 6y ago
      exactly. stay far away from bitcoin.
  - earthtolazlo 6y ago
    Market cap != market liquidity If I create 100 billion FakeCoins and sell one to my grandmother for $10, suddenly FakeCoin has a 1 trillion dollar market cap. It doesn’t mean there’s anywhere near that much money actually in the market to support that valuation.
    - tossAfterUsing 6y ago
      this is precisely right and why nobody should ever buy a bitcoin under any circumstance.
      - blaser-waffle 6y ago
        I dunno, they're pretty useful for buying drugs and VPNs...
  - noxer 6y ago
    >...there is a ton of real money in there too. There is zero money "in there" market cap for a non-backed currency is meaningless value. No amount of bitcoin buying will ever put money "into" anything. The money goes to whoever sells its just a trade.
    - tossAfterUsing 6y ago
      nobody should ever buy a bitcoin under any circumstance for exactly this reason
      - noxer 6y ago
        Nothing wrong with speculating with money you don't need. Disclaimer: I own cryptos however no Bitcoins.
zaphod420 6y ago
might be a smart move. I'm not going all in, but I am dollar cost averaging my buys and accumulating bitcoin.
- NotSammyHagar 6y ago
  Why is it smart to do this? Bitcoin took a dive earlier in the pandemic. Why would it be counter "the world is crashing" now? The us is still the world's reserve currency. If the us keeps circling the drain economically and financially and especially politically, we have so much power and raw capability to come back. The big problem is covid-19, where the world can leave us behind as we slowly kill ourselves off. Hmm, I'm almost convincing myself that even us $ could eventually not last. So, I'll just take one of those job offers on hacker news that says we'll get you a visa to come to Amsterdam?
  - devalgo 6y ago
    >Hmm, I'm almost convincing myself that even us $ could eventually not last. So, I'll just take one of those job offers on hacker news that says we'll get you a visa to come to Amsterdam? You realize that the world economy is inexorably linked to the US right? If there was such a devastating crash what makes you think the Eurozone would be stable? The UK left the EU and France nearly did, a massive wave of unrest could easily break the union up and the euro would be worse off than the dollar.
    - NotSammyHagar 6y ago
      The thing europe has is that covid-19 is under far more control. I don't see the us getting over our idiocy against masks and basic health care choices for a year, we'll need a lot more deaths to convince people. and some people will never get over it. A vaccine isn't coming that quickly either.
      - devalgo 6y ago
        Agreed but that's also reason for the EU to continue blocking entry to Americans so that doesn't seem likely to change.
mD5pPxMcS6fVWKE 6y ago
He might be right. There is a considerable work being done currently on Bitcoin to improve it's transaction throughput, speed, privacy and fees. Once it's done, in a year or two, Bitcoin will have great utility as a modern form of money.
tossAfterUsing 6y ago
good for him. hope he can hold out for a couple years...

Has he heard of Tether? It might be worth telling him that the entire cryptocurrency market it being propped up by 10 billion “dollars” of what is essentially Monopoly money.

thisisnico 6y ago
Market cap of Bitcoin is: 117.81 billion U.S. Market cap of Tether USDT: $9.16 billion Tether would account for 7.8% of all Bitcoin. Not sure if that would count as being propped up. It's significant but not entirely propped up, there is a ton of real money in there too.
- mattmanser 6y ago
  Doesn't that make it much worse? Only a certain amount of the tether is real, making it a tiny chunk, that's propping up a small chunk, that's propping up the large chunk. If the tiny chunk goes, it all goes tumbling down?
  - tossAfterUsing 6y ago
    exactly. stay far away from bitcoin.
- earthtolazlo 6y ago
  Market cap != market liquidity If I create 100 billion FakeCoins and sell one to my grandmother for $10, suddenly FakeCoin has a 1 trillion dollar market cap. It doesn’t mean there’s anywhere near that much money actually in the market to support that valuation.
  - tossAfterUsing 6y ago
    this is precisely right and why nobody should ever buy a bitcoin under any circumstance.
    - blaser-waffle 6y ago
      I dunno, they're pretty useful for buying drugs and VPNs...
- noxer 6y ago
  >...there is a ton of real money in there too. There is zero money "in there" market cap for a non-backed currency is meaningless value. No amount of bitcoin buying will ever put money "into" anything. The money goes to whoever sells its just a trade.
  - tossAfterUsing 6y ago
    nobody should ever buy a bitcoin under any circumstance for exactly this reason
    - noxer 6y ago
      Nothing wrong with speculating with money you don't need. Disclaimer: I own cryptos however no Bitcoins.

zaphod420 6y ago

might be a smart move. I'm not going all in, but I am dollar cost averaging my buys and accumulating bitcoin.

NotSammyHagar 6y ago
Why is it smart to do this? Bitcoin took a dive earlier in the pandemic. Why would it be counter "the world is crashing" now? The us is still the world's reserve currency. If the us keeps circling the drain economically and financially and especially politically, we have so much power and raw capability to come back. The big problem is covid-19, where the world can leave us behind as we slowly kill ourselves off. Hmm, I'm almost convincing myself that even us $ could eventually not last. So, I'll just take one of those job offers on hacker news that says we'll get you a visa to come to Amsterdam?
- devalgo 6y ago
  >Hmm, I'm almost convincing myself that even us $ could eventually not last. So, I'll just take one of those job offers on hacker news that says we'll get you a visa to come to Amsterdam? You realize that the world economy is inexorably linked to the US right? If there was such a devastating crash what makes you think the Eurozone would be stable? The UK left the EU and France nearly did, a massive wave of unrest could easily break the union up and the euro would be worse off than the dollar.
  - NotSammyHagar 6y ago
    The thing europe has is that covid-19 is under far more control. I don't see the us getting over our idiocy against masks and basic health care choices for a year, we'll need a lot more deaths to convince people. and some people will never get over it. A vaccine isn't coming that quickly either.
    - devalgo 6y ago
      Agreed but that's also reason for the EU to continue blocking entry to Americans so that doesn't seem likely to change.

mD5pPxMcS6fVWKE 6y ago

He might be right. There is a considerable work being done currently on Bitcoin to improve it's transaction throughput, speed, privacy and fees. Once it's done, in a year or two, Bitcoin will have great utility as a modern form of money.

tossAfterUsing 6y ago

good for him. hope he can hold out for a couple years...