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"you are likely to see a much more stable valuation" Does this not assume that Bitcoin remains the only currency of its kind? I've been assuming that there's

"you are likely to see a much more stable valuation" Does this not assume that Bitcoin remains the only currency of its kind? I've been assuming that there's an incentive for anybody capable to design a new currency and make sure they're in on the ground floor as it appreciates. So in x years time there may be dozens (hundreds?) of competing currencies, giving arbitraging and carry opportunities that will contribute to volatility. And a possible end result (though I can't see it happening outside science fiction) is that somebody designs a way for you to make your own currency, backed by your own labour, potential value, or assets. So everybody has their own currency, and it's priced according to how clever you are, or how many horses you own, or some other fundamental.

IanCal 14y ago
There are already quite a few. NameCoin, PPCoin, DevCoin, IxCoin, the list goes on. The biggest (second only to bitcoin) is LiteCoin. Very similar to bitcoin but with faster transactions, and it uses a different algorithm. Using Scrypt instead of SHA-256 makes it much harder to get a fast FPGA or ASIC to mine quickly. Even top graphics cards are no more than 10-20x faster than CPUs. It's risen in price ridiculously recently, going from 7 cents to 6 dollars, now hovering around 4. People who were mining or bought in around the 7 cent mark have made quite a lot. There was no premining thought which is interesting, and I think has helped raise confidence (pre-mining is where the designers of the currency mine on their own before anyone else gets on the network, so it's a concern that they will dump vast amounts at some point and crash the price). I think having more currencies might actually improve confidence, as there are a few ways of looking at it: 1) Lots popping up, hmm, bitcoin isn't special so SELL! 2) Lots popping up and falling, hmm, bitcoin looks quite stable comparatively, BUY! 3) Another few stable ones appearing, hmm, crypto-currencies looks like quite a normal idea, BUY! Could go any way, could all collapse or spike. Maybe $125 is low for bitcoin, and we'll be here thinking "Why didn't I buy in?" or it'll collapse, nobody will think it's worth mining and the network will fall apart. Or it'll remain the same. All I know is I'm currently making some money to keep my flat warm, and that it's not worth putting in anything I can't afford to lose. Edit - Formatting.
- baby 14y ago
  Do you think it's wise to invest in Litecoin right now?
  - IanCal 14y ago
    I don't know. It might be worth a gamble, I'd certainly put it as 'risky'! It's very difficult to say. Bitcoin looks like it'll stay high for a while at least (talk of atms, even), and interest in bitcoin seems to bleed over. Crypto-currencies seem to be getting a lot more mainstream attention, and LiteCoin is the biggest non-bitcoin one, with several advantages. Personally I'm mining as that seemed like a fairly safe bet, as if everything comes crashing down I still have a computer, and I could afford the cost. At the current prices & difficulty, I'm getting ~$30/day. Sell half and keep half, and then if it shoots up in price I'm quids in, if it goes down then people have still helped buy me a fast computer. I think it's worth it, but consider it a gamble rather than an investment, and only stick in money that you're willing to lose (not just see drop in value, lose). Set some points at which you'd like to sell, and try and get your stake back. You could win big. Don't do what some guy on reddit did, which was take 30k in credit cards and loans he couldn't afford and stick it in bitcoin. Granted, it seems like it should have netted him about a quarter of a million, but don't be drawn in by stories like that, people also get rich on the lottery.
pjzedalis 14y ago
Yes and then they will develop corporations called bureau's who will rate each individual persons currency worthiness on a numeric scale. Other institutions will determine if they do business with you based on this scale and it takes 7 years before the transactions you screwed up get sharded to an archive database.

IanCal 14y ago

There are already quite a few. NameCoin, PPCoin, DevCoin, IxCoin, the list goes on. The biggest (second only to bitcoin) is LiteCoin. Very similar to bitcoin but with faster transactions, and it uses a different algorithm. Using Scrypt instead of SHA-256 makes it much harder to get a fast FPGA or ASIC to mine quickly. Even top graphics cards are no more than 10-20x faster than CPUs. It's risen in price ridiculously recently, going from 7 cents to 6 dollars, now hovering around 4. People who were mining or bought in around the 7 cent mark have made quite a lot. There was no premining thought which is interesting, and I think has helped raise confidence (pre-mining is where the designers of the currency mine on their own before anyone else gets on the network, so it's a concern that they will dump vast amounts at some point and crash the price). I think having more currencies might actually improve confidence, as there are a few ways of looking at it: 1) Lots popping up, hmm, bitcoin isn't special so SELL! 2) Lots popping up and falling, hmm, bitcoin looks quite stable comparatively, BUY! 3) Another few stable ones appearing, hmm, crypto-currencies looks like quite a normal idea, BUY! Could go any way, could all collapse or spike. Maybe $125 is low for bitcoin, and we'll be here thinking "Why didn't I buy in?" or it'll collapse, nobody will think it's worth mining and the network will fall apart. Or it'll remain the same. All I know is I'm currently making some money to keep my flat warm, and that it's not worth putting in anything I can't afford to lose. Edit - Formatting.

baby 14y ago
Do you think it's wise to invest in Litecoin right now?
- IanCal 14y ago
  I don't know. It might be worth a gamble, I'd certainly put it as 'risky'! It's very difficult to say. Bitcoin looks like it'll stay high for a while at least (talk of atms, even), and interest in bitcoin seems to bleed over. Crypto-currencies seem to be getting a lot more mainstream attention, and LiteCoin is the biggest non-bitcoin one, with several advantages. Personally I'm mining as that seemed like a fairly safe bet, as if everything comes crashing down I still have a computer, and I could afford the cost. At the current prices & difficulty, I'm getting ~$30/day. Sell half and keep half, and then if it shoots up in price I'm quids in, if it goes down then people have still helped buy me a fast computer. I think it's worth it, but consider it a gamble rather than an investment, and only stick in money that you're willing to lose (not just see drop in value, lose). Set some points at which you'd like to sell, and try and get your stake back. You could win big. Don't do what some guy on reddit did, which was take 30k in credit cards and loans he couldn't afford and stick it in bitcoin. Granted, it seems like it should have netted him about a quarter of a million, but don't be drawn in by stories like that, people also get rich on the lottery.

pjzedalis 14y ago

Yes and then they will develop corporations called bureau's who will rate each individual persons currency worthiness on a numeric scale. Other institutions will determine if they do business with you based on this scale and it takes 7 years before the transactions you screwed up get sharded to an archive database.