# Cryptocurrencies... what do people think?



## PandaMan (Oct 14, 2010)

Just wondering what peoples' opinions on cryptocurrencies are.

For those of you who may not know they are virtual currencience which are completely delocalised, independent of banks. There can only ever be so much of a cryptocurrency available, thus there is no inflation.

Mining a cryptocurrency is the process of using (lots of) computing power to solve complex mathematical problems. These problems come in blocks, and each time a block is solved a certain amount of coins are given out.

When you complete a transaction with Fiat money (coins, bank notes, etc), this transaction is backed by the banks. With cryptocurrency, every transaction is backed by many other users (peers) in the network. Therefore it is very secure, as every transaction will get hundreds to thousands of confirmations.
The more coins there are in circulation, the harder it is to mine new ones. In these respects it is comparable to gold as a currency. There is only a finite amount and it becomes more and more difficult to find, thus it can be assigned value.

I'm currently mining Dogecoins. My plan is to mine a few thousand and hope their value goes up (even a fraction of Bitcoin's worth would be excellent) because then I can sell them off and get lots of real money. 

Yes, Dogecoins lol









I think it's an interesting prospect and I kind of agree with what it stands for. What do you think?


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## projector101 (Aug 19, 2013)

I think it's a great idea. I don't mine.


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## treefork (Feb 1, 2010)

If they are so valuable and reliable why would you have to sell them off for real currency?


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## PandaMan (Oct 14, 2010)

treefork said:


> If they are so valuable and reliable why would you have to sell them off for real currency.


well in theory you don't have to. Not many places accept them as payment yet though, so it's often just easier to convert them into ordinary money.

I wouldn't call them reliable... in fact, quite volatile. The value of cryptocurrencies often fluctuate massively.
What I'm trying to do with the Dogecoins is mine as many as I can whilst they're new and easier to get and then hope the value increases rapidly. I'm riding the wave, taking a gamble with the market, basically.

Bitcoins, however, are very valuable at the moment. 1 Bitcoin is worth about $600, but getting your hands on a Bitcoin is so incredibly difficult, because there are so many in circulation, that it's not really worth it.


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## projector101 (Aug 19, 2013)

> but getting your hands on a Bitcoin is so incredibly difficult, because there are so many in circulation, that it's not really worth it.


Wouldn't it be asier to get ahold of one if there are fewer i circulation?


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## Tentacle Toast (Jan 17, 2013)

I think bitcoin holds promise & has had much success; probably revolutionary. In my opinion though, it's still too new for multiple iterations to be feasible; those of courage enough to pave the way in embracing them as acceptable payment (referring to retailers on all levels) will only need to be bit burned a few times to sink the entire ship. In the future I see more being an option, but I think bitcoin should be allowed to pave the way for its general acceptance, as its already rather solid (i say "rather", because there's still some significant flaws being ironed out).

....I'd be especially leary of dealing with anything born on 4chan...


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## PandaMan (Oct 14, 2010)

projector101 said:


> > but getting your hands on a Bitcoin is so incredibly difficult, because there are so many in circulation, that it's not really worth it.
> 
> 
> Wouldn't it be asier to get ahold of one if there are fewer i circulation?


It's easier to mine them when fewer are in circulation because the calculations your computer has to do are less complex. Bitcoin has nearly all of its coins in circulation so the difficulty of the calculations to find more is extremely high.



Tentacle Toast said:


> I think bitcoin holds promise & has had much success; probably revolutionary. In my opinion though, it's still too new for multiple iterations to be feasible; those of courage enough to pave the way in embracing them as acceptable payment (referring to retailers on all levels) will only need to be bit burned a few times to sink the entire ship. In the future I see more being an option, but I think bitcoin should be allowed to pave the way for its general acceptance, as its already rather solid (i say "rather", because there's still some significant flaws being ironed out).
> 
> ....I'd be especially leary of dealing with anything born on 4chan...


I agree about stuff from 4chan. The reason I've gone with Dogecoin is that Dogecoin was originally made to mock Bitcoin, but it didn't really work and it's quickly been becoming more and more popular. Looking at the lifetime value graph for Dogecoin and comparing it to the equivalent time after creation of Bitcoin, it looks like it could go the same way.
That's merely speculation though.

I think Bitcoin will definitely pave the way in the future of cryptocurrencies but there will always be lots of other types following behind.


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## Tentacle Toast (Jan 17, 2013)

...& follow behind is exactly what I personally feel they should do; the saturation of acceptance will be infinitely easier once one becomes established, & lays the groundwork. Just my opinion


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## JohnKrakatoa (Nov 28, 2013)

I am stout bitcoin(and the whole field of evolutionary branches it made posible) believer ever since i won a bunch playing poker.

Bitcoin started whole another revolution. Its being compared to internet and rightly so.Just imagine money being free from individual (small groups) control, completely decentralized, yet safe thx for the blockchain.

The main purpose of bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies is not to spend some eletricity and your HW life to make some fiat money out of it. Its purpose is free independent money as a means of trade thats controled by the people who use it amd not some banksters, no debt creation possible since supply is limited.

I own BTC and namecoin(bitcoin clone for a revoluionary domain name system free of censorship spying etc).

Doge is a meme currency, very funny.

Buying bitcoin is easy, just go to coinbase.com and verify and you can buy market value. 
Accepting bitcoin is easy, Bitpay or other payment comcompanies make it very easy to simply accept btc and instantly convert them to usd, so you dont lose on volatility created by market speculation.

You can even daytrade cryptocurrencies, if you know what youre doing you can make easy money because many people have no clue try to do just that(like moa).

I asked Nathan from simple-shot if he accepts it and then he started to, thx to which i very easily purchased a scout and some bands pouches etc.

if you have a shopify site you can start accepting btc very fast because bitpay is integrated with them.

Accepting btc is the best way to sell stuff. You get the money instantly, the customer pays only micro fees( and if you buy BTc at coinbase you dont loose anything on markup like you would on localbitcoins.com)
The customer cant chargeback, never, once you send btc to another address you habe no control over them( so triplecheck your addresses).

Best payment for sellers and also for buyers if they know hat their doing.

The only negative to btc thats it takes a bit of a learning curve to get familiar with it. But if you can email and do intermet banking and read you re all good.


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