Bitcoins/Litecoins/Virtual Currencies

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Furry

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The halving is probably getting priced in already, months ahead.
Halving means miners get less pay for their work. At some point there will be an influx where halvings become toxic to the btc environment... well, unless you think btc will go to infinite value.
 

Loser Araysar

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You should look into it. Lightning, Liquid (specifically submarine swaps), Fediments, integration of Chaumian Mints, just to name a few. There is a lot of work being done you just haven't taken the time to look!

"lots of work being done" is something always being said by people who are not accomplishing anything meaningful. otherwise, they would just tell you what they accomplished

"Lightning" was shit 5 years ago. Im sure its still shit. "Fediments" barely returns any results on google, looks like vaporware. "Chaumian Mints" is "custody" shit, still cant make an easy payment or use a card.

So basically nothing viable just like 5 years ago.
 

Flobee

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Halving means miners get less pay for their work. At some point there will be an influx where halvings become toxic to the btc environment... well, unless you think btc will go to infinite value.
I would suggest looking at the current split of mining revenue that comes from mining rewards vs what comes from transaction fees. It is looking like transaction fee's will have no issue covering mining cost of the rewards lower over time. This can be further proven out by looking at hash rate... do you really think you have a better understanding of future mining revenue than they do?

1707832040772.png
 

Loser Araysar

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Halving means miners get less pay for their work. At some point there will be an influx where halvings become toxic to the btc environment... well, unless you think btc will go to infinite value.

If you knew something would double in value in 2 months, wouldnt you stock up on it?

Anyways, you can see by price change after halvings, that each successful halving returns proportionally less and less of a price increase. P.S. this chart is logarithmic scale

1707832156107.png
 
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Furry

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I would suggest looking at the current split of mining revenue that comes from mining rewards vs what comes from transaction fees. It is looking like transaction fee's will have no issue covering mining cost of the rewards lower over time. This can be further proven out by looking at hash rate... do you really think you have a better understanding of future mining revenue than they do?

View attachment 514214
I don't know very much, so I'll have to take the 50/50 on that one.
 

Flobee

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"lots of work being done" is something always being said by people who are not accomplishing anything meaningful. otherwise, they would just tell you what they accomplished

"Lightning" was shit 5 years ago. Im sure its still shit. "Fediments" barely returns any results on google, looks like vaporware. "Chaumian Mints" is "custody" shit, still cant make an easy payment or use a card.

So basically nothing viable just like 5 years ago.
/shrug I'm not doing the work for you. If you think google results are the measure of whether something is real or useful then I wouldn't be able to help you anyhow.

I would suggest reframing the way you're looking at this. What is Bitcoin meant to fix? Do solutions that allow cheaper transactions than on-chain help this? What are the main attack vectors on Bitcoin's use-case?

Lightning has come a long way in 5 years, I would argue that it has actually failed in a lot of ways (its never going to be a non-custodial solution in its current form, which was the original idea) but it is VERY useful for trading between entities that would keep a 'tab' open (think banks or exchanges settling bulk transactions) it is also quite good as a custodial solution for micro-payments that aren't cost efficient on-chain. There are some developments in integrating Lightning with Liquid for example that I believe have some pretty huge potential. Fediments and Chaumian Mints are both custodial trade-offs that have a number of use-cases that may not apply to you but do solve a lot of problems for 'un-banked' individuals.

When you say nothing viable, what are you actually saying? What is 'viable' in this context? Bitcoin works as it currently exists and will develop further as needs arise. Fees are high now so solutions to deal with a high fee environment are being prioritized? What is it you expect to see to make it 'viable' that doesn't exist now?
 

Loser Araysar

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/shrug I'm not doing the work for you. If you think google results are the measure of whether something is real or useful then I wouldn't be able to help you anyhow.

How can I "do the work" if I cant even easily find info on something?

I would suggest reframing the way you're looking at this. What is Bitcoin meant to fix? Do solutions that allow cheaper transactions that on-chain help this? What are the main attack vectors on Bitcoin's use-case?

Lightning has come a long way in 5 years, I would argue that it has actually failed in a lot of ways (its never going to be a non-custodial solution in its current form) but it is VERY useful for trading between entities that would keep a 'tab' open (think banks or exchanges settling bulk transactions) it is also quite good as a custodial solution for micro-payments that aren't cost efficient on-chain. There are some developments in integrating Lightning with Liquid for example that I believe have some pretty huge potential. Fediments and Chaumian Mints are both custodial trade-offs that have a number of use-cases that may not apply to you but do solve a lot of problems for 'un-banked' individuals.

When you say nothing viable, what are you actually saying? What is 'viable' in this context? Bitcoin works as it currently exists and will develop further as needs arise. Fees are high now so solutions to deal with a high fee environment are being prioritized? What is it you expect to see to make it 'viable' that doesn't exist now?

Please stop talking to me like I just discovered BTC. I was setting up miners with spare desktops in 2013 and held tens of thousands of dollars of it over the years.

Needs have arisen 10 years ago to use it as a currency because that's what it originally was pushed as and I still cant make a payment with BTC without watching 9 hours of Youtube videos. It's not developing at all as "needs arise". It cant even meet the most basic purpose of any currency, ease of use. Its retarded and complicated, and yes, I have use it for payments.
 
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Flobee

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How can I "do the work" if I cant even easily find info on something?



Please stop talking to me like I just discovered BTC. I was setting up miners with spare desktops in 2013 and held tens of thousands of dollars of it over the years.

Needs have arisen 10 years ago to use it as a currency because that's what it originally was pushed as and I still cant make a payment with BTC without watching 9 hours of Youtube videos. It's not developing at all as "needs arise". It cant even meet the most basic purpose of any currency, ease of use. Its retarded and complicated, and yes, I have use it for payments.
I can't argue with this honestly. It isn't obvious or easy to understand and it does take a lot of work to understand and use it properly. That being said using the internet in 1995 was hard too. If you want to find digestible answers to how stuff works you basically have two choices

1) start reading Github pull requests, Bitcoin dev mailing list, or other technical source and have the background to understand that
2) Find learning resources via Twitter, Nostr, Youtube, etc and let someone translate for you.

Its not ideal, but this is why the knowledge delta I mentioned exists. There is a literal monetary premium available for those that do the work to understand why its valuable and will become more valuable over time. You're wrong that it can't be used as a currency it can and quite easily but it does take work to understand that. User experience is already leaps and bounds better than it was just 4-5 years ago but its still in its infancy.
 

Loser Araysar

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I can't argue with this honestly. It isn't obvious or easy to understand and it does take a lot of work to understand and use it properly. That being said using the internet in 1995 was hard too. If you want to find digestible answers to how stuff works you basically have two choices

1) start reading Github pull requests, Bitcoin dev mailing list, or other technical source and have the background to understand that
2) Find learning resources via Twitter, Nostr, Youtube, etc and let someone translate for you.

Its not ideal, but this is why the knowledge delta I mentioned exists. There is a literal monetary premium available for those that do the work to understand why its valuable and will become more valuable over time. You're wrong that it can't be used as a currency it can and quite easily but it does take work to understand that. User experience is already leaps and bounds better than it was just 4-5 years ago but its still in its infancy.

Look, I understand how to use it. I sent payments and moved BTC around before. But it's accessible to like 0.0000001% of the population in the world even though anyone can theoretically buy $100 of it any time.

The learning curve is too steep to use it as currency even after 10 years, so let's call it what is, digital gold bars, not digital currency.

P.s. internet in 1995 was easy peezy, get a $20/mo AOL disc and off you go. I got on the internet in 1995 when I was a teenager. I didn't need to watch a days worth of videos to figure it out
 
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Flobee

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Look, I understand how to use it. I sent payments and moved BTC around before. But it's accessible to like 0.0000001% of the population in the world even though anyone can theoretically buy $100 of it any time.

The learning curve is too steep to use it as currency even after 10 years, so let's call it what is, digital gold bars, not digital currency.

P.s. internet in 1995 was easy peezy, get a $20/mo AOL disc and off you go. I got on the internet in 1995 when I was a teenager. I didn't need to watch a days worth of videos to figure it out
You weren't a boomer in 1995 though :trump:

There is quite a bit of penetration into "global south" countries due to their need for stable currency exposure. It's a simple fact that Tether is the primary currency for these countries at this point. Granted Tether is not Bitcoin, and is actually most often moved via a 💩coin chain TRON right now, I expect that to change shortly due to work being done via Aquawallet as they're putting together a simple UX, using Liquid and Lightning to move USDT for a fraction of the cost of even TRON, and completely cut out the 💩coin casino aspect.

For right now USD access is king for the global south, and Tether has already won that battle. They're skipping our current banking system and moving straight to digital currency, for better or worse. The logical end state is spending with USD and saving with BTC for these people. I tend to think that USD will stop serving a purpose at some point and BTC will be used exclusively, but there is a lot between here and there so we'll see.

The USD + BTC paradigm is already forming and its accessible to anyone with a cell phone. Most of us from the West don't see it yet... because we don't need it yet.
 

Arden

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I'm both bullish on BTC and someone who thinks it's never going to make the jump to anything close to a currency used by the majority of the population on a day-to-day basis. BTC is digital gold, and just like you would never bring gold flakes into 7-11 to buy a gatorade, you aren't ever going to see people transacting for normal purchases with BTC.

That said, it's pretty clear BTC doesn't *need* to become a daily transaction currency to keep increasing exponentially in value. Right now it's one of the best, if not the best, stores of value. Gold, but better.
 

The_Black_Log Foler

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Is now a good time to buy bitcoin? I would plan to hold it for a 3 year time horizon minimum.
 

Flobee

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Is now a good time to buy bitcoin? I would plan to hold it for a 3 year time horizon minimum.
A year ago would have been better but you should be alright to buy now. You're obviously buying on a pretty big spike so you could see a pullback in the short term. I would also suggest turning that 3 years into 4. There is no 4 year holding period when you're not in the green (up to now) but the said can't be said for three. Overall though, if you're only buying a small amount so you can be on the ride I would say go for it.

To add the obvious, the expectation is to see the cycle 'peak' around 6-18 months after the halving, which is in April. That is how it has happened in the past, no guarantees it will be the same this time.
 
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The_Black_Log Foler

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A year ago would have been better but you should be alright to buy now. You're obviously buying on a pretty big spike so you could see a pullback in the short term. I would also suggest turning that 3 years into 4. There is no 4 year holding period when you're not in the green (up to now) but the said can't be said for three. Overall though, if you're only buying a small amount so you can be on the ride I would say go for it.

To add the obvious, the expectation is to see the cycle 'peak' around 6-18 months after the halving, which is in April. That is how it has happened in the past, no guarantees it will be the same this time.
A few days ago I checked the $8 of bitcoin I had in coin base in 2018, it’s now $130 or so.

hell I’m fine with holding it 6-8 years. What wallet would you recommend? Also at this point is there any reason to look at ethereum or other altcoins?
 

Flobee

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A few days ago I checked the $8 of bitcoin I had in coin base in 2018, it’s now $130 or so.

hell I’m fine with holding it 6-8 years. What wallet would you recommend? Also at this point is there any reason to look at ethereum or other altcoins?
Bitcoin only. Everything else is a scam. Others disagree and I'm sure they'll swoop in you shill their garbage to you, if you go down that path then good luck.

As far as wallets it depends what you're trying to do. I'll go through these is ascending order of how I would suggest.

  1. If you want something brainless and don't care about holding it in custody yourself something like CashApp or Strike will get the job done.
  2. Next is mobile wallets, with these you're holding they keys yourself in what is called a "hot wallet" which just means its always on an internet connected device. BlueWallet, AquaWallet, or something like SamouriWallet.
  3. Desktop wallets are IMO a bit better than mobile wallets but still considered hot wallets though. I prefer Sparrow but Specter is alright.
  4. Finally you have Hardware wallets, these are called "cold storage" because they're never connected to the internet. Examples are ColdCard, SeedSigner, and if you insist on 💩coining Trezor is probably your best bet.

There are plenty of other options and there are features that not every wallet here supports. Samouri and Sparrow support mixing, Aqua, BlueWallet, Strike and Cashapp are probably the only ones here that support Lightning natively, etc. If you're just looking to store a couple hundred bucks and want custody grab a mobile wallet. If you're holding real money though I would suggest spending on a hardware wallet and learning how to use it properly.

If you have any questions I'll try to help. As Araysar Araysar mentioned there is a lot of complexity and it can be overwhelming. The basics are easy though. If I had to narrow the above down I would say just do Blue Wallet. Its simple and has support for most of the stuff you'll want to do.
 

The_Black_Log Foler

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Bitcoin only. Everything else is a scam. Others disagree and I'm sure they'll swoop in you shill their garbage to you, if you go down that path then good luck.

As far as wallets it depends what you're trying to do. I'll go through these is ascending order of how I would suggest.

  1. If you want something brainless and don't care about holding it in custody yourself something like CashApp or Strike will get the job done.
  2. Next is mobile wallets, with these you're holding they keys yourself in what is called a "hot wallet" which just means its always on an internet connected device. BlueWallet, AquaWallet, or something like SamouriWallet.
  3. Desktop wallets are IMO a bit better than mobile wallets but still considered hot wallets though. I prefer Sparrow but Specter is alright.
  4. Finally you have Hardware wallets, these are called "cold storage" because they're never connected to the internet. Examples are ColdCard, SeedSigner, and if you insist on 💩coining Trezor is probably your best bet.

There are plenty of other options and there are features that not every wallet here supports. Samouri and Sparrow support mixing, Aqua, BlueWallet, Strike and Cashapp are probably the only ones here that support Lightning natively, etc. If you're just looking to store a couple hundred bucks and want custody grab a mobile wallet. If you're holding real money though I would suggest spending on a hardware wallet and learning how to use it properly.

If you have any questions I'll try to help. As Araysar Araysar mentioned there is a lot of complexity and it can be overwhelming. The basics are easy though. If I had to narrow the above down I would say just do Blue Wallet. Its simple and has support for most of the stuff you'll want to do.
What are your thoughts on coinbase? I already have it set up and a small amount there.
 

Flobee

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What are your thoughts on coinbase? I already have it set up and a small amount there.
Personally, I think they're garbage. However they've more or less won the race to be the primary US 💩coin exchange so they're not going anywhere. If you're just buying and withdrawing then the only factors that matter for most people is going to be how much they charge in fees for buying. If you're holding coins on the exchange long term (you shouldn't) then there are other factors, but they're probably as safe as any other US exchange... which isn't as safe as you would think.

Above being said if you switch somewhere else just keep in mind thats another company holding all the KYC data on you including how much coin you own.
 
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Loser Araysar

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What are your thoughts on coinbase? I already have it set up and a small amount there.
If you're gonna hold for 3 years, just buy a Trezor for $50 and put it in cold storage. After Sam Bankman Fried and some other exchanges went tits up, I wouldn't trust online wallets to hold even $20
 
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Loser Araysar

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Is now a good time to buy bitcoin? I would plan to hold it for a 3 year time horizon minimum.

I think it's going to break the old record of 69K eventually but that might take another year. So yeah, now's a good time to buy as any. It's already passed 51k today. Plus the halving is coming up in 2 months which should boost price
 
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Flobee

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If you're gonna hold for 3 years, just buy a Trezor for $50 and put it in cold storage. After Sam Bankman Fried and some other exchanges went tits up, I wouldn't trust online wallets to hold even $20
Not in any way disagreeing with this, will just note that the wallets I listed above (except Cashapp and Strike) are all self-custody and thus not vulnerable to a bankrun via fraud type event like happened at FTX. I do prefer hardware wallets over software wallets though so by all means buy one if you're willing to.
 
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