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WTF is a Bitcoin?

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  • Purple_PillsPurple_Pills Member, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 1,810
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    Swaye's Wigwam

    PornHub only takes Bitcoin now because credit card companies cut them off due to child porn on their platform. Also major investment firms are buying in. Plus it is massively out performing gold for wealth retention.

    (Not a Bitcoin owner, but I get why it is going well)

    So is the basic idea that we? create our? own currency and say "fuck it" to legal tender and try and create a market for its use. Bartering economy with a made-up currency? Like, "it has value because we all collectively say it has value" kind of thing?

    Just psychologically, can you explain for me why it's outperforming gold? What controls its scarcity?

    Or is this like the white devil's beads and liquor and we are all going to get @Swaye 'd one day?

    It’s baseball cards, it’s art, but is much more liquid. Just another place to stash wealth. I’m not invested in Bitcoin, but if I lived a corrupt third world country, I certainly would if I had wealth.
  • creepycougcreepycoug Member Posts: 22,706
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    PornHub only takes Bitcoin now because credit card companies cut them off due to child porn on their platform. Also major investment firms are buying in. Plus it is massively out performing gold for wealth retention.

    (Not a Bitcoin owner, but I get why it is going well)

    So is the basic idea that we? create our? own currency and say "fuck it" to legal tender and try and create a market for its use. Bartering economy with a made-up currency? Like, "it has value because we all collectively say it has value" kind of thing?

    Just psychologically, can you explain for me why it's outperforming gold? What controls its scarcity?

    Or is this like the white devil's beads and liquor and we are all going to get @Swaye 'd one day?

    It’s baseball cards, it’s art, but is much more liquid. Just another place to stash wealth. I’m not invested in Bitcoin, but if I lived a corrupt third world country, I certainly would if I had wealth.
    That's helpful. But, baseball cards and art have natural limiters. There's inherently built-in scarcity. If you could just create more Van Goughs, then none of them would be worth anything. A close cousin to @RaceBannon 's "if everything is racist, then nothing is racist." And, baseball cards and art have another function: people like possessing them just because of what they are. They like looking at them and owning them even when they're not thinking about money.

    So what's the limiter on Bitcoin? Who decides on quantity limits?
  • Purple_PillsPurple_Pills Member, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 1,810
    First Anniversary 5 Awesomes 5 Up Votes First Comment
    Swaye's Wigwam
    edited January 2021

    PornHub only takes Bitcoin now because credit card companies cut them off due to child porn on their platform. Also major investment firms are buying in. Plus it is massively out performing gold for wealth retention.

    (Not a Bitcoin owner, but I get why it is going well)

    So is the basic idea that we? create our? own currency and say "fuck it" to legal tender and try and create a market for its use. Bartering economy with a made-up currency? Like, "it has value because we all collectively say it has value" kind of thing?

    Just psychologically, can you explain for me why it's outperforming gold? What controls its scarcity?

    Or is this like the white devil's beads and liquor and we are all going to get @Swaye 'd one day?

    It’s baseball cards, it’s art, but is much more liquid. Just another place to stash wealth. I’m not invested in Bitcoin, but if I lived a corrupt third world country, I certainly would if I had wealth.
    That's helpful. But, baseball cards and art have natural limiters. There's inherently built-in scarcity. If you could just create more Van Goughs, then none of them would be worth anything. A close cousin to @RaceBannon 's "if everything is racist, then nothing is racist." And, baseball cards and art have another function: people like possessing them just because of what they are. They like looking at them and owning them even when they're not thinking about money.

    So what's the limiter on Bitcoin? Who decides on quantity limits?
    Baseball cards and art have been counterfeited or produced in larger quantity than advertised. Baseball cards and art are not liquid assets, not often used in transactions (nor are they designed for it, like Bitcoin), plus even smaller investors can jump in on Bitcoin unlike fine art. Also, unlike gold, art, baseball cards etc., you will not potentially lose your asset if your home is raided. In certain countries, it is very important for this type of safe wealth storage.

    As for scarcity, it takes a massive amount of electricity to power the complicated computing. Bitcoins aren’t created out of thin air or on a printing press, they are “mined” by people willing to have servers and consume lots of power. As Bitcoin presses further, the computations become larger and larger, meaning more power consumed.

    Bitcoin plans on maxing out at 21,000,000 in a few decades.

    I have two concerns, both long term, not short:

    - eventually AI may be able to beat Bitcoin’s encryptions

    - After they hit 21,000,000 what is the incentive to continue powering the Bitcoin “grid?” I suppose server farm “banks” may have an interest, since there is value in being able to safely store wealth
  • creepycougcreepycoug Member Posts: 22,706
    First Anniversary 5 Up Votes 5 Awesomes Photogenic
    edited January 2021

    PornHub only takes Bitcoin now because credit card companies cut them off due to child porn on their platform. Also major investment firms are buying in. Plus it is massively out performing gold for wealth retention.

    (Not a Bitcoin owner, but I get why it is going well)

    So is the basic idea that we? create our? own currency and say "fuck it" to legal tender and try and create a market for its use. Bartering economy with a made-up currency? Like, "it has value because we all collectively say it has value" kind of thing?

    Just psychologically, can you explain for me why it's outperforming gold? What controls its scarcity?

    Or is this like the white devil's beads and liquor and we are all going to get @Swaye 'd one day?

    It’s baseball cards, it’s art, but is much more liquid. Just another place to stash wealth. I’m not invested in Bitcoin, but if I lived a corrupt third world country, I certainly would if I had wealth.
    That's helpful. But, baseball cards and art have natural limiters. There's inherently built-in scarcity. If you could just create more Van Goughs, then none of them would be worth anything. A close cousin to @RaceBannon 's "if everything is racist, then nothing is racist." And, baseball cards and art have another function: people like possessing them just because of what they are. They like looking at them and owning them even when they're not thinking about money.

    So what's the limiter on Bitcoin? Who decides on quantity limits?
    Baseball cards and art have been counterfeited or produced in larger quantity than advertised. Baseball cards and art are not liquid assets, not often used in transactions (nor are they designed for it, like Bitcoin), plus even smaller investors can jump in on Bitcoin unlike fine art. Also, unlike gold, art, baseball cards etc., you will not potentially lose your asset if your home is raided. In certain countries, it is very important for this type of safe wealth storage.

    As for scarcity, it takes a massive amount of electricity to power the complicated computing. Bitcoins aren’t created out of thin air or on a printing press, they are “mined” by people willing to have servers and consume lots of power. As Bitcoin presses further, the computations become larger and larger, meaning more power consumed.

    Bitcoin plans on maxing out at 21,000,000 in a few decades.

    I have two concerns, both long term, not short:

    - eventually AI may be able to beat Bitcoin’s encryptions

    - After they hit 21,000,000 what is the incentive to continue powering the Bitcoin “grid?” I suppose server farm “banks” may have an interest, since there is value in being able to safely store wealth
    This is fascinating to me.

    I completely understand the inefficient markets and illiquidity of art and cards. I get that. But counterfeited cards and art just mean rip off. That's external. Assuming you're dealing with the real thing, it matters that there aren't more of them. I have a friend who owns a few Chagalls. Not the super high-end stuff that sets records at auctions, but a few nice pieces in that $15,000 to $80,000 range. She tried to talk me into buying one from her source when she jumped in. One drawing and one oil and something else I think. Anyway, the verification process she went through was pretty rigorous, and the art world would agree she has a few Marc Chagalls. They have gone up in price exponentially, and now I wish I'd bought one. My hesitation was protecting it. Would I ever again go on vacation and not think about some kid stealing a $40,000 lithograph hanging in my living room? Or my house burning down because my wife forgot to blow out a candle? So the real deal is valuable because of scarcity.

    I hate to keep doing this and apologize for being dense, but can you amplify the "mining" and computing power part of your explanation? Is that to say that someone has to create a powerful network for these things to exist?

    And, one last thing: isn't the promise of a 21,000,000, or some other number, limit pretty critical to all this? Who is "they"? Who will decide that?

  • Purple_PillsPurple_Pills Member, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 1,810
    First Anniversary 5 Awesomes 5 Up Votes First Comment
    Swaye's Wigwam

    I hate to keep doing this and apologize for being dense, but can you amplify the "mining" and power bit? Is this to say that someone has to create a powerful network for these things to exist?


    I’m not a tech guy but I believe a Bitcoin is created after certain complex computation occurs, which requires tons of power. Again, not tech guy but reading between the lines with my non tech brain, once the encryption calculation is met, a Bitcoin is mined. Every subsequent “mine” will require even more power than the previous. This mining can occur on massive server farms or even networks of smaller computers and devices. I heard that some sleeze Bitcoin apps will use your device to help mine. In Iceland they built geothermal powered server farms.

    As for the rest, I am still learning. I haven’t jumped into Bitcoin yet, by friends of mine have with amazing success.
  • creepycougcreepycoug Member Posts: 22,706
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    ^ super helpful explanations. I assume the efforts and power devoted to encryption is to make each bitcoin one unique individual item of currency, right?
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