Cryptocurrency Lolcows

[AnOminous]

Aren't those the same guys who had to refund customers who paid via paypal but kept the money of every idiot who paid them in bitcoins?

Pretty much, and only those who actually demanded a reversal in a timely fashion got it. Also, the price of Bitcoin went through the roof at the time they took pre-orders in Bitcoin (but denominated in U.S. dollars).

Part of why this was such a huge scam is that by design, the computing power needed to mine Bitcoins tends to increase over time, so timely delivery of something like this is critical to it actually being able to earn back the price of buying it, so by the time they actually delivered (at the time they were still delivering), the units were essentially worthless $10,000 space heaters.

The people who got scammed were also, by and large, utter fucking idiots themselves, who kept defending BFL long past it was obvious it was a complete scam. Think of KGhaleon-tier idiots, except instead of just watching a shitty LPer, they had sunk thousands of dollars into an utter ripoff that they, like Scientologists, mindlessly defended and viciously attacked the people pointing out they'd been suckered.

Another reason this should have been seen coming a mile away is because you have a device here that is basically marketed as something that literally makes money. So if it does this, why would you sell it? You could just keep it and make money by using it yourself.

And they were doing that, too, rather than shipping units once they had them, further screwing their already swindled customers.

 

[Sperglord Dante]

Part of why this was such a huge scam is that by design, the computing power needed to mine Bitcoins tends to increase over time, so timely delivery of something like this is critical to it actually being able to earn back the price of buying it, so by the time they actually delivered (at the time they were still delivering), the units were essentially worthless $10,000 space heaters.

...
Say, if the cost and difficulty of mining bitcoin goes up exponentially doesn't that mean the currency is not sustainable on the long run? Is there a failsafe of any kind that periodically resets the cost of mining or does it have to come to point in which having the rigs on isn't worthy to anyone in the community before the cost goes down again?

 

[knifetruck]

...
Say, if the cost and difficulty of mining bitcoin goes up exponentially doesn't that mean the currency is not sustainable on the long run? Is there a failsafe of any kind that periodically resets the cost of mining or does it have to come to point in which having the rigs on isn't worthy to anyone in the community before the cost goes down again?

That's basically why bitcoin failed as a currency, asides from the numerous scams. There's no backup, so everything about bitcoin is a crash waiting to happen when it's good, and horrendous when it's bad. Why anyone still advocates for it is anyone's guess.

Oh, and also, the average cost a single bitcoin is $529.60.

 

[AnOminous]

...
Say, if the cost and difficulty of mining bitcoin goes up exponentially doesn't that mean the currency is not sustainable on the long run? Is there a failsafe of any kind that periodically resets the cost of mining or does it have to come to point in which having the rigs on isn't worthy to anyone in the community before the cost goes down again?

Presumably, the model will gradually replace mining rewards with transaction fees. Currently, there are already transaction fees, but the primary reward to miners is from actually generating the currency itself.

Whether this transition will occur smoothly (or at all) is as yet unknown.

 

[TowinKarz]

...
Say, if the cost and difficulty of mining bitcoin goes up exponentially doesn't that mean the currency is not sustainable on the long run? Is there a failsafe of any kind that periodically resets the cost of mining or does it have to come to point in which having the rigs on isn't worthy to anyone in the community before the cost goes down again?

There are ways to correct the inherent unsustainability of BTC, well, proposals at any rate about changing the archetecture of the software or periodic dumps to storage of the history with only the last "X" transactions being constantly accessed. But none of them really solve the base issue that the currency isn't stable and, naturally, nobody can come to an agreement on what should be done, that would require some "rules", and that's REGULATION! And they know the Devil's work when they see it!!!!

 

[DykesDykesChina]

Wouldn't it be far more profitable if I bought some gold mining equipment for US$ 10.000? I'd need to mine about 2.5 kg of the stuff at current prices to get the investment back. And unlike bitcoin, gold can be easily sold to convert it into useful money.

 

[Trilby]

Wouldn't it be far more profitable if I bought some gold mining equipment for US$ 10.000? I'd need to mine about 2.5 kg of the stuff at current prices to get the investment back. And unlike bitcoin, gold can be easily sold to convert it into useful money.

It's better when it's tangible.

 

[AnOminous]

Wouldn't it be far more profitable if I bought some gold mining equipment for US$ 10.000? I'd need to mine about 2.5 kg of the stuff at current prices to get the investment back. And unlike bitcoin, gold can be easily sold to convert it into useful money.

Gold mining is generally only marginally profitable which is why many mines that aren't even exhausted are essentially abandoned and not operated for years at a time. When they do operate, they rely on high volume for even that marginal profitability.

Also you can easily convert BTC to USD in as long as it would take to cash out from Paypal.

 

[DragoonSierra]

Is there any Cryptocurrency that isnt shit?

 

[autisticdragonkin]

Is there any Cryptocurrency that isnt shit?

 

[DrJonesHat]

I remember the Bitcoin forums being full of "idea people" who had no idea how the real world works.

 

[AnOminous]

I remember the Bitcoin forums being full of "idea people" who had no idea how the real world works.

Those were the smart people who actually coded shit and knew math.

Now it's just full of complete dumbasses who not only don't know how the real world works, they don't know how Bitcoin works, either.

 

[MarineTrainedTard]

I remember the Bitcoin forums being full of "idea people" who had no idea how the real world works.

It's my understanding that that describes like 90% of actual economists, though.

 

[autisticdragonkin]

It's my understanding that that describes like 90% of actual economists, though.

Many economists use a priori models with little relation to reality because they use assumptions that simplify the model to the point that it is no longer usable

 

[Super Collie]

...
Say, if the cost and difficulty of mining bitcoin goes up exponentially doesn't that mean the currency is not sustainable on the long run? Is there a failsafe of any kind that periodically resets the cost of mining or does it have to come to point in which having the rigs on isn't worthy to anyone in the community before the cost goes down again?

In short, yes.

Due to the fact that the value of mined Bitcoins is overall less than the average cost of electricity to mine them you end up with this situation where the only Bitcoins that are legitimately mined these days are either done on:
A) Someone else's electricity bill.
B) Stolen equipment / botnets.
C) Both A & B.

And people wonder why the currency has a poor reputation. The only money that was to be had with Bitcoin was when the currency was in its infancy and the exchange rate was 1 BTC = $0.25 USD. Those were the only overnight millionaires who didn't scam other people or otherwise literally break the law.

 

[TowinKarz]

Many economists use a priori models with little relation to reality because they use assumptions that simplify the model to the point that it is no longer usable

Well, it's still better than the A posteriori approach used by the Austrian School of Economics, that boils down to "economies are numbers, people aren't numbers, therefore, DEREGULATE EVERYTHING OR YOU ARE LITERALLY WORSE THAN HITLER!!!!

 

[DragoonSierra]

I thought dogecoin was a troll currency?

 

[GandT]

I thought dogecoin was a troll currency?

It started that way, and yet went on to become infinitely more successful than bitcoin.

 

[GV 998]

On that note, from what I understand, bitcoin is supposed to have a limited, finite amount of coins that can ever exist, essentially bringing the gold standard to the digital era, and considering how being chained to the gold standard left the money supply at the mercy of the fluctuating amounts of gold available, that's stupid, but in an even worse way than gold.

With gold, it's stupid because there is a limited supply of gold on the entire planet, but unless it's all dumped into the sun, it will still be worth something if the value is pegged to gold. Bitcoin is even more retarded because it's value is based on ephemeral crap like computer data, and if the computer fries, it doesn't even have the advantage gold has of still having a value of its own even when divorced from it's use as currency or being the foundation of a currency.

For some reason your post made me daydream about that old Twilight Zone episode where a group of gold thieves steal a million dollars in gold bars and put themselves in suspended animation for 100 years so everyone will have forgotten the crime by then. Then they find themselves wandering a barren wasteland, about to die from thirst when the last thief alive finally comes upon a man and offers him gold for water, but he succumbs to dehydration, and the man remarks to his wife that the dying man offered him something "worthless" for a drink of water. He also remarks that gold was once considered valuable before they learned to synthesize it.

...I imagine that's very much like having your money invested in Bitcoin, except Bitcoin was never really valuable

 

[AnOminous]

It started that way, and yet went on to become infinitely more successful than bitcoin.

Not really. Doge is only #8 with $23 million market cap, while BTC is first with $7 billion market cap. The most popular altcoin is currently something called Ethereum with almost $800 million.