Private Money!

[Warren]

HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT
This must be what smoking crack feels like.

[Mo]

Interestingly

[Warren]

Interestingly

Whatever let's you sleep at night.

[Mo]

The list is long. My views have been long stated, bitcoin is a fad/bubble, blockchain has a future.

[Shem]

This begins to smell like a speculative attack. Seems like a good way for someone like the North Koreans to get a cash infusion without attracting too much attention.

[JasonL]

I'm fascinated by the whole thing. On the other end of Fear of Missing Out is a bunch of people sitting around looking at each other trying to decide if they themselves feel like there is persistent value in holding the asset. So yeah momentum, then ... what. Stability that would allow use a real currency? Crash as FOMO turns to Fear of Losing Shirt? I had been meaning to dabble but was put off by the instability of early wallet and lack of liquidity in general. Fun to watch from the sidelines though. It certainly smells overheated but we are in new territory.

[Warren]

I'm feeling generous so I'll throw you losers a bone.
The vertical price chart might be in part due to inability to get coins to the market. Cash gets to the market the old fashioned way. But BTCs are sent via the blockchain that has a fixed volume it can handle and it's maxed out. I myself have sold off all the BTCs I had on the exchange, and a transfer I put in over a day ago still has no confirmations. I put another one in this morning with a $14 transaction fee and nope.

So there's that.


ETA
And now that I think about it, that would explain why the other cryptos are pulling back as people sell off their Ether, BCCash, etc. so they can cash in on the rally.

[JD]

Damn. A Slovenian cryptocurrency broker has lost about $77 million in a hack. The article lists a number of other incidents where cryptocurrencies have been stolen or rendered unusable. I can understand the appeal, though...who wants to mope around with ransomware and maybe collect a few tens of thousands of dollars when you can possibly get away with tens of millions?

[dbcooper]

The Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) has announced that it will replace its CHESS post-trade settlement system using technology developed by blockchain startup Digital Asset.

https://www.coindesk.com/asx-says-yes-s ... de-system/

[Mo]

I got out of my mined 0.2 bitcoins last night at $17K.

[Jasper]

I'm feeling generous so I'll throw you losers a bone.
The vertical price chart might be in part due to inability to get coins to the market. Cash gets to the market the old fashioned way. But BTCs are sent via the blockchain that has a fixed volume it can handle and it's maxed out. I myself have sold off all the BTCs I had on the exchange, and a transfer I put in over a day ago still has no confirmations. I put another one in this morning with a $14 transaction fee and nope.

So there's that.


ETA
And now that I think about it, that would explain why the other cryptos are pulling back as people sell off their Ether, BCCash, etc. so they can cash in on the rally.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the whole idea of the blockchain was that transactions are essentially instantaneous (speed of network) according to the interview you posted and some other explainer vids I watched. So why is it taking a day or longer for you to sell them? Is the "golden ledger" only able to be annotated in bitcoins so you have to wait the usual T+3 days to actually get the dollars?

[Warren]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the whole idea of the blockchain was that transactions are essentially instantaneous (speed of network) according to the interview you posted and some other explainer vids I watched. So why is it taking a day or longer for you to sell them? Is the "golden ledger" only able to be annotated in bitcoins so you have to wait the usual T+3 days to actually get the dollars?

No. The rules about how the blockchain is written to limit the rate it can be written to. There is now more traffic than it can handle and transactions aren't being processed. I've never seen it this bad. Eventually the network will drop the transactions and the coins will return to my wallet. But that doesn't do me any good if they're stuck there. In the mean time, I have only 0.8 BTC let on the exchanges to spend, and the bulk of my hoard suck in my wallet.

The wallet I'm using (blockchain.info) seems to be part of the problem. It doesn't support Replace By Fee or Child Pays For Parent (ways to bribe the network to process your transaction).

[Jasper]

So all the crazy speculation and volatility of the market is actually causing the bitcoin blockchain to "lag", in gamer terms?

[Warren]

yes
The volatility in particular has presented arbitrage opportunities as prices have differed significantly from one exchange to the other.

[JasonL]

Monday will be the first day anyone can take short positions with option trading on a few real platforms. That will be interesting. There are still a lot of stay away platforms and some that won't let you go short even if they allow options otherwise. I've heard some of those platforms will be looking for a 10X fee over standard liquid contracts to allow these trades. Wacky times.

[Kolohe]

At least in the casino, women in short skirts give you free drinks. (and most of them are non-smoking now)

[Fin Fang Foom]

So far, every time Bitcoin has crashed it has reset to a higher level than before the runup, and after a couple of crashes, it has reset to a higher level than the peak of the bubble prior to the one it just crashed from. I am curious as to whether that is sustainable or whether it is a function of people learning about Bitcoin when they hear about it at its peak due to chatter and getting into the market subsequently. At some point, nobody is going to want to jump in. Right now, it seems like it functions more like beanie babies rather than currency. I mean there's no way you could do a contract with payment in a week.

[Mo]

I mean there's no way you could do a contract with payment in a week.

Oh hai correspondent banking.

[Fin Fang Foom]

I mean there's no way you could do a contract with payment in a week.

Oh hai correspondent banking.

What with a collar or something? At this level of volatility, that is akin to saying the contract is in dollars.

[Warren]

Monday will be the first day anyone can take short positions with option trading on a few real platforms. That will be interesting. There are still a lot of stay away platforms and some that won't let you go short even if they allow options otherwise. I've heard some of those platforms will be looking for a 10X fee over standard liquid contracts to allow these trades. Wacky times.

I was reading an article about that. The takeaway was, up until now everyone participating in BTC wanted the price to rise as of next week there will be big players that want the price to fall.

I have no idea what will happen. The price dipped this morning and I bought a few tenths. If it goes up again, at least I'll have that to sell.

[Jasper]

yes
The volatility in particular has presented arbitrage opportunities as prices have differed significantly from one exchange to the other.

Thx for the explanation Warren.

[Mo]

I mean there's no way you could do a contract with payment in a week.

Oh hai correspondent banking.

What with a collar or something? At this level of volatility, that is akin to saying the contract is in dollars.

Oh gotcha, you can't do payment with a volatile currency with payment in a week. Objection withdrawn.

[JasonL]

Yeah it's kind of half a market and the broad perception is the upward volatility is driven by fear of missing out - the price is going up because the price is going up. You could see someone or some institution take a huge short position that might have people asking themselves some questions and it could precipitate a downward run in a hurry. Or not. I have no idea. Like football, I'll watch from the stands without taking those hits.

It would be the best theatrical thing ever if a massive short comes in and it gets traced back to Satoshi Nakamoto, who has sold reserved btc, captured the whole downside, kills Elon Musk and takes over his volcano lair.

[Fin Fang Foom]

I mean there's no way you could do a contract with payment in a week.

Oh hai correspondent banking.

What with a collar or something? At this level of volatility, that is akin to saying the contract is in dollars.

Oh gotcha, you can't do payment with a volatile currency with payment in a week. Objection withdrawn.

I mean you can, it's just outside of contraband, I can't imagine many willing to undergo the risk of paying 50% more or less when the time comes to cut a check.

[Warren]

MY TRANSACTIONS GOT PROCESSED