Explain Bitcoin Please

Your constant attempts to portray Bitcoin investors as greedy gamblers is akin to your average touron thinking climbers are just adrenaline junkies.

Yer inability to see the truth in both those portrayals shows there’s no hope for you. Sorry.
Yes, banks suck, but at least you can usually get yer money out of them.

JPMorgan Chase Moves to Be First Big U.S. Bank With Its Own Cryptocurrency

'In 2017, Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan Chase’s chief executive, declared Bitcoin a “fraud” and said that any employee caught trading it would be fired for being “stupid.”

On Thursday, JPMorgan became the first major United States bank to introduce its own digital token for real-world use, the latest step in Wall Street’s evolving approach to the blockchain technology that underpins cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ether.

Despite questioning Bitcoin’s legitimacy, Mr. Dimon has said he recognizes blockchain’s potential in the future of the global financial system. And JPMorgan has already released a blockchain platform, Quorum, that several institutions are using to keep track of financial data...'

it is your inability to see past the click bait headlines that is holding you back from seeing the bigger picture.

Yes, there are people in Bitcoin just hoping to get rich quick just like there are climbers who are adrenaline junkies. But there is a whole lot more going on with Bitcoin just like there is a whole lot more to climbing than just what the public thinks.

Why Bitcoin? Because I don't need anybody's permission for how, where, when and why I use it. I don't need to trust someone else to hold it for me. It is censorship resistant and can't be confiscated. It is borderless, I can take it anywhere. You may not care about any of these things, but plenty of do.

Is this so? Exchanges and places that sell coins in general have restrictions on who can trade/buy there and want to ID the person even heavier than banks do for new accounts now. Many won't deal with Americans at all.
Coins can be confiscated for sure...in a sense that court can order to pay USD, and then it's your problem if you want to cash out your coins or get the money somewhere else: they'll get it. Taxes on multiple currencies trading are going to be a nightmare, since recently, by the way. Governments ain't fools to let the shadow economy get too big and let tax revenue escape... If cryptocurrencies stay, they'll be regulated and tracked as much as regular currencies, eventually.

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/612974/once-hailed-as-unhackable-blockchains-are-now-getting-hacked/


Look carefully at the 51% hacks, and what that means for who is going to best be able to game the system.

This concept would seem to indicate that the largest cryptocurrencies are going to be the most protected from these attacks and thus more safe place to park money. It would indicate some market pressures for different exchanges to consolidate for the protection of scale.

But look how the U.S. military outspends the world to effectively deal with the same thing- to be able to maintain control. Don't you think someone is out there trying to do the same thing with even the biggest cryptocurrencies? If you combine brute force compute with espionage to control other bitcoin miners, seems like someone with a lot more money than moral inhibitions and a decent vision can make a huge multiple return on their investment.


Even if currencies try to roll back to an earlier time point before a hack, there are going to be winners and losers and not all participants will want to roll back, and it will trigger a fork like the Etherium vs. Etherium Classic. This process itself renders all participants more vulnerable to future attacks because it takes less compute power to dominate the two smaller distributed databases that remain.

If they go under, that's ok, it helps clean things up.

Coinbase alone has over 25 million accounts, so plenty of Americans are willing to deal with the hassle to own some Bitcoin. That being said, there are plenty of ways to buy, sell, trade Bitcoin without ever having to dox yourself.

Nice try on "confiscating" Bitcoin.

Of course the government wants their piece, and they will get some by blending it into the fabric of Wall St. But Bitcoin has no CEO, no corporate HQ, no nation or board of directors. You might be able to regulate it somewhat in between your own borders, but good luck with the rest of the world.

people view Bitcoin thru "American" eyes and have a hard time seeing the use cases for it. But the reality is that a large portion of the world's population is unbanked/underbanked and/or living in politically and economically toxic situations. Bitcoin is a valuable tool to help people escape their dire situations.

CBOE is pulling bitcoin futures...

Isn't Coinbase requiring heavy verification pretty much like anyone else? They have verification, even for address not just identity.

Do you know Kraken was previously not releasing funds to Americans asking for proof of how initial investment was earned (they didn't ask this for deposit...asked later for withdrawal)? They'll be reporting to IRS too now.

I don't think anyone with US IP can do anything crypto anonymously, and vpn addresses will be rejected I'm pretty sure on that one. (yes, I'm only talking about US persons here but pretty sure everyone else will be tracked in the same way soon....governments ain't fools). Banks in many countries do electronic info exchange now on fund movements (sooner or later one will need to cash their coins) and citizenship/residency data...good luck for regular Joe/Kumar moving anything unnoticed unless they're using banks so shady they might never get their funds back from them. One can't cash the coins in signifiant amounts without using good old bank system (unless they like cartel option)...and bank will freeze it all asking to explain where the funds are coming from (and non-US banks do this just fine).

I'm sure they have access to secure computers and networks and money to buy coins (and meet transaction minimums). Hope they won't buy the cheap ones that will be de-listed next day. I'm also sure they're educated enough to be able to secure their pwds or keys. You just described hacker's dream. Since they don't have access to banking system to begin wth, I wonder how will they cash their orders...and or are they going to hold volatile asset (I hope not). If they can opt to hold onto anything it'll be USD cash I assure you (I know life in non-banked system and under hyperinflation well).

If there's any kind of anonymity left in crypto...one better use it now cause it won't be there tomorrow. (may be one can dump 1st world country citizenship for St Kitt and Nevis one and move to Bangladesh, though, to keep their privacy a little longer)

On another note... looks like pump'n'dump is running...it'll be a million by the end of the year :) Any guesses where the large order came from? Anonymity = market manipulation