Cryptocurrencies

I hope Ender doesn't see this thread and hack my account. His scripts are pretty solid so I'm sure he could do it.

posted by justincredible

A co-workers husband works with a guy who has a lost wallet with 15 BTC in it that he has no chance of ever getting back. He's accepted it and not too upset because he bought them a long time ago when they were dirt cheap and said he would have sold a long time ago. But damn. That's a cool $240k just hanging out.

Gives new meaning to "buy and hold".

Seriously, how do you avoid that?  You do offline storage to protect against theft, but can you duplicate (or triplicate) that in the case of a lost or corrupted drive?

I now have 0.0637 BTC. I bought in at $15,450.

Bitcoin futures start trading Sunday night.

Institutional investors being able to short Bitcoin will be the first real test of what bitcoin is really worth and just how big a bubble it is (or isn't).

That ability to make large scale bets against its price hasn't really been available so far, and its wild price swings will undoubtedly lure hedge funds to play.

posted by IggyPride00

Bitcoin futures start trading Sunday night.

Institutional investors being able to short Bitcoin will be the first real test of what bitcoin is really worth and just how big a bubble it is (or isn't).

That ability to make large scale bets against its price hasn't really been available so far, and its wild price swings will undoubtedly lure hedge funds to play.

Agreed.

Frankly, I'm kinda looking forward to it.

I'm guessing Bitcoin will evaporate into nothing once the inventor (of whom nobody really knows) decides to cash out his stake and single handily drives the value to nothing. 

They allegedly have 1 million BTC (or $15.5 billion).

Once he/she/they start cashing out, the general public sell off will begin and there will be infinitely more sellers than buyers and it'll become worthless. 

I'm not sure if it will ever recover from that. 

posted by MontyBrunswick

I'm guessing Bitcoin will evaporate into nothing once the inventor (of whom nobody really knows) decides to cash out his stake and single handily drives the value to nothing. 

They allegedly have 1 million BTC (or $15.5 billion).

Once he/she/they start cashing out, the general public sell off will begin and there will be infinitely more sellers than buyers and it'll become worthless. 

I'm not sure if it will ever recover from that. 

I doubt Satoshi ever does that.  I have a hard time imagining someone looking at the option of being a near-instant billionnaire and saying, "Ehhh ... I'm gonna wait ..."

posted by O-Trap

I doubt Satoshi ever does that.  I have a hard time imagining someone looking at the option of being a near-instant billionnaire and saying, "Ehhh ... I'm gonna wait ..."

I'm sure he's already cashed millions.  If I were him, I'd be selling nominal amounts each day - daily volumes look to be averaging nearly 200k, so he should be able to sell 5k a day with little impact....then use some of those cumulative gains to buy the dips.  So he'd be making a ton from the volatility (providing the long-term trend continues to rise) with nominal changes in his the balance of his "shares".

If it crashes, so what?  He'll have made hundreds of millions.  Very likely more about legacy at this point.  Although it's a bit curious he's not functioning more as a market maker to bring more price stability.  If he learned how to trade, or hired someone who knew how, he'd rake in a killing on the spreads while adding liquidity and stability to the market.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-12-08/bitcoin-bull-shows-how-to-get-bitcoin-exposure-without-baggage

Welp, I highly recommend staying away from coinbase. I was just locked out of my account without warning.

Still pretty furious about this as I currently have no recourse. Their support only operates M-F, 8-5 PST. Something is terribly wrong with there fraud detection algorithm. 

posted by justincredible

Still pretty furious about this as I currently have no recourse. Their support only operates M-F, 8-5 PST. Something is terribly wrong with there fraud detection algorithm. 

*their

Dammit.

I did a twitter search of coinbase closing accounts, turns out I'm not alone and it looks like no one is getting any sort of help from customer support. This is going to be a bitch to fix, I think. I'm going to try disputing the bank transfers with USAA tomorrow.

So, O-Trap, any recommendations for other services to buy crypto through that are reputable? I got my bank involved with my coinbase issue this morning, we'll see who recitifies the situation first.

posted by justincredible

So, O-Trap, any recommendations for other services to buy crypto through that are reputable? I got my bank involved with my coinbase issue this morning, we'll see who recitifies the situation first.

The first one I ever used was Coinsbank.  They're a PITA, and they require pictures of license and everything to get started, but when I got locked out (lost my phone and had two-part authentication enabled), they were quick to get me access again.

I never keep any BTC on the exchanges.  Too many chances for something like this to happen.  I keep mine in local, offline wallets.  I recommend Exodus.io.

posted by O-Trap

The first one I ever used was Coinsbank.  They're a PITA, and they require pictures of license and everything to get started, but when I got locked out (lost my phone and had two-part authentication enabled), they were quick to get me access again.

I never keep any BTC on the exchanges.  Too many chances for something like this to happen.  I keep mine in local, offline wallets.  I recommend Exodus.io.

Unfortunately I didn't have that option. I didn't actually have access to my coins yet as the payment was still pending. I will be looking into offline wallets for the future.

Litecoin is going nuts these last few days. I wish I would have bought in on Thursday when I purchased my ETH and BTC. My co-worker bought in when it was $98 and it's now over $350.

You can buy bitcoin (in tenths) with an ETM, and it is with a secure and quality firm/custodian etc...  heard it during a good conversation on Bloomberg this morning.