Someone please explain this currency

[WVAPPeer]

Can someone in the most simple terms please explain to this Old-Fart - bitcoin, cyptocurrency, etc., what is it actually, how does one get it, spend it, "cash" it in - I have nothing to invest so I'm not looking for any suggestions or strategies - Just trying to obtain a minimal understanding -
thank you

[appdaze]

It's nothing, quite literally. Block chain will be used in the future as more secure ways for many transactions and that's the main thing that has come from crypto. Mining is actually a pain in the butt. Once you have your rig set up it will take over a year to make your money back if you go with Ethereum. To put it as simple as possible the makers of Bitcoin released a certain number of coin files to be searched for by the mining rigs. If you find one you put it in a wallet. There are multiple types of wallets. Be careful who your wallet is with because in some cases you don't actually own the coin files you put in the wallet but that's probably more detail than you want.

As far as value goes it's purely speculative investments instead of a currency. I've seen a number of analysis articles that say 95%+ is being held for speculative investment purposes instead of current. Crypto will eventually be more viable as a stable currency, but it's gotta find a way to stabilize the values and be a distributable and exchangeable thing instead of what it currently is.

For the people crapping on it saying it's a total bunch of nothing just remember, all value is imaginary, all types of money started from nothing. So the only thing separating crypto from other currencies is that it doesn't have a physical side aka paper money and it's not fully controlled by a specific government but in the future will end up being heavily regulated.

You spend it through companies set up to take it. You spend it straight from your wallet similar to PayPal. They are also making crypto cards that can be attached to your wallet and swiped at accepted vendors.

[Bootsy]

Appdaze, nice work...this is a good explanation. The coins aren't the big deal; the technology underlying them is. But like anything so many assets in a boom/bubble economic environment, people get caught up in the hype and speculate...hoping to make crazy money. And they usually don't.

If you remember Internet 2.0 being a big deal 15 years ago, Internet 3.0 will be built on the back of blockchain technology. For example, blockchain can provide extremely secure transactions with full anonymity and eliminate the expense of middlemen to facilitate the transaction (like banks, for example).

There are many, many uses for blockchain technology and it has a bright future, no matter what the mainstream media says. Think about it

• What's a dollar worth? Considering our government has racked up $30,000,000,000,000 in sovereign debt over the past 15 years...it's becoming worth less every day.

• There are some bad actors in the crypto space. But if it were all a scam, would institutional investors and hedge funds continue investing in legit crypto outfits, like they are currently?

[T-Dog]

I'm in more of the "crpyto currently is a scam" camp because it's being pushed so much, cause if it's not traded and sold outside of the people currently involved with it, it's worthless. It needs widspread acceptance.

A lot of the smaller crypto coins out there are pure scams.

If it becomes regulated, taxed and such, then it becomes valuable.

[Saint3333]

In a situation like Ukraine it can be beneficial.

[appdaze]

I'm in more of the "crpyto currently is a scam" camp because it's being pushed so much, cause if it's not traded and sold outside of the people currently involved with it, it's worthless. It needs widspread acceptance.

A lot of the smaller crypto coins out there are pure scams.

If it becomes regulated, taxed and such, then it becomes valuable.

They are taxed with capital gains tax. So more like the stocks that people treat them as. There are absolute scams with smaller coins and some wallets. It becomes valuable when enough of society says its valuable. Take diamonds, they are a stupid "rock" yet we decided they are highly valued. Value is just group think or herd mentality imagination deciding worth. The big kicker from those like minded to yourself is that it isn't regulated by a government thus has a unstable value because the only thing that backs it is the speculated value. Crypto is here to stay and our USD will probably use some form of block chain transaction process in the future as most USD are already digital. We use cards to access digital accounts. That's all crypto really is in the end. As far as being traded and sold outside its current investors well, more people invest in crypto than most actual stocks and crypto is global unlike how many nations have their own stock markets so that isn't a great way to bash it. Two things to keep in mind about value. We are further in debt than money exists on this earth from all denominations and a quick Google says the USA stock markets total value is about 95 trillion. So triple our debt. All that doesn't take into account the 25 billion futures contracts. So basically the entire worlds economy and speculative future is floating around in a mega casino using money that doesn't exist to gamble on a future that may or may not happen and if it crashes, o well that's our grand kids problems.

So yea block chain is a good thing but I think is the least of our worries when it comes to value.

[BambooRdApp]

Personally, I believe blockchain driven items are promising. It is only a matter of time as it needs more time to mature to get more acceptance and utilization....and, yes, it needs more government regulatory oversight....however, govt's are not exactly sure who, how, to regulate it. Some want to regulate it like a bank..which is too cumbersome and somewhat negates to positives of crypto. There are definitely scams in the marketplace as can be read on the internet. There have been some interesting businesses that have resulted from the crypto evolution such as apps such as Celsius, Binance, etc..where you can place crypto deposits and earn a decent return over 10%..however, there is higher risk for the reward. It is definitely not going away overall, however, many will fail similar like the Dot.com meltdown.
Although not the best analogy...but like the early days of IOT..you had many that failed..weed out the week and the scams so to speak. 10 years from now, there will be substantial increase in utilization IMO. It will be interesting to see how blockchain and related products from blockchain plays out

[Rekdiver]

I’m of the opinion I’d rather invest in something regulated and something that has earnings. Too many uncertainties in crypto currency. No central bank backstop is a big one.

[/\PP ST/\TE GRAD 09]

From an investment view it's a 24/7 open market that has basically zero regulations, no thanks. If you have experience trading forex or lots of overall trading experience I'd say give it a try, but anyone with minimum experience trading should stay away IMO. And no a 20 year 401k invested in a target date fund doesn't count towards experience.

I think over time as it becomes more regulated, I'll give it a shot, but in the meantime I'll keep my speculation with options trading.

[Bootsy]

From an investment view it's a 24/7 open market that has basically zero regulations, no thanks. If you have experience trading forex or lots of overall trading experience I'd say give it a try, but anyone with minimum experience trading should stay away IMO. And no a 20 year 401k invested in a target date fund doesn't count towards experience.

I think over time as it becomes more regulated, I'll give it a shot, but in the meantime I'll keep my speculation with options trading.

Options are a fun way to speculate, but warrants are even funner.

[Rekdiver]

I will say some of you are smarter than I thought!

[/\PP ST/\TE GRAD 09]

From an investment view it's a 24/7 open market that has basically zero regulations, no thanks. If you have experience trading forex or lots of overall trading experience I'd say give it a try, but anyone with minimum experience trading should stay away IMO. And no a 20 year 401k invested in a target date fund doesn't count towards experience.

I think over time as it becomes more regulated, I'll give it a shot, but in the meantime I'll keep my speculation with options trading.

Options are a fun way to speculate, but warrants are even funner.

I've traded warrants a time or two. The trading adrenaline rush doesn't hit the way trading options does for me haha.

[WVAPPeer]

I will say some of you are smarter than I thought!

And someone (myself) still doesn't know jackschitt about any of this stuff

[spacemonkey]

I could write an hour on this subject...but no way do I have a clue what the final outcome will be. If it does become legit it will be very predictable and should have the same ratio of other currencies like the Chinese Yuan or the Japanese Yen or the Canadian dollar or the US Dollar. I E. 30000 us dollars to 1 bitcoin. If and when it gets to that level it will be very predictable based on how much of each currency is in circulation and how trusted the government is. I.E. $30,000 USDollar to 1 bitcoin.....if $30,000 USDollar is to 15,000 Japanese Yen then it should take 15000 Japanese yen to buy 1 bitcoin. (I am making these numbers up)

All that being said, this is where I have a problem. People say bitcoin is limited (Which it is) but digital currency is not and that is where I see the problem. (Unlimited supply of digital currencies) Blockchain will change the world and eliminate a lot of jobs....My opinion bitcoin will be like the Beenie babies and will eventually be close to worthless. I think this will happen as soon as taxes make it less fluid/more friction and digital US dollar has no taxes or friction.

Bottom line for me is Governments give currency value by having the armed forces/strength to protect it. If the most powerful government says "if you use bitcoin you will be jailed or killed" then the bitcoin becomes pretty worthless.

My same answer for Gold. You can have all the gold in the world but if someone more powerful comes and takes it from you what good is/was it.

[The Rock]

While we are on the subject of things we dont understand, can someone please explain NFT. I have read about it and still don't get it

[WVAPPeer]

While we are on the subject of things we dont understand, can someone please explain NFT. I have read about it and still don't get it

Yes - Please ---

[Bootsy]

From an investment view it's a 24/7 open market that has basically zero regulations, no thanks. If you have experience trading forex or lots of overall trading experience I'd say give it a try, but anyone with minimum experience trading should stay away IMO. And no a 20 year 401k invested in a target date fund doesn't count towards experience.

I think over time as it becomes more regulated, I'll give it a shot, but in the meantime I'll keep my speculation with options trading.

Options are a fun way to speculate, but warrants are even funner.

I've traded warrants a time or two. The trading adrenaline rush doesn't hit the way trading options does for me haha.

Warrants can give you an adrenaline rush...and you can still sleep at night. OXY has been a good ride since October, among others.

[Bootsy]

The last thing I'll say about cryptos: the price could go to the moon...or the coins could become worthless.

In any highly speculative investment, only put in a VERY limited % of your portfolio in it. And by limited I mean, "if this thing craps the bed and goes to zero, I'll still sleep at night."

One reason crypto prices are crashing is because too many people were doing stupid stuff like oversizing their positions, buying crypto with margin/borrowed money, etc. And now with the stock markets tanking, people are liquidating out of fear. I'm totally unsurprised to see this and it will get worse before it gets better.

[BallantyneApp]

The last thing I'll say about cryptos: the price could go to the moon...or the coins could become worthless.

In any highly speculative investment, only put in a VERY limited % of your portfolio in it. And by limited I mean, "if this thing craps the bed and goes to zero, I'll still sleep at night."

One reason crypto prices are crashing is because too many people were doing stupid stuff like oversizing their positions, buying crypto with margin/borrowed money, etc. And now with the stock markets tanking, people are liquidating out of fear. I'm totally unsurprised to see this and it will get worse before it gets better.

this is why (for now) crypto should be termed as an unbacked equity security. It is not a currency in the traditional sense. I think it will become so years down the road, but people both rich and poor are treating it as an investment, not a store of value.

[Cro-Magnon App]

This has been an informative thread for me. I know nothing about crypto. But I do know this: wherever there is money there will be scammers, wherever there is money the govt will eventually get involved.