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    • Showing only topics with the tag "cryptocurrency". Back to normal view

    1. Bitcoins - can't it only go down from here?

      ~talk Text 254 words
      Here is my understanding of Bitcoins, would love to hear from people more knowledgeable than me on what I am getting wrong Only a certain number of bitcoins can be mined if the price of bitcoin...

      Here is my understanding of Bitcoins, would love to hear from people more knowledgeable than me on what I am getting wrong

      • Only a certain number of bitcoins can be mined
      • if the price of bitcoin goes up, it makes mining seem more profitable which encourages more mining
      • If there is more mining, the difficultly of mining eventually increases, & so miners consume more electricity until mining becomes less profitable again
      • Bitcoin is already consuming so much energy that countries are starting to actively discourage mining

      This implies that any substantial increase in bitcoin price will result in substantial regulation of the bitcoin industry as it impacts the supply and price of electricity to other industries

      • Bitcoin is highly volatile, and over time has increased in price substantially
      • A significant portion of bitcoin investors are speculating on an asset rise
      • If the asset stops rising, some speculators may start to sell
      • Increased selling activity will lower the price
      • A lower price will force more speculators to sell

      This implies that if bitcoin does not keep rising, it will start to fall

      • Other crypto currencies are highly correlated with Bitcoin price movement.

      Therefore if bitcoin falls, other crypto currencies fall.

      • Bitcoin is the current default for accepting cryptocurrency as payment
      • Bitcoin has a limited number of transactions it can process (3-7 a second)
      • If too many people want to process transactions, the fee will rise

      Therefore one or more other cryptocurrencies that uses proof of stake, must become the default for accepting cryptocurrency as payment.

      9 votes

    20. McDonald's serves 62 million customers every day

      ~talk Text 78 words
      That is 718 sales every second. The Bitcoin network can process less than 5 transactions per second, while consuming almost as much energy as the entire nation of Argentina. It would take miners...

      That is 718 sales every second.

      The Bitcoin network can process less than 5 transactions per second, while consuming almost as much energy as the entire nation of Argentina. It would take miners on the blockchain 144 days to process just 24 hours worth of sales from McDonald's.

      The math only gets marginally better for Ethereum.

      I feel very uncertain about how people can think that this is a viable replacement for conventional currencies and digital payment systems.

      41 votes