29 votes

Anybody here own cryptocurrency?

If so then what coins are you invested in? What attracted you to crypto?

36 comments

  1. [10]
    brighteyes720
    (edited )
    Link
    I do. Quite a bit. But I hate the whole crypto currency community with passion. Especially the staunch libertarians. But I looove the tech behind it and many other tangential non blockchain...

    I do. Quite a bit. But I hate the whole crypto currency community with passion. Especially the staunch libertarians. But I looove the tech behind it and many other tangential non blockchain projects.

    But I did get lucky many years back and have 0 average cost. I wish I'd sold in December'17 as the amount was pretty big for someone living in a developing country.

    I am still holding as I do think I'll get a better price to get out.

    23 votes
    1. [8]
      haberdashery
      Link Parent
      I'm curious, why is that? I haven't interacted with the community much and I've only read about cryptocurrency, so I'm not in the loop.

      I do. Quite a bit. But I hate the whole crypto currency community with passion. Especially the staunch libertarians.

      I'm curious, why is that? I haven't interacted with the community much and I've only read about cryptocurrency, so I'm not in the loop.

      7 votes
      1. [5]
        brighteyes720
        Link Parent
        Well I think a lot of it has to be because how mainstream how quickly it got now that I think about it. I used to spend hours on Bitcoin forums and subreddits back in 2012-14 and (aside from the...

        Well I think a lot of it has to be because how mainstream how quickly it got now that I think about it.

        I used to spend hours on Bitcoin forums and subreddits back in 2012-14 and (aside from the Nov '13 bubble) the community was super technical and interesting.

        Nowadays look at r/cryptocurrency, r/Bitcoin and others. Just shitty memes, people not understanding what they're investing in, memes about banking system which anyone who has taken 1 class in economics would understand how dumb they are.

        I think that's the problem, they think crypto can replace the banks despite the current on chain limitations of ~15 transactions/s on Bitcoin, something around 40 for ETH. The most promising one is Nano with 4000 tx/s but that's also too low. Of course, it's theoretically infinite but we aren't at the stage yet.

        Next the counter argument to this transaction limitation is lightning network. What they don't seem to know is first you have to park your money in there and retrieve when you close the channel causing two transaction fees which are like a week's average income in my country. Next, the most important part to recieve money 100% securely on the lightning network you need to be 24*7 connected to the internet (various technical reasons which I can't to justice explaining in this comment). Otherwise, you need to trust a service. And guess what that just did, you created a semi-centralized bank.

        17 votes
        1. tnkflx
          Link Parent
          You worded better what I was thinking :)

          You worded better what I was thinking :)

          3 votes
        2. [3]
          Neverland
          Link Parent
          I own not crypto at all, becuase I was dumb.. but I’m just curious why you didn’t mention BCH? Again, I have no horse in the race, just curious why larger block sizes didn’t make a difference.

          I own not crypto at all, becuase I was dumb.. but I’m just curious why you didn’t mention BCH? Again, I have no horse in the race, just curious why larger block sizes didn’t make a difference.

          2 votes
          1. [2]
            brighteyes720
            Link Parent
            I support a larger blocksize. I supported Bitcoin Unlimited. I supported Segwit2X. But I don't particularly like BCH. Here are the reasons, it's not doing anything special it's a split from the...

            I support a larger blocksize. I supported Bitcoin Unlimited. I supported Segwit2X.

            But I don't particularly like BCH. Here are the reasons, it's not doing anything special it's a split from the main chain with just 8 MB blocksize. IMO the sum of integral of difficulty/hashpower determines what's the real chain. If BCH had say 99% hashpower and Bitcoin had 1% I would have supported the 8MB chain. Artificial methods so as the chain never dies etc. pissed me off.

            I mean if we are splitting and not upgrading a chain, we could really add more better features. This is basically like Litecoin except with the original Bitcoin chain before split and no Segwit.

            8 MB can't solve all problems of scaling. The reason BCH tx are relatively cheap is more because no one uses it. 8 MB will lead to the same problems, just little delayed. Honestly, the only way to scale is to get almost unlimited transactions/second. Why settle for 55 tx/s? Nano does 2000/s, IOTA does 500 tx/s blah blah. Obviously they have their own problems, anyway that's a little irrelevant.

            What one big disadvantage I think is there's no possibility they'll implement something like Segwit. And without Segwit there's never gonna be a LN which for all its problems in my previous comment, if Bitcoin is gonna live in the future, it's gonna have survive due to LN only. No possibility of LN on the chain means the chain is next to useless IMO.

            I still am the biggest promoter of increasing blocksize on Bitcoin without a chain split. Few share my views though.

            2 votes
            1. Neverland
              Link Parent
              Thanks for your informative reply. From the bleachers it felt like the BTC/BCH fork was really dumb. It looked like BTC had major adoption among many huge merchants, then the bottleneck issues...

              Thanks for your informative reply.

              From the bleachers it felt like the BTC/BCH fork was really dumb. It looked like BTC had major adoption among many huge merchants, then the bottleneck issues brought adoption as a currency to a grinding halt. I still don’t understand why bitcoin didn’t increase blocksize to give themselves breathing room while LN was developed.

              1 vote
      2. spctrvl
        Link Parent
        While it's been explained in detail by others, I want to share a little anecdote. Back last year I saw a highly upvoted post on r/Cryptocurrency bashing net neutrality advocates for 'pushing the...

        While it's been explained in detail by others, I want to share a little anecdote. Back last year I saw a highly upvoted post on r/Cryptocurrency bashing net neutrality advocates for 'pushing the government overreach that crypto was designed to fight', and I went into the comments expecting the poster to get torn apart, but somehow, the overwhelming majority were supportive.

        Even those pointing out the fact that throttling and whitelisting would basically give ISPs life or death power over cryptocurrencies were shouted down by posters saying to 'use a VPN' or proposing rather confused visions of an internet 'powered by blockchain and cryptocurrencies that take control out of the hands of ISPs'. Like, did someone invent crypto-wires and crypto-switches while I wasn't looking? I feel like that was an excellent microcosm of what the crypto community of today is: a bunch of idiot libertarian tech bros trying to make millions, who can hardly conceive of a problem to which crypto isn't a solution.

        5 votes
      3. tnkflx
        Link Parent
        The community between 2010-1014 was awesome. It went downhill after that. I rarely interact with other people in the community anymore.

        The community between 2010-1014 was awesome. It went downhill after that. I rarely interact with other people in the community anymore.

        1 vote
    2. patience_limited
      Link Parent
      I agree with your assessment of the cryptocurrency community at large. I'm not convinced that a currency without any tangible backing will ever be stable or manageable in the absence of...

      I agree with your assessment of the cryptocurrency community at large. I'm not convinced that a currency without any tangible backing will ever be stable or manageable in the absence of nation-state level enforcement.

      I'm still following some of the blockchain programming projects because a distributed, cryptographically certified transaction ledger is just useful. Provided we can improve the efficiency so that the entropic drag of processing and maintaining the ledger isn't more of a cost than an advantage.

      3 votes
  2. [4]
    mat
    Link
    I have about 80XRP which are currently worth half what they were when I was given them in exchange for doing some babysitting. A friend of mine calls crypto coins Dunning-Krugerrands which I think...

    I have about 80XRP which are currently worth half what they were when I was given them in exchange for doing some babysitting.

    A friend of mine calls crypto coins Dunning-Krugerrands which I think is about right.

    One day I'd like to set up Scamcoin - We Literally Just Take Your Money And Run and I reckon that's probably worth a few million at ICO.

    21 votes
    1. [3]
      teaearlgraycold
      Link Parent
      It's been done... kinda https://medium.com/@Cryptokeeper/the-smart-contract-ponzi-scheme-that-isnt-really-a-ponzi-scheme-e1f26d0eedc6

      One day I'd like to set up Scamcoin - We Literally Just Take Your Money And Run and I reckon that's probably worth a few million at ICO.

      It's been done... kinda https://medium.com/@Cryptokeeper/the-smart-contract-ponzi-scheme-that-isnt-really-a-ponzi-scheme-e1f26d0eedc6

      9 votes
      1. [2]
        EggOfReason
        Link Parent
        Hasn’t this been done several times over with several companies? Of course, BITCONNECT(!!!!!!!!!!) comes to mind.

        Hasn’t this been done several times over with several companies? Of course, BITCONNECT(!!!!!!!!!!) comes to mind.

        9 votes
        1. teaearlgraycold
          Link Parent
          This was after BitConnect, riding on the coattails. Crypto fans thought they were smart enough not to get screwed by the smart contract, even knowing it was a scam. And then someone exploited the...

          This was after BitConnect, riding on the coattails. Crypto fans thought they were smart enough not to get screwed by the smart contract, even knowing it was a scam.

          And then someone exploited the contract and stole all of the money.

          7 votes
  3. 666
    Link
    I have about 40 cents worth of Dogecoin that I got for free several years ago, I find the tech behind cryptocurrencies interesting, but I'm not interested in using or investing in them.

    I have about 40 cents worth of Dogecoin that I got for free several years ago, I find the tech behind cryptocurrencies interesting, but I'm not interested in using or investing in them.

    4 votes
  4. [2]
    teaearlgraycold
    Link
    I've still got a few dollars of ETH in my wallet (and some airdropped ICOs that are actually worth a bit since I had 2 ETH in there at one point). I first got into crypto back in 2011 or 2012 with...

    I've still got a few dollars of ETH in my wallet (and some airdropped ICOs that are actually worth a bit since I had 2 ETH in there at one point).

    I first got into crypto back in 2011 or 2012 with Bitcoin. I mined a few (maybe as many as 10 in total) on my 6870. Back then they were worth $5-$10. I spent all of them on server hosting for Minecraft/Mumble/Web stuff. Freshman year in college my roommate and I mined a few LTC to purchase hardware for a seedbox. Then last year I learned about ETH and saw its massive rise in price and bought $700 worth.

    Sadly I ended up needing money at the end of the year and had to sell it all. I did make a bit of money though, even if I did sell it before the price exploded again.

    3 votes
    1. patience_limited
      Link Parent
      Back in '09, I heard about an interesting mathematical toy called Bitcoin, with medium of exchange and cryptographic implications. I was disgusted with the erosion of consumer privacy, and started...

      Back in '09, I heard about an interesting mathematical toy called Bitcoin, with medium of exchange and cryptographic implications. I was disgusted with the erosion of consumer privacy, and started mining for a while, at least partly as an excuse to do things with fancy video cards.

      Gave up after a year because it was costing more electricity to mine than it was worth as a medium of exchange, and the processing was heating the house. Most of BTC sat in a wallet (I probably donated 20 or so to EFF early on), and then things started to happen. I didn't sell quite at peak, but we now have a retirement fund through sheer dumb luck. I've still got some Bitcoin Cash/Gold from the splits, but don't really expect much of it.

      9 votes
  5. [3]
    admicos
    Link
    I'm pretty sure I still have some Garlicoin (just checked, around 5) laying around somewhere. Obviously I wasn't planning to use it for anything serious, but it was a somewhat fun introduction to...

    I'm pretty sure I still have some Garlicoin (just checked, around 5) laying around somewhere. Obviously I wasn't planning to use it for anything serious, but it was a somewhat fun introduction to crypto stuff.

    Will I ever buy (or mine) some "real" crypto? Not entirely sure really. I don't have any use for it, and the market being so "volatile" kinda scares me, so I probably won't just store any either.

    But then, I don't really check up on any news, so stuff might've been stable-r than I remember.

    1 vote
    1. Pugilistic
      Link Parent
      The market is still quite volatile but thats part of what makes it fun

      The market is still quite volatile but thats part of what makes it fun

    2. tape
      Link Parent
      Yep. I mined like 2k garlic. Those are still sittin around because it has no uses.

      Yep. I mined like 2k garlic. Those are still sittin around because it has no uses.

  6. Nitta
    Link
    I got a new PC with a GPU over a year ago so I mined a little the previous summer. I knew about cryptocurrencies way before that but only had a laptop and didn't trust and bother trying to buy...

    I got a new PC with a GPU over a year ago so I mined a little the previous summer. I knew about cryptocurrencies way before that but only had a laptop and didn't trust and bother trying to buy some.

    The possibility to mine on PC attracted me: not only it was the easy way without any hassle, but also I paid to electric company (within the bills) just a fraction of the "listed" price. It was nice to learn some technical things and to kinda belong to what's cool.

    1 vote
  7. [2]
    Comment deleted by author
    Link
    1. postdarwin
      Link Parent
      Me too, long term I'm ok but the crash at the start of the year has been wearying. I've dropped about €250 since January -- per day. Still big supporter of crypto though. Market sentiment is...

      Me too, long term I'm ok but the crash at the start of the year has been wearying. I've dropped about €250 since January -- per day. Still big supporter of crypto though. Market sentiment is separate from fundamentals.

  8. jwilcoxson
    Link
    I’ve got a few hundred in ETH and LTC, plus a little bit in some odds and ends on Bittrex. I spent about $50 on the ETH and LTC a while back, watched it rise to almost $1k last winter, then come...

    I’ve got a few hundred in ETH and LTC, plus a little bit in some odds and ends on Bittrex. I spent about $50 on the ETH and LTC a while back, watched it rise to almost $1k last winter, then come back down.

  9. ave
    Link
    I have $25 in BTC and I actually hate cryptocurrency with a passion (mostly due to the toxic community, but also due to technical issues). I only have it because someone wanted to donate and I...

    I have $25 in BTC and I actually hate cryptocurrency with a passion (mostly due to the toxic community, but also due to technical issues). I only have it because someone wanted to donate and I happened to have xapo installed.

  10. b2311e
    Link
    I have about £130 worth of BTC I bought quite a while back, in a wallet I can't access. I somehow came up with a password so secure, even I don't know what it is. Certainly not making that mistake...

    I have about £130 worth of BTC I bought quite a while back, in a wallet I can't access. I somehow came up with a password so secure, even I don't know what it is. Certainly not making that mistake again

  11. tnkflx
    Link
    Yup yup yup. Still have a bunch of different cryptocurrencies. I used to mine a lot in the 2011-2014 timeframe. It was fun. I stay away from any ICO and only buy some currencies I truly believe...

    Yup yup yup. Still have a bunch of different cryptocurrencies. I used to mine a lot in the 2011-2014 timeframe. It was fun.
    I stay away from any ICO and only buy some currencies I truly believe in. I think I hold approx. 10 different ones.

  12. [8]
    Ranger
    Link
    This is something I'd like to get into but lack the funds and knowledge.

    This is something I'd like to get into but lack the funds and knowledge.

    1. [2]
      Pugilistic
      Link Parent
      Check out coinbase and start taking looks at the charts. r/CryptoCurrency on reddit is also a decent resource to learn from. Its not that hard really, just learn about the coins with promising...

      Check out coinbase and start taking looks at the charts. r/CryptoCurrency on reddit is also a decent resource to learn from. Its not that hard really, just learn about the coins with promising tech (Monero, Ethereum, etc) and go from there. Its a fun environment for sure.

      1 vote
      1. Ranger
        Link Parent
        Thank you for the information.

        Thank you for the information.

    2. [5]
      spctrvl
      Link Parent
      You could always just mine some. Won't get you much, but you could get into low volume trading without having to bust out the credit card.

      You could always just mine some. Won't get you much, but you could get into low volume trading without having to bust out the credit card.

      1 vote
      1. [4]
        Ranger
        Link Parent
        Besides mining, is there any way to make cryptocurrency affordable? I don't have a ton of money to send on gear to mine and bitcoin/ethereum seem expensive to buy out right.

        Besides mining, is there any way to make cryptocurrency affordable? I don't have a ton of money to send on gear to mine and bitcoin/ethereum seem expensive to buy out right.

        1. [3]
          spctrvl
          Link Parent
          I'm confused as to what you're asking. There's no way to get cryptocurrency for less than it's worth, but there's no real minimum amount you need to buy, they subdivide to like 8 decimal places. 1...

          I'm confused as to what you're asking. There's no way to get cryptocurrency for less than it's worth, but there's no real minimum amount you need to buy, they subdivide to like 8 decimal places. 1 Ethereum might cost $300 or whatever but you could just buy .01 Ethereum for $3.

          1. [2]
            Ranger
            Link Parent
            Oh neat, no idea I could buy 0.01 or 0.01 of Bitcoin or Ethereum. Thank you very much for the help and information!

            Oh neat, no idea I could buy 0.01 or 0.01 of Bitcoin or Ethereum. Thank you very much for the help and information!

            1. spctrvl
              Link Parent
              Ah yeah, I see how that pricing would look intimidating if you weren't aware. You're very welcome!

              Ah yeah, I see how that pricing would look intimidating if you weren't aware. You're very welcome!

              1 vote
  13. spctrvl
    Link
    Mined a few thousand dogecoin back when it came out a couple years ago. The community, being a lighthearted parody of bitcoin's, was pretty appealing and I was into it for a few months. There was...

    Mined a few thousand dogecoin back when it came out a couple years ago. The community, being a lighthearted parody of bitcoin's, was pretty appealing and I was into it for a few months. There was also the novelty factor of being able to own thousands of a coin rather than tiny fractions of one. Ordered a bit of merch with what I mined, and I like owning a physical item I got with magic internet money my graphics card made.

    Activity dropped off when the 2014-15 mining boom went bust, and I kinda fell out of it. Unfortunately I lost the wallet in a hard drive crash, but if I'd sold at its peak during the recent spike I only would've made about $200, so I'm not too broken up about it. I didn't get in to the recent boom early, so I kinda just skipped it, because I wasn't going to buy in when there was no rational reason for crypto to be as high as it was. I will say I am a bit broken up about never having bought Ethereum, since I was aware of it upon release, but I'm not gonna let FOMO drive my decision making process.

  14. Bandos
    Link
    I own some XPR, XLM, VET, and REQ. What attracted me was the money. What made me stay was the tech, but ultimately the money. I knew about crypto for years already but I never looked into it until...

    I own some XPR, XLM, VET, and REQ. What attracted me was the money. What made me stay was the tech, but ultimately the money. I knew about crypto for years already but I never looked into it until late 2017, I started doing a lot of research. I wanted to know about why the coin is useful, who the team is behind it, what their strategy is, etc. Blockchain is definitely going to be a big part of the future, primarily because of IOT and how everything is striving to become autonomous.