Topic Wiki

Editor’s note: I know enough about this topic to be dangerous, but I’m not a true expert so please feel free to add to or edit anything in this wiki that will improve it. The FAQs contain many oversimplifications but that is intentional to make the information relatable to the audience. Thanks!

Frequently Asked Questions

What are blockchains and bitcoins and what is the difference?
A blockchain is the fundamental element in a crypto currency system. A blockchain is an accounting ledger. Each block contains a bunch of journal entries (i.e. a chronological record of transactions) that gets encrypted (by miners) but can be downloaded and read by anyone on the network. Why the blockchain ledger is secure and how we can vouch for its integrity is a slightly more advanced topic.

An accounting ledger typically keeps track of money, and a blockchain is no different. But the only type of money that it can accurately track is digital money that lives on the blockchain network. So dollars, euros, etc are out. The digital money that lives on the blockchain is called a crypto currency, and the most well-known one at this time is Bitcoin.

Currently there are a few major blockchain networks: the Bitcoin Network, the Ethereum Network, and the Litecoin Network. Each one has its own currency, which are Bitcoin, Ether, and Litecoin, respectively.

I’m just a simple DDFer and not an accountant + cryptographer + hacker all at the same time. Can you make this a little simpler to understand?
Let’s try an analogy. There is a certain website called Dansdeals.com and it has quite a following. Some of the followers are just users/readers but others are more active and produce value for the website. When they provide value, they earn currency for their work – called “EQP” and “HT”. So we have something we will call the Dansdeals Blockchain Network that is simply a record keeper of various ongoing deals and it issues a native currency that is fractionable (10,000 EQP = 1 HT). This is similar to the Blockchain network recording financial transactions and issuing bitcoins. The ones who work for the network (miners) earn bitcoins and everyone else needs to buy it to participate.

The analogy improves if you imagine that the Dansdeals website visitors have to pay a small amount, let’s say 5 EQP, in order to access a deal or a code that is recorded on the network. If the website has 30,000 followers who love deals, but only 1,000 active members who earn EQP, then you can see that there is a need for a marketplace to be created where you can buy EQP for later use.

Of course, websites are not networks, and this analogy is far from perfect. But useful.

How much is a Bitcoin worth
No one knows. A few people are speculating its worth based on the potential that Bitcoin will one day become a major world currency that people use in their daily lives. Most people though are speculating its worth based on what the next new investor will pay them for it (google “Greater Fool Investing”).

Even if a crypto currency becomes dominant, who says it will be Bitcoin? Maybe it will be Schmitcoin?
This is completely possible. Bitcoin and Ether are the most likely at this point, but their long term survival is not at all guaranteed.

So why all the fuss about Bitcoin? Shouldn’t we wait for Schmitcoin and its cousins to come out?
You could, but you don’t want to ignore how hard it is to start up a network from scratch. It may be that as little as one person can create rival code to compete with the existing digital currencies and blockchains, but one person is not a network. You need a lot of highly technical and motivated people to join you and also to invest their time, energy, and money in making that network run. It’s a highly specialized group of people, and most of the people who would fit that profile are already tied up with an existing network. So it’s not impossible, especially in the long-term, but even if it does happen it would be unlikely to pop up overnight and so Vegas odds for Bitcoin are way shorter.

Let’s go back to the Dansdeals analogy. Imagine that Dansdeals is not the only such website, and there are other websites in existence that provide similar services. For the sake of the analogy let’s call them MMS and OMAAT. They too have big enough followings to survive independently, and even though each one offers a slightly different flavor that differentiates them, anyone on one of the networks could also get their most important needs met on one of the other networks. In this analogy, do you think it’s worth collecting EQP/HT or not? After all, Schmansdeals.com could open up one day and all the business could move there.

The argument for the difficulty of starting up a rival blockchain network is much stronger than in the analogy (especially if we start to include “smart contracts” in the discussion), but the basic idea that you need a critical mass of follows to be successful and compete with existing rivals is the same.

« Last edited by yuneeq on December 25, 2017, 01:05:21 AM »

Author Topic: BitCoin Master Thread  (Read 485101 times)

Offline Redbull3

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Re: BitCoin Master Thread
« Reply #2140 on: January 15, 2025, 09:08:37 AM »
looks like it was a fakeout. Now, imo we are primed for blastoff.
100%. Last chance to get in under 100k imo. We are mooning next week.

Offline Yef

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Re: BitCoin Master Thread
« Reply #2141 on: January 19, 2025, 01:06:04 AM »
Anyone getting in on the new trump coin?

Offline Redbull3

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Re: BitCoin Master Thread
« Reply #2142 on: January 19, 2025, 09:49:20 AM »
Anyone getting in on the new trump coin?
nooooo lol its a ****coin and distraction from btc. itll prob keep going way up but will crash at some point. its gambling, not for me

Offline themanlibs

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Re: BitCoin Master Thread
« Reply #2143 on: January 19, 2025, 08:11:32 PM »
Anyone getting in on the new trump coin?
First we had Trump pump.... Now Trump Dump :-\

Offline solmeir

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Re: BitCoin Master Thread
« Reply #2144 on: January 20, 2025, 10:05:05 AM »
100%. Last chance to get in under 100k imo. We are mooning next week.

Yup. Up more than 10% in the AM

Offline ExGingi

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Re: BitCoin Master Thread
« Reply #2145 on: January 20, 2025, 12:15:52 PM »
Anyone getting in on the new trump coin?

Could anyone explain this to me?

Is this the new NFT collector item with no real value?
I've been waiting over 5 years with bated breath for someone to say that!
-- Dan

Offline jaywhy

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Re: BitCoin Master Thread
« Reply #2146 on: January 22, 2025, 11:11:32 AM »
This is a little advanced but I've found this method to be the absolute cheapest way of buying BTC.

1. Transfer USD into Coinbase. (No fees for ACH or $10 wire fee)
2. Buy USDC (No fees)
3. Transfer USDC on the Base network to an externally owned wallet, eg Metamask, Ledger... (No Fees)
4. Use Cow Swap to swap the USDC to cbBTC. Set slippage to .1-.2% to guarantee best execution price (No fees, deep liquidity, very tight spreads) https://swap.cow.fi/#/8453/swap/USDC/cbBTC
5. Deposit the cbBTC back to Coinbase on Base. (No fees)
6. Withdraw the cbBTC as native BTC to your wallet of choice, no conversion necessary. Coinbase automatically converts it at 1:1 with no fees.

Enjoy and keep stacking the hardest money known to man.

Offline themanlibs

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Re: BitCoin Master Thread
« Reply #2147 on: January 24, 2025, 07:52:46 AM »
This is a little advanced but I've found this method to be the absolute cheapest way of buying BTC.

1. Transfer USD into Coinbase. (No fees for ACH or $10 wire fee)
2. Buy USDC (No fees)
3. Transfer USDC on the Base network to an externally owned wallet, eg Metamask, Ledger... (No Fees)
4. Use Cow Swap to swap the USDC to cbBTC. Set slippage to .1-.2% to guarantee best execution price (No fees, deep liquidity, very tight spreads) https://swap.cow.fi/#/8453/swap/USDC/cbBTC
5. Deposit the cbBTC back to Coinbase on Base. (No fees)
6. Withdraw the cbBTC as native BTC to your wallet of choice, no conversion necessary. Coinbase automatically converts it at 1:1 with no fees.

Enjoy and keep stacking the hardest money known to man.
Thanks for the tip

Offline themanlibs

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Re: BitCoin Master Thread
« Reply #2148 on: February 02, 2025, 02:08:03 PM »
Feels a bit like distribution :-[
I hope I'm wrong

Offline joshjosh

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Re: BitCoin Master Thread
« Reply #2149 on: February 02, 2025, 07:47:17 PM »
Wow now what’s the cheapest way to buy eth or weth

Offline Redbull3

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Re: BitCoin Master Thread
« Reply #2150 on: February 02, 2025, 07:58:23 PM »
This is a little advanced but I've found this method to be the absolute cheapest way of buying BTC.

1. Transfer USD into Coinbase. (No fees for ACH or $10 wire fee)
2. Buy USDC (No fees)
3. Transfer USDC on the Base network to an externally owned wallet, eg Metamask, Ledger... (No Fees)
4. Use Cow Swap to swap the USDC to cbBTC. Set slippage to .1-.2% to guarantee best execution price (No fees, deep liquidity, very tight spreads) https://swap.cow.fi/#/8453/swap/USDC/cbBTC
5. Deposit the cbBTC back to Coinbase on Base. (No fees)
6. Withdraw the cbBTC as native BTC to your wallet of choice, no conversion necessary. Coinbase automatically converts it at 1:1 with no fees.

Enjoy and keep stacking the hardest money known to man.
This is amazing. TY
Is all the coinbase stuff free even without coinbase one, or with coinbase one?

Offline jaywhy

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Re: BitCoin Master Thread
« Reply #2151 on: February 02, 2025, 08:02:47 PM »
Wow now what’s the cheapest way to buy eth or weth
The method I posted up thread will work for eth or any other crypto on cowswap.

Offline jaywhy

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Re: BitCoin Master Thread
« Reply #2152 on: February 02, 2025, 08:03:33 PM »
This is amazing. TY
Is all the coinbase stuff free even without coinbase one, or with coinbase one?
No need for CB one, free without it.