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 347333 times)

Offline Yitzshpitz

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Re: BitCoin Master Thread
« Reply #1080 on: June 11, 2018, 12:01:45 PM »
How about now? Are we there yet?  :)

Nope. Up over 100% from last year at this time :)

Offline ChaimMoskowitz

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Re: BitCoin Master Thread
« Reply #1081 on: June 13, 2018, 10:54:36 AM »
Nope. Up over 100% from last year at this time :)
Hope about now that it is down over 50% for the year. Are we there yet?  :)
I just found a new supply of forks!

Offline Lou Bob

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Re: BitCoin Master Thread
« Reply #1082 on: June 24, 2018, 01:05:24 AM »
Hope about now that it is down over 50% for the year. Are we there yet?  :)
getting there.
Always use an Amex, you'll thank me one day.

Offline ChaimMoskowitz

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Re: BitCoin Master Thread
« Reply #1083 on: June 24, 2018, 10:55:13 AM »
getting there.
At what price can we officially call it a scam?  :)
I just found a new supply of forks!

Offline Lou Bob

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Re: BitCoin Master Thread
« Reply #1084 on: June 24, 2018, 11:23:58 AM »
At what price can we officially call it a scam?  :)
we called it a scam at 18k already.
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Offline aygart

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Re: BitCoin Master Thread
« Reply #1085 on: June 24, 2018, 11:37:38 AM »
At what price can we officially call it a scam?  :)
At what price does it stop being scam? At some point it becomes real value of the blockchain? That is the point at which you can call the whole thing a scam.
Feelings don't care about your facts

Offline Moshe123

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Re: BitCoin Master Thread
« Reply #1086 on: June 27, 2018, 02:02:05 PM »
are we almost at the end?

Offline ChaimMoskowitz

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Re: BitCoin Master Thread
« Reply #1087 on: June 27, 2018, 03:02:10 PM »
are we almost at the end?
Seems no one wants to say.
I just found a new supply of forks!

Offline Yitzshpitz

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Re: BitCoin Master Thread
« Reply #1088 on: June 27, 2018, 11:27:44 PM »
Seems no one wants to say.

Define the end

Offline ChaimMoskowitz

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Re: BitCoin Master Thread
« Reply #1089 on: June 28, 2018, 09:53:11 AM »
Define the end
You will know it when you see it.
I just found a new supply of forks!

Offline Yitzshpitz

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Re: BitCoin Master Thread
« Reply #1090 on: June 28, 2018, 10:44:17 AM »
You will know it when you see it.

So you wont have to ask?  ;)

Offline ChaimMoskowitz

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Re: BitCoin Master Thread
« Reply #1091 on: June 28, 2018, 10:58:19 AM »
So you wont have to ask?  ;)
I need to keep asking because I know very little about BC unlike all the experts here. I don't have a trained eye like the rest.
I just found a new supply of forks!

Offline aygart

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Re: BitCoin Master Thread
« Reply #1092 on: June 28, 2018, 11:11:16 AM »
I need to keep asking because I know very little about BC unlike all the experts here. I don't have a trained eye like the rest.
lol
Feelings don't care about your facts

Offline Yitzshpitz

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Re: BitCoin Master Thread
« Reply #1093 on: June 28, 2018, 12:01:01 PM »
I need to keep asking because I know very little about BC unlike all the experts here. I don't have a trained eye like the rest.

Im no expert either but im pretty sure an asset that is worth 6k and has gone up over 100% in a year and over 1000% in 2 years... etc is not "over". In a bear market? yes.

Offline ExGingi

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Re: BitCoin Master Thread
« Reply #1094 on: June 28, 2018, 12:03:19 PM »
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-06-26/crypto-influencers-pump-up-markets-with-105-000-a-pop-tweets

Quote
That’s thanks to the thriving but murky world of cryptocurrency “bounty campaigns,” where social media influencers get paid to promote ICOs by the entrepreneurs (and in some cases scammers) behind the offerings. The practice isn’t new -- crypto celebrity John McAfee has long been a promoter-for-hire, saying in March that he charged $105,000 per tweet. But the endorsements are playing an ever-bigger role in ICO marketing after Internet giants including Google, Facebook and Twitter moved to ban cryptocurrency advertisements this year.

The proliferation of bounty campaigns is one reason why ICOs are raising money at a record pace, despite the ad bans and this year’s 57 percent tumble in Bitcoin.
I've been waiting over 5 years with bated breath for someone to say that!
-- Dan

Offline ChaimMoskowitz

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Re: BitCoin Master Thread
« Reply #1095 on: June 28, 2018, 12:07:00 PM »
Im no expert either but im pretty sure an asset that is worth 6k and has gone up over 100% in a year and over 1000% in 2 years... etc is not "over". In a bear market? yes.
You call this a bear market and not a crash?
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Offline Yitzshpitz

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Re: BitCoin Master Thread
« Reply #1096 on: June 28, 2018, 12:17:14 PM »
You call this a bear market and not a crash?

Perhaps its a crash but that is semantics. The stock market has crashed and rebounded since. Markets, especially volatile ones go through ebbs and flows that are sometimes extreme both ways.

Offline Dan

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Save your time, I don't answer PM. Post it in the forum and a dedicated DDF'er will get back to you as soon as possible.


Offline Yitzshpitz

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Re: BitCoin Master Thread
« Reply #1099 on: July 02, 2018, 03:59:44 PM »