Genuinely curious what makes them so valuable to hold. (1) If it is the power of decentralized transfers, why is a specific crypto (e.g. Bitcoin) so highly valued. Don't all of them share this property? (2) If it's the technology, then won't companies eventually invent (in very near future) better currencies with more scalability and fewer assumptions about the number of trusted participants. (3) ecosystem possibly? E.g. more people accept Bitcoin today than any other currency. Even if this is indeed true, I'm not sure if it justifies the hyper growth of Bitcoin and speculative rise of new currencies. Any insights?
It’s a fad. The blockchain technology might be useful in the future but bitcoin isn’t backed by anything... and you get no equity when you invest in it. The current rise only reflects the idea that someone else will be down to buy your bitcoin for more than you bought it for. But once that mentality changes, it’ll be worthless
That also goes for all money. You assume that other people will consider it to be worth a certain amount. When people stop considering it to be worth what you considered it to be worth, you get Zimbabwe or Venezuela
Exactly. So I’m pretty sure we’ll have a crypto Venezuela pretty soon... especially considering once there’s a bank run everyone’s gonna find out that there’s no actual money to withdraw from bitcoin itself
I'm not a believer of Bitcoin but I'll give my take on the questions 1)Bitcoins popularity's high value is due to it being the first to market.just because Amazon is so highly valued doesn't mean another e-commerce company can get that valuation. Also note other cryptos are catching up in terms of market cap. Also there's the issue of supply and demand.Bitcoins are of limited number only which might help the marketcap in the short run For eg ripple might just need to hit 7 to reach Bitcoins market cap Not ripple at 30 might give ripple a trillion dollar valuation 2)Ripple is already rising due to this.so that's possible 3)Again maybe true,but it allows a crypto ecosystem using which you can buy a burger.Maybe ripple at this point of time.You can't do it with bitcoin at the moment. But then again all of this might be worth less if regulations are bought in by banks in which case a ripple is not much different than direct usd
"Each purported use case — from payments to legal documents, from escrow to voting systems—amounts to a set of contortions to add a distributed, encrypted, anonymous ledger where none was needed. What if there isn’t actually any use for a distributed ledger at all? What if, ten years after it was invented, the reason nobody has adopted a distributed ledger at scale is because nobody wants it?" https://hackernoon.com/ten-years-in-nobody-has-come-up-with-a-use-case-for-blockchain-ee98c180100
I'm not a crypto supporter, but this is highly biased. Investigations of new applications starred in 2014 with the smart contract of ETH. Let's give it some additional years, although I don't expect much. I haven't seen anyone say "we need to implement a block chain before it's too late" for any reason besides hype so far.
Fair point, so far this is a technology seeking for a problem to solve.
Except for the early adopters (2010-2012), the only reason most people give for buying bitcoin is because it's value will increase. That's a clear sign of a bubble. Some other crypto give more of a value proposition, like Ethereum with the smart contracts, but it would need a lot of simplification and education to become mainstream and justify the price tag.
Many believe crypto is in its infancy which drives investment (speculation) which drives up the price. Whether this is true or not remains to be seen, but the risk seems to pale in comparison to the potential for reward so the exponential growth will continue.
Exactly, this is very similar to the early days of the internet. Many know something revolutionary is coming but its too early to tell what's going to become mainstream so everyone is throwing money at everything hoping they hit the "next google".
Why they have exponential growth? It's a NP Complete problem, that's why.
Tell me more about this please.
Because the mathematical model of blockchain mining runs in exponential time: O^2...
Because banks and money is general hasn't changed since the 40s. It's overdue for a disruption and overhaul.
Bitcoin is rising because they are getting the last set of suckers to buy bitcoin now. When u see ads telling people how to make ton of money buying bitcoin all over the internet, tv, mags this is getting the last suckers to buy it. If course it is also useful for highly illegal purchases which is very hard to do online now as well so it does have a purpose. I’m betting most cash will be gone soon so bitcoin and other non-gov currencies will still have a purpose escaping the all seeing eye.
Crypto currency is not only for criminal transactions. Governments are moving towards cashless monetary systems. Agencies like the IRS can shut down your bank accounts. If cash is eliminated and the laws stay the same, you can be driven into destitution without a trial. By the time you’re acquitted, you’ll wish you had jumped off a bridge.
Speculation
Similar to how Amazon has a high valuation. Also People have seen cryptos come from the dead multiple times and this gives it additional credibility (and betting dollars), much like the boxer who won’t quit.
^ Uh... what? I think I just had an aneurysm while reading that.