Bitcoin, Cryptocurrency and Blockchain Discussion Thread

[CorneliusXX]

So you use a coinwallet with Kraken? I dont know how to do that, then again I am just on the cusp

I created an offline wallet and stored the seeds physically in secure places. This was for BTC as it is what most of my crypto holdings are in. But that was the advice I received when I was first getting into crypto back in 2013 and most people talking about it were hardcore security nerds (I am not - I can hardly code to save my life). It's the most secure but probably overkill if you're just dabbling in crypto

For other coins I just have an app on my phone with a seed that can be used to restore the wallet anywhere - but I don't keep much value in there.

The security levels are (from most to least secure):

1. Offline wallet
2. hardware wallet
3. wallet app on phone
4. leave coins in the exchange

It really depends on how much you are investing. If you're just dipping your toe in the water then the exchange is fine (unless it goes bust - I had this happen to me) but as the value of your crypto goes up you should read up more on security.

 

[Pyre]

I created an offline wallet and stored the seeds physically in secure places. This was for BTC as it is what most of my crypto holdings are in. But that was the advice I received when I was first getting into crypto back in 2013 and most people talking about it were hardcore security nerds (I am not - I can hardly code to save my life). It's the most secure but probably overkill if you're just dabbling in crypto

For other coins I just have an app on my phone with a seed that can be used to restore the wallet anywhere - but I don't keep much value in there.

The security levels are (from most to least secure):

1. Offline wallet
2. hardware wallet
3. wallet app on phone
4. leave coins in the exchange

It really depends on how much you are investing. If you're just dipping your toe in the water then the exchange is fine (unless it goes bust - I had this happen to me) but as the value of your crypto goes up you should read up more on security.

Are all exhanges required to have 'insurance?'

 

[CorneliusXX]

Are all exhanges required to have 'insurance?'

No idea, i haven't had the need to look given I hold most of the value off the exchanges. But generally speaking the exchanges aren't very regulated so I doubt there is too much "required" except for what was forced on them to collect tax info.

 

[JRP3]

Just to try it out I opened a Robinhood account and bought some Doge. You can't take possession of the coin, it stays with Robinhood, but it seems like the easiest and fastest way to buy crypto in NYS.

 

[Pyre]

Just to try it out I opened a Robinhood account and bought some Doge. You can't take possession of the coin, it stays with Robinhood, but it seems like the easiest and fastest way to buy crypto in NYS.

I was skeptical of robinhood well before the gamestop shenanigans. Their prices are slightly delayed for when i had my failed "day trading week." I prefer TDAmeritrade think or swim for regular and OTC. I think coinbase may have to be what I must do if kraken doesnt work out because of NY.

 

[JRP3]

Yeah TD is my main account but they don't do any crypto.

 

[lascavarian]

Ronnie Chieng does a little investigation into Bitcoin.

cncryptonews.com - This website is for sale! - cncryptonews Resources and Information.

This website is for sale! cncryptonews.com is your first and best source for all of the information you’re looking for. From general topics to more of what you would expect to find here, cncryptonews.com has it all. We hope you find what you are searching for!

www.cncryptonews.com

 

[aubreymcfato]

OT re Bitcoin

Source:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1383471125393408001

KarenRei commented "In case you're wondering what percentage of your transactions were processed using the dirty coal power generated by the slaving XPCC..."

Bitcoin stains Tesla environmental reputation and directly is against the mission. Just to remember that not all is FUD, some critics are well placed.

 

[JRP3]

Elon's live stream on youtube about the XPrize carbon capture is being completely spammed in the live chat with DOGE memes

 

[lascavarian]

Author of “The Black Swan” - Nassim Taleb, just on CNBC stating that Bitcoin is not a currency. He termed it an ”Open Ponsi Scheme“.

He had owned some Bitcoin but has sold them after learning more through study. He did not criticize blockchain tech but sees Bitcoin as a flawed usage in that there is no anchor for Bitcoin in the real world. It resembles a game.

His advice for a store of value was something like land. Productive land specifically like an orchard.

 

[Xepa777]

Does anyone have recent experience or solid info on pluses/minuses of using Kraken versus other exchanges to buy/sell crypto?

Gemini is better than Kraken because of the Gemini Earn program.

But why wouldn't you hold it on Celsius instead? If you buy/hold crypto on Celsius you earn 5-6% interest. That's insane.

The only real reason today you'd use an exchange is if you're a trader and frequently re-balance existing holdings, but Celsius is coming out with spot pricing, near fee-less in-app swaps later this year.

 

[EinSV]

Gemini is better than Kraken because of the Gemini Earn program.

But why wouldn't you hold it on Celsius instead? If you buy/hold crypto on Celsius you earn 5-6% interest. That's insane.

The only real reason today you'd use an exchange is if you're a trader and frequently re-balance existing holdings, but Celsius is coming out with spot pricing, near fee-less in-app swaps later this year.

Thanks @Xepa777. I'm still getting comfortable with the tail risks from earning interest on crypto but will look deeper into Gemini and Celsius. I don't have any issue taking risks for potential 10X returns, but it's a little different when the added risk (even if remote) is for an extra 5-6%/year.

 

[Xepa777]

Thanks @Xepa777. I'm still getting comfortable with the tail risks from earning interest on crypto but will look deeper into Gemini and Celsius. I don't have any issue taking risks for potential 10X returns, but it's a little different when the added risk (even if remote) is for an extra 5-6%/year.

I actually think that these interest programs are LESS risky than exchanges. With an exchange you need to trust their cold storage system. And if someone hacks into that magically, they steal a lot of coins.

But with a lender, they only keep around 20% of coins in storage at any point (and they're insured). The coins are mostly lent out, and the overwhelming amount of borrowers over-collateralize (have to put $150 in crypto collateral to receive $100 in loan). And this being crypto, it's MUCH easier to liquidate/margin call crypto than say...a mortgage as collateral. It's 24/7, which actually makes it easier to liquidate than stocks as collateral. And Celsius's CFO said no entity has more than 10% of borrowed coins (and prob not even close), so it's de-risked even further.

IMO it's safer than exchanges from my research. Happy to elaborate further.

 

[Getinring]

Thanks @Xepa777 for the intro to Abml and crypto. Still remember having cold feet for btc back in Dec but so glad we took the plunge lol. Anyways have a BlockFi and Celsius account. The interest or rewards are amazing especially with the stablecoins. For those skeptical catch the many videos out there or the weekly Celsius AMA. Good stuff.

 

[aubreymcfato]

I've watching some nice @DaveT videos lately about crypto, and I got hooked on Cardano.
I like the way Charles Hoskinson thinks (i.e. focus on the African farmer that needs banking vs the 25-old newyorker who dabbles in crypto)
and above all I like proof-of-stake.
My main issue with crypto is energy consumption, and from what I understand proof-of-stake is 4 MILLION TIMES lower.
Thoughts on that?

Btw, great video @DaveT, as always.

 

[jhm]

Will Tesla overtake the market cap of bitcoin by 2030?

I think it will.

Tesla's share price would need to be 50% to catch up with the market cap of bitcoin. It can do that within a year. The tricky part is how quickly bitcoin will grow and whether Tesla can keep up with that.

I think bitcoin's halving events are losing steam. Bitcoinist are pretty sure that what the world needs is a currency that has extremely high stock-to-flow, currently at 56. But will doubling that to 112 really tighten up the supply that much? If you invert this, it just means that the supply of bitcoin is presently growing 2%. This is already below the real global GDP growth around 3%. So will cutting the growth rate to 1% in 3 years really make the market go ga-ga? Meanwhile, the security of bitcoin depends critically on the block subsidy. Currently this is 6.25 BTC per block and 85% of the average block reward. The other 15% is transaction fees based on users wanting to beat the congestion in the limited block size. But the subsidy is more than just a contributor to average block reward. It is the minimum block reward whenever demand for transaction bandwidth drops low enough that no transaction fees are needed. The minimum block reward is critical for the security of the block chain. 6.25BTC is sufficiently high that most miners will mine at this minimum. The high hash rate is what protect the chain from attack. So now in 4 years, that minimum reward drops to 3.125BTU. So miners become much more dependent on congestion inducing voluntary transaction fees to keep the average reward up. But where presently the minimum reward is 85% of the average, in 4 years the minimum could drop below 40% of the average, and in 8 years below 20% of the average. The history of bitcoin simply does not give the market any data on how risky an attack on minimal reward blocks can become. Right now we are talking about an annual budget of 2%, $20B to secure a chain worth $1T. Imagine if that budget where cut in half or quartered. All it takes is one successful attack on a block, and the credibility of the chain would be put permanently into question, and money would flow out of bitcoin in a hurry. The point here is that with each halving, bitcoin is testing whether the security budget can be cut in half and still remain safe enough, meanwhile the benefit of cutting dilution from 2% to 1% and on to 0.5% little material impact. At some point with each halving event concern shifts from negligible dilution to shrinking security that is highly dependent on transaction fees. So when the perceived risks of halving outweigh the perceived benefit of halving, the next halving event could cause the market cap to decline.

So I think bitcoin will reach some peak market cap level and stall out there. If there is a security breech, the cap could tumble from there. I think this peak could be in the range of $2T to $5T. The bigger the cap gets, the more valuable it becomes as a target of attack. As Tesla investors know, shorts can be merciless and relentless. Bitcoin may have to learn the hard way that it must supplement proof-of-work with proof-of-stake, as stake-free miners could side with shorts and reap enormous rewards for attacking low reward blocks. Additionally, any investor who is worried about a blockchain attack can mitigate this risk by holding assets on different blockchains. Simple diversification is an obvious choice to anyone not blinded by bitcoin maxist ideology. The altcoin space holds as much market cap as bitcoin does, and I expect bitcoin to continue to lose dominance. It may continue to be the best cryptocurrency, but it makes no sense to put all ther world's money onto a single blockchain that keeps cutting its security spend as ratio to total value.

Oh, yeah, and Tesla goes to $10T by 2030.

 

[MC3OZ]

Cardano partnerships with African governments...

 

[aubreymcfato]

Cardano partnerships with African governments...

Yes, it's a big deal, from what I understand. Curious to see what @DaveT thinks, he said on Twitter that he holds ADA.
This are real world applications, and it on proof-of-stake!
I cannot for the life of me understand why Elon likes proof-of-work coins. It's literally against the Tesla mission.

 

[lascavarian]

Bill Maher spent a few minutes discussing Crypto currencies. Worth a listen.

 

[Xepa777]

Yes, it's a big deal, from what I understand. Curious to see what @DaveT thinks, he said on Twitter that he holds ADA.
This are real world applications, and it on proof-of-stake!
I cannot for the life of me understand why Elon likes proof-of-work coins. It's literally against the Tesla mission.

ADA isn't going to come close to Ethereum once it goes POS. It has less than a fraction of the developer community of Ethereum, which several projects like Optimistic Rollups and Polygon have already developed layer 2 solutions to drastically reduce gas fees. And Vitalik is proposing a fast-tracked approach of Eth 2.0 that might have a version launch as early as this year.

ADA doesn't inherently do anything better than Ethereum once Ethereum transitions to Eth 2.0. The only reason you'd hold ADA is if you believe Ethereum will fail. That's a ballsy bet. You sure you wanna make it?

Compare ADA to a specialized POS blockchain like the Terra ecosystem (which is built entirely from the ground-up to be focused on replacing the financial ecosystem). Terra's entire mechanics are meant to replicate things like stock purchases, derivatives trading, the federal funds rate, etc. It's specialized and can survive in an Ethereum-dominated world. What does ADA do? Its only real pathway to relevancy is ecosystem cornering some geographic niche like Africa.

Even then...I don't know how ADA thrives in an Ethereum dominated world.

Just my .02