Bitcoin

That's wot * me up at the start around 700 per bitcoin wen I bought ,it would only let me buy 100 pounds worth at the first transaction, otherwise I would have bought 2 in one transaction ,would have been laughing now .

 

That's a sickener,i'm happy enough buying in week by week,although it's nearly up 11% today
That's quite a large move today breaking the all time high.

 

Am I correct in saying that because there will only ever be 21 mill bitcoin, that once it becomes more common in use they will become way more valuable to stretch it's ability to fit society ,ok I'm not really explaining this well ,but I know wot I mean ,hope you do .

 

Yes 21 million,
I found the mathematical answer.
The more it's accepted and used by businesses the more demand so price should rise,I read that the volatility is steadily growing down meaning it would be more attractive to people and governments in countries with high inflation/hyperinflation,as a safe haven.

• initial block reward of 50 coins
• target of 6 blocks created per hour (or 1 every 10 minutes)
• a halving of the reward of 4 years (every 210,000 blocks)

If I recall my high-school math correctly, this is the sum of a Geometric series. 210000 * 50 * ( 1 / (1 - 0.5) ) = 21 million.
Why set the cap at 21 million BTC?

The choice of a cap number is arbitrary and in fact, it could be 1 or it could be 1 hundred trillion. It makes no difference at all and it has no effect on the economy—even if Bitcoin were to be adopted as a currency all over the world. If it were set to 1 BTC, we would simply discuss nano-BTC instead of 1 BTC for amounts of about $650.

 

On volatility, didnt you say yesterday that the price was up over 10% on the day?

And what is the correlation between volaitlity and the suitability of an inflation hedge?

 

It was up 11% yesterday at one point before pulling back slightly and currently up 3.55% today.
Here is an article on Bitcoin volatility basically saying that in a few years it will be as volatile or less than the Yen or the Dollar.
https://news.bitcoin.com/bitcoin-volatility-match-fiat-two-years/
“What we are seeing is bitcoin’s peak volatility is reducing steadily and will enter the realms of fiat currency (below 5.5%) by around July 2019,” explains Woo in October of 2016.

Regarding the inflation hedge,i'm not sure it's there yet as an alternative to say gold but once it's established it could well be given, the ease of use,if you take Cyprus or Greece as recent examples where you see the money in your bank getting devalued as you watch,it would be far easier to move it to a cryptocurrency than buying a load of gold and you have the benefit of using as you would cash.

"We’ve already seen how quickly the price of bitcoin can move. That’s particularly true in the midst of a crisis of confidence or currency problem. Take the example of Cyprus. Earlier this year, the tiny island country announced it was confiscating a portion of the funds foreigners held in the country’s bank accounts as part of a bailout package. In a rush to withdraw their cash from Cypriot banks, investors poured their money into bitcoin pushing the price of the digital currency up twofold in a week. Similar currency problems in other countries could accelerate bitcoin’s phenomenal growth."

 

As I'm positive you already know Sween volatility is certainly not reducing, anyone trying to claim that is talking utter pish as the massive swings in value back's up.

It could be a very good, although risky, hedge for inflation that wouldn't cost a lot either, so for people that can afford it (that's the important part) and are prepared for the risk perhaps they could consider buying some for the long term.

 

I dont understand why a virtual currency backed by absolutely nothing could end up less volatile (unless the price tanks and everyone stops trading it) than many emerging maket currencies for example backed up by nation states? Gold has a sort of assumed value but that is backed by 3000 years of human civilisation placing value on it. And gold spot prices are still hugely volatile.

 

I see your point but maybe the fact there is nothing backing it or it relies on nothing more than a software and a mathematical formula makes it universally more attractive,if it was backed by metals or governments it would be open to inflation.

 

Anyone bought XRP (Ripple) ?
https://ripple.com/xrp/
https://www.ripplecoinnews.com/5-reasons-to-buy-ripple-xrp-coin
XRP is basically the digital currency of a fast payment system,a system of transferring anything of value.
It's also the 4th largest digital currency and is being tested by around 80 banks including Santander,Barclays and BNP.
The price is still in the low cents currently $0.20 so you can get yer hands on a lot for a relatively small investment.
I recently bought Bitcoin and Litecoin but like what I am reading about Ripple, still a punt but which huge potential upside.
I'm going to get some next week.

 

Bitcoin just topped $10,000

 

Exceeded all expectations at this point ,no matter how many money expwrts tryto run it down ,any drop has seen a quick recovery only to rise ever more in value ,this value is a year ahead of quotes ,it may drop again soon as this gain of 1500 over 3 days is extremely high and needs to settle again .

 

Go on then what, measurable, expectations does it have ?

I will declare my interest in them - both myself and my brother, back in 2011/12, bought 10 of these things, more as a laugh than anything and while we have seen a massive profit would I buy more today ? Not a hope in * would I do that. If you want to profit from it look at the tech that enables it to 'work' as that may well be profitable. Although the downside is it will become easier for Companies/Governments to monitor/store/process information on what you/we are doing.
Finally I would never, ever, ever use a phrase like "settle/d" when discussing the price of bitcoin - the word is volatile (extremely) as the price has never really been settled at all.

 

I'm enjoying the ride, I bought Bitcoin in October when it was €4,392.53 per BTC, also got some ether @ €286.42 per ETH in November and some Litecoin @ €53.73 this month also .just getting into XRP Ripple the last couple of weeks, should be a nice rollercoaster.
Today they are;
Bitcoin €9,267.73
Ethereum €433.47
Litecoin€86.52

 

Had a chance to buy in when they was new. Learned about them back when i was 13/14 on habbo hotel man id be rich now if id done that. Cant complain sold my mega rich account for a few hundread

 

It's something I've seen in popup adds on the internet in the years gone by and never really gave it a 2nd look, we could all be billionaires in hindsight.

 

There goes the $11,000 barrier

 

I can see this hitting the 20k mark.

 

I hate having to use bitcoin it’s a pain in the hole.

 

Crashed 20%.