Anyone Into Digital Currency?

[PorkChopSandwiches]

I have been buying Etherium. Its super volatile but I'm having fun with it. I bought ETH at $200 and had it reach over $400 only to settle back today at about $315. I included a link that will get you and me $10 in BTC with a purchase if anyone is interested

https://www.coinbase.com/join/5925c1c2ffe09204f86358f4

[RBP]

I use PayPal, does that count?

[PorkChopSandwiches]

:lol: No

[Teh One Who Knocks]

I use PayPal, does that count?

http://i.imgur.com/wx8b4mO.jpg

[RBP]

:woot:

[PorkChopSandwiches]

:slap:

[Godfather]

So is coinbase the best place to buy and sell various cryptocurrency?

I really want to get into it but haven't spent time researching where to start

[PorkChopSandwiches]

It's the one I found most recommended. They will take deposits by bank transfer or credit card and you can buy the big 3 coins. The other being litecoin

[RBP]

"litecoin" seems like a sketchy name. Like what I hear in the ghetto for a smoke. You got a blue square? I'm lite coin.

[DemonGeminiX]

Ethereum crashed from $319 to 10 cents in seconds on one exchange after ‘multimillion dollar’ trade
http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/ethereum-crashed-from-dollar319-to-10-cents-in-seconds-on-one-exchange-after-%e2%80%98multimillion-dollar%e2%80%99-trade/ar-BBD1Csf?li=BBnbfcL

[Muddy]

:shock:

[PorkChopSandwiches]

Damn, wish I would have saw that and bought more. Its back at 327 right now

[DemonGeminiX]

That's one wild roller coaster ride, bubba. A day trader's wet dream.

[PorkChopSandwiches]

Started mining bitcoin today, current setup only mines about .60 a day. But, I plan on building a rig to mine ETH. If I spend 2k, I should recoup in about 200 days then all profits

[DemonGeminiX]

What do you mean by "building a rig"?

:-k

[PorkChopSandwiches]

This is what we are going to build

http://www.thecryptomining.info/2017/04/6-gpu-ethereum-mining-rig-guide.html

For about $3500 in build cost you can generate $10,000 in current value, but that will increase as the values go up

[DemonGeminiX]

So you need a multiprocessor workstation board with multiple graphics cards to do this?

[Goofy]

This is what we are going to build

http://www.thecryptomining.info/2017/04/6-gpu-ethereum-mining-rig-guide.html

For about $3500 in build cost you can generate $10,000 in current value, but that will increase as the values go up

Computers can't do mining, there's no drill :hand:

[PorkChopSandwiches]

So you need a multiprocessor workstation board with multiple graphics cards to do this?

GPU's do better than CPU's. So the more you can put into the PC the better. The one described above just uses a low end Celeron processor. You basically just need the minimum requirements to run windows, then the GPUs take over

[PorkChopSandwiches]

Finished my big miner, have a smaller one that's been mining for a few weeks

https://i.imgur.com/nlDkrcb.jpg

[Muddy]

Its pretty whatever it is.. :lol:

[DemonGeminiX]

What keyboard are you using there?

[RBP]

Its pretty whatever it is.. :lol:

It's what Hillary would have used to eliminate coal companies.

[redred]

i haven't got a clue whats going on here , but at least i'm man enough to admit it not like the rest of you lot :lol:

[DemonGeminiX]

You know, Google can be a wonderful tool for gathering information about things you know nothing about.

[PorkChopSandwiches]

What keyboard are you using there?

An old Logitech wireless with mouse pad

What you are looking at is 4 high end gaming video cards, in an open rack for easy cooling. The 1000 watt power supply and motherboard ar underneath. The GPUs (video card) process math at a much higher rate so work better then using processors to do the work. I will let you know how it starts working out. We have been tweaking it all day, so I'll have a better idea on Monday how it's really performing.

I used this as a guide if anyone is interested

http://www.thecryptomining.info/2017/04/6-gpu-ethereum-mining-rig-guide.html

[deebakes]

i'm a moron and have almost 0 idea what you are doing :sad:

[redred]

i'm a moron and have almost 0 idea what you are doing :sad:Dgx says we should Google it

[Teh One Who Knocks]

http://i.imgur.com/DVZX14W.gif

[RBP]

Another open rack design for easy cooling

nsfw - you didn't think I really... whatever just click http://i.imgur.com/iC8CpRo.jpg?1

[PorkChopSandwiches]

i'm a moron and have almost 0 idea what you are doing :sad:

http://up.picr.de/29886583ys.jpg

[PorkChopSandwiches]

https://i.imgur.com/xLhkYQe.png

First payment posted, just waiting on it to process. Still working out some bugs. I'm doing about .00817 in BTC a day. That amount has fluctuated between $8 and $12 a day based on the BTC value. Of course if bitcoin explodes again, it will be worth a lot more.

Still working out Ethereum, it's a lot harder to mine. Nobody has everything dialed in like the do on NiceHash. So I'm still trying to figure it all out. Currently downloading the 30 GB blockchain I need before I can even start.

[Godfather]

https://www.cnet.com/news/bitcoin-cash-splits-in-two-in-blockchain-feud/

Wonder what this'll do to the price :-k

Seems like as good a time as ever to get into Ethereum

[PorkChopSandwiches]

I want to mine ETH, but I'm having some issues getting it working. I think I need to build a Linux box to make it easier. That being said BTC (Bitcoin) is up to 2750 today, while BCC is only around 380. Not sure how BCC will perform, but I see a lot of hate on it.

[Godfather]

Hey Porky did you get the referral fee from me?

I jumped in this week, used the $250/week limit for some ether and a bit of litecoin just to spread risk a touch. Gunna buy in weekly for a month or two to gain a decent little position in the market and then watch where it goes! The FOMO was driving me nuts every time BTC hit a new milestone.

[Godfather]

The more I learn about ethereum, the more I like it. Seems like a lot more than a currency, it's solving legal contractual issues online. Very interesting.

[PorkChopSandwiches]

I got $10 worth of BTC yesterday :tup: Thanks dude.

[Muddy]

I wish I understood so I could make some bank, too.. :sad:

[PorkChopSandwiches]

All you have to do is setup an account and buy some. Then sit on it like anything else. Its easy to do.

[Godfather]

I wish I understood so I could make some bank, too.. :sad:


All you have to do is setup an account and buy some. Then sit on it like anything else. Its easy to do.

To add to this... if you have time I'd strongly suggest reading a few beginner articles and youtube videos. I'm a strong believer that you don't invest in anything you don't have at least a basic understanding of. That's why guys like Warren Buffet beat the market year after year. It's not blind luck. For example, the guy didn't invest in the Korean exchange before learning the actual language :lol:

As I said, I love Ethereum the more I learn about it:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SMliFtoPn8

[Godfather]

Bitcoin is going crazy! This $250/week limit is killing me on coinbase though, I need to find a better market to buy/sell in.

[PorkChopSandwiches]

My money has doubled as of today from when I started this thread

[Muddy]

$400.00 ?

[PorkChopSandwiches]

I bought $1500, then spent $4k on the mining rig. Im trying to get an S9 miner (https://shop.bitmain.com/antminer_s9_asic_bitcoin_miner.htm) but they are always out of stock. If you get it from the manufacturer they are about 1200, but they are 3500 on amazon used

[Muddy]

So you have about 9k?

[PorkChopSandwiches]

No I doubled my value of my initial deposit, my miner hasn't paid for itself yet

[Hal-9000]

I wish I understood so I could make some bank, too.. :sad:


*points to self*

dummy here too

[Godfather]

I bought $1500, then spent $4k on the mining rig. Im trying to get an S9 miner (https://shop.bitmain.com/antminer_s9_asic_bitcoin_miner.htm) but they are always out of stock. If you get it from the manufacturer they are about 1200, but they are 3500 on amazon used

How feasible is mining at this point? Like roughly how much is a 2-4k mining rig going to make you per month in ether or ltc for example?

[Godfather]

LTC went nuts today, damn. Up 44% on the week.

I'm up $200 on my first $500 investment in a week :shock: This must be a bubble, it's too good and easy to be true.

[PorkChopSandwiches]

How feasible is mining at this point? Like roughly how much is a 2-4k mining rig going to make you per month in ether or ltc for example?

I spent about 4k to build my rig that mines on NiceHash. It mines alt coins that have the best return and pays you in BTC each week. I have been making about $125 a week. So it will take a bit to get even, but as the coin value increases the previous payouts go up. So I anticipate I will recoup in under a year, then its free money.

If I were going to help someone get set up mining. I would get the the S9 miner. Works way faster, and is far cheaper.
https://shop.bitmain.com/antminer_s9_asic_bitcoin_miner.htm

[Godfather]

Porky wtf is going on out there, China is ruining everything :lol:

[PorkChopSandwiches]

https://i.imgur.com/UDcZrco.png

When I started this thread BTC was at 2677.86 today it is 5,372 all ya'll niggas could have been rich. But, only Godfather and I are

[Godfather]

Well I'm glad I kept buying BTC then! Up over $7000 Canadian now.

And holy fuck... I bought XLM just because it was one of the few sub-$1 cryptos on Kraken... then they announced an IBM partnership today and it went up 105% :shock: I guess I wish I bought a bit more but this could be big.

I just need to make my $5 million nut then retire :-k

[PorkChopSandwiches]

Nice

[Muddy]

I want to be rich but dont know what the fuck to do!!

[PorkChopSandwiches]

I explained it all

[Muddy]

I caint fuckin read... :(

[PorkChopSandwiches]

Send me your CC and I will set it up for you

[PorkChopSandwiches]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">My deepest thanks to the US government, Senator McCain and Senator Lieberman for pushing Visa, MasterCard, Payal, AmEx, Mooneybookers, et al, into erecting an illegal banking blockade against <a href="https://twitter.com/wikileaks?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@WikiLeaks</a> starting in 2010. It caused us to invest in Bitcoin -- with &gt; 50000% return. <a href="https://t.co/9i8D69yxLC">pic.twitter.com/9i8D69yxLC</a></p>&mdash; Julian Assange �� (@JulianAssange) <a href="https://twitter.com/JulianAssange/status/919247873648283653?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 14, 2017</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

http://fortune.com/2017/10/16/bitcoin-price-julian-assange-wikileaks/

[PorkChopSandwiches]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQhVwBESulM

[PorkChopSandwiches]

Also BTC broke 6k over the weekend

[DemonGeminiX]

:-k

What's the deal with blockchain, Porky?

[PorkChopSandwiches]

It's a distributed ledger. If you are interested i can post some videos

[PorkChopSandwiches]

when I hadn't checked the price since a few days ago and finally check it




https://media.giphy.com/media/xlGYf1RUbYYes/giphy.mp4

[deebakes]

can i just send you $20 so you can do it all porky? :-k

[deebakes]

i want thousands too :)

[PorkChopSandwiches]

You can only spend $20. It's also very easy to do on your own. But if you want to PayPal me $20 I'll set it all up and email you your wallet info

[Godfather]

Coinbase apparently added 100,000 new users in 24 hours.. this is just starting to hit the masses. I dono whether to expect a full on collapse, or if it's just the tip of the iceberg still.

[Muddy]

I want to send money Porky..

[Godfather]

I want to send money Porky..

Just sign up for Coinbase! Take 10 minutes max

[Godfather]

Curious to see how the hard fork works out in a few days http://bashco.github.io/2x_Countdown/

Bitcoin Gold seems like trash, but I think Segwit2x has some valuable upgrades to the chain. It's trading around $1500 on the futures index.

Hopefully after the fork the Altcoins start to rebound. Think everyone is holding onto BTC tightly until then, get their 'free' B2X

[PorkChopSandwiches]

Curious to see how the hard fork works out in a few days http://bashco.github.io/2x_Countdown/

Bitcoin Gold seems like trash, but I think Segwit2x has some valuable upgrades to the chain. It's trading around $1500 on the futures index.

Hopefully after the fork the Altcoins start to rebound. Think everyone is holding onto BTC tightly until then, get their 'free' B2X

I do, I also think they are selling their alt coins for Bitcoin to maximise the fork.

[Godfather]

Interesting to see B2X dipping on the futures markets... I've noticed on the Bitcoin sub that a lot of people really distrust the people behind Segwit2x and its true intentions, and seem to question how useful an upgrade it really is to the network.

Do you hold your keys privately, or keep them on an exchange? I'm already a bit chapped coinbase kept my BTG

[PorkChopSandwiches]

I use Exodus and keep it on my laptop. It will Auto backup to my Google drive. There is nobody programming for segwit2x so it seems a bit pointless right now

[Godfather]

Looks like the forks been called off now, alt coins are rallying.

[deebakes]

when are my millions going to be ready? :?

[PorkChopSandwiches]

Looks like the forks been called off now, alt coins are rallying.

Plus BTC almost hit 8k yesterday after the fork was canceled

[PorkChopSandwiches]

https://i.redd.it/2hp147orfh001.png

Bitcoin
$9,624.77

Ethereum
$474.30

Litecoin
$89.88


BOOM!!!

[Muddy]

So how much do you have now?

[PorkChopSandwiches]

Between BTC, ETH and LTC I'm almost at 10k.
I purchased 600 in BTC, 1500 in ETH and 300 in LTC.
Wish I would have spent the 4k on BTC instead of building the miner. But, its still knocking out over $100 a week in BTC.

[DemonGeminiX]

It's a distributed ledger. If you are interested i can post some videos

Ok.


You can only spend $20. It's also very easy to do on your own. But if you want to PayPal me $20 I'll set it all up and email you your wallet info

Can you explain this a little bit more? You can only spend $20 at a time buying the alt currencies? Is this Coinbase that GF mentioned a digital wallet? How does that work?

I'm afraid I'm being a little slow here. I think I may need a from-the-ground-up primer.

[PorkChopSandwiches]

Coinbase is the easiest way to get started. BUT, they only sell Bitcoin, Ethereum and LiteCoin. Once you have those coins, you can use them to buy other "shit"/alt coins. The coins will be converted from the cash you put in, into that much of the coin you pick based on the current value at the time the order is placed. (Think of it like buying a stock). If you dont want to give them your banking info (I did) then your purchases will be limited, but if you fell safer using a CC that may be a good way for you to start.

Coinbase will put your purchase into a "wallet" which is basically a bank account. From there you would want to transfer them to your personal wallet, at coinbase they own the wallet not you. For this I use Exodus.io and transfer them to my PC. This also allows you to backup your wallet to gdrive in case your PC dies.

Here is a "easy" to read paper on how blockchain works
https://thenextweb.com/contributors/2017/11/01/ultimate-3500-word-plain-english-guide-blockchain/

[PorkChopSandwiches]

https://i.imgur.com/TXTWMQm.jpg

[Muddy]

You have (1) bitcoin Porky?

[PorkChopSandwiches]

No, I have .4 right now. Mining about .014 each week. My total crypto portfolio is about .79 BTC :lol:

[Muddy]

Can I have .10 to get started?

[PorkChopSandwiches]

Setup your account, use my code and I'll send you the $10 in BTC they send me for signing you up ;)

[Godfather]

Pretty spectacular what's going on right now. I started buying BTC when it was around $3500-4000 CND, now it's hovering around $12,000 :shock: I'm also in Litecoin, EOS, Stellar, Ripple, Etherium and a couple other minor ones.

A lot of people ask me 'what's the point' of many of these currencies. This is an interesting little article with a rough overview on what some of the top cryptos intend to do: https://techcrunch.com/2017/10/16/mapping-the-blockchain-project-ecosystem/

[deebakes]

Setup your account, use my code and I'll send you the $10 in BTC they send me for signing you up ;)

i still need to do this, don't i? :(

[PorkChopSandwiches]

Its very easy, just throw $100 at it and follow along.

[Godfather]

My beloved Stellar is up 42% in the last 24 hours :shock: If it ever hits $10 (unlikely given the supply but still), I might quit my job.

[Muddy]

I might quit my job.

Really?

[PorkChopSandwiches]

My beloved Stellar is up 42% in the last 24 hours :shock: If it ever hits $10 (unlikely given the supply but still), I might quit my job.

What did you buy it at?

[Godfather]

Around a penny. Realistically I'd be happy if it went to 0.25 around Ripple's level. I really like the news coming out of Stellar, the IBM partnership, and the folks behind it.

[PorkChopSandwiches]

https://i.redd.it/h4ngqma643101.jpg

[PorkChopSandwiches]

https://i.redd.it/52dzfhy882101.png

[Godfather]

https://i.redd.it/52dzfhy882101.png

It funny how I can watch my portfolio dip 20% and not even bat an eye.

If my actual bank portfolio of stocks/ETFs dipped that much I'd shit my pants :lol:

[PorkChopSandwiches]

https://i.redd.it/umahwho671201.jpg

[Muddy]

https://i.redd.it/umahwho671201.jpg

Full faith of the United States government.

[PorkChopSandwiches]

That also means nothing

[Muddy]

That also means nothing

Not sure I agree with that.

[PorkChopSandwiches]

"faith" its all smoke and mirrors when its backed by nothing. So its all the same really

[PorkChopSandwiches]

That being said, I dont really have a lot of faith in most our "leaders"

[Muddy]

"faith" its all smoke and mirrors when its backed by nothing. So its all the same really

If the bank folds you will get your money. Big difference. Bonds are backed by nothing but confidence, doesn't make them worthless..

[Godfather]

I'm a very very firm believer (lover, even :lol: ) of the Canadian banking system. I think it's perhaps the greatest part of our economy, and an excellent export too.

That said... shit happens :lol:

http://cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/160504154606-one-trillion-dollar-large-169.jpg

[Godfather]

Monero and Iota are skyrocketing now... I have a few XRM but Iota isn't on one of the exchanges I use sadly. I've heard sketchy things about Bittrex too..

[Teh One Who Knocks]

https://i.imgur.com/lilTFlq.jpg

[PorkChopSandwiches]

:lol:

[Hal-9000]

They had an episode about this on The Big Bang Theory

I still don't know how someone would 'mine' for bitcoins and then actually convert them into real cash...

maybe that's why I be po' :(

[PorkChopSandwiches]

You convert to cash to buy stuff you cant buy with BTC

[PorkChopSandwiches]

You convert them in coinbase, they send to your bank

[Muddy]

I dont understand either.

[PorkChopSandwiches]

https://i.imgur.com/Vt3JElA.mp4

[Muddy]

What can you buy with bitcoin? I saw where the Steam marketplace (whatever the fuck that is) isn't accepting it as payment any more.

[Teh One Who Knocks]

What can you buy with bitcoin? I saw where the Steam marketplace (whatever the fuck that is) isn't accepting it as payment any more.

Hit men, illegal porn, drugs, black market weapons :thumbsup:

[PorkChopSandwiches]

What can you buy with bitcoin? I saw where the Steam marketplace (whatever the fuck that is) isn't accepting it as payment any more.

https://www.coindesk.com/information/what-can-you-buy-with-bitcoins/

Plenty of things, or you switch it back for cash

[DemonGeminiX]

Bitcoin has a dollar value. The dollar value fluctuates like stocks do. You can "sell" your bitcoin(s) like you sell your stocks, you just have to do it on an cryptocurrency trading platform, like Coinbase. It's just like stock trading or like exchanging currencies when you're traveling abroad.

Alt-currencies are useful on the Darknet, if you're into that sort of thing... except legit businesses are looking into bitcoin now, as its decentralized nature seems to make it more secure than most conventional credit schemes used by businesses, which is why its value has skyrocketed. It's about to become more than just an alternative currency.

[DemonGeminiX]

https://www.coindesk.com/information/what-can-you-buy-with-bitcoins/

Plenty of things, or you switch it back for cash

Now that's interesting. I didn't realize so many businesses accepted it now.

[DemonGeminiX]

And oddly enough, there's a bunch of alternative currency related stocks that have appeared on the NASDAQ. I've been checking out RIOT, which is a stock centered around the Riot blockchain. It fluctuates between $13.50 and $15+ per share, which makes it a prime candidate for day/swing trading. If you have $25K-$30K and you don't mind gambling a bit, you could probably make some money off of it.

[DemonGeminiX]

Millions May Have Been Stolen in a Bitcoin Marketplace Hacking Heist

Cryptocurrency marketplace NiceHash said the contents of its bitcoin wallet had been stolen in a security breach and one executive said nearly $64 million had been lost.

NiceHash head of marketing Andrej P. Škraba told Reuters on Thursday that the hack was “a highly professional attack with sophisticated social engineering” and that about 4,700 bitcoin, worth about $63.92 million at current prices, were lost.

He said the company was co-operating with local authorities but declined to give more information.

Earlier, Slovenia-based NiceHash said in a statement posted on its website that it had halted operations for 24 hours as it investigated the breach.

NiceHash is a digital currency marketplace that matches people looking to sell processing time on their computers in exchange for the digital currency bitcoin.

NiceHash advised users to change online passwords, saying it was still trying to understand what had happened during the incident.

“We understand that you will have a lot of questions, and we ask for patience and understanding while we investigate the causes and find the appropriate solutions for the future of the service,” the company said in its statement.

[PorkChopSandwiches]

Yeah that was crazy, that's what I use to mine. But, I take my payouts weekly to my own wallet. I only lost about $100, a lot of people just stored their coins there like fools

[DemonGeminiX]

Somebody needs to come up with better passwords over there. :lol:

[PorkChopSandwiches]

Yeah, I bet we find out it was someone on the inside, they transfered 60+ million from an internal storage wallet to another wallet in one pass.

[Muddy]

'Backed by the full faith of Legmann'

[Godfather]

And oddly enough, there's a bunch of alternative currency related stocks that have appeared on the NASDAQ. I've been checking out RIOT, which is a stock centered around the Riot blockchain. It fluctuates between $13.50 and $15+ per share, which makes it a prime candidate for day/swing trading. If you have $25K-$30K and you don't mind gambling a bit, you could probably make some money off of it.

I'm skeptical about most publicly trade companies that throw 'Crypto' into their name. I have two separate friends who are big stock brokers and have taken companies public or overseen name changes to 'crypto' or 'bitcoin' related names just to watch the share prices skyrocket :lol: What actual value or relationship to crytpo these companies have is dubious.


But then again I'm skeptical of most crypto currencies except for a couple too... so pick your poison :lol:

[DemonGeminiX]

http://riotblockchain.com/

[redred]

Bitcoin mining consumes more electricity a year than Ireland

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/nov/27/bitcoin-mining-consumes-electricity-ireland

:lol:

[PorkChopSandwiches]

Which is why so many miners ar in China, the electricity is free

[DemonGeminiX]

That riot blockchain stock is up $5.

[PorkChopSandwiches]

Did you buy some?

[PorkChopSandwiches]

https://memestatic.fjcdn.com/pictures/Bitcoin+boi_8d0290_6461799.jpg

[Hal-9000]

Bitcoin has a dollar value. The dollar value fluctuates like stocks do. You can "sell" your bitcoin(s) like you sell your stocks, you just have to do it on an cryptocurrency trading platform, like Coinbase. It's just like stock trading or like exchanging currencies when you're traveling abroad.

Alt-currencies are useful on the Darknet, if you're into that sort of thing... except legit businesses are looking into bitcoin now, as its decentralized nature seems to make it more secure than most conventional credit schemes used by businesses, which is why its value has skyrocketed. It's about to become more than just an alternative currency.

Thanks for the explanation. Bitcoin is becoming a predominant plot point in the TV show MR Robot and can't really say any more because of spoilers. Great show..

[Hal-9000]

What can you buy with bitcoin? I saw where the Steam marketplace (whatever the fuck that is) isn't accepting it as payment any more.

Steam is a program I have to buy and download PC games. In the old days a person would buy the physical CD or DVD, then install the game from that.

Steam handles all of the various updates and additional content that most games need over time. It's handy because you buy whatever amount of games, install and play. Then if you wipe Windows or start fresh on another PC, all of your Steam purchases are right there and you can reinstall anything you've previously bought, any amount of times.

[PorkChopSandwiches]

Litecoin is up 493% this month I bought it @ 61.59 and now it's @ 350.55 :dance:

[DemonGeminiX]

This looks an awful lot like a bubble.

[Muddy]

This looks an awful lot like a bubble.

I keep reading how its the biggest bubble in our history.

[DemonGeminiX]

It really does look like it.

[PorkChopSandwiches]

People make money in bubbles, just have to get out in time.

[DemonGeminiX]

Oh, I'm totally down with that. Just be careful. Keep watch.

[Godfather]

I'm getting to the point where I'd like to cash out my own investment and strictly keep in pure gains. Everyone is talking about this shit now. I think we're not too many months away from hysteria (if we're not already there).

The stuff I've read about Tether's relationship to Bitrex and Bitcoin in particular has me nervous (just read the articles on Seeking Alpha about the potential level shit going on there (https://seekingalpha.com/article/4131159-regulators-must-investigate-bitcoin-tether)). I think the ceiling on this may go a LOT higher first, but just in case I'd probably feel better if I took out the few thousand I initially invested, and just kept in what amounts to gains.

I'll probably regret that, but hindsight is always 20/20 in investing.

[Godfather]

With that said, I'm noticing major variances in prices on various exchanges. Firstly that shows poor management... but it also means huge arbitrage opportunity.

I'm going to test run Kraken LTC > GDAX, moving that to BTC, then to another exchange, and buying back into LTC there to gain an arbitrage %. It's cheeky but perfectly legal.

[PorkChopSandwiches]

Great idea :)

[PorkChopSandwiches]

I just purchased 2 shotguns with Litecoin :dance:

[DemonGeminiX]

:-k

Which shotguns?

[PorkChopSandwiches]

A Remington and Mossberg

[DemonGeminiX]

Both 12 gauges?

[Godfather]

I just purchased 2 shotguns with Litecoin :dance:

Don't let the liberals know that :lol: Every mainstream article I've seen on cryto is either a) It's crashing!! b) It's a bubble!! or c) It's only used for seedy activity!! You throw in 'people are buying guns with bitcoin' and their heads will pop :rofl:

[DemonGeminiX]

He lives in Commiefornia. It's a liberal gestapo paradise. $20 says they already know that he bought them. He'll be disappearing in about a week's time.

:rip: Porky

[PorkChopSandwiches]

Both 12 gauges?

Yes

[PorkChopSandwiches]

He lives in Commiefornia. It's a liberal gestapo paradise. $20 says they already know that he bought them. He'll be disappearing in about a week's time.

:rip: Porky

I bought them from someone I knew, we took them to a gun dealer for a transfer. CA required me to take a gun safety test for $20, then pay $30 for a card that says I passed the test :roll:
Then $35 on DROS fees.

[redred]

Do you get drug tested as part of that cost ?

[Godfather]

Coinbase not giving us our BCH or BCG is pissing me off... should've moved it all to Kraken. At least we'll get BCash in January...

[Teh One Who Knocks]

Dow Jones Newswires


https://i.imgur.com/Cf3D3XUh.gif

The price of bitcoin tumbled sharply Friday in Asia, wiping one-fourth of its market value in the past 24 hours alone, as a wave of selling hit the broader cryptocurrency market just before the Christmas holiday weekend.

Bitcoin recently traded at $12,500, according to research site CoinDesk. The notoriously volatile digital currency started December at about $10,000 and traded close to $20,000 this past weekend, but has been in retreat since.

From its recent peak, the virtual currency has lost about $121 billion of its total market value in less than a week, or more than twice the market cap of Tesla.

It wasn't the only currency feeling the pain. Many so-called "altcoins"--shorthand for alternative versions of bitcoin--also declined. And of the 31 digital currencies that have at least a $1 billion market value, 29 were recently down, according to data provider CoinMarketCap.

Ether, the second-biggest digital currency by market value, dropped 26% over the past 24 hours. Another currency called litecoin was down 32%. Its creator, Charlie Lee, said earlier this week that he was selling all his holdings of the currency. Litecoin, whose price hit an all-time high of $375 on Tuesday, recently traded at $229.

Mr. Lee, a former Google engineer who created litecoin in 2011, also warned on Twitter that litecoin was getting "so much mainstream exposure" and that "every crypto bull run I've seen has been followed by a bear cycle."

Digital currencies exploded into the mainstream this year, garnering attention for huge price gains as well as significant swings and drawing scores of investors around the world. The market's price moves starkly contrast with how most traditional asset classes have fared so far this year, such as stocks and bonds, where volatility has been relatively low.

Bitcoin has fallen more than 30% over the past four days, its fifth such decline of that magnitude this year, according to Charlie Bilello, director of research at Pension Partners, an investment-advisory firm in New York. In the prior four instances, it took Bitcoin an average of 38 days to hit a new high.

Bitcoin trading volumes in recent months have been driven to a large extent by investors in South Korea, Japan and other parts of Asia, where digital currencies have gained greater recognition. Rising interest from institutional investors and Wall Street firms have also helped legitimize the currency and contributed to bitcoin's big gains.

Bitcoin futures prices on Cboe Global Markets and CME Group, both of which started trading the contracts earlier this month, were both more than 10% lower on Friday. They were recently pricing in a lower value for the digital currency in the first quarter of 2018 than its current value, a state known in futures markets as "backwardation" and a potentially bearish sign.

A popular alternative currency called Bitcoin Cash has also fallen 40% over the past 24 hours, according to CoinMarketCap. The bitcoin offshoot climbed in value earlier in the week after Coinbase, which operates one of the world's largest cryptocurrency trading platforms, said its users would be able to trade the currency on its systems.

Coinbase, however, has so far had to intermittently halt trading due to insufficient liquidity. The company is also investigating allegations that some of its insiders or their family and friends could have traded Bitcoin Cash ahead of its launch plans.

One outlier is ripple, the third largest digital currency by market value. It has surged 30% in the past 24 hours.

The explosive growth in cryptocurrencies has drawn plenty of skeptics, including central banks, government officials, top bankers and others who think bitcoin is in a bubble that won't end well when it bursts. The Daily Show, a popular late-night, satirical program, ran a segment last week investigating the market's rapid rise.

"There is no way all these people buying cryptocurrencies have any idea what the hell they're investing in," The Daily Show correspondent Ronny Chieng said on the show.

[Teh One Who Knocks]

https://i.imgur.com/i1x3cHp.jpg

[Godfather]

BTFD!!!!

[Godfather]

We're on the way back up boys. Congrats to whoever was HODL'ing. That's the 6th 30% dip of 2017. No big deal.

https://i.imgur.com/6i6Ig1v.png

[RBP]

https://i.imgur.com/YLtFZkt.png

[Hal-9000]

I still have no idea how this works and how come it seems like a money for nothing scheme?


Like has anyone here actually made any physical money they can use? Beyond the initial cost of ...mining? Or whatever the process is?

[PorkChopSandwiches]

I am way up and can cash out today if I wanted, coinbase will deposit the money to my bank. But, I'm holding.
GF are you rich as shit now from XRP?

[DemonGeminiX]

That blockchain stock I was watching took a dump and hasn't recovered yet. Glad I didn't have any money in it.

[Godfather]

I am way up and can cash out today if I wanted, coinbase will deposit the money to my bank. But, I'm holding.
GF are you rich as shit now from XRP?

Ya XRP and XLM have made me a fuck load of money... even though they're down about half from their all-time-highs, I'm still stunned Ripple is sitting at $2

[PorkChopSandwiches]

ETH has been making me RICH! (kinda) I bought it the first time at $200 and the second time at $250. Its sitting at $1346 today

[PorkChopSandwiches]

Over Thanksgiving, 3 different 19-21 year old potheads were giving me "stock tips", all bitcoin.

If that's not Joe Kennedy's "shoe shine boy", nothing is.





My mother, who knows nothing about technology, asked me to help her invest in a few cryptos about 2 months ago. She refuses to invest in traditional retirement accounts despite my advice over the years, but she'll invest in cryptos because Joe Schmo told her it's a great investment that can only go up.

Same thing with my 70 year old aunt. She's the type to hoard cash under her mattress and doesn't understand the concept of a traditional retirement account, (like my mother, she too ignored my advice over the years). But now she wants to get into cryptos.





Nah man, your aunt just really values a decentralized distributed ledger in a trustless network and strongly believes in the blockchain technology due the world's failing trust in fiat currencies.



:rofl:

[Godfather]

Porky some nerds on Reddit are creating a new meme coin called Garlicoin (created out of love of garlic/garlic bread).

It's launching shortly on the Litecoin network, so low supply, and a TON of hyped up internet nerds... I'm going to buy or mine a few and see what it does :rofl: I grabbed thousands of dogecoin way back just for a laugh and it's now gone up to over a cent, which is insanely stupid given it hasn't been worked on in two years...

[PorkChopSandwiches]

I'm in :lol:

[PorkChopSandwiches]

I bought another $1200 in Litecoin today

[PorkChopSandwiches]

https://i.redd.it/iwl7vz69cea01.gif

[PorkChopSandwiches]

I bought another $1200 in Litecoin today

You should have waited until today when everything dropped 13% :slap:

[DemonGeminiX]

They were saying on the news yesterday that the golden age of alt-coins is now over. I think everything started falling when Buffett came out and said they were worthless investments. That was like 2 or 3 weeks ago.

[PorkChopSandwiches]

:lol: Doubtful

[PorkChopSandwiches]

Everytime there is a dip then its the end of crypto...everytime

[DemonGeminiX]

If the Oracle of Omaha comes out and says something's shit, people run away from it.

[PorkChopSandwiches]

Nobody gave a shit about his statement, the dip is due to a rumor South Korea was going to crackdown, that country is a major player in crypto

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-bitcoin-ethereum-korea-20180116-story.html

[Hal-9000]

Nobody gave a shit about his statement, the dip is due to a rumer South Korea was going to crackdown, that country is a major player in crypto

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-bitcoin-ethereum-korea-20180116-story.html

So when you go to buy some shares or stakes or whatevers...who do you send your money to?

For instance I want to invest 1000 bucks in bitcoin01. Who actually collects that money?

Or do you just set up a PC to 'mine it' and call the hardware investment the cost?

So confused..

[PorkChopSandwiches]

Godfather and I use. If you use that link, I will get $10 in bitcoin for the referral ;)
https://www.coinbase.com/join/5925c1c2ffe09204f86358f4

[Hal-9000]

Godfather and I use. If you use that link, I will get $10 in bitcoin for the referral ;)
https://www.coinbase.com/join/5925c1c2ffe09204f86358f4

Ponzisandwiches?

wtf man :lol:

thanks but I don't have the money to experiment without understanding the angles..

[Godfather]

This is I believe the 4th year in a row with a major dip around this exact time in January... it's really weird, probably some form of market manipulation, but it always recovers in two weeks :lol:


https://i.imgur.com/oqp8yA1.jpg

[Godfather]

Also we needed a cull. Bitconnect was a fucking scam and finally died today. Dentacoin was a scam and got punished today. We're back 30 days in terms of market cap. It might go down another 40% tomorrow, who knows, but I still believe crypto is here to stay :thumbsup:

[Teh One Who Knocks]

Ryan Browne - CNBC


https://i.imgur.com/SAQMYIc.jpg

Bitcoin fell below $10,000 for the first time since November, as a sell-off in cryptocurrencies continued for a second day Wednesday.

The world's largest cryptocurrency was trading at $9,615.94 at about 9:38 a.m. ET on Wednesday, and was down 15 percent in the last 24 hours, according to CoinDesk data. CoinDesk tracks prices from cryptocurrency exchanges Bitstamp, Coinbase, itBit and Bitfinex.

The last time bitcoin fell below the $10,000 mark was November 30. The red-hot digital asset soared to a record high of $19,343 last month, but has since been on a gradual decline. At its current price, it is now down 49 percent from that all-time high.

More than $30 billion was shaved off the cryptocurrency's market value in the last 24 hours.

Meanwhile, ethereum and ripple — the second and third-biggest digital assets respectively — continued to move lower. According to CoinMarketCap data, ethereum was trading more than 23 percent lower at $824.10 a coin after sinking beneath $1,000 Tuesday. Ripple on the other hand fell 31 percent to about 95 cents.

Cryptocurrencies appeared to sell off shortly after South Korea's Finance Minister, Kim Dong-yeon, said the country was still mulling a shutdown of crypto exchanges. Initial reports of South Korea — one of the biggest cryptocurrency markets in the world — moving to clamp down on virtual currency trading last week sent the price of bitcoin and a number of other major digital assets down sharply.

"The action we're seeing may seem dramatic but is really quite normal for this market," Mati Greenspan, senior market analyst at eToro, told CNBC via email. "All in all, this drop has brought us back to the prices that were traded about a month ago for most coins."

Greenspan said Tuesday that South Korean and Japanese investors often pay a premium of "20 percent or more per coin," but on Wednesday said they appeared to be falling.

"The premiums that were being paid by Japanese and South Korean crypto traders is also coming down, so that's a good sign as well," he said.

'No other justification than fear'

China was also reportedly looking to deepen its crackdown on the cryptocurrency market this week. On Monday, Bloomberg reported that authorities in China were planning to block domestic access to Chinese and offshore cryptocurrency platforms that allow centralized trading. Regulators will also target people and companies that provide market-making, settlement and clearing services for centralized trading, the publication said, citing unnamed sources.

And on Tuesday, a Chinese central bank official reportedly said that authorities should ban the centralized trading of digital currencies, adding weight to concerns of further suppression of the country's cryptocurrency market.

Charles Hayter, chief executive of CryptoCompare, said that many expected the cryptocurrency market to decline.

"The market was very overheated and had significantly dislocated from trend. A large percentage of investors were expecting this correction and reversion to mean."

Hayter said that panic was "leading the herd to sell with no other justification than fear," but added that it was "difficult to say" where the market would be headed next.

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are extremely volatile assets. Many experts believe that the introduction of futures contracts for bitcoin from the likes of CME and Cboe would tame the digital currency somewhat and bring in more institutional money.

[PorkChopSandwiches]

They have large swings, I'm still up overall. Im sure it will recover.

[PorkChopSandwiches]

In the last hour the 4 coins on coinbase have rose between 8% and 18%

[PorkChopSandwiches]

https://i.imgur.com/02Bxkye.mp4

[Godfather]

I think we might get another dip here this week, but for now my portfolio has recovered up 70% from the very lowest it hit this week, and only down about 30% from its all-time-high.

Stellar has recovered very nicely.

[DemonGeminiX]

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-southkorea-bitcoin/south-korea-considers-shutting-down-domestic-cryptocurrency-exchanges-idUSKBN1F706T

South Korea is talking about shutting down the exchanges and everyone in the world is talking about regulation. Expect it all to fall further.

[PorkChopSandwiches]

Nobody gave a shit about his statement, the dip is due to a rumor South Korea was going to crackdown, that country is a major player in crypto

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-bitcoin-ethereum-korea-20180116-story.html


https://www.reuters.com/article/us-southkorea-bitcoin/south-korea-considers-shutting-down-domestic-cryptocurrency-exchanges-idUSKBN1F706T

South Korea is talking about shutting down the exchanges and everyone in the world is talking about regulation. Expect it all to fall further.

That's what I said, but instead all the higher ups dump their crypto, made their announcement and bought it back on the low. The majors are already up between 16%-25% today again. I know you like to hate, but you have been consistently incorrect ;)

[Muddy]

:lol: ohhh boy. there it is..

[DemonGeminiX]

I'm not hating. I'm just sayin'... keep a close eye on this. This is a highly speculative market and it could go south fast.

[Muddy]

Honestly from what I see, the whole thing is very volatile..

But ! If you do what GF did and pull out your original investment and are just playing with the winnings, what do you have to lose?

[DemonGeminiX]

In GF's case, I guess not a lot. But it doesn't seem like Porky's doing the same thing.

With respect to the investor who's just sinking money in and riding the wave, a lot, if you're not watching. Sometimes shit falls and never rebounds. Some stocks that are flying high, trading at $100/share one minute, can tank and end up trading at below $1 for the next 10 years. Everything about financial markets is about investor psychology... nothing more. Any little thing can spook shareholders and make them go running for the hills, and the respective investment will tank and everybody left holding the bag will get screwed. Sometimes they'll never buy back into it. So yes, pay attention to the news, pay attention to the charts. Don't be so overconfident about it. Be careful.

Sure, buy the dip, when you know the company and it's security is solid. They'll most assuredly rebound. These alt-currencies aren't the same thing. This is an untested market. We don't know what kind of longevity it has. This market could blow up and be gone tomorrow.

[PorkChopSandwiches]

I have put in $3600 and have spent probably 2k in crypto so I'm really only in for $1600. Trust me, i'm not playing with more than I can afford to lose. Of course I dont want to lose any , but im up over triple at this point, and before this week it was quadruple . Its climbing back up. We all know it volatile ...but that makes it fun :)

[Muddy]

I have put in $3600 and have spent probably 2k in crypto so I'm really only in for $1600. Trust me, i'm not playing with more than I can afford to lose. Of course I dont want to lose any , but im up over triple at this point, and before this week it was quadruple . Its climbing back up. We all know it volatile ...but that makes it fun :)

Send me a shotgun purchased with crypto or GTFO. :lol:

[PorkChopSandwiches]

I still had to transfer them through the gun store. You know CA needs to babysit everything you do

[Muddy]

A database so they can come pick up all the shit you have bought when it crumbles.. :razz:

[Hal-9000]

In GF's case, I guess not a lot. But it doesn't seem like Porky's doing the same thing.

With respect to the investor who's just sinking money in and riding the wave, a lot, if you're not watching. Sometimes shit falls and never rebounds. Some stocks that are flying high, trading at $100/share one minute, can tank and end up trading at below $1 for the next 10 years. Everything about financial markets is about investor psychology... nothing more. Any little thing can spook shareholders and make them go running for the hills, and the respective investment will tank and everybody left holding the bag will get screwed. Sometimes they'll never buy back into it. So yes, pay attention to the news, pay attention to the charts. Don't be so overconfident about it. Be careful.

Sure, buy the dip, when you know the company and it's security is solid. They'll most assuredly rebound. These alt-currencies aren't the same thing. This is an untested market. We don't know what kind of longevity it has. This market could blow up and be gone tomorrow.

This is why I won't attempt this. Besides not having a job and not understanding it well enough.

I spent years putting a little money into a 'conservative' mutual fund, only to see the thing tank over 15 years. Me, like thousands of other people who bought mutual funds, never recouped the original investment. And when you cash them out, get ready to get raped for 15, 20 or 30% in taxes (in Canada).

Looking back in hindsight, I could have made a guaranteed 3-5% on that same money if I put it in one basic savings plan that stepped up the interest return based on time left in terms of years.

Mutual funds....never again.

[Godfather]

Mutual funds are sort of dead to me. I much prefer ETFs for safe holdings and easy buying of clumps of stock you're interested in. They have much lower fees, and are easier and more transparent to review. Plus even high interest savings accounts sort of a joke right now, interest rates are insultingly low even if you have $100k in straight cash to offer the bank.

I'm fond of iShares ETF's. A good basic one that just holds most of the major companies in Canada is the iShares S&P/TSX 60 - the 5-year chart on it is pretty good. Just google XIU stock and look at the 5-year trend. The iShares Select Dividend is good too, symbol is XDV. Easy to buy through RBC Direct Investing.

[PorkChopSandwiches]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7h6oWYYius

[PorkChopSandwiches]

https://i.redd.it/qsly1po1k6c01.jpg

[Teh One Who Knocks]

Kyle Walsh - cnbc


https://i.imgur.com/Rnk39ae.jpg

Whether you've used bitcoin as an investment or as a currency, you owe taxes on it.

As far as Uncle Sam is concerned, bitcoin is not currency. It's property. That means whenever you buy something with bitcoin, it's two transactions, not one. What you're actually doing is selling a property (bitcoin) for a cash value and then using money from that sale to buy a product. So every single purchase you make with bitcoin has to be reported on your taxes.

For many, though, bitcoin is just an investment. If you've held those bitcoins for less than a year and sell them, that cash will be taxed as income. If you've held for more than a year, it's taxed as a capital gain — which could run 20 percent. Adding on transaction and accounting fees could raise costs to 60 percent, as was the case for one early bitcoin adopter.

But here's the problem: Almost no one reports this.

From 2013 to 2015, fewer than 900 people each year reported bitcoin transactions to the IRS. That prompted the IRS in 2014 to label cyrptocurrency as property back and to recently serve a summons to Coinbase. In it, the agency called for the records of over 14,000 users who have "bought, sold, sent or received at least $20,000 worth of bitcoin in a given year."

A federal court narrowed the scope of the summons but ultimately ruled in favor of the IRS. The tax status of those transactions is still unknown.

Moving forward though, there may be some relief. A bipartisan bill, "The Cryptocurrency Tax Fairness Act," was presented to Congress in September. It's seeking to create a tax exemption for cryptotransactions under $600.

Some remain hopeful for amnesty, but it looks like Uncle Sam is still poised to get a decent cut of the bitcoin action.

[PorkChopSandwiches]

https://i.redd.it/g9ipglsfn8c01.png

[The Monk]

How to Steal $500 Million in Cryptocurrency (http://fortune.com/2018/01/31/coincheck-hack-how/)



2. Where did the stolen coins go?

That’s one of the stranger aspects of these heists. Because transactions for Bitcoin and the like are all public, it’s easy to see where the NEM coins are — even though they’re stolen. Coincheck has identified and published 11 addresses where all 523 million of the stolen coins ended up. You can see for yourself online. Trouble is, no one knows who owns the accounts. Each one has been labeled with a tag that reads “coincheck_stolen_funds_do_not_accept_trades : owner_of_this_account_is_hacker.” NEM developers created a tracking tool that would allow exchanges to automatically reject stolen funds.

[DemonGeminiX]

So bitcoin's below $10000?

[Teh One Who Knocks]

So bitcoin's below $10000?

https://i.imgur.com/ysrm32M.png

[PorkChopSandwiches]

I dont hold much BTC. But it tends to dictate the other cryptos. the trends in crypto show it dropping in January every year, we will see what March looks like

[Godfather]

Mostly seems like FUD causing the dip to me right now, but we'll see.

[Teh One Who Knocks]

https://i.imgur.com/kOHaSem.png

[Teh One Who Knocks]

https://i.imgur.com/t1KMbth.png

[DemonGeminiX]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BKda_T1eVM

[PorkChopSandwiches]

ETH and BTC up over 10% LTC up almost 30%
Nobody said the swings weren't huge

[RBP]

I finally have one!

https://i.imgur.com/3bMD7QO.jpg

[Teh One Who Knocks]

https://i.imgur.com/t9VD48U.png

https://i.imgur.com/q3CaJXq.png

[PorkChopSandwiches]

Brutal

[Teh One Who Knocks]

https://i.imgur.com/qT5X0x2.png

[Muddy]

I knew I should have bought some of this..

[PorkChopSandwiches]

Its down about 50% for the month, but still up 600% for the year. So, its not great, but still winning.

I still think it will come back in March. I'm continuing to mine

[DemonGeminiX]

The entire market's down. We're in a correction. Nothing's looking good right now. Just hold on to what you've got and buy more at the bottom when everything levels out.

[Godfather]

I'm wondering if crypto will recover this time. I'm a relative newb given it's been around the better part of a decade, but global market cap of all crypto was up over $800 billion and is now down to under $300 billion. Recently here has been a crackdown by major credit card companies against buying crypto with credit cards. Personally I think that legitimizes crypto as you cant buy stocks with your credit card either... but at the same time ease of access into the market was what drove prices up. I question how much of that money will flow back in when we find the floor of this current crash?

There's a new major exchange being released soon called Robinhood that may help, but only if they speed up verification and ease of adding fiat currency significantly IMO.

[Godfather]

Whenever I'm tempted to sell though, I look back at tweets like this :lol:

https://i.redd.it/5r55lgp81he01.jpg

[Teh One Who Knocks]

https://i.imgur.com/BZ4uN2i.png

https://i.imgur.com/noG1PtY.png

[DemonGeminiX]

Have you been posting its value at the end of the day too?

[Teh One Who Knocks]

Just when I think about it, not any set time. I have no idea what the trading times for that stuff is, does it even close like a regular stock market?

[DemonGeminiX]

No. Currency pairs trade 24/7.

[DemonGeminiX]

Looks like the market is recovering. Will the alt-coins follow?

[PorkChopSandwiches]

I'm wondering if crypto will recover this time. I'm a relative newb given it's been around the better part of a decade, but global market cap of all crypto was up over $800 billion and is now down to under $300 billion. Recently here has been a crackdown by major credit card companies against buying crypto with credit cards. Personally I think that legitimizes crypto as you cant buy stocks with your credit card either... but at the same time ease of access into the market was what drove prices up. I question how much of that money will flow back in when we find the floor of this current crash?

There's a new major exchange being released soon called Robinhood that may help, but only if they speed up verification and ease of adding fiat currency significantly IMO.

Robinhood charges no fees :tup:

[DemonGeminiX]

Today was a day trader's wet dream.

[Godfather]

Truly

[PorkChopSandwiches]

The majors up 15% today

[Godfather]

Good recovery. I'm ashamed to say I sold 1btc around $6800usd to lock in some gains, regretting that at the moment but we're still in a bear market I believe.

[PorkChopSandwiches]

:lol: Well, gains are gains

[Godfather]

I made some of my fuck-up back. Bought a chunk of LTC at $160CAD and sold at $280 CAD. I'm going to rebuy shortly because it's coming back down now.

[Teh One Who Knocks]

Rob Wile - Coin Desk


https://i.imgur.com/ZMGTBNw.jpg

It was around midnight, January 31, when K. received an email from Coinbase containing a 1099 tax form. That was strange enough - K. certainly didn't expect a cryptocurrency exchange to be a conduit for government documents.

Then K. looked at how much Coinbase said he owed money on: $2.4 million.

"I initially freaked out, considering I've probably put in a max of $8,000 into Coinbase and somehow I may be liable for millions?" K. said in an online chat with CoinDesk.

The next business day, K. called Coinbase customer support, only to have a representative tell him he couldn't answer the details on the phone, and to email the company instead.

Which he did, only to get a formulaic response showing the IRS guidance to Coinbase.

To this day, K says he has no idea where the $2.4 million figure came from. He says he is too busy to jump through more hoops with the largest exchange in the U.S., and that he feels safe in the knowledge that he doesn't have to pay taxes on $2.4 million in earnings, since they don't exist.

More users, more problems

K. is far from alone in wrestling with an apparent misfire from Coinbase.

In recent weeks, complaints have been piling up on a Reddit page dedicated to the company. The issues mentioned are wide-ranging: missing wires, unreleased bitcoin, disabled accounts.

The top posts on the page over the past month look like this:

https://i.imgur.com/EWDbmeal.png

A representative for Coinbase, Stephanie Kendall, said the company was unable to comment on the complaints.

Stepping back, as crypto values spiked during the recent run-up, several major exchanges heaved under the weight of new demand. Kraken, the third-largest exchange in the world, suffered an outage earlier this year that was supposed to take two hours but ended up lasting two days as it upgraded its system.

Bitfinex also suffered a malfunction late last year due to a denial-of-service attack.

But perhaps above all others, user growth at Coinbase has gone gangbusters. The userbase has more than doubled since 2016 to more than 10 million customers today, according to spokeswoman Kendall. The company now employs about 200 people, she said.

Service at the exchange had already begun showing signs of strain when the company announced in August it had raised $100 million, and said some of the new funding would go toward alleviating customer service pressure. Late last month, it hired a new vice president of operations and technology, Tina Bhatnager, to oversee customer support. It also appointed Dan Romero with the title of general manager of Coinbase, in a blog with the headline: "Customer support: failure is not an option."

But the complaints are still coming in fast and furious.

Perhaps most distressingly, a number of Coinbase users recently reported unauthorized charges to their linked bank accounts. In some cases, these charges, which duplicated previous legitimate withdrawals, completely drained customers' funds and left them owing their banks hefty overdraft fees.

And now, perhaps sensing a weakness, formidable new competitors are encroaching on Coinbase's retail turf: the stock brokerage platform Robinhood, which now has 1 million crypto users; and Square, which now allows buying and selling bitcoin through the Square Cash app.

Squeaky wheels

For now, though, there remains the question of what to do if you're impacted.

Coinbase user Suzepo, who lives in Italy, says it took him three tries over the course of a month for his verification deposits to go through. It was apparently only after he added the name of his bank that it went through; there were apparently no instructions on Coinbase's part that this was necessary.

He said that in his attempts to reach Coinbase, he didn't get a single response until the very end of his ordeal. While he appreciates that there was no delayed purchases, and immediate fund input, he ultimately felt frustrated by the support assistance, or lack thereof.

"No response from the support team, customers left alone to deal with their own issues and that big [verification] transfer burden," he says.

Reddit user crypt_iss complained about a botched transaction in a post that was heavily upvoted on Coinbase's subreddit. As of last week, he said he has "technically withdrawn" the amount but it is still not in his Coinbase vault. Yet Coinbase shows the transaction as completed in one location and pending in another, he says.

"No one from help desk has called, it is only email messages. If this post would not had risen to top here, even this would not had happened. I really cannot believe they have such poor handling of so many parts. Move fast and break things culture I guess," he said.

Sergej Kotliar, the CEO of crypto mobile phone card provider Bitrefill, told CoinDesk he had no reason to believe the users' complaints weren't legitimate.

Making a stink on social media "is a good way to get helped, and people who are missing tens of thousands of dollars can get pretty upset," he said.

Kotliar also said he doubted the complaints were being astroturfed, i.e. orchestrated by competitors to sow doubts about Coinbase.

"Who would be their rivals? This is growing pains," he said. "They really grew very big."

Disclaimer: CoinDesk is a subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which has an ownership stake in Coinbase.

[Godfather]

The big exchanges have almost all had some major consumer complaints which I've seen over and over on reddit. It's concerning for sure.

[PorkChopSandwiches]

Turns out it was Visas fault.

https://techcrunch.com/2018/02/16/visa-coinbase-not-at-fault/

[Teh One Who Knocks]

By Helen Partz - Coin Telegraph


https://i.imgur.com/rADAn1d.jpg

Following in the footsteps of several major banks globally, the Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD), one of the largest banks in North America, announced in an email statement to customers on Friday, Feb. 23, that it is banning the purchase of cryptocurrency with credit cards, local journal The Globe and Mail reports.

A representative of TD, the first major Canadian bank to enact such a ban, said that the bank regularly evaluates its policies and security measures “in order to serve and protect our customers, as well as the bank.”

TD’s move is part of a larger global trend of banks banning customers from credit card purchases of cryptocurrency. The wave of bans was initiated by US giants J.P. Morgan Chase, Bank of America, and Citigroup on Feb. 3, and followed by the largest bank in the UK, Lloyds Banking Group, Feb. 5, and Virgin Money in Australia, South Africa, and the UK on Feb. 6. Last week, Citibank India went ahead with banning both credit and debit cards for crypto purchases.

According to The Globe and Mail on Feb. 23, the Royal Bank of Canada made of point of stating that it does allow both debit and credit card purchases of cryptocurrency, but it warns its customers about high volatility risks which "could expose them to substantially higher debt levels than they are able to repay.”

In a contrasting move for the local industry, on Feb. 13, a Canadian stock exchange announced that it will soon launch its own Blockchain-based securities clearing and settlement platform that help companies raise funds via fully regulated security tokens issued by the exchange.

[PorkChopSandwiches]

Thats a good way to lose customers

[Godfather]

Honestly it makes sense. You can’t buy stocks and bonds with visa either. People can say it’s not fair, but ultimately I see it legitimizing crypto as a form of investing.

[PorkChopSandwiches]

I guess you can do a cash advance and pay the massive interest if you really wanted.

[PorkChopSandwiches]

Got my L3+ Antminer up and running yesterday. I mines about .05 Litecoin a day (around $10 at current price). Mainly just want LTC for long term hold. Cost about $1400 shipped, so payback in roughly 5 months and then its profit :dance:

[Godfather]

I want a new video card for my gaming PC. You bastards have ruined it for us :lol:

Seriously though, that's sweet.

[Teh One Who Knocks]

Bloomberg


Bitcoin’s rough week looks set to end on a sour note.

The virtual currency fell 6.1% to $8,758.09 at 3:43 p.m. Hong Kong time on Friday, after earlier losing as much as 10%.

Bitcoin has slumped more than 20% this week amid increased regulatory scrutiny in the U.S. and Japan, an attempted theft at one of the biggest trading venues, and news that the bankruptcy trustee for Mt. Gox has started selling the now-defunct exchange’s holdings to repay creditors.

“The screen is flashing red today and people are getting fearful,” said Caleb Yap, co-founder of Singapore Bitcoin Club. “Weak hands are definitely wanting to sell. If Mt. Gox can dump $400 million of Bitcoin just like that and there’s still billions left, the fear is when is the big drop coming.”

Mt. Gox’s bankruptcy trustee, Nobuaki Kobayashi, disclosed on Wednesday in Tokyo that he sold about $400 million of Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash since late September, part of the hoard left behind when the exchange collapsed four years ago. Kobayashi is studying further sales of the $1.8 billion remaining.

Signs of growing regulatory scrutiny have added to investor jitters. On Thursday, Japan’s Financial Services Agency ordered two exchanges to halt operations for a month and penalized four others. That announcement came just hours after a warning from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that many online trading platforms should register with the agency.

Around the same time, Binance, one of the world’s biggest crypto exchanges, said it had been the target of a “large-scale phishing and stealing attempt.” While it said “all funds are safe,” Binance noted that it was unable to reverse some trades from accounts targeted by the hackers.

“These are all growing pains,” said SJ Oh, a Hong Kong-based trader at Octagon Strategy. “And while hurtful today, the fact that regulators are cracking down will be good for the long run.”

[PorkChopSandwiches]

It's not been great, I still have confidence in the long term though

[PorkChopSandwiches]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZYZoQQ6LJQ

[Teh One Who Knocks]

https://i.imgur.com/5wotjaQ.png

[PorkChopSandwiches]

I bought @ 202, so Im still ok. Holding for long term

[Teh One Who Knocks]

https://i.imgur.com/wOW8FLc.png

[PorkChopSandwiches]

Its a rollercoaster for sure. :)

[PorkChopSandwiches]

https://i.redd.it/m98jdk1gyjt01.gif

[Teh One Who Knocks]

By Joshua Byrd - ABC News (Australia)


By the end of 2017 it seemed like the sky was the limit for cryptocurrency, with prices ballooning to almost unfathomable new heights.

But over the course of this year, we have seen a relatively steady overall deflation of crypto coin prices and market capitalisation.

The combined market capitalisation of the top 50 largest cryptocurrencies has dropped over $387 billion this year, a decline of over 53 per cent.

Today, 90 per cent of these top coins are worth less than they were at the start of the year.

Maybe this is how the crypto bubble ends: not with a burst, but with a whimper.

https://i.imgur.com/1usX7vX.png

[Goofy]

:rip: Porky

[DemonGeminiX]

There's too many damn different cryptocurrencies. They need to consolidate into a smaller number.

[Teh One Who Knocks]

And that's only the Top 50 :shakehead: