From: https://www.stlouisfed.org/edu......

Towards the end, there is a section "fiat money", which the USD certainly is -- the slips of paper have no intrinsic value. Interestingly, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies can in many ways also be considered fiat -- they have no intrinsic value, and are only worth anything because the people exchanging it for consideration agree that it does. In any event, the author there suggests there are 6 characteristics that "money" must satisfy. They are durability, portability, divisibility, uniformity, limited supply, and acceptability.

The USD hits all six quite well. Bitcoin meets at least 5 of those characteristics -- acceptability being the exception, as it is still limited to enthusiast use, for the most part. And it has some characteristics that can be considered superior to the dollar -- it's impossible to counterfeit, for example. It's lack of stability of value is largely due to the low numbers of people using it -- more users would reduce the volatility. (And the dollar is not immune, particularly over the long term. Todays USD will purchase far less value than the dollar of 20 years ago.)

Bitcoin is very much able to be "money". This does not guarantee it's success of course, and if it doesn't succeed, it will be worthless. But it's failure is far from certain.

Just out of curiosity...

What do you feel defines what money is? If something like gold or silver meets your definitions as being a "medium of exchange" or "money", then Bitcoin (or other crypto currencies) probably meet them as well.

Hint: The "Hackers and hacking is a good thing, don't let those nasty crackers tarnish our name!" camp lost.

Their channel listing: https://www.setvnow.com/channe...

In addition to various streams that are like re-streams of freely available OTA content, there are a lot of channels that are cable only, some of which will be premium channels on any cable package. Access to such channels by established cable companies requires very expensive licensing agreements, and those license fees are passed on to the consumer.

Whether you like existing copyright laws or not, this company is quite clearly breaking them. The lawsuit will not go well for them. Although they are probably not located anywhere where US law enforcement is likely to bother them, their domains will be seized, their apps removed from easy distribution and their US bank accounts frozen....

So if I download a copy of your software, your company is cool with me using and redistributing it in any way I see fit? I don't have any contract at all with you.

1) Know Your Customer laws designed to fight money laundering. Try opening a bank account, or getting a credit card without providing DOB and address information.

2) If you don't provide the verification details, you aren't allowed to use the service. (And Coinbase is no different than any other reputable exchange. Unless you're doing in-person trades, you can expect to be uploading scans of your drivers license and/or utility bills.)

3) Exchanges tend to have fiat transfer options only for the countries they are based in. Transferring cash to a foreign exchange is difficult, if it's possible at all. And where it *is* possible, those exchanges tend to have the same KYC and reporting obligations.

Cryptocurrencies are pretty much impossible to regulate, by design. However, exchanges are as much about fiat as crypto, and fiat systems are heavily regulated.

Mining is a requirement to secure the blockchain -- without large amounts of compute work, the chain is vulnerable to attack. As far as "tulip prices", it's supply and demand. For Bitcoin to be a medium of exchange, it has to see widespread use, and there are (potentially) only 21 million -- if it succeeds, each full coin is going to be crazily expensive. But you don't need to buy a whole coin, portions are fine. Currently you can buy a "bit" (A millionth of a BTC) for around a penny.....

Bitcoin GPU mining has been unprofitable for nearly 5 years or so.

But there are many other cryptocurrencies out there, many of which are not based on Bitcoins SHA256 proof of work that are still profitable to GPU mine and won't see ASIC support any time soon, if ever.

I believe the most common one right now is Ethereum, but there are likely others.

safeguarding our elections.

That makes me feel soooooooo confident.

wasting all the power?!!

The amount of mining required by Bitcoin is flexible, and at some point it will have grown to the point where it is no longer makes financial sense to increase it, and it will plateau.

There are thousands of people with $10K of bitcoin, and billions with none. Many may eventually be quite happy with $5 or $10 in current value.

At some point, what people are willing to pay for Bitcoin will equal what others are willing to sell it for, and the price will plateau, much as the price of gold has plateaued.

And if Bitcoin does die, I've had a hell of a time. I'm always fascinated at the number of people who are absolutely, 100% sure that Bitcoin won't work. I've watched them come and go for nearly 10 years. Bitcoin is still here. I'm not 100% sure it will succeed, but it's taken everything thrown at it so far.

Don't tell Visa, Mastercard, PayPal or Western Union. They seem to think that transferring value from one person to another can be quite profitable. Don't burst their bubble.

If you crapped gold, your net worth would increase by around 35 grand each time you took a dump.

That's how logic works. You might also note I have not anywhere asserted that Bitcoin is a sure thing, now or in the past.

:fistbump: