Cryptocurrency

[Guest]

Niketalk’s crypto thread is 600+ pages. But the majority of the site consists of young kids buying and reselling kicks so it would make sense that they would get that much traffic.

[Hua Guofang]

Ha! Not quite... You related it to the size of our GDP. Got nothing to do with that. Just some dudes behind closed doors working in cooperation with some massive banks and huge players to do what they think will make them the most money and keep the game going for longer.

 

Ok.....

 

You own a part of the national economy, by whichever way anyone sees it to be determined/defined/divined.

 

Bottom line is that the currency is backed by something, it's doesn't float in the air (ok, it floats on a group of faceless old white men who manipulate the world, if you'd like) and it can be measured against something to define it's value as perceived by the market.

[diggity]

Anyone buying TRON or RDD?

 

Thoughts?

 

[diggity]

Its getting cozy up in here...

Feel like alot of us are having the same thoughts - Wish I had bought this when I wanted to long time ago.

 

I think the largest hurdle for it is getting over the fact that at a glance it gets compared to digital beanie babies and in some cases, looks like a total ponzi scheme..

 

That said, I picked up some via coinbase right after Christmas. My brother started fucking with it 4-5 months ago and turned some serious profits in the high risk ICOs.

While I kind of understand how the ICOs work, buying in at ground level, can someone please explain how the lending works on them after they go public?

The returns he is seeing on crypto lent out is like 1% a day.

 

I'm also interested to hear why is it an ICO isnt really allowed for americans to buy.

 

Whats you guys thoughts on South Korea banning it?

[diggity]

Suggest using the Exodus wallet, don't hold all of your investment on any exchange including coinbase.

When signing up, make sure to WRITE DOWN your 16 word mnemonic passphrase.

Don't print it, don't save it anywhere on your computer, and for sure as fuck don't save it online or in the cloud.

Just write it down and practice memorizing it.

 

Exodus has shapeshift built into it so you can change between cryptocurrencies very easily.

 

Also, as a matter of opinion from a somewhat seasoned altcoin investor, I don't recommend buying into any altcoin that's had a huge runup recently which includes ripple.

 

Questions for you since your a bit more of a vet.

Exodus- Explain this a little more like i'm and idiot. I checked out Exodus, looks suitable. What happens if the computer I have it on dies? how does one recover? the same question goes for those little USB Drive wallets. If you were to lose them, are you just fucked? It doesnt seem like that could be true but again, I'm new to this.

 

 

Does exodus take a cut when you exchange from Bitcoin to Lite or others?

 

Why you no fuck with the alt coins? I read good things on Ripple and a couple of others.

[misteraven]

Questions for you since your a bit more of a vet.

Exodus- Explain this a little more like i'm and idiot. I checked out Exodus, looks suitable. What happens if the computer I have it on dies? how does one recover? the same question goes for those little USB Drive wallets. If you were to lose them, are you just fucked? It doesnt seem like that could be true but again, I'm new to this.

 

 

Does exodus take a cut when you exchange from Bitcoin to Lite or others?

 

Why you no fuck with the alt coins? I read good things on Ripple and a couple of others.

Personally I’m using a Jaxx wallet which seems to be the same idea. Even has the string of words to recover. I have it synced from iPhone to desktop and believe that it stores the data on their servers in addition to your devices. Can’t see how you’d sync or recover otherwise. Jaxx also has shapeshift.

 

As for the hardware wallet, yes if you lose it or break it you are fucked. As such, I usually see people suggest having two that are mirrored. One is used, the other gets stored. The stored one never touches a networked device so when you sync, you literally take your computer offline while doing so. I don’t own a hardware wallet but will probably buy two when I start seeing the need for it (like have huge money stashed). Will likely keep a paper copy as well. No idea about exodus but there are almost always transaction fees when sending crypto. As you probably know they’re tiny and easily hidden within the fluctuation of value. Sent my kid $100 of btc and he received $99.99.

[misteraven]

Ok.....

 

You own a part of the national economy, by whichever way anyone sees it to be determined/defined/divined.

 

Bottom line is that the currency is backed by something, it's doesn't float in the air (ok, it floats on a group of faceless old white men who manipulate the world, if you'd like) and it can be measured against something to define it's value as perceived by the market.

 

You still seem to put a lot of faith in fiat. Technically crypto is actually fiat as well, but considering it has a defined scarcity and growth rate that can’t be changed, unlike the dollar, I’d have a tough time accepting why anyone would put more faith in it just because Uncle Sam promises to back it. There’s nearly zero transparency with the US Dollar and they’ve been playing games with it endlessly almost since inception, but especially with the founding of the federal reserve (which in itself is a crazy story). The fed literally lends money to the central banking system to in turn buy bonds just to keep from overtly lending the US government money since it’s run at a massive deficit and the big debt holders (China and Russia) aren’t buying. They can do shit like that because they can just move some decimal points around and create the money from thin air at their convenience. Meanwhile diluting the purchasing power of the dollar at an admitted rate of 4% a year (more like 7 - 8% according to shadow stats, which I don’t doubt). The government stopped reporting unfunded liabilities back during the Clinton administration because it was impossible to hide how deeply they’ve raided the pockets of the American tax payers. Meanwhile, we’ve doubled the national debt that they do acknowledge during the last administration.

 

Sorry man, hard to see why anyone would trust that racket but be skeptical of the validity of crypto once you understand what it is, how it works and then piece together the impact it’s going to have on global economics.

 

Not to say the establishment will fight it tooth and nail and pull out every trick in the book before realizing there’s no putting that genie back in the bottle and start embracing it fully.

 

Best analogy I can think of is the world going back to flip phones after using iPhones simply because the US government says the old phones are reliable and thereby deciding to discredit smart phones up until making them illegal and believing every other country will follow suit.

[misteraven]

The best way to do this is to Create an ERC20 token. 30-40% of the top 100 cryptocurrencies are ERC20 tokens. They're basically a cryptocurrency that's built on top of the Ethereum blockchain using a smart contract. You should research it, but pro's: you get the benefit of being on the 2nd largest, and #1 most decentralized distributed ledger network in existence. You won't have to worry about security, hardware, or starting a network of miners from scratch. The tokens can be distributed to anyone with an Ethereum address.

 

In the future, if you can come up with a utility for the tokens, create a market for them, and get some traction it could blow up. If not, it would still be fun to own some oontz-coin or whatever. I'm a proud hodler of Dogecoin, and cryptokitties, not because I, or anyone else thinks they're a good investment. It's just for fun, like digital collector items for nerds like myself. I've got a "friend of a fiend" that works at Consensys, a Brooklyn based company that specializes in writing smart contracts for Ethereum, which is probably the most reputable one out there if interested.

 

Will definitely look into all this. Thanks for the knowledge.

[Hua Guofang]

You still seem to put a lot of faith in fiat.

 

Dude, you are totally reading something I'm not writing.

 

I'm not saying I like it, trust it want it or that I'm even passing any kind of value judgement at all.

 

I'm only saying that national currencies, of ANY country with a floating currency is an investment in the viability of that national economy. The central and ONLY point I am making is that currencies ARE backed by something and that is the net worth and potential of the applicable national economy.

 

You have a point to make regards monetary/fiscal/economic policy in the US and I don't have a problem with that point. I just have no idea why you keep on trying to have that discussion with me when it's not what I'm talking about or relevant to the point that I was making that currencies are backed by something (whether that something is good or not is irrelevant to this point).

[Dirty_habiT]

Crypto currency is backed by whatever form of money you exchange it for and it's current exchange rate for that currency.

 

A search yielded this (incomplete) list of things that determine the value of a cryptocurrency's units:

 

• Limited Supply and supply/demand.
  
• Energy put in in the form of electricity to secure the blockchain.
  
• Blockchain difficulty level.
  
• The utility of the currency, and how easy it is to use and store.
  
• Perceptions on its value by the public.
  
• Price of Bitcoin.
  
• Media.
  
• Investors.
  
• Scams.
  
• Market dilution.
  
• Innovation.
  
• Confidence in traditional systems.
  
• Legal/Governmental issues.
  

The energy used to work with cryptocurrency definitely costs money. I haven't seen any energy companies accepting cryptocurrency as a form of bill payment yet so you're still paying with your "backed" currency to create crypto currency. The value of gold or any precious metal is determined by supply/demand. The same rules govern cryptocurrency and there's no way to "create gold" or "create bitcoins" without expending something that costs resources to do it.

 

I don't understand how people get so hung up on comparing US dollars that are backed by gold to crypto currencies that are "backed by nothing". As soon as the dollar isn't worth as much you just change the crypto currency into some other currency that is worth the exchange. You wouldn't trade a bitcoin for $1000 right now if you had one, nobody would. Even if someone gave it to you, you wouldn't just give it away saying it's not worth anything because it's virtual right?

[Mercer]

Questions for you since your a bit more of a vet.

Exodus- Explain this a little more like i'm and idiot. I checked out Exodus, looks suitable. What happens if the computer I have it on dies? how does one recover? the same question goes for those little USB Drive wallets. If you were to lose them, are you just fucked? It doesnt seem like that could be true but again, I'm new to this.

 

 

Does exodus take a cut when you exchange from Bitcoin to Lite or others?

 

Why you no fuck with the alt coins? I read good things on Ripple and a couple of others.

 

 

Exodus, personal preference, basically they're extremely focused on UX. Anyone can use it and it's reliable.

 

 

Restoring wallets:

 

It's too complicated to oversimplify into a short answer, if you're down I'll explain it somewhat detailed.

 

With almost any cryptocurrency wallet, when you install, or set it up from scratch you're prompted to either record a new mnemonic passphrase. or restore the wallet from an existing one. A Mnemonic passphrase (on Exodus) is a string of 12 random words, some wallets require more, or less. The letters and spaces between words are all broken down into their numeric values as they're run through a cryptographic algorithm to generate your public/private keys.

 

For example, if you set up a 2 word Mnemonic passphrase "12 oz" 1 and 2 already have a numeric value, we'll give the space a value of zero, and assign "o" a value of 15, and "z" will be 26. Using this method this gives "12 oz" a numeric value of "1201526". Then you run some fancy crypto math on that number to generate a public/private key for whatever cryptocurrency the wallet is capable of generating. Exodus can make keys for any cryptocurrency wallet they offer using the same passphrase for each currency.

 

If your computer crashes, you just set up a new one, download the wallet software, and restore it during the setup process using the 12 word passphrase. If your USB ledger, or trezor gets lost/fucked, you buy another one, and restore it using your passphrase. Most smart people will order 2 ledgers at a time, set one up, and have a backup ready to restore should they lose or damage the first.

 

Don't get slick and try to use song lyrics, or even coherent sentences for a passphrase just because they're easier to memorize, hackers can, and do restore wallets using popular word strings. Try to stick to the random ones generated by the wallet.

 

 

Going extra deep:

 

Lets say you're paranoid and want zero chances someone can hack your private key. Wipe the hard drive on a computer and install a brand new OS. Install a new wallet, then disconnect from the internet before setting it up. Then set up the new wallet, and write down the passphrase. Don't print it (printers are more likely to get hacked than phones/computers believe it or not), don't say it out loud, (Siri, Google, and Alexa are listening) just write it down with a pen, and make sure to triple check. Now save your deposit address(s) aka public keys. Once you've got it all down wipe the computer again.

 

Now you have your public addresses to use for deposits from exchanges, or to give out to other people who want to send you crypto. Don't worry about someone getting your public address, they can't hack your wallet with just the public key. Keep that paper someplace safe, try to memorize the words. If all hell breaks loose and you need to escape the country, or you end up doing a bid, you've got the 12 word passphrase memorized and your money is safe, and availiable the next time you get internet access.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wallets taking a cut?

 

Exodus, and most other wallets like Jaxx that have Shapeshift built in don't take a cut when you exchange between cryptocurrencies. Shapeshift does, and they charge higher fees than most exchanges so it's expensive to use. Shapeshift then provides a small percentage of that fee to the wallet's makers as a commission. It encourages the wallets programmers/designers to include shapeshift. That's the business model for most wallets these days.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ripple?

 

Before I say this let me preface by saying this is only my opinion, and I'm by far no insider, or privy to any private information.

 

Ripple is a company that develops software systems for "Big Banks". It's confusing to call the token "Ripple" instead of "XRP" which would be like calling a steering wheel a "General Motors" The XRP token itself has no use in the 10 other products developed by the company Ripple. People assume big banks use/need the XRP token since they use the other Ripple products, but the other products Ripple makes don't have anything to do with the XRP token. Infact, Ripple initially stated the XRP token was basically an experiment, and it's only use case so far has been to fund & develop other software products for use by the very people cryptocurrencies are going to make obsolete (Banks).

 

Going even deeper, the XRP token was 100% pre mined, meaning someone created all the tokens at once, and didn't have a fair method of distribution. Most of those tokens are still held & controlled by Ripple, and the software/system used to send/recieve the XRP token is centralized. Ripple is no more secure than opening a bank account. Should ripple decide to confiscate your tokens, they can. Also should they decide to dump a massive amount of the 60% or so of XRP they control, they'll make billions before leaving the rest of the holders holding their dicks.

 

With the new wave of crypto investors coming in this fall/winter several scam coins that could afford it artificially "pumped" the price of their coins up enough for noobs to take notice of the upward momentum. Noobs will inevitably start buying the coin that's increasing, adding FOMO money to that upward momentum causing a spike in the price. Ripple did this with the XRP token, which again, has no use case whatsoever. Retailers aren't planning on accepting it, you basically can't use it for anything but speculation, banks don't use it, and they're not even promising to develop a use case for it in the future.

 

In summary, fuck Fuck Ripple/XRP they are the enemy. Other popular coins I think are shady/bad long term investments; Tron, Verge, & Litecoin.

[Hua Guofang]

US dollars that are backed by gold

 

[misteraven]

Dude, you are totally reading something I'm not writing.

 

I'm not saying I like it, trust it want it or that I'm even passing any kind of value judgement at all.

 

I'm only saying that national currencies, of ANY country with a floating currency is an investment in the viability of that national economy. The central and ONLY point I am making is that currencies ARE backed by something and that is the net worth and potential of the applicable national economy.

 

You have a point to make regards monetary/fiscal/economic policy in the US and I don't have a problem with that point. I just have no idea why you keep on trying to have that discussion with me when it's not what I'm talking about or relevant to the point that I was making that currencies are backed by something (whether that something is good or not is irrelevant to this point).

 

I keep referring back to it because I see them as fundamentally linked.

 

If you believe it’s built on the black of the nations economy then why would the Yen be worth shit, both in terms of its purchasing power within the country, it’s status on the global exchange and its value compared to the dollar? China is the number 2 economy in the world (many are now saying it’s the number 1). Their GDP is levels of magnitude beyond their import, the country carries no debt (in fact it owns a significant portion of the US debt). Yet nobody wants yen, they want dollars.

 

I feel what you’re saying, I’m only saying that the text book classic definition of the value of fiat, it’s relationship to the economy and it’s purchasing power really don’t line up with real life considering the extent to which it’s all been manipulated.

 

Same thing with the stock exchange (and very related). The big brokerage houses have real time access and skim tens of millions of dollars off trades using an algorithm that executes trades upon a fraction of debt, while the average joe puts in a trade based on a decision that has to be processed (and ironically the same brokerage houses often middle man those same trades for a fee). Plus with the power they have to buy, hold and sell, can do so at opportune moments that affect the value of the stock itself, further amplifying gains well beyond what the stock should be valued at according to the performance of the company that issued it.

 

In both cases, it’s middle men manipulating the sitauation to their benefit.

 

Crypto has no middle man and doesn’t function in real time. It has built in scarcity that can’t be changed. It has a predictable growth rate. It can’t be counterfeited (or at least not spent if it is). It’s fractional up to 21 decimal points and for some of the reasons above (mostly no middle men) is extremely cheap to transact. As a fiat, it’s only hurdle is confidence of the people to recognize it as a store of value. Pretty sure, we’re at that tipping point if not beyond it. That’s why government is freaking and putting out all the bad press.

[Dirty_habiT]

The "value" of the dollar is that it's "backed by gold". If we want to debate that fact/nonfact I'm fine with that but it's not getting at the root of what I was conveying.

[Hua Guofang]

I keep referring back to it because I see them as fundamentally linked.

 

If you believe it’s built on the black of the nations economy then why would the Yen be worth shit, both in terms of its purchasing power within the country, it’s status on the global exchange and its value compared to the dollar? China is the number 2 economy in the world (many are now saying it’s the number 1). Their GDP is levels of magnitude beyond their import, the country carries no debt (in fact it owns a significant portion of the US debt). Yet nobody wants yen, they want dollars.

 

Fair question and there are many elements but the big one is risk. The Yen/USD/AUD/etc is low risk compared to the RMB, for example.

 

Size of economy is not a reliable base for confidence. Debts levels, political stability, history, transparent political processes, arable land per square meter per population, national infrastructure, education curriculum and standards and ranking of universities, number of patents granted per year per capita, terms of trade, etc. etc. etc. It's all about how much you can be confident in a particular leadership, econ policy and global environment.

 

Regarding China's debt, you need to look into that a bit more. Their household debt and business debt to income ratio is alarming and their national banking system is overwhelmed with non-performing loans. They have a whole shadow banking system, for FFS. Let's look at three glaring examples of how much risk exists in the Chinese economy:

1. The illegal export of energy by State Owned Enterprises to avoid price caps for the local energy market - State run companies that were set up to provide fuel to the nation have to sell to the local market at capped rates so the peeps dont' get pissed off and expensive fuel prices. Th Chinese oil companies can't operate a loss so they started exporting and a national fuel shortage was the result. Government cracked down on exporting and the oil companies said "yeah yeah, sure sure" continued exporting and hid their profits by putting their returns in the national shadow banking system. Yep, there is a whole banking system worth hundreds of billions..., maybe trillions...., and that's the point, it's immeasurable. That means the second/first largest economy is unable to be understood making confidence in the economy a matter of chance.
    
   
2. Asset Management Companies. When China joined the WTO they had to open their banking system up to foreign investment. Given that China is a largely centrally managed economy it has a massive amount of SOEs that receive loans to support their loss making enterprises to simply keep people employed. In order to hid those non-performing loans the banks sold off all their debt to the AMCs who continue to roll over and roll over that debt which only continues to balloon and eat like a cancer into the economy because they are fucking huge.
    
   
3. Local debt and "financial vehicles". The provinces in China were never allowed to raise their own capital with debt. So instead of selling bonds at the local level they created these "financial vehicles" that had implicit links to the provincial govt that sold debt. The implication was that the debt was guaranteed by the state, so you can't lose, the debt will always be honoured. However these investments were allocated to roads that went nowhere, replicas of the White House, bridges that fell down and most common of all, grandiose govt office and junkets/banquets/Audis/hookers/etc for govt officials. That money has gone but the debt remains. Where did they go to support this habit.......? the Shadow banking system.
   

The Chinese economy has little to no experience of open markets save the last 30 odd years. It has a single party authoritarian govt and policy is made in secret. Do they know what they are doing and can we have faith that they are experienced enough to transform a state run economy to a market economy? No. Can you measure the Chinese economy with any semblance of accuracy..., can the Chinese even measure their own economy when there is a whole shadow banking system? No. Is the Chines economy a known quantity? No. Is the Chinese economy stable? No. Is the Chinese economy predictable? No.

 

etc etc etc......

 

The size of the Chinese GDP is probably bigger than the USA. Chinese GDP per capita places it in company with most West African failed states. When taking in the fragility and unpredictability of the Chinese economy compared with very well known quantities such as the Yen or the Yen, USD or even the AUD it's obvious why these currencies are worth more than the RMB. Then there is the issue of convertibility, the issue of openness to foreign investment, the predictability of the legal systems of each country, the level of investment in the current rules based order and prominent multilateral economic structures, etc. etc.

 

There are a mountain of reasons why the USD/Yen/AUD/etc are less risky than the RMB and why they are in higher demand pushing the exchange rate up. Not saying that Japan and the US have problems, the GFC and lost decade are more than we need to prove that the US and Japan, respectively, have their own cancers. However, compared to China they are still, far, far, far, far less risky investments than the RMB.

[Hua Guofang]

The "value" of the dollar is that it's "backed by gold". If we want to debate that fact/nonfact I'm fine with that but it's not getting at the root of what I was conveying.

 

There is no debate. During WWII Bretton Woods started the move away from the gold standard and in 1971 the USD became a fiat currency, as Misteraven as detailed with clarity and accuracy. there is no debate so please, less talk, more read - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bretton_Woods_system

 

And it totally WAS The root of what you were saying - The value of gold or any precious metal is determined by supply/demand. The same rules govern cryptocurrency and there's no way to "create gold" or "create bitcoins" without expending something that costs resources to do it. - You're saying that because the USD is linked to gold and gold is a finite resource just like BTC and both require expenditure to 'mine' then they are similar in nature.

 

The problem with that argument is, as Misteraven has demonstrated, the USD is not backed by gold and has not been since before you were born.

[misteraven]

LOL!

 

@Mercer

 

[LastBoyScout]

Exodus, personal preference, basically they're extremely focused on UX. Anyone can use it and it's reliable.

 

 

Restoring wallets:

 

It's too complicated to oversimplify into a short answer, if you're down I'll explain it somewhat detailed.

 

With almost any cryptocurrency wallet, when you install, or set it up from scratch you're prompted to either record a new mnemonic passphrase. or restore the wallet from an existing one. A Mnemonic passphrase (on Exodus) is a string of 12 random words, some wallets require more, or less. The letters and spaces between words are all broken down into their numeric values as they're run through a cryptographic algorithm to generate your public/private keys.

 

For example, if you set up a 2 word Mnemonic passphrase "12 oz" 1 and 2 already have a numeric value, we'll give the space a value of zero, and assign "o" a value of 15, and "z" will be 26. Using this method this gives "12 oz" a numeric value of "1201526". Then you run some fancy crypto math on that number to generate a public/private key for whatever cryptocurrency the wallet is capable of generating. Exodus can make keys for any cryptocurrency wallet they offer using the same passphrase for each currency.

 

If your computer crashes, you just set up a new one, download the wallet software, and restore it during the setup process using the 12 word passphrase. If your USB ledger, or trezor gets lost/fucked, you buy another one, and restore it using your passphrase. Most smart people will order 2 ledgers at a time, set one up, and have a backup ready to restore should they lose or damage the first.

 

Don't get slick and try to use song lyrics, or even coherent sentences for a passphrase just because they're easier to memorize, hackers can, and do restore wallets using popular word strings. Try to stick to the random ones generated by the wallet.

 

 

Going extra deep:

 

Lets say you're paranoid and want zero chances someone can hack your private key. Wipe the hard drive on a computer and install a brand new OS. Install a new wallet, then disconnect from the internet before setting it up. Then set up the new wallet, and write down the passphrase. Don't print it (printers are more likely to get hacked than phones/computers believe it or not), don't say it out loud, (Siri, Google, and Alexa are listening) just write it down with a pen, and make sure to triple check. Now save your deposit address(s) aka public keys. Once you've got it all down wipe the computer again.

 

Now you have your public addresses to use for deposits from exchanges, or to give out to other people who want to send you crypto. Don't worry about someone getting your public address, they can't hack your wallet with just the public key. Keep that paper someplace safe, try to memorize the words. If all hell breaks loose and you need to escape the country, or you end up doing a bid, you've got the 12 word passphrase memorized and your money is safe, and availiable the next time you get internet access.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wallets taking a cut?

 

Exodus, and most other wallets like Jaxx that have Shapeshift built in don't take a cut when you exchange between cryptocurrencies. Shapeshift does, and they charge higher fees than most exchanges so it's expensive to use. Shapeshift then provides a small percentage of that fee to the wallet's makers as a commission. It encourages the wallets programmers/designers to include shapeshift. That's the business model for most wallets these days.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ripple?

 

Before I say this let me preface by saying this is only my opinion, and I'm by far no insider, or privy to any private information.

 

Ripple is a company that develops software systems for "Big Banks". It's confusing to call the token "Ripple" instead of "XRP" which would be like calling a steering wheel a "General Motors" The XRP token itself has no use in the 10 other products developed by the company Ripple. People assume big banks use/need the XRP token since they use the other Ripple products, but the other products Ripple makes don't have anything to do with the XRP token. Infact, Ripple initially stated the XRP token was basically an experiment, and it's only use case so far has been to fund & develop other software products for use by the very people cryptocurrencies are going to make obsolete (Banks).

 

Going even deeper, the XRP token was 100% pre mined, meaning someone created all the tokens at once, and didn't have a fair method of distribution. Most of those tokens are still held & controlled by Ripple, and the software/system used to send/recieve the XRP token is centralized. Ripple is no more secure than opening a bank account. Should ripple decide to confiscate your tokens, they can. Also should they decide to dump a massive amount of the 60% or so of XRP they control, they'll make billions before leaving the rest of the holders holding their dicks.

 

With the new wave of crypto investors coming in this fall/winter several scam coins that could afford it artificially "pumped" the price of their coins up enough for noobs to take notice of the upward momentum. Noobs will inevitably start buying the coin that's increasing, adding FOMO money to that upward momentum causing a spike in the price. Ripple did this with the XRP token, which again, has no use case whatsoever. Retailers aren't planning on accepting it, you basically can't use it for anything but speculation, banks don't use it, and they're not even promising to develop a use case for it in the future.

 

In summary, fuck Fuck Ripple/XRP they are the enemy. Other popular coins I think are shady/bad long term investments; Tron, Verge, & Litecoin.

 

The theory of lte as silver to BTC’s gold seems to be a solid ones for the it’s basically the same code with more coins and faster transaction. Are your resorvations mostly from Charlie Lee’s over all sketchy behavior?

 

 

On the wallet side do you transfer all your coin to exodus right away or do leave some In apps line Coinbase, Does exodus allow you to look at the value of your portfolio at a glance?

[Guest]

via Imgflip Meme Generator

Tried making my first meme but there already is one.

[Guest]

I personally don't think Charlie Lee is all that shady. He's just a nerd who should've hired some PR. Homeboy is hella awkward.

[LastBoyScout]

[ATTACH=full]240467[/ATTACH]via Imgflip Meme Generator

Tried making my first meme but there already is one.

Similar one was texted to me 2 minutes ago

[LastBoyScout]

https://www.theverge.com/2018/1/18/16905040/bitcoin-crash-cryptocurrency-value-ethereum-regulation

[misteraven]

Don't get slick and try to use song lyrics, or even coherent sentences for a passphrase just because they're easier to memorize, hackers can, and do restore wallets using popular word strings. Try to stick to the random ones generated by the wallet.

 

I've never seen where you can actually pick the words in the phrase. Is that how Exodus actually works? Every other wallet I've heard of / seen assigns the words for you to save.

 

Going extra deep:

 

Lets say you're paranoid and want zero chances someone can hack your private key. Wipe the hard drive on a computer and install a brand new OS. Install a new wallet, then disconnect from the internet before setting it up. Then set up the new wallet, and write down the passphrase. Don't print it (printers are more likely to get hacked than phones/computers believe it or not), don't say it out loud, (Siri, Google, and Alexa are listening) just write it down with a pen, and make sure to triple check. Now save your deposit address(s) aka public keys. Once you've got it all down wipe the computer again.

 

Now you have your public addresses to use for deposits from exchanges, or to give out to other people who want to send you crypto. Don't worry about someone getting your public address, they can't hack your wallet with just the public key. Keep that paper someplace safe, try to memorize the words. If all hell breaks loose and you need to escape the country, or you end up doing a bid, you've got the 12 word passphrase memorized and your money is safe, and availiable the next time you get internet access.

 

If you're really paranoid, best bet is to not use the OS on your computer at all for this. You can take the computer offline, use an OS like Tails to bypass the hard drives OS, sync your data and be about as secure as anyone can be short of buying an entirely new computer and removing all communication hardware and software before booting it. More on Tails: https://tails.boum.org/index.en.html

 

Ripple?

 

Before I say this let me preface by saying this is only my opinion, and I'm by far no insider, or privy to any private information.

 

Ripple is a company that develops software systems for "Big Banks". It's confusing to call the token "Ripple" instead of "XRP" which would be like calling a steering wheel a "General Motors" The XRP token itself has no use in the 10 other products developed by the company Ripple. People assume big banks use/need the XRP token since they use the other Ripple products, but the other products Ripple makes don't have anything to do with the XRP token. Infact, Ripple initially stated the XRP token was basically an experiment, and it's only use case so far has been to fund & develop other software products for use by the very people cryptocurrencies are going to make obsolete (Banks).

 

Going even deeper, the XRP token was 100% pre mined, meaning someone created all the tokens at once, and didn't have a fair method of distribution. Most of those tokens are still held & controlled by Ripple, and the software/system used to send/recieve the XRP token is centralized. Ripple is no more secure than opening a bank account. Should ripple decide to confiscate your tokens, they can. Also should they decide to dump a massive amount of the 60% or so of XRP they control, they'll make billions before leaving the rest of the holders holding their dicks.

 

With the new wave of crypto investors coming in this fall/winter several scam coins that could afford it artificially "pumped" the price of their coins up enough for noobs to take notice of the upward momentum. Noobs will inevitably start buying the coin that's increasing, adding FOMO money to that upward momentum causing a spike in the price. Ripple did this with the XRP token, which again, has no use case whatsoever. Retailers aren't planning on accepting it, you basically can't use it for anything but speculation, banks don't use it, and they're not even promising to develop a use case for it in the future.

 

In summary, fuck Fuck Ripple/XRP they are the enemy. Other popular coins I think are shady/bad long term investments; Tron, Verge, & Litecoin.

 

Awesome info man. Lot of stuff in this I wasn't aware of. That said, I'd say that the marketing power and success of institutions like AMEX will likely have XRP climb a lot in the short term. Keeping in mind that as crypto gets adopted, newbies (especially those that arent so tech savvy) will likely gravitate towards names / brands they know and already trust. I can definitely see XRP getting pumped for a while just off that before collapsing in on itself.

 

Good post man.

[misteraven]

The "value" of the dollar is that it's "backed by gold". If we want to debate that fact/nonfact I'm fine with that but it's not getting at the root of what I was conveying.

 

Probably also why none of the clowns in Congress have the balls to audit the depository at Fort Knox and at the Federal Reserve. Lot of people suspect that gold is long gone. Would also make sense why when other countries ask for their gold deposits back, there's all kinds of excuses and delays.

 

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/german-politicians-demand-to-see-gold-in-us-federal-reserve-a-864068.html

 

https://nsnbc.me/2013/07/31/mystery-about-germany%C2%B4s-gold-in-the-us-solved/

[misteraven]

Fair question and there are many elements but the big one is risk. The Yen/USD/AUD/etc is low risk compared to the RMB, for example.

 

Size of economy is not a reliable base for confidence. Debts levels, political stability, history, transparent political processes, arable land per square meter per population, national infrastructure, education curriculum and standards and ranking of universities, number of patents granted per year per capita, terms of trade, etc. etc. etc. It's all about how much you can be confident in a particular leadership, econ policy and global environment.

 

Regarding China's debt, you need to look into that a bit more. Their household debt and business debt to income ratio is alarming and their national banking system is overwhelmed with non-performing loans. They have a whole shadow banking system, for FFS. Let's look at three glaring examples of how much risk exists in the Chinese economy:

1. The illegal export of energy by State Owned Enterprises to avoid price caps for the local energy market - State run companies that were set up to provide fuel to the nation have to sell to the local market at capped rates so the peeps dont' get pissed off and expensive fuel prices. Th Chinese oil companies can't operate a loss so they started exporting and a national fuel shortage was the result. Government cracked down on exporting and the oil companies said "yeah yeah, sure sure" continued exporting and hid their profits by putting their returns in the national shadow banking system. Yep, there is a whole banking system worth hundreds of billions..., maybe trillions...., and that's the point, it's immeasurable. That means the second/first largest economy is unable to be understood making confidence in the economy a matter of chance.
    
   
2. Asset Management Companies. When China joined the WTO they had to open their banking system up to foreign investment. Given that China is a largely centrally managed economy it has a massive amount of SOEs that receive loans to support their loss making enterprises to simply keep people employed. In order to hid those non-performing loans the banks sold off all their debt to the AMCs who continue to roll over and roll over that debt which only continues to balloon and eat like a cancer into the economy because they are fucking huge.
    
   
3. Local debt and "financial vehicles". The provinces in China were never allowed to raise their own capital with debt. So instead of selling bonds at the local level they created these "financial vehicles" that had implicit links to the provincial govt that sold debt. The implication was that the debt was guaranteed by the state, so you can't lose, the debt will always be honoured. However these investments were allocated to roads that went nowhere, replicas of the White House, bridges that fell down and most common of all, grandiose govt office and junkets/banquets/Audis/hookers/etc for govt officials. That money has gone but the debt remains. Where did they go to support this habit.......? the Shadow banking system.
   

The Chinese economy has little to no experience of open markets save the last 30 odd years. It has a single party authoritarian govt and policy is made in secret. Do they know what they are doing and can we have faith that they are experienced enough to transform a state run economy to a market economy? No. Can you measure the Chinese economy with any semblance of accuracy..., can the Chinese even measure their own economy when there is a whole shadow banking system? No. Is the Chines economy a known quantity? No. Is the Chinese economy stable? No. Is the Chinese economy predictable? No.

 

etc etc etc......

 

The size of the Chinese GDP is probably bigger than the USA. Chinese GDP per capita places it in company with most West African failed states. When taking in the fragility and unpredictability of the Chinese economy compared with very well known quantities such as the Yen or the Yen, USD or even the AUD it's obvious why these currencies are worth more than the RMB. Then there is the issue of convertibility, the issue of openness to foreign investment, the predictability of the legal systems of each country, the level of investment in the current rules based order and prominent multilateral economic structures, etc. etc.

 

There are a mountain of reasons why the USD/Yen/AUD/etc are less risky than the RMB and why they are in higher demand pushing the exchange rate up. Not saying that Japan and the US have problems, the GFC and lost decade are more than we need to prove that the US and Japan, respectively, have their own cancers. However, compared to China they are still, far, far, far, far less risky investments than the RMB.

 

Appreciate the response and clearly you're backing statements up with facts, so thanks for that. And you sort of point towards the complexity / inaccuracy of blanket statements or summarizing. Its a big issue with a lot of data points and even more points of influence that in total paint the picture and no doubt I'm over simplifying.

 

That said, I still believe you're offering text book explanations that are hardly representative of the way the world is actually working today. People trust the USA because they're forced to do so. First with with our involvement in WW2 and later with the petro dollar. The USA having the global reserve currency puts us at an unfair advantage in the global economy and absolutely shelters us from many of the negative effects of the games played with money and economics. I'd argue that transparency in the USA is just about as bad as China. The Federal Reserve, being a privately held corporation has not been audited in decades. Few people have any idea what they are truly up to and especially not the American taxpayer. Fact that they dumped over $1 trillion into the stock market after the crash of 2008 shows that they can make up the rules as they go along... Expanding and contracting the monetary supply at their discretion in order to prop up their own ideas for the growth of our debt based economy. Having the full faith of your government to back your currency / wealth is only good until it isn't and running the types of deficits we do, even mainstream economists say not if, but when the country becomes insolvent. Its common knowledge that the government used social security like a ponzi scheme and that it's close to bankrupt. The Obama administration got a standing ovation at his second state of the union address when he proposed making a 401k's government backed so they could unlock billions more money that doesn't belong to them.

 

Fact is pretty much everything we call out or try to police around the world, we've already been doing ourselves for longer. Calling out China for manipulating its currency to be more competitive on the global market... Shit, we invented that racket. Still stand behind my statement that the dollar isn't backed by anything much more significant than the trust of the people. Sure we can point to the gold holdings nobody has been allowed to see for decades, the GDP, the overall health or growth of the national economy, but considering they've been playing with those numbers for decades, fact is its all smoke and mirrors. So far every single administration has changed the rules for how unemployment is reported. After the ACA, they still sat there trying to say that unemployment was barely affected and hovered at something like 6%. Reminds me of when you get caught doing graffiti... They literally watched you catch a tag, see paint on your hands, see the can at your feet, yet you still look the cops in the eye and say it wasn't you.