Although because the forks keep the current block chains up until their fork, the controllers of btc are effectively in control of the forks too

I think the bitcoin core team will ultimately be pressured more by the general public's inability to use btc in everyday commerce rather than by any pressue from altcoins

I’m not concerned about the number of forks. There are 5,000 alt-coins and that’s fine, there can be 5,000 forks too.

I’m confident that BCH is the future. Segwit was originally created so as to slightly increase tx capacity without increasing block size. Now small blockers are learning the hard way that 1 MB doesn’t work.

So there’s some proposal to combine segwit and a smaller 4 MB blocksize increase. I wouldn’t back it. Segwit is needless complexity and most segwit supporters also support Replace By Fee, which allows reversible transactions which is a disaster. BCH is simple, honest, and scaling.

Bitcoin core is also bankrolled by Blockstream, so they might never change.

Excellent speech about how crypto can end wars:
https://youtu.be/joITmEr4SjY

I'm going to pick up some other coins on binance soon. I was planning on using litecoin, but is ether or bitcoin a better option?

dude don't touch Litecoin

the founder sold all of his

@Tanner - SC if you look at the segwit plans for the future, they’re planning on adding a lot. Bigger block sizes, contracts, etc

I don’t see a point in BCH and other forks if the core team just incorporates the changes

looking into Electroneum (ETN) right now. promising.

one of the biggest token sales when in development at $40M total

@here Just a generic but friendly reminder not to risk money you can't lose

☝🏻☝🏻☝🏻

Someone suggested i buy Ripple at 1.10 but my finances are fixed to buying Ramen for the forseeable future

Weev seemed very optimistic about Monero. He said he no longer holds much bitcoin and invested it there instead. Thoughts?

Weev already made his money on BTC. On to the next one

I tried setting up Monero app. The built in mining ability doesn't work and the wallet app feels buggy :/

And Monero has a 25 word wallet seed AND a password. The password kinda defeats the purpose of the 25 word seed in terms of security

@Deleted User I like the goals of Monero, but I did a deeper dive into how it works and I wasn't impressed. A pro is that receiving Monero seems successfully to be completely anonymous, because essentially a new receiving address is made for every Monero transaction. However for sending Monero it obscures your transactions by mixing your transactions with 3-10 others at a time. That gives you plausibile deniability to being the source of a single transaction but if you send a transaction twice to the same person then you are likely to be the only person mixed into both transactions. That doesn't seem very secure and also the mechanism smacks of Bitcoin mixers which have a lot of research showing they aren't as secure as advertised.
Ultimately the decision to invest right now is based on whether you think you'll make money. If you look at Monero priced in dollars then it *looks* like Monero has gone up 10x this year. But that's because ALL cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin. So I would only invest in Monero over Bitcoin (Monero also being a bit of a PITA to obtain in my experience) if you think it's vastly going to outperform Bitcoin. Monero priced in Bitcoin (XMR/BTC) is exactly that and you can find multiple charts for it online, it's actually stayed relatively stable for a cryptocurrencies, meaning there's not much difference from a dollar standpoint whether you put you money in Bitcoin or Monero. Given the ease of entry, use, and ubiquity of Bitcoin I think it makes sense to stick with Bitcoin. I would only go into Monero if you really think there's a hidden factor that's going to make it pull ahead of Bitcoin more than where it already has in terms of popularity.

Monero does not have to be held to utilize its unique value. Hold BCH, trade into Monero when you need a private tx, then trade out of Monero back into BCH.

“If you send a tx twice to the same person”
That’s easy to resolve, just use a new address for every single transaction.

What's the best alt coin?

I'm gonna buy $300 in bitcoin and then diversify with alt coin

>best alt coin
there really isnt one. if you want something to invest in the privacy coins are making a huge imprint and will continue to grow. these include Monero, Electroneum, and Zcash.

if you want to get into the first social coin (huge investment possibility) that would be Sether.

really tho. putting your money into any coin is good right now. bitcoin is still the giant and will continue to be so for some time.

https://medium.com/@enkiv2/paranoia-as-a-design-choice-d978038cf3d4

Crypto is like the internet in 1995. There will be many more coins and tech that will make money. So, if you did not invst in bitcoin in 2012 you still have a chace to make a lot of money now and in the future. You do need to educate youself. I hate Ripple and what it stands for but if it gets on coinbase it will be big.

@JohnStrasser BCH is the best coin, IMO, better than BTC.

This is BTC running into a major scaling limitation:

Transaction rate is stuck because it can't scale:

Hmmmm

Thanks @Tanner - SC

Copying a great YouTube comment from a video discussing the SegWit 2x fork coming up:

SegWit never had consensus, it would never be activated if it wasn't put into a compromise of SegWit2x which was to add SegWit and then also 2MB blocks. The 2x never happened, and this new SegWit2x fork is NOT the same thing.

New SegWit2X on 28t Dec is completely different thing. it is 4MB blocks, different algorithm, 2.5min block times, replay protection and pre-mine of Satoshi's coins (which is equivalent to theft of Satoshi's coins). This fork is one big fat scam written all over it.

Now about Lightning, it is only P2P IF 2 persons create channel directly between one another, but in reality this will not be the case. LN will have users create channels to highly concentrated HUBs which will be acting as middle man in transactions. Miners are not middle men as miners do not send/recieve an funds while LN HUBs do. Also LN is a centralised system. Bitcoin is not. In order to create LN channel you must first open a channel which is written to Bitcoin blockchain, paying a fee as for any other transaction, then again pay fee for closing this channel. It is more expensive to create direct channel in LN then just use Bitcoin layer.

LN is not a solution to Bitcoin scaling, LN is not a Bitcoin system at all. Bitcoin is chain of digital signatures... SegWit broke that rule by taking out the signatures, SegWit is therefore an Alcoin fork of Bitcoin and not a Bitcoin system either.

Bitcoin Cash is the only working as intended, Bitcoin system. if you read the Bitcoin white paper you will see Bitcoin is meant to be used as digital money, not as store of value (also store of value alone does not exist, I have video on this topic also).

Link to the comment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4ZmOPCSHaE&lc=Ugwbm2uap3wyFyJkUcF4AaABAg

@this_that5553 you were asking about SegWit2x

Segwit2 seems to be taking the best ideas from BCH though

@this_that5553 that's what I figured would happen with BCH. BTC *can* be updated if enough big guys agree (I think I read it's really only 6 guys that have to agree)

@ThisIsChris BCH already has a ton of the biggest names with bitcoin.

Segwit 2 has some a negro woman and maybe an exchange backing them?

@this_that5553 Yeah Segwit2x seems like randos, I was just agreeing with you that BTC could incorporate the code changes of any of the various forks. But you said BCH has major backers? I haven't seen anything but admit I haven't looked either

Satoshi Dice uses BCH exclusively for one. overstock uses BCH and BTC both.

BCH website shows all the backers

No kidding, that's neat and news to me. For the record I fondly remember Satoshi dice as the place I lost all my doge coin in 2013

Check out this chart that shows median transaction fee for the major cryptos. BTC doesn't fare too well:
https://bitinfocharts.com/comparison/median_transaction_fee-btc-eth-bch-ltc.html#3m

hahahahahahaha

ITS NOT THERE

My major stakes atm are ripple and bch.

I thought I'd write my thoughts on crypto trading for consideration and critique.
I call my trade approach Parity Plus Advantage

The basic idea of the Parity part is that all things being equal in long run all major cryptos should be roughly equal in market cap value. You can use this to evaluate a parity price of different currencies. For example ripple has 100 billion units. Bitcoin has 21 million. If bitcoin is worth 15k then ripple parity is 3.15.

The Advantage part is the idea that in long run cryptos with technical advantage in speed security and utility should steal market cap from other cryptos.

For example ethereum is faster and has more utility than bitcoin so we should expect ethereum to exceed bitcoin in parity price in long run. How much is a soft estimate.

Using these methods I've decided to hold bitcoin cash and ripple. But if these are priced past parity I may sell out.

>all major cryptos should be roughly equal in market cap value

What defines a "major" crypto?

I think a lot of cryptos are over-valued because they're full of people who just want to "catch the next bitcoin-like wave", not because they fundamentally offer value in usage.

And I don't think the major infrastructure companies like Coinbase and BitPay will support 100 currencies, they'll probably keep it to 5 max.

I think btc bcc eth ltc xrp are the majors

But that may change with new comers

I'd consider anything with over 10 billion to be major currency.

tbh. any investment into crypto right now is good. there really isnt a bad investment except for the bottom of the barrel shitcoins.

and even then you can make money on those

@Perihelion - CA so you're saying "if they're close in value, they'll get closer in value"?

I'm saying if they stay in use then they'll get closer in value in long run minus structural advantages

For example. Let's assume bitcoin and ripple are equally useful. Then ripple should be worth 3.15. It's priced at 1.6. That's a buy. Now let's consider structural advantages. Is ripple more or less useful than btc? I'd say more useful. So that's an added margin of comfort. End result: ripple is a buy, btc is a sell

Calculating parity gives you a baseline to start evaluating advantages or disadvantages

Venezuela is launching "petro" a crypto backed by $250 billion in oil

That's a major challenge to financial system. Something to watch carefully

Tether is pegged to the dollar, but fluctuates. What's stopping me from buying every time it goes below $1, selling every time it goes above, and making easy money?

Tether is a scam

It is not backed by USD

They print as much as they want

https://medium.com/@bitfinexed/the-so-called-tether-audit-that-isnt-an-audit-at-all-5a40cfcc2a75

You think it will crash soon?

I’m not one for timing, just looking at fundamentals.

https://www.minds.com/blog/view/793221494705606656?__e_ct_guid=759657611657224195&campaign=announcement-30-12-17&validator=e8ad6623835e7412c480884f7e532920ff26954d

Can anyone provide and pin to this channel a beginner's primer to Bitcoin, Ethereum, Altcouns, etc? I am thinking of getting in the game but wanted to consult experts here in my IE fam.

@Darth
https://youtu.be/JP9-lAYngi4

Thanks!

It says 404 error...

NVM...edited the link and got working. Appreciate it.

Maybe I am late to the game with this question, but do you guys see that the potential rise in oil prices will also create a rise in BTC value since mining requires 20 barrels for 1 BTC?

I'm sure this has been asked here more than once, but I want to start getting involved and learning as much as possible about crypto - what are the best resources to start reading about it? I assume Googling it will lead to reading some shit-tier normie resources and I won't that woke alt-right crypto info

@Jeb! Nationalism - MD I am looking for the same. I want to start investing in the next few days. BTC at first, but also interested in Ethereum and all the tokens and altcoins

@Darth Right on. I had a little BTC I bought for $25 way back in the day, and I sold it for $500 earlier this year when I didn't know anything about it. I just saw an article about how much Bitcoin had raised and I was like "Hey, I bet I still have some of that!" :p

I really want to read and know as much about it as possible before I get involved in putting more money into it

I'm also looking for which sites for crypto news are the most reliable

Yeah, that is sort of where I am. However, I have researched enough to drop $500 into BTC once I find the best wallet option and exchange. Just a drop in the bucket, but will be adding to it each pay check. I am already investing 26% of my pre tax dollars into a 401k and maxxed out this year. So rolling the dice a bit on BTC makes sense. It is money I can lose without "feeling it"

@Darth >BTC value since mining requires 20 barrels for 1 BTC?

This argument comes up again and again. It's easy to calculate the amount of power needed for mining the bitcoin network, so everyone harps on it. The fact is, it is FAR less resource consumption than the fiat currency system. But because it's hard to add up all of the costs in the fiat system, no one makes the comparison. All of the brick and mortar buildings for banks, all of the employees who physically commute to work, their time, the BRINKS trucks toting around cash, the outdated exchange markets which have physical open and close times ... it all adds up to a tremendous amount, but since there's no hard number, everyone points a stupid finger at bitcoin like they know something. I bet more energy goes into the gas tanks alone of the employees commuting to the banks in just one city each day than the entire bitcoin network.

@Jeb! Nationalism - MD Did you watch the above video?

@Tanner - SC just started watching it. I misread the title when scrolling through before I posted. I thought it was a bitcoin cash video

That video was made back when bitcoin still had the vision that bitcoin cash is carrying out today. It's a good watch.

And everyone asking "what is the intro to bitcoin?" What aspect are you looking to learn? How it was created? How it works? How to buy it? How to transact with it? How to securely store it? How to estimate the market potential for it?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1si5ZWLgy0
https://youtu.be/JP9-lAYngi4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1VtZT5HEFs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joITmEr4SjY

Thanks for the all the info. I think my main concern for getting started was that I wanted to learn as much about the technical aspect and how it works as possible. I don't think I would be able to get a grasp on a super autist technical level, but just to have a better understanding of it. I'll start out with the resources you posted, thanks @Tanner - SC

I feel that. I've tried to learn many times. But so many coins are complete trash at onboarding people