Slashdot Mirror
NYTimes: Move Over, Bitcoin. Ether Is the Digital Currency of the Moment. (nytimes.com)
An anonymous reader shares a report: The price of Bitcoin has hit record highs in recent months, more than doubling in price since the start of the year. Despite these gains, Bitcoin is on the verge of losing its position as the dominant virtual currency. The value of Ether, the digital money that lives on an upstart network known as Ethereum, has risen an eye-popping 4,500 percent since the beginning of the year (alternative source). With the recent price increases, the outstanding units of the Ether currency were worth around $34 billion as of Monday -- or 82 percent as much as all the Bitcoin in existence. At the beginning of the year, Ether was only about 5 percent as valuable as Bitcoin. The sudden rise of Ethereum highlights how volatile the bewildering world of virtual currency remains, where lines of computer code can be spun into billions of dollars in a matter of months. [...] The two-year old system has picked up backing from both tech geeks and big corporate names like JPMorgan Chase and Microsoft, which are excited about Ethereum's goal of providing not only a digital currency but also a new type of global computing network, which generally requires Ether to use. In a recent survey of 1,100 virtual currency users, 94 percent were positive about the state of Ethereum, while only 49 percent were positive about Bitcoin, the industry publication CoinDesk said this month.
Buy tulip bulbs now! Get rich quick!
The rich have way too much money sitting around. They're investing in nothing backed by nothing on the promise that it might one day be something. It's insane. What ever happened to investing in building something?
/.
It's becoming increasingly difficult to mine bitcoins and is becoming less profitable. I suspect that Ethereum mining can still be profitable and a lot of the activity is based on people mining and then needing to trade/buy/etc. to use the mined currency.
I seem to only comment every few years...so just thought I would log back in and say hello. I shall now go back to my experiments. Good day to you sir!!
by airrage on Thursday June 18, 2015 @04:10PM...
by airrage on Friday January 21, 2011 @04:26PM
"This isn't a study in computer science, its a study in human behavior"
Pump it. Pump it good.
Oh yeah baby, I'm about to dump...
Anything the banks invest/invent or have a big stake in might just as well be avoided. Ether is one such thing. Bitcoin can be improved, and it's the only 'free and open' currency out there without stupid cocks being in control of it.
we already had this slashvertisement
i don't think this is even sourceforge's doing, it's just slipping in submitted
Why would anyone suspect that an unusually high (or low!) exchange rate with another currency, might possibly cause people to favor it?
You might even say that slow change in perceived value, would make it more attractive as a currency.
"Despite" was almost exactly the wrong word.
Isn't Ethereum the digital currency that arbitrarily rolled back transactions because they didn't like them? Or maybe they liked them too much? In any case, even the ability to roll back transactions make this a non-starter.
You won't be able to use your currency because there will be so many types, that you'll first hafta get it converted.
There's a new gold rush in crypto currency that is causing video card prices to go up as everyone and their mother tries to mine the latest and greatest from the ether.
http://www.pcgamer.com/it-looks-like-cryptocurrency-mining-is-driving-up-nvidia-graphics-card-prices-too/
Move over Etherium: Latinum is here to stay.
My brain is still spinning!
I tend to rant.
Bitcoin is on the verge of losing its position as the dominant virtual currency
In terms of actually being used as a currency, i.e. people using it to buy and sell things, I don't think I've personally come across anywhere accepting Ether. I've bought software, VPN service, pharmaceuticals (no, the legal kind) with bitcoin, which seems to be widely accepted. Surely before you can say that Ether is replacing bitcoin as the "dominant virtual currency", it would have to gain widespread acceptance as an actual currency, rather than just something to get speculators excited.
Oh no... it's the future.
This kind of jump, especially against an well established currency sounds like a Soros-esce pump and dump scheme. The idea is simple:
* Buy a bunch of currency which drives the cost of buying more currency up with another currency or precious metals
* When the currency hits its peak sell off all of your stock of said currency
* When the currency crashes buy back your stock back for pennies on the dollar or what every your currency's equivalent is.
* Rinse and repeat until you become an enemy of the state
Give it 6 months and you'll see a huge crash and then it will normalize at about 1/3 of its current value. After that look for gradual but steady increase in price.
You say things that offend me and I can deal with it. Can you?
Bitcoin has and is being used as well as expanding into the real world.
Ether seems more like an investment with the hype of a startup but has no products. More like a pyramid scheme... there must be many pyramid scammers trying to get their own block chain... IT WILL HAPPEN. Maybe not Ether... but somebody will win the honor of 1st to do the scam.
Most people are thinking currency investment trading and simply having your coins get higher value than bitcoin doesn't mean a great deal.
Notes on Ethereum .Money is what people believe it is.
-Key man risk of 22 year old kid. Benign dictatorship akin to Torvalds.
-Supply isn't limited like Bitcoin, annual inflation.
-Currently hugely overvalued due to ICOs, not to say it doesn't have some value
-Its blockchain is huge, bloated and doesn't currently scale very well. Network clogs quickly.
-Smart contracts are promising, interesting technology that have some very useful cases but very specific cases. Prediction markets are gold for this. Put a blockchain on it is the new put a bird on it.
-Enterprise use is mostly vapourware. Banks all trust each other and know each other. The Gov knows itself. They just need better databases. Consultants and innovation theatre practioners looking for a passing bandwagon. What back office is left to automate?
-Premine for the insiders
-Not immutable. Read about the ideological split between Ethereum and Ethereum Classic. Gresham's law gone wild. The bad money turned into the good money and good money the bad. Could be argued Etheruem should actually be $20.
-Bitcoin has been a ridiculous bubble for 9 years. Keep thinking that. If it fell to $1000 the longterm trend still holds. Better money will win.
Ether is the next BTC because all the articles say it is. Therefore Ether is the new BTC. Rinse and repeat every month until userbase rises or filters it out.
Canned food and shotgun shells
Digital currencies are not a real investment or even a sustainably currency as it fluctuates way to much.
(Tin-foil hatter) "There's a global conspiracy to keep the US dollar strong! Billionaires man, the 1% control it all! And they lobby to maintain anonymous cash to fund illegal cartels! Millions laundered every day! I mean, have you ever seen something so artificially inflated before? There's nothing else that can even touch that shit!"
(Cryptocurrency) "Hold my beer and watch this."
Hay, we had pork chops for barbecue this week. Don't be dissing pigs.
Unlike Bitcoin it is not decentralized
Pot, meet kettle.
Ethereum is a good step on the road towards a block-chained cryptocurrency, that will actually take off... but I don't think it currently has what it takes. The next step, which learns from Ethereum, and addresses problems, might be the one that makes it big.
Another kleptocurrency? The way things are going we'll all have one of our own.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
- Not only are 4+ GB graphics card (GPU) prices going up, high wattage power source units (PSU) are on back order and prices are going up. (2 GB GPUs and lower have hit obsolescence with popular coins like Ethereum).
- Asic mining has made Bitcoin mining all but irrelevant for the Average Joe. But speculating, trading, holding, mining, and supporting other currencies that do not benefit from Asic mining and trading some to hedge your bet with Bitcoin is possible. Bitcoin is still the gold standard. As it rises, it has dips and corrections. It has not seemed to stabilize yet.
- Exchanges have made it easy to trade 100's of currencies for Bitcoin for cents per trade. One example is Cyptopia: https://www.cryptopia.co.nz/Exchange/?baseMarket=BTC
- APIs like Shapeshift have made currency exchanges within your wallet possible. No need to use an exchange for the more popular/adopted currencies. They also charge pennies on the dollar.
- Want to figure out what you can mine at the best value per dollar based on your GPU rig: whattomine.com
- Want to turn your Bitcoin into money? You have several options. https://bitpay.com/ offers prepaid visa debit cards for a fee %. Or you can link paypal, a bank account, etc. to something like https://www.coinbase.com.
- Some merchants are taking Bitcoin and other crypto currencies directly as payment without need to exchange for local dollars.
There is no doubt that most of the crypto currencies will fail to materialize profitability. It is safe to safe for the time being, acceptance is growing and people are profiting and creating crypto economies with a select few currencies. Beyond speculation, there are many uses for these cryptocurrencies. It may seem counterintuitive to say gold or coins, but those intrinsic materials have access issues for the world's poor. When hyperinflation hits a place like Venezuela and its citizens don't have access to gold, they have access to Bitcoin, Ethereum, etc. They may not have access to mining equipment either, but still hedging inflation with digital currency only requires money to trade, internet access, and knowledge of how cryptocurrency works. People will always find a way to get paid, as in the will learn how to use alternative currencies. Yes cryptocurrencies are also used on black and grey markets by those who crave anonymity to some degree, making borderless transactions at the push of a button that is as fast or faster than banks. However, governments are starting to recognize these cryptocurrencies as well and figuring out how to tax them. Crytocoins will stabilize individually, but the Cryptocoin market as whole has yet to stabilize.
Uses for cryptocurrencies are growing daily, markets are being created around these currencies, and governments are taxing these markets.
Until somebody can solve the big problem with all digital currencies they are destined to be technological playgrounds and not true digital currencies.
Currently all digital currencies are extremely concentrated in very hands, much more so than even fiat currencies.
By which I mean, they're not environmentally sustainable. The current volume of Bitcoin is $9 billion, and it's estimated that the power used to mine the coins and keep the currency afloat requires the full output of a mid-sized nuclear power plant. There's no reason to think the Ether would be any different.
The cryptocurrency that wins is the one that uses "proof of useful work" instead of "proof of work" to secure the blockchain. One such scheme is REM, but even that requires trusting Intel.
It's cheaper to use the etherium network to mine for bitcoin.
A currency is most useful if its value is stable: if the dollar in my pocket will buy me roughly the same amount of goods a month or a year from now, then that dollar is useful because I can make a promise for an exchange a year from now based on that dollar.
Imagine, for example, if your rent had been defined in terms of a number of Bitcoins per month for a year. The price of Bitcoins fluctuations so much over the course of a year that you might end up paying vastly more for rent by the end of the year than you paid at the start, or conversely you might end up paying vastly less. No reasonable person or entity would dare writing a long-term contract based on Bitcoin. And the rapidly fluctuating values make it dubious for most products, as they'd have to readjust the value frequently.
Maybe the concept of a blockchain could be useful as a medium of exchange, such that the buyer converts their money to Bitcoins and the seller converts it directly to the currency of their choice upon receipt. But I doubt it. It seems overly-complicated for the task.
If Bitcoins crash, and Ethereum takes over, then it's only a matter of time before Ethereum crashes and the next cryptocurrency takes over. But none of these currencies will ever replace government-backed currencies. Because they can't assure stable value.
Currencies are a store of value so people can use them to exchange goods and services. For currencies to work their value has to be hold steady. A currency which changes its value especially at these rates is not a reliable store of value. It is a pyramid scheme.
Isn't it funny how almost all the upvoted posts are saying something like "crypto is crap, it's a mirage that's about to vanish!"
Do we live in a world of deluded fools where only the commenters on Slashdot can see that the emperor has no clothes? There may be a lot of hype around crypto, but almost everyone you talk to has a negative view and says it's a balloon that's about to pop.
So... who are the idiots buying this stuff that don't have the brains of the highly elite Slashdot readership? Why can't they see the writing on the wall? If all it's going to take is someone shouting that crypto is crap for the whole illusion to collapse, I guess the word is out. Good work -- it'll be a relief to see this nightmare of a decentralized digital asset die tomorrow. It must be really horrible if almost everyone who reads a website dedicated to technology enthusiasts hates this particular piece of miraculous technology.
So you would make money when they have their massive collapse.