Where have you seen that they've bought Bitcoin and are trying to buy more? It w...

Theodores · on Oct 29, 2018

Not every financial dealing is in the papers, sometimes you need to know people with skin in the game to know what is going on. They aren't buying coins through the 'over the counter' ways basement-dwelling kids buy coins though. If you want sizeable quantities of Bitcoin then you need to be buying very differently in a whole new world of brokering. None of this affects the price you see on exchanges, as you can imagine someone buying USD billion worth of coins is an entirely different venture, exchanges can't supply that, they don't have enough sellers. You have to reach out to people who mined significant quantities years ago and also have the problem of not being able to sell on 'Coinbase grade' exchanges.

Regarding 'fake cryptocurrencies', there is a big distinction between Bitcoin and every other coin. Bitcoin genuinely isn't controlled by one individual, it is actually decentralized in the true sense. Is anything else?

A second point regarding 'fake cryptocurrencies' is that a currency - crypto or otherwise - has to be a means of exchange. Apart from in-game tokens and gambling chips there are not a lot of things you can buy with these wonders of the blockchain. Bitcoin is different in that regard, you might struggle to buy things with it at your local newsagent, however, it did gain value as a currency for buying drugs in the days of the Silk Road. You can donate to Wikileaks with it too. There was a time when you could buy other things with it, even a Dell computer. Although Bitcoin did not make the cut for retail transactions it did morph into digital gold, definitely with value as a currency in the eyes of many, albeit with tax dodging benefits.

A third point. From a city point of view Bitcoin is a commodity, everything else is merely an 'unlicensed security'. Of course there are those who want to beg to differ on this. But we live in a world where tomato ketchup can be deemed a 'vegetable' by regulatory types.

The distinction is that coins that are decentralised in name are still with a central point of control due to having a company/org that can be identified as starting it. This is an inescapable distinction. Due to history Bitcoin has ended up as a unicorn, it is not possible to anonymously setup another coin and walk away from it as happened with 'Satoshi Nakamoto', who created what 'he' did from the 1996 NSA White Paper on blockchain things, allegedly. Every subsequent coin has creators, whether they promise anonymity and give away 100% of the coins to strangers matters not.

At time of writing it does not look like anything but Bitcoin really is satisfying points 1 - 3 to make it as something that is a currency in the true sense of the word. Words are our servants and not our masters and the term 'unlicensed security' is generous, 'crypto-currency' is a bit too generous since means of exchange is far from satisfied. 'Tokens' is good, as in those things you might buy to spend in a car wash. 'Chips' would suit me fine too, as in those things you buy at a casino.

Regarding the use of quotes, I am not an American and I know that U.S. readers do not understand humour that is used elsewhere in the English speaking world. American English is very different, for instance the country name 'Ireland' is pronounced 'Ireland' but Americans think it is 'I-re-land'. Poe's Law applies and on HN there is not the custom of using emojis, therefore I tend to use air quotes to indicate that I am not being deadly serious about analogies and phrases that Americans may consider pejorative.

hnmonkey · on Oct 29, 2018

You are seemingly arguing that you have insider information that they are buying coins because you happen to know people 'with skin in the game.' That's a hard argument to buy with such a claim and no evidence. And don't get me wrong since I actually thought it was interesting that they would be buying the coins so I'm not even trying to disprove you. You're just not making a solid case.

Second, referring to everyone else that buys coins as 'basement-dwelling kids' is pretty disingenuous and insulting. Middle class people have purchased them. Grandparents have purchased them. Average people have purchased them. Billionaires have purchased them. Snoop Dog, Ashton Kutcher, Gwyneth Paltrow, and many more celebs have purchased them.

You have stated that you can't buy coins at that level (presumably the Fidelity level) the same way you would purchase them off Coinbase, but your example is that they're seeking out people who mined significant quantities of coins years ago. How did they find these people from a bitcoin address? What's the evidence of this? Why do these people have problems selling their coins on Coinbase?

Your arguments about fake cryptocurriences basically boil down to other coins are not exactly Bitcoin so they're something you consider fake. Other coins however are currencies since you can exchange them for things as has happened with many types of coins other than Bitcoin. They might not be as popular but they still can do the same things for the most part.

I don't understand your third point. It doesn't seem here or there.

Someone could certainly create a new coin anonymously. I'm not sure why you think that's not possible. A throw-away email address, a github account paid with a pre-paid card, and some nodes hosted anonymously with the same card and voila you've got yourself a new cloned coin made by someone you don't know.

I don't think your argument that Bitcoin is the only one that satisfies points 1-3 holds water since those points themselves don't seem to hold water either. (And you should check out Litecoin and Ethereum which both do all of the things that Bitcoin does)

I'll be frank and say I still don't understand your last paragraph about the quotes. I now understand that you're not American but you seem to be implying something about American English being different than English elsewhere and using the way Ireland is pronounced doesn't seem to support that. No worries here though... it's not significant so no need for us to waste any more time on it.