Bitcoin

[houston]

Originally Posted by mfblume

Wait. What did you mean when you said you owned $ 30 of bitcoin a few years ago.

There was no “a few years ago.” It was recently.

[Jito463]

I was considering Crypto Currencies (CC) recently, and a revelation dawned on me. There is literally not one single, tangible asset behind CC. If everyone cashed out tomorrow, there would be nothing left behind. It reminded of me the DotCom bubble burst from 2000. Some people are making money hand over fist right now, but at some point the growth will become unsustainable. When that occurs, the bubble's going to burst and many people will find their finances wiped out.

We're already seeing major corrections causing massive dips in the value, how long before the whole thing comes tumbling down like a house of cards?

[Esaias]

Originally Posted by Jito463

I was considering Crypto Currencies (CC) recently, and a revelation dawned on me. There is literally not one single, tangible asset behind CC. If everyone cashed out tomorrow, there would be nothing left behind. It reminded of me the DotCom bubble burst from 2000. Some people are making money hand over fist right now, but at some point the growth will become unsustainable. When that occurs, the bubble's going to burst and many people will find their finances wiped out.

We're already seeing major corrections causing massive dips in the value, how long before the whole thing comes tumbling down like a house of cards?

If EVERYONE cashed out at the same time, nobody would be able to cash out, because apparently "cashing out" requires SELLING the bitcoin to someone who wants to buy it. It's the same as stocks or commodities, for every buy there must be a sell, and for every sell there must be a buy, otherwise the stock or commodity crashes and burns. Thus the stock markets and commodities markets have built in institutional buying and selling in order to cover everyone's calls and puts (buy and sell orders). Well, under normal conditions, anyway. But if there's a run on a stock or commodity, then there's trouble...

If everyone decided to cash out their bitcoin at roughly the same time, it would be like a run on the bank - not enough cash on hand to give everyone... worse even, cause no cash would be forthcoming.

Speaking of which, FRNs aren't that far behind bitcoin in regards to risk and tangible asset backing...

Real assets, that's where security is located.

[houston]

I didn’t sell my bitcoin to anyone. I cashed out.

[Esaias]

Originally Posted by houston

I didn’t sell my bitcoin to anyone. I cashed out.

That means somebody bought it. If you "cash out through an exchange" somebody bought your bitcoin through an exchange. the purchase was invisible to you (which block chain crypto currency is supposed to do in the first place, make transfers anonynous).

But if you traded bit coin for cash somebody gave you cash for your bitcoin. If it was a small amount the exchange itself might have bought it, knowing they can instantly resell it to someone else.

If this is not how bitcoin works then clue me in.

[houston]

Well, you seem to know how it works.