The Bitcoin, Blockchain, and Cryptocurrency Thread

[hhinner]

Do your heirs know how to unlock your crypto? Quadriga owner's don't.

What a bummer! https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-47123371

[m_right]

After submitting an elaborate application for an account with an exchange in Thailand verification failed as I am a US citizen.

[buksida]

The US has some of the harshest tax regulations on the planet which extend way beyond it shores. It also has very long regulatory tendrils when it comes to crypto which is why a lot of foreign exchanges simply wont touch Americans! 'Land of the free' eh?!

[Homer]

... 'Land of the free' eh?!

The lyrics of 'America the Beautiful' were taken from a poem written by a college English professor in 1893. Care to enlighten us about how the meaning in context of that phrase in 1893 applies to the current state of taxes on, and control of, cryptocurrency?

[StevePIraq]

It may well drop to $6k again, though I dont think that the Goldman announcement had as much to do with it as mainstream media is making out.

Well it dropped to 6k and kept on going, now at US$3,376 and going down. I don't pity the greedy ones who bought in at 20k or even 10k

[buksida]

It has further to go by all accounts and analyst predictions. A bottom of $2k before several months of consolidation at $2.5k which will be a great time to accumulate before it heads back up towards the end of the year. Bitcoin, like all other financial entities moves in cycles.

BTW, Mt.Gox has been blamed for the crash: https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/artic ... -collapse/

[StevePIraq]

Not at all like other financial entities

[buksida]

Not at all like other financial entities

You mean the ones that are manipulated and printed out at will, becoming worthless over time:

purchasing-power-of-the-us-dollar-1913-to-2013_517962b78ea3c_w1500.jpg (73.7 KiB) Viewed 925 times

Similar looking chart to Bitcoin in 2018 ...

[StevePIraq]

But that is looking at 100 years

[buksida]

Doesn't change the fact. Anyway, you missed the point, the reference to other financial entities was the cyclical market movements, not the physical value.

[T.O.M.]

enc_main.jpg (166.32 KiB) Viewed 902 times

[buksida]

Good to see intelligent debate is still alive on this forum. The potato throwing trolls are still cowering under their bridges jerking off on their own superiority it seems ...

Bet on bitcoin as an insurance policy against 'irresponsible' government
Bitcoin might be down 80% from its peak, but true believers in cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology still gush about its enormous potential.

Some still see bitcoin as the ultimate hedge against disaster.

"There is a really good chance we have something better than gold," Travis Kling, founder and chief investment officer of crypto hedge fund Ikigai Asset Management, said on Thursday at the Cayman Alternative Investment Summit in Grand Cayman. "It's like a CDS against fiscal and monetary policy irresponsibility," Kling said.

Credit default swaps, or CDS, are akin to insurance policies. These financial instruments pay out when a borrower defaults on debt. CDS grew infamous during the 2008 crisis when AIG, one of the biggest issuers of CDS, nearly collapsed itself.

Like other crypto bulls, Kling is alarmed by the build-up of debt on government balance sheets and extreme steps taken by global central banks to encourage growth. Some fear that high budget deficits and low interest rates will eventually lead to hyper-inflation and erode the value of the US dollar and other major currencies.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/07/investin ... index.html

[buksida]

Thailand’s richest company acquires firm behind OmiseGo token for more than $100 million
Asia’s crypto market is heating up.

Thailand’s largest private company, Charoen Pokphand Group (CP Group), has acquired Asian payments company Omise for a reported $150 million, several sources close to the deal have told The Block. CP Group is owned by the Chearavanont family, ranked by Forbes Asia in 2017 as Asia’s fourth-wealthiest family with a net worth of $36.6 billion.

Founded in 2013, Omise is one of Thailand’s leading payment gateways, operating also across Singapore, Japan, and Indonesia. The fintech firm raised $20 million in traditional venture capital prior to becoming “one of the more established tech companies to take the ICO route” in 2017. It capped its surprise token sale at $25 million in a bid to build a peer-to-peer payment platform.

Today, the OmiseGO network’s token (OMG) is a top-20 coin with a market cap above $257 million and counts Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin among its advisors.

CP Group, headed by Fortune-owner and billionaire Chatchaval Jiaravanon, is said to be driving a concerted effort to take over companies that could use crypto for payments; including a large agricultural division.

https://www.theblockcrypto.com/2019/03/ ... 0-million/

Possibly fake news though:

[buksida]

Bitcoiners’ Seastead in Deep Trouble With Thai Government

A seastead launched by an early bitcoin adopter off the coast of Thailand has run into trouble with local government. The Thai Navy boarded the structure Saturday, claiming it violates criminal law, which is punishable by death or life imprisonment. The owner claims that his floating home is located outside of Thailand’s maritime boundaries.

Seastead Allegedly Violates Criminal Law
American early bitcoin adopter Chad Andrew Elwartowski and his Thai girlfriend, Suprenee Thepdet aka Nadia Summergirl, launched a seastead on Feb. 2 off the coast of Phuket, Thailand. However, the Thai Navy boarded the structure Saturday and accuses the couple of breaching the country’s Criminal Code, Section 119.

https://news.bitcoin.com/bitcoiners-sea ... overnment/

[PeteC]

Bitcoin surges, enjoys another bull run
Published: 25/04/2019 at 06:31 AM
Newspaper section: Business https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/fi ... r-bull-run

The price of bitcoin on Wednesday surged to US$5,600 per coin, a high this year, as local cryptocurrency enthusiasts and investors look to join the bull run.

As of press time on Wednesday, the price dipped to $5,435.4 per coin, according to CoinDesk. The price hovered below $3,500 at the beginning of this year and began to rise above $4,000 at the end of March.

Invented by an unknown individual or a collective under the alias Satoshi Nakamoto, bitcoin is a decentralised cryptocurrency that can be traded peer-to-peer without intermediaries. Transactions are recorded in a public distributed ledger called blockchain.

The price of bitcoin reached a fever pitch in 2017, rocketing to nearly $20,000 per coin on strong demand and speculative investment worldwide, with some countries such as Japan accepting the cryptocurrency as a legal payment method.

The digital gold rush saw an abrupt U-turn in 2018 when the price of bitcoin fell by more than 70% following China's tightened rules on bitcoin exchanges and the US's imposition of civil penalties on cryptocurrency startups selling staged initial coin offerings.

Poramin Insom, founder and chief executive of Satang Pro Corporation, said bitcoin's uptick was attributed to a technical analysis of a bitcoin price graph suggesting a recovery trend, lower bitcoin supply and program trading of bitcoin used by global investors.

The price of bitcoin has risen by 47% year-to-date, said Mr Poramin. A short-term price correction may occur, but the price is expected to surge in the medium to long term, he said.

There is speculation that Nasdaq will list bitcoin for trading and this will help boost sentiment in the cryptocurrency market, but it will be difficult to drive the price to the highs of 2017, said Mr Poramin.

Jirayut Srupsrisopa, co-founder and chief executive at Bitkub Capital Group, said the cryptocurrency and digital token market has been on a bull run since the beginning of April.

For Thailand, the price recovery of cryptocurrencies could stimulate awareness for digital assets in the short run, he said.

"But for the long term, factors helping to build healthy growth come from innovation and implementing technology for businesses, or the success of market players in adopting the blockchain technology," said Mr Jirayut. "The next couple of years, money from institutional investors will drive the next wave of digital asset companies here."