Bitcoin

NRC · Post by **NRC** » Tue Jan 16, 2018 4:11 pm

I'm taking a huge gamble here - I'm long on Tron and LiteCoin, but want to transfer out of Litecoin into ETH.x (again) once I hit my current entry-price in Litecoin.

The reason is the same in both cases
- TRON, the guy behind it might actually do something - he's recruiting a tech team
- ETH.x - one of the founders is on record as saying there has to be technology and income generation beyond coin speculation..... in short it will become a currency backed by revenue generation - a stock as it were.....

But LiteCoin has to come out of its trough

aggi · Post by **aggi** » Tue Jan 16, 2018 4:14 pm

The threat of increased regulation in South Korea seems to have hit it a bit.

I can't see Bitcoin dying until an alternative method for purchasing all of the other coins arises/it gets easier to buy using fiat money.

I also see Etherum fading as similar models with better technology take over. There are constant rumblings of technological issues with it.

LS7 · Post by **LS7** » Tue Jan 16, 2018 11:03 pm

This is a bit like when the shoe shine boy was discussing stocks and shares .. time to get out of the market

CombatClaret · Post by **CombatClaret** » Tue Jan 16, 2018 11:45 pm

Looks like the obvious ponzi scheme that was Bitconnect has finally pulled an exit.

Closes their 'lending platform' and repaid everyone in their own sh@tcoin and price tanks.
Sad as a lot of people have lost money, not helped by the questionable morals of some very vocal Youtube shills.

Rough day in general for the market but I'm holding as per

ClaretEngineer · Post by **ClaretEngineer** » Wed Jan 17, 2018 12:07 am

A bad day on the markets, almost 25% down across most crypto currencies.

I bought ETH earlier on hoping to make a quick profit, but held too long on it.

Does anyone see a similar story with USI Tech as with Bitconnect? I have a certain amount of capital with them, however it’s looking to me more like a Ponzi scheme if ever I saw one.

It has all the makings of such a scheme, yet folk are still quick to give them their money.

ElectroClaret · Post by **ElectroClaret** » Wed Jan 17, 2018 12:19 am

ClaretEngineer wrote:.....yet folk are still quick to give them their money.

Of course. They see a profit being made.
They think they're gonna get some of that profit.(and some do.)
The problem with that is that when such information
appears in the public domain, it's already too late.(for most)

Ya gotta be lucky. (Or have a thorough understanding of what's going on.)

CombatClaret · Post by **CombatClaret** » Wed Jan 17, 2018 12:27 am

ClaretEngineer wrote:I bought ETH earlier on hoping to make a quick profit, but held too long on it.

Does anyone see a similar story with USI Tech as with Bitconnect? I have a certain amount of capital with them, however it’s looking to me more like a Ponzi scheme if ever I saw one.

ETH is a great long hold anyway, platform with great promise.

USI Tech I would be worried, they just closed shop to US & Canadian customers, Bitconnect started to unravel when they started to get cease and desists from UK and US States.
If I'm not mistaken too USI Tech offered a very similar and IMO unrealistic 'product'. Many of us have been saying this since the thread began.

Weirdly Carter2711 joined UTC in Jan 2016 but his 11 total post have been in this thread about USI Tech

http://www.uptheclarets.com/messageboar ... 1&sr=posts" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Carter2711 · Post by **Carter2711** » Wed Jan 17, 2018 6:59 am

CombatClaret wrote:ETH is a great long hold anyway, platform with great promise.

USI Tech I would be worried, they just closed shop to US & Canadian customers, Bitconnect started to unravel when they started to get cease and desists from UK and US States.
If I'm not mistaken too USI Tech offered a very similar and IMO unrealistic 'product'. Many of us have been saying this since the thread began.

Weirdly Carter2711 joined UTC in Jan 2016 but his 11 total post have been in this thread about USI Tech
http://www.uptheclarets.com/messageboar ... 1&sr=posts" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

yep, correct, I usually just observe the threads on here, a daily viewer.

this thread intrigued me and I was hoping to gain more knowledge on cryptocurrency. I don't see the relevance of your point?

aggi · Post by **aggi** » Wed Jan 17, 2018 9:45 am

I can't see USI Tech surviving much longer. One of the issues that caused the cease and desist in Texas was that they were unwilling to disclose how the coins are mined which seems dubious. The drop in price will probably prompt a bit of a run of people trying to cash in and it will be discovered that the funds aren't there to enable this.

dsr · Post by **dsr** » Wed Jan 17, 2018 10:15 am

aggi wrote:I can't see USI Tech surviving much longer. One of the issues that caused the cease and desist in Texas was that they were unwilling to disclose how the coins are mined which seems dubious. The drop in price will probably prompt a bit of a run of people trying to cash in and it will be discovered that the funds aren't there to enable this.

I thought the point of crypto currencies was that there are no funds? Someone or several someones creates an intangible computer thingy, and sells it. That's the deal, isn't it? You can't get your money back from the people who sold it to you; you can only sell it on to someone else. If you can find someone that wants it.

ClaretEngineer · Post by **ClaretEngineer** » Wed Jan 17, 2018 10:27 am

aggi wrote:I can't see USI Tech surviving much longer. One of the issues that caused the cease and desist in Texas was that they were unwilling to disclose how the coins are mined which seems dubious. The drop in price will probably prompt a bit of a run of people trying to cash in and it will be discovered that the funds aren't there to enable this.

I'm seeing the opposite in the Facebook group i've been added into. Folk are actively encouraging each other to buy up swathes of Bitcoin whilst its cheap and transfer into USI Tech.

ClaretDiver · Post by **ClaretDiver** » Wed Jan 17, 2018 10:31 am

ClaretEngineer wrote:I'm seeing the opposite in the Facebook group i've been added into. Folk are actively encouraging each other to buy up swathes of Bitcoin whilst its cheap and transfer into USI Tech.

Would not touch it with an STD riddled bargepole at this point!

aggi · Post by **aggi** » Wed Jan 17, 2018 10:45 am

dsr wrote:I thought the point of crypto currencies was that there are no funds? Someone or several someones creates an intangible computer thingy, and sells it. That's the deal, isn't it? You can't get your money back from the people who sold it to you; you can only sell it on to someone else. If you can find someone that wants it.

You are still buying a bitcoin though, just because you can't hold it doesn't mean it doesn't exist. You have still purchased that particular block and it is assigned to you and you can check that on the system (which is maintained on multiple computers so you're not just relying on one source to check that).

Correct that you can't get your money back from the people who sold it to you; you can only sell it on to someone else, if you can find someone that wants it. That's true of a lot of things though, gold, footballers, pies, ...

What USI Tech are doing is saying that they've bought some bitcoin on your behalf and here's a voucher that says we've done that. There is no independent way of checking that USI Tech are telling the truth. People seem to have successfully cashed in some of those vouchers but there's a strong suspicion that they don't have enough bitcoins to back up all of the vouchers.

CombatClaret · Post by **CombatClaret** » Wed Jan 17, 2018 1:51 pm

Carter2711 wrote:yep, correct, I usually just observe the threads on here, a daily viewer.
this thread intrigued me and I was hoping to gain more knowledge on cryptocurrency. I don't see the relevance of your point?

I just thought it was odd that's all, considering how people pushing these referral based platforms over social media is a key part of these schemes, though your account clearly predates USITech so not saying you joined for that reason. You should try talking about Burnley once in a while

ClaretEngineer wrote:I'm seeing the opposite in the Facebook group i've been added into. Folk are actively encouraging each other to buy up swathes of Bitcoin whilst its cheap and transfer into USI Tech.

A group full of shillers and potential sheep. The people in USI are probably desperately trying to add new referrals under them so they can cash out asap for as much as they can.

ClaretEngineer · Post by **ClaretEngineer** » Wed Jan 17, 2018 2:07 pm

CombatClaret wrote:I just thought it was odd that's all, considering how people pushing these referral based platforms over social media is a key part of these schemes, though your account clearly predates USITech so not saying you joined for that reason. You should try talking about Burnley once in a while

A group full of shillers and potential sheep. The people in USI are probably desperately trying to add new referrals under them so they can cash out asap for as much as they can.

I'm going draw off any returns until I've got my original outlay back out in GBP. The rest can stay in just to see what happens over the next few months.

I've lost about 25% in the last day on my ETH investment, I was too slow in reacting to the market high yesterday lunchtime.

Its all a learning curve for me.

Lancasterclaret · Post by **Lancasterclaret** » Wed Jan 17, 2018 2:22 pm

The article I read today on the Bulgarian Government having £3 BILLION in bitcoins was a bit of an eye opener.

Still no closer to understanding any of it though.

Carter2711 · Post by **Carter2711** » Wed Jan 17, 2018 2:59 pm

[quote="CombatClaret"]I just thought it was odd that's all, considering how people pushing these referral based platforms over social media is a key part of these schemes, though your account clearly predates USITech so not saying you joined for that reason. You should try talking about Burnley once in a while

haha no problem! point taken, I have been on here for a number of years viewing, and a lifelong season ticket holder I generally don't get involved in the forums I just like to have a nosey

I wont and haven't tried to sell Usi even though I am part of it all.

I will talk more about football than cryptocurrencies in future

ClaretDiver · Post by **ClaretDiver** » Wed Jan 17, 2018 3:00 pm

USI Tech are run by a couple of guys who are blacklisted as running previous Ponzi schemes.

NRC · Post by **NRC** » Wed Jan 17, 2018 3:36 pm

my biggest holding is in LiteCoin..... there's a lot of red candles here in the last hour - the last 1 minute/5 minute view is no better

my sentiment is HODL - I'd rather lose the lot, gambling it will recover, than sell right now

CombatClaret · Post by **CombatClaret** » Wed Jan 17, 2018 4:21 pm

ClaretEngineer wrote: I've lost about 25% in the last day on my ETH investment, I was too slow in reacting to the market high yesterday lunchtime.

Its all a learning curve for me.

90% of day trades fail, trying to guess the top of the highs and bottom of dips consistently is near impossible.

I really am liking Warren Buffet's "Be fearful when people are greedy and be greedy when people are fearful.". Using this I motto I cashed out my initial investment at 17k and today I have bought some alt coins I've been researching but think have been overpriced until now.

IndigoLake · Post by **IndigoLake** » Wed Jan 17, 2018 10:11 pm

Is that it? Is the dip over? I'm not 100% convinced. However, it's nice to see some green on CMC again.

If it be your will · Post by **If it be your will** » Thu Jan 18, 2018 12:50 am

Sidney1st · Post by **Sidney1st** » Sat Jan 27, 2018 10:55 pm

A family in Moulsford, Oxfordshire have been robbed at gun point and been forced to transfer their bitcoins to the robbers.

They're about 10 miles from me.

First robbery of it's kind that I've heard of.

dsr · Post by **dsr** » Sat Jan 27, 2018 11:06 pm

How did the robbers know they had them? Was it an internet security breach (which would be a big big issue), or just careless talk?

CombatClaret · Post by **CombatClaret** » Sat Jan 27, 2018 11:35 pm

dsr wrote:How did the robbers know they had them? Was it an internet security breach (which would be a big big issue), or just careless talk?

"forced a cyber-currency trader to transfer a fortune in Bitcoin", only info I can find on the victim. He could publicly advertise himself as one, or he left a big enough digital fingerprint to track him down. I'm amazed none of the Youtubers who show of their small fortunes have been targeted yet.

It's how people get caught by the police a lot of the time, not via some advanced digital espionage technique but because they used the same username on two different forums.

Hipper · Post by **Hipper** » Sun Jan 28, 2018 10:47 am

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-42850194" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

BennyD · Post by **BennyD** » Sun Jan 28, 2018 1:06 pm

Tbh, I can’t be arsed with any of this stuff; all it does is complicate your life. Good luck to those that make money out of it and tough sh!t to the ones that don’t. A bit like stocks and shares.

Leisure · Post by **Leisure** » Fri Feb 02, 2018 3:39 pm

From BBC website -

Digital currency Bitcoin has fallen 30% this week, leaving it on track for its worst week since April 2013.
On Friday it dipped below $7,910 on the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange, a fall of 12% from the day before.
But although it is far short of the $19,000 it reached in November 2017, it is still way above the $1,000 level at which it started trading last year.
The fall comes amid a number of recent incidents that appear to have shaken faith in cryptocurrencies.
On Friday, Japan's financial regulator carried out a surprise check on major Japanese exchange, Coincheck, which last week was subject to a security hack.
The regulator said it had asked the exchange to fix flaws in its computer networks well before last week's theft by hackers of $530m of digital money.
Also this week, the Indian government said it would ban all cryptocurrency trading and Facebook said it would ban adverts for digital currencies.

Other countries have already expressed concerns about such entities. China and South Korea have banned any new virtual currency launches and have been shutting down exchanges on which they are traded.
The UK's Financial Conduct Authority warned investors in September they could lose all their money if they buy digital currencies issued by firms, known as "initial coin offerings".
Bitcoins are created through a complex process known as "mining", and then monitored by a network of computers across the world.
However, like all currencies its value is determined by how much people are willing to buy and sell it for.
Last year, two of the world's largest commodity exchanges, the CBOE futures exchange and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, both allowed trading in Bitcoin futures.

aggi · Post by **aggi** » Fri Feb 02, 2018 4:16 pm

I hope all those who were happy with how Ripple was doing got out sharpish.

Personally I don't think the regulation and so on will be such a bad thing, it will probably make for a more stable coin in the long term. Those who were looking to make a quick buck were always at risk although obviously nothing is guaranteed in the long term.

Paul Waine · Post by **Paul Waine** » Fri Feb 02, 2018 5:53 pm

aggi wrote:I hope all those who were happy with how Ripple was doing got out sharpish.

Personally I don't think the regulation and so on will be such a bad thing, it will probably make for a more stable coin in the long term. Those who were looking to make a quick buck were always at risk although obviously nothing is guaranteed in the long term.

Is that the sound of bubbles deflating that I can hear?

I'm sure some will be saying "you liked it at $10,000... you will love it at $7,000...." - insert all other monetary values as the world starts to understand that "bitcoin" (and the rest) are as undressed as the emperor in his "new clothes."

IndigoLake · Post by **IndigoLake** » Fri Feb 02, 2018 6:05 pm

Hell of a dip. All those weak hands can get out and lose money but I'm happy to hold. The technology isn't going anywhere so neither is cryptocurrency. I'm just riding it out and looking for good buying opportunities. Hell of a sale!

Bribfc · Post by **Bribfc** » Fri Feb 02, 2018 8:03 pm

My brother smitrit that many of you might remember from years ago on other Clarets groups and forums is a network marketer and deals in crypto and investments will be here tomorrow to add some useful info.

Just wanted to pass on info that he said about USI.

He says it’s definitely a Ponzi and he’s got proof. Advises anybody to get their money out ASAP if they can or lose it. He’s helped bring down several large Ponzi schemes in the last few years like Banners Broker, Traffic Monsoon and is helping to do the same with USI and OneCoin.

Also says bitcoin will bottom out at $7,500 where there is enough support to stop it falling further and expects it to be worth $35k by end of this year. Apparently price plummets every Jan/Feb before it climbs back up. Well worth having some to hold long term, but for those wanting to make more money faster, then look at coins such as xtrabytes, zoin and electroneum. These are likely to go up 10-100 fold in a year as opposed to btc going up 4 fold.

Bribfc · Post by **Bribfc** » Fri Feb 02, 2018 8:05 pm

To add. He says Ripple is not worth touching. Banks own it and will only sell it for btc/eth so that they can own as much btc/eth as possible leaving people with a worthless coin that will never go above $5.

dsr · Post by **dsr** » Fri Feb 02, 2018 10:15 pm

IndigoLake wrote:Hell of a dip. All those weak hands can get out and lose money but I'm happy to hold. The technology isn't going anywhere so neither is cryptocurrency. I'm just riding it out and looking for good buying opportunities. Hell of a sale!

Te technology is irrelevant. It's just a way of keeping the assets secure, it's not an asset in itself. It's like suggesting that five pound notes are worth more now that they're made of plastic. The technology is very clever, no doubt, but if anyone else wants to use it it won't make the crypto owners any richer.

ElectroClaret · Post by **ElectroClaret** » Fri Feb 02, 2018 10:51 pm

The serious investors will be rubbing their hands today.
The semi-serious participants in BC are dropping out left, right and centre
because of short term losses.

This is no different from "traditional" stock market practice.
The price will soon rise, as strongly as it did before.

The huge and vast majority of the 21 million will eventually end up in the hands of
those who have the muscle to go for the very long term.

Its a financial game of chicken.

Nothing to see here, move along.

Paul Waine · Post by **Paul Waine** » Sat Feb 03, 2018 10:59 am

ElectroClaret wrote:The serious investors will be rubbing their hands today.
The semi-serious participants in BC are dropping out left, right and centre
because of short term losses.

This is no different from "traditional" stock market practice.
The price will soon rise, as strongly as it did before.

The huge and vast majority of the 21 million will eventually end up in the hands of
those who have the muscle to go for the very long term.

Its a financial game of chicken.

Nothing to see here, move along.

Hi Electro, I'm interested in why you say the "serious investors will be rubbing their hands..." Where does bitcoin derive its value? I can understand the spec demand pushing the price up - and down - but, what is the view of the "serious investor?" Where do they derive their view that there is value in bitcoin (or any of the other cryptocurrencies)?

Cryptocurrencies are nothing like a stock exchange equity or debt investment - crypto doesn't pay dividends (or have the promise of paying dividends at some future date) and they don't pay a return like bonds. Similarly, cryptocurrencies are nothing like commodities (oil, gold, softs etc) - there is no underlying use for cryptocurrencies - and unlike gold you can't wear bitcoin as jewellery.

Any "serious investor" insights for the "sceptics?"

Loyalclaret · Post by **Loyalclaret** » Sat Feb 03, 2018 1:28 pm

The technology might have some use but on the whole I agree.

Sidney1st · Post by **Sidney1st** » Mon Feb 05, 2018 12:20 pm

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-42940728" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Lloyds have banned it's customers from using their credit cards to purchase Bitcoins.

Leisure · Post by **Leisure** » Tue Feb 06, 2018 4:06 pm

The value of Bitcoin has fallen to below $6,000 - its lowest price since November 2017.
The price fell to $5,947.40 (£4,256.44) on Tuesday, according to a price index run by news website Coindesk.
Bitcoin reached its peak in November, when it hit $19,000, and then began to fall steadily from mid-December.
The latest fall comes a day after several major US and UK banks banned customers from using credit cards to purchase the digital currency.
Tightening legislation in several countries appears to have shaken confidence in crypto-currencies.
As of Tuesday:

The price of Ethereum, which at its height on 9 January was $1,255.89, is now $574.42
Bitcoin Cash, which hit a peak $4,091.70 on 20 December 2017, has slipped to $766.03
Litecoin, which reached $366.01 on 19 December 2017, has dropped to $106.94

Tightening legislation
Chinese state media is reporting that China will soon take steps to prevent investors from accessing foreign virtual currency exchanges, although it is not clear how the government intends to achieve this.
China and South Korea have already banned digital currencies, while Japan and Australia have taken steps to tighten Bitcoin regulations.
The US is likely to follow suit - on Tuesday, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) are due to testify before the Senate regarding digital currencies.
The chiefs of both regulators are expected to recommend that the US government tightens the rules governing the crypto-currency market to reduce the risks of fraud and market manipulation, according to pre-released testimonies.
While not banning crypto-currencies, the financial regulators in both the UK and France have warned investors that they could lose all their money if they buy digital currencies issued by companies, known as "initial coin offerings".

Besides legislation, virtual currencies have been dogged by criminals seeking to hack wallet services to steal users' funds.
A US man is currently suing T-Mobile for a security breach that enabled hackers to access his mobile number and compromise his crypto-currency accounts to steal 2.875 Bitcoin, according to legal news service Law360.

Hope no-one on here bought them at $19000 in November.

aggi · Post by **aggi** » Tue Feb 06, 2018 4:39 pm

Back above $7,000 now. Whether that's the bottom or it may tumble back down again, who knows. After the crazy surge before Christmas it was due a price correction (I predicted 50% drop or so at that point) so this isn't entirely unexpected but if it continues to drop much beyond this people will start to get nervous.

The credit card thing won't have much impact on the price, those buying on credit cards will mainly be those buying very small amounts and testing the waters so minimal in the big scheme of things.

The increased regulation in China will be having more impact. It's been talked about a number of times but they seem to be taking some action as well this time round.

Hipper · Post by **Hipper** » Tue Feb 06, 2018 7:57 pm

I thought the original purpose of bitcoin was to enable people to buy goods (presumably in an untraceable way).

This sort of fluctuation can't help businesses that are using bitcoin to sell stuff.

Paul Waine · Post by **Paul Waine** » Tue Feb 06, 2018 8:15 pm

Cracking the Code of Privacy in the Blockchain

Interesting article on blockchain - and how the use of the technology might develop - separate from bitcoin and all the other cryptocurrencies - written by S&P Global team.

http://www.spglobal.com/our-insights/Cr ... chain.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

IanMcL · Post by **IanMcL** » Tue Feb 06, 2018 8:29 pm

Sidney1st wrote:A family in Moulsford, Oxfordshire have been robbed at gun point and been forced to transfer their bitcoins to the robbers.

They're about 10 miles from me.

First robbery of it's kind that I've heard of.

There used to be a Looney bin there!

CombatClaret · Post by **CombatClaret** » Tue Feb 06, 2018 9:15 pm

Some very positive testimony from respected economists today at a U.S. Senate Banking Committee on Cryptocurrency.

J. Christopher Giancarlo American attorney, former business executive and current serves as chairman of the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

"Extraordinary Potential"
https://youtu.be/CcM7FkgLQe8" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; (2mins)

"Commodity or Security?"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eb93oVF50g" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; (2mins)

brigante · Post by **brigante** » Tue Feb 06, 2018 10:15 pm

Bitcoin is only considered a coin because some techie nerd confused a secure distributed ledger with an actual currency and then managed to convince a bunch of others that it was one. Same with most cryptocurrencies.

It is nothing like currency, stocks and shares. It is fundamentally valueless and we're bearing witness to one of the greatest examples of human irrationality from which I think some early buyers have made lots of money, and some folk on the streets have lost plenty too.

Sidney1st · Post by **Sidney1st** » Wed Feb 07, 2018 7:25 am

IanMcL wrote:There used to be a Looney bin there!

Been converted into flats now and a new estate of houses knocked up in the grounds

Got some friends who live there and I think they could've lived in the old place too, they're definitely looney.

Hipper · Post by **Hipper** » Wed Feb 14, 2018 9:53 am

Panorama last night covered Bitcoin.

IanMcL · Post by **IanMcL** » Wed Feb 14, 2018 6:57 pm

So how do we renew Sportsmania???

aggi · Post by **aggi** » Thu Mar 15, 2018 3:14 pm

John Oliver on cryptocurrencies the other night, a decent watch

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6g5s4z" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

IndigoLake · Post by **IndigoLake** » Thu Mar 15, 2018 3:22 pm

I'm not looking at my portfolio until the end of the year, lol.