Nah

Quote:

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Not only has the value of the platform's ether tokens jumped by about 900% since the start of the year, but the public blockchain has recently attracted attention from banks and tech behemoths. And while ethereum supporters have long argued that the global computing platform would help to form a new kind of internet, a wave of innovators are now trying to deliver on that ideal.

The problem is that there might be downsides to this increase in price and increase in attention. Namely, as the price increases, ethereum apps grow more expensive to use.

That's because on ethereum, users need to pay directly for the computational power they use, whether to place a bid on a prediction market or use new kinds of decentralized Twitters and Ubers. For now, this is a different picture than, say, Facebook, the popularity of which rests in part on its 'free' platform.

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http://www.coindesk.com/ethereums-double-edged-sword-will-rising-price-hurt-users/

The idea that the more people use a platform, the more expensive it is to use is won't work if there is the expectation of enterprise-scale adoption of the platform. I understand that this should incent people to write more efficient code, but if all of the gains that are made in writing better code are offset by continually higher processing costs then this will never be anything other than a cool idea for anarcho-capitalist bloggers to write about. Current IaaS/PaaS providers (AWS, Azure, GCE, etc) are getting cheaper by the month, and I can't see us moving to a more expensive option just because it's "cool".

GarlandAg2012 said:

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At what point will this board recognize that this isn't just a ponzi scheme? $54 B market cap is significant and the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance is comprised of real, name brand companies.

http://entethalliance.org/

I don't necessarily think it will replace fiat currency in my lifetime but there is a huge amount of value in blockchain technology and coins are the easiest way to get in on it.

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I don't read many people debating any of that. It seems like the only place I see people debating the legitimacy of blockchain technology or bitcoin in general is in the hypothetical posters that the people that posting about it seem to be responding to, creating windmills to tilt at. For the most part, the board just doesn't seem interested in a technology that is still finding its legs, but that's different from people claiming it is a scheme or built on faulty grounds.

I think this is addressed by the ability to set the price of gas in a smart contract or other transaction. Basically, when you write some code on the ethereum network, you can specify how much your contract is willing to pay per transaction/step. Not long ago, the average gas price was about 50 Gwei. The average is now down to 20ish GWei and transactions with gas prices as low as 2 GWei are still being processed, just a bit slower since fewer nodes are accepting them.

The good news is a GWei is 10^9 of the base unit in Ether (a Wei...GWei = GigaWei). So we still can have a 10^9 growth in the price of ether and keep transaction costs flat.

Here is the nomenclature of all the denominations:

Quote:

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'wei': '1',
'kwei': '1000',
'ada': '1000',
'femtoether': '1000',
'mwei': '1000000',
'babbage': '1000000',
'picoether': '1000000',
'gwei': '1000000000',
'shannon': '1000000000',
'nanoether': '1000000000',
'nano': '1000000000',
'szabo': '1000000000000',
'microether': '1000000000000',
'micro': '1000000000000',
'finney': '1000000000000000',
'milliether': '1000000000000000',
'milli': '1000000000000000',
'ether': '1000000000000000000',
'kether': '1000000000000000000000',
'grand': '1000000000000000000000',
'einstein': '1000000000000000000000',
'mether': '1000000000000000000000000',
'gether': '1000000000000000000000000000',
'tether': '1000000000000000000000000000000'

---

Source: https://ethereum.stackexchange.com/questions/253/the-ether-denominations-are-called-finney-szabo-and-wei-what-who-are-these-na

This question and answer pretty much sum up the whole issue IMO:

https://ethereum.stackexchange.com/questions/10772/how-is-the-gasprice-generated-in-ethereum

Additionally, I think the move from proof of work to proof of stake is supposed to lower transaction costs but I haven't fully wrapped my head around that concept yet.

I should also note that Ether fanboys have labeled Coindesk a Pro-bitcoin website that publishes many more negative articles about Ethereum than positive, but I haven't verified that on my own. I also think a healthy dose of skepticism is good.

Sorry but I think you're putting the blinders on.

Comparison to "The next Enron":

https://texags.com/forums/57/topics/2479834/replies/48952195

Calling crypto "Pixie dust coins":

https://texags.com/forums/57/topics/2837110/replies/48537739

Calling them a "farce":

https://texags.com/forums/57/topics/2824680/replies/48332893

Calling it a "buy gold TV sales pitch"

https://texags.com/forums/57/topics/2824680/replies/48266185

One more:

https://texags.com/forums/57/topics/2824680/replies/48242291


I agree not everyone has been completely dismissive and I don't know that wheels has always had the best tactics/luck in convincing and educating people but many on this board have described bitcoin as something of a scam.

Personally, I think bitcoin is basically the 1.0 of what will eventually become a massive force in the global economy. I don't hold any because fundamentally I think Bitcoin is proof that blockchains can work, not something that can really change the economy in a huge way. Obviously you could still make money on BTC (and wheels probably has) and I could be wrong but it just seems too limited. I do hold Ethereum because I think it is a more advanced solution. It could be a stupid risk that I regret, but I haven't risked anything I can't afford to lose. I think of Ethereum as v2.0 of the technology. Blockchains may not change the world until "version 8.0" or "20.0", or maybe never, but it's something that I think has potential and is worth learning about.

Delete thread ban user.

"It spreads from machine to machine silently and remains invisible to users until it unveils itself as so-called ransomware, telling users that all their files have been encrypted with a key known only to the attacker and that they will be locked out until they pay $300 to an anonymous party using the cryptocurrency Bitcoin."

Interesting and worrisome

Ransomware has been around for a long time, but that attack was particularly scary in that it targeted hospitals. Pretty despicable.

Totally agree, didn't mean to imply otherwise. Double edged sword to some extent.

Right. Definitely a double edged sword. I think the technology is intriguing and makes sense but my prediction is bitcoin itself will be irrelevant long term - it's been involved with shady things and other countries own a good bit from what I understand. If cryptocurrency becomes the way to go, the government will probably come out with their own, right? Like it or not, most people would be happier knowing the government has their back if something goes awry. Imagine if bitcoin was FDIC insured - the value would skyrocket.

wheelskjm said:

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jh0400 said:

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Quote:

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Not only has the value of the platform's ether tokens jumped by about 900% since the start of the year, but the public blockchain has recently attracted attention from banks and tech behemoths. And while ethereum supporters have long argued that the global computing platform would help to form a new kind of internet, a wave of innovators are now trying to deliver on that ideal.

The problem is that there might be downsides to this increase in price and increase in attention. Namely, as the price increases, ethereum apps grow more expensive to use.

That's because on ethereum, users need to pay directly for the computational power they use, whether to place a bid on a prediction market or use new kinds of decentralized Twitters and Ubers. For now, this is a different picture than, say, Facebook, the popularity of which rests in part on its 'free' platform.

---

http://www.coindesk.com/ethereums-double-edged-sword-will-rising-price-hurt-users/

The idea that the more people use a platform, the more expensive it is to use is won't work if there is the expectation of enterprise-scale adoption of the platform. I understand that this should incent people to write more efficient code, but if all of the gains that are made in writing better code are offset by continually higher processing costs then this will never be anything other than a cool idea for anarcho-capitalist bloggers to write about. Current IaaS/PaaS providers (AWS, Azure, GCE, etc) are getting cheaper by the month, and I can't see us moving to a more expensive option just because it's "cool".

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Just because we trade 1 bitcoin or 1 ether right now doesn't mean we won't be trading .00000001 bitcoin or .00000001 ether in the future. That's what most of you aren't grasping. Not only that, but like you can have an intranet for your corporation that works like the internet, but internally, so may you build an internal blockchain that runs your special platform or API or smart contracts within your organization... which could work independent of bitcoin/public blockchains, or in a symbiotic or tethered aspect to other blockchains.

Central banks just declared they have no interest in competing on different platforms and want one platform for their infrastructure. That means there could be a winner take all for that business. It doesn't mean that one will end all others.

It's too easy now to create competition. Trust in the global market environment is growing. There's going to be some epic fails, but everything is progressing positively.

Physical transportation is the next major disruption. Between space travel and hyperloop/ET3 proposals, the world is going to get ever smaller, and easier to trade. Hopefully we use AI to decentralize power and information rather than otherwise.

Teach your kids to code. It's invaluable for their future.

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This may be a silly question as I don't understand this much, but isn't one of the ideas of Bitcoin that there is only a finite amount? So how is breaking down a Bitcoin into decimals any different than a central bank adding 0s by printing money?

wheelskjm said:

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jh0400 said:

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Quote:

---

Not only has the value of the platform's ether tokens jumped by about 900% since the start of the year, but the public blockchain has recently attracted attention from banks and tech behemoths. And while ethereum supporters have long argued that the global computing platform would help to form a new kind of internet, a wave of innovators are now trying to deliver on that ideal.

The problem is that there might be downsides to this increase in price and increase in attention. Namely, as the price increases, ethereum apps grow more expensive to use.

That's because on ethereum, users need to pay directly for the computational power they use, whether to place a bid on a prediction market or use new kinds of decentralized Twitters and Ubers. For now, this is a different picture than, say, Facebook, the popularity of which rests in part on its 'free' platform.

---

http://www.coindesk.com/ethereums-double-edged-sword-will-rising-price-hurt-users/

The idea that the more people use a platform, the more expensive it is to use is won't work if there is the expectation of enterprise-scale adoption of the platform. I understand that this should incent people to write more efficient code, but if all of the gains that are made in writing better code are offset by continually higher processing costs then this will never be anything other than a cool idea for anarcho-capitalist bloggers to write about. Current IaaS/PaaS providers (AWS, Azure, GCE, etc) are getting cheaper by the month, and I can't see us moving to a more expensive option just because it's "cool".

---

Just because we trade 1 bitcoin or 1 ether right now doesn't mean we won't be trading .00000001 bitcoin or .00000001 ether in the future. That's what most of you aren't grasping. Not only that, but like you can have an intranet for your corporation that works like the internet, but internally, so may you build an internal blockchain that runs your special platform or API or smart contracts within your organization... which could work independent of bitcoin/public blockchains, or in a symbiotic or tethered aspect to other blockchains.

Central banks just declared they have no interest in competing on different platforms and want one platform for their infrastructure. That means there could be a winner take all for that business. It doesn't mean that one will end all others.

It's too easy now to create competition. Trust in the global market environment is growing. There's going to be some epic fails, but everything is progressing positively.

Physical transportation is the next major disruption. Between space travel and hyperloop/ET3 proposals, the world is going to get ever smaller, and easier to trade. Hopefully we use AI to decentralize power and information rather than otherwise.

Teach your kids to code. It's invaluable for their future.

---

This may be a silly question as I don't understand this much, but isn't one of the ideas of Bitcoin that there is only a finite amount? So How is adding places to the right of the decimal any different than a Central Bank adding commas by printing money?

Ponzi nvm

Don't buy crypto. Waste of time. Keep money in banks.

Which firm did the last audit?

Nah

Nah

I don't think this kind of post is very helpful. Talking market cap and valuation of coins has a place in the conversation but it shouldn't be the lead headline. Whenever I talk to someone who doesn't get it, I try explain why this technology has the potential to be game changing, and show what real firms that people trust also believe in the potential. If that doesn't work then just ignore them.

Quote:

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If you get into it, start small, learn how to own your money in hard wallets like trezor or ledger nano, exchanges are high risk/reward and some have been around the entire time...

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I would like to buy a few cryptocurrencies. Why hard wallet? If I did a hot wallet, could I print out purchased units and stick them into a safe?

Edit: misunderstood your question.

Cold storage = hard wallet = device that stores your private keys. Could also be a piece of paper with a QR code or string of text

Hot Wallet = wallet on an exchange = your private keys are on a server somewhere. If they get hacked or the exchange is comprised of bad people they can take your coins.

A soft wallet is in between. Not on their server but on a piece of software on your comp. Could still be hacked but less of a target on your back than an exchange.

Wheels, correct me if I'm wrong.

So TexAgs B&I group recommends hard / cold storage?

There tends to be a fee with those wallets, that is the reason that I am asking.

I don't plan on spending with this wallet, just printing and putting into a safe.

Firstly, I don't think most of the B&I board would advise buying. I am long crypto, so I think it's a good idea but many people would tell you it's a spin of the roulette wheel and they may be right.

If you have definitely decided to purchase, you will need to sign up with an exchange (Coinbase and Gemini are both pretty user friendly.)

Once you deposit USD into your digital wallet you can buy whichever coin you want. Then, the cheapest form of cold storage would be to get a paper wallet from here:

Bitcoin: http://www.coindesk.com/information/paper-wallet-tutorial/

or

Ether: https://ryepdx.github.io/ethaddress.org/#/

Then send your coins from your online wallet to the public key of your paper wallet and lock it in a safe.

Nah

Thank you Garland and Wheel!

Nah

Is coinbase safe?

whats the best method to buy eth?

Coinbase is pretty safe in the sense that they will not likely steal your money.

Coinbase is probably not a great place to leave coins.

I prefer Gemini to Coinbase but have used both. They both work.

Nah

Nah