JMN2 wrote: Better not take these things too seriously although some people feel somehow aggressively hostile about this.
[...]
EDIT not directed at GoSeigen.
Not directed at me, but accurate nonetheless! I feel hostile to bitcoin in particular (and possibly other cryptocoins) because:
1. I believe in their current form they are no more than a scam. It is a scam that has sucked in thousands (millions?) of small punters hoping to GRQ. When the scam collapses, yes, some lucky early sellers will have an amazing profit, but it will be at the expense of a mass of poor people who were ill-advised and can barely afford the loss. It's another method of moving money from poor uneducated masses to a wealthy unscrupulous few.
2. The waste of resources in this experiment seems scandallous, both in terms of energy wastage and the effort and time of people involved. Clearly there may be some benefit in terms of any techonologies which prove useful in future, but I think any such benefit will have arisen at great expense in terms of environmental damage and loss to the many individuals involved.
If this cryptocoin enterprise collapses, I hope Fools with a conscience will support some organisations helping the main strata of society that victims come from. OTOH if I am wrong, I hereby offer to donate £1,000 (one thousand) to a charity nominated by JMN2 and/or Surerera. I'm happy to set a date
one year from today to judge this, criterion for me to avoid the payout being that Bitcoin has had a drawdown to at least 87.5% below its peak value by that date. [Not that meeting this criterion will necessarily mean I am right, but we need some sort of objective test...]
Personally I cannot bring myself to get directly involved in any way, either long or short. If/when the froth has gone I may reconsider the merits of the underlying tech.
GS