Disclaimer: I'm only responding to this thread with only my self interests in mind. Writing about something in my own words helps me to better understand the subject. I don't think anyone here should buy Bitcoin unless they understand what they are buying. I barely understand Bitcoin. Elon Musk doesn't even understand Bitcoin

You have done a really good job explaining btc and the questions have been really good

Danny to simpy what Decoy said, no the blockchain cannot be hacked. No it's not created out of thin air. It's expensive to mine bitcoin.

Decoy explained it in a way I can not, my only disagreement with him is gold is/was not a decent store of value. It always will be the best.

Ohh this is a fun debate.

You have to agree that Gold has definitely failed as "medium of exchange". Its failed on several fronts which led to it being centralized and therefore corrupted. Gold is not easily to divide therefore hard to spend/make change. Gold is heavy and hard to transport, especially in a more global world we have have now. Its hard to verify its the real thing (counterfeit gold plated tungsten as an example) without sophisticated equipment. Gold is easy to confiscate (executive order 6102). It failed when became what " backs" a piece of paper. because you had to trust the party(s) storing it. Any new "gold backed" currency, if tried, will just suffer the same fate long term.

Now I will acknowledge you didn't say gold will always be the best "money", you said it will always be the best "store of value". I have to disagree here on the simple fact that the supply of new gold is not finite and not predictable. Who knows what insane technological advances could come in the next 10 years, 50 years or 100 years to be able to extract more gold from earth or from the stars. Technology happens exponentially and it very hard for us to wrap our heads around that. The crazy things that have happened in the last 20 years (you now carry a super computer in your pocket) will be far eclipsed by what happens in the next 10. The next 5 years after that are unimaginable and so on it goes exponentially.

FYI I know how many BTC will exist next year, 10 years from now, 50, 100.....and that the very last sliver of all 21 million Bitcoin will finally be in circulation in the year 2140. Because Bitcoin IS a technology (thin air backed by nothing, wink) the new advances will be used to better secure it rather than exploit it like it does physical resources.

99.9% of stuff today is a scam.

"Gold has failed as a medium of exchange", I can go anywhere on the planet and exchange it.

Don't misunderstand me, I don't dismiss the value of Bitcoin, I'm just not ready to concede it's "digital" gold. In my mind there is as good of a chance we'll devolve instead of evolve.

Sure we could find a way to synthesize gold or we could go mine an asteroid, we could also increase the supply of Bitcoin. Even though it's capped at 21 million it's not entirely impossible to raise that cap, unlikely but not impossible.

When the 3 Gorges Dam blows, How will that affect Bitcoin ?

Bogus!

How can I trade/sell Bitcoin when the power is out or my internet is down? I missed out on thousands of dollars in gains when my exchange malfunctioned during a crypto spike. I prefer gold and silver to secure wealth and crypto/Bitcoin for quick profits. Only until more regulations come forward.

Imagine if there is an actual crash, a for real huge crash and all this inflated wealth winds up to be worth nada......the stock market, crypto, 401k's, retirement funds, ssi, pensions, a dollar worth .05 cents a dollar.....lop off two or three zeros from all holdings......there is so much inflated wealth it will make the end of the roman empire look like a kindergarten skit.....the great depression will look like a good time.....back then folks knew how to survive......well quite a bit did but not everyone.....today most folks are just dumb azzes....fat and content...like dipstick.

Some things that will and do have value are: property, food, medicine, clothing, and fuel/energy. That will never change. During the last depression what hurt the most was the loss of the value to labor for others.

If it all crash's again I worry not just about how helpless most people are, but also how violent. People today think that if someone else has something they need, (or even just want) then the person who has it is obligated to give to the person who doesn't. If the haves don't give the have nots their goods, the have nots own the right to take by force from the haves. This attitude is becoming more and more common.

If we have another crash people are going to band together in tribes again. At least those who survive the first 6 months or so.

Skills/abilities have value and they cannot be stolen/taken unless your enslaved.

From the flavor of some of these posts, do some think humans may not be evolving quite as fast as they should toward a better version of humanity?

I don't think humanity has evolved much at all. Peoples is peoples.
Always have been.
Always will be.


Ol Sigmund labeled humans creatures of aggression and sexual impulses.
Ol Charles said humans as a species evolve as the strong propagate and the weak are culled.
Suuurrrreeeee.

As a biologist myself, I witness science is an inexact science most every time because it changes every generation or so but as the current post-modern era religion, it's holding up pretty well under the confusion of climate change, philosophy, political strife, and such.

Bitcoin and crypto is a very interesting development. It appeals to the basic "get me some" in humans that Freud wrote extensively on.
I smile each time I hear someone some Dogecoin when I can clearly read that it is a dog-e-coin. Now that's funny.
A few win. Most lose.
There's a lot of that going around.
Peoples is what peoples does.
Dog coins are just the latest merry-go-round.
Might as well get me some. Everyone else is doing it.
Where else have we heard this?
I think I said it to my mom more than once back in high school.

Blessings,
Mark

Dogecoin was quite literally started as a joke.
While nobody knows what comes, I would encourage delving into becoming educated on crypto.
It’s getting to be about that time....

Oh, no doubt. We'll all be in graph from in another hundred or two hundred years. Cool graph. I think there may be a tiny Renminbi Yuen just above the USA on the graph?

Yes.



If gold is valuable we will find it and retrieve it. We humans are greedy like this.

As you know Bitcoin is extremely difficult to change. Nearly all participants need to agree on changes. Raising the 21 million cap would require all participants to fight natural human greed and devalue their own holdings.

Its 2021, without power or the internet our society will collapse in a very short amount of time. Your gold bars or bags of silver might work well to beat your neighbor in the head with when he tries to steal your last remaining food or water.

Yeah the crypto casinos have never faired very well with volatility. Imagine what their security is like. This is why I use Bitcoin only exchanges and custody myself.

What specific aspect of Bitcoin/"crypto" is currently unregulated or what specific regulations would you like to see?

Good morning Mark. I'm glad you brought this up. I hope you and others aren't ready anything into my writings here about Bitcoin that it in any way creates any sort of utopia. "Peoples is peoples" for sure, that will never change.

I smile as my flesh says, "go get me some," and I reflect on that urge. I don't have any crypto but as I listen to about everyone I know get on the train (get rich trains always have passengers) I have no illusions it's attached to utopia. That wasn't what I was thinking.

I just enjoy witnessing the human psyche reasoning behind, "do I get in?" or "do I stay out?" or "do i....."
Fascinating.

But then the Lord knows I turn up the volume when Jerry Reed song comes on Willy's Roadhouse station;
My luck was so good I could do no wrong
I jest kept on rollin' and controllin' them bones
And finally they jest threw up their hands and said
"When you hot, you hot"

The percentage of total mining taking place in China way overblown IMO and it decreases by the day.

During the rainy season many miners to move to these hydro facilities because they over produce electricity, therefor electricity is dirt cheap and miners are more profitable.

Lets say the dam blows and takes out 30% of Bitcoins hash power (mining). New Bitcoin blocks (groups of transactions) would happen roughly 30% slower than the normal 10 minute average, so a 13 minute average. Fees would increase significantly to get a transaction through because block space would be more scarce. The network itself adjusts the difficulty to mine every 2 weeks, it will recognize these slower block times and the difficulty of mining will be adjusted down to get that target back closer to 10 minutes average. It is a self righting ship.