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Somebody want to explain to me what "Bitcoin" is and how it can be worth a fucking penny?
Posted by: Mooch Burger ()
Date: December 19, 2017 05:27PM

In plain English please!

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Re: Somebody want to explain to me what "Bitcoin" is and how it can be worth a fucking penny?
Posted by: _Tarlton_ ()
Date: December 19, 2017 05:30PM

It is worth whatever the market determines it is worth. It's more of a means to transfer currency than an actual currency in and of itself. People have just been using it as a form of tender. The bubble will burst soon.

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Re: Somebody want to explain to me what "Bitcoin" is and how it can be worth a fucking penny?
Posted by: Crooklyn ()
Date: December 19, 2017 05:41PM

_Tarlton_ Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> It is worth whatever the market determines it is
> worth. It's more of a means to transfer currency
> than an actual currency in and of itself. People
> have just been using it as a form of tender. The
> bubble will burst soon.

And how exactly is the worth determined by the "market"?

Are you saying if idiots are willing to pay $50,000 for a ham sandwich, that's what it's worth?

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Re: Somebody want to explain to me what "Bitcoin" is and how it can be worth a fucking penny?
Posted by: ham on rye ()
Date: December 19, 2017 06:09PM

Crooklyn Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Are you saying if idiots are willing to pay
> $50,000 for a ham sandwich, that's what it's
> worth?

Actually, yeah.

If the going rate for ham sandwiches was 50K, that's what they'd be worth.

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Re: Somebody want to explain to me what "Bitcoin" is and how it can be worth a fucking penny?
Posted by: Pc retardz ()
Date: December 19, 2017 06:31PM

It's a pyramid scheme and a experiment in human psychology. When the music stops the goofballs at the bottom of the pyramid get creamed.

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Re: Somebody want to explain to me what "Bitcoin" is and how it can be worth a fucking penny?
Posted by: Jfjfjfkg ()
Date: December 19, 2017 07:16PM

It’s modern day chain letter. End of StoryZ

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Re: Somebody want to explain to me what "Bitcoin" is and how it can be worth a fucking penny?
Posted by: blockchain ()
Date: December 19, 2017 07:16PM

Pc retardz Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> It's a pyramid scheme and a experiment in human
> psychology. When the music stops the goofballs at
> the bottom of the pyramid get creamed.


A pyramid scheme is when people at the bottom pass money up the chain and then move up that chain by recruiting other people.

That's not how bitcoin works.

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Re: Somebody want to explain to me what "Bitcoin" is and how it can be worth a fucking penny?
Posted by: Icy Hot ()
Date: December 19, 2017 07:35PM

Can I go out to dinner with my super model wife and pay the tab with bitcoins?

I don't think so. Therefore, fucking worthless if you ask me.

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Re: Somebody want to explain to me what "Bitcoin" is and how it can be worth a fucking penny?
Posted by: Facebook and Snapchat ()
Date: December 19, 2017 07:55PM

How can facebook be worth anything....

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Re: Somebody want to explain to me what "Bitcoin" is and how it can be worth a fucking penny?
Posted by: Pc retardz ()
Date: December 19, 2017 07:57PM

blockchain Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Pc retardz Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > It's a pyramid scheme and a experiment in human
> > psychology. When the music stops the goofballs
> at
> > the bottom of the pyramid get creamed.
>
>
> A pyramid scheme is when people at the bottom pass
> money up the chain and then move up that chain by
> recruiting other people.
>
> That's not how bitcoin works.

Pyramid schemes start with no actual value. The people at the top sucker people into buying in. The people at the bottom are left holding the bag.

Not a pure pyramid but 99 percent similar.

Bitcoin has no intrinsic value it depends on people thinking more people will continue to buy in after they have bought in.

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Re: Somebody want to explain to me what "Bitcoin" is and how it can be worth a fucking penny?
Posted by: Alice the Maid ()
Date: December 19, 2017 07:57PM

Because someone is paying for the ads I never read

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Re: Somebody want to explain to me what "Bitcoin" is and how it can be worth a fucking penny?
Posted by: Pc retardz ()
Date: December 19, 2017 07:58PM

Facebook and Snapchat Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> How can facebook be worth anything....

Facebook sells advertising and leads to a loyal audience using customized targeting.

Very valuable.

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Re: Somebody want to explain to me what "Bitcoin" is and how it can be worth a fucking penny?
Posted by: Better explanation ()
Date: December 19, 2017 08:10PM

Tulip bulb bubble without the tulips.

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Re: Somebody want to explain to me what "Bitcoin" is and how it can be worth a fucking penny?
Posted by: valueman ()
Date: December 19, 2017 09:25PM

Pc retardz Wrote:
------------------------------------------------------
> Bitcoin has no intrinsic value

Neither do dollars, cents, gold, baseball cards, stone rings, glass beads, ornate clamshells, etc.

If the whole world went to hell and the zombie apocalypse happened, that whole list of things that were once used to trade for goods & services would be worthless.

Bitcoin is no different in that sense. Things only have value when there is a marginal demand for them and a perceived benefit from owning them.

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Re: Somebody want to explain to me what "Bitcoin" is and how it can be worth a fucking penny?
Posted by: speaking of internet firms ()
Date: December 19, 2017 09:35PM

Facebook and Snapchat Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> How can facebook be worth anything....


When TF is Fairfax Underground going public? I want to get in on that IPO.

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Re: Somebody want to explain to me what "Bitcoin" is and how it can be worth a fucking penny?
Posted by: Cd4gu ()
Date: December 19, 2017 10:54PM

Generally, people today don't really understand "money". It was created as a way to store value. A standard weight of precious metal, like gold, that could be saved, later could be reliably traded for something else of value. The US dollar, no longer backed by anything but faith, is not a store of value. Inflation steals from every saver. Bitcoin and the US dollar get their value simply from people agreeing to accept it. When faith fails, it is worthless. If bitcoin makes no sense to you, neither should the US dollar. Google: fiat money.

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Re: Somebody want to explain to me what "Bitcoin" is and how it can be worth a fucking penny?
Posted by: HoDu ()
Date: December 20, 2017 03:10PM

OK, here's the simplest possible way I can explain Bitcoin.

Largely it is about understanding that in modern terms, "money" is a fiction.

A Bitcoin is a token that some people have agreed to exchange as value, and in particular people will trade you US Dollars for Bitcoin. (There are also some businesses that will take Bitcoin directly.) A Bitcoin has this value simply and only because people have decided in their minds that it does. In that way it is like a US Dollar (which has no intrinsic value, and is "just" a piece of paper, and does not correspond to any particular thing).

People believe in dollars because they think that the US Government will only print dollars under certain circumstances (that is to say, dollars are "artificially scarce"). They believe that the monetary policy of the United States is generally sound and that the United States is not going to disappear. That is what makes Dollars "worth something".

Long ago, Dollars represented something real -- gold bullion -- and people LIKE gold, so that's "worth something". Maybe it would make more sense if your money represented a pile of steel, because you can obviously do a lot more with steel beams, but steel beams are not scarce. Gold is scarce, and people all over like it, so...gold. But in 1971, the United States announced that it would no longer guarantee to exchange dollars into gold from its stockpile in Fort Knox. That turned the dollar into a "fiat currency", which is the modern way that all money works now. "Fiat" means "it is valuable JUST because we SAY it is valuable". In other words, dollars are printed by the U.S. Government, but the U.S. Government will not trade you anything for them or convert them into anything. There isn't gold in Fort Knox for dollars, we're way past that. Dollars are what they are -- just a piece of paper, like "play money". And everyone has agreed that we will use this play money from now on.

Bitcoin is someone coming along and making up their own play money and getting a bunch of people to agree to use it. It is intended to be a currency, just like dollars are a currency.

(Bitcoin is not technically a "fiat" currency, because no Government has decreed it as legal tender. But it is a supply-and-demand currency that is not backed by any physical commodity, which is the main characteristic of money since about 50 years ago.)

People trust dollars because they trust the US Government (e.g. not to just print money randomly). Why does anyone trust Bitcoin? Because: Bitcoins are "scarce", like dollars are scarce. The way that money is "controlled" boils down to one thing: Scarcity. The value of a Dollar is controlled by The rate at which dollars are printed out of thin air by the U.S. Federal Reserve. Print too many, and dollars become worthless. That is called hyperinflation.

So, where do Bitcoins come from? How are they printed? Why are they scarce?

Bitcoin is not controlled by any government, but is instead controlled by a computer program (an "algorithm"). The algorithm is not secret: everyone knows what the algorithm is and how it works. It is entirely understood how and when (sorta) and how many Bitcoins will ever be printed. That makes them predictable, and so markets can assign value to them, just like value is assigned to dollars. Except that unlike a dollar, Bitcoin cannot be directly manipulated by a Government because it is controlled by a predictable algorithm.

While the Bitcoin itself is predictable, the value that people place on Bitcoins is not predictable, because that's just people. When Bitcoin first started in 2010, it was soon worth about one penny. One year later, a Bitcoin was worth $31. This morning, one Bitcoin is about $17,900. (People can own have arbitrary fractions of Bitcoins, by the way.)

Bitcoins aren't really "printed" - there is no physical piece of paper or stamped disc of metal that is a Bitcoin. Instead, there is one gigantic ledger that keeps track of every Bitcoin that has ever been created ("minted"), who owned it, and every Bitcoin (or fraction thereof) that has been transferred from one owner to another. Bitcoins are basically just serial numbers in the ledger.

Bitcoins are "stored" in a "wallet", which is another kind of serial number recorded in the ledger. It is similar to a bank account number and represents an owner. Anyone can look at the ledger and see all the transactions and exactly trace the money. They have to be able to, because the ledger is the only place that this "money" "actually" "exists".

Bitcoin is based on "encryption", which is basically just the application of some difficult arithmetic with certain mathematical properties. This will not be much explained here, but the result is that anyone can prove the truth of the transactions in the Bitcoin ledger, and anyone can prove if they are the owner of a wallet.

Imagine if there was a ledger that accounted for every bit of US money, every single penny, in all of history, from the time it was coined at the mint and every time it changed hands. That's what the Bitcoin ledger is for Bitcoins. Well, you can take a wallet you own and hand the entire thing to someone else, and that's not on the books. But any and all normal "spending" (transfer) of Bitcoin from one wallet to another is recorded. The Bitcoin ledger is gigantic!

The ledger is maintained by any number of people who are running the Bitcoin software on their computers. It is very expensive for anyone to do this. The reason they do it is because the ledger software is the same software that actually creates new Bitcoins! This is called "mining" Bitcoins. All these miner's computers talk to each other and through the miracle of encryption, they mutually prove that nobody is cheating, what Bitcoin exists, and that all the transactions are recorded correctly and what's in all the wallets.

There is monetary policy encoded in the Bitcoin algorithms. One effect is that as more Bitcoins are created ("mined"), it becomes harder and harder to mine more of them. Also, there is a cap on the total number that can ever be mined. After that, miners (keepers of the ledger and therefore the entire Bitcoin system) will not be rewarded with new Bitcoin. Instead, they will survive only on the transaction processing fees that they charge. Some changes have been made in this policy, by all the miners agreeing to it, and more will be made in the future.

If the miners disagree about the rules for Bitcoin, they could start yet another currency that is just exactly like Bitcoin, but with certain rules modified. If they can get other miners to follow them, they will have successfully created another "cryptocurrency" that competes with Bitcoin. This has already happened. For example, "Bitcoin Cash" is a Bitcoin competitor and so is "Etherium".

Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin are of great interest to banks, investment houses, and national governments. They all recognize that "value" has been "created" and want to get in on it.

The technology of the ledger is called "blockchain", and people have realized it can be useful for many other things besides cryptocurrencies. Blockchain is a way to have many computers keeping track of many things, and have them all agree. The approach is a little different than the way most databases work and has advantages in some scenarios. Using blockchain does not mean using any cryptocurrency; it's a general-purpose technology of great interest.

The market value of Bitcoin is currently in the $300 Billion neighborhood.
A Bitcoin costs $16,728 at the moment.
There were about 400,000 transactions today.
The numbers were recently higher but the market (that is. people buying) made an adjustment..



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 12/20/2017 03:37PM by HoDu.

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Re: Somebody want to explain to me what "Bitcoin" is and how it can be worth a fucking penny?
Posted by: Djdjfj ()
Date: December 20, 2017 03:34PM

^^^^

The US dollar is legal tender. If you don’t accept it, the government will put you in jail. It is also implicitly backed by the US Military and it’s protection of massive Saudi and Middle East oil reserves.

Bitcoin has neither of those things and is just a scam operating on the greater fool theory.

Currently there are 1,340 other crypto currencies with zero barrier to entry.

That said, keep buying that shit and push it to $50,000. I will make a fortune on the way down.

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Re: Somebody want to explain to me what "Bitcoin" is and how it can be worth a fucking penny?
Posted by: HoDu ()
Date: December 20, 2017 03:48PM

Djdjfj Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The US dollar is legal tender. If you don’t accept it,
> the government will put you in jail.

Nobody is required to accept coins/currency for goods and services.
You can choose to accept only Bitcoins, or ham sandwiches.
This is why you can post a notice saying "No bills larger than $20",
or "Credit Card Only", for example. If you give the proper notice,
or simply require payment up front, you can refuse to accept legal tender.
Of course, that's just in the United States, anyway.


> It is also implicitly backed by the US Military and it’s protection
> of massive Saudi and Middle East oil reserves.

Dollars are not backed by oil or anything - you're just mentioning
that the United States can make itself popular or unpopular,
which one imagines could affect how much people value a dollar.

Bitcoin is immune to those sorts of things, which is one reason people like it.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/20/2017 04:07PM by HoDu.

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Re: Somebody want to explain to me what "Bitcoin" is and how it can be worth a fucking penny?
Posted by: HoDu ()
Date: December 20, 2017 04:17PM

Djdjfj Wrote:

> Currently there are 1,340 other crypto currencies with zero barrier to entry.

I don't think there are 1,340 other cryptocurrencies, at least no that
anyone believes in. I did however mention two in my explanation.
But the mere existence of new ones does not make the old ones less valuable.
And the barrier to entry is not zero.

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Re: Somebody want to explain to me what "Bitcoin" is and how it can be worth a fucking penny?
Posted by: illegal tender ()
Date: December 20, 2017 04:26PM

Djdjfj Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> ^^^^
>
> The US dollar is legal tender. If you don’t
> accept it, the government will put you in jail.


Wrong. All "legal tender" means in practice is that your bills/coins must be accepted by the Federal Reserve bank. Because they're the one who issued them.

Nobody else has to accept them. You could provide a service to someone and demand that they pay you in cupcakes, and that's legal as long as they understood the payment terms before-hand.

There are so many myths & misconceptions about money, the gold standard, bitcoins, etc., it's actually amusing.

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Re: Somebody want to explain to me what "Bitcoin" is and how it can be worth a fucking penny?
Posted by: Fjdjjfjfjc ()
Date: December 20, 2017 04:32PM

^^^^

LOL, you’re just shilling this shit, you stupid faggot. Fine by me. Like I said, I will make a fortune on the way down and with almost zero risk. And there are 1,340 other crypto currencies and growing, so the barrier to entry is basically close to zero or zero.
Attachments:
62E512BF-15A5-4463-98D3-7592786AE0BE.jpeg

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Re: Somebody want to explain to me what "Bitcoin" is and how it can be worth a fucking penny?
Posted by: Jdjfjjf ()
Date: December 20, 2017 04:36PM

illegal tender Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Djdjfj Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > ^^^^
> >
> > The US dollar is legal tender. If you don’t
> > accept it, the government will put you in jail.
>
>
> Wrong. All "legal tender" means in practice is
> that your bills/coins must be accepted by the
> Federal Reserve bank. Because they're the one who
> issued them.
>
> Nobody else has to accept them. You could provide
> a service to someone and demand that they pay you
> in cupcakes, and that's legal as long as they
> understood the payment terms before-hand.
>
> There are so many myths & misconceptions about
> money, the gold standard, bitcoins, etc., it's
> actually amusing.


You are a retard. Cupcakes is just strawman for crypto-retards.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_tender

“Legal tender is a medium of payment recognized by a legal system to be valid for meeting a financial obligation.[1] Paper currency and coins are common forms of legal tender in many countries. Legal tender is variously defined in different jurisdictions. Formally, it is anything which when offered in payment extinguishes the debt. Thus, personal cheques, credit cards, and similar non-cash methods of payment are not usually legal tender. The law does not relieve the debt obligation until payment is tendered. Coins and banknotes are usually defined as legal tender.”

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Re: Somebody want to explain to me what "Bitcoin" is and how it can be worth a fucking penny?
Posted by: GE could only dream ()
Date: December 20, 2017 04:40PM

Facebook and Snapchat Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> How can facebook be worth anything....


Over $10b in revue in q3 alone, that's how

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Re: Somebody want to explain to me what "Bitcoin" is and how it can be worth a fucking penny?
Posted by: cupcakes ()
Date: December 20, 2017 08:21PM

Jdjfjjf Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> You are a retard. Cupcakes is just strawman for
> crypto-retards.
>
> https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_tender
>
> “Legal tender is a medium of payment recognized
> by a legal system to be valid for meeting a
> financial obligation.[1] Paper currency and coins
> are common forms of legal tender in many
> countries. Legal tender is variously defined in
> different jurisdictions. Formally, it is anything
> which when offered in payment extinguishes the
> debt. Thus, personal cheques, credit cards, and
> similar non-cash methods of payment are not
> usually legal tender. The law does not relieve the
> debt obligation until payment is tendered. Coins
> and banknotes are usually defined as legal
> tender.”

Yeah those are the theoretical concepts of legal tender and that's why I said "in practice". Because all 'legal tender' really means is that it has to be accepted by the Federal Reserve System. That's why Bank of America can't show up at the Federal Reserve Bank with a pile of credit cards and gold to settle their account balance. It's not legal tender. But if they show up with a truckload of pennies or old worn out $20s, the Federal Reserve must accept them. Because those coins & notes are 'legal tender'. The Federal Reserve issued those notes, stamped them with 'legal tender', and is bound by law to accept them as payment.

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Re: Somebody want to explain to me what "Bitcoin" is and how it can be worth a fucking penny?
Posted by: HoDu ()
Date: December 22, 2017 02:39AM


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Re: Somebody want to explain to me what "Bitcoin" is and how it can be worth a fucking penny?
Posted by: HoDu ()
Date: December 22, 2017 09:12AM


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Re: Somebody want to explain to me what "Bitcoin" is and how it can be worth a fucking penny?
Posted by: krypto Mike ()
Date: December 22, 2017 09:19AM

Its tanking but what would you expect after going from 2000 to 19000 in a few months. Its unusable for every day transactions as a currency until it becomes stable. So much for it going to 50k before years end.

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Re: Somebody want to explain to me what "Bitcoin" is and how it can be worth a fucking penny?
Posted by: very curious ()
Date: December 22, 2017 09:26AM

HoDu Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-12-21
> /goldman-is-said-to-be-building-a-cryptocurrency-t
> rading-desk


Hey Hodu, do you have a bitcoin wallet?

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Re: Somebody want to explain to me what "Bitcoin" is and how it can be worth a fucking penny?
Posted by: HoDu ()
Date: December 22, 2017 10:21AM

very curious Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hey Hodu, do you have a bitcoin wallet?


No.
But if you want to send me some Bitcoin, I'll create one!

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Re: Somebody want to explain to me what "Bitcoin" is and how it can be worth a fucking penny?
Posted by: HoDu ()
Date: December 22, 2017 10:43AM

.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/22/2017 10:44AM by HoDu.

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Re: Somebody want to explain to me what "Bitcoin" is and how it can be worth a fucking penny?
Posted by: jumping the virtual shark ()
Date: December 22, 2017 10:59AM

HoDu Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> you're just mentioning that the United States can make itself
> popular or unpopular, which one imagines could affect how much
> people value a dollar.
>
> Bitcoin is immune to those sorts of things, which
> is one reason people like it.


With huge Wall Street firms getting involved and the consolidation of massive bitcoin miners, it won’t be immune much longer.

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Re: Somebody want to explain to me what "Bitcoin" is and how it can be worth a fucking penny?
Posted by: DaleKohl ()
Date: February 07, 2018 02:27AM

Blockchain technology is a completely game changing phenomenon, which launched another generation of currency - cryptocurrency. Bitcoin is the most popular (and valuable) type of cryptocurrency now, it is like cyber gold. It has great investing potential today, it's value is determined by it's use as the best cyber currency - you can buy everything online with bitcoins, you're not limited by dollars and banks anymore, just imagine! Here is a nice source explaining modern cryptocurrency, it's market and bitcoins, of course https://cryptomarketwire.com/ .

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Re: Somebody want to explain to me what "Bitcoin" is and how it can be worth a fucking penny?
Posted by: Frank7788 ()
Date: August 01, 2019 02:04PM

Bitcoin is one of the most popular and valuable cryptocurrencies. Personally I haven't regretted investing in it as its price has been increasing. So, I know for sure that Bitcoin is worth using. If you want to find out more about this currency, it is possible to look through Bitcoin Wiki collection on https://cryptolinks.com/bitcoin-wiki.

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Re: Somebody want to explain to me what "Bitcoin" is and how it can be worth a fucking penny?
Posted by: Sophia777 ()
Date: December 31, 2019 01:37PM

Bitcoin is very popular and valuable cryptocurrency. Of course, there are many sites that can explain what Bitcoin is and how it works, but I prefer reading Wikipedia to find out such things. Also it is possible to look through the reviews on https://revain.org/projects/bitcoin as this source can provide you with other crypto users' thoughts.

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Re: Somebody want to explain to me what "Bitcoin" is and how it can be worth a fucking penny?
Posted by: here ends the lesson ()
Date: December 31, 2019 01:39PM

Mooch Burger Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> In plain English please!

Only if you explain how a penny is worth a "fucking penny." Money is an abstract construct, a social agreement - it doesnt matter what the symbol or name is.

You are welcome.

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