User:Shabidoo/Cryptocurrency

Cryptocurrency isn't really a currency nor is there anything really cryptic about it. It's a meaningless unit of value of non-existant good, traded online, an engine of speculation and partly used as a payment system for things that do have a real value (in real world currencies). A far better definition cryptocurrency is a totally fake imitation of currency that uses cryptography to try and keep it anonymous, totally safe and non-bubble-overevaluation. It's all been done with some successes (if you can call it that) and some devastating blow outs.

Cryptocurrency is a broad term referring to a get-rich-project that makes laundering money not just safe and secure...but also fun for everyone who has a ton of computers and a low electricity rates. Nothing says the new frontier of disruptive tecnology and innovation like having 50 computers solve pointless problems day and night.

Challenges
Apart from crypto currencies often being wildly unpredictable and seeing enormous jumps and dives in price, issues range from the fungibility of the currency and the lack of users to trde services for it. Then there is the challenge of a good cooling system to frigerate your bit-mining operation in your basement. Running several dozen pentium processors on devices in your computer farm generates a lot of heat and needs efficient cooling to avoid your house setting on fire. Another notable challenge is having no idea when to invest int he currency and then feeling depressed that you didn't invest in it early and multiply your investment by 30,000% percent. A bandwagon one maybe should have hopped on. This has led to investors hopping on all the new bandwagons which is difficult considering there are hundreds of new cryptocurrencies starting every year. Which currency to take a risk on?

Inside the land of serious cryptocurrency traders, coders, advocates, commentators and wonky libertarians lie a strange club of minarchists, anarcho-capitalists, radical laissez-faire capitalists, Conservapedians,[7] and technophiles,[8]

While gamblers have support groups to call when they wrecklessly bet their money on longshots against the house odds, cryptocurrency investors don't have yet their own support group for people who wasted their dear money on a scam currency.

Is it really digital?
Not really. They are always measured against the dollar/euro/pound (pretty logical) and great efforts are made by the largest cryptocurrencies to believe your bitcoins can easily be withdrawn if you happen to have one of their few cash-machines in 5 out of 180 countries in the world. These currencies haven't become well established enough for say a group of friends to share a restaurant bill or buy more than a small range of products with it. What this means is an investment in a "digital currency" that often leaves you spending much of your "digital currency time" finding ways to achieve your goal in the real world, with banks and bills and coins and plastic cards with magnetic strips.

Claims made by cryptophiles==

It is totally safe
Actuaally, there have been several serious breaches which involved the large scale hacking of some users accounts stealing bitcoins. In order to remain anonymous and avoid a series of administrators and managers who could intervene and access enormous amounts of data, bitcoin is seriously decentralised with only the slimmest skeleton crew of operators. Because of the inherant anonymous nature of bitcoin and the virtually non-existant customer service for such events if you are hacked, there's nothinng you can do about it. Your secure and safe money is gone. There is also the chance of unforeseen consequences [9]

It is totally anonymous
It is rather so, but then police in at least two European countries managed to trace bitcoin operations to money launderers and some tax avoiders.

It's an international currency wihtout all those things like pesky regulation and control
Actually several countries have placed large restrictions on the use of the currency and the EU is currently working on a bill to place controls on the use of the currency, especially for ta purposes and for reducing crime and terrorist funding. And then there is the whole shutting down of several bitcoin exchangers in Asia for gross financial fraud and tax evasion.

It is a liberterian's dream
Wow that unregulated currency without a "Fed" apointee adjusting interest rates. It's the cowboy frontier of currency. A different way to approach money. The project that proves that a currency without regulation will be stable, easy to deal with, without regulation and oversight, safe and able to improve itself with the magic invisible hand of the free market. Except of course the currencies have shown to be extremely volatile while the creation of new coins doesn't come from entrepreneurship or notable ingenuity or insight. It's about the guy who can get the cheapest computers with the cheapest power rates and let their computers rip. Far from the new sexy style of business, the creation of coins has mostly transplanted itself to poorer countries and has consolidated into the hands of a few mass operations. Instead of it being a currency generator of the average person using business acument and the opportunities of the new libertarian age, it's the same old game of tedious computer mills sent to poor areas where sucking up a large amount of energy is profitable for a few large companies who can afford the investment.

Controlled
Just when you thought crypto currency ended that sinful business of the government interfering with such things as wealth transfer and elicit activity, enter those countries creating a currency to help get a hold on their own currency spiraling out of control. Venezuela for example created their own crypto currency in a way to remove reliance on foreign cash but still have a stable currency. As predicted, it worked perfectly, that is, in the sense of hyper-controlling every aspect of it. In other words, it brings out the worst in both worlds. That is, using a currency as a speculation device to artificially inflate the value of the currency and the threat of a future bubble, as well as the ghastly horror of a government micro-managing the digital currency to keep their failed economy creeping forward slowly.