Bitcoin peaks above $5,000 for first time
Bitcoin has crossed the $5,000 (£3,862) threshold for the first time. The virtual currency peaked at $5,103.91 in the early hours of Saturday, according to CoinDesk's price index. The record high helped push the total value of publicly traded crypto-currencies - including Ethereum and the Bitcoin-offshoot Bitcoin Cash - to more than $176bn. However, there has since been a sell-off. At time of writing, Bitcoin was 12% off its peak, at $4,485.
According to coindesk.com, one Bitcoin is worth $4085.63 at this moment (20170905_023428 UTC).
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 05 2017, @10:17AM (6 children)
I don't see how this is news...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 05 2017, @10:23AM
For example, "China Bans Bitcoin" would be some actual news:
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-41157249 [bbc.com]
Or, "Bitcoin price drops after hitting high predicted by Goldman Sachs":
https://futurism.com/goldman-sachs-analyst-predicts-bitcoin-price-could-hit-4800/ [futurism.com]
Then there is some content.
(Score: 2) by Snow on Tuesday September 05 2017, @02:56PM (4 children)
I've been thinking of submitting some original content around bitcoin because there isn't a lot of good coverage on what is going on in bitcoinland at the moment. The price going up (or down) is not the interesting part of bitcoin at all.
Ever watched a soap opera? That is bitcoinland. There are mystery figures, backstabbing, conspiracies, heros -- the whole lot.
If you don't think that public blockchains are going to change the world, you don't really understand them. The invention of the blockchain is truly revolutionary.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 06 2017, @05:18AM (2 children)
We have already seen many industries implement blockchains for their own methods. I don't see how it is truly revolutionary, and that sounds like more FUD to get people hopping on the train. The blockchain can be subverted and controlled by those who have the GPUs, and quantum computing just might prove to be more valuable.
Please elaborate on how public blockchains are truly revolutionary!! I'm not being sarcastic, I opened with some negativity, but I'd like some ideas about why I'm wrong.
(Score: 2) by Snow on Wednesday September 06 2017, @03:00PM (1 child)
IMO, a private blockchain is worthless. A SQL database will outperform it every time.
The value comes from a public, permissionless, immutable record. That record can then be used to provide proofs (proof of ownership, proof of existence [insert the hash of a document], proof of payment). Smart contracts can be built upon that (ie. a casino that is provably fair, or a trading platform with proven reserves).
When people talk about taking control of a blockchain, the damage that can be done is largely limited. Outright stealing of funds is not possible. An attacker cannot forge the signatures required to move funds they do not own. The best they can do is mine empty blocks and essentially perform a denial of service attack. There is little incentive to do so, and it would be expensive. In an emergency, the attackers chain could also be invalidated with a simple command line.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 06 2017, @08:24PM
So basically everyone must trust the devs to not fuck everyone over? If you can mess with the blockchain in any way then it is possible to accomplish near anything on it. Might require some massive botnets, but corrupt one dev to take a fall and you could do some serious damage.
Every time I hear about BC updating code or changing the blockchain I wonder how any sane person can trust the system. Throw in the various "services" that have cropped, the transaction fees (wtf??) and there is no way in hell I'm touching that boondoggle.
(Score: 1) by baldrick on Wednesday September 06 2017, @05:53AM
an interesting series of posts about bitcoin management over time is here https://www.reddit.com/r/decred/comments/6wxueo/your_best_pitch_for_decred/ [reddit.com]
... I obey the Laws of Physics