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posted by martyb on Tuesday February 06 2018, @03:01AM   Printer-friendly
from the Trouble-In-Bitcoin-City dept.

An article on Ars Technica notes the continuing slide downward of Bitcoin prices (down below $9,000 per coin from a December peak of $19,500). It also notes some recent news about Facebook ads and crypto, SEC Action against a different cryptocurrency project, and rumors about a still different coin's possibility of insolvency.

Meanwhile, rumors are swirling about Tether, a cryptocurrency whose value is pegged to the United States dollar. Tethers are supposed to be redeemable for dollars at any time, but in recent months Tether has struggled to gain access to the conventional banking system and has failed to produce a financial audit demonstrating its solvency.

I'm not sure if the article is connecting unconnected stories of problems or if the theme of trouble in crypto-land generally is valid. But this quote got me to thinking how much the state of cryptocurrency may be like the Free Banking Era in the United States in the 1800s and the Wildcat Banking that signaled its demise. We discuss cryptocurrency a lot on Soylent, but are the troubles of various operators all linked or is it unrelated coincidence?

[Ed. Note: The linked story at Ars Technica was updated to report that the price of one BitCoin dropped below $7000. As of this writing, coinbase reports the price dropped to about $6400 (Javascript required). Note this price is still $5500 ahead of where it was this time last year when it had just inched above $1000.]


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  • (Score: 2) by crafoo on Tuesday February 06 2018, @05:33PM

    by crafoo (6639) on Tuesday February 06 2018, @05:33PM (#633968)

    Nope. It's not misunderstood. Saying a currency is "backed by XXX" is just a factor into each individual's calculation of how probable it is they can exchange it for real goods and services in the future. It may stabilize the value over time, which makes them somewhat more sure that they can get a dozen eggs next week with it. The value of currency is what people believe they can exchange it for at some later date. That's it.

    Cryptocurriencies are volatile because of their relatively low total capitalization and the ease at which people are speculating and manipulating the value. People with real money and power are extracting capital from idiots. However, as long as they can be exchanged for goods and services, they will always retain some amount of value.

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