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CNBC: Ethereum hits another record high, marking a more than 2,800% rally this year


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Ethereum, an alternative cryptocurrency to bitcoin, hit a fresh record high on Sunday, amid continued interest in the digital asset space and increased trade from Asia.

 

On Sunday, ethereum traded at an all-time high of $250.41, according to data from industry website CoinDesk. This is up 2,839 percent from the $8.52 handle it had on January

1. Ethereum was trading at around $246.62 on Monday morning, slightly off its record high.

 

Ether is the name of the cryptocurrency which runs on the ethereum blockchain, which is the technology that underpins the digital coin. But ethereum is often used as shorthand for the digital currency as well.

 

 

http://www.cnbc.com/2017/06/05/ethereum-price-hits-record-high.html

 

Ethereum sounds way more interesting and potentially revolutionary than bitcoin:

 

 

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Ethereum has been designed to support so-called smart contract applications. A smart contract is a computer program that can automatically execute the terms of a contract when certain conditions are met. It's this practical use of ethereum which has excited many large corporates and investors, and led to the rally.

 

 

Even good ol' Putin up in Russia is taking notice:

 

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-06/putin-eyes-bitcoin-rival-to-spur-economic-growth-beyond-oil-gas

 

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Russia’s central bank has already deployed an Ethereum-based blockchain as a pilot project to process online payments and verify customer data with lenders including Sberbank PJSC, Deputy Governor Olga Skorobogatova said at the St. Petersburg event. She didn’t rule out using Ethereum technologies for the development of a national virtual currency for Russia down the road.

 

Last week, Russia’s state development bank VEB agreed to start using Ethereum for some administrative functions. Steelmaker Severstal PJSCtested Ethereum’s blockchain for secure transfer of international credit letters.

 

 

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They need to come up with better names for these types of currency. Bitcoin and Ethereum don't sound like something I'd want to invest much in at the moment.

 

Interesting read though. Sounds a lot more promising than bitcoin to me. The future of Ethereum might be worth keeping an eye on. 

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The problem with all of the crypto-currencies is that despite the libertarian utopian ideal of a currency unmanipulated by governments (and also at least partly because of it), governments HATE them (another reason is that they make criminal activity easier).

 

Any currency without government backing is just greater fool speculation. This could easily be another tulip situation.

 

More than that, governments play dirty. Investing in something the U.S. might work to undermine at any time strikes me as awfully risky. Talk about "never fight the Fed". Geez.

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16 hours ago, stevemcqueen1 said:

I saw that someone on reddit bought a **** ton of it in 2014 for a couple thousand dollars.  Holy ****.

 

Here's the (very) painful flipside anecdote:

 

https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2017/05/i-threw-away-4-8-million-in-bitcoin/

 



Five years ago, I threw away a hard drive. An utterly generic 250GB portable hard drive, already a few years old, with a couple of dings and scratches in its shell and with the beginnings of an audible click that would have eventually killed it.

It had a data file containing 1400 Bitcoin on it. No big deal, at the time.

Today, those few kilobytes are worth more than four million dollars.

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I'm developing a new cryptocurrency.  I'm calling it Awesome Sauce.  I don't care what you do with it.  Send me old fashioned U.S. currency if you want in. How much depends on how deep you want to jump... I have Mild, Jalapeno, or Ghost Pepper Enrollment Plans.  No matter which you choose, you will not get burned. Promise.

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2 hours ago, techboy said:

The problem with all of the crypto-currencies is that despite the libertarian utopian ideal of a currency unmanipulated by governments (and also at least partly because of it), governments HATE them (another reason is that they make criminal activity easier).

 

Any currency without government backing is just greater fool speculation. This could easily be another tulip situation.

 

More than that, governments play dirty. Investing in something the U.S. might work to undermine at any time strikes me as awfully risky. Talk about "never fight the Fed". Geez.

 

I think Ethereum has a lot more potential utility than bitcoin. 

 

I am intrigued by the Russian government's decision to start piloting it in their central bank and state owned development bank. The Chinese government has expressed interest too and I think there is also interest in South Korea. (It's a whole another conversation if Russian and Chinese interest is a good or a bad thing).

 

It could very well end up being a bust so it's not a good idea to toss in a substantial chunk of your money into this. But hey if you've got some disposable income... doesn't hurt.

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1 hour ago, No Excuses said:

I am intrigued by the Russian government's decision to start piloting it in their central bank and state owned development bank

 

The Russian government is a criminal enterprise.

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  • 3 months later...
On 6/7/2017 at 1:23 PM, Springfield said:

Cat's already out of the bag on this one.  It's too late to get rich.

 

For posterity:

Bitcoin on 6/7/17:  $2694

Bitcoin on 9/12/17:  $4148

Increase 53%

 

So... you could have made poorer investments.

 

 

Like in ethereum, what the thread was originally about.

 

Ethereum on 6/7/17:  $247

Etherum on 9/12/17:  $297

Increase 20%

 

 

 

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Cryptocurrency traders have been described as being as jumpy as a squirrel on crack.

 

No doubt some people are making money. And more are likely losing. 

 

It's a pure speculation play as it's unknown today ... if governments (e.g. China) will issue their own cryptocurrency, how major governments will tax and legislate it. Or even if it will be legal without any centralized oversight. 

 

Charlie Shrem, who operated a bitcoin transaction processor, aka "unlicensed money transmitting business", went to prison because a customer was using his service to make payments for illegal activity on Silk Road. How many bankers have gone to prison when their institutions have been involved in criminal activity?

 

However, the blockchain, which underpins cryptocurrency, has incredible potential for many applications.

 

Here's a decent intro on blockchain:

 

 

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@Corcaigh The nsync  example makes me wonder about how tax withholding could be automated into transactions as well. If all transactions were on the block chain, you would know how much income a particular person makes and be able to apply a progressive tax structure against them. The big thing for this would be withholding on capital gains transactions and dividends similar to what wage earners have.

 

Edit: It would basically automate IRS auditing as baked into the transaction process and prevent tax fraud. Its probably not realistic as long as physical currency exists though since we can't get a complete, accurate picture.

 

 

 

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The other one that seemed interesting to me is stuff like bitgold / goldmoney. Right now their fee structure is too 'death by 1000 cuts' for my liking... but the idea of leveraging the block chain to more conveniently include commodities into a portfolio and allowing for direct exchange seems interesting..

 

I don't like the fact that their fee structure implies a negative interest rate, but assuming inflation is sufficiently high it should negate that cost.

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20 hours ago, Weganator said:

The other one that seemed interesting to me is stuff like bitgold / goldmoney. Right now their fee structure is too 'death by 1000 cuts' for my liking... but the idea of leveraging the block chain to more conveniently include commodities into a portfolio and allowing for direct exchange seems interesting..

 

I don't like the fact that their fee structure implies a negative interest rate, but assuming inflation is sufficiently high it should negate that cost.

 

The folks making big money in cryptocurrency may be the likes of Coinbase processing transaction fees, much like one of the first internet billionaires was the guy who got credit card payments working over the internet (for porn sites).

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If you are interested in learning more about bitcoin and the blockchain, a great starting point is the book: 'Mastering Bitcoin 2nd Edition - Programming the Open Blockchain' by Andreas M. Antonopoulos.

 

The book is available for free on GitHub. https://github.com/bitcoinbook/bitcoinbook/tree/second_edition, or Amazon if you prefer.

 

You can read the chapters individually on GitHub by clicking on ch01.asciidoc (first chapter), ch02... etc.

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On 6/7/2017 at 1:39 PM, Dan T. said:

I'm developing a new cryptocurrency.  I'm calling it Awesome Sauce.  I don't care what you do with it.  Send me old fashioned U.S. currency if you want in. How much depends on how deep you want to jump... I have Mild, Jalapeno, or Ghost Pepper Enrollment Plans.  No matter which you choose, you will not get burned. Promise.

 

There is now this: http://www.****token.io/ - probably NSFW

 

 

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  • 4 weeks later...
On 9/12/2017 at 8:42 PM, Springfield said:

 

For posterity:

Bitcoin on 6/7/17:  $2694

Bitcoin on 9/12/17:  $4148

Increase 53%

 

So... you could have made poorer investments.

 

 

Like in ethereum, what the thread was originally about.

 

Ethereum on 6/7/17:  $247

Etherum on 9/12/17:  $297

Increase 20%

 

 

Bitcoin now at $5754 on 10/14/17

Ethereum price $343.

 

The bitcoin bubble may well pop on October 25 with the Bitcoin Gold hard fork, OR after the SegWit2x fork in November ... or it may keep going.

 

Pure speculation, not investment. But they have charts. :-)

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