Any cryptocurrency users here?

[opa]

Can someone give me a tl;dr on bitcoin? I tried skimming the wikipedia page but don't really understand how it works.
Without being able to transfer into government-backed currency, it seems like pretend money has no real value.

That's a weird sentence I just wrote but I don't know how else to phrase it.

[Golgo 14]

Depending on your point of view, the tl;dr is either:

a) It's a Ponzi
b) It's digital gold, and number go up

You're able to trade it for government-backed currency on exchanges. Currently 1 bitcoin would get you $48,600.

[marurun]

You're able to trade it for government-backed currency on exchanges. Currently 1 bitcoin would get you $48,600.

I think this will only continue while cashing-out is rare. Should Bitcoin suddenly need to be cashed out to “real” currency at a higher rate the value will likely start dropping more dramatically.

[Golgo 14]

I mean, sure? That's how markets work. If everyone tries to sell something all at once, the price will surely drop quite a bit. If tomorrow the price of Bitcoin drops 90%, you could buy or sell one for a little over $4,800.

[marurun]

What I mean is, right now Bitcoin is really only useful as a currency in very limited ways. Unless that changes, it doesn’t really have a future. In order for it to really have practical value to most people it needs to be exchanged into dollars (or another traditional currency). That’s not a restriction on most currencies. Aside from paying off ransomware gangs and the occasional random other thing, Bitcoin just isn’t actually much of a currency.

[Golgo 14]

I don't disagree with what you're saying, but I'm not sure about your conclusions. Bitcoin isn't great as an everyday currency, and it's not going to get much better. That role will be taken up by other systems, both other cryptocurrencies and digital currencies issued by central banks. I don't think that necessarily dooms Bitcoin though. I hope people aren't buying Bitcoin because they think everyone's going to be paying for their lunch with sats in five years.

Digital gold is the model on which Bitcoin will ultimately succeed or fail. Is gold a good currency? No, it's terrible. But its scarcity and allure makes it a valuable asset despite its limited utility.

[RCBH928]

All of those checks are to keep you (and others) safe from fraud and the like. In the pre-internet times it wasn't nearly as complicated because it was much harder for people to get your info in the first place. Now, with everything being digital, they need to add more authentication methods to ensure that it's you who wants to engage in these financial transactions, and not some random scammer.

Well its very annoying and makes me want to buy less. Why can't Visa or MasterCard create a system like Paypal where you input username and password and it goes through instead of the multiple entries and 2FAs every single time. If protection you are looking for, then do it for larger amounts like $300-$1000, not every single dollar. When buy on Amazon I don't have to enter anything just click "buy".

in real life all i have to do is enter a 4 digit pin and press enter.

Digital gold is the model on which Bitcoin will ultimately succeed or fail. Is gold a good currency? No, it's terrible. But its scarcity and allure makes it a valuable asset despite its limited utility.

Gold is valuable everywhere and through out history. The only reason I know for this is that gold does not alter, expire, or rot. You can also separate it and then re combine it. Its funny that in the end its just natural occurring element like everything out there in nature but humans give it value. At least its better than diamonds.

Someone might do that to make a point, but for the most part, no, that wouldn't be desirable. There are better ways to make everyday transactions, and hardly anyone would want 100% of their money in Bitcoin. That doesn't really have anything to do with whether or not Bitcoin is valuable or legit, though.

Well if they say that Bitcoin is just as good as real currency and its the new system to by pass the current financial system, then prove it and turn all your assets into Bitcoin.

Can someone give me a tl;dr on bitcoin? I tried skimming the wikipedia page but don't really understand how it works.
Without being able to transfer into government-backed currency, it seems like pretend money has no real value.

That's a weird sentence I just wrote but I don't know how else to phrase it.

I don;t know much but here is what I understood:

Someone made a digital(virtual) currency in a limited number and there won't be any more of it. The reason its going up in price:-

1-Its good to transfer bypassing the financial system, making it great for illegal transactions
2-Ponzi scheme as people are riding the wave, the guy who bought at $1000 is selling to the guy who is willing to buy it at $2000 which is willing to sell it to the guy who is willing to buy it and make it $5000 and so on.
3-Its seeing some acceptance as some people want to deal with it, so some merchants started accepting it, so other are thinking this is as good as currency now and want to get into it.

[MrPopo]

All of those checks are to keep you (and others) safe from fraud and the like. In the pre-internet times it wasn't nearly as complicated because it was much harder for people to get your info in the first place. Now, with everything being digital, they need to add more authentication methods to ensure that it's you who wants to engage in these financial transactions, and not some random scammer.

Well its very annoying and makes me want to buy less. Why can't Visa or MasterCard create a system like Paypal where you input username and password and it goes through instead of the multiple entries and 2FAs every single time. If protection you are looking for, then do it for larger amounts like $300-$1000, not every single dollar. When buy on Amazon I don't have to enter anything just click "buy".

in real life all i have to do is enter a 4 digit pin and press enter.

In real life that's 2FA; you have two factors which indicate you are authorized to draw upon the card's resources. You have the actual card and you have your pin. The reason the credit card companies aren't using a login system is that would be massively disruptive. The credit card auth flow was developed, then people realized that the scam potential was high, but by that point the auth flow was industry wide. Adding a requirement for an additional piece of authentication (CCV) is much less disruptive than switching to a new flow around some sort of login tied to a central system. And don't forget that Visa and Mastercard aren't issuing the cards; it's individual banks. So you would need to basically tie in to the account system of thousands of banks worldwide to pull it off.

Now, the reason it's easy on Amazon is that you agreed for Amazon to store a long-lived credit card authorization token. Each time you purchase it uses that token, which doesn't include your actual credit card info (thus it's more secure). But that imposes a data protection requirement on Amazon's end. Some merchants provide the same feature of tying a credit card to your account and either never needing a reenter or just needing to reenter the CCV. But every new merchant is going to need it again. And many merchants don't want to save the info because of the data protection burden that they aren't equipped to handle.

[fuctfuct]

Haven't read anything in this thread since i left for a few months.. but https://youtu.be/b4VPBeBElYs

[Raging Justice]

I've been thinking a lot lately about learning more about crypto. There are some intelligent people whose opinions I respect who support it and have had success with it, but I won't commit to it without doing my own research