The Bitcoin Mania has reached the Frenzy Stage

Submitted by gjohnsit on Thu, 12/07/2017 - 11:57am

This chart below is just from today!

Most charts take all year to move like that.
Bitcoin, OTOH, has compressed all that movement into 24 hours.

By reaching this level, the cryptocurrency has climbed more than 1,500% year-to-date (YTD), additional BPI figures show.
..."$15,000 is the latest milestone for Bitcoin, highlighting the strong upward momentum and investor confidence in the cryptocurrency," said Iqbal Gandham, UK managing director at global trading and investment platform eToro.
"Thanks to today's price surge, Bitcoin now has a total market value of over $250 billion – more than General Electric and IBM's market cap," he emphasized.

With price jumps of 30% in a single day, you would be insane to spend your bitcoins.
Which of course means that bitcoin isn't an actual currency.
So what is it? It's a very familiar mania.

the Bitcoin bubble argument aside, there is an inarguable cryptocurrency craze that is far worse than just a Bitcoin bubble. It seems that any company having relation to Bitcoin, cryptocurrencies or blockchain technology, is in a bubble. If a company’s name includes “Bitcoin” or “blockchain”, their stock has been providing returns we haven’t witnessed since the Dot-Com bubble.
This is eerily similar to previous bubbles we have witnessed. During the Dot-Com bubble of ’99-’00, if a company added “.com” or “e” to its name, the stock significantly increased and became worth more. Nothing material about the business changed, no additional sales were being made, and no positive developments occurred, the business became more valuable for no logical reason. This appears to be happening all over again. As written in The Coin Telegraph, “Adding ‘Blockchain’ to Name Causes Soaring Valuation,” and on Cryptocoins News, “Want to Boost Your Stock Price? Add ‘Blockchain’ to Your Company’s Name.”

Just for yucks, let's look at one of the examples.

When a biotech company changed its name from Bioptix Inc to Riot Blockchain, its shares surged by 17%. This was in addition to the almost 100% gain the stock had in the days leading to the announcement. It didn’t matter that Bioptix Inc was previously a manufacturer of diagnostic machinery.

If I was to make a guess, I would say that Bitcoin is the most obvious, and weakest member of an overall tech bubble.
To give some examples, Uber lost $1.46 billion in just the third quarter, after losing $1.06 billion in the previous quarter. Yet it's still valued in the billions.
Tesla lost $619 million in the third quarter, its biggest-ever, yet has more cash on hand than ever.
Netflix is losing half a billion dollars a quarter, and is $20 Billion in debt.
Eventually this malinvestment will implode, and cryptocurrencies will just be the tip of the iceberg.

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Submitted by gjohnsit on Thu, 12/07/2017 - 12:25pm

It's getting crazy

exchanges

The world’s biggest cryptocurrency has rallied more than $3,000 in the past 24 hours as mainstream demand for bitcoin explodes. Coinbase said it’s experiencing record traffic that has slowed trading, while Trezor, a wallet service, tweeted that it’s having “minor issues” with its servers.
Bitcoin listed at $16,103 as of 11:45 a.m. in Bloomberg pricing that is a composite of exchanges. That takes the digital currency’s surge this year to more than 1,500 percent and its market capitalization to $274 billion. Coinbase prices reached $19,697 as of 11:23 a.m. before falling to $16,299 a half hour later.

The latest rally comes on expectations that new bitcoin derivatives products expected to begin trading this month will boost mainstream demand. Some of the world’s biggest brokerages criticized those plans on Wednesday, telling regulators the contracts have been rushed to market without enough due diligence.

Bitcoin derivatives! We are saved!

Submitted by Meteor Man on Thu, 12/07/2017 - 12:43pm

Bitcoin Energy Demands Are Destructive

From Naked Capitalism:

The total energy use of this web of hardware is huge — an estimated 31 terawatt-hours per year. More than 150 individual countries in the world consume less energy annually. And that power-hungry network is currently increasing its energy use every day by about 450 gigawatt-hours, roughly the same amount of electricity the entire country of Haiti uses in a year.

And exponential growth:

In just a few months from now, at bitcoin’s current growth rate, the electricity demanded by the cryptocurrency network will start to outstrip what’s available, requiring new energy-generating plants. And with the climate conscious racing to replace fossil fuel-base plants with renewable energy sources, new stress on the grid means more facilities using dirty technologies. By July 2019, the bitcoin network will require more electricity than the entire United States currently uses. By February 2020, it will use as much electricity as the entire world does today.

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2017/12/bitcoin-cost-us-clean-energy-fut...

—

"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn

Submitted by gjohnsit on Thu, 12/07/2017 - 12:55pm

But it's not a bubble

@Meteor Man

By July 2019, the bitcoin network will require more electricity than the entire United States currently uses. By February 2020, it will use as much electricity as the entire world does today.

This is a perfectly good investment. It makes much more sense than, say, universal health care or ending the wars.
/s

Submitted by Meteor Man on Thu, 12/07/2017 - 1:13pm

So Sez The Invisible Hand

@gjohnsit
The invisible hand knows all, sees all. The end of Western Civilization as we know it is a small sacrifice for the pursuit of obscene profit. That is clear cut free market common sense.

—

"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn

Submitted by Pluto's Republic on Thu, 12/07/2017 - 4:02pm

Speaking of money in the abstract & Invisible hands

Is anyone watching the series Mr.Robot? I'm binge watching on Amazon.

For those interested, it's about a revolution achieved and the US at a standstill, done via the finance cartels. A few IT-by-day-hackers-by-night types, on a mission, take down Evil Corp (Goldman Sacs) and dissolve it, triggering a global jubilee. (At times like this, a little of that Bitcoin comes in handy.) There's more emphasis on US corporate corruption and collusion than there is on corrupt foreign policy or the elected riff-raff that clutter up Washington while the Deep State is trying to get things done. But that's okay. Christian Slater and a really unusual cast are rounded out by generous helpings of Barack Obama . It's written and produced by the hacker elite, with the studio tamers riding shotgun. Technical directors are serious hackers and young economists, keeping it very authentic for a 21st century audience. It's a savvy look at young adults, 20-somethings, and what they really know, and what they have normalized.

Every once in a while I wonder how they got it past the google censors then I recall where I am. It has also made me realize that c99 is much more politically free-wheeling and untethered than any place I know of right now. I don't think that we actually moved anywhere. I think everything else moved, relative to us. Take Mr.Robot — which is an edgier cut above the rest of the broadcast lineup. C99 dwells beyond that edge. The writers haven't yet turned on the neoliberals, and they don't portray the media monopolies as the brainwashing betrayers that they are. They did nudge the political parties into the toilet, but at c99, we're already flushing. There aren't many cops or G-men, because they are too slow to keep up with the plots. At least that how they are scripted so far. Everything important is handled by private security.

(I guess the writers noticed that US law enforcers are completely preoccupied tazing protestors or chasing after Boris and Natasha. Whom they never catch. They're just not right for a sharp, fast-action script like this one.)

Anyway, the stories that gjohnsit loads here are really relevant on Mr. Robot, with a similar spin. On last night's episode, on a moonless night, some of the hackers pitched a black tent around the backside of that brass bull on Wall Street. They were on the inside with a dremel saw cutting off its balls. Check it out.

[edit: typos galore]

Submitted by peachcreek on Fri, 12/08/2017 - 1:40am

Sigh...and hah!

@Pluto's Republic

(using) a dremel saw cutting off its balls

I like the idea. A lot.
I've got to shake my head at the tool choice though. A dremel?
A sawzall or a 4" angle grinder with a cut-off blade might be better.
Our education system has *really* gone to hell.
/s.

Is anyone watching the series Mr.Robot? I'm binge watching on Amazon.

For those interested, it's about a revolution achieved and the US at a standstill, done via the finance cartels. A few IT-by-day-hackers-by-night types, on a mission, take down Evil Corp (Goldman Sacs) and dissolve it, triggering a global jubilee. (At times like this, a little of that Bitcoin comes in handy.) There's more emphasis on US corporate corruption and collusion than there is on corrupt foreign policy or the elected riff-raff that clutter up Washington while the Deep State is trying to get things done. But that's okay. Christian Slater and a really unusual cast are rounded out by generous helpings of Barack Obama . It's written and produced by the hacker elite, with the studio tamers riding shotgun. Technical directors are serious hackers and young economists, keeping it very authentic for a 21st century audience. It's a savvy look at young adults, 20-somethings, and what they really know, and what they have normalized.

Every once in a while I wonder how they got it past the google censors then I recall where I am. It has also made me realize that c99 is much more politically free-wheeling and untethered than any place I know of right now. I don't think that we actually moved anywhere. I think everything else moved, relative to us. Take Mr.Robot — which is an edgier cut above the rest of the broadcast lineup. C99 dwells beyond that edge. The writers haven't yet turned on the neoliberals, and they don't portray the media monopolies as the brainwashing betrayers that they are. They did nudge the political parties into the toilet, but at c99, we're already flushing. There aren't many cops or G-men, because they are too slow to keep up with the plots. At least that how they are scripted so far. Everything important is handled by private security.

(I guess the writers noticed that US law enforcers are completely preoccupied tazing protestors or chasing after Boris and Natasha. Whom they never catch. They're just not right for a sharp, fast-action script like this one.)

Anyway, the stories that gjohnsit loads here are really relevant on Mr. Robot, with a similar spin. On last night's episode, on a moonless night, some of the hackers pitched a black tent around the backside of that brass bull on Wall Street. They were on the inside with a dremel saw cutting off its balls. Check it out.

[edit: typos galore]

Submitted by Pluto's Republic on Fri, 12/08/2017 - 2:01am

Yeah. I think it was an angle grinder.

@peachcreek

The sparks were flying, hence the black tarp. My bad. The technical directing is top notch

Submitted by Citizen Of Earth on Thu, 12/07/2017 - 4:10pm

"I'm selling all my Tulip Bulbs"

"...and will be piling into Bitcoin. WooHoo, I'm gonna be Fabulously Rich." -- said the Greater Fool.

Mark Blyth says Bitcoin is nothing more than gambling.

—

Donnie The #ShitHole Douchebag. Fake Friend to the Working Class. Real Asshole.

Submitted by FuturePassed on Thu, 12/07/2017 - 11:47pm

It's possible

@Citizen Of Earth
that you held your tulip bulbs a little too long. In the 1630s some single tulip bulbs sold for more than 10 times the annual income of a skilled craftsworker. (Wikipedia) Today, not so much.

On the bright side you get a lovely flower--unless you bought it in the 1630s in which case it might be passed its prime.

Submitted by The Aspie Corner on Thu, 12/07/2017 - 10:45pm

I can't wait to laugh at Libertarians when bitcoin bombs.

It's what they deserve. Doesn't matter whether you call them Libertarians, Ancaps, Sociopaths...either way their ideology is foolhardy when it comes to sustainability...not that those assholes ever cared about that.

—

Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.

Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.

Submitted by Wink on Fri, 12/08/2017 - 2:02am

A guy that claims

@The Aspie Corner
to have invented Bitcoin was on Alex Jones tonight. I caught the last 12 seconds of that segment, and as he was fading out sounded mighty optimistic about his baby. Jones sounded optimistic, as well.
And... really? The entire planet's electricity usage by 2020? Seriously?
More than Google, Yahoo, YouTube, Twitter, FB, hell, the entire internet?
Not buying it. Not that I buy Alex Jones, either, but...

—

the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.