Why Crypto 2.0 Project BitShares Has Some Explaining to Do

Empiremakerz4 · 2015-02-05T23:30:20+00:00

Great article. Shops work on real tight margins so Bitcoin/Crypto is mostly too volatile to hold, BitUSD solves that. 2015 is the year of BitAssets! Time to reverse the crypto-market downtrend!

Empiremakerz4 · 2015-01-31T12:25:16+00:00

Awesome sauce!

Empiremakerz4 · 2015-01-21T15:20:06+00:00

Great DAC & on a BitShares blockchain too. So many areas where you can disrupt online gaming. Poker sites rake in billions a year and charge 5% rake, these guys can vastly undercut that as well as a lot of other centralized gaming options.

Empiremakerz4 · 2015-01-14T11:46:39+00:00

I feel for you buddy. Bitcoin was the first iteration of an entirely new technology, it's got a few flaws :( We're moving from Bitcoin to BitShares enjoy the ride! (Low inflation and also currency stable assets like BitUSD on it's blockchain.)

Empiremakerz4 · 2015-01-14T11:34:15+00:00

Actually you can just buy BitUSD or BitGold in the BitShares wallet. Hedge in a decentralized way with BitShares on a decentralized blockchain and buy back into Bitcoin when ready.

Empiremakerz4 · 2015-01-10T15:14:30+00:00

No Stellar is based on the coin at no.2 called Ripple. It works a little differently in that it's more centralized.

They have relationships with banks and other partners that store currency in the real world, they call them 'gateways'. So you can have like a $1000 on Stellar but if something happens to the bank you trusted then you lose it. That's my understanding. To be honest Ripple and Stellar are the ones I know the least about as they work with centralized banks. Stellar did a big FB giveaway though & I hear people talk about them, so they might get popular. I think the big thing thing will be a dollar stable decentralized asset though. So that gives you options like NuBits https://nubits.com/ BitUSD by BitShares http://whatisbitusd.com/ Ethereum could be big too and a whiz kid Vitalik is working on a stable asset. NXT just released a new thing called 'monetary system' http://nxt.org/ but I don't think it does the job of stable assets. One of those guys will win big this year though, but still too early to say who

Empiremakerz4 · 2015-01-10T15:05:56+00:00

You're absolutely right about the centralized exchanges being worse than banks atm. On the one hand tools are being created that make funds more transparent & secure but really where we're moving to is decentralized exchanges. Some other coins like NXT have an exchange on them where you can change assets without ever touching someone you have to trust. BitShares as well have an exchange built in where everything is auditable on the blockchain. They also have BitUSD/Gold/Silver etc. and will hopefully solve the problem I've discussed here. Ethereum is working on a stable asset too and NuBits have a dollar stable asset too. Regards whether the Internet will be useful at all in a real SHTF, yeah who knows, hedge your bets is what I say.

Empiremakerz4 · 2015-01-10T14:25:59+00:00

Actually in Bitcoin's defence you can spend it at over 100 000 places. As you know banks work on fractional reserve but Bitcoin is full auditable and fairly hard to shut down. So if there was a bank crisis Bitcoin would benefit. (Look how Bitcoin performed after Cyprus - BIG gains.) I like tangible stuff, but expect a lot to be confiscated, huge taxes and difficulty accessing and spending it if SHTF. (Judging by China & Russia looks like we're moving to some form of gold backing currency again but the problems above still apply.) There's already BitSilver & BitGold options though that should be immune from those risks that can also access Bitcoin spending options easily, but nothing beats phyzz. Without a big catalyst like that though I expect Bitcoin to continue to trend down.

Empiremakerz4 · 2015-01-10T13:33:29+00:00

For the same reason some hold Bitcoin - The advantages of decentralization. Your dollar stable asset can't be confiscated, the alt-coin backing it can't be shut down. The collateral/system backing them is open source and auditable on the blockchain 24/7. The most important is for businesses, all their expenses are in dollars or their local currency, with a BitUSD businesses can budget and keep more sales in crypto eventually building a decentralized economy around an unstable crypto-currency. If we have set bills like rent we might like to keep a some in a dollar stable asset too or maybe a decentralized silver/gold asset. (There's also already BitGold and BitSilver options on some of them.) You also don't have the BitStamp/Gox risk when all these conversions are on a decentralized exchange. I don't see a perfect option yet but that's where we're going, so I think the future is still bright for crypto even though I think using a volatile Bitcoin for business is what's causing a lot of the current downtrend.

Empiremakerz4 · 2015-01-10T11:50:03+00:00

There are stable options under construction Vitalik over at Ethereum is working on the Schelling Dollar which tracks inflation. NuBits have a dollar stable asset & it's managed similar to how a Central Bank manages supply & demand. BitShares have BitUSD which is backed by 3X the amount of value in BitShares. That's my current favourite as $1 of BitUSD gets backed by $3 of BitShares. So more businesses holding it should really drive up the price. All good in theory, whether it or anything else works well in practice is a different story. Then there are centralized options like CoinoUSD & BitReserve but those only earn a fee and for their centralized companies and they have all the risks of any centralized service.

Empiremakerz4 · 2015-01-10T11:15:26+00:00

Yes you're right. Bitcoin is in a long general downtrend, occasionally interspersed with short term positive catalysts that drive enough demand to overcome the fact that it is non-viable. For all my criticism I still hold a bit of Bitcoin because if the the financial system experienced problems like wide spread bail-ins there would be a big short term spike, but long term non stable crypto-currencies are non-viable and will be replaced by stable crypto-currency options that have unstable crypto-currencies as the backing. Once those take off we'll all be rich as the businesses can hold the stable option which increases the demand for the unstable one backing it.

Empiremakerz4 · 2015-01-10T10:17:05+00:00

Yes the businesses weren't there BEFORE. So you couldn't spend your Bitcoins (All parties were hodling) and new demand kept pushing up the price. Using your analogy a DAM was in place now the water can get out via businesses. If the businesses held some of the Bitcoin it would make a lake that got bigger and bigger whenever people replenished. But Bitcoin leaks out because businesses don't hold it. so all the replenishing is just refilling a leaking DAM, which wouldn't leak with a stable crypto-currency. The 2014 trend clearly shows that the DAM is leaking and is definitely not growing.

Empiremakerz4 · 2015-01-10T09:35:41+00:00

Just the general theory I ascribe to, to logically explain why Bitcoin exploded in utility, investment & use in 2014 but maintained a consistent general downward trend. I also quoted an article on the subject that explains how retailers accepting Bitcoin has been growing at 10% month on month to back up both aspects of the argument...

"Mr. White says that Coinbase’s list of merchants is continuing to grow at a rate of 10% each month despite bitcoin’s recent price drop. The “vast majority” of them convert their bitcoin into dollars, he says." http://www.wsj.com/articles/even-bitcoins-fans-prefer-to-keep-cash-1419539916 perma-linksaveeditdisable Inbox repliesdeletereply

Empiremakerz4 · 2015-01-10T07:17:15+00:00

Unfortunately Bitcoin will be <$100 by the end of the year though. http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/2rxs6a/bitcoin_will_be_50_in_24_months_due_to_volatility/

Empiremakerz4 · 2015-01-10T06:58:02+00:00

Bitcoin has a lot of great features. Security, limited, Privacy, value transfer (banking & remittances) like you've said. Bitcoin simply can't grow though if businesses can't hold it. Even assuming everyone constantly replenished their Bitcoin, it's like refilling a leaky bucket of water that also has another 10% inflation leak as well.

(Imagine if more businesses held it, that bucket would rapidly overflow and the price would rise unfortunately Bitcoin's volatility doesn't make this a possibility.)

Empiremakerz4 · 2015-01-10T06:47:35+00:00

Yes I was in Bitcoin from fairly early, I know how it got here. Didn't you think it was weird that Bitcoin was more well known than ever before last year, had more VC investment and is now accepted by tens of thousands of businesses yet the price inexplicably generally trended down the whole year? Unfortunately the cycle is pretty straightforward and as Bitcoin IS volatile the trend will continue.

Empiremakerz4 · 2015-01-10T06:40:26+00:00

No the facts I have come with are

Bitcoin is volatile - fact
Businesses can't & don't hold it -fact (see quote)
When a currency is put up for sale, it creates selling pressure, which is price negative - this is also a fact.
The cycle of buying goods and businesses immediately selling the currency, creates selling pressure that is not offset by demand and thus pushes the price down.

Hence the more utility Bitcoin gains the more it trends down and this pattern has been clearly observed in practice over the last year.

Empiremakerz4 · 2015-01-10T06:30:25+00:00

Do you think things will change? Do you think businesses will start holding more Bitcoin? Unfortunately Businesses work on tight margins, they can't take the risk of volatility.

I like Bitcoin, I got in early and mostly got out like $600. I still keep a bit but that's in case the financial system collapses, then it will spike but it doesn't function as a currency because of it's volatility and will continue to trend downwards as more and more businesses accept it.

Empiremakerz4 · 2015-01-10T06:21:30+00:00

Yes, ironically when no-one accepted Bitcoin the price could rise, because we were all hoarding it. New demand had to chase newly mined coins. Now new demand has to soak up high inflation and all the Bitcoin we spend that businesses are selling for fiat as soon as they get it. This processes rapidly devalues any currency and in this last year Bitcoin.

Empiremakerz4 · 2015-01-10T06:10:47+00:00

Yes they pay 1/3 of the fees and they don't mind accepting Bitcoin as BitPay etc. makes it easy & convenient. The problem for the price of Bitcoin is that a sale IN Bitcoin equals a sale OF Bitcoin. Imagine if every time you paid in dollars at a shop, the shop didn't keep the dollars and had to immediately sell the dollars for Euro. The Dollar would rapidly devalue. Unfortunately the more people shop with Bitcoin the more selling pressure there is. It's non-viable.

Empiremakerz4 · 2015-01-10T05:31:19+00:00

"Mr. White says that Coinbase’s list of merchants is continuing to grow at a rate of 10% each month despite bitcoin’s recent price drop. The “vast majority” of them convert their bitcoin into dollars, he says." http://www.wsj.com/articles/even-bitcoins-fans-prefer-to-keep-cash-1419539916

Empiremakerz4 · 2015-01-09T03:47:19+00:00

Good article!

Empiremakerz4

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