Rathiel

There's money to be had in bitcoin, of course. But you have to be smart about it, and only play around with investing with money you can afford to lose. Investing it bitcoin has yielded a fair bit of success for me, and unless a sudden crash in value happens again, I'm likely to keep myself in the cryptocurrency game. Bitcoin isn't a good way to 'store' money, though. Buying BTC right now at a certain price does not mean that you'll be able to exchange it at the same rate. If you're lucky, it'll go up. If not, you're out of luck and you'd have been better off just putting it in a bank account.

I've exchanged altcoins for bitcoin and fiat money on several occasions. However, I've not encountered an exchange which would allow me to trade altcoins for other altcoins thusfar. Are there any who offer such services? Do you have any suggestions if so?

Bitcoin is unlikely to be dethroned as the number one currency at the moment, though there is always the possibility that one of the existing coins might catch on in popularity, or a new coin will overtake bitcoin. I think the latter is more likely, though it will take a long time before something manages to overtake bitcoin. BTC was revolutionary, and much like how 'google' became a synonym for search engines, bitcoin is the face of cryptocurrency. People tend to invest more in something familiar and trusted by many others. It also doesn't follow that the new coin will be both higher in value and easier to mine at the same time. We can only really wait and see when it comes to something as volatile as the world of cryptocurrency.

Given its purpose and the platform, ANI is pretty much geared towards a specific demographic from the looks of things. Not to say that that is a bad thing, but it seems a little on the nose for me. It doesn't have a stellar performance record since its launch, either. Still, the name is attention-grabbing, and it's bound to have some fans. I like the aspect where it's mostly exchanged for digital artworks and whatnot.

I think it's a little unethical for websites to take advantage of their users like that, to be honest. They should, at the very least, make it very clear that they're doing so on the landing page so that people are aware. For most part, there will be users who won't mind if they support their favorite sites by allowing them to use their CPU while they're browsing. I've run into this problem a couple of times while doing research for work before, and it was frustrating.

Stability is a long ways away for bitcoin. It's a currency that's not backed by a tangible state or organization, leaving investors with no recourse in case of a drastic drop in price. Until it's used more openly on the market, and there is official recognition of bitcoin by a major global economy as acceptable tender, the volatility is going to remain erratic. But given the views of countries becoming more friendly toward cryptocurrency, we might just see a positive swing during 2019.

Steemit seems interesting, but I've heard quite a bit of negative feedback on it already. There appears to be an emphasis on a person's reach socially, and it takes away from the interactive aspect of the website. It seems a little more like a hodgepodge of blog posts which were written for the primary purpose of earning money. It's not for me, but it's worth checking out at the very least.

I think it depends on how the currency develops along the way. If bitcoin stabilizes before all of it has been mined, then there's a high possibility that the mining cap will strengthen the currency if there is sufficient demand for it. But if the currency itself doesn't grow enough to have stable demand of it, the cessation of bitcoin mining might scare away some of the potential investors in it, leaving it in a rut.

As with most things, first impression is everything when it comes to cryptocurrency. And the first thing that most people will take note of is the designation given to said cryptocurrency. A catchy name, or a professional-sounding name could definitely get a person interested enough to look into the coin's performance itself. Having a name that's easy to recall, or has a certain ring to it might keep it in the minds of potential investors. The coin's overall performance and worth is the line, but the name can be the hook.

I've recently talked to a friend who has been tracking the performance of altcoins, and I've been told that Ripple's pretty worthwhile at the moment. I did my own research based on the tip, and while it's reflecting the volatility of cryptocurrencies as a whole at the moment, it looks quite promising. If you have the money to spare, it's definitely worth considering!

I think people are also very reluctant to invest because of the fear that they'd have no tangible thing to hold onto. If something happens to our electrical grids, or something affects the internet as a whole, the access to our cryptocurrency is effectively limited. Since cryptocurrency only exists in virtual space, proving ownership without access to a computer or some device would be difficult. Also, there's the issue of accessibility to the masses. People who can barely afford basic necessities would not likely have even a phone suitable for crypto transactions, effectively limiting the reach of cryptocurrency.

Bitcoin gained popularity as a decentralized currency, which allowed people to dictate prices through supply and demand. Cryptocurrencies build on the concept of having money in the hands of people, rather than having it tied to the performance of government. It is subject to State intervention and the like. What other features would you like to see in the next 'big' cryptocurrency? What big change would you be in favor or, or against?

Unfortunately, none of the cryptocurrencies are performing strongly enough to justify the sort of expenditures the early day bitcoin miners made when they started out. Given how the pioneers drove up the prices for certain key components, inflating it not just for fellow miners but also other PC enthusiasts, and the rising cost of electricity, I don't think the old manner of mining is feasible anymore. Cryptocurrency has potential, but after the steep decline in bitcoin's value, it's going to be the subject of a lot of scrutiny and careful observation. I'm definitely against starting to mine at this late a stage, even for the newer 'up and comer' cryptocurrencies.

Currently, there are no avenues for trading in my country, though there are a couple of wallets in the works. I've tried trading currency, though most of it's done online and I can't really encash it locally. The government is starting to accept online payments though, so I'm taking that as a good sign that it may someday be more cryptocurrency-friendly here in the Philippines. Unfortunately, I have to stick to exchanging cryptocurrency for paypal credits at the moment. At the very least, I can withdraw the latter.

I've dabbled into a little bit of Ethereum recently, in an effort to diversify my cryptocurrency portfolio. I've been looking into buying more altcoins like Dogecoins and Litecoin at the moment, though with some reservations since the volatility hasn't quite settled down just yet. Ripple is also another intriguing possibility.

I haven't invested too much on bitcoin, and what I did earned me a fair amount of money already. My holdings had been minimal when the prices crashed down to around the value of $3000, and I've mostly divested myself of cryptocurrency at the moment. There's just too much risk. I don't put money I can't bear to lose into investments, even if I can still earn it back. I've kept a fair amount of money into bitcoin, probably around a month's salary worth, at the moment. If price crashes, then I'll take it as a lesson learned. If it goes up, then it's a good investment. Risk is part of any investment plan. No use crying over spilled milk if it goes awry.

Honestly, I think it'd have to be Japan or South Korea. When it comes to digital advancements and integrating new technologies into the daily lives of their citizens, these countries almost always appear to be the most flexible. Given the automation already present in their country, it wouldn't be too farfetched to think that they'd be able to integrate the use of bitcoin into the equation. I think it's a little too early to tell at this point, though.

That's going to be messy, I think. A lot of the users of Facebook fall into the younger end of the demographic spectrum. It'll be interesting to see, but given the sordid issue of how facebook had been used for a variety of unsavory things recently, I doubt that they'll be amenable to it. Having a currency which is nigh untraceable integrated into the system will encourage not only the spread of... unscrupulous facebook private groups, it'll also encourage more waves of people trying to hack into the main database of facebook. Individual account hacking would also be a possibility since it'll be seen as a lucrative practice, especially if a person is known to have a lot of bitcoin tied to their account.

I think it's more of the confidence people have in cryptocurrencies, to be honest. When the value of bitcoin goes down, people are less likely to put money into it, and by extension, the lesser known coins. Bitcoin's the face of the platform, so to speak. If it's doing poorly, it's going to after the others. Unless a coin is made that's completely anathema to bitcoin and it somehow manages to escape being seeing as a revival of bitcoin, I doubt that there'll be a coin which is immune to drops in bitcoin value.

Given that it's an intangible good, do you think it's possible for countries to possibly start taxing bitcoin more like capital, wherein it's allowed to remain untaxed until it's exchanged for legal tender? Will it be taxed like stocks? How about if it's used for sales online? Do you think people be required to disclose the value of their cryptocurrency wallets annually so the governments can ensure that no one is underdeclaring or falsely declaring the value of their coin? Thoughts on the matter?

It's not easy to create and maintain your own currency. There has to be a good reason for users to want to invest in virtually something that is worth nothing as of yet. Unlike physical currency which has the backing of its value in US dollar, the valuation of cryptocurrency depends solely on the supply and demand of those who are willing to acknowledge that it has value. Bitcoin was a forerunner in the field, and managed to garner a large share of the pie in terms of public interest, so to speak. So, unless you can provide something new, I doubt it's going to be a good idea to have a platform for the sole creation of letting every person create their own cryptocurrency.

At the moment, bitcoin appears to be stabilizing so unless there's another bubble, it's not going to fall much lower. It's still too early to tell, though. If the world economy tanks too, that might be another cause of bitcoin devaluation since people might be forced to off-load quickly. Let's hope that that is not the case.

Credit used to be revolutionary until it wasn't. Cryptocurrency is still a mystery to a lot of people, but it's gaining traction. What do you think is next in line after decentralized currency? Do you think we'll go back to backed currencies, or is this a step into going completely digital when it comes to our money?

It depends. It could just be another way of introducing an alternative to credit, I think. China's really big on online payments these days, given that a lot of stores in the bigger cities accept QR payments and even take paypal at times. China's looking into ways of expansion, and it's not entirely farfetched to think that they might try to venture in that direction. A lot of the bitcoin miners were in China, and some of them managed to get out with really big profits. It'll be interesting to see if they push through though.

I don't think mining's going to be as big as it had been during the bitcoin boom, anymore. People are wary and after the steep crashes in value, it's just not profitable to mine anymore. Given the price of electricity and the gear needed for more stable operations, no one who isn't highly optimistic about the price of crypto is going to take the leap after so many people got burned.