Top Cryptocurrencies Rocked By Double-Digit Losses Amid Crackdown Fears

[kcarbotte]

2017 was a banner year for cryptocurrencies, but it could all be coming crashing down in 2018. For the second day in a row, the values of nearly all the top 100 cryptocurrencies are tumbling hard.

Top Cryptocurrencies Rocked By Double-Digit Losses Amid Crackdown Fears : Read more

 

[InvalidError]

As more crypto-currencies get dragged into tax evasion, money laundering, fraud, theft, cyber-crime and other similar investigations, expect more governments to crack down on them the only way they can: make it harder to convert country-backed currencies to crypto and back. A crypto-currency is worthless if you can't trade with it or cash it in.

 

[TJ Hooker]

Some perspective:

Many major coins have only fallen to the point they were at 1 or 2 months ago. Overall crypto market cap is still well above what it was only a few months ago. This may just be a much needed correction after the crazy growth seen lately.

There has been some sort of 'crash' in the crypto market every Jan since 2015.
https://coinmarketcap.com/charts/

Regarding the cause of this downturn, I've seen some speculation it is related to the newly introduced Bitcoin futures contracts, the first of which expire today. One theory is that a bunch of bitcoin whales shorted bitcoin, and then offloaded a bunch of BTC leading up to the expiry date to drive down the price. The price of major coins often at least somewhat track each other, so other coins dropped too, especially as people panicked upon seeing a sell off.

But who really knows.

 

[Aspiring techie]

Hallelulah! Maybe this cryptoboom will finally end and we can buy normally priced graphics cards again!

 

[RedFIveStandingBy]

And the penny finally drops

 

[bit_user]

The irony of cryptocurrencies is that blockchain is actually a rather poor replacement for cash. Cash is great for high-volume, small-value transactions, which is exactly where blockchain breaks down. Calling it a currency suggests it will replace cash, which it won't. Perhaps the bubble will deflate as more people come to understand this.

Now, for high-value transactions, it still makes a lot of sense. Especially things like property deeds, where you gain additional value by having the entire ownership history. Smart contracts are another cool feature (e.g. of Ethereum).

 

[TJ Hooker]

@bit_user depends on the crypto currency. There are already some out there that can process hundreds or maybe thousands of transactions per second with zero transaction fees. And there is ongoing development being done to improve scalability, even for existing high value coins like Eth.

 

[zippyzion]

I'm afraid that the cryptocurrency market is headed for rough times. For a long while I thought it was a cool thing and applauded those brave enough to make a go at it. Then I read an article somewhere that Doge Coin had made a comeback in a big way, despite being largely abandoned as a dead joke. At that point it hit me that there are probably a huge number of fickle bandwagon jumpers just trying to make a buck, while being utterly uninformed, and I began to really worry. I feel like a crash is coming, most likely not a drop to zero crash of the whole market, but some people are going to lose a LOT of money when things finally balance out.

 

[hixbot]

I hope it all crumbless down. I have no problem with de-centralized e-coins. But crypto coins that lead to an ever increasing cloud of mining computers is an environmental disaster. Such an excessive amounts of electricity relative to the real-world work. Crypto for securing online transactions need not be so wasteful on electricity.

 

[TJ Hooker]

@hixbot there are already a number cryptocurrencies that use proof of stake (or plan to in the near future) or other consensus schemes that don't require huge amounts of power the way the typical proof of work scheme does.

 

[Kennyy Evony]

What do you expect from made up money? It's not tangible to anything but air; perhaps the one escapes from your behind.

 

[therickmu25]

These things drop like 50% every January amidst the same fears then shoot up 1000%.
Already got my initial investment out long ago, I'll HODL

 

[bit_user]

@bit_user depends on the crypto currency. There are already some out there that can process hundreds or maybe thousands of transactions per second with zero transaction fees.

I was careful to limit my statement to blockchain. I don't rule out the possibility that someone creates a more scalable model.

And there is ongoing development being done to improve scalability, even for existing high value coins like Eth.

I read a little about Ethereum's plans, recently. I think the primary scaling mechanism is sharding, which doesn't sound all that effective, when considering how long it takes to transfer between shards (i.e. without resorting to an exchange). There's also the question of how mining resources can scale with demand and effectively load balance across all of the shards.

I'm no expert, but I think I do have a better grasp of the tech than most people mining and investing in cryptocurrencies. And I believe investing in something you don't understand is just gambling.

 

[InvalidError]

And I believe investing in something you don't understand is just gambling.

Investing in anything that isn't backed by a tangible value of some sort is pure speculation, which is its own form of gambling.

 

[bit_user]

And I believe investing in something you don't understand is just gambling.

Investing in anything that isn't backed by a tangible value of some sort is pure speculation, which is its own form of gambling.

I don't really want to get into parsing words and philosophical debates over investing, risk, notions of value, and degrees of speculation. My point was simply that without even understanding an asset or the underlying market dynamics, you're unable to make calculated decisions involving risk exposure and upside potential.

 

[Zaporro]

Good, hope it goes even lower and stays that way.

 

[termathor]

@zaporro,

+1 to this. Looking forward to those cheap 1080 TI hitting ebay so they can get back in gaming rigs.

 

[captaincharisma]

i can see if everybody and their dog comes out with their own crypto currency then it will render cypto currency worthless. its already starting with burger king and Kodak coming out with their own

 

[kyotokid]

..oh please oh please oh please let's see more nations (including the UK, US, Japan, and those in the EEC) follow China's and South Korea's lead.

I gave up on working with the Iray render engine as with these current prices I would never be able to afford a GPU card capable of handling my scenes. 2 - 3 GB of a standard 1050 or 1060 doesn't cut it.