At the very least that money should be in a money market account earning a higher rate than most savings accounts. Ideally I’d personally be buying 3 month T bills and keep rolling them over.
No all 21m have not been mined. Do you have free or extremely cheap electricity? If not you'll be better off investing in the asset. Commercial publicly traded miners are HUGE and buy electricity for much much cheaper than you can and most of them are not profitable.
The fact that XRP has to issue a stable coin on another blockchain indicates to me that it’s increasingly clear neither will have a future in transactions…
XRP has a lot of potential for global transitions with cheap transactional fees, minimal energy use, eliminates intermediary and pre funding fees. Seems to have a lot going on and a lot going for it in that realm.
So who controls/determines the figure of 21 million?
I've read a little, but will read more...it just seems that the code could be changed if the 21 million is code dependent...thanks for the info/references
A bitcoin is worth whatever someone else is willing to give you for it…that could be dollars, euros, yen, yuan, gold, silver, cars, pizza. Dollars are typically used as the reference point for comparison simply because dollars are currently the most commonly used medium of exchange. But Bitcoin’s value is not dependent on the existence of the dollar, and it will continue to be valuable if/when the dollar fails.
The original author of the Bitcoin protocol (who went by the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto but whose real identity is unknown) programmed a hard limit of 21 million into the protocol. That supply limit could theoretically be changed if a majority of the Bitcoin community decided to “fork” Bitcoin by adopting a change to the limit and beginning to run a revised protocol. Bitcoin has survived significant forks in the past (e.g., Bitcoin Cash circa 2017). IMO changing the 21 million limit would not get enough support from the Bitcoin community to cause a significant fork.
If you want to truly “own” bitcoin (i.e., have sole control and custody), open an account with a reputable online exchange (e.g., Coinbase, Gemini, Kraken), buy some, then transfer it to your private wallet. If you just want to invest in Bitcoin (i.e, get financial exposure but not necessarily own it in full), you could do as I described, or buy through an exchange and leave it in the custody of the exchange, or buy shares of an ETF, or buy shares of a mining company.
Currencies have come and gone many times throughout history. The dominance of the US dollar is relatively new in the grand scheme. The British pound once dominated world commerce, and before that the Spanish dollar did so. The rise and fall of currencies take place gradually, which gives people time to adjust.
Bitcoin is global. You are looking at it in USD but every other country is looking at it in their currency. Thats how it escapes any one countries issues. First “Global” currency if you will. It’s actually quite amazing in that regard.
That's funny. It's not hard, it's not money and it can be F'd with.
Bitcoin is money. Your dollar bill is a currency. Bitcoin is hard. Hardest asset in the history of man. And it absolutely can't be f'd with. Ban bitcoin you only hurt yourself. Any attack on bitcoin only makes it more powerful. Better study bitcoin or your progeny will know you were silly goose
