The biggest problem I see is ransomware hackers asking for bitcoin as method of payment. Can someone with knowledge of bitcoin explain what countermeasures are in place if any, against use by criminals, drug traffickers, money launders, and terrorists? Otherwise I see the Treasury Department and Fincen shutting it down rather quickly if more ransom demands involve bitcoin.
none really and you wouldn't want it. That would open the door for bitcoin being regulated for any other reason. you can't shut down bitcoin. you would have to turn off the internet (think bit torrent). Governments could go after exchanges though. It wouldn't stop bitcoin randsomware, but governments have done useless things before.
How is the .gov going to shut down cryptocurrency? That is the whole point of it. Decentralize anonymous transactions.
Yes, but at some point a major terror plot will be traced back to bitcoin as the method of finance. At which point, the government will respond via an amendment to the Patriot Act and simply ban the conversion of US currency into bitcoin at the exchange level and cripple the whole mass adoption potential. So yeah, I don't see this cryptocurrency surviving a major terrorist scandal. Good luck.
You're failing to understand the concept of cryptocurrency. Shutting down an exchange is like removing McDonalds from the NYSE... its not going to stop me from buying a Big Mac. Cryptocurrency exchanges can be founded anywhere in the world. And the government can not forbid the basic principle of barter and trade. And even if some asinine law should come about, its not going to stop the rest of the world from using it. Further, the government already hates the idea of cryptocurrency. Its not going to take a terrorist event for them to make a move against it.
think of Napster vs. BitTorrent Napster had centralized servers to shut down, a CEO to arrest. Bit Torrent has no central server, no owner. It's just a protocol. You can't shut down a protocol. Bitcoin is the same way.
These cryptocurrencies mostly start at extremely low prices (often 0.00000 or lower range), the potential profit margin is ridiculous. Check the list, there are a ton of currencies and a lot of people are hunting after the "next" Bitcoin and Ethereum. It's an absurdly volatile market right now (sort by 24h change and "show all", many have been absurd this past week). https://coinmarketcap.com
I'm trying to get into this type of trading. Been trading stocks for years. This is my assumption but please correct me if I'm wrong: You load your coin base account and "buy" bitcoin at the price it is now. You can't let's say just deposit "500 usd" to sit in your account? I didn't see an option if so. Also if I want to trade within the coins, I have to transfer it to poloniex account and trade that way? And when I want to withdraw I put to coinbase ? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!
Heavily depends on coin what you're using, need to know more. There are different wallets and exchanges for each coin.
How Money got Free is a great book about the history and the future of Bitcoin if anyone where here wanted a good book recommendation about the topic. I definitely agree with the book that the future of money will play out in the developing world, where they are skipping traditional financial institutions. India recently removed ~85% of its cash out of circulation which is an interesting case study into finance and money itself.
Correct. You can't store dollars on a coinbase account. What does 'trade within the coins' mean? you mean trade bitcoin for ripple or some other cryptocurrency?
Like ZEC today. I see in polonoiex its under the BTC column, but coinbase you just trade BTC ETH LTC , but in polonoex you see all these other coins under each tab. Since coin base you deposit with the rate at bitcoin currently, do you think its better to wait for a dip before depositing and getting more value? Is there any other place where it has USD wallet stored and not having to purchase right away? Thanks
Do you guys know anything about how to create "cold wallets" or anything secure to store cryptocurrency? I don't like the idea of keeping it on Poloniex.
Don't. Put it into Jaxx or whatever wallet your comfortable with and shift it if needed. Keep what you need in Poloniex to trade but if you're storing it withdraw it to a wallet.