Bitcoin

IdleRich

IdleRich
Either way the margins are gonna be tight so definitely don't pay two conversion fees if you can help it I'd say.
 

constant escape

winter withered, warm
Yes very short term, exploiting minor changes in value, and there could totally be nuances to arbitrage that I am overlooking, seeing as I'm still quite new to finance/trading and such things.

Don't know anything about day-trading, but that could well be a better name for whatever it is I'm doing.
 

constant escape

winter withered, warm
Yeah I'd assume the conversion fees would eat up my funds if I had to regularly pay them, which just isn't the case with DAI, as far as I can tell.
 

Leo

Well-known member
Well, you'll have spent some to keep the wolf from the door, but directly on goods and services denominated in Bitcoin and Sats (0.00000001 bitcoin). 10,000 sats = $1.35 today

so instead of cashing out, you use the bitcoin to buy things. ok. can you pay your rent with bitcoin? get a pint down the pub with it? fill up the gas tank on your car? buy a record on discogs? pay an annual life insurance premium?

trying to get a grasp as to how widely accepted it is.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
Some pubs in London used to accept bitcoin I guess but it's far from safe to walk into a pub thinking you'll be able to pay with it.
 
so instead of cashing out, you use the bitcoin to buy things. ok. can you pay your rent with bitcoin? get a pint down the pub with it? fill up the gas tank on your car? buy a record on discogs? pay an annual life insurance premium?

trying to get a grasp as to how widely accepted it is.

Cleverly, there are bitcoin MasterCards that draw down on your bitcoin. And PayPal will accept bitcoin payments next year.

Another way is collateral and arbitrage. Deposit bitcoin and borrow fiat against it, then repay as your bitcoin increases in value.
 

Leo

Well-known member
so your bitcoin-connected MasterCard is accepted by any merchant who accepts MasterCard, then.
 

catalog

Well-known member
What was the whole thing about when musk and others were doing that double your bitcoin thing. What's the point of that? Just to get more mugs like me interested to drive up price eventually?
 

Leo

Well-known member
stock markets fluctuate as a result of world events, does bitcoin fluctuate in the same way?
 
stock markets fluctuate as a result of world events, does bitcoin fluctuate in the same way?

Yes, but it's own internal rules (like 4 yearly block reward halvings) are the tides, world events are the waves on the surface - perturbations and noise. And the price is measure against external currencies and goods. It's emerging as a strong candidate as digital gold, but is scarcer.
 

constant escape

winter withered, warm
stock markets fluctuate as a result of world events, does bitcoin fluctuate in the same way?
Yeah I started my basic coinbase conversions right before covid hit the US, and things spiked all around, across all/most currencies, seemingly.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
My understanding is that bitcoin fluctuates on top of the generally rising curve caused by the built-in deflation.
I don't know what causes the fluctuations though - well, I mean, same as any other currency, it's worth what people will pay for it, but I don't know how it responds to particular economic changes.
For example, if the interest rate in the UK went up but it didn't in the EU zone then it would become more attractive to borrow euros, change them into pounds and then lend them to someone which you would expect to mean more people buying pounds and thus raising the currency vs the euro (all other things being equal). But I've no idea what effect changing interest rates have on Bitcoin. I guess you could make a similar argument but I've never really thought about it or looked into it to be honest so I could be forgetting something - or some things - that is really obvious.
 
My understanding is that bitcoin fluctuates on top of the generally rising curve caused by the built-in deflation.
I don't know what causes the fluctuations though - well, I mean, same as any other currency, it's worth what people will pay for it, but I don't know how it responds to particular economic changes.
For example, if the interest rate in the UK went up but it didn't in the EU zone then it would become more attractive to borrow euros, change them into pounds and then lend them to someone which you would expect to mean more people buying pounds and thus raising the currency vs the euro (all other things being equal). But I've no idea what effect changing interest rates have on Bitcoin. I guess you could make a similar argument but I've never really thought about it or looked into it to be honest so I could be forgetting something - or some things - that is really obvious.

If interest rates remain low and Bitcoin continues to grow, there's an opportunity - borrow £ cheap to buy BTC and sit on it long enough, or use it as collateral to repay the loan and take profit. Could be days, weeks, months or years, that's the bit that's hard to predict.
 
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