The Chain Death Cycle of Bitcoin

The government trying to regulate Bitcoin: China is seeing that to a degree with OTC trades. Venezuela also. Possibly with Morocco also: https://news.bitcoin.com/morocco/ It used to be strange to me, why a country that stands to gain a lot from the legalizing of crypto currencies would reject this potentially never before seen revolution of finance. But then it occurred to me that they don’t make these decisions based upon the welfare of their citizens potentially, but for the betterment of those who are wealthy/powerful already and want to remain that way.

Come, learn more about Bitcoin:

This is an important discussion. To those thinking Bitcoin is on a dip: I think that’s a bit harsh, but you get the point. A alternative way of thinking is suggested here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/7f57gg/people_are_seriously_calling_this_2_drop_buy_the/
You wouldn’t be so worried if you saw $82 drop to $80. It’s a few percent. Learning to view the market price of coins this way will steel you further for an actual dip. Would you be so concerned if you wanted to buy something at $79, and now it’s $81? Probably not.

Black Friday deals on the ledger nano S for those of you wanting to get one: https://www.ledgerwallet.com/products/ledger-nano-s It is the safest way of storing your crypto.
About that, if you use 2FA on your mobile device, call your cell phone provider and tell them you would like to set up an additional security question for your account. Make it something only you will know. People can attempt to be you and clone your phone and your 2FA.

Some people mention the wastefulness of Bitcoin: https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/7f26bl/well_then_everyone_loses_their_minds/ But usually I think they compare it to the eco friendly version of staking. However, there is value when the proof of work has legitimate cost. Why would Bitcoin go to nothing when it costs over $1,000 in electricity to produce one?

About an estimated 14 million people are about to see this bang theory episode: Dated before it’s even aired. Bound to happen.

The fountain of FUD: https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/7f6g6v/great_disruption_has_always_encountered/

The CNBC world news homepage is currently talking about Ethereum: https://www.cnbc.com/world/?region=world They could easily say the same thing about Bitcoin Cash also. Potentially last night this was many: https://www.reddit.com/r/ethtrader/comments/7ez4rx/this_just_happened_to_me_4am_west_coast_time/

Markets are very thin around holidays.

Tin foil hat time. Let’s discuss the Bitcoin death spiral. As a disclaimer I neither want this event to occur nor do I think it’s likely, but let’s discuss it. Really quickly, blocks are mined every 10 minutes from computational power, also known as hash power, guessing the answer to an arbitrary math problem. If there’s a lot of computers and it’s quicker than 10 minutes the self-balancing code of Bitcoin makes the question harder, and vice versa. Bitcoin Cash’s self-balancing code readjusts the difficulty more frequently than Bitcoin, and so is less susceptible to sudden influxes. When a block is formed transactions get processed and confirmed.
What happens if Bitcoins hash power continually declines? Here’s where the potential death spiral comes in. Bitcoin readjusts its difficulty around every 2 weeks, the next readjustment is set for the 27th of November. Say for example, on that specific date, Bitcoin Cash starts to pump and it’s more profitable to mine than Bitcoin. Miners go to mine the more profitable chain for obvious reasons, meaning for potentially 2 weeks, Bitcoin has lost maybe 50% of it’s hash power, blocks are taking ages to confirm, the fees are high and the confirmation times are slow. This is a likely scenario.
What I think is unlikely, but is speculated, is that users will be fed up off the high fees and confirmation times and move to Bitcoin Cash instead of Bitcoin, which will be churning out the blocks and have low fees. Instead of using Litecoin or Ethereum.
It is a huge threat however. One core devs may or may not address. What Bitcoin Cash did with it’s difficulty readjustment could also be adopted by Bitcoin. What I think is more likely is that we continue to put up with a slow Bitcoin with occasional high fees until SegWit gets more adoption and the lightning network and other scaling solutions are implemented.
To me it’s kind of like living in a cardboard box in a street, with 1000 Bitcoin in your wallet, waiting to buy your next massive house, instead of renting a hotel in the meantime.

Now let’s say you don’t care about Bitcoin but prefer your alternative currency of choice. You should care because a death to Bitcoin could have radical implications to the whole of crypto currency. How exactly that would pan out we can only guess. If Bitcoin Cash would replace Bitcoin as the number 1, could a competitor do so? Is the tech of Bitcoin Cash really that great that it should be number 1?

Here’s another side to the argument. Should Bitcoin shrug off this attack again, like it has so many others, is it deserving of #1? Only you can judge, and the market, of course.

Read more about the chain death cycle: https://qz.com/1127817/bitcoin-cash-bch-price-could-lead-to-bitcoin-death-spiral/