Just stumbled across this thing...

https://mcfly.aero/token/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=sido_10per&utm_content=carusel_1&utm_campaign=pre_lounge

...which made me think of this thread. Cryptos... fair enough. Flying taxis... sure. But I'm still not quite getting how cryptos combined with flying cars will be so much better than either on their own. And I think they're being a bit optimistic on the market value for flying taxis. It says $1.2 trillion. That may be true many, many years in the future, but that's 8 times more than the current market for taxis... including Uber and all those type of things. It's not much less than the global market for cars!

Just watch your investment Fly away.......I'm old enough to remember when the year 2000 was the distant future that we'd all be using Jet Packs. I'd be wanting Uber to be in partnership with this to even consider it seriously. https://www.lonelyplanet.com/news/2017/11/14/uber-flying-taxis-la-dallas-dubai/

I am just glad that we narrowly escaped an almost sure death from the Millennium bug...Phew...I hate technology...

i participated in warmpictures too - biggest problem was no sales and Dan eventually had to close it down -- today the problem would be even harder - with google images  it's near impossible to get any individual noticed, so most potential users would never even be aware a co-op site existed!  what google doesnt capture would be swamped by the agencies.  the market is now mature, and a new site is not going to bee able to survive without a radical new thinking -

s

That's not my experience of warmpictures.  There was a surprising amount of sales, considering how small the site was.  I'm sure Dan could of kept it going but he found he was spending too much time on it and symbiostock came along, so there was another option.

So I've been getting a lot of emails and targeted ads recently going on about all these token pre-sales and ICO's (Initial Coin Offering or something) and all that jazz... and they all seem to be going for some kind of niche. One was for flying taxis, the other for online gambling and the like. Not sure when these ICO things started but back in the day you'd just create the coin, start mining it, people would buy it off you and then they'd start buying and selling and so on and so forth.

So whereas Bitcoin was like 1 cent a coin or something back in the day, people are now selling off these coins at a higher rate, giving them some kind of artificial value in the hope that they'll increase considerably in the future much like Bitcoin... rather than just getting them out there and seeing what value they generate themselves. So although buying a coin for 10 cents or a dollar might mean you get ten dollars or a hundred dollars after a few months... if it doesn't catch on or nobody is buying, then your 10 cent coin might be worth 1 cent or one tenth of a cent.

What they do with the money from the ICO is unclear to me at the moment. Maybe they use it to improve and expand the network, to promote and run the business, or just have a massive party on a yacht somewhere... I'm not too sure at the moment.

So now, I can't help but feel that the OP decided to get one of these ICO things on the go and had to come up with some kind of niche to compete, much like all the other places are doing... and he settled on stock footage/images somehow.

I might give it a try myself. All I need is a bit of marketing, some coin which are pretty easy to set up from what I hear, tie it to some kind of industry and then have a massive coin sale that will hopefully net me tens of thousands of dollars or more. Then I can ride off into the sunset and sit on a beach sipping cocktails. If they can do one for flying taxis, then I'm sure they could do one for commercial trips to space, which are a bit more established at this point. Space Coins. Roll up people, roll up!

It'll be much better than normal money as it will reduce the cost to the buyer and the seller, it will reduce regulations and decentralise the process helping to streamline and optimise the logistical practicalities of the blockchain-enabled space exploration mission. Or some nonsense like that.

I mean who needs regulations anyway?! If we can do away with all the pesky health and safety regulations, then we can save a lot of money by ditching the seatbelts, secondary parachutes, safety checks and emergency oxygen supplies.     

There's one thing about crytos that I can't get my head round. One way they are supposed to be better than fiat is because governments keep printing more fiat without the corresponding real growth in productivity devaluing the money. Then why is it okay for cryptos to hard fork every so often creating more currency out of thin air? It potentially doubles the amount of currency in circulation every time it happens.

This is a genuine question I am struggling to work out the answer to.
With cryptos it seems like the people holding most of the currency can just decide to vote themselves shed loads of free money out of thin air whenever they feel like it by forking and selling off the new currency. How is this any different to fiat (or even worse as the people doing it are less well informed and have more to gain in the short term)?

I think you are right there is a potential infinite supply of crypto currency some people will be making a lot of money but many more will lose out sooner or later. I expect some of these "me too" currencies will shortly be worthless (if they are not already). They only get free money if someone wants to buy it ;-).

So I've been getting a lot of emails and targeted ads recently going on about all these token pre-sales and ICO's (Initial Coin Offering or something) and all that jazz... and they all seem to be going for some kind of niche. One was for flying taxis, the other for online gambling and the like. Not sure when these ICO things started but back in the day you'd just create the coin, start mining it, people would buy it off you and then they'd start buying and selling and so on and so forth.

So whereas Bitcoin was like 1 cent a coin or something back in the day, people are now selling off these coins at a higher rate, giving them some kind of artificial value in the hope that they'll increase considerably in the future much like Bitcoin... rather than just getting them out there and seeing what value they generate themselves. So although buying a coin for 10 cents or a dollar might mean you get ten dollars or a hundred dollars after a few months... if it doesn't catch on or nobody is buying, then your 10 cent coin might be worth 1 cent or one tenth of a cent.
...

An ICO is basically the new Kickstarter/crowdfunding. One major difference is that the backers have a chance of following the company's success, if it happens. So more like an IPO, but with little to no regulation.

There are 1,300 cyptocurrencies/tokens today, with more coming as I type. It is widely agreed on that 90-95% of these are just pump-n-dumps so the owners get some quick cash.

It is very much like the IT boom of the late 90's. Most won't survive, but the ones that do become very big, and very successful.

There are already a number of successful altcoins, like Ethereum and Ripple. Ripple is used by many major banks in the world.

They are not just "coins", they are more like shares, backing new technology. Substratum is another very interesting one, a company working on decentralizing web hosting.

So, to sum up, where Bitcoin was meant as a currency only, (but is currently more used like gold, a store of value), you can think of most of the other coins as shares in companies.

Cryptocurrencies/tokens are here to stay, but which ones will be here in 10 years, who knows? And by the way, all money today is imaginary.  Go to Japan to see widespread use of Bitcoin as a payment solution.

I'm investing, doing my research, and time will tell. So far, so good.

Major banks with institutional money are moving in at the end of the year, offering futures etc. This will increase the value of Bitcoin even more, and put many billions of dollars more into the crypto space.

So a stock agency using Blockchain still requires all of the back office file handling, search, and delivery. Today, the blockchain payment technology must be bolted on top of those back-office functions. Here is an IT related article, not photo related, discussing the use of Blockchain as a Service and trying to figure out how to make it work and keep it secure. https://www.computerworld.com/article/3237465/enterprise-applications/blockchain-as-a-service-allows-enterprises-test-distributed-ledger-technology.html

Quote from: Pauws99 on November 20, 2017, 04:33

They only get free money if someone wants to buy it ;-).

They aren't exactly free. Mining and maintenance requires power and time. Quite a bit I heard.

So if no one wants it they lose all of that cost! Like me spending thousands on a photoshoot ;-).

Quote from: Pauws99 on November 20, 2017, 12:43

Quote from: niktol on November 20, 2017, 10:29

Quote from: Pauws99 on November 20, 2017, 04:33

They only get free money if someone wants to buy it ;-).

They aren't exactly free. Mining and maintenance requires power and time. Quite a bit I heard.

So if no one wants it they lose all of that cost! Like me spending thousands on a photoshoot ;-).

We can laugh  , but I overheard bitcoin miners discussing it as a serious limiting issue. Apparently there is a non-zero equilibrium point, when it's no longer profitable, even if purely theoretical. Talking about outsourcing resource extraction businesses to cheaper countries  .

Its much simpler really if no one wants to buy your magic beans or black tulips they are worthless whatever they cost to produce.

I don't even want virtual dollars on my virtual bank account. I want a personal island and a private chef. Unfortunately I have to settle  .

Well, if you had invested $1,000 into Bitcoin in 2011 you could have had that.  Depending on the size of the island of course...

Now the challenge is just to find an ICO that's at least 1% as promising...

I got paid half a Bitcoin for almost two days freelance work on December the 6th, 2013 I think it was... on that day it was the highest it had ever been. The day after, it started going down and didn't really recover until 2017. I converted them to real money as quickly as I could, losing a good 20% along the way from fees and a drop in the price.

Would have been worth over $4000 now... but you win some you lose some. Not bad for a couple of days work.

May break $10,000 or has? Here' are some world views of the crypto currency. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-11-26/what-the-world-s-central-banks-are-saying-about-cryptocurrencies

Called it tulips and Ponzi interesting variety of plus and minus viewpoints.

Let me add Enron and Worldcom were great investments... 

It's close to $10,000 now, and it will probably break it within a week. Big banks are moving in, offering futures and other financial instruments, bringing in more capital.

Of course it's impossible to know what will happen in the future. Amazon was a great investment in 1997. Many other "promising" companies weren't. 

Anyway - something that is relatively rare that people want = valuable.

Remember, gold was used because it was pretty, hard to find and durable. Not because it was usable. In later years we've found use for it in technology, but it gets its value from being shiny.

I'm not sure Gold is a particularly valid comparison a lump of gold can survive wars and has a physical existence and is even valued by those without a computer. Cyrpto currencies are not hard to find, durable or shiny.