Utilico Insights - Jacqueline Broers assesses why Vietnam could be the darling of Asia for investors. Watch the full video here.
Bitcoin isn't Art, there's little to distinguish one Bitcoin from another and there are currently over 19 Million of them. Art's value is based on the uniqueness of the art and the fame of the artist, if there were 19 Million Mona Lisa's the painting's would be worth very little. In my opinion, anyone making money out of Bitcoin are profiting from the foolishness of others who've followed them into the token, and subsequently bought their Bitcoin from them. There is a wisdom for people making money out of Bitcoin, but the winners are the one's who see Bitcoin for what it is, a gambling chip in a crypto casino. Everything I invest in actually provides a service, I wont invest in tobacco and gambling companies, or anything else I have ethical concern over; And because I view crypto as Ponzi scheme I would never invest there either.
Lets say 2040 comes along and all 21 Million Tokens have been mined, what then? Do people just hold onto their Bitcoin and take them to their grave's? Michael Saylor describes Bitcoin as Digital Gold, but Gold's value is based on the properties of the element and its myriad of uses, whereas Bitcoin has no unique properties to distinguish it from something like Dogecoin, or any other proof of work altcoin. The 21 million bitcoin limit is artificial and could be overridden by the developers, with lines of code, but you can't easily create an alternative to gold, alchemists have tried.
In summary, all the narratives used to pump bitcoin valuations are fake and can be easily argued against; Bitcoin has one use, to facilitate easy transfers over the internet, but you could do that with any token or via traditional finance transfers. The biggest risk for bitcoin is CBDC's, since why would you need De-Fi tokens when you can use far less volatile CBDC's?
Since you mention me PAS, I will comment. Cathy Wood is talking her own book, she has to pump it as ARK run their own spot ETF and probably own Bitcoin too. The reason they pump Bitcoin is because its value is based purely on belief within the investing community, with nothing tangible backing the token. The narrative that Fiat isn't backed by anything is false, since Fiat has Central Bank guarantees and the markets value Fiat currency against the strength of the issuers economy. People like Michael Saylor might say they'll hold forever, but a stampede for the exit by speculators would test the resolve of the most dedicated Bitcoin believer. Much of the current speculative money will want to take profit at some point and probably wont return once that happens. Sensible people see Bitcoin for what it is, an easily replicated token who's value is based purely on hype and belief. I expect the price will collapse at some point, in the same way it did in 2021/22, it's inevitable. The vested interests will keep pushing ever higher speculative valuations, since it feeds more hot air into the Bitcoin balloon until the balloon eventually pops.
I can't help but be sceptical about QBT's ability to release a viable commercial product, it's one thing using test data in a lab environment and another making something work in the real world. The reason I'm sceptical is due to the speed that high performance Bitcoin ASICS process data, and the combined hash power in commercial Bitcoin mining farms and pools. QBT would likely have to process data as fast as the farm/pool can accept it and distribute the data with as little latency as possible, which also makes me question the viability of SaaS. I'm no expert, but QBT would have to process, produce and distribute their data at speeds fast enough to beat pure brute force, so they'd need to design an extremely fast system and keep latency to an absolute minimum.
The current Bitcoin Network Hashrate is 633.3915 EH/s, so for every second delay QBT takes to process and distribute the data, the Bitcoin network will have processed 633,391,500,000,000,000,000 Hashes; And once the mining rigs receive the QBT data they still have to brute force that data.
A lot of negativity in this thread. Reading between the lines I'm sensing Telecoms are being lined up for a consolidation phase, there's a lot of commentary aimed at Governments and regulators to encourage more mergers and acquisitions within the sector. I'm giving a lot of thought about my holdings, going into next year, but as far as my Telecom holdings are concerned I'm looking at adding and bringing my averages down; Rather than worrying about current price drops, they may help me if they stay at these low levels in this calendar year.
Not sure why this would cause VOD to drop 4%, even if the new money was split entirely between the two original promoters Vodafone's share would only come to around $650 million.
https://www.zeebiz.com/markets/stocks/news-vodafone-idea-share-stock-price-slips-3-on-bse-nse-telecom-firm-1-billion-equity-commitment-investors-279988
Although today's 4% drop is interesting, without any significant news behind it I'd suggest it's irrelevant for long term holders. With April approaching It could even be an opportunity for anyone looking at using their 2024 ISA allowance to top up with VOD.
The really important paragraph in the RNS is:
"The porting of Method A and Method B onto commercial rigs has proven to be very challenging. The R&D team is currently testing different solutions for the final stage in order to deliver a fully reliable product. An exact date for market roll-out cannot be provided at this stage."
In the 20th October 2023 update they said:
"The Company has therefore made its Methods available in the form of a SaaS platform to enable the core of the Methods to be installed on a QBT protected server and accessed by potential BTC mining clients and partners to allow them to undertake evaluation of the Methods and this was the substance of yesterday’s X announcement."
Anyone else spot the contradiction there? You could interpret last Octobers update as suggesting that Method A & B were already available to roll out as SaaS, which many on here jumped on to justify encouraging others to buy in, and now QBT say porting Method A & B onto commercial rigs is challenging and they cant provide a rollout date at this stage. If I'm understanding the reference to Commercial rigs in todays RNS, then what were they testing with previously? My guess would be test data in a lab environment, and possibly at far lower level of Bitcoin Difficulty.
In all honesty the update referencing Method A & B doesn't surprise me, since in my unprofessional opinion QBT are trying to achieve something that feels impossible at the current Bitcoin Network Hashrates and Difficulty's.
I would also suggest that the Method C update isn't currently relevant, since QBT would have to persuade an ASIC manufacturer to incorporate it onto their ASIC's, which would be a mammoth task in itself, so all the current ASIC's wouldn't use it and there's no guarantee anyone will incorporate it into their chips in the future.
"What would someone pay for it - its not exactly profitable as things are."
Jesteh if you check the 2023 Revenue and adjusted EBITDAal figures for Italy and Germany, then a €10 Billion sale price for Germany makes no sense; In FY23 the Revenue in Germany was over 270% higher than Italy, and adjusted EBITDAal over 366% higher than Italy. If you base a sale price for Germany against relative EBITDAal percentage differences between the two, and since Italy is worth €8 Billion, then Germany would have to be worth at least €29 Billion.
"Fleccy - I've had a HUMAX box on FREESAT since 2013 and love it"
We'll probably go with the branded 4K wideband Freesat box, which I believe is manufactured by Arris. Unfortunately a Humax box would need a new LNB and wouldn't be wideband like the Arris box/Sky Q LNB combination.
I've recently received a notification that our Sky Signature bill will increase by £2.50 a month, but I'm also showing a £5 a month discount on the current monthly bill which will go when my contract ends next month. My wife is the main viewer of Sky and watches mainly Free to Air channels, apart from the Discovery+ package which is also thrown in with the subscription. I'm planning to cancel the Sky Q subscription later this month and probably move to Freesat, and pay £40 a year separately for the Discovery+ package. The monthly bill is due to go up by £7.50 next month and although I'm happy overall with the Sky service, it doesn't make economic sense to continue with it; Add to that Freely is due to launch soon, so I expect all the Free channels will be available to stream anyway; The reasoning for a Freesat box is the PVR function, and backup if the internet ever goes down. According to my future Sky bill projection, my monthly bill will go up from £29 to £36.50 after April and although I could renegotiate my contract, I can't be bothered.
"Well, I would say currently, it’s for making money, if you remember that you said at $14,000 that bitcoin is dead. Look at the price now."
Only if you bought at $14,000 and sold now at $69,000. I would suggest that HODLers only make money when they sell. A paper gain is urealised so unreal, it only becomes real when the HODLer sells their Bitcoin. End of.