# Listen to Classical Music and Earn Cryptocurrency?



## regenmusic (Oct 23, 2014)

What do you guys think of this idea? A company called Bitradio has several free streaming high definition radio stations like Sirius XM does, but if you use their service they pay you in their cryptocurrency.

Here is their chart on what is like the DOW Jones of cryptocurrencies.

https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/bitradio/

I am listening to one of their classical stations now.


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

Somehow, being paid to listen to the radio is really weird. I've been waiting for a TV cable company to do that.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Are you sure they're not putting a virus on your computer and use it for cryptocurrency mining?


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## regenmusic (Oct 23, 2014)

Art Rock said:


> Are you sure they're not putting a virus on your computer and use it for cryptocurrency mining?


No, my virus checker would notice it.

There is a community of people using it at:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1834340.0;topicseen

The cryptocurrency marketcap is now at 300 billion dollars, so it's pretty much a mainstream interest worldwide.


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## DaveM (Jun 29, 2015)

It is not as simple as it may seem. First of all, you get paid in BRO which is bitradio coin which (allegedly) can be, at some point, converted to Bitcoin, but it is unclear how the value of the BRO itself is determined. In any event, what you get paid is so small that it is measured in satoshis where a satoshi is 0.00000001 of a Bitcoin.

The real question is why would a commercial enterprise pay customers to use its service? I haven’t figured it out yet, but my best guess is to get small fry eventually trading in crypto currency presumably Bitcoin. IMO, Bitcoin continues to be a highly questionable currency where what it is worth is determined by trading itself rather than anything else. In this kind of setup the little guy usually gets taken for a ride...and sometimes bigger guys as well. Btw, my understanding is that this is a Russian business.


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## regenmusic (Oct 23, 2014)

DaveM said:


> It is not as simple as it may seem. First of all, you get paid in BRO which is bitradio coin which (allegedly) can be, at some point, converted to Bitcoin, but it is unclear how the value of the BRO itself is determined. In any event, what you get paid is so small that it is measured in satoshis where a satoshi is 0.00000001 of a Bitcoin.


Yes, but many people believe one Bitcoin will be worth $50,000 one day.



DaveM said:


> The real question is why would a commercial enterprise pay customers to use its service? I haven't figured it out yet, but my best guess is to get small fry eventually trading in crypto currency presumably Bitcoin. IMO, Bitcoin continues to be a highly questionable currency where what it is worth is determined by trading itself rather than anything else. In this kind of setup the little guy usually gets taken for a ride...and sometimes bigger guys as well. Btw, my understanding is that this is a Russian business.


The founders own a large percentage of Bitradio (BRO) coin, so it's to their best interest that they
get a lot of people to believe in the value of this cryptocurrency. Therefore, they can afford to pay people in it as a way of advertising for it.

Many of the big players in cryptocurrency are in Russia, Asia and Eastern European countries.


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

Not my cup of tea, for moral reasons & the doubt implied.


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## DaveM (Jun 29, 2015)

regenmusic said:


> Yes, but many people believe one Bitcoin will be worth $50,000 one day.


But based on what? If you read about what determines Bitcoin value, it's smoke and mirrors. An anointed few get to 'mine' new bitcoin which creates an artificial basis for the total bitcoin available, otherwise the value is determined by the perceived demand or somesuch. There will be a few that make money, just like a few made money with Madoff. For the most part bitcoin is a sucker's bet.


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## regenmusic (Oct 23, 2014)

DaveM said:


> But based on what? If you read about what determines Bitcoin value, it's smoke and mirrors. An anointed few get to 'mine' new bitcoin which creates an artificial basis for the total bitcoin available, otherwise the value is determined by the perceived demand or somesuch. There will be a few that make money, just like a few made money with Madoff. For the most part bitcoin is a sucker's bet.


You should read up on what the Blockchain is. It's obviously well accepted in academic and business circles now. It's a way to circulate a ledger so it's decentralized and no one can "cook the books."


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## Guest (Jul 24, 2018)

regenmusic said:


> You should read up on what the Blockchain is. It's obviously well accepted in academic and business circles now. It's a way to circulate a ledger so it's decentralized and no one can "cook the books."


Well, yes, it is a decentralized ledger which replaces a trusted auditor with a consensus among more than 50% of a distributed set of internet servers. Despite the secure design of the block chain, a substantial fraction of the bitcoins ever created have been stolen in various hacks, amounting to many billions of dollars.

Currently bitcoin is mainly used as a money laundering vehicle.


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## Guest (Jul 24, 2018)

regenmusic said:


> What do you guys think of this idea? A company called Bitradio has several free streaming high definition radio stations like Sirius XM does, but if you use their service they pay you in their cryptocurrency.
> 
> Here is their chart on what is like the DOW Jones of cryptocurrencies.
> 
> ...


If you are getting something "for free" that means you are being monetized. Information about you or access to you (legal or illicit) is being sold.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Baron Scarpia said:


> Well, yes, it is a decentralized ledger which replaces a trusted auditor with a consensus among more than 50% of a distributed set of internet servers.


So basically you get an ironbound guarantee that you own a piece of nothing. And nobody can take that from you!


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## DaveM (Jun 29, 2015)

It never ceases to amaze me how many ways there are to lose money if one follows hype from the internet or otherwise. An example of ‘otherwise’: William Devane for Rosland Capital (gold) on TV: ‘I buy gold every chance I get.’ 

Gold was under $200/oz for years, then it went up to $800, hung around there for awhile then continued up to circa $1800/oz a few years ago. If you had bought at the right time and got out at the right time, you could have made money, but, so far, that was a one-off. Now it hovers around $1100-1300 and has done so for several years. If you had taken Devane’s advice when gold was $1800/oz, your gold would be worth 1/3 less now.

But perhaps what’s more important is that even when these things go up, very few people know when to get out. Yes, people who bought gold at $800 when it first went up would have made money if they got out at $1800, but most people don’t get out when value starts to drop. They hang on hoping it will rise again. And in the case of gold, getting out is not that easy and you have to pay short or long term capital gains. Yuk!

So back to the crypto currency topic: Will people ever know when to get out?


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Similarly, if you had bought bitcoin last December at its peak, considerably more than half your investment would be gone today. But if you had bought two years ago, today you'd be feeling quite pleased.


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## Guest (Jul 24, 2018)

Bitcoin has the basic features of a currency, it is in limited supply, it can't be counterfeited, it can't be double-spent because of the distributed ledger. The main reason it does not behave like a currency is that it is not used as the dominant form of currency in commerce. If some fluctuation pushed the US dollar inappropriately high in value, the commercial imbalance tends to push it back, and vice versa. Bitcoin is mainly used as a short-term money laundering tool for illicit transactions such as human trafficking, ransom, illicit drug sales. If you get a bitcoin it is because you intend to spend it immediately. (If you leave it lying around it is likely to get stolen anyway.) It's value is determined almost entirely by speculation.

Investing in bitcoin is like investing in baseball cards, they are valuable because someone thinks they are valuable. If they go out of fashion they become worthless.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Another difference between the dollar and bitcoin is that, within its realm, the dollar is legal tender and must be accepted for “all debts, public and private.” Acceptance of bitcoin is purely voluntary.


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## DaveM (Jun 29, 2015)

Baron Scarpia said:


> It's value is determined almost entirely by speculation.


And that's why virtually everyone should stay away. You might call it virtual speculation.



> Investing in bitcoin is like investing in baseball cards, they are valuable because someone thinks they are valuable. If they go out of fashion they become worthless.


Baseball cards would probably be better. At least you can see and feel them and there is (usually) some way of establishing provenance.


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## Guest (Jul 25, 2018)

DaveM said:


> Baseball cards would probably be better. At least you can see and feel them and there is (usually) some way of establishing provenance.


The block chain is just fine for establishing the provenance of your bitcoin. But your point that a baseball card can give some tangible pleasure independent of its speculative value is well taken.


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## Ivan Smith (Jun 11, 2018)

I'll stick to the real world, god know what the radio station is doing behind the scenes sounds really weird


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