Bitcoin Futures Caused The Crypto Market Crash
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While Bitcoin is gaining in popularity every day, early adopters have been excited about the digital currency for years now. Some of them may even be a bit too excited. Several users even speculated that they might be addicted to Bitcoin in a recent online discussion on Reddit. Here are a few examples:. At our request, Fong agreed to scan the Reddit thread to evaluate whether or not Bitcoin addiction could be an actual condition.
The answer is not exactly cut and dry for two reasons: Bitcoin is multifaceted, and addiction means different things to different people. The science of addiction. As is the case with other mental disorders such as depression and anxiety, people often self-diagnose, or use these terms to describe very mild examples of the condition they observe in themselves and others.
The other complicating factor is nailing down what about Bitcoin might cause addictive behavior. Bitcoin is like money in that one can spend it to buy things that bring them happiness. For miners—the collection of people who buy specialized computer equipment to bitcoin obsession leads reddit users to see bitcoin in everything the Bitcoin system work—Bitcoin is sort of like a slot machine.
Every 10 minutes or so, a miner discovers a new block and reaps the reward of thousands of dollars worth of bitcoins. As it turns out, the Reddit original poster was correct in that Bitcoin is even like a drug. A rewarding behavior stimulates a part of the limbic system in the brain called the nucleus accumbens, sparking the release of dopamine and other neurochemicals that cause a person to feel good. This occurs frequently in the bitcoin obsession leads reddit users to see bitcoin in everything of addicts and non-addicts alike.
For addicts, this activation process is usually malfunctioning in some way. Those malfunctions, which can be due to brain hyperactivity or hypoactivity, are bitcoin obsession leads reddit users to see bitcoin in everything can cause a person to become addicted to nearly any behavior.
Needless to say, Bitcoin is not anywhere near that level quite yet. Despite its technological and ideological foundations, at its core, Bitcoin is money. Though Bitcoin has a history of volatile value fluctuations, it has stabilized in recent months, and its value has increased sixfold from where it was at this time last year. Rather than cautioning potential Bitcoin addicts against potentially losing all their money like one might with a gambler, Polk offers something more subtle—a warning to them to be mindful of investing their self-images along with their money.
This seems especially poignant for the Bitcoin community, which often seems to feel it must prove that its currency is the wave of the future. The ends may justify the means. In addition to its similarities to traditional objects of addiction, like gambling and drugs, Bitcoin could fall into a newer category of addictive stimuli.
With feelings of Internet addiction, people can get hooked to exploring this frontier. He likened it to being a workaholic. In this sense, the ends could justify the means when it comes to the Bitcoin obsession described on Reddit. If Bitcoin begins to fail and these people stubbornly go down with the ship and lose their money in the process, it might be something of an addiction in hindsight.
On the flip side, if Bitcoin evangelists bitcoin obsession leads reddit users to see bitcoin in everything up ushering in a new world order of financial freedom, they will likely feel their obsessive behavior served a worthwhile purpose.
The truth about Bitcoin addiction. Latest Chrome update may have broken millions of web-based games Phillip Tracy — May 7. The truth about Bitcoin addiction Fran Berkman —. Here are a few examples: Up next after the break: Recommendations Donald Trump Apple vs.
