bitcoin

There is alot of talk recently due to the massive increase in price of bitcoin that it is now a "store of value". If you really believe that then why not de risk and invest in gold. At the very least only use play money to "invest" in it. Im amazed that people dont want to engage in the core argument of whether this is really an investment and why they refuse to measure it with the same metrics as everything else. There is an almost religious following to it.
 
There is alot of talk recently due to the massive increase in price of bitcoin that it is now a "store of value". If you really believe that then why not de risk and invest in gold.

Because I don't want gold, it's a less practical form of money for me, I can't easily divide it, I don't have a safe to store it securely in, it's more difficult and more expensive to liquidate. I can decide to sell any amount of my bitcoin at any time and have a SEPA transfer going to my bank a/c with the proceeds that same day without even leaving the house.

My thesis for the past few years has been that bitcoin would gradually eat into gold's market as the worlds leading decentralised money - because in many ways it's better at being money.

Having said all of that with the large rises this year, I'm now overweight in bitcoin, and have been selling some off, but I won't be putting the proceeds in gold. I'll also be ready to buy some bitcoin back if/when there's a crash or bear market.
 
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Meh - 2013 was better :-D
feeling good on the outside I hope,:oops:

For what it is worth I bought 20K of bitcoin back in 2014 sold end of December 2017 left around 25K worth in bitcoin,
Will be interesting to see in four years time what the 24K bitcoin will be worth,
I took the rest out in December to buy property again it will be interesting to look back in four years time
If I am still around in 2022 will report back,
 
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feeling good on the outside I hope,:oops:

For what it is worth I bought 20K of bitcoin back in 2014 sold end of December 2017 left around 25K worth in bitcoin,
Will be interesting to see in four years time what it will be worth,
Timed perfectly - well done you.
 
Timed perfectly - well done you.
not timing took it out because a property came up one side of where i live ,
Will I still be saying the same in 2022 ? ,
I will not be losing any sleep over the 25K still in bitcoin roll on 2022,

I Remember looking at this post back in 2015 thought the poster was going to put his toe in the water to see what it was like,
 
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o_O
You could have won the lotto if you bought bitcoin back in Feb 2015o_O

Don't worry I've thought of that often, especially last weekend when changing the car!

I just couldn't reconcile the prospect of the value of Bitcoin reaching anything near like its current value back then, just as I cannot do so right now. So I'm OK with that overall, as you can only act on what you think it right at the time.

Still.....it would be nice!!!
 
I don't like to put USD or Euro valuations on bitcoin.
I think that will always be a fast moving target as those 2 fiat currencies continue to inflate their supply.
In addition to the wild speculation of price movement that the markets appear to create.

I am attracted to the bitcoin project and my owning bitcoin is claiming a stake in that project.
 
Don't worry I've thought of that often, especially last weekend when changing the car!

I just couldn't reconcile the prospect of the value of Bitcoin reaching anything near like its current value back then, just as I cannot do so right now. So I'm OK with that overall, as you can only act on what you think it right at the time.

Still.....it would be nice!!!
I always think of your first post back then I was thinking of cashing out around that time very unsure you post helped me stay in .The money I put into bitcoin was money I was owed for a very long time I was having second thoughts around 2015 your post stuck in my mind .To be honest I never felt like buying any more since then,
 
I always think of your first post back then I was thinking of cashing out around that time very unsure you post helped me stay in .The money I put into bitcoin was money I was owed for a very long time I was having second thoughts around 2015 your post stuck in my mind .To be honest I never felt like buying any more since then,

Well done. Even if I had bought, I would have sold out long before the price reached anything near what's trading for now!
 
The Times They Are A-Changin' folks

New York University students in a cryptocurrency course taught by David Yermack, a business and law professor. He had to find a bigger lecture hall for the 225 who signed up.

BERKELEY, Calif. — While the price of Bitcoin has dropped since Christmas, the virtual currency boom has shown no signs of cooling off in the more august precincts of America’s elite universities.
Several top schools have added or are rushing to add classes about Bitcoin and the record-keeping technology that it introduced, known as the blockchain.
Graduate-level classes this semester at Carnegie Mellon, Cornell, Duke, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Maryland, among other places, illustrate the fascination with the technology across several academic fields, and the assumption that it will outlast the current speculative price bubble.

For a class this semester, Mr. Yermack originally booked a lecture hall that could fit 180 students, but he had to move the course to the largest lecture hall at N.Y.U. when enrollment kept going up. He now has 225 people signed up for the class.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/08/technology/cryptocurrencies-come-to-campus.html
 
I caught the tail end of an interview on bloomberg yesterday, some analyst guy making the point that nobody under 30 is buying gold. They are buying crypto.

I dont know what the future for bitcoin is, other than it has potential to grow and grow.
 
Very interesting article from zerohedge regarding a conversation with The FED and bitcoin.

Q. If virtual currencies aren't backed by anything real, gold or some other physical commodity, does that mean they all eventually will be worthless?

A. You're right that they are not backed by a physical commodity, but then neither is the dollar and most other modern currencies. It’s long been known that currencies that are intrinsically worthless, mere pieces of paper, are recognized as valuable because payments with money are so much easier than the alternative, barter. The problem with barter, when everyone trades goods and services directly, is the dreaded “double coincidence of wants.” If I want to have dinner at my favorite restaurant but the cook is not interested in trading a meal for a bitcoin lecture, I have to keeping searching until I find a restaurant that I like where, coincidentally, the cook can’t hear enough about bitcoin.
Money, even intrinsically worthless paper money, cuts the “double coincidence” problem in half. I just need to find someone willing to pay me some of that paper for my lecture, then use that paper to pay for dinner. As long as I trust that someone will accept the paper, I’m willing to accept it in exchange for my lecture. It’s trust that the “worthless” piece of paper is actually worth something to other people that makes it an acceptable medium of exchange.

What was most interesting, however, was the Fed's observation under what conditions cryptos could not only match, but supplant fiat as the dominant currency. The answer: bitcoin would dominate payment methods in a dystopian world, in other words a "decentralized" world, in which there is no more faith - or trust - in central banks.

Which, of course, is the whole point behind cryptocurrencies in the first place: to replace the dollar, and other fiat currencies, once the entire fractional-reserve lending platform, and last 100 years of monetary philosophy are exposed to be a fraud.
"Lunacy" you say? Well, it's a conversation worth having after the next market crash, one which most likely will wipe out what little faith remains in central banks, in fractional reserve lending, in conventional economics and in fiat.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018...-world-bitcoin-would-dominate-payment-methods
 
So that's what it's all about. A belief that we are already in or heading for a completely dystopian world where you can trust no one. An entry in a blockchain (take your pick of the hundreds available) is the only thing you can believe in. So this all speculation that this is where we are heading. Good luck with that.
 
Yeah, 'dystopian' according to The Fed and Central Banks. Its called Freedom' or 'Liberty' for everybody else.
 
The hurly-burly movements of Bitcoin would certainly feed the adrenaline junkies. I'll leave it to them and stick with Fiat. Wow. I never thought I hear myself championing Fiat....:)
 
Yeah, 'dystopian' according to The Fed and Central Banks. Its called Freedom' or 'Liberty' for everybody else.
I don't care what you call it but if the price of bitcoin is based on speculation that

(a) there will be a complete breakdown of trust in our current monetary infrastructure
(b) there will in its place be confidence in a digital entry on a blockchain signifying nothing
(c) bitcoin will be the chosen one from the hundreds on offer

then good luck with that.
 
I don't care what you call it
And rightly so - you shouldn't. The article mentioned 'dystopian'. You considered it in the context of bitcoin being a trustless system. If you are dealing with wealth/money/value, all sorts can happen when people are involved. Therefore, a system that assumes from the outset to take a trustless approach can only be a healthy thing.

but if the price of bitcoin is based on speculation that
(a) there will be a complete breakdown of trust in our current monetary infrastructure
(b) there will in its place be confidence in a digital entry on a blockchain signifying nothing
(c) bitcoin will be the chosen one from the hundreds on offer
then good luck with that.
I'm not sure where you're going with this? What do you mean re. the 'complete breakdown of trust in our current monetary infrastructure? You think that bitcoin is going to interfere with other financial systems?...and if so, how?...and how is the 'trust' in them going to be broken?
As regards (b), you have an issue with an entry on the public ledger (blockchain)? How does this differ from the entry on a banking system showing your account balance?
As regards your (c), why will bitcoin end up being the crypto that wins out? It really remains to be seen if that will be the case. Furthermore, whilst there's no doubt that the vast majority of 'coins' currently offered will fall by the wayside, there will still be a number of coins - serving different purposes which will succeed/stick around.
 
(a) there will be a complete breakdown of trust in our current monetary infrastructure

Not a complete breakdown, but a breakdown nonetheless.
In my short lifetime the Irish punt brokedown 3-4 times, the £Stg was broken down by George Soros, and our currency today - the euro! One of the worlds leading currencies wreaking havoc through the economies that have adopted it, breaking economies instead of the currency.
After that, if you care, a brief read of the history of the thousands of fiat currencies that have failed might be no harm.

But hey! - this time is different, right?

(b) there will in its place be confidence in a digital entry on a blockchain signifying nothing

For someone who purports to carry out 99% of financial transactions digitally, I find this an odd statement.

(c) bitcoin will be the chosen one from the hundreds on offer

Perhaps, maybe not. Who knows?

Btw, now that we have digital transactions, of which your own participation level is 99%.
Can you explain why there are still hundreds of paper currencies?
 
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