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Bitcoin

211K views 807 replies 90 participants last post by  sags 
#1 ·
Bitcoin is a great way to diversify a portfolio even if it's just in small increments.

Please contact for questions or details.
 
#3 ·
I have some only because I was owed some money by a program who will only pay that way and every month they send me 1-2 coins since May 12016.Definitely not something I recommend for many people and if I didn't gamble I certainly would not have any.I have a feeling it will go in the 700 dollar range sooner than later and not buying into the hype it will be 2k or more in a year or so.
 
#4 ·
Totally control by corrupt Chinese exchanges posting fake volumes and bids/asks for the coins doesn't bode well for the future.

Or the exchange claims it was hacked and disappears with everyone's money. There is a long list of those.

The underlying blockchain technology isn't as perfect as once touted either.

It has reached capacity and the length of time to "verify" transactions can take hours or days.

The "solution" of having vendors "trust" that people won't "double spend" their bitcoins is laughable in the business world.

Marina is right.........it is a big gamble, mostly on when to sell and get out.
 
#11 ·
I feel like Bitcoin is kind of like a small cap stock. To me it's much more of a lottery ticket than a bona fide "new asset class". The overall capitalization is relatively small and there are disjoint trading markets.

Consider that is just one of many crypto currencies. Others -- such as Litecoin -- haven't moved in price for many years. There are whole bunch of these, Ethereum, Litecoin, Doge etc.

Which one is going to take off and rise like crazy? It's the same question as "which small cap stock will you gamble on". Bitcoin has done great, sure, but that's in hindsight. You should have also bought CCL.B five years ago, or CSU ten years ago. You would have made so much money if you bought CSU ten years ago!

But who cares? That's not how these things work. Some crypto currencies do well, others don't. Some of them will see their community collapse and become worthless. Some small cap stocks or penny stocks will do very well too.

I'm interested in bitcoin, and of course I wish I bought some earlier, but no more than I wish I bought CSU shares ten years ago. Shoulda woulda coulda.
 
#13 · (Edited)
Bitcoin is a classic "greater fool" scam based on fake market sales volumes and prices. The "markets" are in China controlled by a couple of people. A small number of people control the whole Bitcoin economy.

A fatal flaw in the blockchain that prevents timely verification of transactions as the blockchain gets longer, is ignored with people convincing themselves that no verification is needed for small purchases. Everything can be done on the trust system..........LOL.

When people say.....oh, it can be used for a cup of coffee which only cost $2, they fail to recognize that businesses selling coffee rely on all those $2 sales to stay in business. They can't end their days with half the $2 transactions cancelled.

The bitcoin mania will collapse because there is nothing but air and wild speculation supporting it.

It could still run for quite a ways. How much did the price of tulips get to before that mania collapsed ?

A single tulip bulb valued in "barter" terms.

A list of goods allegedly exchanged for a single bulb of the Viceroy

Two lasts of wheat
Four lasts of rye
Four fat oxen
Eight fat swine
Twelve fat sheep
Two hogsheads of wine
Four tuns of beer
Two tons of butter
1,000 lb. of cheese
A complete bed
A suit of clothes
A silver drinking cup
 
#18 ·
I came across Bitcoin a few years back and while I understood the risks involved (still very much the wild wild west) I also saw the opportunity for something like decentralized digital currency. I decided to spend the portion of my portfolio I dedicated to high risk/return investments on bitcoin (playing in the lottery also counts towards this).

So I bought some with the intention of holding or as Bitcoiner would say "HODL". I've enjoyed watching the price movement day to day and following the developments/drama in the community over the years. It is much more exciting then the stock market most days. I still believe in the technology but I have lost a bit of hope in Bitcoin with all its current scaling/monopoly struggles.

Anyways while it's only a single digit % point of my portfolio it is my most successful "investment" to date. Makes me laugh.
 
#19 ·
I have seen some nice profits on bitcoin in past 13 months because I have a few places I gamble that take bitcoin and pay in bitcoin , without the gambling connection I would not be in that space.Recently though I bought Ethereum for under $30 a coin (less than 3 months ago) and today look at it.Personally I put a small amount in as many of these coins as I can figure out but I can afford to take the loss ,I have many friends in the gambling community that have paid off mortgages and retired on these coins.Probably a blessing that I am a gambler lol
 
#22 ·
its a mistake, in my opinion, to view bitcoin as an asset class though some argue that it is

rather, it is an emerging, not yet fully mature currency that will take time to stabilize and become widely useful to everyday people ... it's a little like the linux operating system, stable and secure in design and function but not user friendly

so far the system problems have been with theft of coins by virtue of insecure exchanges but these are growing pains, the theoretical structure of the system, the blockchain, is to the best of my knowledge still rock-solid

it has immense potential to disrupt payment and banking systems worldwide

imagine if you could keep your liquid assets, your money, on a chipped card that you possesed and had no need at all for any bank, no more banks .... who the hell doesn't like that idea ?
 
#26 ·
... it's a little like the linux operating system, stable and secure in design and function but not user friendly no more banks


I agree. I consider myself a tecksavvy person and still face a challenge with bitcoin wallets, keys etc. Linux never made it on to the desktop computer of every user worldwide but it does run just about everything else from servers directing internet traffic to supercomputers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage...ng_systems_used_on_top_500_supercomputers.svg

Being open source it's hard to know just how many devices run on some version of the linux OS.

I think the same will be true for bitcoin/blockchain, it will run in the background and change currency and assets exchange/possession. Will we be logging into bitcoin software itself... I doubt it. The end user applications/integration will get better. I wouldn't mind seeing out current banking systems pushed into the obsolete pile.
 
#28 ·
there are different options for storing bitcoin, at exchanges or on your own server or completely offline (in your pocket or a safe deposit box or ??)

all present risk (there was the guy that threw away his old hard drive with a million dollars or more of coins on it) of one kind or another ... as does lending money to a bank as james will tell you

the success of bitcoin going forward will be based on the quality of the solutions to problems of security and ease of use

the catastrophes at exchanges should not be taken as indication of bitcoins utility which i think is huge ( by "bitcoin" i mean all blockchain based digital currencies not just the original ... and still king ... bitcoin)
 
#30 · (Edited)
The blockchain did show promise as a permanent ledger of transactions of all kinds, but the fatal flaw discovered is the reduced number of transactions it can handle and the time it requires to verify transactions. (as the blockchain stores increasing amounts of data)

Just as when a hard drive fills up with data, it takes longer for a computer to find stored data and perform functions.

The geek solution..........."we will figure it out later" just doesn't cut it in the real financial world.

The current speculative price of bitcoin is the dreamers convincing themselves they have discovered a quick path to easy cash.

Buy a bitcoin today and it will be worth $100,000 some day soon. Buy a few and retire. (HODL.....hold on for dear life)

Bitcoins are a millennials wet dream.
 
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