Community Stories

Are members invested in Bitcoin/crypto?

Walrus
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I had to do a group at work today and on the list was “budgeting/ finance”. I’m always free to change the topic if I wish but I asked the guys what they wanted to talk about they asked if I could tell them more about crypto. They remembered the last time we talked about it BTC was 30k and wanted to know what it was at today. The main point is just to get them thinking about money being something more than just to spend on Nike Airs and food and thinking about rent and saving etc so I figured what the hec we can talk crypto. I just did a basic overview, talked about the famous early pizza purchase and it’s growth compared to other assets. Nothing major just simple stuff but I noticed 10 minutes into the group one of the guys was busy on his phone. I usually stop that but I was tired and everyone else was paying attention so I let it go figured I’d talk to him after.

So fast forward everyone was into it blah blah I wrapped it up and walked over to Mr. Phone. I was about to start my “it’s not polite to play with your phone while people are talking” (I was in no mood for a power trip of taking his phone away) but he stood up beaming ear to ear showing me he just purchased 30 bucks of Bitcoin. Ha ha I always start of with “I’m not recommending anyone buy this stuff it’s extremely volatile you can lose money very quickly.” On top of that he is not suppose to have access to the account he got the money from. Oh boy I’m gonna hear about this one. On the other hand he told me “I’m gonna hold this for five years and give it to my mother when it’s big bucks. She deserves it she helps me a lot.” Thank goodness he only spent 30 even though that is a lot to him it could have been much worse. And, on a plus he is trying to save and improve his situation, though not in a way I would have recommended because I don’t recommend such things anyway but it gave me a good laugh and he was happy as all hec hopefully he’s not down to 15 tomorrow.
 
Walrus
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Now as for me I sold 90% of the altcoins I was holding that were up and I’m now focusing on just four. BTC, ETH, SOL and CRO. It was weird I started picking up SOL around .10 as I thought it may be related to the exchange. Pure luck on my part I guessed and was right. SOL I just keep staked along with ETH. I took out my initial plus as my understanding is some crypto regulation or taxes are going to be done by executive order (taxes shouldn’t be done by executive order but that doesn’t mean it can’t happen) I’ll stay on the sidelines a bit see how things shake out. I’m much more invested in rooting for a pump now for the young guy who bought 30 bucks today. I’d love to see him jump for joy if his 30 turns to fifty or 100.

I have matic and a few others but I thought too many were going parabolic and it was making me uncomfortable.
Edited:
 
Observer
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Walrus Walrus
Now as for me I sold 90% of the altcoins I was holding that were up and I’m now focusing on just four. BTC, ETH, SOL and CRO. It was weird I started picking up SOL around .10 as I thought it may be related to the exchange. Pure luck on my part I guessed and was right. SOL I just keep staked along with ETH. I took out my initial plus as my understanding is some crypto regulation or taxes are going to be done by executive order (taxes shouldn’t be done by executive order but that doesn’t mean it can’t happen) I’ll stay on the sidelines a bit see how things shake out. I’m much more invested in rooting for a pump now for the young guy who bought 30 bucks today. I’d love to see him jump for joy if his 30 turns to fifty or 100.

I have matic and a few others but I thought too many were going parabolic and it was making me comfortable.
MATIC is one of my best winners.

Good idea to put some altcoin profits into the big two. In March I rolled the dice on a couple node licenses to support a P2E gaming company's network. Pays me every day. Just cashed out several times my initial outlay and converted most of it to ETH. Blockchain gaming is getting big and it's on the way to massive. I bought a gaming NFT for 1ETH several months ago. The last three times it sold on the open market it went for 15ETH, 20ETH, and then 26ETH today. Just crazy. Getting hard to justify holding onto it.
 
Walrus
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Observer Observer
MATIC is one of my best winners.

Good idea to put some altcoin profits into the big two. In March I rolled the dice on a couple node licenses to support a P2E gaming company's network. Pays me every day. Just cashed out several times my initial outlay and converted most of it to ETH. Blockchain gaming is getting big and it's on the way to massive. I bought a gaming NFT for 1ETH several months ago. The last three times it sold on the open market it went for 15ETH, 20ETH, and then 26ETH today. Just crazy. Getting hard to justify holding onto it.
interesting guy
 
Twocats
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Walrus Walrus
interesting guy
I think he would be pleased to see the current state of the crypto market today.
 
321Only
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321Only 321Only
Since the market cooled off a bit it might be a good time to update my post from the beginning of the year.

The ECB is doing it's best to make new all-time highs on their balance sheet.
7,877 billion EUR in total assets. +13% from January to July of 2021 and + 69% increase from January 2020 to July 2021. It took Christine Lagarde and the banking gang no less than 7 months to generate 1,000 billion EUR out of thin air which is roughly the equivalent of the central banks total assets before the financial crisis of 2008.

Meanwhile, lots of retail banks in Germany lowered the equity threshold to apply negative interest rates on private customers in the area around 50k or 25k. We even see local banks asking their customers to pay negative rates on bank accounts larger than 10,000 €.


Sources:
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/ECBASSETSW
https://www.focus.de/finanzen/banke...vzinsen-fuer-ihr-geld-zahlen_id_11547037.html
https://www.spglobal.com/marketinte...nvent-themselves-in-quest-for-profit-65136232


6,8% inflation in the US. Probably nothing
 
alam
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321Only 321Only
Out of curiosity, what is the forums view on BTC?

My view is that it appears to be on sale these days.. 😀
 
ApolloXVII
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I always wonder when the bitcoin was born what was his coverage..?? From my knowledge real money has to be cover in gold but i do not understand what cover this coin..
And the second thought is what happen if the bitcoin will consume to much power to secure the blockchain and the people will say lets start bitcoin2??
Forgive my bad english and the childhood questions..
 
321Only
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ApolloXVII ApolloXVII
I always wonder when the bitcoin was born what was his coverage..?? From my knowledge real money has to be cover in gold but i do not understand what cover this coin..
And the second thought is what happen if the bitcoin will consume to much power to secure the blockchain and the people will say lets start bitcoin2??
Forgive my bad english and the childhood questions..

Start with asking yourself what is backing USD, EUR, CHF ect. You will end up understanding why Bitcoin is important
 
Spacefruit
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When Bitcoin first started, it was “covered” by nothing more than cryptography and ideas, perhaps even ideals.

nothing has changed with bitcoin since that first block, other than a growth in understanding of what a decentralised trustless system means. As a result people are valuing it more than the paper currencies backed by governments as trust in those governments falls. Venezuela, Nigeria even India, and of course El Salvador where BTC is legal tender and free of capital/asset taxes

literally every single criticism levelled at Bitcoin can be multiplied and turned on Fiat.

1. More crime proceeds move through dollars than Bitcoin
2. Bitcoin uses less energy than Fiat. It uses less energy than say, the Visa system.
3. Bitcoin is backed by trust and consensus- Fiat is backed with debt and guns

I completely understand the reservations of those who live in a relatively well governed country, with a degree of democracy and safety.

If Bitcoin is worthless, or turns out to be a scam, then the only people hurt are the Bitcoiners.

if the dollar becomes worthless….

my point is that Bitcoin has acquired a value by osmosis, as populations realise they can have sovereignty over their wealth. If that was not the case, the inexorable rise in BTC against Fiat could not have happened.

For me, Bitcoin is an asymmetric trade - if I need it, and don’t have any, I am screwed. Therefore my exit strategy with my BTC is to spend it only when people are cooking on fires made of dollars.
 
Archer
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Spacefruit Spacefruit
literally every single criticism levelled at Bitcoin can be multiplied and turned on Fiat.

Not really. I can't go into most places here and use Bitcoin (or any other crypto) to purchase something. That was the thing it was intended to do, replace money, but in that regard it has a very long way to go from what I see. It's just another investment, not a real currency, at least at this stage.

I've seen watch deals using bitcoin falling through because of the sheer volatility, and the need to agree on a value that can change drastically before the transaction is completed. Volatility of Bitcoin makes using it as a currency day to day very difficult.

Spacefruit Spacefruit
If Bitcoin is worthless, or turns out to be a scam, then the only people hurt are the Bitcoiners.

This is a bit like saying the only people hurt in the 2008/2009 crash were those who had made the bad investments. As the value of Bitcoin and other currencies grows, central banks and governments cannot ignore it, or the implications of it imploding, because there will be knock on effects.
 
eugeneandresson
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Archer Archer
I can't go into most places here and use Bitcoin (or any other crypto) to purchase something. That was the thing it was intended to do, replace money, but in that regard it has a very long way to go from what I see.

While I heartily agree on this point, I have used crypto multiple times to transfer ‘money’ abroad…another use-case. In 10 minutes. Cash converted from one currency to the next. Cheaper than any ‘traditional’ system as well. The only potential downside is volatility. If it tanks in that 10 minutes…but that is the same as the upside. If I was a wise man I would have just used Wise (ex TransferWise)…but that takes 24h at the best case.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯
 
ApolloXVII
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321Only 321Only
Start with asking yourself what is backing USD, EUR, CHF ect. You will end up understanding why Bitcoin is important
I can understand that currency USD, Euro etc were emitted but governments which have or not have gold to cover them ..but Bitcoin start from nothing. A person wake up and had an idea ..Emitted a finite amount of Bitcoin to a very low price (Half of them he kept). People start to use them, because i also like the idea to easy transfer any amount of money in seconds and without control of the banks and keep growing.
But the blockchain will keep grow..and grow with every transaction which it's made..
My personal opinion is that it's a limit ..
 
Observer
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Two of the things that amaze me about the investing (and "investing") world are the way people regularly buy high and sell low when everyone know that's backwards, and the way people who know that diversification is key will avoid doing just that.

You want to know what's really crazy? I watched this digital game piece sell for about $900K this week.
...and you can't even play the game yet.
https://app.gala.games/games/buy-item/0x028200000000000000000000000000000000?currency=ETH
 
Walrus
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When crypto goes cold I just don’t bother looking at it that often. Today I decided to peek. I have a small amount of Bitcoin silver. I received it during a Bitcoin fork a while back and just left it sitting. Anyway a glitch in the pricing gave me a reading as high as 426 million in one of my accounts. Similarly another wallet had me around 26 million. For like a quarter of a second I thought it was real. For those of you with 450 million I can now relate, although very fleetingly, to how you feel
66E72B2B-7490-4E9C-A099-59B90C2BC684.png 87AE6C7B-00B5-42F0-94C2-537CF300127A.png
 
Daru
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Its intrinsic value is $0, and it will be the primary subject matter of the next edition of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds.

One EMP, and Bitcoin goes to $0. If I am going to invest in anything as an insurance hedge with the intention of it being a real, permanent store of value, it is gold or silver. If you can’t hold it, you don’t own it. But that is only for the WTSHTF allocation of my portfolio. Equities are the surest way to long-term wealth.

It is also only a matter of time before governments’ sovereignty is threatened enough by crypto that they take aggressive action to curb/regulate it (as China has started to do). Governments want and need to be able to pull their own monetary levers for economic stability.

And of course, we have the massive environmental cost of Bitcoin to think about. Its carbon footprint is obscene…all for something that provides virtually no value to humanity.
 
Walrus
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Daru Daru
Its intrinsic value is $0, and it will be the primary subject matter of the next edition of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds.

One EMP, and Bitcoin goes to $0. If I am going to invest in anything as an insurance hedge with the intention of it being a real, permanent store of value, it is gold or silver. If you can’t hold it, you don’t own it. But that is only for the WTSHTF allocation of my portfolio. Equities are the surest way to long-term wealth.

It is also only a matter of time before governments’ sovereignty is threatened enough by crypto that they take aggressive action to curb/regulate it (as China has started to do). Governments want and need to be able to pull their own monetary levers for economic stability.

And of course, we have the massive environmental cost of Bitcoin to think about. Its carbon footprint is obscene…all for something that provides virtually no value to humanity.
Bitcoin will be the least of our concerns if an EMP were used against us. Banking, cars the entire power grid will be gone. People will be killing each other over food and water I never understood people using the EMP thing as Bitcoin FUD. EMP is everything FUD
 
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