I have no idea what imgur is supposed to be, but ....

[imgur.com]

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proofraed by OwEn the c@t.



Nobody remembers their first download, but everyone remembers their 1st LP.

funny vid, but I can't help but think about bitcoin what-ifs...

Bitcoin has dropped from a high of $63000 or so to $50000 or so.

I just looked up the first mention of bitcoin on this forum.

Spacetime posted on June 11 2011, 'Bitcoin: The world's fastest-gaining currency has tripled in price again.' Tripled to about $13

EVERY SINGLE REPLY to that post was dismissive. For years, the only new threads were posted after a steep price drop to laugh at all the suckers...

If I went out and put $300 into bitcoin that day, it would now be worth around $1.15M today even after the recent decline.

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hal
If I went out and put $300 into bitcoin that day, it would now be worth around $1.15M today even after the recent decline.

pocket change ...

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proofraed by OwEn the c@t.



Nobody remembers their first download, but everyone remembers their 1st LP.

I'm going to search the Leader posts from that time period to see who spent $300 on an iPod Touch instead.

I do not regret passing.

You have to live your life, and there are other ways to buy different forms of lottery tickets, too, that I passed on.

I did try to convince from friends and colleagues to develop what are now called NFTs. That I understood, but they did not. Would have led me to retire this year.

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sekker
You have to live your life, and there are other ways to buy different forms of lottery tickets, too, that I passed on.

This is what I try to tell people. If you don’t understand a particular investment well enough, you are just gambling, and so should not ‘bet’ more than you’re willing to lose. Back in the day when we didn’t know much about it, we only put 5% of our portfolio in crypto (now that’s grown to represent 20%).

You’d be far better off, and in fact guaranteed to win, by investing in an index fund tied to one of the stock market’s major indices (even only 5-10% of the professionals on Wall Street beat the market in the long term).

"If I went out and put $300 into bitcoin that day, it would now be worth around $1.15M today even after the recent decline."

Assuming you did NOT "forget" your log in info or, have your account hacked.

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testcase
"If I went out and put $300 into bitcoin that day, it would now be worth around $1.15M today even after the recent decline."

Assuming you did NOT "forget" your log in info or, have your account hacked.

At the time, you would probably have had to put it into a wallet.

...And hope that you documented the passphrase properly (unless you were in on the beta and didn't need to encrypt your wallet). And that you have the right support files/apps to open it and possibly to convert it to the appropriate type of XML file. And that you can then import it into a modern wallet app. And that you can then successfully transfer it to an exchange to cash it in.

[www.msn.com]

[fabian-kostadinov.github.io]

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Sarcany

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testcase
"If I went out and put $300 into bitcoin that day, it would now be worth around $1.15M today even after the recent decline."

Assuming you did NOT "forget" your log in info or, have your account hacked.

At the time, you would probably have had to put it into a wallet.

...And hope that you documented the passphrase properly (unless you were in on the beta and didn't need to encrypt your wallet). And that you have the right support files/apps to open it and possibly to convert it to the appropriate type of XML file. And that you can then import it into a modern wallet app. And that you can then successfully transfer it to an exchange to cash it in.

[www.msn.com]

[fabian-kostadinov.github.io]

Too funny...

I poo-poo. Every eye-popping speculative boom in history has collapsed. It's not if, it's when. Sure, there are those who timed it right and made a family fortune. Then there are the other 99% who got in or out too late. Is it time to sell? No one knows. A US Treasury has the backing of the biggest economy in history. An Apple stock is backed by one of the most successful companies on the planet, and even its stock vulnerable to the whims of the market. Who backs bitcoin or any crypto? It's entirely built on a blackbox mechanism. What happens to bitcoin if the security is compromised? This sucker is primed to ruin us all whether we are in it or not.

geesh, what a bunch of doubters.
when has something like BitCoin ever gone bad?
I'm sure we'd all been compensated if it fails, by Bill Gates on one of his well known give-aways.

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proofraed by OwEn the c@t.



Nobody remembers their first download, but everyone remembers their 1st LP.

I don’t care about the investment aspect but the premise that it is also “currency” is not merely incorrect, it’s misleading.

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deckeda
I don’t care about the investment aspect but the premise that it is also “currency” is not merely incorrect, it’s misleading.

Considering that you will owe capital gains taxes as soon as you cash it in, yeah. It’s really really stupid to treat it as currency.

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Sarcany

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deckeda
I don’t care about the investment aspect but the premise that it is also “currency” is not merely incorrect, it’s misleading.

Considering that you will owe capital gains taxes as soon as you cash it in, yeah. It’s really really stupid to treat it as currency.

You would owe capital gains taxes if you traded in currency and made a profit, so not really a good example of bitcoin not being currency.

The reality is that bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies do meet the definition for currency. What they aren't is "legal currency". Legal currency is issued by a government or an organization authorized by a government such as the FED.

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JoeH

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Sarcany

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deckeda
I don’t care about the investment aspect but the premise that it is also “currency” is not merely incorrect, it’s misleading.

Considering that you will owe capital gains taxes as soon as you cash it in, yeah. It’s really really stupid to treat it as currency.

You would owe capital gains taxes if you traded in currency and made a profit, so not really a good example of bitcoin not being currency.

It's a capital gain as a non-tangible property-transaction. Same as if you purchased a stock that appreciated in value before you sold it.

For the sake of convenience, it's called a "convertible currency" since it can be converted to real currency, but it's a barter-product. It's not at all like real currency because it's not backed by a bank or central authority.

...Even "mining" is a taxable event. It's taxable as gross income.

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Bitcoin does not meet the definition of money, most especially item number 5.

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In order to be most useful as money, a currency should be: 1) fungible, 2) durable, 3) portable, 4) recognizable, and 5) stable. These properties ensure that the benefit of reducing or eliminating the transaction cost of the double coincidence of wants is not outweighed by other types of transaction costs associated with that specific good.

[www.investopedia.com]

The origin of bitcoin was to be a global currency outside national control. This is sort of an oxymoron.

There are some clearly still undefined aspects of bitcoin that means some founders are billionaires if they were to cash in.

Sorry, I still think it's very odd, and full of risks. But it's more useful as an asset.

If you want to play in this arena, go for it. Just do not be fooled that this is as solid an asset as a publicly traded stock for most companies.

Having said all this, my brother thinks there’s a good chance Bitcoin will grow to $100-$200K by the end of the year, so he’s leaving all his shares (via GBTC) alone until then.