Bitcoin

[Andy_W]

I suppose no matter what you put your money in you could lose everything. In my personal experience, I've made little gains in crypto but I'm in for the long haul, you can't lose anything if you don't sell even if your assets are down.

Most people in crypto and stocks and shares will secretly love the markets being down if they believe in sometime cos it means they can accumulate more, I've personally enjoyed the markets being down as when they do eventually go back I've added quite a bit to my portfolio.

A lot of the time people in crypto don't talk about it anyway when it's up or down, when it's up new people are interested which sparks a conversation as this thread has done and when it's down new people aren't interested so no new conversations are being had.

I'd never force anyone to put their money into anything, people could put their life savings into sponges for all I care, I'm comfortable in what I'm doing and that's all that matters I guess.

Not really, you're not going to lose everything investing in the S&P 500, putting less than 85k in a pension, or investing in your own property which you live in (not including BTL's). Maybe an earth-ending asteroid could do this, or nuclear war, but if they happen everything is screwed anyway, so any alternatives would be screwed (bitcoin would probably be the first to go, as everyone scrambles for something more liquid).

The worst that could realistically happen is you drop 50% on S&P 500, but this only happens if you smash everything in on a high, which you should never do anyway, and then also sell that. Nobody should just start, and lump everything in all at once, not unless they were sure they were doing it after a crash, which is not going to get much lower. Of course individual stocks can go to zero, some more likely than others, but these should be diversified anyway.

You can lose everything if Bitcoin (or crypto) goes to zero, so there's never a sell option. You're also much more likely to lose something which is not backed by the FCA. Any time the market is down from your averaged position, you're down.
Bitcoins dropped 70% from two previous highs etc, it's still where it was two years ago, like the S&P500, but in that two years the S&P 500 has been much safer. Sure bitcoin has been higher in that time, but it's also way lower now than the high points, that's volatility, and volatility often kills the nieve, but pro's thrive on it.

Professional day traders like markets being down (or some sectors at least), but this is because they like the volatility, no amateur investors should like the markets being down. But if the amateur's chip in each month it will bring their average price down. So providing they're chipping in at the lows, it will offset where they've chipped in on the highs.

The problem with bitcoin is the interest in the threads only comes when there's been an increase, it's never prior when it's in a hole, before it goes up. If everyone reacts to bitcoin threads (which new guys naturally will), they're always buying on recent highs, which is the danger.

Yeah, I'd never tell anyone what to do, but everyone should be told where risk is, risk of getting out alive, or risk of going to zero etc, under various circumstances.

 

[MFC_1990]

You do your thing I'll do mine

Like I've said numerous times people should do their own research, I've done mine and I've decided to invest in crypto. I know the risks and I know the potential of it also. I've bought at what I think is good times and I think I will be ok in the next few years.

Not everyone just wants to save their wages in the bank for crap interest rates.

You're clearly not a crypto lover and that's fine but you won't change my decision on what I do. Someone has asked for some information on the subject and I've given it, it's their choice what they wanna do with that

 

[BigAl76]

I've got an Exodus wallet for buying crypto. It's very easy to do.

I set up media accounts for people as a side hussle. When I'm paid by the client, I take out the accounts using bitcoin payments and usually make a fivers worth of bitcoin after fees. I just let this build up over time. Seen some decent profits recently. Nothing that I'm going to retire on but it should fund a holiday at some point in the future.

I see it as a fun hobby. If I lose it all I've not really lost anything. (is that an oxymoron!?)

If you employ the simple rule of not investing any amount of money that you can't afford to lose then you cant really go far wrong. If you're investing (in anything) to dig yourself out of a hole - you're already in too deep. Just be sensible about it.

 

[swordtrombonefish]

I don't think long-term confidence in the S&P 500 (or all world) is in the toilet, short term maybe. I just think 2021 was purely an artificial bump, and 2022 a correction, just like what Bitcoin had. 2023 just seems to be a consolidation for S&P/ All world etc, the market is still wary etc.

I do agree with this - my perspective was the now not the long term as that will change.

The crypo exchanges scare me also, like FTX going broke, which wasn't protected by the FCA.

That's why I mentioned cold wallets, you basically put the crypto directly on the blockchain with your own private keys.

The blockchain technology is the key, crypto is just one utility of it, using the blockchain for almost every application where change occurs is its strength. If you believe the hype, everything will be tokenised and live on blockchains - which are just ledgers (not the same ones) for example Banks may be on XRPL, Industry / Retail on Stellar, Charities on Algorand, then you have a central interoperability ledger (Quant for instance) to allow them to communicate over a common platform.

Much of this is happening now, it'll likely explode in the next 2-3 years.

 

[Andy_W]

I do agree with this - my perspective was the now not the long term as that will change.


That's why I mentioned cold wallets, you basically put the crypto directly on the blockchain with your own private keys.

The blockchain technology is the key, crypto is just one utility of it, using the blockchain for almost every application where change occurs is its strength. If you believe the hype, everything will be tokenised and live on blockchains - which are just ledgers (not the same ones) for example Banks may be on XRPL, Industry / Retail on Stellar, Charities on Algorand, then you have a central interoperability ledger (Quant for instance) to allow them to communicate over a common platform.

Much of this is happening now, it'll likely explode in the next 2-3 years.

Hard to say S&P is in the toilet short term too, without thinking that wouldn't be the same with Bitcoin/ Crypto etc. They both come a bit hand in hand, and if things go bad fir the S&P 500, then Crypto will not and should not be seen as a "safe haven". Some might think it's safe, but those with the most of it won't and they'll sell, and drag the price down.

Sure, you can use cold wallets, but that doesn't mean the unregulated exchanges can't wreck the price etc, and it weakens peoples trust. You have to remember, that anyone who could be interested in bitcoin has heard of it now, it's a not a new kid on the block, some have tried and made money, others have tried and lost money. When things are no longer new, and have no "good news", it's hard to motivate people to buy into them, and hype the price up, which is what you need. I think people are going to be really wary of buying at 30k, never mind 40k, 50k, 60k, 70k etc.

I'm no expert on Blockchain, far from it, but it does appear to be good in some ways, no doubt about that, but I don't see why this only needs to be related to crypto or bitcoin etc, like you say. The thing with this is blockchain being used more doesn't mean that it will always be good for Crypto, bitcoin or whatever, it could even kill it if a regulated competitor to them materialises. People trust blockchain, sure, but it doesn't mean they trust crypto.

One of the main problems I can see with blockchain, is that it is extremely high energy use, at a time when the world is really focusing on cutting that back. The vast majority of that energy is completely wasted, and what incentivises the miners to do the work when there are no more rewards, or the rewards are less than the energy cost?

How will it be affected by AI too, will that make other options more viable, and efficient, and blockchain/ crypto/ bitcoin less viable, will that create a new competitor to kill all the existing crypto off? Or do they go hand in hand? Obviously, AI is growing at an incredible rate now, and that to me, and what could be helped by that look like where the future is at.

It just all seems risky to me, a hell of a lot of variables and unknowns there, seems like it's playing with fire for those who aren't massively experienced in markets and what impacts what, where and when. Crypto looks like level 10 on the difficulty scale, which is going to be dangerous for people with level 1 knowledge. Sure, some may get lucky and make a fortune, but it doesn't necessarily make the decision correct, in the same way that a correct decision could end up in a loss, if some other factor impacts the result, which wasn't known at the time.

 

[Rofesleg]

I've been using BABB (BAX coin) as a hot wallet to get funds into the realm then transferring to wherever if buying then back out immediately to a cold storage wallet (Ledger) though you can use BABB to buy some Crypto directly.

Is all that part of the Tolkien universe?

 

[Druss_The_Legend]

A quick question for some of the experienced Crypto guys on the thread.
I got £9 worth free and put £20 into coinbase so I'm not a huge investor and only recently started it as a bit of fun instead of scratch cards and lottery.
Let's say one of my crypto doubled in price and I wanted to pull some of the funds out of it to reinvest, would it be worth trading them into a stablecoin to roughly hold the value until I found other crypos I wanted to invest in and rather than cashing out then putting it back in when markets where favourable ?

 

[lostinyorkshire]

buy cake stake cake get 42%