Crypto Baby! Nothing but losses for me! Im down $148.

instagram and this iGen is hell bent on proving how easy it isnto make quick money and end up eith a “seven figure net worth” without working for it…they literally think all of them can do this by listening to MEME stock traders and social media influencers who white a lot about personal finance but they themselves have sketchy finances.

If i hear the following buzzwords from someone im going to go postal

“side hustle”
“5 figure to 6 figure”
“7 figure net worth”
$5000 in one week

[quote=The-Shoveler]LOL the whole idea that a number generated by a computer algorithm and based on no other use or value other than its uniqueness (in which there could be literally millions more computer algorithm based coins with different names started every day) could be worth thousands of dollars is just completely insane to me.[/quote]

Agreed, it boggles my mind also.

On top of that – why does anybody think that governments are going to let untraceable money stand? It’s enabling the ransomware craze and you can bet it will enable worse things than that…governments will be left with no choice other than to take action.

This is so true, I have a friend who was constantly texting me about bitcoin for years. So I finally bought in last fall. Fortunately, the timing was good and the 0.27 bitcoin I bought basically doubled in about a month.

I sold half and kept half.

Yes, traded in and out some but have given up about 7K in paper gains.

My intuition told me to sell the week before Musk started his pot stirring.

Holding for now. It’s not even 0.25% of net worth so in some ways like a partial lottery ticket.

Wow. This thread is so one sided.

So let me provide some counter arguments.

1. “the whole idea that a number generated by a computer algorithm and based on no other use or value other than its uniqueness”

The value of cryptocurrency is not based on its uniqueness, but the fact it is a programmable system to communicate ownership and transaction. Correspondingly, There are more than 8,000 monthly active developers working on various cryptocurrency projects, with some 80% of those developers starting in the last two years. These engineers create value by solving problems (payment is a much big problem in developing countries).

2. “Why does anybody think that governments are going to let untraceable money stand?…governments will be left with no choice other than to take action.”

Why does anybody think that governments are going to let free speech to be mediated by a few large company like Facebook? Again, if you take a US centric view, maybe there is more to lose than what the government could gain. But Chinese government is already minting cash digitally, in a re-imagination of money that could shake a pillar of American power.

3.”These exchanges are regularly hacked or just giant frauds.”

These are early days in crypto. Just like when web started, there are lots of “websites” that are hacked or just giant frauds. But it doesn’t mean there isn’t going to be real business like Amazon emerging from these. The current bitcoin adoption rate has promised that the largest digital coin will hit the one billion user mark nearly two times faster than the internet did.

Regulations will come and so will the use cases.

4. “I like the chances of my COIN puts.”

Nobody is investing in Coinbase based on its PE ratio. Even Coinbase itself is not aiming to make money: it aims to make money during crypto bull market and lose money during crypto bear market…so that it could spent money to built up the payment infrastructure for the future, similar to the way Amazon uses investor money to built up the distribution centers.

—–

That all, said, I have no doubt that crypto is in bubble territorial, but bubble is maybe what we need for every technology revolution. In fact, you look at history, every major technology change comes with a financial bubble. Industry revolution -> South Sea Bubble; Railroad -> Railway Mania; Age of Oil/Automobile -> The roaring 20s; Internet -> Dotcom bubble. It is the bubble that provides the financial capital to lay out the infrastructure to allow the next generation of entrepreneurs to take advantage of it.

I do not personally own crypto…other than the free credit from my coinbase account. But I think it is wrong to completely discredit crypto…and there might be good investment opportunities after all the dust has settled.

[quote=carlsbadworker]
2. “Why does anybody think that governments are going to let untraceable money stand?…governments will be left with no choice other than to take action.”

Why does anybody think that governments are going to let free speech to be mediated by a few large company like Facebook? Again, if you take a US centric view, maybe there is more to lose than what the government could gain. But Chinese government is already minting cash digitally, in a re-imagination of money that could shake a pillar of American power.
[/quote]

Don’t follow your analogy but that’s OK.

News articles are starting to appear showing the US government can indeed trace crypto to a large degree. So it’s not untraceable. I still think it will be regulated somehow but it may take a major crisis of some sort to make that happen.

[quote=carlsbadworker]
That all, said, I have no doubt that crypto is in bubble territorial, but bubble is maybe what we need for every technology revolution. In fact, you look at history, every major technology change comes with a financial bubble. Industry revolution -> South Sea Bubble; Railroad -> Railway Mania; Age of Oil/Automobile -> The roaring 20s; Internet -> Dotcom bubble. It is the bubble that provides the financial capital to lay out the infrastructure to allow the next generation of entrepreneurs to take advantage of it.

I do not personally own crypto…other than the free credit from my coinbase account. But I think it is wrong to completely discredit crypto…and there might be good investment opportunities after all the dust has settled.[/quote]

I do agree with you on the bubble aspect. It’s now worth half what it was when you wrote the above.

And we haven’t even reached a point where unemployment is high. I would imagine it will go much lower when that happens.