Bitcoin

When did you become aware of bitcoin? Did you invest into it?

I became aware of bitcoin back in 2014, the first time its price hit $1,000. I felt horrible about missing such an amazing opportunity, and then got myself to forget about it. Now I am kicking myself for not watching it and buying it when its price fell below $500. It is very difficult to forgive myself for not investing $10,000 into it. If I were to lose that amount, it would not have changed my life. If bitcoin were to take off (as it did), that $10,000 investment could have changed my life...

 

I became aware in 2016. Too late sadly. It's still a good investment.

 

Can you imagine, back in 2010 it was selling for $0.25. This means that by 2017, each $12 investment would turn into $1 million...

I wish my area were to be cryptography. I would have been aware of bitcoin sooner...

 

This is fascinating.

 

Now that I think of it, buying it before the U.S. election made so much sense. No matter what the outcome of the election, I would expect bitcoin to appreciate. And at that time it was still trading at a reasonable price of around $600...

 

Probably somewhere in 2012 when they were around 50 USD. It's a bubble anyway, so I don't mind that I didn't invest. In fact, I hold a lot of stocks and they are doing great.

Expect all these cryptocoins to go to zero except for maybe one or two for which there might actually be a genuine reason to exist.

By the way the fact that there's a thread on here about BTC confirms the bubble, lol.

 

I'm not sure how useful it is to dwell on this: hindsight is always 20/20. We already know that if you could predict the future, you'd be rich from your investments. Heck, you'd probably buy the right lottery ticket and forget about crypto altogether.

Nobody knows that.
And "Too late" is contradictory with "It's still a good investment". If it was still a good investment, it wouldn't be too late.

You're simply a victim of Hindsight Bias.

"You know it's time to sell when shoeshine boys give you stock tips."

 

Of course NOW it is certainly too late to buy it. In fact, at this point its price rise is working against it. If people are hesitant to spend it, it defeats the purpose of bitcoin.

People used to say that now it is too late to use your pc to mine bitcoin. However, at its current price, perhaps even scraps could make it worthwhile.

Where did you hear about it?

 

Economy section of a Belgian forum.
I have always been interested in investing.

Indeed, 99.9% of people hold BTC because they hope it will go higher, not because they want to use it as an actual payment method.

 

Ergh .. this is nonsense dysfunctional thinking. Anybody's life would be changed if he/she could predict the future Just think of all the stuff you missed, or would do differently ...

 

@GregCA interesting link on "hindsight bias", didn't know that it was a full-fledged theory

 

There isn't such a thing like "It's too late to invest in <something>", because there's always an opportunity in cryptocurrencies / tokens etc.

Look for example at BCH / Ripple / XEL. Both BCH and XEL have a reason to exist (BCH is fixed bitcoin without horrible fees, XEL is very promising supercomputer with their own programming language.) Ripple have support in Japan Bank Consortium.

And these are only 3 examples, and only cryptocurrencies. There's always something to invest in, you just have to be patient / smart and cold-blooded. That can make you a good HODLer

And ofc. have some free money to invest in. It have to be free money because you have to think about it as a tool, nothing more.

 

I no longer believe European or North American companies can be profitable in the long run, so stocks are not an option for me.

 

Where do you go to learn about these investment opportunities?

 

Why do you think this?

And you can invest in Asia/South America as well, 25% of my portfolio is in emerging markets.

 

I believe the West is well on its way to becoming part of what we currently refer to as the Third World. Don't ask me to explain why I believe this - some day we might have Glasnost around here, but right now we don't.

 

Basically everywhere. For cryptocurrencies you have plenty of sites to stay you informed with general knowledge what's happening right now, forums where people are discussing and speculating, cryptos that are pretending to be useful (for example first 10 most capitalized coins) have their own roadmaps and blogs where they post anything crucial. It's also good to talk with people in person that are interested in something where you want to invest and hear their opinion on the market.

Idk much about "normal" markets, but in cryptos you just have to ask yourself "Am i confident with this project and if so, would i use it (coin/token etc) myself?"

Summarize everything, and use that knowledge as you see it fit.

 

Change it how? You would still be a miserable son of a bitch hermit.

Also they suspect Bitcoin will rise to $250,000 and more in price, so NOW is a good time to invest in it. You will kick yourself a year from now if you don't invest... The current Bitcoin price will be 10x or even 100x more in the future.

 

I am at my happiest when I get to not see "морды" ("mordi" is a Russian word that roughly translates as "snouts", although I would say that морды has a much more negative connotation; yes, this is a TT post in the style of "Clockwork Orange") of others.

Yes, solitude is expensive. I worked hard throughout my 20s and 30s and I can afford it now. That money would have given certainty to me that I would be able to continue spending my time in places where I could preserve my inner peace by avoiding seeing nasty морды.

 

I became aware around 2012, and invested in 2013. I sold off my investment in 2015, and made a decent profit, but of course I wish I had kept it longer at this point. Oh, of course like everyone else I wish that I had invested or mined some coins way back when it was new as the value has gone up by like six orders of magnitude since then.

I'm investing again now, not just in bitcoin, in a few different mainstream cryptocurrencies. I'm just tossing in a small amount every month, I think this is a bit risky to bet big on. (It could continue to explode, but on the other hand, a flaw could emerge and immediately drive the value down to near-zero.) I'm not quite sure why bitcoin is holding its value so high right now, it's lost it's utility as a payment method as transfer fees are too expensive because it can't handle more than 3ish transactions per second (worldwide), and it's not clear if they'll be able to fix this problem. (It's fixable, but only if the majority of the bitcoin community can agree on how to fix it.)

My main investments are in more traditional stocks and bonds, diversified internationally.

 

Very interesting. Thank you for sharing @Aaron44126

 

How did that come about?

 

I don't remember specifically. I read a lot of tech blogs.

 

I had the exact same feeling as you Bill. I remember, specifically, looking at a price chart a few years ago and saying, "Man $400 is a lot for 1 bitcoin. I think I'll pass." and now look at it... lol

 

I became aware of it when it was under $10 a coin. I regret not mining some or buying some back then. I could have been a millionaire.

I think cryptocurrencies are in a speculative bubble at the moment. I think blockchain will have some uses in the future, but the crypto market reminds me a lot of the dot com bubble.

 

What is demanding this price other than the idea of selling it to the greater fool. And who are "they" that are predicting it will go to $250,000? Most people whose opinion is worth something (i.e. billionaires that made their fortune by investing) say it's in a bubble.

 

Do you remember how you learned about it?

I agree. And even if the price were to go up, I can't see the return being so spectacular that a $10,000 investment could end up changing one's life.

Well, governments do seem to be printing a lot of new money these days. The total number of bitcoins that will ever be mined is 21 million, making it one of a few "hard currencies". I think I will buy it if it ever hits $500 again.

 

The only way it's going to see $500.00 again is on it's way to zero. When this market starts to tank you will never ever be able to have your sell order executed and will be left holding the bag.

 

Some internet forum, I don't quite remember. I thought about mining some for shits and giggles, but I never did.

The limited number would make it a deflationary currency which could cause it's own economic problems. Not to mention Bitcoin can only handle 7 transactions per second whereas Visa can handle 47,000 transactions per second. It's too slow and too energy inefficient to replace the dollar.

I'm thinking I will throw some money at some promising alt coins if and when the market crashes.

 

Tulip futures... I just wanted to say that!