Is anybody here investing in Bitcoin and how?
Through Schwab, it looks like the best way would be through an ETF called Bitcoin Investment Trust (GBTC) which is up 600% in the past year.
I think Bitcoin is here to stay but I suspect that valuations are in a bubble at the moment and regulatory threats are a risk.
What does everbody here think?
Dave
There was discussion on this thread.
http://discussion.fool.com/nvda-blockchain-bitcoin-ethereum-3282…
There was discussion on this thread.
http://discussion.fool.com/nvda-blockchain-bitcoin-ethereum-3282……
Thanks! I still have no idea whether it makes sense as an investment at current valuations though, lol. I guess I should stay away unless I feel like gambling.
Dave
I think Bitcoin is here to stay
Blockchain may be here to stay … unless someone finds a hole … but Bitcoin itself really has no intrinsic value. It has only skyrocketed in price because of a fad. There is no reason for this to not go away tomorrow … possibly very quickly.
No intrinsic value? What is the intrinsic value of the dollar in your pocket?
Sending $10,000 from the U.S. to let’s say China will cost you a lot in fees. Sending $10,000 in an encrypted block (in this case, Bitcoin) will cost you a fraction of those fees.
What is the intrinsic value of the dollar in your pocket?
Point being that the dollar in your pocket stays worth a dollar and the bitcoin goes from a dollar to $1000 with nothing but market forces causing the change. There is nothing to keep it from going back to a dollar tomorrow if it simply goes out of fashion or there is some issue found with it.
A friend of mine knows someone that works for a German company making half $1 million a year creating code for ethereum.
And that he puts all his savings into it.
Some people say that this is going to be a major currency for the entire world financial system and it solves problems bitcoin doesn’t.
It doesn’t really make sense to me because why wouldn’t the centralized government to create their own crypto currency and never recognize bitcoin or ethereum.
That being said I don’t want to completely miss out on this so I did buy a position in less than 1% of my portfolio in eth.
A good website if you want to buy bit coin or Ethereum is coinbase.
It’s easy to open an account and fund it through credit card or bank account.
Is anybody here investing in Bitcoin and how?
I highly recommend you listen to the Blockchain audio documentaries Patrick O’Shaughnessy has recently produced especially Episode 2 - Investing in Cryptocurrencies
Bitcoin investment is an oxymoron. It’s similar to (but probably more risky than) “investing” in gold.
What I mean is there is no productive capacity in Bitcoin or gold. The value is at the whim of the market. Gold, at least, is a centuries old, well established safe haven. Should everything go to hell and you actually hold gold be it coin or bullion you have something that will most likely be accepted as a medium of exchange. Bitcoin? I just don’t know, but I wouldn’t put any of my money in it. Same for Etherium, which, from what little of read seems like it might have a better long term chance of existing.
However, IMO blockchain is here to stay. It’s a very cool technology with thousands of applications beyond cryptocurrencies. Blockchain could easily upend the entire Title Insurance business.
If you want to get into cryptocurrencies, that’s your choice. Just don’t kid yourself into thinking you’re making an investment. It’s speculative, just like buying and selling currencies of states.
I think Bitcoin started with a purpose and it turned out to be a get rich quick scam. My understanding of the purpose was to have a currancy that could be used similar to cash (not tracable) but for internet and purchases/donations made outside a physical geography that made cash not practical. Also to keep personal business outside the eyes of govts and hackers.
That seemed reasonable to me but I had my doubts that it would be allowed because of the potential loss in govt tax revenue.
It looked like a reasonable investment though I did not get in on the ground floor. Then coinbase after a few small cash imports said to continue to buy/sell etc, I needed to submit information and a photograph of my ID (passport - drivers license) and then at a future time I may need to submit a live picture so they could compare it to my photo id plus I need to do all this with chrome or a specifuc software. Essentially my ipad/iphone camera was not good enough and I would need to download software. Plus I had been hearing from friends there are sometimes delays with buy/sell processing that ususally cost the cistomer profit. I also asked my friends do did you put up with this live picture BS or was that just something they said without doing. My friends said oh yes several times they have had to submit pictures.
So I promptly empties my coinbase account into bittrex for holding tbd
Continued.
Gemini ended up requiring my ss#, a picture of my valid id, and an electronic draft from my verified bank account but No software downloads yet or live pics. Also according to my friends gemini is much better about buy/sell with no holds.
So what does bitcoin give me over using paypal as an actual consumer? Paypal protects my accounts from fraud (ie not having to give credit card info out) and it costs me nothing to send $ to friends or family. It also doesnt require me to send them live pictures to compare with a valid picture id so some “bonded” whoever can make sure it was me. I still can’t believe my friends did that though one said they gave them a bag lady type picture that looked like ID but not much how they look in real life. Thus IMHO bitcoin as a $ usage at least to those in the US has limited and frustrating capacity. Plus it is less anon than using your credit card. So where does that leave the 100s of flavors of cryptocurrancy? In my mind it leaves them to be post rarity baseball cards, beanie babies, and tulips during medieval holland - promoted get rich collectables with little to no real purpose.
I still have my cryptocurrancy that I bought before the weirdness started at coinbase with my account and I may buy more as my friends are all OMG about this but not any great lot as I think the timing is going to be tricky in terms of getting the money out when it all goes to heck. Plus I missed the really early start of it all.
I dont like scams or quasi scams and I hate investing when you know it is all going to blow up and you dont want to be the one holding the bag at the end.
http://www.etf.com/sections/blog/be-wary-skyrocketing-bitcoi…
I just checked, and GBTC is currently trading above its net asset value. So some would call it a bubble on top of a bubble.
Next, someone will make an ETF that trades in other Bitcoin ETF’s.
As for me, I’m going to buy tulips. Compared to their 400 year high, they’re dirt cheap these days, and some day, one might buy me a Tesla, or a share of Tesla.
As for me, I’m going to buy tulips. Compared to their 400 year high, they’re dirt cheap these days, and some day, one might buy me a Tesla, or a share of Tesla.
It wasn’t tulips but tulip bulbs they traded. There is the story of a sailor confusing a tulip bulb for an onion and eating a very expensive meal…
The story is about an acrobatic young sailor, a strapping fellow from out of town who is arrested because he mistakes a precious tulip bulb for an onion and eats it for lunch, along with his herring. You see, there’s this tulip craze in Holland and people are speculating on them for ridiculous amounts of money. The sailor is brought before the Duke, who is losing his grip because he is worried about his sick daughter. A villainous merchant known as the tulip notary is really in charge and advises the Duke to send the sailor to prison.
http://atticusbooksonline.com/books/2012-releases/kino/read-…
Sailors do get into the most incredible situations!
The Captain
With GBTC you pay a premium to the net asset value. If you want to buy Bitcoin you are better off buying it through Coinbase which is insured. For extra security you can transfer it to a hard wallet like Trezor or Ledger. Take a look at the last 8 year price history and ask yourself if the risk is acceptable to the reward. I think retail investors like yourself are just getting started in cryptocurrency investing. I do not believe this is a bubble and I feel that it will continue to increase in price for many years to come. There are many risks however. Government intervention, quantum computers, manipulation with new futures markets, hard fork disagreements, etc may all wildly swing the price. This comes with the territory of Bitcoin investing, which by any standard has been the best investment of any asset class over the last 8 years.
My “investment”in eth is purely speculative
I also like Tamhas and warren Buffett don’t understand how it has intrinsic value