I still think Bitcoin is mostly useless, and its current value is 100% based on speculation and the greater fool theory.
After 10 years looking at it go in every direction, but mostly up, I did the irresponsible a few days ago by dipping a few toes in the sea of crypto bullshit and bought a little bit BTC and ETH.
I am ready to lose it all, it is obviously a total bet on the amount of fools still out there… As it is often said: everyday a new sucker is born.
I am surprised it has to be said but please do not drag your friends into super risky bets that takes an entry and an exit point. It is one thing to risk your own money, but why are you willing to risk your friendships as well? The amount of zealotry and shilling around crypto defies logic…
A shiny metal with relatively few industrial applications. Most of it is hoarded as an investment, as store of value or speculation. Many pay insane amounts for tiny ornamental pieces of it - though I’m sure there’s other, much cheaper metals that are just as shiny to show off. Some people even eat it - though it doesn’t have discernible taste or nutritional value.
Given all that, the metal has been remarkably persistent and popular over many centuries though.
I knew this part will trigger a reaction thanks for taking the time to provide good arguments in your answer, they are all valid.
My point is that bitcoin is not only an asset but also a technology, and the price of the btc is a good proxy of its adoption (and vice versa). Because the adoption is accelerating, I sometimes feel we are back in 90’s with internet, and because of that, I feel it is “irresponsible” (big word in purpose) to not try it at least. And if you can make money along the way, it is even better!
Even if you only have <100.- to invest, it is a good way to get exposure to this technology, to see what is an exchange, a wallet, an address and other simple stuff. No need to go down the rabbit hole, just get a little bit of exposure.
not your keys, not your coins… My best way: 50% of holdings on ledgner nano x, 30% on Swissquote, 5% Kraken, 5% Binance and 7% on blockfi for some interest earnings and rest on other exchanges (Coinbase, Bittrex, Bitfinex… mostly leftovers from the last run in 2017/18). Why not only on one exchange? Well, if it get hacked or busted in some way, you don’t lose everything. (btw. Swissquote takes no responsibility over the holdings of the cryptos… haven’t read the terms exactly, but I think they forward the responsibility to Bitstamp, their executing partner and yourself).
Thanks for your inputs. I understand cryptocurrencies as a technology, and they seem to have a good potential for wide adoption on later stages. By that metric, my non-specialised understanding is that BTC is a floppy disc where other cryptos (Ethereum on point but I’m sure others are technologically more efficient but not as widely known) would be SSD. Why invest in the floppy disc except because other people consider that floppy discs are valuable and store them in their garage?
It’s also not clear to me as of now how the blockchain technology will be monetized in the future. We can see the blockchain as some kind of internet but how did people who invest in “internet” made money? I’d invest in the companies that use the technology to provide products that meet a demand, I’d not invest in the infrastructure itself.
That being said, I think that even though Bitcoin had few chances to be widely adopted, central banks are screwing things up so bad right now that it gives it legitimacy. Without the loose monetary policies that don’t seem to be able to find a hold since 2008, there wouldn’t be a use for a decentralized store of value in working democracies (though I can see the use case for people living in autocracies). Central banks have found a way to create one out of thin air because we’ve become too soft to handle a manageable crisis anymore and prefer to push it forward with no end.
So, given the hype, I’m actually considering a momentum based tactic on Bitcoin to try and channel some of the money people are mindlessly putting in it (not speaking of true adepts of the technology but of the FOMO crowd). I’m not jumping on this train, though, I’m pretty sure we’ll have some crash at some point and that it’ll be a better time to enter then. If it never happens, that’ll just be a train I’ve missed and I’ll get in painlessly if/when it gets into our everyday life. Plenty of fish in the sea, no need to hunt the inflated whale.
I’d use gold in a “day after tomorrow” scenario. It doesn’t tarnish, is decently easy to melt and shape and an okish conductor. I’d carry copper too but gold isn’t that useless. I’d carry it over iron (and so would also trade for it).
Edit: though I do agree with your point that its actual price doesn’t come mainly from these properties and that many people buy it because they think they’ll be able to sell it to someone else later on (so for no intrisic properties of the metal itself).
Edit 2: though it should probably also be noted that it not tarnishing and being maleable probably played a part in its use as jewelry and early currencies.
Edit 3: and, so, just for fun, I’d rank it higher than the floppy disc. It’d be like a fancy external hard drive: antique, cumbersome but kind of still useful (plus it contains those old family pics that give it sentimental legacy value even though you could take them out and store them by whatever other mean you’d want to).
I personally have no use for gold, but it is a commodity that has several legitimate uses. The metal has several interesting properties that make is desirable. Some industries have to use strictly inferior alternatives just because the price of gold is too high. That fact plus the limited supply support the price of gold in the real world. I would not invest in gold as it is not productive thought. You shouldn’t expect to beat inflation with it.
I personally invest some money on ABBA two last monday with Swissquote I feel more confortable with an ETP than with the currency himself. However, it represent less than 3% of my asset It’s more like a bet for 2021.
Yes it has a few use but Bitcoin is not really a commodity in the classical sense of a raw material you can do stuff with. If you take the larger definition of “something of value”, oki, but then many of the thing around us is… Like a stock, a movie ticket, or some cow dung.
Times change. I still know a lot of people who say that it will blow up or that it is a ponzi scheme.
I wonder how high bitcoin has to go or how many bitcoins millionaires they need to be in order to change everyone’s mind
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thanks for taking the time to provide good arguments in your answer, they are all valid.
I feel more confortable with an ETP than with the currency himself. However, it represent less than 3% of my asset 
It’s more like a bet for 2021.
