Cryptocurrency

[Octavious]

Anyone else here speculating on cryptocurrency?

Define speculating? Are you just betting/wagering or buying for investment.

If trading for investment, do you have a strategy? Are you investing small portions of your available wealth in each trade or going 'all-in' and have your entire fortune on the line?

There is nothing wrong with betting on the direction of currencies, but many people are betting when they think they are investing. They should know what they are doing, and if the evidence of my social media friends is anything to go by, people know very little about what they are doing.

Out of curiosity, how do you differentiate between a bet and an investment?

[Maniac]

Anyone else here speculating on cryptocurrency?

Define speculating? Are you just betting/wagering or buying for investment.

If trading for investment, do you have a strategy? Are you investing small portions of your available wealth in each trade or going 'all-in' and have your entire fortune on the line?

There is nothing wrong with betting on the direction of currencies, but many people are betting when they think they are investing. They should know what they are doing, and if the evidence of my social media friends is anything to go by, people know very little about what they are doing.

Out of curiosity, how do you differentiate between a bet and an investment?

That's a great question as all investments involve risk and you can lose as well as make profit. I'd say bets tend to have an inbuilt negative edge so that when you place a bet on say blackjack, usually you will lose over time if you placed the same bet multiple times. An investment is when you expect to make a profit over the long term, so if you could count cards in a shoe-dealt blackjack game. There are times when the two merge, good poker players for example can have a +ve expectation in some games and not in others and they may never actually know which games and players they have an edge over.

[goldfinger0303]

I'm not one for speculation. Especially in asset classes as useless as cryptocurrencies. Calling them a currency is a misnomer, as they don't have any of the functions of currency. They are not stores of value. They are not mediums of exchange. They're only barely units of account. It is a bubble the likes of which we haven't seen. My friends in finance are heavily invested in it - not because they believe it to be useful, but because it has returns. It's just an asset class with no use or intrinsic value that's going up because people think it will keep going up.

I hardly doubt that crypto will be a cheaper way to exchange funds in the long term anyways. The underlying block chain technology may help, but that's not unique to crypto. The major exchanges are already working to adopt the technology. Once they do, the main benefit of crypto will be moot.

[Stressedlines]

a bubble the likes of which we have never seen?

Honestly, the housing bubble would be a tough one to beat Not to mention, I think we are going to see ANOTHER one of them burst soon

[Randomizer]

Bubbles occur all the time because there are always enough idiots that think this time it will be different. From historic ones like Dutch tulips and South Sea investment companies to the more recent bank loans to third world countries, Internet start up companies, and the housing and mortgage bubble.

The major difference is now the federal government will bail out companies for some bubbles to keep the largest from failing.

[goldfinger0303]

Stressed - if you plot the percentage growth of the asset over time, crypto currencies are currently in the range of tulip mania - the largest bubble in history.

So yeah, I'm staying away.

[goldfinger0303]

Though I did just read a $100 investment in Ripple would've returned $35k last year....

Eh, maybe I can throw $100 in

[peterlund]

Much smarter to invent an own crypto chain. There is no limit to how many crypto chains you can invent I have heard. The banks are doing it too. The trick is only that you need to fool the others into your private pyramid game and then you strike gold because you have an initial large number of the coins yourself in you chain. It is only the losers that join a pyramid game at this late stage. Invent one you is my advice!

[RagingIke297]

@Peter, if you made a cryptocurrency I'd throw some money at it

[Stressedlines]

Let me put this into even a better perspective REQ is a new coin in relative terms.

I know the guys in my Crypto group have been singing that coins praise since it came out.

I know for sure 1 guy bought 150K of these coins at .01

That is sitting at 1.20 last night at one point, think it dropped back down to 1.05 or something, but he said teh Tech behind the coin is amazing, and that is what a lot of these guys are looking at.

Im not a tech type person, but I know how to ride the wave with this.

[Maniac]

a bubble the likes of which we have never seen?

Honestly, the housing bubble would be a tough one to beat Not to mention, I think we are going to see ANOTHER one of them burst soon

Fortunately throughout the gains and losses in the housing market, houses were still able to perform their primary purpose of keeping people warm, dry and secure.

[Maniac]

Much smarter to invent an own crypto chain. There is no limit to how many crypto chains you can invent I have heard. The banks are doing it too. The trick is only that you need to fool the others into your private pyramid game and then you strike gold because you have an initial large number of the coins yourself in you chain. It is only the losers that join a pyramid game at this late stage. Invent one you is my advice!

We could build on webdip points. Let's start calling them a crypto-currency and make some money.

[Octavious]

That's a great question as all investments involve risk and you can lose as well as make profit. I'd say bets tend to have an inbuilt negative edge so that when you place a bet on say blackjack, usually you will lose over time if you placed the same bet multiple times. An investment is when you expect to make a profit over the long term, so if you could count cards in a shoe-dealt blackjack game. There are times when the two merge, good poker players for example can have a +ve expectation in some games and not in others and they may never actually know which games and players they have an edge over.

I think they merge more often than not. Take life insurance, or indeed any insurance. That takes the form of a bet that shit will happen to you, and it's a bet you hope to lose. It would fit into your definition of an investment only in you expand the spectrum of returns to include not only financial but also vague notions like piece of mind. Yet if we allow ourselves to do so we should also consider similar returns such as excitement and satisfaction when considering betting on horses and the like. A traditional bet can therefore be viewed legitimately as an investment in quality of life that on average has a small negative financial impact.

Or, I reckon there's no difference between them. You get good ones and bad ones, and we have a tendency to call the ones that work investments because it makes us sound like we know what we're doing.

[kestasjk]

I think it's a nifty way to send/receive money, and the underlying blockchain datastructure is also interesting, but I'll eat my hat if it becomes a truly stable way to store wealth.

The reason: transaction fees and delays. It takes too long, and too much energy and money, to validate a bitcoin transfer. This means it simply cannot be used day to day; you need 20 minutes or so, and 20 dollars or so, to make a transfer, and 99% of people are happy trusting their bank as an intermediary in exchange for minimal fees and quick transactions.

[Kremmen]

Anything which can be described with making "500% profit in just 2 months" is not a currency in any practical way.
"Ponzi scheme" is the phrase you are looking for.

[CAPT Brad]

cryprocurrency; fools and their money are soon parted

[Smokey Gem]

The gentleman who created Bit coin has sold most of his I heard .When the creator sells its might be time to bail,
having said that well done to folks who managed to create genuine wealth from this " bubble"

But remember someone somewhere lost or will.

[Octavious]

Interesting definition of wealth creation...

[CAPT Brad]

At least with the housing bubble an asset remained. You can live in a house, but not in a bit coin

[Stressedlines]

there are people wh lost money, but as long as you understand what you are doing in there, then you will be fine.

I long ago removed my initial investment plus 100% more Im literally playing with house money at this point, and the bubble may have indeed burst, but just follow the rule "never invest more than you can afford to lose" and remove your own money as soon as you can, and all will be fine