Crypto-Bro

[FlexMyHead]

Any of you guys fuck with crypto currency?

I have a friend from work that has been a total 'crypto bro' since about the time of COVID and (according to him) has made quite a lot of money on Bitcoin but also some of the smaller ones. He plunked down like 15K in April of last year into Bitcoin when it was like 7.5K and now it's at like 30K.

I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around some aspects of it (mining for example, I mean I know what a block-chain is but it seems kinda abstract) but I got a Coinbase account and was going to buy some but then found out they use this system that you have to give your actual bank log in information, like a window popped up and asked for my password, I didn't feel comfortable with that so I had to do it the old fashion way (routing number etc) and by the time it got set up there was that dip last month and so I never bought any.

Since that time I've read a shit ton more about it from random people online (and learned a lot more about transaction fees, I had no idea, I had thought about buying/selling it like a day-trading type of thing, which would have not gone well), but I was curious if any of you "real people" have fucked around with it and have some thoughts about your experiences? I was going to put like 5K in, so nothing life changing or anything. Thanks in advance.

If you don't have any advice, just post a funny photo or something. This place needs more humor!

[xxxMidgexxx]

To my mild surprise but still apathetic self, these are now a thing.

[lewdd]

I think crypto currencies are a giant ponzi scheme that is even worse than the worldwide stock market and lack of country back debt ponzi schemes.

[lewdd]

YOu may want to participate in this

https://primetime.bluejeans.com/a2m/register/chhvvdwa

[JGJR]

I think crypto currencies are a giant ponzi scheme that is even worse than the worldwide stock market and lack of country back debt ponzi schemes.

Given your background, I have to take your word for it and I kinda hope you're right because I don't understand anything about them for a second tbh and I say this as someone who is currently studying the intricacies of stocks, bonds, loans, perpetuities, annuities (due and immediate), et al. for professional development purposes.

[xxxMidgexxx]

STOP IT, LEWDD....

Cut your shit. You never learn though.

[xxxHunterxxx]

I deal in Hummels.

[version sound]

Fuck crypto. Cryptids are where it’s at.

[kel]

I considered hopping in last year (and of course sorta wished I had, seeing the growth...) but a few things gave me pause:

1. There seemed a steep learning curve to the cold and hot wallets, fees, exchanges, hidden fees, etc. to get in in the first place. I didn't want to get suckered by fees if I didn't have to, and it all seemed to have penalties to entry.

2. The "is this whole thing a Ponzi / vaporware deal?" vague uncomfortablity. I mean, if tomorrow all the world's governments say "We hold Dogecoin to be invalid for any public or private debt" or somesuch, I'm - what - stuck trying to use it to buy things on or some Silk Road-esque underground analog of an opium den / fence / pawn shop? (Luddite, here I know, but I don't NEED the risk if I can avoid it...)

3. I like to invest in tangible things. I learned a lesson in investing on near-insider-trading / "hot tips" many years ago, where a can't-pass-this-one-up! stock deal fell in my lap. I took a chance, bought some shares, watched it skyrocket as it was being blown to the moon by insider forces I didn't know were at work... and then the company went bankrupt after the owners had pumped and dumped their positions... and investors like me in the cold with worthless certs. Hmm. Cheap lesson, I wasn't out too much, but it's stuck with me. Rammed home that little lesson of the Great Depression: The crash happened to people that didn't know what they were doing, dabbling in investing as gee-whiz amateur spectators: those were the ones that really got the poop end of the October 1929 stick.

4.) RE: People that don't know what they're doing. We are probably all familiar with the apocryphal Joe Kennedy story about his getting out of the market days before the crash because a shoeshine boy in front of the Exchange was telling him he'd heard some good investing advice to pass along. He promptly went to the office and liquidated, missing the coming death spiral. Kennedy was attributed as saying: “If shoeshine boys are giving stock tips, then it's time to get out of the market.” I have some of my investments with two good financial advisors that do this stuff 24/7/365 for decades, and they have gotten me proven track records of good returns, in down and up market times. "Leave it to the pros" has worked for me, and I only invest on my own in either: "Things I am willing to have fun/gamble on" (and I treat losses or gains there just like the ponies), or "Things I actually know about" (buying and selling tangible goods from my industry, based on my decades of experience in said industry and knowing how it trends and works.)

Long story short: Bitcoin and such, if you want to get in, sure have fun, I'd treat it like a bet on the horses. Totally might go up. Probably will. Lots of people winning in the past year. BUT that also could just mean that the early/smart/lucky people have nailed down early positions -- by the time grandma/shoeshine boy is reading about this newfangled thing... it's past time for the early adopters and now it's the suckers time to get in. I might still buy just a single coin just to see what happens, seein' how it fell almost half in value this month. It's probably got at least one more good rally left in it this year. Shrug.

When you read an article in the normal slow media that "The housing market is going crazy in Boise!" it doesn't mean it's time to buy a house in Boise. It means you SHOULD have bought a couple years ago. Analogous to bitcoin articles talking about the sky being the future, IMHO.



*All this I'd take with a grain of salt. I sort-of-retired at age 44 or so, and so naturally my investments lean towards the safer and sure-bets these days.

[Mark T.]

I think crypto currencies are a giant ponzi scheme that is even worse than the worldwide stock market and lack of country back debt ponzi schemes.

I'm with lewdd on this one. All the newbie inverstors think it's a quick way to get rich. People indeed have made some money. As an interested investor I've kept my eye on Bitcoin and quickly noticed, like kel noted, it really took a major nose dive this last month. Not too much reporting has been done on that, which doesn't help the newbie investor.

Bottom line from most people in the know, say if your interested go for it, but don't bet the farm on it and make sure you can live with the potential of losing your entire investment (potentially in one day). No thanks. There's a lot more options out there.

[patient_ot]

Crypto is basically like gambling at this point, because it's a very volatile asset. My wife works in the software/tech world and it's pretty popular there. One dipshit she works with put a huge chunk of money into it (basically his entire savings and several years of bonuses) and lost a LOT of money on one of the latest rollercoaster dips. I wouldn't put in anything you cannot afford to lose. Institutional investors allocate their money across several asset classes for a reason.

[xxxMidgexxx]

Be woke.

Be Crypto.

[FlexMyHead]

My thing is that because, take Bitcoin, it's value is so all over the place, how could a business feel comfortable using it or a customer wanting to use it? I know that certain crypto are trying to be used for certain things, like for example, Non-fungible tokens (NFT) and Ethereum (2nd biggest one, basically) are connected. For a business or even a customer, if something is worth 64K one week, then 34K the next (as Bitcoin has been), one of you is gettin' fucked on that transaction. That is the biggest part I can't wrap my head around, that it's own value changes. The fact that crypto scares so many "old money" people and even countries (China doesn't want it used because they want to keep all money inside their own country for example) has to be a good thing. The ability to exchange money without borders/banks seems like the right side of the future, I just dunno if we are there yet.

My price point for almost buying $5K (a laughable amount, I know) of Ethereum was $3,600 but like I said that Plaid app thing that wanted my password scared me off, but right now Ethereum is at $2,500.

Lewwd, why did you reference "ponzi scheme"?

[lewdd]

These digital currencies are not backed by anything and have no economic value. They are closer to a piece of art or trading card in my mind. They are worth what someone else is willing to buy them for from you. International debt has become the same way. Money (bills and coins) used to be back by gold. For quite sometime, bills and coins are manufactured above and beyond any gold system backing. No country has the gold to pay all of their bills to those whom they have lent money. There is debt above "collateral". That is usually considered to be "junk bond" type assets - potential high reward with high risk of loss.

[patient_ot]

These digital currencies are not backed by anything and have no economic value. They are closer to a piece of art or trading card in my mind. They are worth what someone else is willing to buy them for from you. International debt has become the same way. Money (bills and coins) used to be back by gold. For quite sometime, bills and coins are manufactured above and beyond any gold system backing. No country has the gold to pay all of their bills to those whom they have lent money. There is debt above "collateral". That is usually considered to be "junk bond" type assets - potential high reward with high risk of loss.

The U.S. went off the gold standard during the Nixon administration, IIRC. And yeah the digital currencies are not backed by traditional assets of any kind, just whatever IP the particular company owns. I doubt whatever hard assets they have on their balance sheets are worth much. Office equipment and the like is usually fire sale crap.

[NotBaker]

I'm with Lewdd on this one. He's a smart dude. A lot of this seems like another way to gamble, especially during the "no sports" time. I can't see how that amount of speculation can be maintainable, but what do I know? I don't fully understand NFTs either. But I guess if merch is going to sell, artists will manufacture that merch and sell it, regardless of what it is.

[lewdd]

NFTs are a little bit difference. There is basically a digital locker that authenticates that what you have is yours and no one else can have the same thing. It is another form of a collectible but is mostly digital versus physical. They are hot right now, and someone is probably going to get stuck holding the short stick at some point. Like other collectibles, NFTs are only as valuable as someone else is willing to pay to buy it from you. They are also not a currency.

[xxxMidgexxx]

I went into a deli today to get money out of an ATM and....to my surprise there was an option for Bit-coin on the screen.

I was like, WTF?????