Cryptocurrencies

I'm super conservative and wary when it comes to investing. I don't trust anything I can't put may hands on- cash (although I realize that is ephemeral as well), silver or gold (wish I had more of that stuff!), out-of-print LPs and toilet paper (In Pat Franks Alas Babylon one of the things one characters realized she should have stocked up on was toilet paper. I suppose there is always mullein and lamb's ear leaves, at least around here anyway.)

brianlux said:

I'm super conservative and wary when it comes to investing. I don't trust anything I can't put may hands on- cash (although I realize that is ephemeral as well), silver or gold (wish I had more of that stuff!), out-of-print LPs and toilet paper (In Pat Franks Alas Babylon one of the things one characters realized she should have stocked up on was toilet paper. I suppose there is always mullein and lamb's ear leaves, at least around here anyway.)

I'm with you, long term investments for me are durable tools and dependable skills.

rgambs said:

brianlux said:

I'm super conservative and wary when it comes to investing. I don't trust anything I can't put may hands on- cash (although I realize that is ephemeral as well), silver or gold (wish I had more of that stuff!), out-of-print LPs and toilet paper (In Pat Franks Alas Babylon one of the things one characters realized she should have stocked up on was toilet paper. I suppose there is always mullein and lamb's ear leaves, at least around here anyway.)

I'm with you, long term investments for me are durable tools and dependable skills.

Right on! Durable, dependable, useful, skillful. Hard to beat that!

One of my friends is always talking about bitcoin and how I should buy into it. That'd be all fine and dandy if I had an extra $1200 burning a hole in my pocket.

unsung said:

rgambs said:

What is the goal, the purpose, the reason? I don't get it, I thought it was just a way to pay for things online, like PayPal lol

Paypal is the transfer system of currency, bitcoin is both. No middle man, extremely low fees.

It is also a hedge against manipulated currencies and it is designed to deflate rather than inflate. Some who really understand how it works say that value by 2030 could be $100k-500k.

That's wild, I have a hard time believing it, but it makes about as much sense as gold so why not lol

rgambs said:

unsung said:

rgambs said:

What is the goal, the purpose, the reason? I don't get it, I thought it was just a way to pay for things online, like PayPal lol

Paypal is the transfer system of currency, bitcoin is both. No middle man, extremely low fees.

It is also a hedge against manipulated currencies and it is designed to deflate rather than inflate. Some who really understand how it works say that value by 2030 could be $100k-500k.

That's wild, I have a hard time believing it, but it makes about as much sense as gold so why not lol

It is wild indeed. I would need to know exactly who those people "who really understand how it works" are and extremely detailed info on their finances and how they stand to benefit from talking it up like that (if at all) before believing them.

unsung said:

PJ_Soul said:

unsung said:

PJ_Soul said:

I am not a fan, but i REALLY wish I'd bought some bitcoins back when they were really cheap given that 1 bitcoin is now worth over $1200 USD.
I just don't understand the point of bitcoins. Money is essentially digital now anyway, if you want it to be.

Watch that movie. You eliminate the middle man in transactions and save a lot in fees alone. Plus it is nearly instant and once sent can't be disputed so as a seller the buyer can't void the check in a sense.

Well you definitely seem to have drank the Kool-Aid on this one, eh? I am surprised that you, of all people, are being so trusting of a documentary that seems, based on the preview, to be a huge commercial. I personally feel very wary of the whole thing precisely because there is no third party. Of all the regulations in the world, I happen to think banking regulations are the most needed. I am not on with exorbitant fees of course (which I pay none of for online transaction btw - maybe you need a better banking plan if you're paying fees for online transactions). But to have all of your money exist solely online without any kind of entity managing it makes me incredibly nervous, and I'm not about to jump on that train until it has had plenty of time to prove itself as a major currency. Right now it's not really breaking through into the mainstream at all (which is likely the reason for that documentary about how so very revolutionary the whole deal is). I'm not saying that someday it might be the norm and somehow safe. I'm not saying I'm writing it off. I'm just saying that I think extreme caution should be the #1 priority on this one.

First investor in SnapChat

Is that enough Kool Aid for you?

http://www.businessinsider.com/bitcoin-price-could-be-500000-by-2030-first-snapchat-investor-says-2017-3

No, should it be??? I guess you didn't know that Snapchat lost $514 million in 2016 and is having trouble even figuring out how it will EVER make any money? I'm not sure you should be basing your financial decisions on what SnapChat happens to do, lol.

http://www.businessinsider.com/snapchat-lost-514-million-in-2016-warns-it-may-never-be-profitable-2017-2

Also, they said that the bitcoin would gain all that value by 2030 IF enough people buy into it between now and then. They said they'd need the equivalent of about half the population of China to do so for it to work out like that. That is a great big if. It is just as likely that bitcoin will not catch on in those numbers, which would mean that the value would plummet by 2030. As I said, caution should be used here - you seem eager to just plow full steam ahead just because of some predictions that rely on a bunch of "ifs". Be careful! Investing now could work out great, like it did for those lucky fuckers who bought stocks in Apple and Microsoft and Facebook. On the other hand, you could just as easily end up being on the other end of spectrum, with all the people who put their life savings into AOL or Blockbuster Video. And risk is the name of the game when it comes to investments. And with bitcoin, if you drink the Kool-Aid and go all in and decide to drop banking in favour of it, that is ALL your money that goes with it rather than just a certain amount of it that you put in at the beginning like with normal stocks.