New sub-board for cryptocurrencies?

Malthusian

No

onomatopoeia99 wrote: »

Forex trading is about as close an equivalent for crypto to a "traditional" investement / gamble (I will wait for the experts to tell me if forex trading is "investing" or "gambling") .

It has a negative expectation of return so gambling.

The chance that any foreign currency will go up or down against the currency you buy goods in is 50/50, which in isolation means the expected return is zero. Trading costs mean there is a house edge and the expected return becomes negative. To put it another way, the house always wins.

Both are buying something that could collapse in value overnight. Less likely with funds where the risk is distributed across multiple holdings, I'll give you, but it's not without precedent for a company listed on a major exchange to collapse without warning rendering their stock worthless.

But something like Vanguard Lifestrategy or L&G Multi-Index is not going to see every company in every country on every major stock exchange become worthless, unless the Apocalypse happens, and if that happens you'll have bigger problems than money whether you invested in the stockmarket or not.

BitCoin could suffer a permanent and near-total loss. As it is only worth what other people think it is worth, the value could drop to anything between its current value and nil and never recover. The chance that a portfolio of shares spread across thousands of companies in all major worldwide stockmarkets drops and never recovers can be diversified away to virtually nil.

Cactus_Jack

Yes

Yes

Discussion in this forum is senisble and grounded in reality. Risks are discussed, etc. I haven't come across a cypto community that has these values - most are just talking up the price. So I think this is a great opportunity to create a level-headed crypto forum.

Plus, there is more to crypto than just Bitcoin.

batrachophagus

Yes

I would like to read about peoples experience with exchanges, wallets, etc. It seems to me that buying from the UK it is made very easy to invest (credit cards) but more difficult to withdraw (via euros and international payments).


Whatever you think bitcoin is, such as a commodity, there are similar established investments (e.g. oil company shares are linked to price of oil). Comparing it to gambling is disingenuous.

jamei305

No

Every other forum on here has something to do with money saving. A cryptocurrency forum would be a departure from this.

If we have a cryptocurrency forum we may as well have forums entitled Day Trading, Airport Parking Spaces, Fixed Odds Gambling Machines, The Greyhounds, Best Pyramid Schemes and How to Save Money by Asking Those Kind Travellers to Do Your Drive With Their Leftover Tarmac.



.

Malthusian

No

batrachophagus wrote: »

Whatever you think bitcoin is, such as a commodity, there are similar established investments (e.g. oil company shares are linked to price of oil). Comparing it to gambling is disingenuous.

No, it's accurate. Buying oil in the hope the price goes up is also gambling.

It is nothing like oil company shares. Oil companies produce oil and for the effort of doing so they hope to make a profit. The shareholders share in that profit. Bitcoins produce nothing.

Mining Bitcoins has similarities to producing oil, but nobody mines Bitcoins anymore unless someone else is paying their electricity bill. Everyone asking about it on this forum is asking about purchasing Bitcoins that have already been mined by somebody else.

dunstonh

No

Cactus_Jack wrote: »

Yes

Discussion in this forum is senisble and grounded in reality. Risks are discussed, etc. I haven't come across a cypto community that has these values - most are just talking up the price. So I think this is a great opportunity to create a level-headed crypto forum.

Plus, there is more to crypto than just Bitcoin.

The reason this section is grounded in reality is that sensible forum members join in the discussion. If you create a dedicated sub-forum, then those people are unlikely to look at the threads in that section and you just get a repeat of the other websites where price ramping goes on.

onomatopoeia99

Yes

Malthusian wrote: »

Mining Bitcoins has similarities to producing oil, but nobody mines Bitcoins anymore unless someone else is paying their electricity bill. Everyone asking about it on this forum is asking about purchasing Bitcoins that have already been mined by somebody else.

For information, I mined my own, using my own electricity. I saw it as an experiment rather than an investment or gamble, as it's a technology that interests me. I just wanted some (a fraction of one, in fact) in case they became useful in future.

Thrugelmir

Yes

batrachophagus wrote: »

Comparing it to gambling is disingenuous.

When somebody can come up with a serious rationale of what Bitcoin is and on what basis it is being valued. Then it'll be taken seriously. Until then it'll remain a fad. In the end there's going to be people nursing some serious financial losses. Probably more than they can afford to. While the smart money will carry on egging up the price with a sole aim of (fleecing) making money out of naive investors.

Flobberchops

No

I'm against a new board, as tempting as it is to segregate the recent spate of over-enthusiastic crypto posts. (For the record though I disagree with the rationale of it being "gambling", this is a board for investments and that includes higher risk activities like P2P and alternative investments like precious metals). In fact while we're on the subject I'd suggest scrapping the ISA sub board - now that no tax is paid at source ALL savings are tax free so surely it's obsolete?

DiggerUK

No

The question, as put, will not provide a helpful answer. Discussion is always best. Censorship of any kind, is the worst answer.
This is the right place to discuss crypto currencies, it’s a financial consumer product, and the undecided can hold their own counsel after listening to others.

I claim that forum rules are not up to the job of disciplining discussion. “Big fat threads” or “merged threads” are just an obese waste, and a pet hate of mine.
Threads should be allowed, even if they are duplicated, on the basis of natural intellectual survival (or lack of intellect) deciding which ones gain traction.
The rule change that would augment such discussion, and I propose, would be to apply a ‘twitter type rule’ that limits threads to 100 posts of five pages. The 100th post could be held for the OP only to allow a summing up, or closing argument. Then they should be autolocked. Long threads just end up going round in circles, with little new blood joining in.

I am not now, nor have I ever been, nor do I intend to be, invested in cryptocurrencies..._