BITCOIN

Zola.

It won't be too long until mining companies like this become so profitable that they are grouped as the 12th sector in the S&P 500 under "cryptocurrency" or something like that, then everyone here will be investing in mining companies and supporting bitcoin by indexing, no matter their position. That'll be a hoot. 

Zola.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/qv79xr/jordan_petersons_mind_blown_by_bitcoin_mining_in/

The penny dropping for Jordan Peterson


This is the full discussion also:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXvQcuIb5rU&t=1s

Malthusian

My favourite comment from that Reddit brofest:

Ive never met a single person thats against bitcoin and has also put in 50 hours of honest research into it

I've also never met a single person that's against Scientology and has put 50 hours of research into it. Therefore, Xenu exists and wants you to be rich. Way to protect yourself from the sheeple's groupthink bro.

That was my favourite until I scrolled down a bit and found a bro saying that we could convert the whole world to renewable energy simply by attaching every renewable energy source to a Bitcoin miner. Because the Bitcoins generated would instantly make the renewable energy source more profitable. (Why fossil fuel plants wouldn't respond by plugging their own power stations into Bitcoin miners was not explained, because catamarans.)

Then there were the bros who were very excited about the potential to use currently wasted energy from natural gas power to mine Bitcoins, who had seemed to miss the fact that doing so would increase the supply of Bitcoins to the market, not the demand, the result of which would be number go down.

At that point I decided to stop because I'd only scrolled two pages and was already starting to feel like the very old man in Millions of Cats, and that I might be there forever picking up one pearl of brosdom after another, never able to decide which was the funniest.

Zola.

Hence why I suggested watching the video, you know from the world-renowned talking heads, rather than reading lots of comments on a forum where there are some idiots. Plenty of them here too!

tebbins

Zola. said:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/qv79xr/jordan_petersons_mind_blown_by_bitcoin_mining_in/

The penny dropping for Jordan Peterson


This is the full discussion also:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXvQcuIb5rU&t=1s

And? Oh look some people have opinions.

Zola.

If increasing numbers of extremely smart people find it a subject worth discussing, in a positive manner that is, are they a "crypto bro"?. That's a term you so often like to say, which is obviously a sarcastic quip at one's intelligence.. Something to think about..

Aegis

Zola. said:

If increasing numbers of extremely smart people find it a subject worth discussing, in a positive manner that is, are they a "crypto bro"?. That's a term you so often like to say, which is obviously a sarcastic quip at one's intelligence.. Something to think about..

I have no doubt that some extremely smart people were responsible for putting together credit default swaps and then touting them as the next big thing.  Sadly intelligence doesn't correlate to investment ability.

Zola.

Only time will tell...

Adyinvestment

@Aegis

As someone who is an IFA and also clearly against Bitcoin at this time, I am curious as to what it would take (if anything) for you to advise a client to consider putting money in Bitcoin?

Assuming this would one day be allowed in the UK for an IFA to do this, can you see an Aegis future self advising this and what criteria would you need to happen to do this? Is there anything Bitcoin could do to convince you?

Genuine question and not trying to start an argument, I am curious as to where Bitcoin would need to be for this to be considered or would it be out of the question for ever.

Aegis

Adyinvestment said:

@Aegis

As someone who is an IFA and also clearly against Bitcoin at this time, I am curious as to what it would take (if anything) for you to advise a client to consider putting money in Bitcoin?

Assuming this would one day be allowed in the UK for an IFA to do this, can you see an Aegis future self advising this and what criteria would you need to happen to do this? Is there anything Bitcoin could do to convince you?

Genuine question and not trying to start an argument, I am curious as to where Bitcoin would need to be for this to be considered or would it be out of the question for ever.

Even if it is an attempt to start an argument, I genuinely don't mind discussions with different viewpoints.  I just don't like being called stupid or dishonest - as long as you avoid those, we'll probably continue to be fine.

When it comes to crypto assets, I would probably never advise clients to go into them, largely because my focus is always on capital preservation and I usually make use of multi-asset funds or strategies because professionally it rarely makes sense for me to try to pick specific investments for clients - I leave that to people who have the ability to study economics and investment markets for the majority of their weeks.  As such, I probably wouldn't recommend any crypto assets, commodities, shares, bonds, etc.

A fair question would probably be "do any of your clients invest in bitcoin?"  On this basis, some probably did, as I believe Ruffer bought bitcoin within their strategy for a while, but then sold.  I have no idea if any other strategies have an exposure to bitcoin right now - not to my knowledge, but I've been out of the game for a while for health reasons.

Possibly a better question is what it would take for me to put my personal assets into bitcoin, as I am a higher-risk investor than the majority of clients I deal with.  In the case of my own investments I look for companies that either already generate revenues and are likely to increase that, or they have a good idea that I think will allow them to generate revenues over time (this is where some of my good ideas sit, and also some of my absolute howlers!).  As such, I can't foresee any way I'd put money into bitcoin.  I can't rule out every crypto assets in future because I can't predict what they might eventually look like, but nothing I've seen so far offers enough ownership of revenues, either current or potential, to make me want to participate.

As to whether I would ever advise clients to buy bitcoin, the answer is that usually I only ever advise holding currencies where the client is looking to spend in that currency.  As bitcoin is trying to be a currency, I'd only recommend holding assets denominated in BTC if there was potential to spend in BTC, i.e. without reference to an actual currency, e.g. GBP or USD, and the assumption would be that the prices in that currency would have a degree of stickiness.