BITCOIN

Scottex99

Durrr, scarce as in there is a finite supply. 21m. Or put it another way, it wont be devalued by someone minting 1tn BTC because the economy is broken, because every one is in lockdown.

1 BTC = 1 BTC, if/when there is no fiat, that's how it will be.

How is there no record of me buying a house/car? It's on the blockchain, forever. Easier to get it from there than from some garage that went out of business 5 years ago.

Off grid as in away from banks/politicians/tax men, if you were that way inclined.

I'm in it because it's the future, I'm bored of debating it actually. I'll come back when it's at ATH again, for fun

tranquility1

Jennifer Arcuri (she of Boris Johnson fame) is shilling crypto hard.

She thinks the ones that get adopted mainstream will be XLM, XDC, XRP. BTC will not survive, says she. 

Eco_Miser

Well if there is a record of you buying a house/car, the taxman will be long for his cut in due course (when you sell it again).

Michael121

The future of currency: centralised or decentralised? | World Finance

Thought some of you might want to read this.

tranquility1

Coiners shill crypto

Gold bugs shill gold

This parish shills equities/bonds



Whoever you ask is invested in something or other and that's what informs their "advice".

thegentleway

tranquility1 said:

This parish shills equities/bonds

You think equities/bonds are a swindle? 

MattMattMattUK

tranquility1 said:

Whoever you ask is invested in something or other and that's what informs their "advice".

My main advice would always be do not invest in something you do not understand, be that gold, crypto, futures or any other investment vehicle. If someone has to ask the question "How do I invest in cryptocurrency" then the answer should always be "You don't" because if someone does not understand what they are planning on investing in they are not investing, they are gambling. 

tranquility1

thegentleway said:

tranquility1 said:

This parish shills equities/bonds

You think equities/bonds are a swindle? 

Equities aren't. Equities, in my view are the #1 choice. Bonds I'm not so sure in this day and age, and I personally don't have any.

But what I will say is this: all investors today (even the older ones) have only ever known decreases in interest rates. They've come down from 18% in the 1980s to almost 0% today. Therefore an entire generation have got used to equities performing well. 

But just because that's been the case for the last 40 years it doesn't mean it will be the case for the next 40 years. And in fact, the whole thing may be coming to a head sooner than we realise. 

The economy is not ok. We are massively in debt. We are hooked on low interest rates. And the central banks can do nothing except print money and hope for the best. The wheels could come off this thing at any time. And when they do everyone will be like "of course that was going to happen!". But right now, most people are acting like it won't happen anytime soon.

Section62

Scottex99 said:

Ok so on a technicality they could shut down the internet for the whole world to stop me being able to plug in my ledger and send the BTC, fair enough.

Assuming they are not spending precious government money and their top spies to track my individual whereabouts then I can leave whatever jurisdiction I'm in and do it somewhere else, ledger in my pocket, or seed phrase in my head.

The whole world?  I thought we were talking about local situations in specific countries which amounted to the identified "need" that some people have, and therefore if we asked those people about crypto they wouldn't see it as 'nonsense'.

Obviously nobody can shut down the internet for the whole world, that's a strawman. But the tiny bit of the internet that you need to send your BTC, or the tiny bit that the recipient needs to use to receive (and do something with it), are vulnerable in some cases.

Likewise, 'top spies' is another strawman.  And the ability of any individual to leave one jurisdiction in order to be able to transact with crypto depends on the government of that jurisdiction allowing you to leave and - crucially - having the wherewithal to be able to relocate yourself as and when necessary.

As such, I've got to say that the average person living in the countries suggested, when asked if crypto could be a solution to their 'need' (e.g. to transact if the government restricted access to their bank) is going to laugh and say 'nonsense'.

But that takes nothing away from the value crypto might have for someone with means and living in some part of the 1st world with a generally benign government.

Scottex99 said:

Good point about the 3rd world and their networks though. Either way the most decentralised forms of money or assets are now upon us and a lot of cool stuff is about to get built

This could be good news.  But the reason I chipped in to this discussion is I spent time studying and working on projects related to improving infrastructure in the developing world.  It seems the biggest bugbear of people on the ground is when technologists come up with a solution and tell the people in need their problem has been solved.

One of the teaching examples used was how an NGO-type organisation decided it was desperately important to improve sanitation in a 'slum' district of a city, so arranged for concrete pipes to be made and delivered for use in a new sewer. On delivery, the locals started setting up home inside the nice dry concrete pipes, stacked up ready for use. The representative of the NGO-thing took offence at this, and spoke to the local government about getting the people and their belongings evicted from the pipes so the sewer could be built.

It was politely pointed out that when you are homeless the thing you need is a home. Not a new sewer which works with a toilet you don't have, which in turn needs water that is far too precious to be wasted on flushing.

The point of course is that one person's cool stuff (sewers and concrete pipes) doesn't necessarily meet the needs of someone else, and it is far to easy to project the needs and solutions that we have, onto other people..... And then be baffled why they don't agree with us.

It also doesn't matter if the story about the sewer pipes was BS or not, the point made sense when I heard it.  If you are developing ideas and solutions you always need to do a sanity check to make sure you know whether you are doing something just because you can (which isn't necessarily a bad thing) or doing something for a purpose. And if it is for a purpose, constantly check that the needs and the solution are still in alignment.

If not, the stuff never gets used, or ends up being used for a completely different purpose to what you intended.  Last I heard, there were still folks living in concrete sewer pipes.

bugbyte_2

Good point. What is the problem that Crypto solves again?