Bitcoin

Another_Saver

BananaRepublic said:

Another_Saver said:

Since the forum doesn't like my copy and pasting my usual answer to these threads, I'll just link to the first page of the last one. 14 people agreed last time I checked so I'll let my post stand on its own merits: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6221770/bitcoin/p1

I agree with the gist of your post. However you say "Firstly bitcoin is not an "investment" per se. It's a digital currency or commodity, ". Certainly Bitcoin supporters would have us believe that, but it practise almost no-one uses it as a currency, and in truth they use it as an investment. So I disgree with your claim.

And as I have said before, it is in my opinion fundamentally immoral due to the amount of energy required to mine Bitcoin, and carry out transactions. It is about as un green as it is possible to be, and I'm surprised that the blessed Norwegian gremlin isn't routinely ranting against it. If a transaction required the seller and/or buyer to cover the cost of the electricity required to carry out that transaction, it would be doomed for all but high value transactions.

Even more arguments against bitcoin and of course you're completely right, I'll have to write a fresh one including the currency/commodity status, green-ness (may as well include the implicitly supporting criminality while I'm at it).

Cus

There seems to be a few established hedge funds that are building a position in bitcoin.  Many think that is the reason for the recent gains, rather than retail investors.
I generally agree with your comments but you do say 'Thirdly, the only people who "invest" in it are bitcoin cultists and the people stupid enough to be duped by the bitcoin cultists'  which does not fit with what we are seeing now.  I don't think these hedge funds are cultists', nor are they being duped. They also don't care about some definition of 'invest' to mean one thing rather than another (I'm sure they hold commodities, and play on currency movements)
What they see is a potential profit, and they base that chance (I think) on the small possibility that the whole crypto currency experiment may pan out favourably.
(They are also probably sitting with their finger hovering over the sell button so they don't look stupid when it all goes bad...)

csgohan4

To be fair bitcoin is an option for someone to diversify their money into. Whether it would be a good option for them, is another matter. However barge pole for me. I'd rather put my house on a passive index tracker than on cryptocurrency. 

theforest

SALTburn64 said:

Someone is trying to get me into bitcoins,  they are telling me I need two apps one  to buy and one to sell can anyone advise me if they are right in saying that.  I am totally new to this currency and I need to know a lot more about it ,  appreciate any help or advice thank you 

Bitcoin is based on Distributed Ledger Technology that is either implemented using Blockchains or Directed Acyclic Graphs (DAGs). There are many such projects with a diverse range of applications including inventory tracking, scientific and medical research, blogging platforms, decentralised file storage like the Interplanetary File System (IPFS) and of course investment and payment systems and each project has a cryptocurrency associated with it. Some you may already have heard of are Ethereum, Cardano and Monero.

To get started it's best to familiarise yourself with the technology first, mainly by searching the internet, NuggetsNews (.com.au) Knowlege Centre may be of help and Cointelegraph (.com) is good for what is happening info'.
You do not necessarily need any 'apps' but you may find it useful to have a 'wallet', the Exodus (.io) wallet is one I like. Cryptomate (.co.uk) is one of many places to make an initial purchase and the Bisq (.network) decentralised exchange network thereafter.

Of course it is important to do you own research for your own needs, but I hope the above information will be of some help.

Mat0987654

I find the arguments around bitcoin to be as interesting as bitcoin itself, there seems to be few assets that attract such polarised views. Like anything where views are so opposing, I personally think noone really knows what will happen, although plenty will tell you they definitely know ("It will be worth $1M by 2030" vs "It will be worth $0 by Thursday"). 
I found this article at seeking alpha interesting for anyone doing some research (you'll have to google Im afraid as I cant post links yet):
Seeking Alpha, Replying to the Bitcoin Bears, Point by point

wiseonesomeofthetime

https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/bitcoin-slides-10pc-record-weekend-105223942.html

Oops!

Sasahara

wiseonesomeofthetime said:

https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/bitcoin-slides-10pc-record-weekend-105223942.html

Oops!

Err, that story was out of date before you posted it.

It's currently up to £24,800 and can easily move 1-2% in minutes. a 10%+/- shift isn't that special.

It could be £21K or £29k tomorrow.

masonic

It's interesting to see multiple bitcoin threads spring up with lots of activity when the price of bitcoin is trading at highs, but next to nothing when it is low. Should be the other way around if people were acting rationally.

onthebench

wiseonesomeofthetime said:

https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/bitcoin-slides-10pc-record-weekend-105223942.html

Oops!

Yes, it crashed all the way back down to where it was... ooh, three days earlier. And is currently up 80% in a month.
Past performance does not guarantee future etc etc etc but since I bought at £9k in October and have taken out more than my original investment, wherever it goes from here is immaterial, and the upside potential is still pretty good IMO.

HansOndabush

See 19.25 to 37:00 for an argument against buying Bitcoin:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8MJk9FIYHA

History repeats.