Bitcoins/Cryptocurrency

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  • dividendhero
    dividendhero Posts: 2,417 Forumite
    markj113 wrote: »
    Would you not have the vendors bitcoin payment address in writing?

    You can then prove payment was sent by checking that address using any of the multiple blockchain explorers available.

    p.s. cars are already sold for bitcoin.

    That's very true - but try enforcing that legally....
  • NYM
    NYM Posts: 4,066
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    Bit late to the thread, but I really don't understand anything at all about Bitcoin,Litecoin, Ethereum etc.

    For Christmas last year, my parents 'invested' in one Bitcoin for my 3 children. (Just one between them, not each) I don't think the kiddies were very interested in it's ups and downs until about October this year and now both my boys are checking the trading exchanges every morning and night!

    If it is a ponzi scheme it's not the end of the world is it? My children have had a year of fun watching how the 'investment' has grown.
  • EachPenny
    EachPenny Posts: 12,239
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    NYM wrote: »
    Bit late to the thread, but I really don't understand anything at all about Bitcoin,Litecoin, Ethereum etc.

    For Christmas last year, my parents 'invested' in one Bitcoin for my 3 children. (Just one between them, not each) I don't think the kiddies were very interested in it's ups and downs until about October this year and now both my boys are checking the trading exchanges every morning and night!

    If it is a ponzi scheme it's not the end of the world is it? My children have had a year of fun watching how the 'investment' has grown.

    It is good your children have had (two and a half months?) of fun :) But for this to be an educational exercise you now need to help them decide whether to keep their bitcoins or sell them while the price is high. It isn't an 'investment' unless you have a strategy to exit the market at a point where a profit has been made.

    Otherwise it is little different to your parents making three £300 bets in December 2016 on random horses to win the 2017 Grand National and for your children to have fun seeing whether the horses get entered and then watching the race.

    Maybe this Christmas buy them each £300 of shares in randomly selected FTSE companies? :)
    "In the future, everyone will be rich for 15 minutes"
  • JohnRo
    JohnRo Posts: 2,887
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    NYM wrote: »
    If it is a ponzi scheme it's not the end of the world is it? My children have had a year of fun watching how the 'investment' has grown.
    It isn't a ponzi scheme, by the very definition of such things it cannot be one. That won't stop ignoramouses making the claim but they're best ignored.

    Whether the entire endeavour goes on to realise the much greater potential it has is a matter of wider adoption, regulatory impediment and general acceptance which itself is dependent on some not insignificant technical problems being resolved.

    The price being discovered is a matter of speculation on that outcome and you can be sure it will rise and fall as it has many times before.
    'We don't need to be smarter than the rest; we need to be more disciplined than the rest.' - WB
  • NYM
    NYM Posts: 4,066
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    EachPenny wrote: »
    It is good your children have had (two and a half months?) of fun :) But for this to be an educational exercise you now need to help them decide whether to keep their bitcoins or sell them while the price is high. It isn't an 'investment' unless you have a strategy to exit the market at a point where a profit has been made.

    Otherwise it is little different to your parents making three £300 bets in December 2016 on random horses to win the 2017 Grand National and for your children to have fun seeing whether the horses get entered and then watching the race.

    Maybe this Christmas buy them each £300 of shares in randomly selected FTSE companies? :)


    As it wasn't intended as an investment vehicle in the normal sense, as my children are almost 17 and 15. It was for 'fun' and purely fun. The fact that the bitcoin has increased in it's 'value' is incidental. They could cash in, but it's now purely an exercise in watching it either grow or flop. They care little either way.
  • NYM
    NYM Posts: 4,066
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    JohnRo wrote: »
    It isn't a ponzi scheme, by the very definition of such things it cannot be one. That won't stop ignoramouses making the claim but they're best ignored.

    Whether the entire endeavour goes on to realise the much greater potential it has is a matter of wider adoption, regulatory impediment and general acceptance which itself is dependent on some not insignificant technical problems being resolved.

    The price being discovered is a matter of speculation on that outcome and you can be sure it will rise and fall as it has many times before.


    I see it similarly to when they were little and growing sunflowers for school. Some grew, some not as much and some didn't get out of the ground!

    The enjoyment and anticipation was equal, the disappointment for the failures not so much. But they had a few months of fun.
  • JohnRo
    JohnRo Posts: 2,887
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    Some future iteration of BTC will be around when they're your age, I'm fairly certain of that. How successful it will have been in terms of adoption and technical development is the unknown.
    'We don't need to be smarter than the rest; we need to be more disciplined than the rest.' - WB
  • Alexland
    Alexland Posts: 9,653
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    NYM wrote: »
    As it wasn't intended as an investment vehicle in the normal sense, as my children are almost 17 and 15. It was for 'fun' and purely fun. The fact that the bitcoin has increased in it's 'value' is incidental. They could cash in, but it's now purely an exercise in watching it either grow or flop. They care little either way.

    I think it might be worth starting to bank gains, at least the original purchase price, so then at least if it does crash they haven't lost anything?
  • NYM I have done similar with some shares for my son, similar to what my father did for me when I was a teen. The Christmas my son was 13 I said he could have £500 in the shares of any company he fancied, the catch being that we would hold them come hell or high water, until his 18th birthday. Being 13,he didn’t have a clue as to what to choose so I bought him Disney shares because we are Disney fanatics and I figured things probably wouldn’t go too terribly wrong over the period.

    A few weeks later, the little !!!!!! announced that actually he really wanted me to buy shares in Take Two because he was positive it would take off. So I agreed we’d have a race between the two. To date, his Take Two is up something like 250% while Disney is around 30% up. It’s not quite the lesson I was going for (would like him to have to sweat it out a little and not be too easy/lucky!)

    I view my Bitcoins the same way- it’s been fascinating watching this and while I do have an exit strategy, they are provid8ng far more entertainment than anything else I hold.
    Hmmmm, need new siggie :cool:
  • planteria
    planteria Posts: 5,321
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    NYM wrote: »
    ..The fact that the bitcoin has increased in it's 'value' is incidental. They could cash in, but it's now purely an exercise in watching it either grow or flop. They care little either way.

    fair enough, but the sum involved is substantial, so perhaps they Should care a little more, following some guidance from yourself :think:.
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