Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Fidelity CEO Abigail Johnson says the company is mining cryptocurrencies

techcrunch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 222 posts

Re: Fidelity CEO Abigail Johnson says the company is mining cryptocurrencies

#41

Post by curious_fella »

proofofstake wrote: post #38
jacques_chester wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Meanwhile, people said stuff like this before 2000 about all sorts of individual stocks.

Agreed, and there probably will be a year where nearly all coins tank. It would be foolish to invest all your profits back into the market, year after year. But should this stop you (or any investment firm) to seriously look at the profit potential here? What do you get for correctly calling the bubble in 3 years? Nothing.

> What do you get for correctly calling the bubble in 3 years?

Well, if you knew when the bubble was bursting, then there would be no problem!

Re: Fidelity CEO Abigail Johnson says the company is mining cryptocurrencies

#42

Post by shimon »

proofofstake wrote: post #35
csomar wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eh, I don't really know where to start to explain how wrong this is. The crypto market is still niche. There are stocks that make 100-1000% performance. But the stock market is "saturated" for representing assets, equities and companies. So its growth is limited.

I agree with: > The crypto market is still niche. There are stocks that make 100-1000% performance. But the stock market is "saturated" for representing assets, equities and companies. So its growth is limited. so I do not see how my post was wrong. These are the numbers. With such numbers, it would be foolish to discard the crypto market as "too volatile" and stick with stocks. There are crypto coins that did way be…

No, these numbers do in fact suggest the crypto market is extremely volatile. Many, many people who invest regularly in stocks should not invest in cryptocurrency because it is too volatile.

People/companies that are able to understand and accept the risk that comes from speculating on cryptocurrencies should consider doing so, because it is possible to make a profit, perhaps a significant one.

But if you're looking at the past and saying "wow, I should buy BTC because it made 1000% last year - it can't lose!" then you're ignoring a quite serious risk that volatile growth could change into volatile collapse in the future.

Re: Fidelity CEO Abigail Johnson says the company is mining cryptocurrencies

#43

Post by almostApatriot1 »

> Johnson said that the company had made several venture investments in bitcoin-related businesses and that the company was looking at applications of blockchain technologies alongside several leading universities.

Every crypto article makes the same vague claims about the potential of non-specific blockchain technology. I'm surprised there was no mention of replacing Visa in this one as well.

Re: Fidelity CEO Abigail Johnson says the company is mining cryptocurrencies

#44

Post by shimon »

almostApatriot1 wrote: post #43

> Johnson said that the company had made several venture investments in bitcoin-related businesses and that the company was looking at applications of blockchain technologies alongside several leading universities. Every crypto article makes the same vague claims about the potential of non-specific blockchain technology. I'm surprised there was no mention of replacing Visa in this one as well.

Facilitating inter-bank transfers is one promising application that's already operational: https://ripple.com/

Re: Fidelity CEO Abigail Johnson says the company is mining cryptocurrencies

#45

Post by jordanb »

proofofstake wrote: post #30

ROI of creating an investment portfolio 1 year ago, and selling today: - All Bitcoin: ~500% - Mix of top market: ~2800% - All Strat: ~13500% Meanwhile, stock investors call 12% a good year.

"If these trends continue..."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6LOWKVq5sQ

Re: Fidelity CEO Abigail Johnson says the company is mining cryptocurrencies

#47

Post by zghst »

zaptheimpaler wrote: post #28
nkingsy wrote: post #26

I like that the post mentions she's mined 200,000 Satoshis. Is this some kind of Bitcoin Shibboleth? I had to google it. It's about $8.

1 Satoshi = 0.00000001 BTC (10^-8 BTC) It represents the smallest fraction of 1 bitcoin you can use as an amount in a transaction, so they are the smallest (indivisible) units.

Very interesting name for a decimal. What an intricate community

Re: Fidelity CEO Abigail Johnson says the company is mining cryptocurrencies

#48

Post by proofofstake »

curious_fella wrote: post #41
proofofstake wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed, and there probably will be a year where nearly all coins tank. It would be foolish to invest all your profits back into the market, year after year. But should this stop you (or any investment firm) to seriously look at the profit potential here? What do you get for correctly calling the bubble in 3 years? Nothing.

> What do you get for correctly calling the bubble in 3 years? Well, if you knew when the bubble was bursting, then there would be no problem!

A slot machine is known to give a 200% ROI and allow a single pull each day. You play this slot machine every day for 500 days, until you notice it stops rewarding you.

Then someone says: "Look I told you so, I've been telling everyone for 2000 days now: This slot machine will crash one day!". And you say: "Ok. You were right. Guess the party couldn't last forever. Thanks for the warning!". Out of habit you play for 30 more days, but the rewards stay gone, so you exit with some nice profit.

Meanwhile, the other person knew of the existence of a highly profitable slot machine, while it was still profitable, but never actually played it, because they feared that one day it may not be profitable anymore.

Re: Fidelity CEO Abigail Johnson says the company is mining cryptocurrencies

#49

Post by csomar »

shimon wrote: post #42
proofofstake wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with: > The crypto market is still niche. There are stocks that make 100-1000% performance. But the stock market is "saturated" for representing assets, equities and companies. So its growth is limited. so I do not see how my post was wrong. These are the numbers. With such numbers, it would be foolish to discard the crypto market as "too volatile" and stick with stocks. There are crypto coins that did way be…

No, these numbers do in fact suggest the crypto market is extremely volatile. Many, many people who invest regularly in stocks should not invest in cryptocurrency because it is too volatile. People/companies that are able to understand and accept the risk that comes from speculating on cryptocurrencies should consider doing so, because it is possible to make a profit, perhaps a significant one. But if you're looking…

See Shimon comment. Economists/Traders/Finance guys have this concept that: Every stock/asset/price is equal. It is the volatility that matters.

Traders don't look for "potential growth". In their frame of reference, that potential of growth is already "priced in".

Now if you disagree with that, it is another story.

Edit: replied to the wrong guy.

Re: Fidelity CEO Abigail Johnson says the company is mining cryptocurrencies

#50

Post by proofofstake »

jordanb wrote: post #45
proofofstake wrote: post #30

ROI of creating an investment portfolio 1 year ago, and selling today: - All Bitcoin: ~500% - Mix of top market: ~2800% - All Strat: ~13500% Meanwhile, stock investors call 12% a good year.

"If these trends continue..." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6LOWKVq5sQ

Nice quip. To stick with analogy: Some people in this thread are in the 70s, telling record companies to ignore the disco genre entirely, because it is a fad that can't last more than a decade. Instead, telling them to stick with what they know: 50s rock and roll.
Post reply on HN