Ethereum, the flippening will happen and when it does it will happen fast. Ether transfers in seconds for a fraction of a penny, it's a better cryptocurrency that bitcoin and that's not even its billing. It has far more utility and will use far less energy with a hybrid Proof of Stake/Proof of Work and eventual Proof of Stake consensus. So much more in the works, Ethereum's brightest days are ahead. All that while bitcoin squabbling brings it low, fork after fork after fork. It stands as an amazing proof of concept does bitcoin, but in a short number of years it will be in a museum.
Ask HN: IF the Bitcoin bubble bursts, where would you invest next?
41–48 of 48 posts
Re: Ask HN: IF the Bitcoin bubble bursts, where would you invest next?
#42Why has it gone from P2P payments to store of wealth now?
Re: Ask HN: IF the Bitcoin bubble bursts, where would you invest next?
#43Why has it gone from P2P payments to store of wealth now?
This is a good question. What value does BTC have? The value to make purchases.
If the transaction cost keeps going up, well, that value diminishes, doesn't it?
Re: Ask HN: IF the Bitcoin bubble bursts, where would you invest next?
#44Invest in Butter and Corn, when the Bitcoin Bubble inevitably bursts Popcorn will be in high demand. I think it would not be a bad idea to just follow investment advice; take a well performing index or ETF and stick to that. Maybe invest some into bitcoin again after the bubble has burst and it has a closer to reality value.
Good sense of humor there :)
Re: Ask HN: IF the Bitcoin bubble bursts, where would you invest next?
#45I would buy more Bitcoin. The world needs a censorship-resistant digital vault to store wealth. Bitcoin is basically a very cheap "Swiss bank account as a service" for the world's unbanked. Some use cases I can think off the top of my head: (1) You are from Syria and need to flee war and escape into Europe – however bank transfers into Europe are almost impossible if you are a common Syrian. Bitcoin allows you to tak…
Something like 20-25% of Syrians have internet access. I saw a 40% figure for Venezuela and a 15% figure for Zimbabwe. Many internet-literate people are not comfortable with bitcoin; how would you get a meaningful number of people who have never used the Internet comfortable putting their family's net worth in some arcane instrument with a reputation for use in money laundering and crime? Why would a person with low…
In due time. Commercial transactions will occur first, business to business.
Consumer applications (like Coinbase) will emerge to support the local population who can use it via smartphone and not need to understand public/private key encryption etc.
how would you get a meaningful number of people who have never used the Internet
They use the Internet; they just call it by a different name: Whatsapp, Facebook, Instagram...
Why would a person with low wealth invest their life savings into a highly volatile, recently developed instrument, when they can just buy jewelry, gold, etc
Gold, jewelry, etc can be stolen or lost.
Re: Ask HN: IF the Bitcoin bubble bursts, where would you invest next?
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
Something like 20-25% of Syrians have internet access. I saw a 40% figure for Venezuela and a 15% figure for Zimbabwe. Many internet-literate people are not comfortable with bitcoin; how would you get a meaningful number of people who have never used the Internet comfortable putting their family's net worth in some arcane instrument with a reputation for use in money laundering and crime? Why would a person with low…
In due time. Commercial transactions will occur first, business to business. Consumer applications (like Coinbase) will emerge to support the local population who can use it via smartphone and not need to understand public/private key encryption etc. how would you get a meaningful number of people who have never used the Internet They use the Internet; they just call it by a different name: Whatsapp, Facebook, Instag…
Those stats are for internet users including people who use the apps you mention. Further, Syria has a history of internet censorship and even large outages. I'd imagine people in Syria don't trust the internet, much less a tool from a western company like coinbase that offers a way to store an instrument that is completely foreign to someone who doesnt use the internet
All of finance is built on trust. Trust in enforcement of securities and property laws, trust that banks or debtors won't disappear overnight, trust that counterparties will not disappear, trust that someone won't lie to you and take your money, and trust that, when the above inevitably happen, there exists a set of institutions that can protect you
You may trust blockchain more than a bank, but you are the minority by a massive massive margin. The reality is that banks, while not perfect, are accountable. They are run by people whose jobs depend on them not totally screwing up. And despite the bad / shady things that banks do, overall they do a pretty good job at maintaining a stable financial system
With bitcoin and other decentralized systems, there is no accountability. You must rely on the perfection of the technology. It will break, and when it does, there is no legal system to protect you and no bank that will reimburse you for fraudulent charges
You may not care about this, but 99% of the world does
Re: Ask HN: IF the Bitcoin bubble bursts, where would you invest next?
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
In due time. Commercial transactions will occur first, business to business. Consumer applications (like Coinbase) will emerge to support the local population who can use it via smartphone and not need to understand public/private key encryption etc. how would you get a meaningful number of people who have never used the Internet They use the Internet; they just call it by a different name: Whatsapp, Facebook, Instag…
Those stats are for internet users including people who use the apps you mention. Further, Syria has a history of internet censorship and even large outages. I'd imagine people in Syria don't trust the internet, much less a tool from a western company like coinbase that offers a way to store an instrument that is completely foreign to someone who doesnt use the internet All of finance is built on trust. Trust in enfo…
It's not that Syrians distrust the Internet. Its that they distrust their governments and politicians. And possibly their banks.
There is already a lack of legal systems and order. You have ISIS roaming around cutting people's heads off.
Obviously you have a different set of priorities when you're running for your life.
Re: Ask HN: IF the Bitcoin bubble bursts, where would you invest next?
#48The thing to keep in mind is that if the Bitcoin bubble bursts, then Bitcoin will go down for sure. However, the altcoins will probably recover for a year or two after the crash. The most drastic thing that would happen is that all the altcoins would be valued against something other than BTC, and the market would adjust accordingly.
At the time of this writing, I have investments in BTC, LTC, XMR (Monero), ARK, and RDD (ReddCoin). While BTC does represent around half of my total crypto investment, I wouldn't be completely screwed since one of the alts would probably take its place. I could see either Monero or one of the Bitcoin forks taking over in that scenario.
So, answering the question, I'd still invest in crypto. But I wouldn't invest in Bitcoin directly anymore.