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Pineapple Fund: Donating $86M of Bitcoins to Charity

pineapplefund.org

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Re: Pineapple Fund: Donating $86M of Bitcoins to Charity

#191
post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A) Bitoin is not a stock, it's a currency. It'ss value lies in its utility. B) There are (a lot of) stocks that do not pay dividends and never will. There are a lot of stocks that were issued by companies that never made a profit. Both of those categories are traded with a value above zero, how do you explain that?

the guy I was replying to was saying a ponzi scheme is how markets work, which is definitely not true. a) this is valid point, but bitcoin is failing currency. if there was a central authority then its value would have been stabilized. never gonna happen with bitcoin. b) expected income. for bitcoin, it's nil for ever. don't confuse investment with speculation.

You completely mischaracterized my statement. Also, you don’t know what a Ponzi scheme is.

I said that early adopters take risks that pay off when conservative investors are looking for safe plays.

Seriously, shame on you.

Re: Pineapple Fund: Donating $86M of Bitcoins to Charity

#192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s how markets work. Early adopters take risks that pay off when late-comers try to bet on a proven winner.

Another view is that markets are not about gambling but rather investing? For example, index matched funds grow because the economy of the world, as a whole, is growing.

Index funds are pegged to a lot of activities that look like gambling, but the risks are somewhat hedged by a limited kind of diversification. It’s like betting every blackjack hand in the house at once (setting aside the house’s favorable odds).

Re: Pineapple Fund: Donating $86M of Bitcoins to Charity

#194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's always why I have a good laugh when someone comes out claiming to be Satoshi when they end their sentences with only a single space after a period. If you wanted to come out as Bitcoin's creator, you'd have used 2 spaces...

I think that just shows the age of the person. I learned how to type correctly on a typewriter, and that is the way that we learned. It means, for me, that SN, like me, was educated in the 70's and 80's, and formally learned how to type. Disclosure : Am not satoshi.

They still taught double space after period in typing class in the late 90s.

It has been a difficult habit for me to break.

Re: Pineapple Fund: Donating $86M of Bitcoins to Charity

#195
post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s how markets work. Early adopters take risks that pay off when late-comers try to bet on a proven winner.

no, it is not how normal markets work. a stock, bond, real estate "generates income". that's why it has value. bitcoin does not.

Amazon stock actually doesn't generate income on purpose for tax reasons. They reinvest almost 100% back into the company and by appreciating the stock price the shareholders and employees get to sell stock and only get hit for capital gains tax. This is almost exactly how Bitcoin works.

Re: Pineapple Fund: Donating $86M of Bitcoins to Charity

#196
post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was educated in the 90's and not on a typewriter. I use two spaces. There's likely more at play than just typewriter vs non-typewriter.

You only used one space in this comment ;)

I wonder if that gets changed by the site or something. I remember thinking "I better be sure to use two spaces otherwise someone will call me out on it."

Here's a test. I definitely put two spaces prior to this sentence.

EDIT - indeed it seems that HN changes the spacing.

Re: Pineapple Fund: Donating $86M of Bitcoins to Charity

#197
post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the guy I was replying to was saying a ponzi scheme is how markets work, which is definitely not true. a) this is valid point, but bitcoin is failing currency. if there was a central authority then its value would have been stabilized. never gonna happen with bitcoin. b) expected income. for bitcoin, it's nil for ever. don't confuse investment with speculation.

You completely mischaracterized my statement. Also, you don’t know what a Ponzi scheme is. I said that early adopters take risks that pay off when conservative investors are looking for safe plays. Seriously, shame on you.

i take back what i said. i apologize. i read it not as a general statement but as a defense on bitcoin. taking risk on something that does not have any income potential and passing it off to late joiners is very essence of ponzi scheme.

Re: Pineapple Fund: Donating $86M of Bitcoins to Charity

#198
post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

no, it is not how normal markets work. a stock, bond, real estate "generates income". that's why it has value. bitcoin does not.

Amazon stock actually doesn't generate income on purpose for tax reasons. They reinvest almost 100% back into the company and by appreciating the stock price the shareholders and employees get to sell stock and only get hit for capital gains tax. This is almost exactly how Bitcoin works.

you are confusing between investment and speculation. buying amazon stock with an outlook for income potential is an investment. buying something that has no way of recouping investment other than capital appreciation is speculation. even if amazon pay zero dividend now, you own something that has potential to pay back to you. bitcoin has no income potential whatsoever.

Re: Pineapple Fund: Donating $86M of Bitcoins to Charity

#199
post #172

Congrats on your fortune. This is a very honorable thing to do. But my real question is: How on earth did you manage to resist selling your holdings for such a long time after you crossed the $1MM mark? That's some superhuman level of self control.

It's pretty much in the (sub)title of the page: "Because once you have enough money, money doesn't matter."

Yes but you can only really "have enough" once you've cashed out into a medium that has a negligible risk of being worth nothing. It still takes major cojones to leave that much in BTC for so long, thus my kudos

Re: Pineapple Fund: Donating $86M of Bitcoins to Charity

#200

I think this is one of the greatest example of effective altruism, the world has seen to date. As a student of this subject, I would like to suggest a minor improvement in this project, an image of pineapple for the favicon. http://www.favicon.cc/?action=search&keywords=pineapple

Who is going to be the first to submit the Pull Request? :)

https://github.com/PineappleFund/pineapplefund.github.io

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