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

Robinhood Crypto – Invest in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies

crypto.robinhood.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 317 posts

Re: Robinhood Crypto – Invest in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies

#121

Post by aje403 »

AznHisoka wrote: post #108
aje403 wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think when he said " real-world value created through actual investments " - the underlying idea behind an investment is that you provide capital to someone who is trying to build a business that will hypothetically provide jobs and value to society. Putting money into something and taking more money out is a bastardization of the term in that interpretation. That is simply not the case here - this has simply been…

Providing capital to someone only occurs in the IPO stage. The stock market is a secondary market with people trading stocks, not providing capital.

Several different points and comparisons here.

Providing capital to someone does not only occur in the IPO stage. I'm not even sure how to go about refuting that statement; that's... not how finance works anywhere on the planet.

People do trade stocks with the expectation of stocks rising or falling in varying periods. People also hold stocks for long terms and then sell them afterwards. Just like cryptocurrencies!

However - it's just not the same. A share in a company has evolved and subjected to regulation for hundreds of years. An IPO is a highly regulated legal process involving investment banks and many lawyers (and that is how it should be - so that we don't have con artists running ICOs). It is sold by a company that generally provides jobs and services to society. It represents an actual piece of ownership in that company - if you have enough shares, you impact how that company is run. There are many other points I could make differentiating the two comparisons entirely.

Re: Robinhood Crypto – Invest in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies

#123

Post by dawhizkid »

Something about Robinhood just makes me uneasy - clearly their main target market is the small retail investor who is sensitive to a $7/trade fee, but the low friction, mobile-first no fee stock trading experience they've created mostly serves to encourage bad investor behavior i.e. emotional, irrational day trading among people who can least afford it.

Now they are "democratizing" margin trading (Robinhood Gold), options trading, and crypto...no professional investor who actually knows what he/she is doing is going to be served well by a mobile trading app - this is a play for the mostly uneducated retail investor (and small minority of knowledgable retail traders) who has no idea what they're getting into when they buy a call option in X or trade btc on margin.

I remember seeing on their social a now deleted tweet that read "Trade fast, die young." Ugh.

Re: Robinhood Crypto – Invest in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies

#125

Post by WhiteOwlLion »

vec wrote: post #100
tannerwj wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because it is based on supply and demand, it's just more volatile than what you're used to. Doesn't make it luck

The price is a function of the supply and demand. The supply is mostly a function of time, as defined by the blockchain's algorithms. The demand is a function of what, exactly? Still looks mostly like luck to me.

you have hodlers which reduces supply even more.

demand is a function of greed.

Re: Robinhood Crypto – Invest in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies

#126

Post by briatx »

Alex3917 wrote: post #117
tptacek wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I put money down on a blackjack table, play a hand, win, and cash out with more money than I put in. How is that not an investment?

Bitcoin is backed by an asset with a tangible value that may or may not increase over time. What exactly is Blackjack backed by?

Bitcoin isn't backed by an asset. It's not really backed by anything other than people's expectation that it is worth something now (and it will be worth more in the future).

This is true even for the miners, since they would not build out infrastructure and burn energy if bitcoin was worth zero.

Re: Robinhood Crypto – Invest in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies

#127

Post by bradleyjg »

fortythirteen wrote: post #70
xya3453 wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Investing connotes some kind of exchange for rights, usually equity. When you invest in say APPL, you are buying a stake of the company. Bitcoin, like the $US or € doesn't make anything. Bitcoin is not an investment, you're just speculating that it's exchange value will rise.

Is buying gold not an investment?

There are different definitions of ‘investment’. One is forgoing present consumption in the hope of increased ability-to-consume in the future. Another is purchasing a productive asset.

By definition one: yes, by two: no.

Re: Robinhood Crypto – Invest in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies

#128

Post by ZitchDog »

paulgb wrote: post #60
darawk wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A better question might be: How is anything an investment? If the stock market is priced efficiently, it is as much a gamble as Bitcoin. The stock market is of course not perfectly efficient, but it is likely extremely efficient relative to the knowledge of your average retail investor. Which means that buying Bitcoin or other cryptos is no more a gamble than any stock market investment with a similar volatility.

If the market is priced perfectly efficiently you will still make money because your capital is put to work. A perfectly efficient market just means you can't beat that intrinsic rate of return.

Wouldn't this expectation be built into the current price of the stock?

Re: Robinhood Crypto – Invest in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies

#129

Post by pixie_ »

vec wrote: post #112
solotronics wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yes but it's a bad analogy because the odds are known and if you don't win the lotto the ticket is worth nothing. all bitcoins are equally valuable ( fungibility ).

But all cryptocurrencies are not equally valuable, and there's no reason to think that all of any given crypto won't eventually equally be worth (arbitrarily close to) $0. I can imagine a lottery where usually nobody wins anything but every now and then everyone who bought a ticket wins collectively. It's still a lottery.

How is that different from any other asset? One day it can be valuable, the next it might not. It doesn't change the fact that it is immutable.

Re: Robinhood Crypto – Invest in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies

#130

Post by Aunche »

chirau wrote: post #120
Aunche wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The difference is that with investing, you have a reasonable indication where your investment will end up in the future. Chances are, in 10 years Walmart is still going to be profitable and continue to pay out dividends. There's no telling what will happen to Bitcoin in the next week, let alone the next year, so it's a gamble to put your money in Bitcoin.

Do you not see how you are contradicting yourself? "Chances are" alone, is an assumption. How is that any different from your speculation on Bitcoin. The only difference is longevity of the window period, otherwise it's the same principle.

There is always going to be some degree of uncertainty with any action. Just because a meteor can fall on your head if you walk outside doesn't make it a gamble to do so. There's a fine line between investing and gambling, but the extreme ends of the spectrum should be obvious.
Post reply on HN