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Will Bitcoin Make a Good Investment?

beth.technology

41–50 of 137 posts

Re: Will Bitcoin Make a Good Investment?

#41

Bitcoin is not an investment. It has no underlying rate of return. When you invest in stocks you get dividends. When you invest in bonds you collect coupons. When you invest in real estate you collect rent. Bitcoin is speculation. You are just hoping somebody comes.along and pays more for it than you did. In that sense it's more like gold and silver.

[deleted]

Re: Will Bitcoin Make a Good Investment?

#42
post #25

Except for a small window around the peak in December 2017, if anyone bought bitcoin anytime during its existence, they would be profitable now.

> Except for a small window around the peak

Most people bought during the peak, that's why it was a peak.

As any other pyramidal Scheme the only way to win is to be there first. Later on you are just trying to put other people into the scheme to regain some losses.

Re: Will Bitcoin Make a Good Investment?

#43
post #8

Once thing I've noticed about Bitcoin is that there are many "alt-coins" that seem to deliver better on Bitcoin's promises from a technical perspective, but those coins are forever stuck in Bitcoin's shadow because BTC has that first-mover advantage. And as a currency, the first-mover advantage is HUGE, because who wants to convert their investments from a hugely popular coin to one that could disappear tomorrow? So…

What first mover advantages does it have exactly? I know many people who have bought bitcoins, but absolutely zero people who use it in their day to day lives.

They use it to talk endlessly about their coins, that might be an end in itself...

Re: Will Bitcoin Make a Good Investment?

#44

Bitcoin is not an investment. It has no underlying rate of return. When you invest in stocks you get dividends. When you invest in bonds you collect coupons. When you invest in real estate you collect rent. Bitcoin is speculation. You are just hoping somebody comes.along and pays more for it than you did. In that sense it's more like gold and silver.

This strikes me as a somewhat semantic argument. Many stocks don't pay dividends. Flipping houses would also fall outside of your definition of investing. Buying gold has also been a relatively safe "investment" strategy as well, speculation or not. Every form of investment is, at its core, speculation on some level. If i pour my savings into Apple and they tank, the dividends would pale in comparison to my losses.

Stocks that don't pay dividends are absolutely speculations.

Flipping houses is absolutely speculating in real estate if you neither occupy them nor rent them out during the time you own them.

Not all forms of investment are speculations at some level. If I own a landscaping business and invest in a truck, I can drive it until it goes to the junkyard. I generate a return that hopefully offsets the depreciation, and I might not get even a dollar for it when I'm done... I may even have to pay to get it towed away.

Re: Will Bitcoin Make a Good Investment?

#45

Bitcoin is not an investment. It has no underlying rate of return. When you invest in stocks you get dividends. When you invest in bonds you collect coupons. When you invest in real estate you collect rent. Bitcoin is speculation. You are just hoping somebody comes.along and pays more for it than you did. In that sense it's more like gold and silver.

You're half way there. Investments promise a return to investors by creating value, or that's the goal, at least. Speculation does not create value; commodities, options, and shorting do not create value, they are zero-sum.

Re: Will Bitcoin Make a Good Investment?

#46
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US government accepts payment for taxes in USD. Even if an American wants nothing to do with USD, and conducts all their exchanges through bartering, they will need to acquire some at some point in order to make tax payments. The value of USD can't fall to 0 as long as the federal government retains the ability to impose taxes.

That sounds like a strange argument. Nobody can pay their taxes in gold, still gold has a value, right? And on the other hand, the value of the USD can fall to practically zero, as it happened to many other currencies before, despite the governments of the respective countries imposing taxes in those currencies. Bitcoins are, of course, nothing . But it's a nothing that is pretty guaranteed to stay, to be in rigidly…

Gold has value because it’s useful, among other things. That base level of value is why people started making coins out of it in the first place. It’s properties as a physical metal make it easy to store, transport, and protect, all of which are good properties to have as a currency.

Re: Will Bitcoin Make a Good Investment?

#47
post #2

There's no such thing as secure third-party custody, as the insurance companies (rightly) limit the amount of total insured Bitcoin volume. For years I heared people talking about how important role institutions play, but luckily so far Bitcoin remained people's money.

People's money? The majority of bitcoin is held by various "people" but that doesn't make it people's money.

Re: Will Bitcoin Make a Good Investment?

#48

Bitcoin is not an investment. It has no underlying rate of return. When you invest in stocks you get dividends. When you invest in bonds you collect coupons. When you invest in real estate you collect rent. Bitcoin is speculation. You are just hoping somebody comes.along and pays more for it than you did. In that sense it's more like gold and silver.

This strikes me as a somewhat semantic argument. Many stocks don't pay dividends. Flipping houses would also fall outside of your definition of investing. Buying gold has also been a relatively safe "investment" strategy as well, speculation or not. Every form of investment is, at its core, speculation on some level. If i pour my savings into Apple and they tank, the dividends would pale in comparison to my losses.

Stocks that don’t pay dividends invest in new capital and directly increase stakeholder equity.

Not entirely, but apple’s price is based on a predicted future cash flow and growth in cash flow and assets.

This is different from bitcoin.

Re: Will Bitcoin Make a Good Investment?

#49
post #8

Once thing I've noticed about Bitcoin is that there are many "alt-coins" that seem to deliver better on Bitcoin's promises from a technical perspective, but those coins are forever stuck in Bitcoin's shadow because BTC has that first-mover advantage. And as a currency, the first-mover advantage is HUGE, because who wants to convert their investments from a hugely popular coin to one that could disappear tomorrow? So…

What first mover advantages does it have exactly? I know many people who have bought bitcoins, but absolutely zero people who use it in their day to day lives.

The first mover advantage in this case is the fact that early adopters of crypto bought BTC, because BTC was all there was.

Now that those people already have BTC, they are less likely to purchase a second coin. For one, they already have money invested in the space. Secondly, BTC has shown that it has staying power - outlasting many altcoins which came after it - which further solidifies BTC as the top contender (for now).

So, those already invested in BTC have little impetus to change from BTC to another coin == a first mover advantage.

Re: Will Bitcoin Make a Good Investment?

#50

Bitcoin is not an investment. It has no underlying rate of return. When you invest in stocks you get dividends. When you invest in bonds you collect coupons. When you invest in real estate you collect rent. Bitcoin is speculation. You are just hoping somebody comes.along and pays more for it than you did. In that sense it's more like gold and silver.

This strikes me as a somewhat semantic argument. Many stocks don't pay dividends. Flipping houses would also fall outside of your definition of investing. Buying gold has also been a relatively safe "investment" strategy as well, speculation or not. Every form of investment is, at its core, speculation on some level. If i pour my savings into Apple and they tank, the dividends would pale in comparison to my losses.

Houses are tangible assets which can be rented out for a direct rate of return.

Gold is a better analogy though the physical existence and thousands of years of use as a store or value give it a pass compared to anything crypto.

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