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Why I’m Putting All My Savings Into Bitcoin

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Re: Why I’m Putting All My Savings Into Bitcoin

#31

Post by henrikschroder »

carbocation wrote: post #16
rheide wrote: post #13

This person lost all credibility to me when he said that he borrowed money to invest. I'm a huge admirer of Bitcoin's technical aspects, but I would never even think of borrowing money to invest in anything, let alone bitcoins.

Leveraged positions are common, but leveraging yourself to the maximum possible and not leaving yourself a safety net, as is implied by the article, is crazy. I assume the author is speaking hyperbolically.

Knowing Rick, this is exactly the kind of thing he would do. You gotta give him credit for putting money where his mouth is, though. He previously took all his savings, and a bank loan to start the Pirate Party, and that worked out pretty well.

Re: Why I’m Putting All My Savings Into Bitcoin

#32

Post by davidmathers »

palish wrote: post #15
raganwald wrote: post #5

A few points: 1. There is a difference between "This is useful, I will use it," "This is useful, many people will use it, I think it is going to succeed," and "This is useful, I will invest in it." I have recently started using a text editor called Byword. I quite like it. But I am not rushing out to invest in it. 2. There is also a difference between "I will invest some of my money in it," I will invest all of my mo…

Does anyone know of any balls-out investments that paid off (or didn't)? (I'm referring to "if this investment doesn't pay off, I'm jumping out a window" risk.) I'm just looking for interesting stories, and that sounds promising.

George Soros shorted $10 billion worth of British Pound and then made $1 billion in a single day. I don't know what would have happened if things had gone the other way but I think he was mostly-in, if not all-in.

Re: Why I’m Putting All My Savings Into Bitcoin

#33

Post by woodall »

scotty79 wrote: post #12
vaksel wrote: post #4

I recommend reading up on the MMM company. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MMM_%28Ponzi_scheme_company%29 there is also a Russian movie called PiraMMMida that came out a few months ago, which is the fictionized version of history. Now that movie, is pretty much exactly how bitcoin tends to be covered by the fanboys. And as the movie points out, it comes down to pure greed, people give up real money in order to buy worth…

If such silly thing as gold became money and paper printed by governments became money then a tool possessing qualities that bitcoin possess is bound to become money eventually. Only two real risks. Crypto weakness or Bitcoin 2.0 Gold is intrinsically similarly useless as bitcoin. We used it as money only because it was durable and rare. We used paper as money because strong, trustworthy entity declared that its supp…

>Gold is intrinsically similarly useless as bitcoin.

That is incorrect on many levels. Gold has applications in MANY things. I bet the device you used to type out that comment has a bit of gold in it.

The comparison to BitCoin and paper money makes more sense, but it doesn't. This is because BitCoin has no one backing it. If the dollar drops, well the US is backing it; and they will be forced to deal with the consequences. If someone pulls the rug out on BitCoin- might never happen, but who knows- then no one is responsible. BitCoin is a fun game, and that is all it should be. Such rapid deflation will not go on forever.

Re: Why I’m Putting All My Savings Into Bitcoin

#34

Post by [deleted] »

pyre wrote: post #29
thecabinet wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We use paper as money because a strong entity said they would accept those pieces of paper for tax payments. Rather than going to jail.

We originally used paper money, because it was backed by something (banks, gold, etc). Nowadays most (all?) paper money has been centralized to government control.

[deleted]

Re: Why I’m Putting All My Savings Into Bitcoin

#35

Post by base »

palish wrote: post #15
raganwald wrote: post #5

A few points: 1. There is a difference between "This is useful, I will use it," "This is useful, many people will use it, I think it is going to succeed," and "This is useful, I will invest in it." I have recently started using a text editor called Byword. I quite like it. But I am not rushing out to invest in it. 2. There is also a difference between "I will invest some of my money in it," I will invest all of my mo…

Does anyone know of any balls-out investments that paid off (or didn't)? (I'm referring to "if this investment doesn't pay off, I'm jumping out a window" risk.) I'm just looking for interesting stories, and that sounds promising.

Here you have: Betting $136k on one roulette spin http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jBbE7neKT8

Re: Why I’m Putting All My Savings Into Bitcoin

#36

Post by BCM43 »

woodall wrote: post #33
scotty79 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If such silly thing as gold became money and paper printed by governments became money then a tool possessing qualities that bitcoin possess is bound to become money eventually. Only two real risks. Crypto weakness or Bitcoin 2.0 Gold is intrinsically similarly useless as bitcoin. We used it as money only because it was durable and rare. We used paper as money because strong, trustworthy entity declared that its supp…

>Gold is intrinsically similarly useless as bitcoin. That is incorrect on many levels. Gold has applications in MANY things. I bet the device you used to type out that comment has a bit of gold in it. The comparison to BitCoin and paper money makes more sense, but it doesn't. This is because BitCoin has no one backing it. If the dollar drops, well the US is backing it; and they will be forced to deal with the consequ…

> If someone pulls the rug out on BitCoin- might never happen, but who knows- then no one is responsible.

How might someone go about doing this?

Re: Why I’m Putting All My Savings Into Bitcoin

#37

Post by splat »

luigi wrote: post #3

This violates two simple, and obvious, tenets of investing: 1. Don't put all your eggs in one basket. 2. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Andrew Carnegie would respectfully disagree with your first tenant:

"Put all of your eggs in one basket -- and watch that basket!"

Re: Why I’m Putting All My Savings Into Bitcoin

#38

Post by raganwald »

palish wrote: post #15
raganwald wrote: post #5

A few points: 1. There is a difference between "This is useful, I will use it," "This is useful, many people will use it, I think it is going to succeed," and "This is useful, I will invest in it." I have recently started using a text editor called Byword. I quite like it. But I am not rushing out to invest in it. 2. There is also a difference between "I will invest some of my money in it," I will invest all of my mo…

Does anyone know of any balls-out investments that paid off (or didn't)? (I'm referring to "if this investment doesn't pay off, I'm jumping out a window" risk.) I'm just looking for interesting stories, and that sounds promising.

Here's one that went the other way: Nick Leeson had been accumulating losses from unauthorized bad trades. He attempted to cover his losses with a massive wager that the Tokyo stock market would not move overnight. Alas, the Kobe earthquake hit him!

The beginning of the end occurred on 16 January 1995, when Leeson placed a short straddle in the Singapore and Tokyo stock exchanges, essentially betting that the Japanese stock market would not move significantly overnight. However, the Kobe earthquake hit early in the morning on 17 January, sending Asian markets, and Leeson's trading positions, into a tailspin. Leeson attempted to recoup his losses by making a series of increasingly risky new trades (using a Long-Long Future Arbitrage), this time betting that the Nikkei Stock Average would make a rapid recovery. However, the recovery failed to materialize.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Leeson

Re: Why I’m Putting All My Savings Into Bitcoin

#39

Post by oliveoil »

woodall wrote: post #33
scotty79 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If such silly thing as gold became money and paper printed by governments became money then a tool possessing qualities that bitcoin possess is bound to become money eventually. Only two real risks. Crypto weakness or Bitcoin 2.0 Gold is intrinsically similarly useless as bitcoin. We used it as money only because it was durable and rare. We used paper as money because strong, trustworthy entity declared that its supp…

>Gold is intrinsically similarly useless as bitcoin. That is incorrect on many levels. Gold has applications in MANY things. I bet the device you used to type out that comment has a bit of gold in it. The comparison to BitCoin and paper money makes more sense, but it doesn't. This is because BitCoin has no one backing it. If the dollar drops, well the US is backing it; and they will be forced to deal with the consequ…

> Such rapid inflation will not go on forever.

Isn't it deflation if you can buy more with the same amount of the currency?

Re: Why I’m Putting All My Savings Into Bitcoin

#40

Post by knowtheory »

BCM43 wrote: post #36
woodall wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Gold is intrinsically similarly useless as bitcoin. That is incorrect on many levels. Gold has applications in MANY things. I bet the device you used to type out that comment has a bit of gold in it. The comparison to BitCoin and paper money makes more sense, but it doesn't. This is because BitCoin has no one backing it. If the dollar drops, well the US is backing it; and they will be forced to deal with the consequ…

> If someone pulls the rug out on BitCoin- might never happen, but who knows- then no one is responsible. How might someone go about doing this?

Actually quite easily. If your nation bans the trading of bitcoins for the official state currency, then you have a problem. Regardless of the fact that bitcoins can be transferred w/o outside observation is irrelevant if you can't purchase or trade for goods and services. And at that point, you're either black market, or you're fucked.
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