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Poll: How many Bitcoin do you own?

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Poll: How many Bitcoin do you own?

#121

Post by rcfox »

sillysaurus2 wrote: post #27

The last time someone did this, they mistakenly used "0-5 BTC" as the lowest cutoff. You've made the same mistake. There should be "0-0.25", "0.25-0.5", "0.5-0.75", "0.75-1", "1-2", "2-3", "3-4", and "4-5". Extra poll options are better because now we've lost valuable information at the low end. In 20 minutes, 65 people say they own 0-5 BTC. That's anywhere from $0 to $1385. That's a massive range. We now have no ide…

Or use a logarithmic scale: 0 < x <= 0.1, 0.1 < x <= 0.3, 0.3 < x <= 1, 1 < x <= 3, 3 < x <= 10, 10 < x <= 30, ...

Re: Poll: How many Bitcoin do you own?

#123

Post by bobbygoodlatte »

InclinedPlane wrote: post #52

This whole poll just serves to illustrate the problems with bitcoin. Bitcoin is supposed to be a currency, but people are treating it like an investment. The more relevant statistic to bitcoin's popularity as a currency would be how many bitcoin transactions people have participated in over the past year.

It's also useful as a store of value. If you live in a country with an un-sound currency, Bitcoin is a compelling product.

Right now there's a good chance we're in a bubble. But that doesn't remove the fundamental value behind Bitcoin.

Re: Poll: How many Bitcoin do you own?

#124

Post by dwaltrip »

jaredstenquist wrote: post #70

I bought $1k worth at $36/coin. I sold it when it dropped to $6. I'll have to go long on the next cryptocurrency.

This is impossible. It never dropped to $6 after hitting $36. In fact, it never dropped below $30 after that point (March 2013). Did you mean $32 (June 2011)? That would be possible, but also extremely poor timing, as it was only at such a price for about 24 hours. With something as volatile as bitcoin, dollar cost averaging is your friend.

Re: Poll: How many Bitcoin do you own?

#125

Post by hnha »

Pitarou wrote: post #87
bdcravens wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just because it's rocking at this moment doesn't mean it isn't a bubble.

Yeah, but she said "no" when they were priced at $20-30. I fully understand the risks involved. Heck, my Economics degree makes me 1% more qualified than most people here to talk about how bubbles work. If I'd bought BTC, I'd have been more worried about technical problems. I don't claim to understand the system in depth, but I know that crypto-fails happen all the time. If an exploit is ever discovered, I wonder wha…

Your wife sounds smart, reasonable and down to earth. Congrats!

Re: Poll: How many Bitcoin do you own?

#126

Post by sireat »

dwaltrip wrote: post #124
jaredstenquist wrote: post #70

I bought $1k worth at $36/coin. I sold it when it dropped to $6. I'll have to go long on the next cryptocurrency.

This is impossible. It never dropped to $6 after hitting $36. In fact, it never dropped below $30 after that point (March 2013). Did you mean $32 (June 2011)? That would be possible, but also extremely poor timing, as it was only at such a price for about 24 hours. With something as volatile as bitcoin, dollar cost averaging is your friend.

Didn't it hit $36 in 2011 before the drop? Was 30+ then.

Re: Poll: How many Bitcoin do you own?

#127

Post by dwaltrip »

miguelrochefort wrote: post #108

I bought 10 BTC in April @ $220 each. The next day, it crashed to $150. I sold 5 BTC this week @ $220 each. The next day, it reached $280. I suck at this.

Figure out your opinion of bitcoin's long term potential value, the percentage of savings/portfolio you are comfortable risking, and then come up with a dollar cost averaging plan. Something like $X a week for 6-12 months would be decent. More months = you believe more strongly in its potential. Altho I wouldn't do less than 3 regardless, as bare minimum volatility mitigation.

Re: Poll: How many Bitcoin do you own?

#129

Post by dwaltrip »

paulhodge wrote: post #35

Zero.. I recently owned 10 but sold them all when the price jumped to $200. I guess I was too quick on the trigger, but what can you do. Will be buying again in about a month when this hype cycle dies off.

Are you trying to day trade? Are you a long term bull? You gotta come up with an investing plan :)

One potential solution to your problem is to do something like: sell Y% of my coins everytime the price increases by X%. An example would be sell 20% after each 50% rise (semi bullish plan. I also made those numbers up, don't consider them as specific advice).

Re: Poll: How many Bitcoin do you own?

#130

Post by dwaltrip »

sounds wrote: post #41
2muchcoffeeman wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What happens to the coin in your deleted wallet?

It is considered "lost forever" unless an enterprising hacker comes along and can create a private key which matches the wallet. You'll know if that happens, though, since the technique will obviously be used on the largest wallets first. Side note: interestingly, right now, the largest wallet appears to be Dread Pirate Roberts' seized bitcoins held by the FBI.

This is considered one of the most unbreakable aspects of bitcoin. It would take all the hashing power in the world something like 10^50 years to brute force the private key (a.k.a. ain't gonna happen). One cool thing, if the address has never been spent out of it (only received coins), it is theoretically still safe from quantum computers.
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