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You Asked When To Buy Bitcoin...Well Now's Your Chance

cryptojunky.com

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Re: You Asked When To Buy Bitcoin...Well Now's Your Chance

#12
I have a question that may sound stupid to Bitcoin aficionados, and yet is the first question that comes to my mind whenever I read something like this, and I'm asking it in all seriousness: why would I want to buy Bitcoin (given that I don't wish to profit from Bitcoin speculation)?

I get that there is some novelty to using an online crypto-currency. But other than the possible fun factor (which I don't expect to experience) what other reason would there be? Now, I'm not asking about Bitcoin's general merit as a currency. Personally, I believe currencies are better when regulated. But that's not what we're talking about. The question of using an unregulated, deflationary crypto-currency instead of "regular money" for most uses by a large population is a theoretical one at the moment, and will remain so for years to come. My question is about using Bitcoin casually now as a supplement to money. A vanishingly small number of vendors accept it. It is not more secure than money: I keep hearing about Bitcoins stolen from online "banks", and I wouldn't trust myself to keep it securely on my own machine. I don't intend to perform an illegal online transaction. So, why would I want to buy Bitcoin?

Re: You Asked When To Buy Bitcoin...Well Now's Your Chance

#14

History is littered with the corpses of "investors" in various assets who bought all the way down because "this is a great opportunity!" The exponential rise is price is always accepted as "rational", but the equally exponential fall is always explained as temporary or manipulation, or something. A lot of people made money in 2009 when the stock market was incredibly cheap. But it was cheap because there was tangible…

There's been no "investor" in the history of investment that made money by buying high and selling low.

Re: You Asked When To Buy Bitcoin...Well Now's Your Chance

#15
Please don't fall into these cheap speculations..Cryptocurrency itself proved that its pure speculation bubble and nothing else.Everybody saw that a few weeks ago when china central bank issued bans / warnings and the markets reaction to it.I believed in crypto currency until a month ago, but now i believe that it is literally impossible for it to take place of a daily currency.Just pump/dump games richer people getting rich, poorer people getting poor.Oh and don't expect it to be adopted by merchants/vendors as anyone who did lost money because of bitcoin's fluctuation..oh by the way out of my head i can assume that %80 of people that has bitcoin only cares about gaining fiat..

Re: You Asked When To Buy Bitcoin...Well Now's Your Chance

#16

When can I actually use Bitcoin as a currency rather than a speculative investment asset? That's when I want to buy Bitcoin.

What is "currency" for you? People refer to "currency" all the time as if it was one thing.

Cash is one kind of currency, plastic is another, bank account - yet another, savings - yet another. Converting between those is not instant and not free.

Bitcoin works OK as a bank account. That is "currency".

Re: You Asked When To Buy Bitcoin...Well Now's Your Chance

#17
The only problem here is that part of the run up was based on the sense that China was allowing Bitcoin to flourish. That's pretty powerful in the world's second largest economy with a suspect currency of it's own (highly manipulated for political purposes) If that market opportunity is now closing then that makes Bitcoin much less valuable (at least over the short term) Less demand = smaller price.

Re: You Asked When To Buy Bitcoin...Well Now's Your Chance

#19
I'm not convinced. Like gold, Bitcoin isn't an investment. Warren Buffet will tell you that investing is putting your money into something which creates real value, like a business. He would also tell you that you should stick to what you know, otherwise its just gambling. For me, that's investing my time and money into building my own income streams.

I don't really care that I could possibly get a return of 10x or more on my money in Bitcoin (or I could lose that much.) I could do the same with my businesses if I do them right, and having everything in Bitcoin would keep me from being able to allocate those resources elsewhere. While the rise in Bitcoin could be a one time thing before it stabilizes (or tanks,) my efforts elsewhere will provide me an income for a lifetime.

I'm more interested in using Bitcoin as a currency. A temporary hold for my most liquid assets which I can use to pay bills and other expenses. If I really believe in Bitcoin and want it to succeed, then I know I should try to run some of that activity on what's possible with Bitcoin now. The more mainstream and the larger the Bitcoin market, the more stable it should become. But I'm not interested in risking a large amount of assets to be a revolutionary or financial martyr.

ETA: To me, a currency is a place I can park my cash and know that it will hold approximately the same purchasing power as when I put it in there in the first place. I don't care to see it go up (as I said, I have other schemes for making it grow) and I really don't want it to go down. I just want it to be relatively stable. Living in the Philippines for a number of years and working with people around the world, there is 6 different currencies that regularly affect me or the people paying me. Since I have been here, the Peso has gained as much as 20% on the dollar. This sucks and it's not something I want to deal with. Bitcoin would drive me crazy.

Re: You Asked When To Buy Bitcoin...Well Now's Your Chance

#20
post #12

I have a question that may sound stupid to Bitcoin aficionados, and yet is the first question that comes to my mind whenever I read something like this, and I'm asking it in all seriousness: why would I want to buy Bitcoin (given that I don't wish to profit from Bitcoin speculation)? I get that there is some novelty to using an online crypto-currency. But other than the possible fun factor (which I don't expect to ex…

I can think of a few reasons... A new approach some merchants have taken is to accept only Bitcoin and thus eliminate payment processing fees. This leads to prices lower than their competitors can reach (stores such as Bitcoinstore.com and Bitcoinin.com). While the 2-3% may not matter much on small purchases, larger orders certainly will.

Another aspect is the peer to peer nature of Bitcoin. With Bitcoin you have the ability to send money to any other Bitcoiner, anywhere, instantly. That simply isn't present with traditional currencies. Now there are some inherent difficulties there. For instance, if I need to send money to my family on the other side of the country I can do it instantly, but they still need to be able to translate Bitcoin to whatever good/service they need. Currently that may require translating it into their local currency by some means, as not all that many local/physical merchants accept Bitcoin yet.

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