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Bitcoin: Be prepared to lose all your money, FCA warns consumers

theguardian.com

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Re: Bitcoin: Be prepared to lose all your money, FCA warns consumers

#121

Post by leppr »

jbay808 wrote: post #81
thekyle wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a relevant quote apparently from the 1920s. "Taxi drivers told you what to buy. The shoeshine boy could give you a summary of the day's financial news as he worked with rag and polish. An old beggar who regularly patrolled the street in front of my office now gave me tips and, I suppose, spent the money I and others gave him in the market. My cook had a brokerage account and followed the ticker closely. Her…

But these days we do expect every cook and taxi driver to be in the market, because dollars in a savings account are getting returns below inflation.

That's the real tragedy of this uncontrolled fiat money printing. Any way you cut it, the poorer one is, the lower the % of assets to cash one owns (all the way to 0). Small bouts of token helicopter money don't fix this. Bitcoin doesn't fix this.

Re: Bitcoin: Be prepared to lose all your money, FCA warns consumers

#122

Post by leppr »

zorbash wrote: post #78
tebbers wrote: post #40

In London they are advertising bitcoin on the side of buses and in the Underground with the slogan 'when you see bitcoin on the side of a bus, it's time to buy'. I thought that was outrageous and actually was a sign to sell. I mentioned this to a foreign exchange trader friend and we even finished each other's sentence with the above!

I've seen that, it's so scammy. I feed bad for people who'll fall for it. What can we do to improve financial literacy so that nobody ever takes investing advice from a bus ad?

Increased financial literacy is precisely why people are drawn to Bitcoin. If Bitcoin didn't exist, there'd simply be a mad rush on stocks and gold (well, there has been one).

The media has spent years teaching people about what happens in countries with high inflation, and people are now rightfully scared it's coming to their countries too.

Re: Bitcoin: Be prepared to lose all your money, FCA warns consumers

#123

Post by leppr »

cryptopia wrote: post #109
afavour wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depends how much spare money you have.

If you don't live in the 3rd world, there is in any case a high likelihood that you can earn it back. It is on the scale of a months salary, not years.

Have you ever heard of the term "disposable income"? There's a reason it's a separate concept from non-disposable income.

Re: Bitcoin: Be prepared to lose all your money, FCA warns consumers

#124

Post by WhoCaresLies »

prionassembly wrote: post #41
WhoCaresLies wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

buy bitcoin then, go ahead, you can buy everything with bitcoin right?

If it appreciates indefinitely in value, yes. I have a huge box full of precious photography film. Slide stock, Kodak Portra, beautiful B&W by Ilford... I should store it in a freezer but that would make holding costs high, and there's a going market for good and bad film at any condition (there's CVS-brand film on ebay)... These rolls have the capacity to produce beautiful imagery in my incapable hands, and I know t…

go ahead then, why people want the approval of random people on the internet

that is what's weird with bitcoin weirdos, just buy and stfu, PLEASE

Re: Bitcoin: Be prepared to lose all your money, FCA warns consumers

#125

Post by tommit »

cubano wrote: post #85

I have 0.75BTC locked away in an encrypted distributed Android wallet that I am unable to remember the password for. I received this BTC from an amazing soul here on HN (again, THANK YOU so much for that blessing if you are reading this!) who, after I wrote up a blog post about how I was arrested without any probable cause in Las Vegas, so very generously sent it to me after asking if it could "be of use?." BTW, the…

I'm sorry but what makes you think that cracking a BTC wallet is as easy as contracting a reputable service? The fact that you think this is the way to go makes me believe that you did not bother to read up on crypto/BTC, even after you got burnt badly by misplacing your password.

Re: Bitcoin: Be prepared to lose all your money, FCA warns consumers

#126

Post by esja »

me_me_me wrote: post #115
esja wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've just dug a hole in my back garden, and created 21 million tiny slices of air that now occupy that space. It took work to dig this hole, so it definitely has value. And I'm only digging one hole, ever, I promise. I've also made a list of people who own the different bits of air in the hole. I'm using pencil and paper, but it works. If you give me some money I can write your name on there and you can "store value"…

That's such a crude reductionist argument that I can smell the sent of arrogance and mockery, and I am not sure if response is warranted. Especially since your simile has rather gaping holes in it. Actually thinking about it... ironically your example is better description of fiat currency than btc. Use low resource output to generate cheap tokens that will be loosely tracked by 'One True Government', and people agre…

Is there a reason you believe Bitcoin has value, aside from "other people believe it has value"?

Re: Bitcoin: Be prepared to lose all your money, FCA warns consumers

#127

Post by esja »

alwillis wrote: post #116
nabla9 wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All assets have value store abilities. BTC is arguably bad value store. Value changes too much. When you need to withdraw the money you can lose or wing big. TIPS (Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities) are good value store. You neither lose nor gain.

You're definitely losing. Inflation of things you actually want and need is 10-15% per year and if you're not keeping pace with that, you're losing. TIPS can't help you with real world inflation. Look at housing, medical care, higher education, quality food—these items are increasing in cost every year by more than the fictitious 2% CPI the government aims for. Being a store of value doesn't mean the value of somethi…

And what sort of rates will you pay on those loans? Quite a bit more than 2%, I would imagine. And what happens to those loans if the price of Bitcoin falls dramatically, as it has done quite frequently?

Re: Bitcoin: Be prepared to lose all your money, FCA warns consumers

#128

Post by me_me_me »

esja wrote: post #126
me_me_me wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's such a crude reductionist argument that I can smell the sent of arrogance and mockery, and I am not sure if response is warranted. Especially since your simile has rather gaping holes in it. Actually thinking about it... ironically your example is better description of fiat currency than btc. Use low resource output to generate cheap tokens that will be loosely tracked by 'One True Government', and people agre…

Is there a reason you believe Bitcoin has value, aside from "other people believe it has value"?

Is there a reason you believe USD, EUR etc. has value, aside from "other people believe it has value"?

Bitcoin at least has a utility built into it, facilitating transfers and 100% guarantee that limited amounts of btc can be created.

Fiat currencies and btc are not the same but the underlying principle is the same. Demand and supply. If there is no demand its value will plummet.

2007 crash cause swiss frank to sky rocket in value. For no other reason then international crowd started buying franks to store their wealth in it not USD.

Re: Bitcoin: Be prepared to lose all your money, FCA warns consumers

#129

Post by esja »

me_me_me wrote: post #128
esja wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there a reason you believe Bitcoin has value, aside from "other people believe it has value"?

Is there a reason you believe USD, EUR etc. has value, aside from "other people believe it has value"? Bitcoin at least has a utility built into it, facilitating transfers and 100% guarantee that limited amounts of btc can be created. Fiat currencies and btc are not the same but the underlying principle is the same. Demand and supply. If there is no demand its value will plummet. 2007 crash cause swiss frank to sky r…

There are many obvious reasons to believe fiat currencies have value. But perhaps the most obvious one is that having and using fiat currency is required by 99.9% of people in order to stay alive. Staying alive is quite valuable.

Re: Bitcoin: Be prepared to lose all your money, FCA warns consumers

#130

Post by me_me_me »

esja wrote: post #129
me_me_me wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there a reason you believe USD, EUR etc. has value, aside from "other people believe it has value"? Bitcoin at least has a utility built into it, facilitating transfers and 100% guarantee that limited amounts of btc can be created. Fiat currencies and btc are not the same but the underlying principle is the same. Demand and supply. If there is no demand its value will plummet. 2007 crash cause swiss frank to sky r…

There are many obvious reasons to believe fiat currencies have value. But perhaps the most obvious one is that having and using fiat currency is required by 99.9% of people in order to stay alive. Staying alive is quite valuable.

No, to stay alive you need oxygen, water and food.

eh... you are shifting the goalposts and not addressing any of my points. I am done continuing fighting another windmill.

you win btc is scam usd is real. Have a great day.

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