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Spot Bitcoin ETF receives official approval from the SEC

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Re: Spot Bitcoin ETF receives official approval from the SEC

#371
post #293

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We’re still below the all time highs of about $68K so will need 3 more years to see if that theory plays out.

That's silly. Anyone who's dollar cost averaging bitcoin buys over a long period of time has been incredibly well rewarded. BTC is up 146% over the last 12 months, and up 15x (!) over the last 5 years. Even if you were slow and naïve and only jumped at the 2021 all-time high, and kept buying during the next 12 months (as one should when an asset you like goes down), you'd have made your money back and then some.

Dollar cost averaging and “Any 5+ year holding” are not the same thing.

Re: Spot Bitcoin ETF receives official approval from the SEC

#372

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The whole premise of burning energy just for “proof of work” is what I hate. I work in architecture and year after year the industry is pushing to squeeze every last bit of energy efficiency out of everything. Meanwhile bitcoin is like “BURN SOME COAL TO ACCOMPLISH LITERALLY NOTHING USEFUL! AND KEEP DOING IT FOREVER!” And the crypto people will always bring up “Mining gold just to make gold bars is a waste of energy…

> I work in architecture and year after year the industry is pushing to squeeze every last bit of energy efficiency out of everything. So is the entire bitcoin mining industry, it is built into their ROI. Have you not noticed the J/Ghash ratio over the years?

> Have you not noticed the J/Ghash ratio over the years?

This is completely irrelevant because the protocol is designed to scale difficulty with the hashrate. The only benefit of improving J/Ghash is to get a leg up on other bitcoin miners.

Re: Spot Bitcoin ETF receives official approval from the SEC

#374
post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a fair amount of ill-placed arrogance. It seems that the majority on this board confidently and incorrectly believe that they know all there really is to know about bitcoin. Essentially that it's a scam that wastes energy. If you try to help them understand, you're generally attacked as if you are shill, and then they continue along in their ignorant bubble. It's a shame, but their attitude isn't conducive to…

Bitcoin itself is a scam that wastes energy. Without custodial ownership, scam transactions are resolved no different than legitimate ones. Without diligent regulation, Bitcoin's power usage can easily balloon beyond what any single institution would consider appropriate. Both of those things are demonstrably true, and providing Bitcoin ETFs via regulated exchanges changes neither one.

Lol power usage is such a strawman argument. 1% of all electricity in USA is used watching Netflix but you don't hear people complaining. But running a global permissionless decentralised store of value currency network should supposedly be "super cheap" or it's an environmental disaster and must be stopped.

Re: Spot Bitcoin ETF receives official approval from the SEC

#375

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The fact that Spot Bitcoin ETFs were ever contemplated into existence just shows the general insanity of crypto. Why is it the insanity of crypto? The action is entirely established interests putting a wrapper around crypto. How do you suppose a large fund should purchase bitcoin? They specialize in markets, not wallet management. Many also do not hold their own cash individually and entrust institutions.

> Many also do not hold their own cash individually and entrust institutions. Because literally the entire point of crypto is to not have to "entrust institution". Like the entire bitcoin protocol is built around the concept of trustlessness. If you're going to start "trusting institutions", you can do away with a huge part of the complexity (and gargantuan energy usage) of Bitcoin.

Bitcoin isn't directing companies to start ETF's, nor is it trusting institutions. It's just a protocol. Institutions came, bought Bitcoin and are selling it to investors.

I suppose if those institutions were worthy of trust then there wouldn't be such high demand for Bitcoin's gargantuan energy usage in the first place.

Re: Spot Bitcoin ETF receives official approval from the SEC

#376
post #7

all it took was a judge declaring the SEC’s prior view toward bitcoin ETFs to be arbitrary and capricious and the SEC thinking about appealing but realizing this absolutely based SCOTUS would delete the SEC like Thanos if they ever get taken beyond circuit appeals court by the private sector markets win

fr... on god, this BTC ETF is bussin

Re: Spot Bitcoin ETF receives official approval from the SEC

#377

The strong anti-Bitcoin sentiment on HN is still amusing. It goes way back - 13 years or more. Having read many of these negative comments, I think part of this sentiment boils down to the commenter seeing no point to Bitcoin. Just this thread has examples. It must be more than a little annoying to feel very strongly that Bitcoin is pointless, but to also notice that it's still here. Year after year. If that shoe wer…

There's probably more comments promoting and defending Bitcoin on HN than ones questioning it. The question I have is why do commenters feel the need to respond to any comment about Bitcoin that is not a (sometimes subtle) promotion or defense of it. A reasonable person might think it's because Bitcoin is only valuable if increasingly more and more people buy it. If it's not increasingly popular or if, God forbid, ev…

> No one can simply state "I am not interested in Bitcoin" in a discussion without triggering some "response". Regardless of the merits of Bitcoin, or absence of them, that is fscked up. Red flag.

Lol this is ridiculous. If you popped up on a hacker news thread about abortion rights and said "I am not interested in abortion rights" would you also say it is a "red flag" regardless of the merits (or lack of merits) of abortion?

If you truly have no interest then lurk. But if you choose to talk (noone is forcing you to!) then don't be surprised at responses.

Re: Spot Bitcoin ETF receives official approval from the SEC

#378

I think it's easy to be cynical. But one major reason I'm a believer in decentralized consensus is because I think it can make the silo'd financial systems of the world as seamlessly interoperable as the Internet made the silo'd telecommunication systems of the world. It feels a lot like when AOL first started supporting email in 1993. It's easy to dismiss AOL and Nasdaq as highly centralized systems that don't align…

I think this is a large part of why many Americans in particular don't understand crypto. They already have access to the world's best financial system and all the protections of the state when using it.

Living in Australia and trying to invest in financial markets overseas is like pulling teeth sometimes, because every country has their own incompatible systems and local rules and regulations. And this is a developed well integrated country!

Crypto is the first time we have a global financial system that everyone can join without any one country being able to set the rules and control the system. This is extremely beneficial for countries that don't trust each other to be able to integrate and trade.

Re: Spot Bitcoin ETF receives official approval from the SEC

#379

The strong anti-Bitcoin sentiment on HN is still amusing. It goes way back - 13 years or more. Having read many of these negative comments, I think part of this sentiment boils down to the commenter seeing no point to Bitcoin. Just this thread has examples. It must be more than a little annoying to feel very strongly that Bitcoin is pointless, but to also notice that it's still here. Year after year. If that shoe wer…

This, 100%. Bitcoin has proven its value already, and it's the only tool we have against authoritarian governments that print money and steal as much as possible with taxes. You can ask people in Argentina or Venezuela about that.

Re: Spot Bitcoin ETF receives official approval from the SEC

#380

Bitcoin exists to solve the principal-agent problem that comes with delegating control of the money supply to singular institutions. If you look at the history of empires, from the Romans to the Han, it is littered with instances of societal decline as a direct result of inflation and overspending. This unilateral currency debasement is much harder if the collective (and global) definition of money is determined by d…

> societal decline as a direct result of inflation and overspending

Really? Direct? Pretty sure the Roman’s had many other things happening upstream of overspending.

Many things were going wrong.

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