Bitcoin Forum

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Recently I made a decision to just stand pat re my BTC holdings.  I had made various experiments into buying gold (from veldtgold.com here at bitcointalk) and providentmetals.com, both of them gave me good & rapid service when paying by Bitcoin.

But, my wife is less-than-enchanted with me buying more gold, so I will just HODL the rest of my BTC "pile", and wait to see what happens in the near and medium term future.

I am inclined to believe that BTC will likely go higher from here, with a lesser chance of going much higher, but I have less insight into that than many BTC veterans and experts.

So, I will just sit on the sidelines now, and cheer the BTC price on up.  If ti reaches very high numbers, I will re-evaluate my HODL, and turn them back into CA$H or gold.  In other words, my BTC are now in "strong hands", I am not going to let them go.

You probably have as much insight into the future of bitcoin prices as the "veterans and experts" as you call them. The reality is that no one knows what the future holds for the price. Adoption drives all growth, period. If you want to influence the price, spend some time introducing new people to the currency and investment.

I'd love to know how big your pile is...

just hold it and wait 10 years. that is probably a better choice than buying gold.

by the way: in the meantime you can study it further  :)

Hold hasn't worked for the last year
That said seeing how its treading and stable at least it looks that way to me
Speculation wise I think its not a bad position to stay in.

I am in the same position OP. Even though I know that's impossible to predict this thing, I feel and I think that the chances for success are bigger than the chances for a failure. That's enough to me to allocate a percentage of my savings and give Bitcoin a chance.

So yes, I am now pretty much enjoying a ride and watching from the sidelines. We'll see in the next couple of years where will this bring us.

Good luck to us all! :)

i would rather buying real bitcoin made from gold than holding a bitcoin for 10 years , because the rate of gold always increase

are you sure about this, gold peak is long gone since age, the current price is a shadow of it, i doubt the price of gold is always up

it's stagnation at its finest

I also diversify my investments into different commodities, and different levels of risk. {High / medium / low} My BTC stash fall under medium risk for now.. I am not sure about

many of the indicators I use to determine the risk level. My biggest concern at the moment being the competition, Private Blockchains and development uncertainties.

I should in theory never lose everything in one collapse, because it's spread over too many different commodities... but nothing is 100% bulletproof.  

I value gold more than bitcoins TBH as Gold isn't just a commodity for me but it is more like a protection for my family and is more valuable than bitcoins. I am not being a pessimist but I don't think the price will reach even $500 in the next 2-3 years. It may go upto $400 but chances are very low going by the current trend.

Well, are you betting gold will double in value in the next few years? I think gold is a good store of value, but unless a gold shortage happen, the value will most not likely raise by all that much.

If BTC goes up to only 400$, then that is a great investment to make right now. But if you wish for physical good that will merely retain their value, then gold/silver and toilet paper it is.

Only future will tell you if this was right decision. I am following the same and try to keep as much I can. Looking forward, but it`s hard to predict what will happen.

No one knows about the future, so although the supply is reduce but need a more demand to make a price rise.


Agree, especially to merchant, store, and hotel.

I think we can't guess right now if the price of Bitcoin will increase in the future as we wish or not, so holding Bitcoin may working as we expect and perhaps it will not working.
Anyway we can hold some of our Bitcoins and spend the remaining amounts

Like I said earlier, gold is not just a commodity for me that just have a value but we also have jewelry made of gold and that's worth much more than the bitcoins I hold in a wallet. I am almost 100% sure that Gold being used for the past 100 years will continue to hold value for another 100 years but will Bitcoins be able to survive so long? It would make me look delusional if I say that bitcoins would last for so long. About doubling the price, it's just a guess that the price would be $400 after 2-3 years but if we take into account the price in 2013, now the price is 25% the value it was then. If the price does reach $400, it would still be a loss for those who bought bitcoins when it was worth $1000. On the other hand, the price of gold has not reached -75% of its amount in 2013 (1 kg is now worth $38,532 and the percentage difference in 2 years is -10% approximately) . The price is stable which matters a lot while we decide what's preferred Gold or Bitcoins.

Why should anyone care about 100 years? It's your next 20-40 that count. That being the case I'd rather be taking a moderated risk on BTC. Inflation adjusted, gold's all time high was three and a half decades ago.

Which is fine, like i said, Gold is a good store of value. But unlike BTC, its not a risk investment that can raise in value greatly. Yes it can also drop in value. The price volatility is good for making money, but it is not a good store of value.

So go ahead with Gold if you want to store value not using volatile currency like USD and BTC. And hold BTC if you're willing to risk your money hoping that BTC succeed.

If you don't think the price of Bitcoin will rise very much but you refuse to use it to make purchases but instead just hold on to it that's a self fulfilling prophesy. By not using Bitcoin everyday you are guaranteeing that Bitcoin never has any value to merchants which will decrease its market value.

We already have enough businesses that have stopped accepting Bitcoin. We don't need people to stop attempting to spend it too.

http://time.com/money/3658361/dell-microsoft-expedia-bitcoin/

http://www.newsbtc.com/2015/10/04/bitcoin-takes-a-back-seat-in-australia-merchants-stop-accepting-it/

http://bitcoinvalue.net/reasons-behind-the-2015-catastrophic-bitcoin-price-crash/

Exactly. Too many people nowadays just store large amounts of bitcoins into cold wallets; you guys need to understand that the value of bitcoins depends on the people who use bitcoins. If everyone decides to not use them, then were would we be?

 :D im doing exactly what you're doing. But i think im in it for the extremely long run, ill be hodling my coins for atleast 10 years from now, or until bitcoin dies. lets just hope it's not the latter  :(.

Very good and wise decision according to me. The only wrong you have made is the use of it before for those bought. Now just sit and wait. Or wait and see. Only to tell and not to give you mind I have taken this decision time ago. I'm happy to find a friend. Only that me have intention to wait and see about it in long term and not in the near and medium term. I will follow it for sure (I am doing this every day) but I will not use it nor in the near and nor in medium future period.

Meh, gold has been a nice example of price stagnation for a couple of years. Bitcoin is probably one of the better options if you want a nice investment to hold on for years to come.

That's what even I was trying to say that Gold is a physical item while bitcoins is just a virtual currency. Tomorrow if Gold is worth nothing, I'll atleast be holding a real commodity unlike bitcoins that are just virtual. I want to own PHYSICAL bitcoins and not something virtual in comparison.

That's the right decision IMO.
Buying gold with BTC you are doing just like many generations before you, they all were buying gold to save their earnings. But investing in BTC, holding it hoping that the price will go up you are up to the whole new level.
Investing in BTC is investing in the future.

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Very interesting replies!

I believe (will check later) that the ONLY thing I have bought with BTC is gold.  I already have a lot more gold by value than BTC (BTC is a little under 1% of what I hold).

An issue with spending BTC for me is that there are few products/services that I would want that are available for BTC...

But, I will HODL my BTC as a great long-term speculation.

This. The best a man can do now for his portfolio is stack and stack like a madman. 10 year is the magic time period to hold it and wait for huge things to happen, and in the meantime you may sell a bit if you are feeling lucky into predicting a bubble (for example, the incoming halving). Other than that just hold it imo.

Gold is still a good investment if I am to be asked, I think holding Bitcoins for a long time is not a good idea anymore, we have seen the roller coaster changes of its value and I think we have seen the best price of it already, it will never go back to it's glory days anymore.

+1 Gold is a good store of value. If something happened to the internet like a solar flare took out the world's computers, then gold would still be around I can still trade it for other stuff. Bitcoin is more for investing due to its volatility while gold can be forever.

Just wait and watch it will go beyond  $1000 next year

Why do you think it will go beyond $1,000 mark by next year?
It won't even touch the $300 mark for the past few weeks since the Bitcoin XT story started making its rounds and recently it reached $250 because of some pump and dump groups out there.

A lot of people are speculating that the next block reward halving will cause the price of Bitcoin to skyrocket. IMO it won't happen.

Yes I've heard of that story line, last time I heard from a friend here it will reach $350 - $400
But I don't see any reason why it will go to that level, but who knows, Bitcoin really is unpredictable
Another exchange site maybe launched in a couple of months and make some pump and dump act and may help increase the price a little bit, but not $1,000. However, I'll be a happy camper if ever that happens.

Hold it till the 2020 block reward halving. You will have a pretty good idea about where Bitcoin is headed at that point.
I will be holding till that point too. No matter what the price is, I plan to liquidate only half of my stock.

You clearly have no idea what you'r'e talking about. Gold has been the 'gold standard' as a medium of exchange for thousands of years. If you look at gold's history, there has been hugely volatile rides in price throughout the years.

https://www.tradingview.com/x/0gCBfwtm/

Check this chart out of GOLD during the 80's boom and subsequent decline..

Even though gold is a global commodity, it really is in the control of very few entities. The scale of their games is simply much larger. But the end goal exactly the same.

At the end of the day, where you choose to put your money is up to you, each and every asset is exposed to 'market forces' whether its Commodities, currencies or stocks. Some just fluctuate less on smaller time frames. If you zoom out and look at the bigger picture, there's always a bunch of people getting screwed. In a zero-sum game, there's only very few winners, and those exact wins are on the backs of the majority losing.

I'm in the same boat as you OP, just hoping the BTC Price conctinues to climb. Just watched it jump from 244 to 252.8 so that's pretty dank.

Gold will retain value no matter what happen, short of human extinction. While fiat or any currency really that has no value by itself has risks. The US economy could collapse, BTC could get attacked in a big scale way by governments, etc.

I am not checking the price worth 20 years back as Gold is a medium of exchange since the 18th century. It was just an example and I dint get what you are trying to say. The comparison was Gold and bitcoins and which is more worth while I haven't eliminated the risk factor that exists in both the physical commodity as well as virtual one. For me it's Gold that's what I said whether or not the price fluctuates is not a concern for me.

You have taken a very wise and good decision. You seems to be strong believer of bitcoin but you have not consider to hold your all of the bitcoins hoping the price will go up which is a very safe decision. I think july of 2016 will be the month to decide on buying or selling our bitcoins.

I think in basic, having Gold or bitcoins is same. But ofcourse it is different. I suggest you to also look elsewhere. But maybe in near future, Bitcoin and Gold might be best to have, so you need to just sit and relax.

Predictions are not easy OP..they are always hard..I would say you have done right and should hold as much bitcoins as you can..
Furthermore investment in anything is risky but we should have patience :) My advice is hold and wait till mid season of next year to see the result..I am sure prices will be up and then sell and buy something for you wife  :P

But if everybody holds onto it, it's going to be a pretty crappy currency because nobody will spend or accept it.

The market is still young and many people are waiting for new buyers to come into the market. There are billions of people out there and only a small percentage use bitcoins.

The miners have bills to pay.
They will pay for their purchases with bitcoins, or sell it at exchanges.  ;)

As a miner i buy all my hardware with Bitcoin as well and stuff like power bars, PSU's surge protectors, cables wires and pretty much everything with BTC. Then i spend the little BTC i have left and buy living necessities out of it. Most of it never hit my bank account and since there is no capital gain, it is not considered income in Canada.

Yup. I think that's the most sensible strategy. Lots of noise, issues and wrinkles to iron in the short term. If there isn't a clear path upwards by then I'm not sure there'll ever be one.

Basically what we need right now is more people embracing bitcoin as a valid and CONVENIENT payment option, that will drive the price up.
Right now the community is a circlejerk of altcoin scammers (maybe i'm exaggerating but it is something you see everyday on this forum).
These development uncertainties that bitcoin suffers don't help either.
Bitcoin can offer so much for those whose local currency is under threat of devaluation.

The thing about hodling and waiting for moon is; if and when btc is worth 6 digits and more it will also be accepted almost universally so you would have no reason to cash out. Your buying power would be in btc and you could pay for everything with btc. That's also when the banks will collapse.

I can't wait too

Your strategy seems quite reasonable. I like gold too, but you already have some, so holding BTC looks quite good. Congratulations.

You will probably be hacked by some hacker.they are always on the lookout for hefty purses

Yes its an interesting phenomena.

Males are money earners, women are money spenders.

Males want to earn more money by sometimes excessively taking risks, while women are more financial conservatives, trying to look for realistic gains and preserve status quo.

Better listen to your wife now, and keep your risk low, because you probably bought tons of them.