I'm a tad paranoid about smart contracts malfunctioning, or unexpected results due to network congestion. MakerDAO's "Black Thursday" comes to mind. If you want to lend bitcoins, I don't think there are any non-custodial options. The closest thing would be lending WBTC on a decentralized platform like Fulcrum. Same here. I've consistently heard about smart contracts flaws in the news. I just can't trust one that hasn't stood the test of time. Also as far as I've seen the yield rates are significantly lower for WBTC than on centralized platforms. Maybe if we would have a respected audit company that could certify and insure the solidity of the code, I would use it. Until then it is too big of a risk for me. |
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Bitcoin is still not a common subject of discussion in my country. Of course it has a niche, but I think we won't see real adoption until we see stores accepting it. Until then, we'll only see accumulation by informed people and institutions. What we can all do is to help our acquaintances with information. No need to do persuassive work. Just spread the information. The ones who will take the time to study the phenomenon will know what to do.  |
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Yea... so if someone has a million dollars and put it in gemini and buy Gusd for example... well they are going to earn 8.6 percent interest or 86000 usd a year right and they don't have to be concerned of fluctuations... but being custodial... isn't it still safe since well its with gemini?
How much trust can you put in a company? Gemini is a trusted institution in the crypto space and they are a licensed business with quite a lot of security credentials, but that does not mean it is fail-proof. As long as your deposit is not covered by FDIC you can't consider it as being 100% safe. That's why I encourage you to practice good risk management and don't put your whole net worth into the savings account. Can you afford to lose the whole hypothetical $1M in the case of a hack or in the unfortunate situation Gemini goes bankrupt? |
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Bitcoin has gone through 11 years since its inception and has experienced ups and downs, but Bitcoin now stands at the pinnacle of cryptocurrencies, it's not the strongest technology, but it has the highest market cap, what do you think caused this?
In my view it has the strongest technology. It does not "YET" have all the bells and whistles like an easy way to create smart contracts and sidechains, BUT it has stood the test of time. The properties of Bitcoin are more than enough to replace our current way of making payment and storing value. The rest is just a bonus. Briefly, I'd say that Bitcoin is the best designed cryptocurrency. |
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I bet there are still plenty of people out there that trade XRP and haven't even heard about the lawsuit. Others might think this is a good R:R trade if Ripple Labs manages to somehow win the case which is very unlikely. Others are just purebred gamblers haha
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If a year ago I bought $100,000 of GUSD at $1 each, I would have 100,000 GUSD. If I then gave them to BlockFi to gamble "invest" on my behalf, then today (assuming nothing went wrong) I will have 108,600 GUSD worth $108,600.
If a year ago I bought $100,000 of bitcoin at $8,000 each, I would have 12.5 BTC. If I then held them in my own wallet, then today I would definitely still have 12.5 BTC worth $437,500.
I see what you were referring to now. But then again it all resumes to managing risk: - In terms of historical returns, nothing beats Bitcoin for sure.
- Perhaps it is wiser to have some fiat compounding as well and not keep everything in BTC.
- I think a % based portfolio allocation strategy should be employed. For me these lending platforms are somehow similar to P2P lending where you lend money to different projects, so I think even a 30% allocation in any of these digital finance platforms (as long as they are not insured by a financial authority, is too aggressive)
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If you are happy with all those risks and potentially losing $100,000, then go ahead. I for one wouldn't touch it, especially when you can make better fiat returns just by holding bitcoin securely yourself.
Agree with you regarding Tether. Holding a stablecoin whose backing is insured by a third-party exposes you to unnecessary risks - why not just hodl the fiat instead... You can't really make better fiat returns by just holding BTC. Blockfi pays interest in-kind so you actually get a surplus of 6% annual return on top of the against-fiat appreciation. Yes, there are risks involved and everybody needs to decide for themselves if this type of investment is for them. Although they are not regulated by FDIC, a lot of investment firms allocated capital in this venture. So you can't look at like at a Seychelles island, off-shore bucket shop. They're also properly licensed in U.S. for providing money transmitting services so they have to respect certain regulations regarding who they work with. |
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Some of this media campaigns are likely to be orchestrated by institutional investors who need to fill their position. You see... having big pockets has its disadvantages. They need to engineer liquidity from somewhere and they do it by creating bearish sentiment. Retail investors bite the trap and they feed into their positions. My suggestion: be careful about where you place your stop losses.
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Bigger volatility does not necessarilly imply bigger results (negative or positive). It all depends on the strategy the trader/investor is using. Forex is quite "peaceful" in terms of volatility, but when you're using leverage a 1% move could represent a 20% move for you.
Someone who is successful at trading stocks does not necessarily mean he will do as good in crypto and vice-versa. There are millions of strategies one can employ on the markets.
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My advice dont waste your time working on 8-9 slave job
Sell your house and car and invest its your once life time opportunity !
Bitcoin is a great opportunity and you should try to profit from it, but you shouldn't sell your life to profit. Investing in cryptocurrencies still involves a high level of risk. Would you sell your house to buy gold or a company on the stock market? - Most likely NOT. Instead I encourage you to be a mindful investor, set your priorities and goals and only then decide how much of your net worth you wish to allocate in Bitcoin. |
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I'd say that you should have a specific percent of your investments portfolio allocated to Bitcoin, but remember that anything you see in this forum is not meant to be financial advice. Keep that percentage in check so if anything happens to your BTC holdings it won't affect you too bad. In other words, get your emotions out of this game.
Most of the posts here are biased obviously. You need to establish why do you want to put your money into BTC. You can't say you're doing it just for the historical gains - that's speculating, not investing.
For example I think institutions are now getting their feet wet into BTC because they started realising this could be a paradigm shift in the way people around the world look at value. The scarcity and the features of this cryptocurrency make it a better mean of payment.
If you think BTC is worth more than Gold, compare the market caps. You will notice one of them is considerably lower than the other.
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I find Bitcoin to be the best combination between hedging your assets and compounding. Because it is so scarce and underrated compared to other type of assets, it offers great opportunities for compounding your investment. I've seen a recent statistic which shows that the average annual return from 2016 until the present has been 244%. That growth is mind-blowing for any kind of investor, beginner or experienced.
I think people should buy a shirt if they like it, but have a clear delimitation between their spending and investment money.
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Gambling shouldn't be a preoccupation for a mayor no matter in which city. For 4 years he was playing with the campaign money.  Just think about how many other and surely bigger cases are out there. I I believe that the increase of transparency in public institutions is a must to relieve the world from the burden of corruption. Blockchain and the decentralization of power is the obvious way to accomplish this. It is certainly not fair. The juridical system should be much harsher when it comes to public money. |
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I have picked up a rule of thumb from someone I respect really much: Do not ask or listen to advices coming from a person who is not where you want to be.
So it is common sense to not listen to someone who does not have a good track record in investing. Even in that case, you need to take into account their area of expertise. Always question the trustworthiness of the source. Buffett does not believe in Bitcoin and its value proposition and he missed on some pretty hefty returns so far.
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@Montane we are in a free market so the law of supply and demand dictates the price of Bitcoin. The forces that act on the markets are quite complex and dynamic changing from a moment to another.
When buyers overpower sellers, the price grows and vice-versa. If you are interested I recommend reading some economy and business books. Financial education is worth your time, I assure you.
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Precious metals are a very fragile proof-of-value. They aren't "that scarce". After all we can't know how many tons are still in the Earth and if we're going to find Gold on Mars or different asteroids.
Space colonization is almost part of our present. With the current advancements I expect people to live on Mars until 2030.
If gold could be created out of copper or through a synthesis of cheap materials and the use of chemicals, it could soon become obsolete and all that capitalization could pour into Bitcoin.
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Bitcoin is dying and you could be among those who are killing it. In 2010 Laszlo paid 10,000 bitcoins for a pizza. We all know this story but how many of us understand it? Do you think Laszlo didn't see potential in Bitcoin? He could have hodl and sell it off, but, he made that transaction to prove a point; to prove that Bitcoin is actually a currency. But since the price skyrocketed, only a few care about the sole aim of the currency. Everyone is "buying the dip", or "Investing some $$" in Bitcoin, and that is killing Bitcoin. The average person today sees bitcoin as an investment. Are we really turing this Cryptocurrency into a Crypto Asset?!
A way of making more money due to the price speculation. With every new investor believing this, I hate to say this but, Bitcoin is dying. I know that the chances of Bitcoin's price dropping so bad are small. But if it happens, if it ever happens, a lot of people will lose, a lot will pull out, a lot will tag us scam, a lot will (out of anger) say that we are centralized, and a lot would never know or participate in the real use of Bitcoin. We need to figure this out before it becomes too late.
If the price of Bitcoin is increasing it does not mean that the world is killing it. It is quite the opposite. Think about it... Every asset or currency value is driven by supply and demand. The fact that fiat currencies are somehow stable is because of the interventions the governments make in the market. When you can't interfere with the supply and demand of the market by printing more currency or using other monetary policies, you get a more fair value dictated by the forces of the market. Nobody stops you to use Bitcoin as a payment method, but is that the right thing to do when it swings multiple percentages each day? - You will have to decide that. |
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Pretty mindblowing to watch a currency rise from its infancy until this point, isn't it? I believe this is only the beginning. Think about it... Apple, Google, Berkshire and all the other blue chips out there haven't acquired any BTC on their balance sheet yet. They are staying on huge piles of cash so you can imagine that once they start stacking, we won't see 5 figures anymore. |
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The majority of people purchase gold because it has been a successful hedging asset for thousands of years. The thing is we are now in a very different era, people don't get it. Gold might soon become an obsolete proof-of-value asset. The resource is scarce, but we still have plenty of it to mine. It is not portable and its use in industry is not essential.
Bitcoin on the other hand is scarce by design, highly portable and offers freedom from the system + a viable alternative to the traditional payment system.
From my perspective, Bitcoin is the clear winner here.
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When looking to liquidate such a big holding you need to consider several things:
1) Don't sell them on a single exchange or if you really want try looking for an OTC deal. Market selling $1M worth of BTC is likely to create some slippage.
2) Use a reputable exchange. If it is regulated by some financial authority - even better. You don't want your wealth trapped in a virtual account on some shady website, but that's common sense.
3) Check your bank AML and AT policy. If you withdraw a big amount at the same time, they might call you and ask a few questions before releasing your funds.
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