The announcement of 2025 Bitcointalk Annual Pumpkin Carving Contest e don drop again, carve your pumpkin neat and look good. Make you read di rules well before joining di contest. Just prepare for the main contest. This an announcement thread.


ANN - 2025 Bitcointalk Annual Pumpkin Carving Contest organizer: ChiBitCTy

And this is why the DCA method is considered the best and most effective method for investing in Bitcoin, an investor should never wait for the right time to start investing in Bitcoin, because he will never find the right time, but as a result he will only miss more opportunities. The right decision is to invest consistently, regardless of the market fluctuations. if you wait for buy a little dip, then you will miss more better opportunities to buy, because you will wait for the price to decrease, but the price will rise even higher, and this is the volatility and uncertainty of Bitcoin, so such decisions should never be made, be consistent in investing without worrying too much about unexpected market fluctuations, then the portfolio will continue to grow in the most advantageous way.

You are right , i think in terms of long term discipline and understanding matters, the difference between going far investing and reaching the over accumulation stage, any one who understand that the time in the market  is more important than timing the market. the longer you hold through market cycle the more you might like benefit from your compound growth.
I get your point, but I don’t fully agree. Overaccumulation isn’t really a fixed stage, because everyone’s financial situation and risk tolerance are different. Some people might take profit earlier without it meaning they’re traders, it could just be part of their personal strategy. Holding long term is solid, but labeling anyone who takes profit before 4 years as a trader seems too rigid. Even long term investors sometimes adjust when circumstances change.

Why so many requirements to get started in bitcoin, and why shouldn't a guy presume that the BTC price is going up forever, even if there might be volatility (meaning up and down) along the way?

He can adjust position size for his lack of knowledge too.


Start with learning about those kinds of thing?  You sound like a trader who is trying to figure out when to get in and out.  I cannot see why a guy has to start out learning all of those kinds of price dynamic matters.

He could start out merely looking at a chart for 5 minutes and see that the BTC price generally goes up and down, and even conclude that in the long term, it looks like it is going up.. so what else does he need to know about the price and all that crap that you describe in order to get started buying bitcoin?  

Of course, he has to be able to do simple math to figure out whether he has discretionary funds available or not.  If he figures out that he has discretionary funds available then he can get started right away.  Sure he might want to think about how much he wants to put in, but if he has accurately determined that he has discretionary funds available, he already has the ability to get started right away.

If he wants to be aggressive or go BIG into bitcoin, then he might need to research into the matter with more detail, yet he hardly needs to know anything about the bitcoin price dynamics except making a superficial assessment that number tends to go up, in order to get started... He might not even need to assess anything about the price, in the short term.. especially if he is just trying to figure out how to buy his first $100 or his first $10 or whatever amount that he determined to be his discretionary funds amount that he would like to start with.


I think this stuff can be learned along the way.  Sure it is important, but not needed in order to get started.


Nothing wrong with the various charts, even though I doubt that they need be known or studied in detail to get started, even though it does not hurt for someone to overview and see bitcoin's price history, as long as he can appreciate that past performance does not guarantee future results.


I am not saying that the ONLY reason that a person wants to buy low is to be able to sell in a short period of time.  I think that most people would prefer to buy cheaper rather than buying at a higher price, yet the problem is that we can never have a lot of confidence that the BTC price is going down, even when everyone is saying that it is going down.  It may or may not go down from any particular price point that we are at.


I agree that with bitcoin it tends to be better to not get caught up upon price, especially in our first 4-6 years buying bitcoin. It is likely better to just be consistently buying and then maybe at some point later (like after accumulating for several years - unless there was a lot of front loading of the investment early on) there might be more concerns about buying on dips...


I never said that a person needs to either buy aggressively during dips or that he needs to set aside money for buying dips.

Sure there can be an option to set aside money for buying on dips, but it might not be a good way of proceeding with a bitcoin investment in order to really attempt to be aggressive.  The aggressive person might be working on buying all the time no matter what is the price, and sure after several years of buying bitcoin, his bitcoin stash size might inform him whether he might want to make adjustments to his buying strategies. 

Another thing is that front loading does not necessarily mean saving up in order to buy dips, yet the idea of front loading is to buy sooner rather than later, so there might be a purpose to get ahold of more money or even to invest at higher levels of aggressiveness in the beginning of the investment..  Sure the motivation might be based on price, but not necessarily.

Many folks were teasing Tim Draper in mid 2014 when he bought around 30,000 bitcoin at around $600 each (it was the US Marshall auction where he won all of the lots of bitcoin (that were maybe 5,000 bitcoin per lot) by bidding higher than everyone else), yet that was a kind of front loading of the investment, even though the BTC price was below $600 for more than 2 years after he bought them at that price, yet he was still front loading his investment into bitcoin by buying a whole bunch of bitcoin at one time... and wanting to get ahead of the investment., even though he ended up having to wait more than 2 years before those coins became profitable.

Absolutely, So many of the beginners  in the crypto act faster than their shadow they are eager to match the portfolio of those who have been in the market for long, they see the progress stories, the profit and the hype so they dive in investing all their cash without a second thought, but if they don't manage their finances wisely they might end up selling their Bitcoin not just for profit , but out desperation.

Going all in at once is not a bad approach or method if the funds you are using to go all in is from your discretionary income because our discretionary income is meant for Bitcoin accumulation but it will be very disastrous and wrong to go all in using money meant for other expenses that is using money outside your discretionary income. and doing this can be seen as a gamble because it implies that you are using the money outside your discretionary income to buy Bitcoin and then hoping or planning to sell soon if there is little increase in the market and this is why some persons panic and sell at loss because when they have this intention and it doesn't go as planned they will panic and sell.

Making money is basically a process. And spending it is a reaction. This reaction varies from person to person. We earn money with a combination of time, effort, planning and skill. However, we do not need anything to spend this money, only emotions and decisions are needed. And those who can make these decisions in their lives in a more rational way can achieve more success in life.
When we spend, emotions and temptation work more than logic. When we spend our hard-earned money, we forget about the sacrifice behind that money and consider spending as joy and freedom. There are many who spend their income on unnecessary expenses and at the end of the day, they do not have any money to save or invest.
Therefore, along with hard work, we have to give importance to spending money. Because if we cannot control our spending, we will face savings or financial crisis in the future.

Investing for the short term or long term is actually fine for any investor because the goal is still to seek profit, and each investor has their own goals and targets. If the price rises 10%, selling it won't be a problem they just don't want the much larger profits that can be achieved by holding it for the long term.

What I disagree with is his statement that caution is needed when investing for the long term, when in reality, he should be careful with short term investments, because selling Bitcoin in the short term wastes an opportunity. For example, if he buys Bitcoin at $80,000 and sells it at $100,000, even though he makes a profit, he won't have the opportunity to buy it again at $80,000, or even $90,000, or even $10,000. So, it's better to invest for the long term to avoid regrets.

You’re absolutely right, discretionary income is quite discrete which is why it’s something that we can easily afford to do whatever we feel like doing with our discretionary income, it’s quite our own responsibility to decide whatever we feel it’s comfortable for us to deal with it, an individual can always choose to gamble with it with playing whatever they feel like doing with their discretionary income and they can also choose to save the money somewhere in the bank that will not have any future interest unlike bitcoin that we would have opportunities for future interest, Some individuals save them as fiat money and also be thinking of having fun with their discretionary income, like buying expensive clothes and shoes and also buying cars and living an expensive lifestyle, or be clubbing with their discretionary income, but the truth is that Bitcoin doesn’t stop and individual from living their life or probably be enjoying their life as they feel like doing or doing whatever that makes them happy like going for basketball games or soccer games, but it’s important and necessary for an individual to consider his life choices and decision, because there will be a time where we would definitely have to think about the choices that we have made when we were younger and then when we get older what would have become our decision and choices that we made when we were young, so using our discretionary income with something reasonable like buying and investing into bitcoin which would be a good decision for a lifetime.

However we know there are people who can constantly have a discretionary income and have this basic expenses but we should consider not making a mistakes that will affect our lives in a long term, and also we can try to strike a balance with our lifestyle and our basic expenses because investing in bitcoin doesn’t stop us from having a good fun life, which is why we are investing in bitcoin with our discretionary income and we can possibly have control of this funds instead of the money to control our decisions, as an individual I can possibly consider buying bitcoin with my discretionary income instead of appreciating whichever possible lifestyle and might seems like we are throwing money away, then we can decide to invest with some of this discretionary income, because we might not possibly invest all our discretionary income, but if I decide to invest with all my discretionary income and I know it’s sustainable that is also quite good, then as an investor I can decide to invest in bitcoin for one or two circles depending on my lifetime goals and plans which will be a better decision of holding bitcoin for a long term, instead of throwing our discretionary income into something that would seems like we’re wasting our money on unnecessary spending and then we are making mistakes, well I must say right now that I’m in my accumulation journey I shouldn’t be having any time to appreciate lifestyle choices, instead I would prioritize buying more bitcoin and doing it more aggressively with caution.

This economy no really send you, if you get money use them for business and the business make e be watin people dey demand everyday. Business go generate income to you everyday but investment na something way go give you profits for the future. Those way go invest for Bitcoin without say them get source of income no plan to invest for Bitcoin tay. Na make most of them dey sef dey do crypto trading because them believe say the crypto trading na go fit dey give them profits everyday. Another thing wen I go also emphasize on be say make people ko dey use loan money dey invest for Bitcoin because them go dey on dept for a very long time before them go fit pay.

I understand what you’re trying to say, and it could make a lot of sense when we have different cashflow and that would be a bonus and more boost and motivation towards buying and accumulating more bitcoin, but as an investor who would really appreciate to stay consistent with my accumulation, I would really want to have different options of financial flexibility.

I know it’s good to buy on a consistent basis using the DCA, and also if I have the opportunity of saving some money aside and buy during the dip, that is also a good strategy considering that I didn’t wait for a particular dip to occur and then stop accumulating consistently, well not everyone that would have the financial means of saving some money aside, knowing fully well that we are buying through our discretionary incomes.

As an investor in Bitcoin, I’ve tried different approaches in trying to buy Bitcoin, using the DCA and lump sum and also buying the dip, but I think all methods are good based on the strategy and approach that we have for them, because I’ve actually tried saving some money for a dip and that didn’t still stop me from buying on a regular basis, and most investors can’t do that without having enough money and having different cashflow, and financial planning to achieve that, because we have basic expenses to take care of, and it’s a guarantee we have to pay bills for basic expenditures.

So if we have to achieve this plans it is necessary that we have different cashflow to enable us keep up with this process, because I will like to appreciate buying through lump sum and buying through the DCA and buying through the dip when it’s necessary and the opportunity comes, that is the more reason I have decided to work on different cashflow and also work on my expenses and make some adjustments to enable me buy and accumulate more and more.

It may not necessarily be for the rich alone but trust me when I say the rich benefits more when it comes to the business of bitcoin investment. Now imagine two men investing in bitcoin, one is rich and the other is poor,the rich invests 100k dollars and the poor 10k dollars. Whatever profit is made the rich man is already making x10 of what the poor man would make and if the investment goes south the rich man because of his wealth can manage it and balance himself but you see the poor man, he is doomed because even the 10k dollars he invested is either a lifetime savings or borrowed. So you see it profits the rich better.

Planning on buying a whole Bitcoin is not wrong especially if you have the capacity after all institutions and companies are buying based on their reach but it will be very wrong to think of buying a whole Bitcoin when you don't have the capacity because you will be discourage at some point rather what someone should do if they don't have the capacity is to be accumulating little by little using the DCA method and with consistent buying and using a good amount you will see yourself holding more than 1 Bitcoin in years coming because you will also be taking advantage of the Dip sometimes.

In bitcoin the idea is compounding value - not compounding interest.

Through the years bitcoin has been criticized because it does not pay out yield - even though relative to the dollar its value compounds, and new Schelling points are created at higher levels upon which the value can compound again and again and again.

So instead of cashing out profits from the increases in bitcoin's value, the increases in value are allowed to compound upon itself, which can be illustrated through various doublings in value, which I outlined that we are nearly upon 9 doublings since 2015 - starting the value at $250.


So the 8th doubling at $64k gave us 256x times value, and if we reach our next doubling at $128k, then we will have 512x in value compounding.


Your answer for puloweh555 is not a bad one, and so if there are a lot of unknowns in bitcoin, then perhaps if any of us invest time, energy and/or money into bitcoin, then we would measure how much we invest based on our concerns about the various unknowns and perhaps our studying the unknowns to cause them to become less frightening... yet we can still choose our position size, which would be fairly small and whimpy if we are really concerned (and for some people to refuse to get involved in bitcoin) and perhaps more aggressive if we are able to come to some comfort in our understanding of what brings value to bitcoin and perhaps some of the growth in the various network effects that were outlined by Trace Mayer in 2014.


What are the basics that the newbie needs to learn about bitcoin before getting started?

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Poor people have trouble producing discretionary income and an ability to hold and continue to add to an investment for 4-10 years or longer... Yet, bitcoin is still available to poor people, even though they could end up contributing to their own financial harm if they invest into bitcoin beyond their discretionary income..


I like the idea of trying to invest every week, especially for newbies and especially in their beginning years of investing into bitcoin, yet it is true that some folks might have difficulties getting their cashflow to a state in which weekly buys are practical in regards to how their cashflow comes in and/or when their expenses are due.


You are mixing up lump sum buying and buying on the dip.  They are two separate categories, and sure you can use both of them, but you should at least understand the difference.

When you buy on the dip, just because you use a lot of money, that does not convert your buying on the dip into lump sum.  It is still buying on the dip.

From my own personal experience juggling my Bitcoin accumulation and side hustles, this is how i look at it. I beilieve my primary income should be able to cover my essential/core expenses like my rent, bills, food and other essentials that keeps me stable. Every other thing like passive income stream or side gigs is where i can flex and further grow the power of my discretionary spending.
But the catch there is that, not all extra incomes or side hustles are the same or created equally, some tend to be more time consuming, costs more transport or other gears than they are actually giving you, especially when you factor in the opportunity cost. Whenever I figure out that the job actually eats into my ability to invest my time in learning or acquiring other skills that may likely unlock higher returns for me in the future, then it's definitely a losing game for me and the best thing would be to just let it go so i can have the time to focus on other things too. And this is exactly the reason why i mostly tend to focus on scaling value than volume. rather stacking a bunch of low paying side gigs that'll only burn me out at the end of the day without giving me the due compensation, i tend to sort for other ways to level up, even if it means learning new skills that'd create more room for much higher paying/earning opportunity, or making some sort of strategic investments that tends to grow quietly in the background. And sometimes, it could require one to completely shut out short term cash in order to aim for a much bigger earning in the long term.
In the long run, it's mostly more a balance between maximizing one's cash flow and also preserving one's bandwidth to something that is way more sustainable, could be a business, a portfolio or even a career. Because i don't believe that an a particular income is actually worth it if it prevents or deprives you the time and energy to explore other better options and potentially grow your finance or income beyond the current point that you are.