As for health, OK. I and those around me have not yet caught the COVID or any major disease.

Economically, very well, but at the cost of having less social life. With the lockdown and the restrictions, I saved more, I won more money playing poker and to top it off, with the ATH I sold part of my bitcoin that I had been holding around for some years

Yes, that's the main driving force behind what's happening. I also saw yesterday that there are clearly more buying orders than selling ones up to $50k. That doesn't mean that we are going to get there in a straight line but I don't think there will be corrections of 30% of higher until the price gets around that mark. Also, as nothing is 100% sure, it could happen that people start changing their orders but in normal conditions we will get to $50k without much trouble.

I don't care about Buffet. Do we understand that he doesn't need crypto at all?

If he had been born like in 1990 he probably would have loved crypto but he is currently the 7th wealthiest man in the whole fucking planet and he doesn't have much time left. Why being worried about what he thinks about crypto?

There is something in common among the political parties of the left in developed countries that has changed in the last 25-30 years. They used to focus more on trying to protect the working class from the excesses of capitalism. Now that discourse is still there but it has taken a back seat. What is important now is feminism, ecology, racism, etc. This is what some have come to call the new communism, given that since the fall of the Berlin Wall, the battle of the economic system has been progressively lost. Curiously, this has led to implicitly blaming the heterosexual white man for the evils of the world mentioned above, so it is not surprising that statements like those of the OP, as shocking as they may seem at first glance, have been made.

Hi, happy year for you as well.

I totally understand that, as bitcoin price increases, payment in bitcoin is going to be reduced but the equivalent if fiat will be more or less the same. At least that's what's happened with the couple of changes in payment rates since I've been here. So, no problem for me.

You say that as if taxes were spent only on roads and health care. And as if all countries with low taxes were banana republics. I think it's so obvious that I don't have to explain that both things are false.

I believe that taxes must be paid, but in the dilemma between paying a lot of taxes and paying little, I prefer to pay little, because politicians in industrialized countries, who, in their majority, do not stop raising taxes, what they do is increase political spending, and not so much improve health care or roads. They spend the money on things they think will get people to vote for them, which is usually not, and in fact most of the time not, the best way to spend the money.

What I do understand it that I'm old enough to have seen this many times. This can only end in two ways: either nobody falls for you trap or you end up scamming someone. I've seen similar promises of high returns lots of times and never, ever, I've seen a trusted member of that forum say that they finally tried the system and it worked.

First time I argued about a similar system with a scammer was like 8 years ago in a poker forum, so I'm not going to waste any more time. I just hope no naive people fall into your trap because I can tell you that those of us who know about numbers, scams and are not hoping for a quick solution for our financial problems are not going to fall for it.

He is a scammer clearly. If his system works, he just needs to invest $100 and wait for about three months. He will have a million by then. If he waits a year, he will be able to buy the moon. He doesn't need to come here to advertise his system. And he is supposed to have been working it for a while. LOL.

There are many scams like that. I hope some DT member gives him negative trust.

I think this is the key factor of what we are seing.

I don't remember exactly now, but someone responded to a comment of mine about FOMO in another thread that FOMO is a psychological concept and that institutional investors are guided by rational arguments, rather than by emotions, which would be more typical of the masses.

But perhaps we may be witnessing an institutional FOMO based on rational arguments if the institutions foresee an increase in demand. Institutional demand today is already eating up all bitcoins newly mined. So, perhaps it is better to buy now than to buy more expensive later.

I have just seen $ 34,150 on Bitstamp. We can get to $35 easily

I have the sensation that this is going too fast but let's not worry about that. I think we all know at some point this has to go down.

It doesn't seem so far. We only need a 6% increase from where we are now. It could happen in a day or so but we are already up 12%. These moments pay for all the boring ones during the past years.

33k WTF?

We just broke $30k.

Isn't this gonna stop? (not that I want it to)

Apart from institutions buying all newly mined coins and more, people withdrawing from exchanges (reducing offer) and massive printing, I just think FOMO has really started.

There is much more demand than supply. Add to that bitcoin appearing in the news by constantly breaking ATHs. It's a snowball effect but at some point this has to go back.

$32,5k LOL

I was also thinking about LFC_Bitcoin.

LOL

Do you hear that my friends?

It's FOMO starting to kick in.

Yeah, stay positive!

I don't have much in bitcoin, especially compared to the average in this thread but I'm happy with what I have. My future will be better than if I didn't have anything.

I also spent a bit recently but I think it is normal. You can spend when price increases but always stay invested.

LOL

Almost $32k. There has been a bump. We might get to $35k pretty soon.

Let's see when this stops.

It is curious how price increases change magnitudes. Six months ago, going up $1k meant a 10% increase. Where we are now we only need a bit over 10% increase to break $35k.

A combination of factors: institutional demand buying all newly mined coins and more, not many people wanting to sell, excessive money printing by central banks and, finally, it seems that FOMO among the general publics starts as well, as google trends show.

We are going to have drops but you never know when. We might have a 30% drop starting tomorrow or a 20% when we reach $50k, you never know. If you want to buy bitcoin for long-term, don't be scared by the price. You can dollar cost average.

As it usually happens, your rational mind knows what to do but the emotional part ends up winning. The only thing I recommend is that you don't play, nothing, zero. There are many people who gamble and don't have those problems, so they can play from time to time, maybe they spend more than they expected at some point but without having great regrets.

But the one who has problems with gambling is like the one who has problems with alcohol: the solution is not to try to control when you drink, or when you play, the solution is not to play (or drink).