A newbie asks - how many % of your disposable money have you in BTC?

[CharlieContent]

About 10% of my liquid assets are in Bitcoin, if we use today's USD values.

That wasn't a deliberate decision though, I bought the coins when they were considerably cheaper. At the time it was a tiny proportion of my assets, more like the type of money I'd spend in a big weekend. I wouldn't put 10% of my assets in Bitcoin now, by any means.

I know that logically that means I should cash out the coins until I have a less risky proportion invested, but there's a psychological difference there.    However, the knowledge that I have so much in Bitcoin makes me choose my other investments more conservatively.

I've also cashed out a proportion of my original investment in the past, so no matter what happens I am still way up on Bitcoin. It's performed many times better than any other investment I have ever made. However I got seriously lucky with timing.

If for any reason I felt like it was more than I could afford to lose then I'd cash out in a heartbeat. No one, no matter how much they believe in the concept, should have more than they can afford in Bitcoin.

The people who have ridiculous proportions of their money in Bitcoin, in my opinion, are making an irrational decision. Perhaps it is greed, perhaps it is zealotry. For whatever reason, they have a confidence in Bitcoin that defies logic. Good luck to them, but it a car crash waiting to happen in my opinion. I couldn't sleep at night!

[Fjordbit]

Oh ok, but then you are talking about the downside risk if you only invest 5%, I thought you were talking about the downside risk in bitcoin in general (so also for people who have 100% invested in it).

Yes the full quote is

"I do feel having at least 5% (1/20) of your retirement savings in Bitcoin is a good idea. The downside is very little"

I think that really anyone can have 5% and not significantly put themselves at risk while putting them in a position for a larger payoff. But each person is individual, so I say "at least" because some people can absorb more risk. Earlier this year I took half my savings and put it in bitcoin. This was fine for me because even if the value went to 0, it would not impact my long term retirement plan. If bitcoin went to 0, I am young enough that I could increase my saving rate by 1% and cover it. This means a little less fun right now, but overall there is still no risk.

If you are aged 62 and you put 50% into Bitcoin, well, then that seems risky to me.

[helloworld]

The second biggest risk is that the government declares bitcoin illegal in some way (probably saying it supports terrorism or some other kind of nonsense). Scoff all you want, but making it illegal in some fashion will scare away all of  the people you are counting on to buy your million dollar bitcoins.

The biggest risk to bitcoin is that the government will try to regulate it. Again, it doesn't matter if it is possible, or successful, or not. The result of regulation will be that most people will avoid bitcoin because it won't be worth the hassle, and your dream of million dollar bitcoins will disappear.

Twice you have mentioned "the government" but if THE government made it illegal, the other 27,465 governments could still easily allow it's use.

[jl2035]

I set up an account at OKPay so now I'm completelly migrating to Bitcoin... 

I'll try to not use fiat any more...

[bg002h]

Crackdown on Bitcoin by big governments would hurt Bitcoin at least in the short term. You can not kill Bitcoin by legislation, but you can affect the exchange rate quite a bit that way!

[odolvlobo]

The second biggest risk is that the government declares bitcoin illegal in some way (probably saying it supports terrorism or some other kind of nonsense). Scoff all you want, but making it illegal in some fashion will scare away all of  the people you are counting on to buy your million dollar bitcoins.

The biggest risk to bitcoin is that the government will try to regulate it. Again, it doesn't matter if it is possible, or successful, or not. The result of regulation will be that most people will avoid bitcoin because it won't be worth the hassle, and your dream of million dollar bitcoins will disappear.

Twice you have mentioned "the government" but if THE government made it illegal, the other 27,465 governments could still easily allow it's use.

That doesn't matter. It is said that governments can't shut down bitcoin. I completely agree, but that is not the risk.

We are expecting (more like dreaming of) big increases of the value of BTC in the future due to widespread adoption. However, if the U.S. or E.U. decides to regulate bitcoin or make it illegal in some way, then adoption will plummet (perhaps back to current levels) and our fortune will evaporate.

A scenario in which I think regulation of bitcoin is not a risk is if inflation of the government's currency is very high.

[FreeMoney]

Crackdown on Bitcoin by big governments would hurt Bitcoin at least in the short term. You can not kill Bitcoin by legislation, but you can affect the exchange rate quite a bit that way!

That would be a huge story, actually many huge stories and drama over several years. Likely and the price would settle much higher, barring something like every major government actually stopping it (something they haven't managed for drug use, immigration, tax evasion, murder, rape, etc).