Are Bitcoins a Good Investment?

[zpm]

Bitcoin is genius and genius is usually a good investment

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[gambit1]

"I think currently that IS what people should believe. Until the coins stop being produced.
They will not stop going up in value until they are all produced, and the payout is 0 per block.

By then I think 1 Saratoshi will be valued like 1 BTC is today."

I respect you opinion, and indeed your enthusiasm, but I don't think that you understand the economics surrounding bitcoin or the many risks involved. I hope that you only commit to bitcoin that which you can afford to lose. I really hope that.

[FinShaggy]

"I think currently that IS what people should believe. Until the coins stop being produced.
They will not stop going up in value until they are all produced, and the payout is 0 per block.

By then I think 1 Saratoshi will be valued like 1 BTC is today."

I respect you opinion, and indeed your enthusiasm, but I don't think that you understand the economics surrounding bitcoin or the many risks involved. I hope that you only commit to bitcoin that which you can afford to lose. I really hope that.

I understand that bitcoin COULD collapse at any moment, but I don't believe it WILL. And that is not pure faith...

I first learned about Bitcoin from the Silk Road, and that is NOT the only place people can trade drugs for Bitcoins.

As long as Bitcoin offers anonymity, no taxes and international convenience, it will continue to rise.
It has more REAL WORLD value than paper money.

[bobboooiie]

As good investment it is there is always pretty possible chance of it going to 0$ which makes it high risk. So invest only what you can afford to lose.

[NewLiberty]

"I think currently that IS what people should believe. Until the coins stop being produced.
They will not stop going up in value until they are all produced, and the payout is 0 per block.

By then I think 1 Saratoshi will be valued like 1 BTC is today."

I respect you opinion, and indeed your enthusiasm, but I don't think that you understand the economics surrounding bitcoin or the many risks involved. I hope that you only commit to bitcoin that which you can afford to lose. I really hope that.

I understand that bitcoin COULD collapse at any moment, but I don't believe it WILL. And that is not pure faith...

I first learned about Bitcoin from the Silk Road, and that is NOT the only place people can trade drugs for Bitcoins.

As long as Bitcoin offers anonymity, no taxes and international convenience, it will continue to rise.
It has more REAL WORLD value than paper money.

Those could also be existential threats to the existence of bitcoin if it is targeted just in order to get at the folks using it for black market.
The best money should function well in white markets, in grey and black markets there are always other options.

Even if everything that was available on the silk road were legal in all jurisdictions on the planet, there would still be a need for bitcoin.

Also, bitcoin has a very solid distributed logging and accounting, so if you are using it to break laws, you will need to be even more careful than if you were using something more anonymous.

[FinShaggy]

"I think currently that IS what people should believe. Until the coins stop being produced.
They will not stop going up in value until they are all produced, and the payout is 0 per block.

By then I think 1 Saratoshi will be valued like 1 BTC is today."

I respect you opinion, and indeed your enthusiasm, but I don't think that you understand the economics surrounding bitcoin or the many risks involved. I hope that you only commit to bitcoin that which you can afford to lose. I really hope that.

I understand that bitcoin COULD collapse at any moment, but I don't believe it WILL. And that is not pure faith...

I first learned about Bitcoin from the Silk Road, and that is NOT the only place people can trade drugs for Bitcoins.

As long as Bitcoin offers anonymity, no taxes and international convenience, it will continue to rise.
It has more REAL WORLD value than paper money.

Those could also be existential threats to the existence of bitcoin if it is targeted just in order to get at the folks using it for black market.
The best money should function well in white markets, in grey and black markets there are always other options.

Even if everything that was available on the silk road were legal in all jurisdictions on the planet, there would still be a need for bitcoin.

Also, bitcoin has a very solid distributed logging and accounting, so if you are using it to break laws, you will need to be even more careful than if you were using something more anonymous.

I don't use it to break laws. And it DOES work well in a white market, so it won't collapse.

[NewLiberty]

I don't use it to break laws. And it DOES work well in a white market, so it won't collapse.

Keep it up and encourage others to do the same, and we may have a chance to be spending them by the time the generation stops.

[FinShaggy]

I don't use it to break laws. And it DOES work well in a white market, so it won't collapse.

Keep it up and encourage others to do the same, and we may have a chance to be spending them by the time the generation stops.

Even once they are no longer generated they can be traded using transaction fees.

[dorigan22]

Bitcoin is a speculative investment.  It's better if you buy it because you plan to use it.  Plus the more people use bitcoin, the more valuable it will become.

[FinShaggy]

Bitcoin is a speculative investment.  It's better if you buy it because you plan to use it.  Plus the more people use bitcoin, the more valuable it will become.

This is a good point about the market. Not only is it better to buy it if you plan to use it, it is better for the economy for you to spend a bitcoin than it is for you to sell one.

[NewLiberty]

But as they say, "bad money drives out good".

That is only true when an authority like the state enforces the use of bad money and merchants to accept it.

If that is not the case, then good money will drive out the bad, because merchants will prefer and demand it (gold, silver, bitcoins).

Or, it is always true when there are multiple currencies in play and you are suggesting a situation where there is not multiple?

For the example of the United States, where there is not such enforcement of the use of bad money generally.
The only place you are forced to use the fiat money is when you are paying your taxes (the Legal Tender law).
So when the merchant is the government, they demand (not merely prefer) the bad.
Everyone else is free to offer or take what they desire, provided the exchange does not include contraband, there is the same tax liability no matter the currency, and the tax gets calculated on the unit of account for the tax.
One risk in accepting something other than the fiat is that when time comes to pay the taxman, if everyone is converting to the fiat at that time, there is a price drop at the worst time.
So it may be easier and perceived as less risky to use the fiat, until such time as the network effects and systemic integration benefits make it easy to change, this is how Diner's Club card was born.  And so we have payment cards of many types.

When we have automatic accounting for bitcoin built into things like quickbooks or other small merchant applications that can read the blockchain and do their accounting for them, we get a more broad acceptance.

[SimplyBTC]

I think you should only buy what you can afford to lose. Prices have gone up recently but could also crash just as easily.

[Simonsays]

If you got into BTC 1-3 or many more months ago you've seen your holdings rocket hundreds or even thousands of %.  Not to mention if you got in early on Asicminer.

Hindsight is always 20/20 and its easy to say 'Doh I was gonna put some money there and I didn't'   -   I think many of us - including myself - have been doing exactly that over the past month.

Personally - I'm getting into the game late and slowly acquiring BTC as a diversification of my portfolio. I think mining is a truly unique and fascinating foundation on which bitcoins exist - but sadly by the time my BFL shipment arrives it won't be much more than a conversation piece chugging in a few dollars at a time.

You can take some of the risk out of BTC as an investment by writing yourself a bot (or using one of the few opensource ones currently available through these forums) that will automatically sell all your BTC in case of a major (or minor) price drop.  This way you can 'ride the wave' as bitcoin gains popularity and hopefully continues to rise - while mitigating some of the risk using a bot.   This of course - puts a lot of trust in a program and would require holding your funds in a hot wallet (as opposed to a cold wallet offline) which in itself lies a greater risk.

Personally I have 50% in Asicminer and 50% on exchanges.

[Preschoolv2]

If you got into BTC 1-3 or many more months ago you've seen your holdings rocket hundreds or even thousands of %.  Not to mention if you got in early on Asicminer.

Hindsight is always 20/20 and its easy to say 'Doh I was gonna put some money there and I didn't'   -   I think many of us - including myself - have been doing exactly that over the past month.

Personally - I'm getting into the game late and slowly acquiring BTC as a diversification of my portfolio. I think mining is a truly unique and fascinating foundation on which bitcoins exist - but sadly by the time my BFL shipment arrives it won't be much more than a conversation piece chugging in a few dollars at a time.

You can take some of the risk out of BTC as an investment by writing yourself a bot (or using one of the few opensource ones currently available through these forums) that will automatically sell all your BTC in case of a major (or minor) price drop.  This way you can 'ride the wave' as bitcoin gains popularity and hopefully continues to rise - while mitigating some of the risk using a bot.   This of course - puts a lot of trust in a program and would require holding your funds in a hot wallet (as opposed to a cold wallet offline) which in itself lies a greater risk.

Personally I have 50% in Asicminer and 50% on exchanges.

Smart moves.. i was trying to get asic miner shares..but instead i ordered from bfl. ill be waiting patiently while trying to buy some avalons;]

[Simonsays]

Smart moves.. i was trying to get asic miner shares..but instead i ordered from bfl. ill be waiting patiently while trying to buy some avalons;]

If you believe in AM and think they can keep up the 20-25% network share for the next few or even many months, then even at 2.5btc a share (or the 0.025btc micro-passthroughs) are worth looking at.

How is the avalon front? I haven't kept up - when are they making the next batch avail for order?

[moranes]

yes.

[Harryman]

Yes

[alphacoin]

bitcoin is a good investment as long as they are people buy it, otherwise it's just something completely worthless

[robert5]

yes

Agreed

yes

[ropavaje]

Bitcoin rullz