BTC buying concern

[buggrock]

Obviously alot of us support the idea of a decentralized currency.

But what happens if SOMEHOW, the bitcoin currency crashes. (BTC $ is not insured and you lose it all)

Or if you pay someone with BTC and never receive your product. (the transanction is irreversible) so is the buyer just screwed.

I understand that we all dont like the money printing happening in the world. But dont you think having FDIC insurance at the bank, and having a little protection is better than having none at all with BTC.

Thoughts pls.

[1715627640]

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[1715627640]

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[Mike Christ]

The only guarantee in this world is that there are no guarantees; don't keep your eggs all in one basket

[MAbtc]

Obviously alot of us support the idea of a decentralized currency.

But what happens if SOMEHOW, the bitcoin currency crashes. (BTC $ is not insured and you lose it all)

Or if you pay someone with BTC and never receive your product. (the transanction is irreversible) so is the buyer just screwed.

I understand that we all dont like the money printing happening in the world. But dont you think having FDIC insurance at the bank, and having a little protection is better than having none at all with BTC.

Thoughts pls.

Of course the exchange rate could crash/correct -- this has been a huge rally, and may keep on climbing. It's happened before. We went from $32 to $2 in the past -- something like that, anyway.

Sure, there's shady businesses. There are also reputable ones. As BTC becomes more mainstream, having a strong reputation becomes much more important than making a quick buck.

Eventually, there may be real bitcoin banks with proper licensing, insurance and brick-and-mortar presence...

[wachtwoord]

The only guarantee in this world is that there are no guarantees; don't keep your eggs all in one basket

Put all your eggs in a very nice basket. Then WATCH THAT FUCKING BASKET!!11

Oh wait, I don't do the above myself. I like being very concentrated though.

[exstasie]

Even if it was insured or there was some regulation around BTC, it wouldn't protect you if BTC were to crash.  If the value went down to $1USD for a BTC, no insurance or regulation would help you.

Same if you were to buy something using BTC and they didn't ship the goods.  It's the exact same thing that happens today when you use certain payment products.  There is no guarantee that the goods good shipped and the seller is out the money.  Any fraud won't be protected by any regulations.

What it might help with is the potential of your wallet being hacked.  If a 'bank' were to be responsible for your wallet, there would be protection from any theft or fraud around that.

[ozzie7274]

Obviously alot of us support the idea of a decentralized currency.

But what happens if SOMEHOW, the bitcoin currency crashes. (BTC $ is not insured and you lose it all)

Or if you pay someone with BTC and never receive your product. (the transanction is irreversible) so is the buyer just screwed.

I understand that we all dont like the money printing happening in the world. But dont you think having FDIC insurance at the bank, and having a little protection is better than having none at all with BTC.

Thoughts pls.

Gold is not insured either and could crash. Plenty of smart people still invest in gold.

Safely owning and using bitcoin requires a lot of personal responsibility. Banks and financial institutions have to KYC or know your customer. With bitcoin, the buyer has to know their seller. I have purchased many things with bitcoin and haven't gotten screwed yet.

To me, the benefits of bitcoin outweigh the lack of protection. Actually, the protection is there if you do your due diligence.

[spartacus_]

There are no guarantees.
Buy other coins also to spread the risk.

[MAbtc]

There are no guarantees.
Buy other coins also to spread the risk.

Other coins? I'm not sure I would invest in other alt coins right now. If BTC crashes/corrects deeply, I think we will see that reflected in alt coin markets as well. The dollar value of most alt coins has risen considerably, although less than BTC I am sure.

[Gator-hex]

There are no guarantees.
Buy other coins also to spread the risk.

Other coins? I'm not sure I would invest in other alt coins right now. If BTC crashes/corrects deeply, I think we will see that reflected in alt coin markets as well. The dollar value of most alt coins has risen considerably, although less than BTC I am sure.

If Bitcoin gets regulated, which it looks like it's moving toward, Bitcoin price goes to the moon, then where do you think the illegal transactions will go?  

[explorer]

If you think FDIC is going to pay out anything in any major event you are dreaming. An isolated hack event, or branch issue, maybe. but they are leveraged to the moon, maybe to the sun and back. any systemic jolt means you have what you hold. The 0.3% (if memory serves) reserve funds only spread so far, and YOU dont qualify.  But the fiction keeps the sheeple happy while they twitter and eat cheeseburgers while sharing their most recent bowel movement on assbook.
  Secure some BTC in a cold wallet. secure some metals (gold, silver, lead) where YOU have control of it. price up or price down, none of it is likely to go to zero EXCEPT the banking system. One or some of those savings are going to be worth a lot more in the next few years.

[azariah]

Or if you pay someone with BTC and never receive your product. (the transanction is irreversible) so is the buyer just screwed.

I view this as a feature actually - because it simplifies the protocol and creates a opportunity for e.g. two types of service on top of the bitcoin protocol (which already exist today for fiat currency txs anyway):

1. Sites tracking trust/reputation for merchants (so you can choose to only buy from merchants with good trust/reputation).
2. Bootstrapping a new merchant by covering e.g. undelivered products by refunding customers until the merchant has reached some level of reputation.

There will still be many customers happy to pay e.g. 2% txs fee to some payment service company so they can get refunds on top of bitcoin txs. And if you don't want a refund possibility you can simply use the protocol directly through a bitcoin wallet to pay directly to save the tx fee.