Fun N00B Mistakes :)

[moneyhoundz]

So last spring I farted around with BTC mining, nothing serious made around 80 BTC.  I had the hardware so only cost to me was the juice, made a couple hundred bucks nothing to write home about. 

Lost 3 - 4 BTC with some Gox / Bitinstant hiccup plus got busy so I stopped keeping the machines running and just pulled them down to focus on my farm. 

BOOM, BTC went up to over $1000USD a pop.

Whoops.

lol.  I would have lost it anyway as I used GOX and Bitinstant so no real remorse.

Fast forward and I decide hey, this looks like it could make a few bucks maybe I should get into it for real, for the long haul.  Especially with ASIC's out and about.

I decide to buy 2 BTC to get some gear from BFL.  Well with Gox gone and Bitinstant I needed to start over, went with Coinbase.  Filled out all the forms but couldnt link my CC as they only accept visa and I only have a Mastercard.  Debit cards not accepted.

OK trading around $666 - $680ish and I get worried about a rush to $800 so I plop in my 2 BTC order, gotta wait 4 days.  Argh.

Well market takes a small dive, down to $600 - $620 ish.

Still waiting fro the BTC to clear and already down $140 +/- in the short.  Hopefully not much more by the time Tuesday rolls around.

But at least I found better deals on eBay for some mining gear!  So hopefully I will recover some of the losses and reuse that cash for the new gear, if not it holds till it does hahahaha.

Long story short, don't rush!  Not bitching just rambling

[stsbrad]

Me and an ex business partner sold 1,500 coins at $6.50 because we panicked.

Also I am the proud owner of an 11BTC pair of Alpaca socks :/ I still catch shit for that one at work when I wear them.

:/

[stsbrad]

Me and an ex business partner sold 1,500 coins at $6.50 because we panicked.

Also I am the proud owner of an 11BTC pair of Alpaca socks :/ I still catch shit for that one at work when I wear them.

:/

In hindsight though I'm glad we sold and got out. He owned a large community bank and at the time we broke even. If we would have kept going by the $1000 coin mark we would have been sitting on 6 to 7 million dollars. He would have sued the bejesus out of me and tried to keep it all.

[moneyhoundz]

Ouch!  Guess that explains why hes an ex-partner lol.  I'm going in with 3 friends this time, lets hope for the best..

As for the socks, ebay em for $10k next time BTC hits the $1k mark, slightly used.  Include a print out of the transaction receipt for proof of their designer value lol.

I never bought anything with BTC before.  Just sold out to make pocket change, never thought of valuation changing to such degrees that it did.

[stsbrad]

That's one of the problems with bitcoin in my opinion though. A lot of people including myself are afraid to buy anything with it. Out of fear of owning a $10,000 pair of socks. I personally probably won't purchase an item again using coins. I don't want to regret it like I do these socks. They are amazingly comfortable though.

[ManeBjorn]

I look at it this way.
Bitcoin needs to be spent to raise it's value.  So I spend some on stuff like electricity and bits of mining gear when I can and I keep some in an offline wallet.
Bitcoins biggest value is it's usage.
If everyone holds them eventually they will devalue.
A balanced approach makes it both useful as a form of payment and as an investment.

[stsbrad]

I look at it this way.
Bitcoin needs to be spent to raise it's value.  So I spend some on stuff like electricity and bits of mining gear when I can and I keep some in an offline wallet.
Bitcoins biggest value is it's usage.
If everyone holds them eventually they will devalue.
A balanced approach makes it both useful as a form of payment and as an investment.

I completely agree. It's just the volatility is extremely scary. I just can't grasp the concept of how bitcoin can become mainstream without getting a handle on volatility.

[~Coinseeker~]

I look at it this way.
Bitcoin needs to be spent to raise it's value.  So I spend some on stuff like electricity and bits of mining gear when I can and I keep some in an offline wallet.
Bitcoins biggest value is it's usage.
If everyone holds them eventually they will devalue.
A balanced approach makes it both useful as a form of payment and as an investment.

I completely agree. It's just the volatility is extremely scary. I just can't grasp the concept of how bitcoin can become mainstream without getting a handle on volatility.

If transaction volume can surpass speculative volume, there could be some decent stability.  At least to the point that "whales" won't be able to move the markets much.  But as is often pointed out, deflationary currencies are a double edged sword.  You hate to spend them because they could go up in value significantly and thus, you don't get the transactional volume necessary to supersede speculative volume.

[ManeBjorn]

That's just it I agree.
If it is being used more often the will be 50+ BTC block rewards just from transactions which is what will run the network and system through the years. 

I look at it this way.
Bitcoin needs to be spent to raise it's value.  So I spend some on stuff like electricity and bits of mining gear when I can and I keep some in an offline wallet.
Bitcoins biggest value is it's usage.
If everyone holds them eventually they will devalue.
A balanced approach makes it both useful as a form of payment and as an investment.

I completely agree. It's just the volatility is extremely scary. I just can't grasp the concept of how bitcoin can become mainstream without getting a handle on volatility.

If transaction volume can surpass speculative volume, there could be some decent stability.  At least to the point that "whales" won't be able to move the markets much.  But as is often pointed out, deflationary currencies are a double edged sword.  You hate to spend them because they could go up in value significantly and thus, you don't get the transactional volume necessary to supersede speculative volume.

[tatsuo]

50 btc in transaction fees?

Doubt it, unless someone makes an error, because remember the rewards are halving. 

[ManeBjorn]

If bitcoin was being used more by 100's of thousands of people around the world those transaction fees add up fast.  Now multiply that by millions as it gains a more broad adoption.
That is the brilliance of it.  So that eventually when new coins are gone you still have large block rewards made up of fees. 
If everyone hoards them then there will still be anemic fees in blocks and it will fall in on its self.

50 btc in transaction fees?

Doubt it, unless someone makes an error, because remember the rewards are halving.