Why do people compare betting and investing in bitcoin (in terms of risk)?

[mindrust]

It is gambling if you truly believe btc can go to "zero".

Gambling means you can lose your money completely at the end of the event and it is purely based on luck.

You can temporarily lose %90 of your life savings in btc if you bought at the wrong time. It is not gambling, it is just being stupid and buying an over-priced asset or just being unlucky. Sadly though, this thing has to be bought by someone at its ATH if we want it to go higher than its last ATH.

[tsaroz]

I don't really understand why people see bitcoin as betting. That's what most people believe; they have this mindset that investing in bitcoin is more like playing a bet. But is that true? Capital NO!
I had a conversation with two of my siblings who both know that I'm into cryptocurrency. The older one was asking how much he would earn if he invested about 1,500$ worth of bitcoin. (Tho, I gave him a good explanation that it doesn't work that way). But then, my other sibling was saying that bitcoin is more like betting. Well, I ended up proving my point and here's it:
Betting is risky and so is investing in bitcoin. However, there's a big bridge between them. When you bet, your money is highly at stake than when you invest in bitcoin. This is because when you bet and lose, YOU LOSE ALL YOU STAKED. On the other hand, YOU CAN NEVER LOSE ALL IF YOU INVEST IN BITCOIN. Bitcoin can't just fall to zero. That's impossible. Tho it may need a long growth for one to gain, it should never be compared with betting (in terms of risk).

To be real no investment is safe. So, it's a little gamble every time. If you are familiar at stocks, you'd know people compare stocks market to gambling and to some extent it has some features of gambling. But surely it's not always a gamble there or here. Crypto prices are always been volatile. The world average for bank interest might be something around 10% per year while you can see that change in just a day in crypto.

[Quidat]

I don't really understand why people see bitcoin as betting. That's what most people believe; they have this mindset that investing in bitcoin is more like playing a bet. But is that true? Capital NO!
I had a conversation with two of my siblings who both know that I'm into cryptocurrency. The older one was asking how much he would earn if he invested about 1,500$ worth of bitcoin. (Tho, I gave him a good explanation that it doesn't work that way). But then, my other sibling was saying that bitcoin is more like betting. Well, I ended up proving my point and here's it:
Betting is risky and so is investing in bitcoin. However, there's a big bridge between them. When you bet, your money is highly at stake than when you invest in bitcoin. This is because when you bet and lose, YOU LOSE ALL YOU STAKED. On the other hand, YOU CAN NEVER LOSE ALL IF YOU INVEST IN BITCOIN. Bitcoin can't just fall to zero. That's impossible. Tho it may need a long growth for one to gain, it should never be compared with betting (in terms of risk).

For those people who do treat bitcoin as form as betting then they are the ones that doesnt know the true essence or usage of btc itself but rather a gamble thing or just thinking that they can make out money of it.

In order to earn, of course you do need capital and theres no such thing on earning without risking something to invest on.It will always vary or depend on a certain individuals knowledge into particular things.

As a follower or enthusiast of crypto, its somewhat part of you to explain it further to those people who havent known yet on whats it all about in general.

[Chris Barth]

Bets and investments differ from one another and I have never seen Bitcoin as something we just bet. On the one hand investing is betting because you place a money bet on rising prices, but this is still different from normal gambling. Gambling means taking risks while having negative expectation values, while investing means taking risks while having positive expectation values.

Lol, this is a pretty complicated comment.

Gambling means taking risks while having negative expectation values, while investing means taking risks while having positive expectation values

Don't take my response personal but I think you got this all wrong by saying that.

According to Wikipedia, Gambling (also known as betting) is the wagering of money or something of value (referred to as "the stakes") on an event with an uncertain outcome, with the primary intent of winning money or material goods. Gambling thus requires three elements to be present: consideration (an amount wagered), risk (chance), and a prize.

To me, betting is a form of gambling. Don't make them look like two different things.

Also, bitcoin can be considered to fall into the definition above. Yes, you can call it gambling if you want, but my point in creating this thread is that the risk involved in investing in bitcoin isn't as high as that involved in betting whose result are gotten in minutes (short term betting. E.g football betting).

[fiulpro]

People do that a lot trust me , I completely understand their side of the perspective , understand but not agree.
The thing is there are people who are actively involved in the society since the ancient time , let take example of Warren Buffett , he does think the same am sure of it .
People think if something goes up and make people millionaire instantly where they worked hard to reach at that point , it is nothing less of a lottery , it goes up and down instantly but people should realize that it is the 10% the remaining 90% they do not want to see , it is stable like every other currency.

[DabsPoorVersion]

Those kind of people is just lack of knowledge,

Most of the time, they just heard the information from other people that is why it leads to misleading information. People like that tends to learn from others without even knowing by themselves of what is really the function of bitcoin.

[maxreish]

People have different point of view about investing in bitcoin. Since they are taking the risk of being a deficit, they compare it to gambling. No other than that reason. While we can still hold for a long term if market went down when we invest in bitcoin and that is indeed the good side of it.
 
 Betting and investing is two different thing. Others just don't understand the essense of two. Slight similarities in terms of different points but it is still far different from each other.

[imstillthebest]

because both have risks .  investing is risky . they often compare because when they hear the word investing loosing is also suddenly came to thier mind  .

those people heard horrible stories bout failed investments but they are not really familiar with btc and crypto investments   . a typical btc investment is much better than betting like what the reason stated on the first page   .  the only advantage of betting is that you will not be bored of waiting but investing usually have waiting times if the market is not that hot  or hyped   .

[Sadlife]

Indeed they're both risky but their different in so many ways. Betting is basically based on luck without any technical analysis or logic without any pattern or algorithm not unlike Bitcoin investing that has fundamentals and good amount of support, adoption and community that's been proven and tested as a legitimate asset.

[rambogoham1]

I think it comes down to volatility. People assume it's a bet with bitcoin because it drops 10-20% in a single day every couple weeks/months where as in all other markets that exist, you never get a drawback greater than 10% and that usually only occurs once a year or two. Bitcoin can log 40-50% pullbacks and still be in a macro bull run. Where as in other markets a 20% pullback is a recession/depression ensuing.

[rodskee]

Because some People here think that Investing in crypto is also a form of gambling that is why they use the term "Betting" in which totally i disagree just like what you have said Betting is too far from investing specially in terms of cryptocurrency that always has a value even how deep the dumping happens,there will be a small amount remain as value most specially in Bitcoin that has a highest price of all time and never bring losses to the supporters/investors that holds this for long term.

and also Investing in Bitcoin means semi assurance because the long you wait is the possibilities of higher profit you may have so the chance is much higher than just to Bet.

[maydna]

Betting is a risk some money to make a profit while investing is using some money to make a profit. In betting, we can have two options which are won or lose while we know that the chance to lose will be bigger than the win. In investment in bitcoin, although the bitcoin price is down, the price will increase again, and the value of bitcoin can up and down depend on the market situations. If people can be wise in investing in bitcoin, they will know when they can buy bitcoin, and when they can sell bitcoin, and they also know how much money they need to risk in bitcoin. They will accept the risk that the bitcoin prices can go up and down anytime, and they can stay calm when the price is down.

Perhaps, people who don't learn how to invest in bitcoin will think that it is the same as betting because they use their money to buy bitcoin at any price. But if they can hold bitcoin for the long term, and they only sell bitcoin if the price can increase higher, that will not be the same as betting because they don't lose their money, but it still in the bitcoin form.

[tabas]

You should have asked your sibling why he thinks bitcoin is a betting so that you will have an idea why his perspective is like that. The guy probably have heard it somewhere on the web that bitcoin is like that and he don't really understand the whole point of it.

Nah. He didn't hear that somewhere. He beloved in crypto but he just sees investing in crypto to be that way. However he believes it isn't much of an issue to me provided he believes in crypto and has earned from it.

Ok.
So he's one of us and just see that investing is like betting. I guess there are a lot of people just like the way he thinks and we just can't remove that kind of mindset from them.

[Krillin61]

If we are going to talk about it in terms of risk, it is almost the same since you are putting your money in risk. Investing is full of risk since you do not know what will happen to your money whether it goes up or down. This is not really the same but people is talking about it in terms of risk only. Do not take it as it is and full understand it first.

This answers your question. They all think that there are a lot of differences but I think there are common things that can affect the outcome like luck, and for the difference betting will rather give a quick income if you bet, but in investing there is a long term goal where you will want to hold until you double your initial investment. Think not of them as comparison rather they are more like analogy.

[Yatsan]

Because some People here think that Investing in crypto is also a form of gambling that is why they use the term "Betting" in which totally i disagree just like what you have said Betting is too far from investing specially in terms of cryptocurrency that always has a value even how deep the dumping happens,there will be a small amount remain as value most specially in Bitcoin that has a highest price of all time and never bring losses to the supporters/investors that holds this for long term.

Everything that involves money, making profit and losing money is a gamble to the eye of a gambler. I don't expect this idea to struck and never in my mind that I compare bitcoin investing with gambling, yes bitcoin has been involve with gambling like in betting but bitcoin as a form of a gamble does make sense. I gamble online whenever I'm free, and I'mma it is a form of betting at first when you're a beginner since you are expecting for the price to increase as well as your investment, does really make sense right? But if otherwise, bitcoin's price is just a normal thing to play.

and also Investing in Bitcoin means semi assurance because the long you wait is the possibilities of higher profit you may have so the chance is much higher than just to Bet.

Actually there is no assurance at all when we are talking about bitcoin, not because the price is high as of now but bitcoin is decentralized.

[Shasha80]

I strongly agree that betting and investing are two different things. Usually those who have such an assumption are newbies. Because if
we continue to invest in bitcoin, as we experience losses then we can decide on the hold bitcoin that we have.So when the price goes up,
our losses turn into profits. Different from betting if we experience losses, then what happens we will lose some or all of the capital we have.
So betting is more risky in my opinion. Maybe a newbie doesn't understand things like this, because of lack of knowledge about the world of
investment.

[Pffrt]

Because they have been introduced with bitcoin in a wrong way. This is happening all around the world and very few people know the inner bitcoin which has a lot of utility than fiat. Most people knows BTC as a money making/losing machine.

[dioanna]

when talking about risks I do agree about some similarities between gambling and investing but not 100 percent the same.
The probability of winning or losing in the short term basis is the same but in the long term basis betting has none while investing still have probabilities.

[Anonylz]

I think mostly because it is an online investment, maybe if it was probably an offline investment on something more physical, they will have a different view towards it,
Btc is a digital currency used online, so I can understand when some people will have this perception, personally, I think some people don't take online stuff too serious or they see it as gambling.

[jhonjhon]

Bitcoin isn’t a gamble where anyone can just bet on it and win for me it is an investment wherein you put money it or invest on it which can give you profits depending on the markets performance. Betting is like spending money on something that can be based on luck or intuition whereas investing is you have things to consider and factors to look at to become successful.