Well, buying alone an asset is simply greed. That's because I've seen many cases where people tried to become the "big bull" of the markets and ended up getting their capital dwindled to such levels which lead them to either get under debts or go bankrupt. If this is happening and more institutions join hands with GrayScale and come up with the same strategy, I believe that BTC will be nothing but a centralized puppet of these huge players who've got almost everything in their favor (even Banks are in their favor) and will go out of reach for the lower and middle class.
Yeah, that is a danger..and with Bitcoin/Crypto. As to myself, I've managed to 'refrain' from such an idea at least with buying Bitcoin/Crypto ..er mining ..back in the day. The greed
and FOMO was high...but I got out of that at the right time kinda/sorta. But to your point, even from my 2013 newbie days, I've always thought of Bitcoin in particular as
'virtual land'. In other words, where the internet had NO $$$ in the backbone of the Internet....all the $$$ were on the internet apps like Yahoo and Facebook, etc. As far as Bitcoin
the network or blockchain, for the most part, reflect Bitcoin price via applications and adoption. Indeed, that is what we are seeing here. Where greed comes into play is
do I HODL for more adoption or more price or will this just fade? So with this in mind, you have to think of Bitcoin as a virtual land much like you did if you had a farm or ranch
you want to pass on to your kids/or whomever. Does it have a use? Does it have an adoption or can you build on the land (in this case bitcoin) applications?
This means, like real land you need to HODL at 'least' 5-10 years and if you yank it at 5 years it has to be for real-life-issues or medical...just like selling the family farm.
This is the only way to tap down the greed reflex. The people that sell and buy on the dips....shudder...I don't have those skills....so I just HODL.
So far, since 2013 this has been the 'smartest' yet hardest thing I've ever done. Now I can afford retirement w/o BTC/Crypto..indeed it could all go, beanie-baby and poof
in price..and my lifestyle would not change much, if any. I myself intend to just pass the BTC/Crypto down the line with a will....just like ranch to relatives.
So, if you think, long-term like a real-time farmer rancher and not like a 'land speculator' or quick money con...and can handle the 30-35% and occasional
75% dumps and pumps in BTC/Crypto prices and HODL 5-10 years...so far, or at least since 2013 when I got into this...it is a wise play indeed!
Again, this is long term and if you 'believe' that BTC/Crypto has real-world use and adoption...well, you will be fine. I always look at this in 3 ways, in my case since 2013 , in my dubious
little mind will be fine. This is with my 3-step 'dubious' mine exercise: 1) BTC goes to whatever it is now to 1/2 of the price it is now and adoption/niche
has been met and now it acts like a traditional investment as such...with 1-2% or more growth per year. or 2) btc price whatever it is now...more or less that is what it is...no change
and again, adoption/niche met..from now on acts like a traditional investment and goes up 1-2% a year from this point on or 3) BTC price at whatever it is at the time you are thinking this
goes up 3x/8x/16x/20x as it has in the past etc...just like it has in the past because as 'virtual land' 18.5 million BTC being held by 'someone' and adoption has not matured yet
with only 3.5 million Biitcoin left and it does the whole 'let's go crazy' in the adoption phase it has in the past.
Currently with money printing and bonds due to the money printing (the traditional way
to at least get a bunch of bonds if the stock market craps out to beat inflation...with current money printing doubtful IMHO any bond will beat inflation in next 5-7-10 years....the
likelihood of 3) being the path to stay on...as has been since 2013 is how I'm going. Again, if farmers and ranchers with the same kind of land pump/dump in prices going
up and down would lose their minds thinking about how much money they 'could have' or 'would have' etc. Best just to think like a farmer....HODL coin like you have ranch land
at the edge of Las Vegas in the 1960s..if you can 'add' to it fine..HODL is 'obvoius!' .But don't count on long term over 5-10 years the prices are gonna go down long term...or why are you
ranching? or farming? The same thing works with Bitcoin. Also only play this game on what you can afford to lose...it is not 'investing' this is speculation. Again, easy for me to say...
but buy some dust..sell some stuff (man I shoulda/coulda done that in 2013 to eBay..the BTC I'd have now!)
Dump all that stuff in the attic you may die with...sell it...clean
it out...get BTC dust..whatcha gonna do if BTC goes stupid up again due to adoption/inflation/dubious other countries currencies/etc? What if Amazon starts taking BTC/Crypto
worldwide and starts offering banking/debit/then checking/savings/crypto-exchange options to the world's 'unbanked' etc? If 'all' value comes from legal ownership of
land for loans and collateral for such banking/checking...why can't they use such BTC/Crypto on a say BTC/crypto debit card to give themselves a step up in that manner?
Why should they deal with a country where hiding gold under your hut for the next revolution or coup is normal? or corrupt banking..or 1,200 percent inflation like in
Venezuela..so I HODL ...I don't think we've seen anything yet ..but again...this is over a 5-10 year stretch ....under that time frame I expect BTC/Crypto prices and FUD
and Regulations and all the other stuff BTC/crypto will have to slog through...but then again, I"m going by the motto of ' only what you can afford' and that BTC Dust you
get now from 'attic mining' stuff to sell on eBay..may be a really, really big deal in 5-10 years at 'hopefully' 100k BTC or more!
and hell, is stuff to do (silly hobby)
As to your 'centralized' puppet quote above, maybe...but damn hard to be a puppet if Bitcoin 'stays' decentralized as far as 21 million BTC cap on Bitcoin...that's the kicker
miners may come and go/centralization like through exchanges and regulations may also arrive but assuming my 'dubious' its 'virtual land' holds with this ...the staus quo
affect of decentralized 'at the core of it' Bitcoin will be hard to move in that decentralization of money, not in lock-step with currency manipulation like fiat dollars..well..it will
muddle along fine..even with the 1 to 1 inflationary $1 to 1 Token National currencies coming along.
But again, all this is 'speculation' so don't play if you can't take the pain!
Brad
Brad
Brad