choose an option

[NeuroticFish]

Which bank gives even 7% annual interest? I know that interest rates in recent years have been close to 1% or even less and that keeping money in the bank just to earn something from the interest did not make any sense.

In 2023 a lot of commercial banks in my country were giving ~7% yearly interest on local currency.
Just the inflation here is significant and the yearly interest for EUR and USD were going at 3-4%. I know it's not franky's 7%, still better than 1%.
(I will add that afterwards one has to also pay tax on gains, but I guess that it's the same everywhere).

I still think that 20 BTC is a great offer at this point, because I have no doubt that it is the fastest option to double that $480k, and probably more than that.

I can't argue this rationale 

banks? .. you'd just leave $480k in a normal mainstreet bank account..? dannnnggg..

Afaik in Europe it's not unsafe to keep max 100k in a bank; of course, you will have to spread the money between multiple banks...
I think that the worse part is that the interest offered by banks is lower than what the real inflation is getting away. And knowing this plus being familiar with bitcoin... makes it indeed Bitcoin be the only viable choice.
However, if I'd be in the winner's shoes I would probably not have those multiple choices; but it's OK, I'm not picky

[harapan]

which would you prefer to receive?
a. $480,000 lottery win as payments spread over 96months(8 years) of $5k a month
b. $480,000 lottery win as payment lumpsum $480k
c. $480,000 of bitcoin at(~$24k/btc buy price recent months allocated to the donator) 20btc
d. $480,000 value house
e. $480,000 value business
f. $480,000 of gold at(~$1.8k/ounce buy price recent months allocated to the donator) 266ounce

pick one and explain your rationale..
if you pick bitcoin as first choice. also pick another and explain rationale of second choice
(im mainly looking to see people opinions/rationale on choices that are made about not option C and compared to C)

Option C please,  in the long run that 20btc will be enough to buy a value house and also start a value business.
What need to be done is to work and improve on the measures with how you store and secure such amounts of Bitcoin. Get to understand seed phrases and what would lead to your security and privacy.

20btc is something you should just hold and forget not to think about the rise and fall of the price. This is same amount lost by Drake during the last bet he lost.
A valuable business too will make you that 20btc so that will be the next option to focus on. Option E

[tjtonmoy]

I am definitely going to choose option d. Here is why. If I get a house then I can rent it for passive income. And whatever I get from it, I can easily spread that money to different investment. Diversification is the key. I know it is a Bitcoin forum and people will most likely choose option c but if we look at the bigger picture, I think option d is the best one.

You are getting a passive income monthly by renting out your property/house. You can do whatever you want with that money afterward. I can invest into Bitcoin, I can invest into gold and I can invest into business. Lottery is based on luck. So that's not something I am worried about. And I'm never going to choose that. When we have a constant flow of money, we can take risks that won't be possible with other options.
Maybe I have a fu**ked up mindset, but this is how I think. When you have a roof over your head, you can achieve other things and you won't have to take that many risks. I don't know about this but you can share your opinion on this. I'm open to suggestions.

[gunhell16]

which would you prefer to receive?
a. $480,000 lottery win as payments spread over 96months(8 years) of $5k a month

c. $480,000 of bitcoin at(~$24k/btc buy price recent months allocated to the donator) 20btc

That's the one I will choose. Of course, my first choice is (A) because, from what I see there, I will receive $5,000 every month. With this concept, I can handle the money fairly well because the full value of my winning prize is limited. Rather than being able to handle the money in full right away.

Because when you are the person who is not aware of financial literacy and lacks knowledge about it, you might just waste your money in no time and be like others who just spent the money on useless things. In the second choice, your future is secured when you have Bitcoin, let's say 10 bitcoins you hold for 10 years. For sure, it has a high value, and that's a big deal to us.

[Lucius]

In 2023 a lot of commercial banks in my country were giving ~7% yearly interest on local currency.
Just the inflation here is significant and the yearly interest for EUR and USD were going at 3-4%. I know it's not franky's 7%, still better than 1%.
(I will add that afterwards one has to also pay tax on gains, but I guess that it's the same everywhere).

You can be happy that you (still) have your national currency, wait for your country to join the Eurozone and then things will change (not for the better, of course). I've only found one bank that gives 3% interest, all the others have below 2%, and it still seems completely pointless to keep money in bank.

I still think that 20 BTC is a great offer at this point, because I have no doubt that it is the fastest option to double that $480k, and probably more than that.

I can't argue this rationale 

And yet some members decided for some other options, and I believe that most of those who chose BTC would change their decision if someone physically presented them with $480k in cash and the option to give their BTC address and get 20 BTC. If people on the bitcointalk forum don't want 20 BTC, those who know a lot less than them certainly wouldn't even consider such an option.

[Grizzly888]

I am definitely going to choose option d. Here is why. If I get a house then I can rent it for passive income. And whatever I get from it, I can easily spread that money to different investment. Diversification is the key. I know it is a Bitcoin forum and people will most likely choose option c but if we look at the bigger picture, I think option d is the best one.

You are getting a passive income monthly by renting out your property/house. You can do whatever you want with that money afterward. I can invest into Bitcoin, I can invest into gold and I can invest into business. Lottery is based on luck. So that's not something I am worried about. And I'm never going to choose that. When we have a constant flow of money, we can take risks that won't be possible with other options.
Maybe I have a fu**ked up mindset, but this is how I think. When you have a roof over your head, you can achieve other things and you won't have to take that many risks. I don't know about this but you can share your opinion on this. I'm open to suggestions.

Well... When you lease your house to someone, quite often people who rent it might treat it badly. I know people, who owns a couple of houses/flats and lease them, and I was very shocked when heard from them, that they regret about investing capital into living houses. Loads of people who rent houses after they moved leave after themselves many work to do, starting from repairing basic goods in the house, finishing buying new beds, sofas, cutlery, tables etc. You may say "Sue them!", but remember that it also costs money, time, nerves, therefore it's often cheaper to buy new things into the house or repair something. And as you see, option with a house has many indirect costs, which definitely are much worse than benefits. Therefore, I believe that investments into real estate makes sense only when you buy buildings which can be leased to the businesses, because as guys has told me, businesses pay more for the rent, make renovation by their own and clearly understand that in case if they damage the building they will pay for it. But I understand your view point, it still makes sense.  

[Peanutswar]

c. $480,000 of bitcoin at(~$24k/btc buy price recent months allocated to the donator) 20btc

which would you prefer to receive?
a. $480,000 lottery win as payments spread over 96months(8 years) of $5k a month
b. $480,000 lottery win as payment lumpsum $480k
c. $480,000 of bitcoin at(~$24k/btc buy price recent months allocated to the donator) 20btc
d. $480,000 value house
e. $480,000 value business
f. $480,000 of gold at(~$1.8k/ounce buy price recent months allocated to the donator) 266ounce

pick one and explain your rationale..
if you pick bitcoin as first choice. also pick another and explain rationale of second choice
(im mainly looking to see people opinions/rationale on choices that are made about not option C and compared to C)

Among the listed those take time to matter, BTC is one of the volatile choices, and at the same time based on your choices its the lowest price of the market right now, and during this state of halving we are experiencing another bull run of this year of 2025, its good accumulate as possible. With the option, a and b takes too much time before you get your reward, with the d the real state now will depend on the location so theres no assurance that you will get a good position of the house, with the e. still good because if the business becomes a trend you can have a good cashflow with the f. im not a fan of gold it takes a lot of years before you feel your profit. So the choices here is C for geting volatile and D for the long term.

[Lorence.xD]

c. $480,000 of bitcoin at(~$24k/btc buy price recent months allocated to the donator) 20btc

which would you prefer to receive?
a. $480,000 lottery win as payments spread over 96months(8 years) of $5k a month
b. $480,000 lottery win as payment lumpsum $480k
c. $480,000 of bitcoin at(~$24k/btc buy price recent months allocated to the donator) 20btc
d. $480,000 value house
e. $480,000 value business
f. $480,000 of gold at(~$1.8k/ounce buy price recent months allocated to the donator) 266ounce

pick one and explain your rationale..
if you pick bitcoin as first choice. also pick another and explain rationale of second choice
(im mainly looking to see people opinions/rationale on choices that are made about not option C and compared to C)

Among the listed those take time to matter, BTC is one of the volatile choices, and at the same time based on your choices its the lowest price of the market right now, and during this state of halving we are experiencing another bull run of this year of 2025, its good accumulate as possible. With the option, a and b takes too much time before you get your reward, with the d the real state now will depend on the location so theres no assurance that you will get a good position of the house, with the e. still good because if the business becomes a trend you can have a good cashflow with the f. im not a fan of gold it takes a lot of years before you feel your profit. So the choices here is C for geting volatile and D for the long term.

Well you are actually right, some of the list options will require patience since it's a long term reward, but if you are not patient enough to wait for the bull run or long term like for the A, B and also C, then other choices would be good. For me, I personally pick D, cause prices of housing here in my country is really pricey, even what kind of location the real estate located, but of course tourist spot would be expensive which is good for investment where you can open up businesses or open for rental spaces. If D is 480,000 value house/s which more than one, because with that amount I could already buy more than 10 houses here which I could open up for rental spaces. By that I could have passive income and whenever I got profit, I could just simply invest again in Bitcoin.

[NeuroticFish]

You can be happy that you (still) have your national currency, wait for your country to join the Eurozone and then things will change (not for the better, of course). I've only found one bank that gives 3% interest, all the others have below 2%, and it still seems completely pointless to keep money in bank.

I don't agree with this. Everything meaningful, from cars and houses to even mobile plans have the prices calculated in EUR and converted to local currency.
So all we get is the bigger inflation. Thanks, but I prefer EUR in this case.
As I said, whether the bank gives 2% or 7%, that is still under what the inflation takes away.

I can't argue this rationale 

And yet some members decided for some other options, and I believe that most of those who chose BTC would change their decision if someone physically presented them with $480k in cash and the option to give their BTC address and get 20 BTC. If people on the bitcointalk forum don't want 20 BTC, those who know a lot less than them certainly wouldn't even consider such an option.

Good point. But you're only partly right. Actually I thought also of choosing fiat if it would all come now into my account untouched and without taxes (and others too tried a similar rationale). And the reason is not the lack of trust in bitcoin, by far. It's that:
1. I would use some of that fiat to pay my debts first and only the rest I would convert into bitcoin. I find this easier here than getting 20 BTC and selling some of those for paying the debts.
2. Since it's a lottery win, KYC will be there anyway, so, for tax purposes it may be better to have those bitcoins bought. That afterwards I mix them before putting them into cold storage, that's another topic.
But since the money was not coming like that, the fiat options are "sub-optimal".

[tjtonmoy]

~Snip

Well that's not the case where I live. If you rent a property / house, you will have to pay any kind of damage or alternation you do while living. And when you were ready to leave, you will have to pay the required amount to fix those damage or make the house as it was previously. And here we don't provide renters with furniture or other stuffs. When you rent a place all you get is an empty house except for things that are required for the house owner to provide. That includes kitchen accessories, sink, water tap, etc. Bathroom accessories like glass, hanger, shower head and things like that. I am including those because those are minor fixes that does not require a lot of money. I have lived in four different houses. Every time I left them I paid a certain amount of money for the damage I have made. And that's all.

Also, the fact about land. Even if the house is gone, the land is still there. I don't know how do you think that it is a bad idea to invest in real estate. Even if we provide the renters with something, we can always fix or replace that thing which should not cost that much. You still have the house, you can fix it or you can rent it to other people for living there and fixing the damage on their own for a little bit of cheap rent. Both ways you win.

[DeathAngel]

I’d take Option C because that $480,000 worth of bitcoin will be worth millions in under 3 years (if we take the price of one bitcoin at $24,000 I am almost certain it’ll be worth over $100,000 per coin before 2026).
If Option C was unavailable I’d take Option A because $5,000 per month for 8 years would be nice.

[Grizzly888]

~Snip

Well that's not the case where I live. If you rent a property / house, you will have to pay any kind of damage or alternation you do while living. And when you were ready to leave, you will have to pay the required amount to fix those damage or make the house as it was previously. And here we don't provide renters with furniture or other stuffs. When you rent a place all you get is an empty house except for things that are required for the house owner to provide. That includes kitchen accessories, sink, water tap, etc. Bathroom accessories like glass, hanger, shower head and things like that. I am including those because those are minor fixes that does not require a lot of money. I have lived in four different houses. Every time I left them I paid a certain amount of money for the damage I have made. And that's all.

Also, the fact about land. Even if the house is gone, the land is still there. I don't know how do you think that it is a bad idea to invest in real estate. Even if we provide the renters with something, we can always fix or replace that thing which should not cost that much. You still have the house, you can fix it or you can rent it to other people for living there and fixing the damage on their own for a little bit of cheap rent. Both ways you win.

I see, it's quite interesting to learn about such nuances in different countries. In your case it definitely makes sense. Also I liked your point about land, for some reason I forgot to mention it in my answer. Anyway, I agree with you, that except some hard work related to the house, you also have some significant advantages.

[Alpha Marine]

Receiving 5k a month would make it impossible for you to invest in a big project where you'll need a lot of money at once.
Also, the more you earn monthly, the more your needs increase and it would get to a point where $5k a month won't be enough for the month.

My first choice would be option B.
With $480k I can do a lot. I won't be investing all that in Bitcoin and that's why I wouldn't option C is not my first choice.
I can invest in various things, including Bitcoin. I can buy 6-7 Bitcoins and hold them for a long time. I might see 4X my investment in 2 years.

I don't know the type of business so I won't be going for option E. It could be a very high-risk business or a business I don't have a good understanding of. I might end up running the business to the ground. I'd rather take the money and start my own business that I have an understanding of.

$480k worth of Bitcoin would be my second option.
I can sell half of the 20btc and use it for other investments. It won't be prudent to leave all my earnings in Bitcoin knowing how volatile Bitcoin is.

[bhadz]

$24k/btc and then I'll sell some to make the business ideas on my mind into reality. Obviously, I have already got $10k/btc profit if that's the price when it was given to me. That's an easy choice when you want to hold Bitcoin and also make some profit out of it. The other choice gives you the financial stability and that's going to make you set for life. But I think this is also a good choice, if you believe that Bitcoin will be bigger someday then you'll make more from those options and you'll have a better life than the choice of others if you're good at handling money. That means that your take-home pay is higher than the rest because the price of Bitcoin has gotten bigger and you'll have more capital to start with if you trying to build a business.

[Fortify]

which would you prefer to receive?
a. $480,000 lottery win as payments spread over 96months(8 years) of $5k a month
b. $480,000 lottery win as payment lumpsum $480k
c. $480,000 of bitcoin at(~$24k/btc buy price recent months allocated to the donator) 20btc
d. $480,000 value house
e. $480,000 value business
f. $480,000 of gold at(~$1.8k/ounce buy price recent months allocated to the donator) 266ounce

pick one and explain your rationale..
if you pick bitcoin as first choice. also pick another and explain rationale of second choice
(im mainly looking to see people opinions/rationale on choices that are made about not option C and compared to C)

I'd definitely go for the lump sum of cash, just because in my country at least there would be no tax on it, but you couldn't say the same if you were American because they get hit heavily for "gambling" related winnings. Option A looks appealing until you realize that the lottery, after inflation, are winning big by spreading it over a longer time period so your winnings will be worth less. The other ones are appealing as well, however cash is king really and if you wanted to be sensible you could diversify into a bunch of those different assets but possibly keep the bulk of your money in a more steady investment like an index fund. It will also depend on how you see the economy of your country and the world going in the next few years whether you want to invest it all.

[Lucius]

You can be happy that you (still) have your national currency, wait for your country to join the Eurozone and then things will change (not for the better, of course). I've only found one bank that gives 3% interest, all the others have below 2%, and it still seems completely pointless to keep money in bank.

I don't agree with this. Everything meaningful, from cars and houses to even mobile plans have the prices calculated in EUR and converted to local currency.
So all we get is the bigger inflation. Thanks, but I prefer EUR in this case.
As I said, whether the bank gives 2% or 7%, that is still under what the inflation takes away.

That's a bit strange to me considering that I know that your country is not in the Eurozone, so why express prices in Euros? My country entered the Eurozone at the beginning of this year and the sellers took advantage of that and increased all prices considering that the conversion ratio was 1 EUR -> 7.53 in relation to the local currency. It was only after about 8-9 months that the government took action and returned part of the prices to the values they were at the end of last year, but we were literally robbed during that period because some prices went up over 100%. I believe that every country should have monetary sovereignty and thus be able to deal with its problems, and not that one center of power decides everything.

And yet some members decided for some other options, and I believe that most of those who chose BTC would change their decision if someone physically presented them with $480k in cash and the option to give their BTC address and get 20 BTC. If people on the bitcointalk forum don't want 20 BTC, those who know a lot less than them certainly wouldn't even consider such an option.

Good point. But you're only partly right. Actually I thought also of choosing fiat if it would all come now into my account untouched and without taxes (and others too tried a similar rationale). And the reason is not the lack of trust in bitcoin, by far. It's that:
1. I would use some of that fiat to pay my debts first and only the rest I would convert into bitcoin. I find this easier here than getting 20 BTC and selling some of those for paying the debts.
2. Since it's a lottery win, KYC will be there anyway, so, for tax purposes it may be better to have those bitcoins bought. That afterwards I mix them before putting them into cold storage, that's another topic.
But since the money was not coming like that, the fiat options are "sub-optimal".

I understand that tax plays a role for some, but if I were to receive that amount in cash in a bank account and it would be the winnings that arose from winning the lottery, I would have to pay the maximum tax rate of 30% (which is the highest rate considering gain). On the other hand, if the winnings were paid out in BTC, and that would be something that the state would not have insight into, then I could sell that BTC without doing KYC, because that is still an option for me, considering that transactions up to EUR 1000 can be conducted without KYC.

Although we are talking about a lottery win here, not every such win has to be KYC, because if we take into account freebitco winnings (weekly or monthly) you get them to your BTC address, and I certainly wouldn't report a $200k win, because 30% would go into the pockets of corrupt politicians.

[NeuroticFish]

That's a bit strange to me considering that I know that your country is not in the Eurozone, so why express prices in Euros?

Because this way they don't care about the local inflation. Plus they can earn some extra, since in many cases they ask for the price in local currency at national bank's conversion ratio +some% (to cover potential loses and actually get even more money from the customer).

It was only after about 8-9 months that the government took action and returned part of the prices to the values they were at the end of last year, but we were literally robbed during that period

As you can see we here are robbed on the daily basis for many years. And the government, after wasting (and obviously stealing) much more money they should have, now they rose the taxes too.

I understand that tax plays a role for some, but if I were to receive that amount in cash in a bank account and it would be the winnings that arose from winning the lottery, I would have to pay the maximum tax rate of 30% (which is the highest rate considering gain). On the other hand, if the winnings were paid out in BTC, and that would be something that the state would not have insight into, then I could sell that BTC without doing KYC, because that is still an option for me, considering that transactions up to EUR 1000 can be conducted without KYC.

I guess I've said it wrong. I was thinking on that money after the necessary tax being paid by the lottery company.
And here I have to pay tax for all crypto gains if I do transactions of yearly total exceeding the incredible amount of... 150 EUR. And one transaction doesn't have to be bigger than 40 EUR.
I guess the sun would turn into supernova before I'd spend here those 20 BTC without tax

Although we are talking about a lottery win here, not every such win has to be KYC, because if we take into account freebitco winnings (weekly or monthly) you get them to your BTC address, and I certainly wouldn't report a $200k win, because 30% would go into the pockets of corrupt politicians.

I like the way you're thinking (and I see your politicians are not even as bad as ours) but I expect the legit casinos might report such wins. And will most probably not tell whether they did or not.

[tjtonmoy]

I see, it's quite interesting to learn about such nuances in different countries. In your case it definitely makes sense. Also I liked your point about land, for some reason I forgot to mention it in my answer. Anyway, I agree with you, that except some hard work related to the house, you also have some significant advantages.

Yeah, it's like a dead elephant. Even if it's dead it's worth a lot. You win in both cases. And when you have those kinds of advantages, I'm going with the option d. It is the best in my opinion. As the owner you rent out the place and just do a little bit of maintenance every now and then. That's all it takes to be a house owner here in my country.

There aren't any passive income as easy as owning a house. But as you explained earlier, The story is different from place to place. Maybe in my country it is a good thing for having those advantages. But it could be a pain in the ass if you are from a place where you have to do most of the hard works and pay for everything. It is also a pain here too but not in traditional houses but only in hotels. Rather than owning a hotel I would prefer a house for sure. In a hotel, people stay for few days or hours and they damage all the shit they want and you are the one who will have to pay for that. So that's not a very good business idea. So yeah option d could be favorable based on places and rules and regulation that place have.

[oktana]

I'd go with option B (the $480,000 lottery win as a lump sum payment).
Here's my rationale: First, opting for a lump sum provides me with the entire prize amount upfront. This instant access would be great for investments, paying off debts, or making significant purchases. Seconddly, with the lump sum, I will have the flexibility to invest the full amount in different places, which could potentially earn higher profits than what I might get through the other options. It'll allow me to set my investments to my financial goals and risk tolerance.

Now, if I were to choose a second option, I'd go with option E, the $480,000 (value business).
Here's my rationale for this choice: Owning a business can provide a consistent source of income and opportunities for expansion. It'll give me an opportunity to be actively involved in the business operations or even to hire professionals to manage it. It's an asset that can really be appreciated in value over time, and I'll have some control over its success through my management decisions.

[Dr.Bitcoin_Strange]

If this is an offer coming in right away, I will gladly take Bitcoin (option C) because already there has been an additional profit with the current price of Bitcoin, and also the Bitcoin halving period is approaching where the market gets bullish, and if in the next bull market (2024 or 2025) Bitcoin gets to $100k, that's going to be $1,520,000 in profit, and the $480k initial capital total is $2 million in just 2 years. That's a lot of profit, and I believe from your list that Bitcoin is the only asset that can generate that amount of profit within a short period of two to four years.

The second option will be E, if I have a business value of $480k, as long as it's a business that falls into the category of the kind of business I want to establish—a business of things that are usually needed by people on a daily basis, like food. With that great sum as my capital, I know I will not earn less than $8k in a month, or even more than that.