Everyone is different when it comes to whether they should first learn the basics or simply invest while learning. But personally, I can't ignore basic knowledge because so many people end up learning while investing only to experience losses. Experience is truly the best teacher, as it provides direct, real world experience by observing price fluctuations, learning to avoid FOMO, etc. Spending too much time studying can also lead to procrastination.
So? What are you saying? Can a beginner get started or not? What does the beginner bitcoin need to know in order to get started buying bitcoin?
Of course you can. I said everyone has different views on this matter. Personally, I think knowledge is crucial before investing in Bitcoin. Basic knowledge isn't technical, but rather the fundamentals of how to buy or store it, or the history of Bitcoin, so that it can give us confidence in our investment.
I don't have any problem with the need to assert that newbies need to know from where they are going to source their bitcoin prior to getting started, and their source could influence what they determine to need to know based on their own judgement. I doubt that any help comes from knowing the history of bitcoin, since adjusting starting position size can help them to adjust to whatever future knowledge they might feel that they need to get within their own determination and their own pace. Otherwise, yeah, the ONLY real prerequisite knowledge would be an ability to know whether they have sufficient discretionary funds within their own judgement to get started with whatever they might decide their first purchase will be.
I understand what you're saying investing in Bitcoin doesn't require fundamental knowledge the important thing is to do a digital asset management DCA on Bitcoin
DCA does not stand for Digital asset management. DCA is an ability for guys to adjust their buys, whether weekly or some other basis upon the amount of discretionary funds that they have available during any time that they are considering buying more bitcoin. There is a concept called cashflow management, yet not even cashflow management needs to be known in advance in any detail so long as they are able to determine that they have discretionary funds available, and perhaps enough back up funds to make sure that they do not use non-discretionary money in their bitcoin purchase.
and hold it for the long term.
Even though many of us recognize and appreciate that investing in bitcoin should be a 4-10 year or longer time horizon in order to qualify as investing rather than trading and/or gambling, the beginner to bitcoin might not have had figured out the difference between investing and trading, yet I doubt that they have to figure that out before getting started buying bitcoin as long as they are starting with money that is sufficiently within their discretionary funds.
But wouldn't it be better to have a little knowledge before starting so that we know what we're investing in and have confidence in what we're investing in?
It is up to the individual to figure out what they need to know. They can use their own judgement as long as they are buying bitcoin from within their discretionary funds, they have the basics covered in terms of using money that they can afford to lose, and they can make their own judgement regarding those kinds of matters. I doubt that there is much if any utility in creating a list of requirements that any bitcoin newbie needs to have beyond discretionary funds. If they fuck up then they will have to suffer the consequences. I doubt anyone has motives to buy something like bitcoin with an intention of fucking up.
I'm saying that many beginners invest in Bitcoin, but when fluctuations occur they panic especially when faced with market fluctuations like those in the past few weeks.
I already gave you example, perhaps in another thread. If a guy has $100 each week that he could buy bitcoin, then why does he need to know more about volatility or anything else besides spending 5 minutes glancing at a historical price chart, and if he decides to buy $30 of bitcoin for the next 3 or 4 weeks, he had already used his common sense to determine to adjust his weekly amount down to a reasonable amount (from $100 down to $30) while he might look into the bitcoin matter and his cashflow management matters at a later point down the road like around 3-4 weeks later when he gets more time to look into the matter. Maybe in 3-4 weeks he expects that he will be able to allocate 2-3 hours per week to look into bitcoin and/or cashflow management matters. What is wrong with that?
But the risks without basic knowledge are real and costly as you can fall prey to scams, phishing scams or simply take wallet security for granted.
So you think that he might need to know basics about scams, phishing and/or wallet security in order to get started buying bitcoin?
It's better isn't it?
I doubt that it is necessary. If the guy already decided that he is going to buy $30 per week for the next 3-4 weeks (which would be $90 to $120), and then he would look into the matter later, then he could already decide that if some kind of weird fluke had ended up coming along, then in the next 3-4 weeks, he could perhaps run a risk of losing $90 to $120 in the event that there is some kind of information that he might need to know, and in the meantime, he had been deciding within his own judgement that he can buy $30 per week of bitcoin until he has time to look into matters further, to the extent that he might not know enough about scams, phishing and/or wallet security that might potentially be something that he ends up choosing to look into when he ends up looking further into the bitcoin and/or cashflow management matters in a few weeks- ish. I don't see what good it does to patronize the guy and proclaim that he needs to know about scams, phishing and/or wallet security before he can get started buying bitcoin. The guy can use his own judgement in terms of whether he believes that he might need to know those things before getting started (and maybe he does not even know that he does not know, but he can still make up his own mind, no?).
Especially with the goal of long term investment we need to understand at least a little about such things.
You believe that right from the start a guy has to commit to long term investing into bitcoin for 4-10 years or longer before he can get started? Why can't he figure out the difference between investing and/or trading (and/or gambling) at a later point? Why can't he get started? if that is what he wants to do?
After all we know that in the world of Bitcoin such things happen frequently. Knowing the basics makes us more cautious.
He has already decided to be more cautious. He knows that he can invest $100 per week into bitcoin, and he purposefully choose to start with $30 per week. Hasn't he already chosen a sufficient amount of precaution in order to get started buying bitcoin on a weekly basis in the event that he had chosen to do so?
I mean, beginners don't need to be a strategist or a deep strategist to start buying Bitcoin. But I do mean understanding the basics is crucial to avoid investing blindly. Isn't blind investing still wrong,
Getting started is important, and I doubt that guys are blind when they start buying bitcoin. If a guy comes to bitcoin as a newbie, you are going to presume that he is blind?
I would expect that bitcoin newbies come to bitcoin with all kinds of different experiences, skills and knowledge, and I see no reason to presume them to either be retarded or blind. I think that it is better to presume that they have common sense and they are capable of making decisions, and if they have figured out that they have sufficient discretionary funds, then they likely have enough information to get started, and they can figure out their position size from there.
Perhaps if they are having trouble figuring out if they have a sufficient amount of discretionary funds or not, then they might need to take longer to figure out if they have a sufficient amount of discretionary funds, and if they cannot figure out that they have a sufficient amount of discretionary funds, then they should not buy any bitcoin until they are able to figure out that part with sufficient comfort level.
even if the asset is Bitcoin? Understanding the basics won't make a beginner procrastinate. On the contrary the more they understand the more calm and consistent they can be in investing.
They can figure that out for themselves. If they figure out that they have discretionary funds, then they can figure out whether they want to start buying bitcoin and with how much they would like to start. You think that they need to know more and you are presuming various categories of things that you believe that they need to know prior to getting started, and I think that you are being too patronizing with your presumptions that newbies are blind when they are likely not blind and around 97% of normies likely have common sense, so they just have to practice it.. .and getting started is a good way to practice their common sense, as long as they have determined that they have a sufficient amount of discretionary funds in order to get started, whether that is $100, $10 or some other amount and whether that is weekly or just a one time beginning amount before they look into the bitcoin and/or cashflow management matters further.
[edited out]
You are right, I did not use the term discretionary income directly. However, I mentioned the issues of financial management, limitations and capacity assessment of the person. These issues Helpful to be assessed to know if there is extra money. the issues i said strengthen the foundation for starting and reduce the possibility of wrong decisions. It is not the case that we have to wait until the learning is complete.
Beneficial and mandatory are two different words.It seems to me that we were talking about mandatory.
What is required to get started?
That sounds like mandatory.
I said that the only thing that is mandatory is discretionary funds and common sense.
You came out with a whole list of what you believe to be beneficial, so you seem to be fighting with (and convoluting) the idea of what is mandatory by throwing in a whole bunch of niceties, and muddying the waters in regards to what is needed to get started.
Also if a guy has common sense, he can figure out the extent to which he needs any of those niceties that you mentioned or not.. or if he can figure out those things later, to the extent that he needs to know any of them.
The person in your example has $100 extra and from that he decides to invest $30. This decision cannot be made suddenly and there is a fundamental assessment behind his decision.
You are fighting the example. I gave you an example of a guy who already knows that he has $100 extra each week and he decided to start with $30 per week, so why can't he just start and he does not need to know or study all of those areas on your list before getting started.
To reach this decision that he has $100 extra, he had to consider his income, expenses, cash flow and liabilities
Why are you fighting it? I already gave you the example. He already decided that he has $100 extra per week. He decided to start buying $30 of bitcoin per week within the judgement that he already exercised.
otherwise how could he be sure that he would not need this $100? And he decided to start with $30 instead of $100 which is a reflection of his risk assessment.
thou doth protest too much. You are fighting the example. You want to patronize my hypothetical guy? If he makes a mistake it is on him, and he already decided. You want to lecture him about what he needs to consider first?
He thought that starting with a small amount would be safer for him i.e. he is aware of his limitations.
He's an adult, and he has common sense. I am going to presume that he is not retarded, and my odds are about 97% that he is not retarded and he can decide for himself like an adult who knows how to exercise judgements and to decide how to spend his money or not to spend it and to decide how much he wants to spend in any given week.
The attitude of learning with starting is that it recognizes that his current knowledge is not complete. If knowledge was worthless, there would be no need to learn later.
The guy can decide what he knows or doesn't know
The guy can decide how much skills he has
The guy can decide his experience
The guy can figure out how much money he has.
If he needs to learn more details later, he can do that too. In my hypothetical the guy has already considered each of these matters. Maybe it took him 15 minutes or maybe it took him 2 hours.. Whatever it took him, he already decided that he has at least $100 per week in discretionary funds that he could invest into bitcoin, yet he would like to start with $30 until he has time to look into the bitcoin matter and/or his cashflow management matters around 3-4 weeks later, so perhaps after 3-4 weeks, by that time, he would have had invested $90 or $120 into bitcoin before he has time to look further into those bitcoin investment and/or cashflow management matters.
Your example does not contradict my point, but rather the person in your example has already assessed his financial capabilities, managed risks, and acknowledged his limitations.
My example does contradict your point, because you gave a whole checklist of what you believe the bitcoin newbie needs to know before getting started. My hypothetical guy may or may not know those things. And, even if he does not know any of those things, he knows that he has sufficient discretionary funds, and he has purposefully decided to reduce the amount that he buys each week until he has time to look into the matter further, yet you seem to think that he needs to know your checklist of items before he can get started buying bitcoin.
And these are the things I mentioned as the basic foundation. The only difference here is that I listed the things and the person in your imagination has put them into practice. So your example does not refute me, but rather partially supports me.
I doubt it. You are giving a list of items that you believe to need to be known in advance (just like you said) and I am saying that the guy is mostly just relying on his having figured out that he has discretionary funds and he is making individual judgement that he knows enough to get started buying $30 per week of bitcoin, and he will figure out various other things, to the extent that he determines that he needs to, at a later time, perhaps 3-4 weeks down the road or maybe even later.. and in the meantime he is buying $30 worth of bitcoin each week.
Let's say for example my guy spends the next 26 weeks (half a year) buying $30 per week of bitcoin (which would end up being $780), and hopefully, he would have had started to have time to look into matters further since the more that he invests into bitcoin, the amount that he had already put into bitcoin starts to add up to being a larger and larger amount, which I would imagine would incentivize the guy to learn more and more and more. But the guy still has to figure out for himself what he knows and what he doesn't know and whether he needs to or can change his behaviors based on what he might be learning as time passes.
Comparing MSTR’s 6-year corporate strategy to individual DCA is just like comparing apple to orange.
First of all, MSTR isn’t DCAing. They use leverages and convertible notes. Their strategy is treasury management and not dollar cost averaging. But of course, APY looks bad if we should ignore the BTC per share growth and leverage leverage.
The point is MSTR stock is basically a leveraged BTC ETF. i.e if BTC does 50% in 2026, MSTR does 80-100% but if BTC does -50% MSTR gets wrecked.
Moreover, DCA exists for volatility and not catching tops. Assuming 2026 is a bull year then we can say lump sum beats DCA but if it’s chop like it did in the last two or three years, then DCA obviously saves you.
Regardless of what is under the hood of MicroStrategy's strategy, the fact remains: the company has been periodically buying Bitcoin for six years. We can simply look at their average entry price and evaluate the financial performance of this approach over a six-year timeframe.
Bullshit. You are just making shit up, and misleading based on your spinning of the matter.
If you look at the 200-WMA, which is currently at $61,850, and that reflects the price that a normal person who would had paid for bitcoin if he had bought the same amount of bitcoin each week for the past 200 weeks (or the last 4 years). The longer the period, the lower the average.
If I look at a DCA website such as
this one. I can see that if a person had started investing every week at the same amount from August 1, 2020 until now, they would have had invested right about $36,414 in order to get 1 bitcoin. Saylor's/MSTR's average cost per bitcoin for MSTR is more than double that amount, and the reason is that they had structured some of their money flows in a way that more money came available to buy more bitcoin with more money as the BTC price went higher. That exponential buying as the BTC price goes up does not come even close to what tends to happen with normal people or normal DCA'ers.
You seem to be just trying to pervert reality in order spread false and exaggerated fantasy-landia comparison points, while actiing as if they represent reality and they don't.