Bitcoin is a stock

[DieJohnny]

I have decided that owning Bitcoin is no different than my shares of Netflix or my shares of Bidu or my shares of Tesla.

• Those traditional stock shares are not really ownership of anything.
  I don't get dividends.
  I would never make anything if the company were sold to another company except shares in that company.
  If the company were to get attacked by any number of external forces my investment could be zero tomorrow.
  I can vote but my votes are symbolic emblems of stupidity
  The supply is limited but at any time I can get diluted really. You can say it is unlikely but my years of experience says what happens to a stock valuation is completely out of the average guys control.
  In fact many of my stock purchases over the years did in fact become worthless.

Most common stocks are symbolic shares of nothing, that we all magically agree have value based on nothing other than enough people believe they are worth more than zero to let me trade them to some other shlep that bought into the fraud of modern securities.

Especially since there are now 100+ crypto currencies. Aren't they all just stocks in ideas that we all agree have a value more than zero.

Yep Bitcoin is a stock.

[FattyMcButterpants]

i suppose you could say bitcoin is like a stock for some of the reasons you mention. but, by definition, it isn't. i mean, who issues bitcoins anyway?

[shawshankinmate37927]

Yep Bitcoin is a stock.

Where are the revenues, expenses, and profits?  Nope, not a stock.

Bitcoins have the attributes of and fulfill the functions of money.

[dothebeats]

So if bitcoin is a stock, who are the people that issues it as a form of investment? Yes, you can say that bitcoin acts like a stock: there are changes in value, there are exchanges that trade them, and there is the concept of pumps and dumps. However, there are no central authorities that offer bitcoins as a form of investment; people who use bitcoin themselves treat it as one. Aren't the use of fiat similar to bitcoin because it has a "magical value" in which we believe? By your definition of a stock, I can also say that fiat is a stock, which isn't.

[DieJohnny]

Yep Bitcoin is a stock.

Where are the revenues, expenses, and profits?  Nope, not a stock.

Bitcoins have the attributes of and fulfill the functions of money.

You could ask the same questions about Amazon over the last decade and be equally as baffled

[DieJohnny]

So if bitcoin is a stock, who are the people that issues it as a form of investment? Yes, you can say that bitcoin acts like a stock: there are changes in value, there are exchanges that trade them, and there is the concept of pumps and dumps. However, there are no central authorities that offer bitcoins as a form of investment; people who use bitcoin themselves treat it as one. Aren't the use of fiat similar to bitcoin because it has a "magical value" in which we believe? By your definition of a stock, I can also say that fiat is a stock, which isn't.

There is an issuing party, it is the software. Bitcoin are issued to miners.

There is an authority it is the decentralized blockchain and the mining protocol.

Bitcoin is more like stock than money because fiat money is issued by fiat, where bitcoin like stock must follow complex public rules about when and how to dilute ownership. In Bitcoin's case the rules or so complex and the process so complex that dilution events are even less likely than stock.

[Dalmar]

Major difference is that bitcoin has no fundamentals like gold. It trades purely on speculation. You can argue that it is worth $1 or $10,000 and still get away with it. Stocks on the other hand are limited to a range supported by their earnings and other financial metrics.

[bigwig456]

I rarely post, I am mostly a lurker, but I have to disagree here. Bitcoin is not a stock. It sometimes behaves like it but it also acts like commodity and currency. It's everything rolled into one. It's the answer to the century old question of Capital and the means of production.

[shawshankinmate37927]

Yep Bitcoin is a stock.

Where are the revenues, expenses, and profits?  Nope, not a stock.

Bitcoins have the attributes of and fulfill the functions of money.

You could ask the same questions about Amazon over the last decade and be equally as baffled

Wrong again.  Information from Amazon's financial statements can easily be found here.  There's nothing to be baffled about regarding Bitcoin or Amazon.  One is a publicly traded company and the other is a decentralized digital cryptocurrency.

[polynesia]

Where are the revenues, expenses, and profits?  Nope, not a stock.

Bitcoins have the attributes of and fulfill the functions of money.

Look at the bitcoin economy.
Bitcoins being mined and transaction fees correspond to revenue.
Expenses are the cost incurred to keep the economy going.

And when the bitcoin economy prospers, the value of bitcoin (your stock in the economy) goes up.

[Rub3n]

Its much more then a stock. Buy shit with stock? No, cant be done

[Este Nuno]

Major difference is that bitcoin has no fundamentals like gold. It trades purely on speculation. You can argue that it is worth $1 or $10,000 and still get away with it. Stocks on the other hand are limited to a range supported by their earnings and other financial metrics.

What do you mean by fundamentals in this case? Bitcoin supply is known and the emission rate is also known so there are fundamentals in Bitcoin that are a constant.

[TrailingComet]

It's an extreme simplification and factually not 100% accurate
But i agree that in a narrow sense btc is a lot like a growth stock that doesn't pay dividends for folks who view it solely as an appreciating store of value

[odolvlobo]

If you bend the definition of "stock" enough, anything can be a "stock" -- my house, my car, my dog.

[Yakamoto]

I wouldn't say that Bitcoin is a stock, since it doesn't really have any other the characteristics of a stock, other than it is volatile.

It's more a store of value (Also kind of like a stock) but it's esy to exchange, and you don't have to go through a broker to sell/buy it, necessarily. Most often it is possible to just sell it (or buy) person-to-person, no broker required.

Plus, as mentioned, there aren't any dividends or anything associated with them, so the don't have that characteristic, nor are more issued by another person, they're mined by people at a predictable rate.

[Dalmar]

Major difference is that bitcoin has no fundamentals like gold. It trades purely on speculation. You can argue that it is worth $1 or $10,000 and still get away with it. Stocks on the other hand are limited to a range supported by their earnings and other financial metrics.

What do you mean by fundamentals in this case? Bitcoin supply is known and the emission rate is also known so there are fundamentals in Bitcoin that are a constant.

Bitcoin does not have fundamental metrics like stocks. Even with the supply limitations, bitcoins which have been bought for much cheaper can always be panic sold driving the price down far beyond the latest production costs. Or vice versa to the upside there are no fundamental limitations. Hence, why bitcoin is not anything like stocks but behaves more like a digital imitation of gold.

[AnswerQuestion]

Yep Bitcoin is a stock.

Where are the revenues, expenses, and profits?  Nope, not a stock.

Bitcoins have the attributes of and fulfill the functions of money.

You could ask the same questions about Amazon over the last decade and be equally as baffled

Wrong again.  Information from Amazon's financial statements can easily be found here.  There's nothing to be baffled about regarding Bitcoin or Amazon.  One is a publicly traded company and the other is a decentralized digital cryptocurrency.

i agree. Bitcoin is far from a stock. It is not a company it does not earn any profits. Bitcoin is a medium of exchange for people to send money anywhere in the world more or less instantly.

[beetcoin]

no, stock is not a bitcoin. its value is pegged on the perceived value of a company's future performance, and can be in almost any industry. bitcoin on the other hand is just pegged on its future utility, but can also be used to purchase goods. bitcoins don't pay dividends; stocks can.

[DieJohnny]

Major difference is that bitcoin has no fundamentals like gold. It trades purely on speculation. You can argue that it is worth $1 or $10,000 and still get away with it. Stocks on the other hand are limited to a range supported by their earnings and other financial metrics.

If a stock has no real tangible meaning, look at BIDU trading on NASDAQ for example, then what the heck do fundamentals have to do with anything. BIDU's profits are no more fundamental to its stock than how many new Bitcoin Wallets are installed for Bitcoin.

The correlation between stock price and earnings and revenues is pure fiction and often meaningless, research beta. Bitcoin could have its own type of beta surely.

You want some fundamentals for bitcoin go make some up.

[DieJohnny]

Yep Bitcoin is a stock.

Where are the revenues, expenses, and profits?  Nope, not a stock.

Bitcoins have the attributes of and fulfill the functions of money.

You could ask the same questions about Amazon over the last decade and be equally as baffled

Wrong again.  Information from Amazon's financial statements can easily be found here.  There's nothing to be baffled about regarding Bitcoin or Amazon.  One is a publicly traded company and the other is a decentralized digital cryptocurrency.

Information on Bitcoin is even easier as it is always free and likely not manipulated by con artists. Amazon price tied to profits is pure fiction and is a figment of your imagination, you have been conned by the forces of finance. There is no difference between Bitcoin's price tied to its own imaginary fundamentals and Amazon's valuation of speculation and imagination.

Stocks when originally conceived were true ownership, today that is almost always far from the truth unless you happen to own a different class of stock than what is highly traded on the exchanges.