The life of a late adopter

[coinableS]

The healthy choice, it seems, is to just hodl and wait, don't obsess.
I give it 5 years. If by then nothing significant has developed, it's finished. Of course, by then, it should be pretty obvious.
Might as well go "all or nothing"

I agree it's going to be either boom or bust, I see it highly unlikely to be in between. In 5 years it should either be worth $10K+ or next to nothing.

[runpaint]

#1, nobody got rich quick in Bitcoin.  Not even the earliest adopters.  They had to wait longer than you've been waiting. 

#2, people paid $1000 because they saw the future potential.  That potential is still in the future, and the only thing that changed is the current price.  Mass adoption and block reward halvings will still increase the price dramatically.

[homeless hacker]

We are still all early adopters. Bitcoin is still in its early ages. There has been movement but nothing drastically over-the-top to account for another "stage".

We are not "early adopters" if by "early adopters" you understand getting rich quick. But yes, we are still soon enough to make great gains in the long term.

What? Bitcoin came out in 2009. It is going to live on for hundreds of years. If not more. Explain to me please how we are still not early adopters in this beginning stage? Your logic appears to be flawed.

[nextblast]

I'm a way later adopter than you are. Missed the $1000 price dump like dodged a bullet.
I think you should consider preserving at least one coin, in case it really goes to the moon someday 

[Q7]

Well, I'm considered a late adopter having joined barely a year ago. I bought my stash from the recent drop and as the price goes down further, I slowly buy again. I never buy big at any one time because I can never know how low it could get and whether it is the right time. Right now, I'm still putting hope onto it.

[Bit_Happy]

I had the same feelings in 2011/early 2012.

If you can wait long enough your perspective will change.

BTC currently costs ~100X (about 100 times) more than in late 2011/early 2012 and some people think the 100x price is some kind of a problem... ?

[tins]

Finally I started a boring ass career, but one that makes a pretty large amount of money (not to brag) and I was like, ehh fuck btc I don't have time for this.  I would check in and see it go down, each time buying one here, three there, and telling myself, this is awesome btc will make me profits and I will be able to hide my money there from banks and the tax man (yes, I am paranoid and greedy.)
...

So if you have not reached this stage yet of realization, stop buying and get out while you can...it is the average douchebag late adopter like me that has born the consequences of bitcoin.

Others don't quite think like you:

I was honestly going to buy several coins form gox.  I know I fucking hate myself, but i'll take the gamble if it means I'll get compensation to offset the decrease in price per coin. The problem is they have that ten day shit for wire transfer so at that point I would have either missed the boat or been screwed anyways. 
Instead I used btc to buy some gox btc on bitcoinbuilder.  Probably got scammed there for all I know.
Best case scenario, gox gets the coins, gives me them, bitcoin goes back up, profit.
Middle scenario, Gox doesn't give coins, bitcoin goes back up after their demise, ill still be ok.
Worst case scenario, gox doesn't give coins, price continues to plummet, I lost anyways.
At least I aided a poor victim of gox by purchasing their coins.   
I just wouldn't risk everything (as in your entire coin budget) on it.

You went into Gox hoping to make some coins off of a likely scam and ended up losing a bunch. Average Bitcoin "adopter" didn't/doesn't jump into probable scams in hopes of making money off of others getting screwed over.
(Plus, the whole we are still in early adoption thing.)

[Chopperman]

Ironically it's people like you that make the price tank.

If you sell just because you think the price will drop (with no intention to rebuy once it does drop) and not because you absolutely need the money, you are just fueling the drop.

Or just trying to preserve any remaining value of their original investment, like a sane investor.

Never invest money you can't affort to put aside for a long amount of time. And only sell when you got profit or when an unexpected event happens and you really need the money.

Or upon re-evaluation, come to the conclusion that the time horizon to profit comes with too much risk

You only make a gain or loss when you decide to sell. If you bought Bitcoin for $800 and its currently at $227 you didn't make a loss unless you actually sell them. If you wait, price may recover to $1000 and you may actually make profit. Patience is important in trading. Patience makes money, impatience makes you poor.

This is a strawman argument. Compare OP to a new investor whose basis is now $227.   If the price goes to $1000, new investor now has more profit than the OP, whose only problem is having paid too much (basis cost too high).   Why did he pay too much - because of the drum beat of the hodlers (according to OP).
It's normal for OP to blame the drum-beat in this situation.  

On the way down, a person who bought at $1000 and sells at $200 loses less than a person who bought at $1000 and sells at $10 (e.g. at the point of complete market failure / loss of confidence).
Venture Capital companies do a lot of due dilligence when it comes to "throwing good money after bad",  why shouldn't OP?
By repeating the mantra that BTC is still in Beta / don't invest more than you can lose, the message is that everything to do with the price in fiat is a gamble.  
Is the BTC world a casino?

[fryarminer]

OP, for as much as you could have possibly spent in Bitcoin, I doubt you come close to Tim Draper.
He doesn't look too worried - neither should you.

There's a lot of capital and a lot of investing in Bitcoin, it ain't going to end tomorrow.

[zimmah]

Ironically it's people like you that make the price tank.

If you sell just because you think the price will drop (with no intention to rebuy once it does drop) and not because you absolutely need the money, you are just fueling the drop.

Or just trying to preserve any remaining value of their original investment, like a sane investor.

Never invest money you can't affort to put aside for a long amount of time. And only sell when you got profit or when an unexpected event happens and you really need the money.

Or upon re-evaluation, come to the conclusion that the time horizon to profit comes with too much risk

You only make a gain or loss when you decide to sell. If you bought Bitcoin for $800 and its currently at $227 you didn't make a loss unless you actually sell them. If you wait, price may recover to $1000 and you may actually make profit. Patience is important in trading. Patience makes money, impatience makes you poor.

This is a strawman argument. Compare OP to a new investor whose basis is now $227.   If the price goes to $1000, new investor now has more profit than the OP, whose only problem is having paid too much (basis cost too high).   Why did he pay too much - because of the drum beat of the hodlers (according to OP).
It's normal for OP to blame the drum-beat in this situation.  

On the way down, a person who bought at $1000 and sells at $200 loses less than a person who bought at $1000 and sells at $10 (e.g. at the point of complete market failure / loss of confidence).
Venture Capital companies do a lot of due dilligence when it comes to "throwing good money after bad",  why shouldn't OP?
By repeating the mantra that BTC is still in Beta / don't invest more than you can lose, the message is that everything to do with the price in fiat is a gamble.  
Is the BTC world a casino?

Well, you can invest any way you like, but when I invest something, I consider the money lost. And it keeps being lost until I decide to take back the profit, if any.

If it loses all it's value, too bad, I don't rely on that money anyway, just like I dont rely on money I used to buy goods or gifts with.

I mean what's the difference between spending $2000 on a holiday or investing $2000 in bitcoin?

You can consider your money gone in both cases.

If you already considered the money gone, you don't need to worry, and can just ride out the bear market until the bull market arrives. And if it never arrives, well, that's just one less good/gift/vacantion you can buy. You'll get over it.

[kelsey]

One of the biggest problem with bitcoin late adopters, it seems to be more about the fiat  

What can one say but the IQ of this place has always been inversely proportional to the price of btc v USD 

[Kazimir]

There are no late adopters as of yet.

The people jumping aboard only after 2017, when the Dollar and Euro are collapsing, them poor suckers will be the late adopters.

[redsn0w]

I had the same feelings in 2011/early 2012.

If you can wait long enough your perspective will change.

BTC currently costs ~100X (about 100 times) more than in late 2011/early 2012 and some people think the 100x price is some kind of a problem... ?

Yeah you're right the problem is that someone bought bitcoin at $ 500-600  instead one (early adopter) that "maybe" bought it at $ 2-3  (or better mined it).

[CoinCidental]

Recently I have been agitated as hell that btc has never come close to showing signs of return to a respectable value, so I figured wtf I'll try trading, and while in the past two weeks I am doing well overall in my trading, It would take me months of this to recoup my losses, and I cannot watch charts and shit all fucking day. 

Do you even need to 'watch charts' to be a trader. All they do is buy low sell high so just put your coins on an exchange and put some sell/buy orders in and let the bots to the trading for you. You can make a little money on the side and it doesn't need to be a full time career.

you know what normally  happens to people who  leave coins on exchanges ?? 

[freequant]

I am here with an embarrassing stash of btc, and yet I cannot bring myself to dump them

.

So if you have not reached this stage yet of realization, stop buying and get out while you can

Do as I say, not as I do.

[CoinCidental]

#1, nobody got rich quick in Bitcoin.  Not even the earliest adopters.  They had to wait longer than you've been waiting. 

i actually did but more through dumb luck than anything else ,i bought about 5k btc between 2011 and 2012 for not much
i actually forget about having them at one stage because i was busy doing other things and then  suddenly saw bitcoin on the news
or something in the great chinese bubble of  2013 and was able to retrieve my wallet.dat files

[coinpr0n]

The feeling of watching Bitcoin go by and not investing in it would probably be just as bad.

[runpaint]

#1, nobody got rich quick in Bitcoin.  Not even the earliest adopters.  They had to wait longer than you've been waiting. 

i actually did but more through dumb luck than anything else ,i bought about 5k btc between 2011 and 2012 for not much
i actually forget about having them at one stage because i was busy doing other things and then  suddenly saw bitcoin on the news
or something in the great chinese bubble of  2013 and was able to retrieve my wallet.dat files

So you had to wait more than a year, which OP is unwilling to do

[CoinCidental]

#1, nobody got rich quick in Bitcoin.  Not even the earliest adopters.  They had to wait longer than you've been waiting. 

i actually did but more through dumb luck than anything else ,i bought about 5k btc between 2011 and 2012 for not much
i actually forget about having them at one stage because i was busy doing other things and then  suddenly saw bitcoin on the news
or something in the great chinese bubble of  2013 and was able to retrieve my wallet.dat files

So you had to wait more than a year, which OP is unwilling to do

I think I got to know about btc in the summer/autumn of 2012 and I read a lot about about it and was very impressed, coins were still in single digits and I bought them and forgot about them until maybe November 2013 when the epic rally was starting and thank god I still had the wallets, I think they were $250 when I updated my wallet and the rest is history but I still think this is really early days in relative terms and there is a ton of money to be made

[fryarminer]

I am here with an embarrassing stash of btc, and yet I cannot bring myself to dump them

.

So if you have not reached this stage yet of realization, stop buying and get out while you can

Do as I say, not as I do.

Haha!! Interesting!