Could you live off your Bitcoins?

[Cranky4u]

2*FPGAs (CM1s) + 2*6770s produce a weeks worth of groceries per month

I want to expand to 15*FPGAs, or ASIC equivelant when / if they become real, as this will cover my monthly mortgage after pay back period...

[chmod755]

Could you live off your Bitcoins?

No. Even if I put everything I have in high return (pirate) investments I wouldn't be able to live off my bitcoin income.

Out in the rice fields along the highways the farmers can get free electricity up to a limit but none of them know about mining.

Tell them about it. If they don't want to invest anything you could install your own miners there and pay them.

[BkkCoins]

Tell them about it. If they don't want to invest anything you could install your own miners there and pay them.

I thought about that, of course. But it's not very safe to put expensive stuff out there unless you plan to sleep next to it.

[[Tycho]]

Hah, I wish I could answer a straight 'Yes' like Tycho

I was talking specifically about my mining income, it's comparable with average salary in those countries.
Of course I can't rely on just this because difficulty and USD/BTC rate are unpredictable, but as of today - yes, it's enough.

Also this won't work for many other people and they should note that bitcoin is not a money-from-thin-air scheme, but a "currency-like" thing. You don't mine your plastic card, you use it for money transfers.

[Mageant]

No.

There are really two very different options under "yes" -

1. Living off of bitcoin-related income (three or four top-volume exchanges, SR and SR sellers, few of the payment services maybe). This really means living off of your work that happens to involve Bitcoin one way or another.

2. Living off of your btc savings, assuming you mined them or bought them bravely at a fraction of today's value. If you are not in this category, but hope to be in the future, you've got to ask yourself where this value will come from. Seriously, the only way is to work hard on making Bitcoin useful and accepted. Otherwise your investment will be worthless.

There are additional possibilities:

Some people can live off the yields from their Bitcoin mining operation. Once you have a running mining operation there should only be very little work you need to do and if it's large enough it can generate enough Bitcoins for you to live off.

Another is to live off the yields from Bitcoin investments. Possibilities are various stocks/bonds on GLBSE which yield between 1% and 7% per week. Some of them are stocks in mining operations for example.

[Mageant]

To live only with your bitcoins you need like... dunno, 100k bitcoins? more? we have so much ppl with so many bitcoins?

Depending on your expenses you can deal with far less. I think the retirement extreme guy (http://earlyretirementextreme.com/) used $250k for early retirement but he spends very little. So you'd still need 23k BTC even in those circumstances.

Actually, you only need about 2000 BTC and then invest them in various stocks/bonds on GLBSE.com with yields around 3% per week on average (you can diversify your portfolio for security).

That would give you about 240 BTC per month or about $2400 per month. Which is good enough to live from for most people.

[spiccioli]

To live only with your bitcoins you need like... dunno, 100k bitcoins? more? we have so much ppl with so many bitcoins?

Depending on your expenses you can deal with far less. I think the retirement extreme guy (http://earlyretirementextreme.com/) used $250k for early retirement but he spends very little. So you'd still need 23k BTC even in those circumstances.

Actually, you only need about 2000 BTC and then invest them in various stocks/bonds on GLBSE.com with yields around 3% per week on average (you can diversify your portfolio for security).

That would give you about 240 BTC per month or about $2400 per month. Which is good enough to live from for most people.

If 2000 BTC give you more than 200 BTC/month that is a greater than 10%/month interest and a sure way to lose all you have

spiccioli

[Mageant]

To live only with your bitcoins you need like... dunno, 100k bitcoins? more? we have so much ppl with so many bitcoins?

Depending on your expenses you can deal with far less. I think the retirement extreme guy (http://earlyretirementextreme.com/) used $250k for early retirement but he spends very little. So you'd still need 23k BTC even in those circumstances.

Actually, you only need about 2000 BTC and then invest them in various stocks/bonds on GLBSE.com with yields around 3% per week on average (you can diversify your portfolio for security).

That would give you about 240 BTC per month or about $2400 per month. Which is good enough to live from for most people.

If 2000 BTC give you more than 200 BTC/month that is a greater than 10%/month interest and a sure way to lose all you have

spiccioli

I don't see the logic of this argument. You mean if something yields >10% month then it's impossible? There are no Internet millionaires?

[chmod755]

Actually, you only need about 2000 BTC and then invest them in various stocks/bonds on GLBSE.com with yields around 3% on average (you can diversify portfolio around for security).

That's not a safe way to live off your BTC:
1.One or more stocks/bonds could fail (also: maybe one of them is a scam/ponzi…)
2.If GLBSE gets hacked, you may lose a lot.
3.If the value of BTC suddenly goes down to $2 you only have $480…

Edit: 3% of 2000 BTC is 60 BTC 

[Mageant]

Actually, you only need about 2000 BTC and then invest them in various stocks/bonds on GLBSE.com with yields around 3% on average (you can diversify portfolio around for security).

That's not a safe way to live off your BTC:
1.One or more stocks/bonds could fail (also: maybe one of them is a scam/ponzi…)
2.If GLBSE gets hacked, you may lose a lot.
3.If the value of BTC suddenly goes down to $2 you only have $480…

The same thing can happen with conventional investments.
Look at the Madoff and MF Global scandals.
Plenty of people have lost their life savings from stock market crashes.

It's all about managing risk and what you consider safe.
Life is never totally "safe" anyway.

I consider Bitcoin quite safe enough at this stage that it won't drop to $2. I don't think we'll even ever see $6 again.

[Elwar]

Bitcoin would need to be at about $5,000 to $10,000 for me to live off of my current Bitcoin at my current lifestyle.

I definitely need more bitcoins.

[misterbigg]

Who insures the insurers? 

That would be the Reinsurer (Wikipedia)

[cbeast]

Who insures the insurers? 

That would be the Reinsurer (Wikipedia)

Before someone asks who insures the reinsurer, you do in higher premiums.

[wachtwoord]

Actually, you only need about 2000 BTC and then invest them in various stocks/bonds on GLBSE.com with yields around 3% on average (you can diversify portfolio around for security).

That's not a safe way to live off your BTC:
1.One or more stocks/bonds could fail (also: maybe one of them is a scam/ponzi…)
2.If GLBSE gets hacked, you may lose a lot.
3.If the value of BTC suddenly goes down to $2 you only have $480…

Edit: 3% of 2000 BTC is 60 BTC 

And 4 times 60 equals 240. Damn I feel like a first grade math teacher

[herzmeister]

That would be the Reinsurer (Wikipedia)

Who's the Reinsurer for an insurer for pirate? 

[Mageant]

That would be the Reinsurer (Wikipedia)

Who's the Reinsurer for an insurer for pirate? 

You could setup a Bitcoin reinsurer who could reinsure many of the Bitcoin funded businesses/investment groups.
Then the Bitcoin businesses or their funders would be insuring each other through premiums.

[herzmeister]

you mean similar to the intertwined ponzi economy of today's financial politics? 

[Mageant]

you mean similar to the intertwined ponzi economy of today's financial politics? 

Yes, with CDS and everything. 

Problem is, there would be no government or central banks to bail us out!
 

[Karartma1]

Sorry to resurrect an old topic but there's no need to open a new one when we already have them. Looking back at this discussion I could comment only this: a whole world of possibilities at the heart of the hurricane. If you were there, here's the memories to go with the tingles. If you weren't, just get a load of what you missed (quote from here http://www.oocities.org/sunsetstrip/studio/6627/vhsvideos.html)

I personally missed it back then but today I'm doing my best to create the opportunities to live off Bitcoins! And I'm lovin it (you all know this corporate quote)