Bitcoin is still early

[fatlittlepig]

Small amounts, play money - no problem. You win big - Yay. You lose - nothing much to worry as your other investments would have grown big

I am more concerned about people sinking 30%+ of the net worth into cryptocurrency or some middle income earners <100K per year sinking a significant chunk of their savings hoping to strike rich and catch up and erase poor savings decisions earlier on in life.

I may be wrong but I don’t think there are a lot of people doing that.

[billy]

I may be wrong but I don’t think there are a lot of people doing that.

youre hanging around the wrong people, or maybe I am. But I can assure you there are people out there making less than 6 figures, living in HCOL areas, putting all their allotted "savings" into bitcoin or whatever the latest hot stock tip was. One such friend-Makes 80 k, pays 2k a month in rent (with roommate/girlfriend paying another 2k), has 5k in emergency fund, cant put more than 1-3% in retirement funds but will put 10k in the latest tip. Still thinks his putting everything into sirius xm when howard stern announced he was moving there was a smart play. Does not listen to me about index funds, bc "yeah but I can make money with just the winners, you have the losers in yours". Cant fix stupid. racelari you know him lol

[fatlittlepig]

youre hanging around the wrong people, or maybe I am. But I can assure you there are people out there making less than 6 figures, living in HCOL areas, putting all their allotted "savings" into bitcoin or whatever the latest hot stock tip was. One such friend-Makes 80 k, pays 2k a month in rent (with roommate/girlfriend paying another 2k), has 5k in emergency fund, cant put more than 1-3% in retirement funds but will put 10k in the latest tip. Still thinks his putting everything into sirius xm when howard stern announced he was moving there was a smart play. Does not listen to me about index funds, bc "yeah but I can make money with just the winners, you have the losers in yours". Cant fix stupid. racelari you know him lol

I’m sure there are but I think the most common thing is see are people who don’t have any investments.

[Lordosis]

Is someone who only invests in bitcoin better then someone who has no investments?

[NapoleanDynamite]

I want to THANK @NapoleanDynamite for drawing my attention to cryoptocurrency.
I think what happened this week with GameStop is going to change investing FOVERVER and it will give a boost to decentralized platforms that uses blookchain technology...just a personal opinion.

Thanks. And I agree that the GME thing is much bigger than many people realize. We might see big changes in things going forward. Some hopefully for the better, but I have some awareness/fear that this could really rattle the overall markets. I hope I am wrong. If not, I hope people have cash/BTC available. The global/macro picture is also looking gloomier and gloomier IMO.

[Dont_know_mind]

I may be wrong but I don’t think there are a lot of people doing that.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-01-20/bitcoin-btc-usd-why-new-investors-are-buying-crypto-despite-high-prices

[NapoleanDynamite]

NapoleanDynamite what's your opinion on ETH, DOGE, LiteCoin

I actually agree with Cord on DOGE. Don’t touch it unless you just like gambling. Lite coin is the same, albeit slightly “better”. ETH is another ball of wax. I do think returns will be good on ETH this year, but I personally do not believe in the product. What is happening IMO is that big money is pouring into the “crypto” space and not taking the time to learn about these things. The more you learn about ETH, the less clear it becomes as it relates to what it actually is. So although I think returns might be good, I have no money in ETH. At this time I have no desire to put any of my retirement portfolio/AA towards ETH.

Since others have have discussed asset allocation, I will mention that I put about 7.5% of my total AA into BTC in 2020. Because of gains an minimal additional addition, it now represents approx 23% of my current retirement portfolio. I continue to add to the position but at 20% of my current monthly savings. This is where I am comfortable. I suspect in 10 years I will be wishing I had put more in to BTC and not less. But these amounts allow me to sleep at night.

[FreshPaint]

I don't think you could compare investing in bitcoin vs. "no investments". I would say you're comparing investing in bitcoin vs. USD. One is highly volatile and the other has guaranteed negative ROI (but safe).

[NapoleanDynamite]

Is someone who only invests in bitcoin better then someone who has no investments?

Unequivocally yes.

[billy]

I’m sure there are but I think the most common thing is see are people who don’t have any investments.

head over to the bitcoin reddit threads and you'll see more than a few posters bragging about seeing the light and selling all of their investments/stock/bonds and putting all of that money into bitcoin instead.

[Outdoors]

This has been a really interesting thread. I invested a few hundred bucks back in December just to learn a little about Bitcoin. I have to admit I've been doing quite a bit of reading recently, and I'm VERY impressed with the potential for Bitcoin. I bought a little more with the recent dip in price.

It's quite the conundrum deciding how big I want my asset allocation to be for Bitcoin. Because if the mega-bulls are right, I think we'll always wish we put in more. For now I'm maxing out my Roth 401k in plain old index funds, and then considering my allocation to Bitcoin for money outside the Roth 401k.

I'd be curious what people think about Microstrategy CEO Michael Saylor. He's made some remarkable claims about Bitcoin and put his money where his mouth is. But of course this gives him a massive conflict of interest when promoting Bitcoin to other companies because of his financial stake. Part of me worries he's just trying to pump and dump his Bitcoin position.

[xraygoggles]

Last week was a sort of revolution in the capital markets, the French Revolution of Finance, if you will. Retail attempted the impossible, and succeeded (at least the early investors did in GME, the new ones may become bagholders in due time). There was so much speculation about the liquidity, solvency, and credit lines of various brokerages, and how much collateral they needed to continue with buy orders, etc.

Now imagine if all that information was on a decentralized public ledger, such as the Ethereum blockchain, specifically any of the largest DeFi projects. There would be no ambiguity on where the debt and capital was flowing to. Every transaction would be categorized and indelibly etched within the block, wholly unalterable. Imagine markets being open 24/7, being able to transfer money near instantaneously, ability to harvest yield much higher than Treasuries or even High Yield Bonds. There are many real-world use cases for the various DeFi projects on the Ethereum blockchain, and last week may hasten the transition even faster than we had previously thought.

[billy]

I'm not anti holding a small amount in bitcoin, but if the big boys (hedgies, wall st, governments whoever) ever get involved, isn't there a worry that if they can corner the market with 51% they can effectively control the blockchain? That scares me more than wondering if Vanguard will be able to pay me what's in my account.
Apologies if this was answered before on this chain.

[CordMcNally]

I'm not anti holding a small amount in bitcoin, but if the big boys (hedgies, wall st, governments whoever) ever get involved, isn't there a worry that if they can corner the market with 51% they can effectively control the blockchain? That scares me more than wondering if Vanguard will be able to pay me what's in my account.
Apologies if this was answered before on this chain.

It's starts getting a little murky to me but I don't think anyone can control the blockchain.

[billy]

It's starts getting a little murky to me but I don't think anyone can control the blockchain.

in my basic understanding every transaction gets linked on/to? the blockchain so it cant be undone once its checked. But it gets checked by all the other users (like checking or breaking a code) to make sure its correct, then becomes permanent. Every future transaction follows that "new" blockchain. So if someone has 51% of the bitcoin, in theory they can make "fake" transactions- if 51% of those checking it say the blockchain is correct, then it becomes permanently written into the blockchain.

I guess my question is, with it being public and decentralized, how would it prevent something like this from happening if evil forces band together? Or am I completely mistaken in how the blockchain works?