Crypto

[cozmopak]

Who else has money in crypto?

Now that the crypto market is starting to recover, I'm wondering whether this is truly a legit asset class that is emerging.  Smart money seems to be at the gates.  Nasdaq suggested that they might become a crypto exchange in the future.

Opportunity at the ground level? Tulips?

[Re3iRtH]

I literally have 0.3% of my NW in crypto. I got hyped up initially but realized I didn't have the passion like a lot of people do. Was finding myself doing other stuff - language learning, sleeping more, and continuing to invest in real estate. There is so many folks in crypto who do this full time who have a major informational and analytical advantage compared to you. With crypto markets being so heavily manipulated, you literally have no chance at huge profits, unless you want to quite medicine and pursue this full time. I also don't like the security and storage annoyances. Good luck with whatever you decide!

[Raddoc123]

I don’t like speculative assets like crypto.  Value is in trying to find the next guy to buy from you.  Little utility and intrinsic value right now.  Betting on a dream.  Casino is more fun for me.  Stocks, bonds, real estate provide income and have intrinsic value.  Can hold those for the long run.

[docnews]

I'm 1% crypto. Made my own index based on the market caps. Will hold for long term, but still able to lose it all and be fine.

[CordMcNally]

I think the ground floor was several years ago. I'm still confused on the exact "value" of it. I don't understand it so I'm not invested in it. It'll never make me rich...but it'll never make me poor.

[Peds]

cozmopak wrote:

Who else has money in crypto?

Now that the crypto market is starting to recover, I’m wondering whether this is truly a legit asset class that is emerging.  Smart money seems to be at the gates.  Nasdaq suggested that they might become a crypto exchange in the future.

Opportunity at the ground level? Tulips?

Click to expand...

You think this is the ground level?

[cozmopak]

If Goldman and other financial firms start throwing money at it, yes, this is ground level.

[BREATHEASYFINANCE]

still got about 7k in crypto.  My attempt to day trade it/scalp took too much energy and time. Now i am just HODL.

For people that truly believe in crypto, this is a dip still and time to buy.

[Hatton]

Don’t understand so I am not buying the dip.

[WCInovice]

I have about 0.5% of my portfolio spread out over a few coins.  I read for a while but just didn't have the time to take a deep a dive.  I'm otherwise a very simple investor with vanguard index funds and a small amount of real estate.

My take home in my limited research was that I felt like supply chain accounting/contracts was where the meat was for more immediate block chain usage.  So VeChain is one of my favorite coins.  Whether or not that pans out I have no clue.  I don't trade I just HODL and buy a tiny bit more now and then.  Never sold anything.

I'm still a bit skeptical that it will be a favorite every day currency, but for the most part I'm pro-cryptocurrency I just don't trust my understanding or have a high enough risk tolerance to take a bigger plunge.  My gut tells me that one or two of these coins will emerge at some point down the line and be HUGE money makers and the hundreds of others will fade away....I have no clue which coin/currency/company makes it out though.

[StatBariumEnema]

Seems like a Ponzi scheme. Not sure what, if any, value they have.

[LIFO]

I threw a middling amount of money in just to motivate myself to find out more.  The need for currency that is not innately inflationary is real.  Gold has too many issues.  BUT I don't fully buy into the crypto hype and I think its really just a pyramid scheme as it exists today.

1.) The most notable names in crypto are notable only for their volatility. Kind of antithetical to investing in a stable currency.  Also makes it very difficult to use.

2.) While any one currency can have defined scarcity, that can be overcome by a sheer increase in the number of currencies offered.  i.e. it really isn't a finite commodity.  I anticipate a lot of horse switching as a new currency gets hyped, pops, and you hear about the minted crypto millionaires after the fact.

3.) The decentralized blockchain technology is neat.  But bitcoin (and some of the other cryptos) seems to be very energy intensive in their mining - if it continues to grow, I think some people have figured out bitcoin will consume a large chunk of the world's electricity supply in the next few years.  Doesn't really seem efficient.

 

[Molar Mechanic]

For me, one of the great things about being a high earner is not needing to spend a lot of time worrying about my retirement or future finances.  I earn enough that allows me to live a wonderful life and still save enough to feel secure in my future.  I don't plan to retire as soon as I "hit my number".

 

The best thing that index investing does for me is allow me to quit worrying about it.  I feel good that the money I put into my savings will come back to me as a multiple.  While I do invest aggressively with regards to allocation, I believe the long term trend is up.  I think the long term trend of crypto is probably up, but I don't have confidence in that thought.

 

Where does that leave me?

1.  I could invest in crypto in a significant amount.  It might be a home run, or it could actually stunt my medium term goals.  Either way I add stress.

2.  I could invest in crypto in a small amount.  I don't change my medium term goals whether its a home run or not, but I add stress to my life.

3.  I ignore crypto, invest in a way that has shown to be successful over generations, and live my life the way I choose.  Seems like a winner to me.

 

If I were 24, or made a hobby of gambling then maybe I'd go for it.  As it is, I'll just take a few hundred to Vegas when I feel like gambling.

[BuckJoffrey]

I'm am very bullish on this asset class. To be clear, I am bullish on distributed ledger technology (DLT). Most people who invest in "cryptocurrency" have not really taken the time to understand the underlying implications of DLT. When you do that, you will understand that this is the biggest technological breakthrough since the internet.

Eventually, DLT will be everywhere. It will replace anything that currently requires a middle man. For example, why buy energy from a power company if you can buy it directly from the power producer? Musicians will be able to sell their music directly to their fans without the need for a third party centralized distribution platform.

The banks don't like this stuff but it's not surprising. It is an existential threat to them. Jamie Dimon of Chase has been particularly adversarial to cryptocurrency publicly. In the meantime, JP Morgan Chase just tried to file a patent on what amounts to a distributed ledger.

I am deep in this world. I study white papers and have gotten to know a lot of the big players. It's been addressed on my podcast a few times in ways that I think might be useful for beginners.

Now...as an investment. Well, this is obviously HIGHLY SPECULATIVE. The opportunity to make a lot of money is huge but so is the risk of losing it all. So, I have taken the position that every time I invest in crypto related projects, I skip a toy.

Last year, I skipped a Maserati and I ended up making a million dollars. That's not normal. So please don't take that as an endorsement to get involved. For the most part, I am a highly conservative investor who focusses on real estate and other real assets. I'm not a stock market guy either.

But I do like to take about 10 percent of my investible assets into speculative opportunities that represent asymmetric risk. What do I mean by that? Well, if I bought that Maserati last year, it would have had zero chance of making me money. It would have evaporated like every other toy. Instead I took that money and risked its evaporation for the possibility of the kinds of returns I saw. A little bit of asymmetric risk keeps it interesting for me.

But again, it's not for the faint of heart and you should never invest what you aren't willing to lose. On the other hand, I encourage everyone to learn about distributed ledger technology whether or not you throw in any money. This is not a fad. This will be our new future.

[Complete_newbie]

Please enlighten us how to invest in DLT.

Yea...

99% of ICO are scams.

Bitcoin is facing pressures of actually mining efficiently: it can't be at this point. IF you start using lite network then you are destroying the premise - non-centralized ledger.

DLT is great, but its an idea that can't be invested in. Like saying I want to invest in HTTP.

So far I like Ethereum and bitcoin only as the first mover in. Future is unpredictable and thus it makes this speculation not investing in my book.