The Bitcoin/Crypto Thread
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@Horace said in The Bitcoin/Crypto Thread:
The complexity of crypto is really beside the point. It’s not dissimilar in theory from a discovery of a shiny new metal that is hard to find and that enough people agree has value. Actually not even dissimilar from baseball cards and their value.
That's the best argument for bitcoin. And bitcoin is strictly better than everything else on this dimension - it's not trying to be a platform for defi, there's no group of founders trying to take it in a certain direction, there's too much interest voting power that don't want the fundamentals of the platform to change, etc.
Bitcoin has a chance of becoming digital gold. Everything else just sounds like bullshit.
Yeah, bitcoin sucks as a transactional currency - but I don't need my gold transactions to be fast.
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@Axtremus said in The Bitcoin/Crypto Thread:
@Mik said in The Bitcoin/Crypto Thread:
@Axtremus said in The Bitcoin/Crypto Thread:
@Jolly said in The Bitcoin/Crypto Thread:
- Buffet said he started investing at 11, but wishes he had started investing at 7. I wish I had, too.
US law requires that you be at least 18 years old before you can open a brokerage account.
Easily solved with a UGMA account. My daughter’s been invested since birth.
Much respect and kudos to all parents who start investments for their children early. I was thinking more along the line of actual ownership and self-direction by the young person. A parent doing stuff for you is not the same as you doing stuff yourself, a bit like the “trust fund vs. self-made” difference. Of course, at the end of the day, a dollar from mom and dad will still worth the same as a dollar from one’s own labor on the open market. Just that for this discussion, I am hoping for options that young people can execute on their own.
Precious metals. If one is willing to forgo the benefits of Roth or traditional 401K's , a child can purchase gold, platinum or silver at any age. That's bullion, coins or jewelry.
Most everything else I know of revolves around an adult overseeing an account for a minor until they turn 18. I'm not sure if a minor becomes emancipated, if that rules still holds.
Other than that, since U.S. law has a problem with minors signing contracts, Mik is right about UGMA/UTMA accounts.
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@Jolly said in The Bitcoin/Crypto Thread:
Precious metals. If one is willing to forgo the benefits of Roth or traditional 401K's , a child can purchase gold, platinum or silver at any age. That's bullion, coins or jewelry.
OK, those are certainly options that can be executed by the young people themselves. I suppose possession of physical things is generally a practical option, older generations are known to have collected baseball cards, dolls/action figures, comic books, beanie babies, etc. People can argue whether collectibles make good financial investments but there are enough to precedents showing that collectibles have many times been treated as investments. Thanks.
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Eyes are on Tether now - which is another USD stablecoin.
The market cap has decreased by about $10B over the last several days (withdrawals presumably). The worry is that they don't have reserves and are just printing tokens.
If this trend continues (and Tether is indeed a fraud) - it'd be huge. Tether is the largest stablecoin and a huge liquidity provider for the crypto space.
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My neighbor just posted this. A Bitcoin vending machine in a mini-mart at a gas station in Rhode Island.
I think the installation of this particular machine was the signal to sell.
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Physical bitcoin is just silly. It makes no sense whatsoever.
You can print the private key to get access to the bitcoin onto the coin, but you have no idea whether that private key actually holds any money, whether the amount agrees with what is printed on the coin, or whether the money has already been spent by some transaction.
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(h/t wtg)
Unscrupulous promotion of a new sh!tcoin:
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/jun/01/cryptocurrency-tsuka-alex-hern
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Another one seems to be collapsing today. Celsius has $12B under management. They've halted all withdrawls.
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/13/crypto-lender-celsius-pauses-withdrawals-bitcoin-slides.html
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@xenon said in The Bitcoin/Crypto Thread:
Another one seems to be collapsing today. Celsius has $12B under management. They've halted all withdrawls.
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/13/crypto-lender-celsius-pauses-withdrawals-bitcoin-slides.html
Trying to imagine what a “bank run” would look like when all the “money” is digital. Maybe someday some movie making genius can figure out out to depict a digital “bank run” in motion picture form.
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@Axtremus said in The Bitcoin/Crypto Thread:
@xenon said in The Bitcoin/Crypto Thread:
Another one seems to be collapsing today. Celsius has $12B under management. They've halted all withdrawls.
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/13/crypto-lender-celsius-pauses-withdrawals-bitcoin-slides.html
Trying to imagine what a “bank run” would look like when all the “money” is digital. Maybe someday some movie making genius can figure out out to depict a digital “bank run” in motion picture form.
Fiat currencies are only slightly less digital than crypto. In order for a "run" to occur, something physical - fiat currency for instance - has to be in demand. There would be no such thing as a crypto run, only a crash in its value, as the hordes attempt to sell their crypto for fiat currency. Even when they sold it, it wouldn't be for anything physical. Just digital fiat currency.
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@Horace said in The Bitcoin/Crypto Thread:
@Axtremus said in The Bitcoin/Crypto Thread:
@xenon said in The Bitcoin/Crypto Thread:
Another one seems to be collapsing today. Celsius has $12B under management. They've halted all withdrawls.
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/13/crypto-lender-celsius-pauses-withdrawals-bitcoin-slides.html
Trying to imagine what a “bank run” would look like when all the “money” is digital. Maybe someday some movie making genius can figure out out to depict a digital “bank run” in motion picture form.
Fiat currencies are only slightly less digital than crypto. In order for a "run" to occur, something physical - fiat currency for instance - has to be in demand. There would be no such thing as a crypto run, only a crash in its value, as the hordes attempt to sell their crypto for fiat currency. Even when they sold it, it wouldn't be for anything physical. Just digital fiat currency.
Would make it a good time to buy some of the more stable and larger coins.
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@Axtremus said in The Bitcoin/Crypto Thread:
@xenon said in The Bitcoin/Crypto Thread:
Another one seems to be collapsing today. Celsius has $12B under management. They've halted all withdrawls.
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/13/crypto-lender-celsius-pauses-withdrawals-bitcoin-slides.html
Trying to imagine what a “bank run” would look like when all the “money” is digital. Maybe someday some movie making genius can figure out out to depict a digital “bank run” in motion picture form.
The salient fact is "decentral" not "digital". But much of the crypto market isn't decentralized - crypto exchanges (coinbase, tether, etc.) are traditional bank-like centralized entities that take possession of entitlements to coins then loan out the capital. We're having plain old runs on these types of entities that don't have the money in the bank.
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