I never understood the "can't hold it in your hand" argument. Do you hold your pdf's and mp3's in your hand (yes, physical copies have pros but so do digital, that's why I own both when it comes to important information)? Does that make them less useful and valuable?
You can hold a Fed banknote in your hand and it still is a piece of paper backed by debt and geopolitics. And this is where the problem of money lies - it's a matter of confidence and acceptance, not of it being physical/digital. Lots of people have confidence in BTC and there is a powerful decentralized network behind it. This is what makes it valuable.
People value what BTC represents. Gold's value is determined the same way - it's representative not intrinsic (it still has intrinsic value as a metal but not as money and most of it's money value comes from how rare and limited it is, which applies even more to BTC).
But there was huge risk in exchanging dollars for digital bitcoins. There was the threat of governments shutting it down. There was the threat of other digital coins stealing marketshare away or improving upon bitcoin and innovating something better that negates it. There was the problem that most of the people using it were criminals on the dark web on silk road, which made it more likely it was going to get shut down.
I agree that the Federal Reserve Note is fiat. But all the infrastructure is built around it and the government backs it with the full faith and credit of the USA government. Whatever that means is debatable. But bitcoin was backed by promises that no more would be created past the capped amount, that it was open source, etc.
Gold, and maybe moreso silver, do have some industrial usage. Silver is supposed to be one of the best conductors of heat and electricity and one of the shiniest metals and has some other great industrial characteristics.
I'm admitting I was wrong about bitcoin. 10 years later it went up a whole bunch and all that time the conspiracy theorist in me said the rug was going to get pulled and instead government, big banks, hedge funds, etfs, etc. are all in and it is $2 trillion market cap. So, yeah, i was wrong. I'm just trying to explain what my hesitation was.
I totally get it and I was very skeptical and expected a rug pull for many years as well. I respect that you can admit you were wrong because all I see here are people doubling down on their L.
So is it too late to get in? LOL the only way bitcoin would completely collapse is if i bought some. I'm terrible at gambling.
Any time i buy a stock, after careful analysis, it goes bankrupt. There's over half a dozen stocks in my portfolio that are delisted and can only be found on pink sheets now. haha
I bought in last year at around 50k thinking it's late but here I am at double. I'm no expert in this but I don't think now is a good time to buy. I've heard people predicting it will go down to around 60-70 and shoot up again and I'm waiting for that dip.
Generally it's not too late and BTC going to the moon in the future makes sense but I wouldn't put all my eggs in one basket of course, there's definitely a gambling element to it. I also stack gold as a hedge against inflation and I've made quite a profit there too.
I never understood the "can't hold it in your hand" argument. Do you hold your pdf's and mp3's in your hand (yes, physical copies have pros but so do digital, that's why I own both when it comes to important information)? Does that make them less useful and valuable?
You can hold a Fed banknote in your hand and it still is a piece of paper backed by debt and geopolitics. And this is where the problem of money lies - it's a matter of confidence and acceptance, not of it being physical/digital. Lots of people have confidence in BTC and there is a powerful decentralized network behind it. This is what makes it valuable.
People value what BTC represents. Gold's value is determined the same way - it's representative not intrinsic (it still has intrinsic value as a metal but not as money and most of it's money value comes from how rare and limited it is, which applies even more to BTC).
It's easy to claim it was a no-brainer now.
But there was huge risk in exchanging dollars for digital bitcoins. There was the threat of governments shutting it down. There was the threat of other digital coins stealing marketshare away or improving upon bitcoin and innovating something better that negates it. There was the problem that most of the people using it were criminals on the dark web on silk road, which made it more likely it was going to get shut down.
I agree that the Federal Reserve Note is fiat. But all the infrastructure is built around it and the government backs it with the full faith and credit of the USA government. Whatever that means is debatable. But bitcoin was backed by promises that no more would be created past the capped amount, that it was open source, etc.
Gold, and maybe moreso silver, do have some industrial usage. Silver is supposed to be one of the best conductors of heat and electricity and one of the shiniest metals and has some other great industrial characteristics.
I'm admitting I was wrong about bitcoin. 10 years later it went up a whole bunch and all that time the conspiracy theorist in me said the rug was going to get pulled and instead government, big banks, hedge funds, etfs, etc. are all in and it is $2 trillion market cap. So, yeah, i was wrong. I'm just trying to explain what my hesitation was.
I totally get it and I was very skeptical and expected a rug pull for many years as well. I respect that you can admit you were wrong because all I see here are people doubling down on their L.
So is it too late to get in? LOL the only way bitcoin would completely collapse is if i bought some. I'm terrible at gambling.
Any time i buy a stock, after careful analysis, it goes bankrupt. There's over half a dozen stocks in my portfolio that are delisted and can only be found on pink sheets now. haha
I bought in last year at around 50k thinking it's late but here I am at double. I'm no expert in this but I don't think now is a good time to buy. I've heard people predicting it will go down to around 60-70 and shoot up again and I'm waiting for that dip.
Generally it's not too late and BTC going to the moon in the future makes sense but I wouldn't put all my eggs in one basket of course, there's definitely a gambling element to it. I also stack gold as a hedge against inflation and I've made quite a profit there too.