Bitcoin: So at the end of the day, is it worth it?

[cocacola]

When is the last time you used Bitcoin to purchase something?

Never. I've just bought and held.

My reasons to have bitcoin is not to use it like cash. We already have cash for that. I hold it for the future, whether that be for my children\grandchildren, or if sh!t hits the fan with the banking system.

In any case, if the value of bitcoin goes down considerably, my family and I won't be on the street. I've hedged carefully enough.

And if the value goes up considerably, well... that'd be nice.

[mikele3]

Here's a good sarcastic website
https://www.web3isgoinggreat.com/

https://bitcoinorshit.com/

[cocacola]

Here's a good sarcastic website
https://www.web3isgoinggreat.com/

https://bitcoinorshit.com/

Ha, yeah I've visited that site before. The feeling of regret... I heard about bitcoin back in 2010, but thought it was just some geeks doing geeky stuff. Plus, you kind of had to be in on the forums to know where and how to get it... was even more convoluted back then. So, I don't really blame myself for not getting any at that time. Thank goodness it's much easier to attain now (technically-speaking).

[captainspoke]

...I heard about bitcoin back in 2010, ...

I wonder what the odds are for bitcoin purchased back then--there've been some hacks, some total wipeouts, and tho wallets (offline) are now safe, I don't think that was the case back then (at least not commonly so).

If your holding threaded the needle and survived that, great.

[adamu]

The intrinsic value in bitcoin is not in the tangible use that it possesses, but in how it cannot be controlled by any single entity.

This is true for all cryptocurrencies, not just Bitcoin. Even Bitcoin, anyone can make a clone of it at a whim (and have, see Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin Gold).

Anyway, nothing here specific to Japan and I'm just going to rehash the same old arguments so I'll bow out now.

[cocacola]

The intrinsic value in bitcoin is not in the tangible use that it possesses, but in how it cannot be controlled by any single entity.

This is true for all cryptocurrencies, not just Bitcoin. Even Bitcoin, anyone can make a clone of it at a whim (and have, see Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin Gold).

Anyway, nothing here specific to Japan and I'm just going to rehash the same old arguments so I'll bow out now.

I know that you are finished with this topic, but for the clarity of others reading: decentralization (no control by a single entity) and forking a codebase are two different things. My point with bitcoin is that there is no, one person or corporation that controls bitcoin, thus its decentralization. Any changes proposed to the bitcoin code must be voted upon by members of the bitcoin core developer team. The original creator of bitcoin, "Satoshi Nakamoto" (most likely a pseudonym), sent his/her/their final communication in 2011 and hasn't been heard from since. A subpoena to attend court, for example, is impossible against bitcoin members, because none of them "control" bitcoin. This is one of the main reasons that bitcoin is not able to be shut down by governments, as well as its further decentralization of mining occuring all over the world (although there is concentration of mining in certain parts of the globe, which has become a security concern for the blockchain).

As stated in a previous post, code of any coin with its codebase opensourced can certainly be forked into a new project. Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin Gold, Bitcoin SV (Satoshi's Vision) are all forks of the original bitcoin, but in terms of network effect, they cannot compete with the original bitcoin (just look at their price). Plus, these coins were forked because some developers did not agree with aspects (technological and philisophical) of the original bitcoin, thus forked and customized the code to what they wanted. The price of these forked coins shows which coin the market believes in (hint: the original bitcoin).

In the genesis block of bitcoin (the first ever minted block), Satoshi Nakamoto inserted a quote from The Times (UK), dated January 3rd, 2009:

"Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks"

This can give us an idea of the purpose of bitcoin.

[concerned]

Enjoyed the interview with Martin from SmaryMoney, and for a while considered buying a BitCoin ETF, but I still cannot convince myself that is has any utility/value... THat said I can see its rising a lot these days.... One thing I would disagree with is that is offers diversification; from what I see its pretty closely correlated to the Stock Market. Good information from Martin that the AltCoins do not have any real value and that BitCoin is different, gosh he has 30% of his portfolio in bitcoin, he has a lot of conviction on this for the long term

[Yutaka2024]

If you look at off returns year over year; bitcoin has beaten every asset to this date. It is the fastest growing asset there is atm. It is ranked #10 in market rankings and it will climb here very quickly next few months. You can listen to a couple of people's opinion of how they doubt its validity; but remember its your money. I wouldn't ask any ones opinion tbh; do your homework and put your money where think it will do the best. I personally bought a decent amount between 4-8k, and another 100k usd this prev bear cycle. I plan to off load it around 100-120k usd. DCA back in between 50+% corrections until the market is to saturated to have hard corrections, which this maybe the last time because of the BTC ETF approval. I wish you the best in your cyrpto journey, if you went in heavy this prev bear cycle; ill cya at the moon =D

[RetireJapan]

I plan to off load it around 100-120k usd.

Just be aware that cryptocurrency profits are taxed as income in Japan, not capital gains, so trading crypto can be very expensive indeed if you make a large profit.

[Yutaka2024]

im not in japan