Cryptocurrencies

[mighty58]

I often hear people citing crypto's use-case potential (ie. to one day perhaps rival fiat currencies in everyday buying/selling) as a reason for investing, or for expecting the price to rise, but few people, surprisingly for me, seem to be able to see that the two concepts are incompatible. That is, in order to be actually usable as an everyday currency, it needs stability (at least as much stability as fiat currencies today, which fluctuate every day but are relatively stable, Zimbabwe/Venezuela notwithstanding). But if it's stable, then the price will not rise in the way it does today, it would behave more like the Korean Won or whatever (ie. a relatively stable but minor currency). That would severely reduce its attractiveness as an asset, and also make its other oft-touted function, as a "store of value", basically moot, as it would be no better or worse than holding physical paper Won bills.

I have about 3% of my portfolio in crypto, and as I've been dabbling for four years, the returns are ridiculously outperforming any other asset class I own. But I don't pretend for a minute it's not a purely speculative investment. Nor do I waste time doing "due diligence" on crypto. Pretending there is some underlying fundamentals-driven rhyme or reason behind the prices is sheer delusion. If you want to "research" potential buys, just keep your pulse on what's being said on Reddit and places like that, as the prices are all driven by the movement of crowds.

[captainspoke]

I often hear people citing crypto's use-case potential (ie. to one day perhaps rival fiat currencies in everyday buying/selling) ...

While I do think that blockchain has valuable uses, it's also slow, and (to my understanding) could never keep up with the flow of money transferred around the world, or (e.g.) the number of transactions that Visa processes per second.

[RetireJapan]

Cryptocurrency is firmly in the 'don't understand, not interested' box for me. I don't see any reason for Bitcoin to be worth anything at all

Which does not mean that people haven't made/won't still make fortunes trading it.

[OkiBum]

I often hear people citing crypto's use-case potential (ie. to one day perhaps rival fiat currencies in everyday buying/selling) ...

While I do think that blockchain has valuable uses, it's also slow, and (to my understanding) could never keep up with the flow of money transferred around the world, or (e.g.) the number of transactions that Visa processes per second.

I am guessing you haven't heard of XRP. Fast and cheap processing fees.
Adoption already started by many banks. I am not saying it will replace SWIFT but it sure as hell will challenge it.

[mule96]

I am one of the people who lost their investment (2 bitcoins...) when Mt Gox when down. I learned my lesson.

That being said, while I also don't understand why that insane amount of investment flows into cryptocurrencies, I think a few will survive and in the longterm become a standard way of payment.

[captainspoke]

Don't become a gold miner, just sell them Levi's and other such stuff.

[captainspoke]

I often hear people citing crypto's use-case potential (ie. to one day perhaps rival fiat currencies in everyday buying/selling) ...

While I do think that blockchain has valuable uses, it's also slow, and (to my understanding) could never keep up with the flow of money transferred around the world, or (e.g.) the number of transactions that Visa processes per second.

I am guessing you haven't heard of XRP. Fast and cheap processing fees.
Adoption already started by many banks. I am not saying it will replace SWIFT but it sure as hell will challenge it.

No, I don't pay much attention, and perhaps that will work. But I'd also wonder if china's new digital currency (or some such) would have a better outlook. From what I read, some places there presume you will be doing everything on/via your phone, and that actual currency is passé. That's the key to success.

[Cracaphat]

I got into Crypto last week.Twas a week too late!! You know when your friend tells you it's a very possible "To the Moon" coin.With the difficulty it took me setting up and with the limited coins on offer on Bitflyer, I ended up getting Xrp and a couple looking shizcoins on there for a laugh.Instantly been down since I bought. But use what you can lose, no? It took me 15 years to get back my money and profit from Softbank mini-stocks I bought in 2000.So I can wait for the rebound from the impending BitCoin crash.

[MajesticSoup]

I got into Crypto last week.Twas a week too late!! You know when your friend tells you it's a very possible "To the Moon" coin.With the difficulty it took me setting up and with the limited coins on offer on Bitflyer, I ended up getting Xrp and a couple looking shizcoins on there for a laugh.Instantly been down since I bought. But use what you can lose, no? It took me 15 years to get back my money and profit from Softbank mini-stocks I bought in 2000.So I can wait for the rebound from the impending BitCoin crash.

This certainly didn’t age well. You’d be significantly outperforming anything out there from the time you said you invested and these last few days

[tokyoal]

Could I ask how you bought them?
Bitflyer and Coincheck have pretty limited choices.