Quote:
Originally Posted by Boston-Sean
That is great advice. I just wish I hadn't listened to it when it came to Bitcoin.
Years ago when I first heard of Bitcoin I was starting to look into just as the media was reporting on how people had lost millions of dollars when their "Bitcoin got hacked".
That was all I needed to hear. No bitcoin for me.
A couple of years after that I dug into it again and realized that no one's bitcoin had been hacked. The exchange (Mt Gox) that held their bitcoin got hacked and their keys were stolen. As long as you keep possession of your keys you can not lose your bitcoin.
I dug into how the blockchain works and that's when the lightbulb went off. The block chain is really elegant technically. That's when I sold a portion of my stock portfolio and bought some Bitcoin. When I was doing the transfer of funds from Fidelity to the Crypto exchange (CoinBase) I actually got a separate call from someone at Fidelity warning me that I could lose everything by investing in Crypto. Yup, got it. Thanks for your concern. Now transfer my cash.
Ironically, Abigail Johnson, Ms. Fidelity herself was said to be running a bitcoin node in her office at the time.
After I bought my bitcoin (and secured my keys) it ran up big making me look like a genius. Then it pulled back even bigger. Making the fidelity guy look like a genius. After a long crawl upwards we had the most recent big runnup. Which puts me way way ahead. Even after the pullback so far.
The thing I've noticed this time is the pullbacks are less severe. (25% is actually a small pullback in crypto terms) Seems like big money is stepping in on the dips. But who knows. I gave up predicting prices.
As someone else has said, from here it could go to $1 million or 1 dollar. Or both.
My only price prediction is that at some future date the price will be much much higher than it is today. And between now and that future date the price will be much lower than it is today.
My advice for anyone interested in learning about Bitcoin is to find some Youtube videos on how the blockchain works.
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So I've got a somewhat similar story except mine isn't so rosey as I gave up.
Email I got from coinbase
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Hi XXXXXXX,
On December 16, 2015, you ordered 0.21978011 BTC via your payment method for $100.00 USD.
When we attempted to process this transaction it was canceled by your bank. If your payment method was charged, you will receive a full refund. If you wish to make another purchase, please try again or add a new payment method.
Unfortunately, we are unable to restart this transaction because it was canceled by your bank. If you have questions regarding this canceled transaction, please contact your bank directly.
We apologize for any inconvenience!
Kind regards,
The Coinbase Team
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The current value of that particular quantity of bitcoin is just over 10k. I wouldn't have sold it, probably not until now.
It was such a speculative thing at the time, I wasn't going to bother with wiring the money or whatever. Just forgot about it and here we are. lol
So recently, as in late fall 2020 Paypal decided to get into Crypto. I sell junk on Ebay, so I popped a few hundred into BTC, ETH, litecoin. I sold it yesterday, made about 2.5 times my money. No biggie, just a few hundred profit.
So as not to be taken like this again, i've been on a buying tear. I've bought a number of alt-coins at such a bargain, if they ever make it, I'm going to be happy. If they drive flat to zero, no big deal.
I own around 1000 Dogecoins, 1500 Siacoins, 500 Stellar lumens, one or two other piddly nothings. Had to get a Kraken account set up to do that.
I do also have some BTC, ETH, and Litecoins as well in my coinbase wallet but it's all just play money.
The downside on Crypto is massive, so this is just the mad money I get from Ebay sales.