[DaddyD]

Curious if there are many (any?) bitcoin / cryptocurrency / blockchain fans here? I'm guessing 98% of the over 65 crowd are super-skeptical, think it's worthless, it's a ponzi, etc..

For anyone who is in the "skeptical but interested" phase, I found the following documentaries interesting & informative:

The Rise and Rise of Bitcoin: on youtube here The Rise and Rise of Bitcoin - YouTube or on Amazon here Amazon.com

Cryptopia: Bitcoin, Blockchains, and the Future of the Internet Amazon.com

Banking on Bitcoin Banking on Bitcoin - YouTube or here on Amazon Amazon.com

Bitcoin Gospel: https://www.amazon.com/Bitcoin-Gospe...o%2C880&sr=1-1 on youtube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zKuoqZLyKg

Bitcoin in Uganda, a short, interesting documentary about the benefits of bitcoin to those living in 3rd World countries who receive remittances from friends or family living in other countries: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrRXP1t ... e=emb_logo

I just finished reading "Digital Gold" by Nathaniel Popper which was quite informative as well.

[Debfrommaine]

I know younger folks doing the Bitcoin thing........wish I had the guts, they are doing well with it.....for now.

[Malsua]

I own a small amount of Bitcoin, litecoin, etherium, XLM and of course, Dogecoins. The last I don't figure will ever amount to anything, but it's so cheap, why not.

[Boston-Sean]

I will be buying my place in TV with BTC profits.

6 months ago I thought that would be 3-4 years from now.

It's now looking like 1-2 years from now.

[fcgiii]

An easy way to invest in cryptocurrencies is to buy shares in trusts that hold bitcoin. I keep y investments in eTrade and have bought shares in Grayscale Investment trusts. I own Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) and Grayscale Ethereum Trust (ETHE). I got into the game late with the bitcoin trust, started last November, but it has gone from $23 to $53 in 3 months. This is not for the faint of heart. Yesterday ETHE dropped 13%.

[Boston-Sean]

Here is a really good article on Bitcoin and the threats it faces:

Can Governments Stop Bitcoin? – Quillette

[Decadeofdave]

Remember the large profits on property flips back in 2003 -5 , looked like it would never end, until you were left holding the bag. Time your profit-taking on Bitcoin, you'll be fine. Lol

[DAVES]

Originally Posted by fcgiii

An easy way to invest in cryptocurrencies is to buy shares in trusts that hold bitcoin. I keep y investments in eTrade and have bought shares in Grayscale Investment trusts. I own Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) and Grayscale Ethereum Trust (ETHE). I got into the game late with the bitcoin trust, started last November, but it has gone from $23 to $53 in 3 months. This is not for the faint of heart. Yesterday ETHE dropped 13%.

My opinion. Bitcoin and the others. What do they offer? Protection from the rash of dollar printing has been mentioned. The dollar is based on the full faith and credit of the United States. Bicoin is based on NOTHING. It has been bid up like stuff like gamestop.

Swings are described as wild. You can actually, I can actually think you can invest in any high beta stock and make money if you buy and sell at the right time.

Investing in bitcoin to buy a home, to pay for college is the same as going to Vegas.
There are some winners. It is not the winners who pay to build all those fancy hotels.

[DAVES]

Originally Posted by Debfrommaine

I know younger folks doing the Bitcoin thing........wish I had the guts, they are doing well with it.....for now.

Re: doing well
We all know from experience when you talk money with people many do not even know the truth. Money, people tend to, I know I do say how smart they are when an investment goes up. Reality, you/we can only spend the return on all the investments you have.
Too few people even understand the math. You invest 10,000 in xyz and it goes up 10%
the next year it goes down 10%. 10,000+10%=11,000 11,000-10%=9900 hum where did $100 go????? The math is the same if it is one dollar, 100 dollars, a trillion dollars.

[stan the man]

and you believe there is gold in fort knox backing your us dollars...good luck

[collie1228]

Warren Buffet says you should never invest in something you don't understand. That's me with bitcoin. I've read quite a bit of background info, and still don't completely get its value and how its value is "mined". I'll just keep on trucking with my dividend stocks and growth ETF's for now.

[Boston-Sean]

Originally Posted by collie1228

Warren Buffet says you should never invest in something you don't understand.

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.

[Malsua]

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.

So I've got a somewhat similar story except mine isn't so rosey as I gave up.

Email I got from coinbase
---------------
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
----------------

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.

[Boston-Sean]

Funny you should mention .2 Bitcoin.

That's how much I had as "walking around" Bitcoin in a BRD wallet on my iphone. At the time I think it was worth about $400.

Then I think it got as low as $100 but I'd have to check. In any event I just forgot about it. 3 iphones later .2 BTC is worth some money so I try to bring up the wallet on my new Iphone. I had to re-install the wallet and restore it from the 12 word key.

As soon as the restore was over my BTC balance showed Zero BTC. Which really sucked. I checked the BRD support forum on Reddit and there was a BRD support person responding to people who posted issues. I figured I was SOL but I emailed the person anyway. To my surprise they got back to me within 24 hours, on a Sunday. They had me change a configuration setting on the wallet software and like magic my BTC appeared. (Yes, I know. It was always on the blockchain but I tried restoring into another wallet and had no luck so I don't know what was going on.)

The next time I upgrade my iphone I'll probably transfer whatever I have in that wallet to my hardware wallet.

I was able to use some of that BTC to buy a gun. I knew it was bad from a financial standpoint. Assuming BTC continues to go up. But I wanted to feel like an anarchist so we did the deal with BTC. We waited about 5 minutes for the first confirmation to come through and then we were done.

Yes, we did all the paperwork so it was legal.

[Malsua]

Originally Posted by Boston-Sean

Funny you should mention .2 Bitcoin.

That's how much I had as "walking around" Bitcoin in a BRD wallet on my iphone. At the time I think it was worth about $400.

Then I think it got as low as $100 but I'd have to check. In any event I just forgot about it. 3 iphones later .2 BTC is worth some money so I try to bring up the wallet on my new Iphone. I had to re-install the wallet and restore it from the 12 word key.

As soon as the restore was over my BTC balance showed Zero BTC. Which really sucked. I checked the BRD support forum on Reddit and there was a BRD support person responding to people who posted issues. I figured I was SOL but I emailed the person anyway. To my surprise they got back to me within 24 hours, on a Sunday. They had me change a configuration setting on the wallet software and like magic my BTC appeared. (Yes, I know. It was always on the blockchain but I tried restoring into another wallet and had no luck so I don't know what was going on.)

The next time I upgrade my iphone I'll probably transfer whatever I have in that wallet to my hardware wallet.

I was able to use some of that BTC to buy a gun. I knew it was bad from a financial standpoint. Assuming BTC continues to go up. But I wanted to feel like an anarchist so we did the deal with BTC. We waited about 5 minutes for the first confirmation to come through and then we were done.

Yes, we did all the paperwork so it was legal.

I know someone who's Ex dunked his phone and he didn't have the backup of his 3btc. Don't feel sorry for him though, he's a media personality (Anthony Cumia) with enough money that 3 btc at today's prices won't even move the needle.

I wish I had more perseverance. I was folding proteins back in the early 2000s with about 200 machines. I could have easily moved those over to bitcoin when that started to be a thing around 2010/11 but I couldn't make it work behind the company firewall. Again, so I gave up. Right now that amount of CPU is probably not worth one GPU much less 1 millionth of an Asic miner, but back then, I bet I would have mined at least a handful of BTC.

As to guns, FL has no paperwork person to person. You just can't sell to someone you know to be a prohibited person. I'm originally from Ohio, again, no paperwork then in NJ for 26 years and you need permissions slips for everything. It'll be nice to be in FL once we're there full time in a few months. I've had my FL CCW since 2009, something that is impossible in NJ.

I would love to buy some hardware with BTC, if I needed any.