Do any Freepers have experience with it? Anybody been scammed?
Is investing in a currency that is NOT back by a government a good idea?
I have no experience with it and I have not been scammed.
I have two rules. First is I dont invest if I cant understand the fundamentals of how its supposed to make a profit. Second, I dont invest with anything where there is a question about the fiduciary accountability to the investor (me).
I have ten years experience with it.
I have not been scammed. I don’t do business with sketchy partners.
It is not an investment in the traditional sense. It meets almost none of the conditions to be called a traditional investment. If you are not sure what it is, or what it does…be very careful. Bitcoin (which is the only one I would come close to reccomend) is very volatile. Don’t put a penny into it that you don’t mind losing.
That said, my holdings have allowed me to pay off two vehicles, most of my mortgage, and retire early.
Prepare to hear about tulips, Ponzi schemes, EMP worries, and a bunch of other things. FR is not really the place where you are going to get objective, reasoned discussions about this.
If I don’t understand something...I do not invest in it. Period.
Oh…to your last point: The fact that it is not tied to government inflation is pretty much the key point to a peer to peer value transfer system. No government can just “print more”. That is why governments don’t like it.
I have some Doge coin via Robinhood. Not a scam in the traditional sense but haven’t made much with it.
It is easy to invest in bitcoin or Ethereum. It gets risky when you speculate on alt coins or meme coins, like doge or shiba. Open an account with Coinbase. It’s easy. You don’t have to be a computer whiz to get started. I like the idea of a decentralized currency.
I’ve been buying it for since 2016. I don’t invest it per se: I put found money into Bitcoin and Etherium and then hodl (Hold On For Dear Life). I’ve never been scammed or ripped off and have used the gains here and there to pay for home and car repairs and the like.
I haven’t, but my sis knows a couple that invested thousands in a crypto (at least they thought they were investing), yet can’t get any of it back. (’Novatech’ I think)
It’s very ethereal
Hype is not an investment plan.
Cryptocurrencies are pointless to consider without first doing analysis on the EBDITA components for cryptocurrency miners.
Is cryptocurrency a minefield filled with scams and bad investments? Yes. Does that mean people should avoid it? No. The USD world is filled with scams and bad investments as well. Diversification and prudence and good investment strategies apply in both worlds.
I always tell people not to get involved with cryptocurrency out of greed. Do it out of fear. The fiat, government-controlled world of currency is coming to an end. On the one end is profligate government debt spending, endlessly devaluing the government currencies. On the other end is the call of private, decentralized currencies free from central bank (or other leadership cabals) manipulation, however well-intentioned as it picks winners and losers. The most established cryptocurrencies will relentlessly gain converts until we reach a tipping point in 5 or 10 years and the old fiat currencies start to collapse, at which point you _don't_ want to be a late adopter.
There's no "advantage" to being "government-backed" as commonly assumed, apart from the sheer threat of violent force being applied to dissidents. And if that's the best argument for government fiat, then government fiat is toast. In practical terms being linked to governments just means a currency is inflated (devalued), and you never know how much they will print next year. This makes it inferior to provably scarce cryptocurrencies that are constantly being refined and improved, with the improvements adopted by decentralized concensus rather than bureaucratic fiat.
Do your homework, avoid "moonshots" (the Buffet rule is a good one for cryptocurrency) and start gaining experience, is my advice. The notion that a new asset class (the first in 400 years) that has gone from literally nothing to $1.6 Trillion in 15 years is going to die off or suddenly plateau is unlikely in the extreme IMO.
Family members are in BTC with no ill effects thus far. I’m skeptical though. I think it could be the forerunner of only digital currency, brought about by globalists for the control of all transactions of all individuals and the loss of sovereignty of countries and their citizens.
I trust Bitcoin because it is on a blockchain that prevents creation of any more Bitcoins (i.e., it can’t be inflated.) I don’t trust the other cryptos as much.
One should never invest in cryptocurrencies. I have sunk a few thousand into various funds but only $$$ I could afford to lose.
It’s like gambling or playing the lottery. Some people are going to get rich. But not you.
Many thoughts. None conclusive.
1. Prices for crypto-coins are entirely based on supply, demand, and speculation (expectation of future value).
2. They’re the ultimate “vapor-ware” - they exist only as a string of 1’s and 0’s, stored on an encrypted memory device.
3. They are backed by nothing, other than “I want to believe.”
4. Their continued use & growth is only as good as their utility and anonymity.
5. Their greatest utility is the private, near-instantaneous exchange of funds between parties without bank involvement or hard-currency. The fact that these transactions can happen globally is a big threat to banks, and their foreign-exchange operations and revenues.
6. They are hated by governments and central banks, as they’re not easily tracked, and they’re unable to control them. Frankly, they don’t like the competition.
7. When you peel back the onion, Sam Bankman-Fried scammed billions from un-witting investors because they believed his hype. His initial premise of facilitating crypto trading (acting as an intermediary for buyers and sellers of crypto via FTX Exchange) was sound - it is what CoinBase does today (among others). But he saw a gaping, glaring weakness in cryptos in general: he saw creating his own crypto-coin (FTT) as a way to literally print his own currency. So he sold FTT “tokens” to the rich, true-believe crowd; he then took those real currencies he received, and went on a years-long spending spree - buying everything from real-estate and exotic cards, to politicians. His won’t be the last token to have a spectacular death.
8. The greatest threat to cryptos is government, and government regulation. They simply will not tolerate alternate currencies and anonymity in the long run.
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Sam Bankman-Fried
That’s all you need to know.
It’s risky. There are no earnings, there are no fundamentals, no dividends. No stock rating companies rate Crypto stocks because there is nothing to rate. There is no reason other than greed to buy crypto, it’s just an expensive lottery ticket. You might get very lucky, or you might not.
The other problem with Crypto is that the govt will take it over if it ever becomes worthwhile. Govt hates it because it’s main use is laundering illegally made money and avoiding taxation. That indicates it’s temporary in its’ present form. Govt will take it over at some point due to those issues.
There are many easier and less risky ways to make money investing. I discovered what I think is the easiest 50 years ago (real estate) and it is still paying off for me today and I’m watching for more to buy when the timing is right, which will be soon.
I have .002% of my assets in Ethereum because it might actually have a use in facilitating transactions someday, which means it could actually earn money.