[keyle]

As much as I see myself as wild person when it comes to offshoot bets, I still can't reason myself into buying bitcoins. Not sure I must be too Gen X to find this reasonable.

Anyone here comment "how well they did?" and if you've pulled out or are seriously thinking about pulling out?

I feel silly, but I'm still not going to put my hard earned cash in it any time soon... In fact, I wouldn't really know how.

[tobitornottobit]

I bought a dozen coins at $100 a coin. I eventually sold when they reached around $800 per coin. My rationale was that I was far too obsessive about it, I checked the price every day, I read and watched articles and videos and kept up with all the drama. The amount of brain time I was spending on it was just too much. I would have remained a holder if I wasn't obsessive.

The technology and ecosystem is very interesting in many ways, buying into it is probably a good way to kick start your interest -- nothing better than having your money on the line to keep you engaged -- but who knows where it's going to be in 10 years. Which would feel worse: buying Bitcoin now and having coins worth nothing in 10 years, or not buying Bitcoin now and in 10 years looking back and thinking "I had the perfect opportunity and I didn't take it, I'm an idiot!"? I imagine for most people they'd take the risk and buy in (hence the price growth) but for me personally it's too consuming and that's why I'm out.

[keyle]

Thanks for chiming in. I feel I would have done the same, become obsessed with the price every day. Not worth it in the end.

Seems the only reasonable way to do it is with 'fuck money', pardon the term. You know, money you happened to have forgotten about or came about that you didn't budget for.

[Tade0]

I guess there's another side to this story: Some people got their bitcoins stolen.

Also all this wealth is purely speculative. If everybody converted their bitcoins to fiat currency now the exchange rate would collapse quickly.

[znebby]

> If everybody converted their bitcoins to fiat currency now the exchange rate would collapse quickly.

You can say the same about literally any asset or currency. If everyone sells, and no one is buying, then yes, the value drops to 0.

[pg314]

You're conflating the value and price of an asset. E.g. if you own an asset like a stock that pays dividends, the value of that stock is the net present value of the future dividends. The price is determined by buyers and sellers and can diverge widely from the value.

It's related to the distinction between investing and speculating. Investing is based on whether the intrinsic value is below or above the price, while speculating is just based on the price.

[Tade0]

Let me rephrase that: it takes a lesser percentage of bitcoin holders vs fiat currency holders selling their assets to collapse the value of their respective currencies.

Or even better: it's nearly impossible to do that with fiat currency, because there are checks and balances in place.

[JSDave]

Yes, but all the systems put in place to shield fiat from the booms and busts don't exist in crypto.

For example, the federal reserve and legislators can manipulate the interest rates and the deficit to encourage people to hold or sell their USD.

[DennisP]

"How" is easy, you just sign up at an exchange like Coinbase. It's no different than getting set up with Ameritrade.