[chrisco255]

A friend of mine paid another friend of mine $80 in BTC for a trip we did about 5 years ago. That BTC, never touched, is now worth $5000. At any rate, it's definitely volatile, because the asset class is still a small (but growing) potato in the grand scheme of commodities markets. One thing we can be sure of, it will never go negative in price, unlike oil.

[idlewords]

Oil prices didn't go negative, the price of a financial derivative did.

[chrisco255]

True, but people often just use oil as shorthand for oil futures.

[jakelazaroff]

I'd be pretty alarmed if my untouched savings account grew by 6250% over five years.

[chrisco255]

Would you be alarmed if your untouched savings account debased by 50% or so in purchasing power since then?

[jakelazaroff]

Yes. That's the point. Bitcoin serves incredibly poorly as a savings account, along every conceivable axis.

[chrisco255]

When you save money, do you save for the long term or for 1.5 months from now? If you save for the long term, and you're earning 0.5% interest on your $10K, how much less can you buy with it now, in terms of real estate, rent, stocks, commodities, etc?

Also, note it is entirely possible to invest on what's called a risk curve. You can allocate some portion of your savings, maybe 5-10% as a hedge. No need to go all in. Maybe 0.5%. at any rate, your savings account has cost you 50% or more in purchasing power for meaningful assets in the past 5 years. While you've gained a great deal of purchasing power if you held crypto.