Above ^
Tired of all these "I'm a future Oxbridge Economics student, I have invested in Bitcoin" types.
You didn't invest.
You gambled.
You can lose money just as much as you can gain money.
Since the Brexit referendum, all my holdings of sterling are down
the taxman will be taking a hefty slice of any profits people make on these activities. it's win-win for Brexit Britain.
It’s a bubble. The only reason people are buying it is because other people are buying it which creates a feedback loop. Eventually it will burst and the actual value of bitcoin will be shown to be a tiny fraction of its current valuation since its not used day to day as other currencies are. Problem is it’s so volatile that shorting it could bankrupt you before you get the payout
I agree with the OP- unless it is to spend on something, it is a currency gamble.
Edit: Sorry, wrong thread
All part of life is gambling, if you have any money in a savings account if the sterling crashes all your moneys gone.
Isn't that gambling?
You take a mortgage from a bank the bank goes into liquidation your mortgage fails and you lose thousands of pound
Isn't that gambling?
OP needs to get real. Cryptocurrencies is as gambling as having money in your pocket.
I'm not convinced that Bitcoin is going to be THE currency of the future, but I think that cryptocurrencies are only going to grow in popularity, so even if you don't make money or even lose some money, I think there are probably going to be real advantages in the future of having experience and knowledge of cryptocurrencies before it gets to a stage where its too late to learn.
It's not an investment because bitcoin doesn't have value since it's a currency. It only has a price.
Nobody (nobody smart at least) uses Bitcoin (or other altcoins) as an actual currency. What's more important is the technology behind it, blockchain.
Bitcoin is comething you can invest in, just like stocks. However the key difference is in how unpredictable and volatile cryptocurrency is. Stocks have a perceived value. If you own a single stock in a company then regardless of value you have something tangible. That stock represents a tiny percentage of that company, alongside it's monetary value.
Cryptocurrency on the other hand are exactly that, currencies. You don't "invest" in them in the same way you don't invest in US Dollars or Euros. You can buy a currency at a low price, wait for it's value to increase and then sell it at a higher price but this is misleading. What you are actually doing is converting your money into another type of money.
The reason this is a massive issue is unlike traditional currency, cryptocurrencies fluctuate too much. What would happen if one day you woke up and found out the £100 in your bank account was only worth £50? Or worth £200? That's what happens with cryptocurrency. You can describe it as an investment but what's actually happening is you're converting money into a more volatile source of money in the hope that it's value will rise.
Any sort of investment requires risks. Traditionally investing in stocks can be seen as a form of gambling. However there are some key differences. Gambling involves wagering money on an event that is totally undetermined. Any outcome has a fixed chance that basically does not fluctuate. True investment such as buying stocks involves an unknown outcome that is not fixed and has no guaranteed probability but facts and knowledge can be used to make safe decisions. Bitcoin is somewhere in between. It is not gambling because the outcome is not fixed but there are too many unpredictable outcomes to consider it safe investing. If you did loads of research around the time Bitcoin forked you might have purchased some Bitcoin, acquired some Bitcoin Cash after the fork and made some money. But a lot of people don't do their research and even those that do make bad decisions or get stung. Due to the volatility, you could be sitting on millions now but a single bad announcement could see that all become worthless.
People serious about investing should be steering clear of cryptocurrency. Ideal investing is about making safe investments that guarantee returns or making calculated risks. Cryptocurrency is too volatile to be either. There are far too many people doing stupid things like putting their life savings into Bitcoin. The most important thing to remember is that any money you put in you should be prepared to lose. Bitcoin will burst, it is not a sustainable cryptocurrency for the future and a lot of people are going to lose out when it does.
Go to first unread
Bitcoin isn't trying to undermine anything, it's just an alternative decentralised way to store your wealth. Why should I pay fees to institutions or risk my wealth being manipulated and devalued by governments? Bitcoin is trying to be gold, bit in digital form.
