Cypto / Bitcoin do you do it ??

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Fizz :-) Feb 2021 7:24pm, 14 Feb 2021 5,282 posts	0 Fizz :-) Or the guy who threw away his hard drive: Bitcoin: Newport man's plea to find £210m hard drive in tip bbc.co.uk
Fizz :-) Feb 2021 7:25pm, 14 Feb 2021 5,283 posts	0 Fizz :-) Ah. Missed that post!
Dave.O Feb 2021 7:45pm, 14 Feb 2021 26,814 posts	0 Dave.O I read about Ruja Ignatova OneCoin last year, people invested everything they had into it only to lose everything. It did seem too good to be true. It all seems a bit bewildering to me to invest in Bitcoin. I have looked at gold but it would have to be something like Royal Mint DigiGold as I'd only lose the coin/bar.
The_Saint Feb 2021 7:51pm, 14 Feb 2021 6,737 posts	0 The_Saint Many people have mistakenly described Bitcoin as a Ponzi scheme - I say mistakenly as the reasons they give can be levelled at the entire financial system. Most people when asked what money is get quite annoyed or discomfited when it is explained that money is a shared belief system. There is an idea that gold has intrinsic value - well that is true to a limited extent due to its combination of material properties but it is still a shared belief system to say that an ounce of gold is worth £1317.
Totriornottotri Feb 2021 8:07pm, 14 Feb 2021 1,365 posts	0 Totriornottotri Well it was the guy in The ST who claims to have been part of the start who described it as that. thetimes.co.uk
NDWDave Feb 2021 8:09pm, 14 Feb 2021 14,054 posts	0 NDWDave I guess it all went a bit funky when the gold standard was abandoned...
The_Saint Feb 2021 8:21pm, 14 Feb 2021 6,738 posts	0 The_Saint I'd like someone to explain how gold is immune to all the arguments about money being a shared belief system.
NDWDave Feb 2021 8:29pm, 14 Feb 2021 14,055 posts	0 NDWDave It isn’t. Gold shares many characteristics with Bitcoin and is based on having value to someone else. It is fairly scarce and looks cool. I wear a gold ring for example Back at the time of the great exhibition, people ate off aluminium plates because it was scarce at the time so had high value and looked cool
roberton Feb 2021 8:32pm, 14 Feb 2021 1,206 posts	0 roberton I agree that gold is only worth what it is because everyone else thinks it is worth it. Also agree with you that it is true of any money system. Big differences though in many other ways. Central banks and governments for a start (you can pay your taxes in pounds ) Bitcoin etc though are really assets, rather than currencies in my opinion. Or at least, rather than “good currencies”. There’s finite amount of Bitcoin, transaction costs are very high (hence the environmental problem [1]), and the trust chain is really awkward. So as a form of money it gets a big thumbs down from me. Not a Ponzi scheme though, just an asset class. 1: and unlike gold. Dave can give a gold coin to someone else with zero transaction costs
The_Saint Feb 2021 9:39pm, 14 Feb 2021 6,739 posts	0 The_Saint I like what you say but an asset with no instrinsic value or any actual physical manifestation other than a particular arrangement of bits in computer storage media really brings it home doesn't it? The acid test for value it seems to me is the hypothetical question: Given the total breakdown of society due to global war, lethal pandemic or planet-wide disaster - what has value to the survivors? I suggest it is food, water, fuel, shelter, medicine and sadly - weapons. I can't envisage Bitcoin or gold helping anyone survive.