For those of you experiencing cryptocurrency FOMO or regret, some perspective: every single day, there are stocks which see increases in value of over 50%[0]. Don't kick yourself just because this opportunity was more visible to you than the others.
The blockchain as a protocol and concept I think is very interesting and potentially extremely valuable, but the specific coin and technology called Bitcoin - I really don't care for.
It's just more fun and rewarding to make money by investing in things where I have a strong conviction about their usefulness. The moment you add layers on top of Bitcoin to make it usable to a broad audience you destroy the initial value proposition of anonymity and vague notions of "democratizing finance" (see: Coinbase).
I hear "I don't like Bitcoin but I like blockchain technology" a lot, but I suspect most people don't understand a blockchain without a cryptocurrency doesn't solve anything new.
This was in 2005 before the stock split. So not quite 125x but can't complain (I also used to time it a bit back when it was an iPod company and not an iPhone company, it used to be very predictable).
Cigar buds are always out there. Some years I have no ideas so I simply don't invest in anything (haven't for the past 5). I'd just as soon buy Bitcoin as I would tulips or beanie babies -- in other words, I'm not skilled enough to invest in what I don't understand. I understood iPods. My other investments from that time period were Seagate (undervalued compared to peers), and Macromedia/Adobe.
Not even Satoshi himself can tell you the future of Bitcoin, it is entirely speculation.
Although I have not studied the blockchain technology I dont doubt it works...in theory, its the human side I am not sure about.
But with all this currency crisis talk, dont you think silver is the new AAPL?
People underestimate how difficult it is to do nothing and jus hold.
Far, far greater returns than any stock in history in a period of 7 years.
For every person that picked bitcoin and made a gamble, there are 1000 people regretting that they invested in some other idea that just quietly didn't go anywhere. Investing that early is not much different to gambling. You probably have better odds of winning the lottery that picking the next bitcoin.
If they can, OK. Otherwise, it is just wishful thinking.
Many other commodities have at least some practical value even if their price tanks. But at a low price, a cryptocurrency makes online payment as easy as it would make it at a high price – as long as there exists a small enough currency unit. One thing that would make payment with cryptocurrencies problematic would be short-term price volatiity – but long-term shifts in value do not seem to matter for that purpose.
Does anyone privately hold an amount of cryptocurrency long-term for any other purpose than speculation? If so, what is their movivation?
Best affair I ever done was to lose those coins until I stumbled upon them in 2015.