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Comment by throwaway30yo | Hacker News Reader

Lots already have succeeded. I have worked at 2 non crypto startups now that have been founded by someones crypto gains.

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This is the kind of dangerous thinking that fuels speculation bubbles. Bubbles go up and up and up until they plummet all at once. Everyone looks like they're winning all the way up until everyone suddenly loses together.

Maybe Bitcoin isn't a speculation bubble; maybe it's something new. But if you ignore the underlying tech and just look at the price chart it sure looks like an old fashioned speculation bubble, and those traditionally don't end well for the median investor.

The internet was something new, and it fueled a speculation bubble. I think we are seeing something similar with cryptocurrencies. Are they something innovative and potentially useful? Yes. Do their valuations make sense? No.

> Do their valuations make sense? No.

I think their valuations will make sense, but no, not right now. I think this whole pile is breaking ground on new tech, tech that will redefine some of the things in our lives. Will Bitcoin / ETH be what holds on? No idea.

Sure, some cryptocurrencies (which may or may not include Bitcoin) will probably have some long-term stable valuation (which may or may not be above their current market value). That doesn't imply that what we're seeing now isn't a bubble, and it's not going to provide much comfort to someone who loses their savings investing in a "sure thing".

Well, a handful of tech companies are some of the most valuable companies in the world right now, a few of them thanks to what was then the untapped power of the internet(Amazon, Google, Facebook), Google and Facebook not only are huge companies but they can also influence elections and public opinion.

There is no question that there was a bubble, but the value of the internet as a platform for building businesses now far exceeds what people expected it to accomplish in the dotcom bubble.

I'm not saying cryptocurrencies will have the same fate, but it's not impossible.

Internet boom at least had startups that generated some dollar revenue. Most tokens and coins aren't backed by neither users nor revenue.

If you're smart enough to pull out profits and diversify then you're fine. It's those that go all in, "it can only go up", that are going to be in trouble. I fear a lot more people are in the latter group than the former.

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