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Comment by codetrotter | Hacker News Reader

The more early someone was in mining or buying Bitcoin, the greater the possibility that they believe in Bitcoin in and of itself.

I.e. to someone who was early into Bitcoin, they might wish to never sell off all of their BTC.

And besides, even if you wanted to sell off your Bitcoins, there are a number of things to consider:

- Taxes. Why sell millions of USD worth of Bitcoin now, and pay taxes on all of it today? Possibly better in some situations to sell enough to live comfortably for a few years, and then sell more later when you need to again.

- What are you gonna do with the money instead? Put it in stocks? Buy a bunch of houses?

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This is a classic issue with money. What do you do if you're Taylor Swift? You're a 750 millionaire, with the next couple 100 on the way from this tour.

Whelp, spent the first 50 on a house all humans will drool over. Got the compulsory car. Got the compulsory jet. Got the compulsory yacht (not quite as large as Bezos' (ehmm, banana?) that could not leave its construction port). [1]

And with the other 600 million? Private air force? [2] Air craft carrier for your private air force? Or you end up like every wealthy human, dumping your money into real estate so that you can buy 1000 houses for every normal human, and completely "disrupt" the housing market.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koru_(yacht)#Koru_and_De_Hef

[2] https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/32869/this-man-owns-th...

There's a risk of "dragon sickness" (from The Hobbit) and conflating one's self-worth with their financial value; I feel for these folks, and support regulation that would make it increasingly difficult to amass money beyond a certain point (basic needs being well met and all that), along with psychological help (not in a pejorative way- I am a beneficiary of therapy and medication and I don't feel lesser for it).

Generally agree. Had the same thought. However, related to this comment and @fragmede's response, is that wealth is strong correlated in human society with power, influence, celebrity ... and more wealth.

People quite literally just hand money to people who already have money. I have sat in a room, and watched someone nearby check their phone and say "There's a minor wealthy celebrity nearby! We all need to go and buy tickets to the stadium! We might see or meet them!"

I went to Dragon Con a few years ago, and people were willing to stand in line all Dragon Con, their entire weekend experience, to see a wealthy famous person. I'd go play games, go out, and see the people move in the line slightly. All weekend. Stretched all the way around the entire block and down the street. Wasn't even "that" famous (supporting movie character).

Use it to give people jobs. Open up restaurants and build schools and hospitals. Help friends start their own businesses, stimulate the economy. Tony Hseih, RIP, didn't have a private air force, but he made downtown Vegas. Someone's already started an electric car company, and built a rocket company to go to Mars, so that's been done, but there's just so much out there. Rhianna's got her clothing line for people who aren't models. Cars and mansions are boring.

Keeping your money invested in stocks is exactly the same as what you are describing.

Haha, missing the /s tag, nearly fell for it.

> The more early someone was in mining or buying Bitcoin, the greater the possibility that they believe in Bitcoin in and of itself.

Citation needed. I got into bitcoin back when mining on your CPU was actually a reasonable thing to do. I tried selling it when it was worth about $50, only for mtgox to promptly fold.

Suffice to say I firmly believe bitcoin isn't really a solution to anything.

Of course anecdote does not data make, but neither does an unsourced claim.

I wonder how many people heard of Bitcoin very early in its creation, mined a few "just for fun", and then forgot about them or even deleted them when they thought it wouldn't amount to anything.

2009-ish I remember finding an online wallet that would just give you half a bitcoin for making an account. Intended to look into bitcoin some more but just forgot about it until years later when it had gone up like 1000x or more and was just like "aaaghhhh dammit"...

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