Any Thoughts On Bitcoin ?

I can visualize a time in the not too distant future where trying to sell gold, while not illegal, will result in similar measures.

 

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In some states I believe it already is very intrusive on what you need to provide in order to buy/sell.

 

Know your limits. Which currently is $10,000 mark that you want to stay below. Also you can use multiple places to sell your PMs.

BitCoin is a strange thing as it is electronic.
Selling a physical PM for cash won't show up on anything.

Bitcoin is also related to fradulant transactions so it's going to be regulated and watched over for large transactions just like they do with illegal payments of trade of smoking stuff, illegal firearms, etc. which all used bitcoin for a bit. You've probably heard of people computer harddisks getting hacked and wanting a ransom of BitCoins.

 

Here's my one and only Bitcoin. TC

 

When it first came around I was intrigued and looked into Mining Bitcoins. Interesting .... but nothing liking mining for Silver or Gold.

 

Not if it gets hacked and cleaned out.

 

Your money could disappear into the internet abyss and there is no recourse.
"Oh well there are registered numbers, and safeguards, blah blah blah."
NETELLER
Anytime money is involved there is always someone who will try to steal it.

 

For all the griping stackers and preppers do about fiat currency at least there is a government attached to it. Who is backing bitcoin? What makes the value go up or down?

My main hesitation is that nothing electronic is truly secure. There have been numerous bitcoin thefts and hacking are getting more common, not less common.

 

I thought about buying BitCoin when it was $3, but I never could bring myself to buy something that was so contrary to why I invest in gold and silver. Precious metals are tangible wealth that you can carry with you. BitCoin is a sophisticated currency that is dependent upon public services, and has no intrinsic value other than some electrons. It has value only because someone is willing to pay for its utility as a service, not as goods like metals which also provide the services of money. They're not the same thing at all. BitCoin is a risky investment, and there's nothing to stop competing cryptocurrencies from leeching off its market share. It's great as a currency though, if you like grid dependency.

 

The creator of BitCoin has understandably kept a low profile considering he is probably very wealthy. What's backing it is the protocol it's using. It has a built in deflation algorithm in that there are a finite number of BTCs that can come into existence (through mining, giving your CPU resources to the BTC network in exchange for fractions of BTC) after which if demand remained steady then price would rise, but steady demand is not a foregone conclusion. And there is a community of programmers who work on improving the protocol, not to mention Amsterdam has adopted a version of it as their currency recently.

The hacking was of the exchanges. The only way to have your actual BTC hacked is if you keep your wallet file unencrypted or accessible by others, like in the cloud.

FWIW I think the BTC ship has sailed, too many spinoffs already.

http://web.archive.org/web/20170107...sider-bitcoins-technology-if-not-bitcoin.html

 

What are the factors that control the value of bit coin?

 

search the web for people losing their bitcoin accounts from the account being locked up, forgetting passcodes, being on a mining site that just closes down with no notice, hacking, etc etc.

If you get in to it you'll want a reputable exchange that hopefully won't get hacked.

Bitcoin reminded me of when I bought ebay stock when it first came out (before 2000). It just kept rising and rising for no reason at all. Just euphoria driven.

 

Just ask yourself what does bitcoin do for you that you can't get from fiat dollars?

 

That's simple.
Increase in valuation, dramatically at times. Or depending upon when you bought one, decrease dramatically.


A dollar is still worth a dollar at the end of the day.

 

I'm not ruling out the use bitcoin or other e currency but backed by a protocol sounds suspiciously similar to backed by nothing.

I thought the point of e currency was a trans government cloud based medium of exchange. Going through additional steps to store at home off the cloud doesn't help that cause.

 

Anyone writing such an algorithm , also knows how to break it. He/they are not just keeping a low profile, their identity beyond the 'anonymous name' is not known. If he/they are not rich now, they will be in the future. People who engage in it were promised that taxation could never occur as it was just computer bits, but where there is money, there will be found a way.

 

China is already clamping down on it. Perfect method to send money out of the country.

 

USD's are traded on currency exchanges too.

 

Well, technically that is true. But the dollar itself varies in value all the time. If you are a member of the eurozone then the value of the dollar varies every day. If you measure value in real money then the value of the dollar varies considerably in the range of 0.02 to 0.03 gms of gold. Everything is relative.

 

Yes the Euro does deviate too.
But Compare a Euro exchange to the Dollar (or gold).
Then compare a BitCoin exchange to the Dollar (or gold).

You'll see a much larger deviation with the Bitcoin or a much larger ROI by multiples dependent upon investment date. For instance, if you bought in a low in January your ONE Bitcoin would have a USD appreciation of over $300 USD. a tad more then .02 grams of gold.

Exchange rate based currencies are a bit more stable.
Bitcoin is a bit more riskier but on the flip side can reward one by much more. Assuming you don't get hacked, or lose your wallet, buy high, or other things that can happen.