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This is a gold rush[1]. People that were early in BitCoin already cashed, now profit is made on exchanges and by hardware suppliers. It is even worse than Gold

This is a gold rush[1]. People that were early in BitCoin already cashed, now profit is made on exchanges and by hardware suppliers. It is even worse than Gold because you can't just hold when market crash. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Gold_Rush https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Gold_Rush

eth1 9y ago
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vMKNUylmanQ https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vMKNUylmanQ
placeybordeaux 9y ago
> It is even worse than Gold because you can't just hold when market crash. Could you elaborate?
- fnovd 9y ago
  What good are your altcoins when the developers/miners give up on the project? A bar of gold is always a bar of gold, no matter what the price of gold is.
  - mdns33 9y ago
    you dont have a clue. do you.
    - dang 9y ago
      We've banned this account for violating the site guidelines. If you don't want to be banned on HN, you're welcome to email hn@ycombinator.com and give us reason to believe that you'll follow the rules in the future.
  - quickthrower2 9y ago
    A bar of gold is pretty useless though.
    - smcl 9y ago
      Ehhh kinda. I think the point is that gold has been used as a means of exchange for centuries, so even if you bought at the peak of a gold-price boom and it crashed you could still hang onto it and be reasonably sure that you could sell it once things recover. We can't really say the same for BTC, ETH, dogecoin, etc
    - patrickg_zill 9y ago
      There are both industrial and decorative uses for gold, and always will be. Bitcoin could hypothetically be replaced by Dogecoin and bitcoin would have no value.
      - quickthrower2 9y ago
        Gold can be replaced by other metals.
    - sumedh 9y ago
      Not in India, we are the largest importers of Gold.
      - quickthrower2 9y ago
        That's a tautological argument though. It's useful because we import it.
        sumedh 9y ago
        No we import it because its useful. Indians think gold is a safe haven because we consider it as an investment and of course most Indian women want to put on gold bling during marriages and festivals.
  - placeybordeaux 9y ago
    > A bar of gold is always a bar of gold, no matter what the price of gold is. A cryptotoken is still a cryptotoken as long as the network is propagating tx & blocks. The whole point of them is that they continue to function regardless of if the "developer" is around.
rothbardrand 9y ago
People who bought at the absolute peak of the last market, where it was for only an hour or so, are now up %2700 on that purchase in 4 years. You can hold and you can dollar cost average, and if you weren't buying with the intention of holding for 5 or more years you weren't really investing you were speculating and if you're speculating you should be hedged or have a strategy that can handle a dynamic market. I know people who were early in bitcoin and they are still HODLing and using their BTC wealth to invest in other things like ETH and startups.
- hueving 9y ago
  And we're still waiting for tulip bulbs to return to their peak value. Just because it continued up before doesn't mean it will continue up in the future.
  - rothbardrand 9y ago
    The difference is that tulip bulbs were not a new technology with a compelling use case that keeps reaching wider and wider audiences.
    - mikekchar 9y ago
      That's such a weird comment, because they literally were. I think I understand what you mean, but I also think that you underestimate the impact that the introduction of the tulip to Europe had on the economy. If you browse through the Wikipedia page, I think you will find it interesting: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulip_mania https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulip_mania Also interesting is the effect that it still has on the economy. Some of the big flower monopolies that still exist today (nearly 400 years later!) were created by people who speculated on tulip bulbs and diversified quickly enough (mostly by using profits to buy up land). We tend to think about things from our own perspectives, but when you are looking at that time period, imports of agricultural products to the wealthy is what ruled the world. Just like they were able to saturate their market, so will we with abstract financial products. Those who are able to diversify quickly enough will probably be the next big winners. Those who keep buying graphic cards will probably be the next big losers.
icelancer 9y ago
>This is a gold rush[1]. People that were early in BitCoin already cashed I heard that last time before the crash. Kind of a weird statement to make now that it's at $2800.

eth1 9y ago

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vMKNUylmanQ https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vMKNUylmanQ

placeybordeaux 9y ago

> It is even worse than Gold because you can't just hold when market crash. Could you elaborate?

fnovd 9y ago
What good are your altcoins when the developers/miners give up on the project? A bar of gold is always a bar of gold, no matter what the price of gold is.
- mdns33 9y ago
  you dont have a clue. do you.
  - dang 9y ago
    We've banned this account for violating the site guidelines. If you don't want to be banned on HN, you're welcome to email hn@ycombinator.com and give us reason to believe that you'll follow the rules in the future.
- quickthrower2 9y ago
  A bar of gold is pretty useless though.
  - smcl 9y ago
    Ehhh kinda. I think the point is that gold has been used as a means of exchange for centuries, so even if you bought at the peak of a gold-price boom and it crashed you could still hang onto it and be reasonably sure that you could sell it once things recover. We can't really say the same for BTC, ETH, dogecoin, etc
  - patrickg_zill 9y ago
    There are both industrial and decorative uses for gold, and always will be. Bitcoin could hypothetically be replaced by Dogecoin and bitcoin would have no value.
    - quickthrower2 9y ago
      Gold can be replaced by other metals.
  - sumedh 9y ago
    Not in India, we are the largest importers of Gold.
    - quickthrower2 9y ago
      That's a tautological argument though. It's useful because we import it.
      - sumedh 9y ago
        No we import it because its useful. Indians think gold is a safe haven because we consider it as an investment and of course most Indian women want to put on gold bling during marriages and festivals.
- placeybordeaux 9y ago
  > A bar of gold is always a bar of gold, no matter what the price of gold is. A cryptotoken is still a cryptotoken as long as the network is propagating tx & blocks. The whole point of them is that they continue to function regardless of if the "developer" is around.

rothbardrand 9y ago

People who bought at the absolute peak of the last market, where it was for only an hour or so, are now up %2700 on that purchase in 4 years. You can hold and you can dollar cost average, and if you weren't buying with the intention of holding for 5 or more years you weren't really investing you were speculating and if you're speculating you should be hedged or have a strategy that can handle a dynamic market. I know people who were early in bitcoin and they are still HODLing and using their BTC wealth to invest in other things like ETH and startups.

hueving 9y ago
And we're still waiting for tulip bulbs to return to their peak value. Just because it continued up before doesn't mean it will continue up in the future.
- rothbardrand 9y ago
  The difference is that tulip bulbs were not a new technology with a compelling use case that keeps reaching wider and wider audiences.
  - mikekchar 9y ago
    That's such a weird comment, because they literally were. I think I understand what you mean, but I also think that you underestimate the impact that the introduction of the tulip to Europe had on the economy. If you browse through the Wikipedia page, I think you will find it interesting: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulip_mania https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulip_mania Also interesting is the effect that it still has on the economy. Some of the big flower monopolies that still exist today (nearly 400 years later!) were created by people who speculated on tulip bulbs and diversified quickly enough (mostly by using profits to buy up land). We tend to think about things from our own perspectives, but when you are looking at that time period, imports of agricultural products to the wealthy is what ruled the world. Just like they were able to saturate their market, so will we with abstract financial products. Those who are able to diversify quickly enough will probably be the next big winners. Those who keep buying graphic cards will probably be the next big losers.

icelancer 9y ago

>This is a gold rush[1]. People that were early in BitCoin already cashed I heard that last time before the crash. Kind of a weird statement to make now that it's at $2800.