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There is a sense of victory because millions of people view Bitcoin as a good place to park their money over fiat currency. Unfortunately no one runs news stor

by dreit1 9y ago

There is a sense of victory because millions of people view Bitcoin as a good place to park their money over fiat currency. Unfortunately no one runs news stories on the growth of unique addresses in the bitcoin network

TeMPOraL 9y ago
Do they now? I feel people still see Bitcoin mostly as a high-risk/high-reward no-barriers-to-entry alternative to the stock market.
- dreit1 9y ago
  Exactly my point, given the option of storing their money as fiat, or storing their money in BTC. Millions are choosing BTC, everyone's rationale for it will be different, but it is happening. However yes I agree the past couple of months at least has been filled with rabid noobs, but HODL culture does a decent job of counteracting this
- speedplane 9y ago
  I understand buying and selling BTC-backed securities that are backed by a trustworthy bank... but keeping your life savings on your laptop is just cray cray.
  - marcosscriven 9y ago
    I read a story of people losing a huge amount to theft: https://medium.com/@CodyBrown/how-to-lose-8k-worth-of-bitcoin-in-15-minutes-with-verizon-and-coinbase-com-ba75fb8d0bac https://medium.com/@CodyBrown/how-to-lose-8k-worth-of-bitcoi...
  - slamdance 9y ago
    yes. But they also have credit card accounts, hardware wallets as well as paper wallets. If you keep your coins offline (if you're holding), they won't get hacked.
- pzs 9y ago
  That reminds me of what I read about how Warren Buffett thinks about gold [1]. His point is essentially that if you invest in gold, your return depends on the price swings until you get out, and nothing else. This is in contrast to investing in assets that actually produce something (e.g. pay dividend). I see bitcoin being very similar to gold in this respect. [1] http://business.time.com/2012/02/27/warren-buffett-on-succession-stock-buybacks-and-avoiding-gold/ http://business.time.com/2012/02/27/warren-buffett-on-succes...
  - fnordsensei 9y ago
    It's hard to disagree. Investments that don't pay dividends are essentially pyramid schemes, as they always require someone to buy them off you in order to realise their value. Stuff that pays dividends can provide you with ROI without you having to shift them on to someone else. However, since we live on a planet with unlimited resources capable of unlimited growth, the theoretical loss of being the "last investor" is perpetually shifted to the next generation, thereby solving the pyramid scheme problem once and for all. Once and for all, I said!
    - alexasmyths 9y ago
      "Investments that don't pay dividends are essentially pyramid schemes" No. 'Dividends' do not matter. The cash going into the companies bank account belongs to the shareholders, and it's reflect in the stock price. When a company gives out $1 in dividends, it's valuation goes down by $1. Technically, dividends don't matter. In reality it's a little different, and dividends mean certain things, mostly about the companies ability to generate returns with that cash than you, the investor. And FYI - there can be 'unlimited growth' - as long as there is innovation, and 'stuff keeps getting better' - we will see growth.
      - bykovich2 9y ago
        > There can be 'unlimited growth' - as long as there is innovation. How's that work, bud?
Laforet 9y ago
How many of these new addresses hold significant funds, i.e. not throwaway change addresses?
alexasmyths 9y ago
" because millions of people view Bitcoin as a good place to park their money over fiat currency." This would be very unwise. BTC is highly volatile, and could go to 0 tomorrow. It could could be made useless by the stroke of the pen someone in any big government. Nobody keeps most of their assets in cash. Stocks, Bonds, real estate, a basket of commodities, a basket of currencies - or even a decent long-term-interest savings account ... are all considerably better than BTC as stores of value if you don't like fiat. When considering the 'risk premium' - BTC is a speculative instrument only. Not a currency, and definitely not a store of value.
- xiaoma 9y ago
  Stocks and real estate are a reasonable shield against monetary policy, but baskets of currencies, bonds and long-term-interest savings are all extremely vulnerable to inflation. BTC on the other hand, is deflationary by design.
- dreit1 9y ago
  Any bootstrapped currency will have a very high risk premium. That doesn't mean it doesn't behave like a currency

by dreit1 9y ago

TeMPOraL 9y ago

Do they now? I feel people still see Bitcoin mostly as a high-risk/high-reward no-barriers-to-entry alternative to the stock market.

dreit1 9y ago
Exactly my point, given the option of storing their money as fiat, or storing their money in BTC. Millions are choosing BTC, everyone's rationale for it will be different, but it is happening. However yes I agree the past couple of months at least has been filled with rabid noobs, but HODL culture does a decent job of counteracting this
speedplane 9y ago
I understand buying and selling BTC-backed securities that are backed by a trustworthy bank... but keeping your life savings on your laptop is just cray cray.
- marcosscriven 9y ago
  I read a story of people losing a huge amount to theft: https://medium.com/@CodyBrown/how-to-lose-8k-worth-of-bitcoin-in-15-minutes-with-verizon-and-coinbase-com-ba75fb8d0bac https://medium.com/@CodyBrown/how-to-lose-8k-worth-of-bitcoi...
- slamdance 9y ago
  yes. But they also have credit card accounts, hardware wallets as well as paper wallets. If you keep your coins offline (if you're holding), they won't get hacked.
pzs 9y ago
That reminds me of what I read about how Warren Buffett thinks about gold [1]. His point is essentially that if you invest in gold, your return depends on the price swings until you get out, and nothing else. This is in contrast to investing in assets that actually produce something (e.g. pay dividend). I see bitcoin being very similar to gold in this respect. [1] http://business.time.com/2012/02/27/warren-buffett-on-succession-stock-buybacks-and-avoiding-gold/ http://business.time.com/2012/02/27/warren-buffett-on-succes...
- fnordsensei 9y ago
  It's hard to disagree. Investments that don't pay dividends are essentially pyramid schemes, as they always require someone to buy them off you in order to realise their value. Stuff that pays dividends can provide you with ROI without you having to shift them on to someone else. However, since we live on a planet with unlimited resources capable of unlimited growth, the theoretical loss of being the "last investor" is perpetually shifted to the next generation, thereby solving the pyramid scheme problem once and for all. Once and for all, I said!
  - alexasmyths 9y ago
    "Investments that don't pay dividends are essentially pyramid schemes" No. 'Dividends' do not matter. The cash going into the companies bank account belongs to the shareholders, and it's reflect in the stock price. When a company gives out $1 in dividends, it's valuation goes down by $1. Technically, dividends don't matter. In reality it's a little different, and dividends mean certain things, mostly about the companies ability to generate returns with that cash than you, the investor. And FYI - there can be 'unlimited growth' - as long as there is innovation, and 'stuff keeps getting better' - we will see growth.
    - bykovich2 9y ago
      > There can be 'unlimited growth' - as long as there is innovation. How's that work, bud?

Laforet 9y ago

How many of these new addresses hold significant funds, i.e. not throwaway change addresses?

alexasmyths 9y ago

" because millions of people view Bitcoin as a good place to park their money over fiat currency." This would be very unwise. BTC is highly volatile, and could go to 0 tomorrow. It could could be made useless by the stroke of the pen someone in any big government. Nobody keeps most of their assets in cash. Stocks, Bonds, real estate, a basket of commodities, a basket of currencies - or even a decent long-term-interest savings account ... are all considerably better than BTC as stores of value if you don't like fiat. When considering the 'risk premium' - BTC is a speculative instrument only. Not a currency, and definitely not a store of value.

xiaoma 9y ago
Stocks and real estate are a reasonable shield against monetary policy, but baskets of currencies, bonds and long-term-interest savings are all extremely vulnerable to inflation. BTC on the other hand, is deflationary by design.
dreit1 9y ago
Any bootstrapped currency will have a very high risk premium. That doesn't mean it doesn't behave like a currency