4 ms·

Until, completely hypothetically, some sketchy company creates $20 billion out of thin air and uses it to pump the price of all Bitcoin (including yours) to ins

Until, completely hypothetically, some sketchy company creates $20 billion out of thin air and uses it to pump the price of all Bitcoin (including yours) to insane speculative heights... and then the bubble pops.

xiphias2 6y ago
I have lost and gained back 80% of my net worth multiple times at this point...I don't care...I mean of course it's a bad feeling, but it's a part of life that I can weather much better than my friends. I'm still more scared of bank accounts, as the banks don't have the same transparency.
- arcticbull 6y ago
  So you’re scared of bank accounts that by your own mesure haven’t harmed you. In fact since the creation of the FDIC after the Great Depression, not a single American has lost a single penny to bank failure - even though numerous economic calamities have ensued in the interim. Instead you dumped your life savings into something that’s demonstrably wrecked you a few times, at one point leaving you with 20% (?!) of what you started with? If you don’t care about what’s in there, as you mustn’t to be ok with that, why do you care about putting it into a bank account? Because of the Cypriot banking crisis of 2012? On a tiny island in the Mediterranean split between 3 countries (the Greeks, the Turks and a pair of British overseas territories serving as military bases from when the whole island was under their administration) known for its shaky financial system? 4% of the land mass of Cyprus is a UN buffer zone between the various belligerents! I mean you know how that reads right? It sounds a bit like the anti-vaxxers of finance.
  - xiphias2 6y ago
    You picked the country with one of the best financial systems in the world. Also are you sure? 90 years ago US was on the gold standard. Are you sure you can still get the gold that was promised 90 years ago? If you see the amount of debt being created and not payed back, it’s just a system designed for risk takers. I was buying phyisical gold as well, but over time switched to Bitcoin + having an own apartment in case I lose it all. For me just the legal definition of being a creditor to the bank when I wanted to own my money didn’t feel right.
    - arcticbull 6y ago
      You’re not supposed to save money you’re supposed to use it to buy assets with value and save them. You keep a small amount liquid in the bank as a rainy day fund and the rest goes into assets of your choosing. > Also are you sure? 90 years ago US was on the gold standard. Are you sure you can still get the gold that was promised 90 years ago? If I wanted gold I’d buy it. My comment was about bank failures — dollars - not their redemption capabilities. It is true fact. What you’re describing is a default, external to the banking system that did happen and would not affect you if you used money like you’re supposed to, as a temporary store of value to buy assets with. > If you see the amount of debt being created and not payed back, it’s just a system designed for risk takers. None of this matters at all if you buy assets with it like I said. Which is what you were doing. The system works.
      - xiphias2 6y ago
        Again, not true. You can’t just buy gold whenever you want, just when it’s unpopular: Executive Order 6102 is an executive order signed on April 5, 1933, by US President Franklin D. Roosevelt "forbidding the hoarding of gold coin, gold bullion, and gold certificates within the continental United States." The executive order was made under the authority of the Trading with the Enemy Act of 1917, as amended by the Emergency Banking Act in March 1933.
        DennisP 6y ago
        That only happened because the USD was backed by gold, and the Federal Reserve's supply was running low. "The main rationale behind the order was actually to remove the constraint on the Federal Reserve preventing it from increasing the money supply during the depression. The Federal Reserve Act (1913) required 40% gold backing of Federal Reserve Notes that were issued. By the late 1920s, the Federal Reserve had almost hit the limit of allowable credit, in the form of Federal Reserve demand notes, which could be backed by the gold in its possession" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_6102 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_6102
        6y ago

xiphias2 6y ago

I have lost and gained back 80% of my net worth multiple times at this point...I don't care...I mean of course it's a bad feeling, but it's a part of life that I can weather much better than my friends. I'm still more scared of bank accounts, as the banks don't have the same transparency.

arcticbull 6y ago
So you’re scared of bank accounts that by your own mesure haven’t harmed you. In fact since the creation of the FDIC after the Great Depression, not a single American has lost a single penny to bank failure - even though numerous economic calamities have ensued in the interim. Instead you dumped your life savings into something that’s demonstrably wrecked you a few times, at one point leaving you with 20% (?!) of what you started with? If you don’t care about what’s in there, as you mustn’t to be ok with that, why do you care about putting it into a bank account? Because of the Cypriot banking crisis of 2012? On a tiny island in the Mediterranean split between 3 countries (the Greeks, the Turks and a pair of British overseas territories serving as military bases from when the whole island was under their administration) known for its shaky financial system? 4% of the land mass of Cyprus is a UN buffer zone between the various belligerents! I mean you know how that reads right? It sounds a bit like the anti-vaxxers of finance.
- xiphias2 6y ago
  You picked the country with one of the best financial systems in the world. Also are you sure? 90 years ago US was on the gold standard. Are you sure you can still get the gold that was promised 90 years ago? If you see the amount of debt being created and not payed back, it’s just a system designed for risk takers. I was buying phyisical gold as well, but over time switched to Bitcoin + having an own apartment in case I lose it all. For me just the legal definition of being a creditor to the bank when I wanted to own my money didn’t feel right.
  - arcticbull 6y ago
    You’re not supposed to save money you’re supposed to use it to buy assets with value and save them. You keep a small amount liquid in the bank as a rainy day fund and the rest goes into assets of your choosing. > Also are you sure? 90 years ago US was on the gold standard. Are you sure you can still get the gold that was promised 90 years ago? If I wanted gold I’d buy it. My comment was about bank failures — dollars - not their redemption capabilities. It is true fact. What you’re describing is a default, external to the banking system that did happen and would not affect you if you used money like you’re supposed to, as a temporary store of value to buy assets with. > If you see the amount of debt being created and not payed back, it’s just a system designed for risk takers. None of this matters at all if you buy assets with it like I said. Which is what you were doing. The system works.
    - xiphias2 6y ago
      Again, not true. You can’t just buy gold whenever you want, just when it’s unpopular: Executive Order 6102 is an executive order signed on April 5, 1933, by US President Franklin D. Roosevelt "forbidding the hoarding of gold coin, gold bullion, and gold certificates within the continental United States." The executive order was made under the authority of the Trading with the Enemy Act of 1917, as amended by the Emergency Banking Act in March 1933.
      - DennisP 6y ago
        That only happened because the USD was backed by gold, and the Federal Reserve's supply was running low. "The main rationale behind the order was actually to remove the constraint on the Federal Reserve preventing it from increasing the money supply during the depression. The Federal Reserve Act (1913) required 40% gold backing of Federal Reserve Notes that were issued. By the late 1920s, the Federal Reserve had almost hit the limit of allowable credit, in the form of Federal Reserve demand notes, which could be backed by the gold in its possession" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_6102 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_6102
        6y ago