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Same reason you don’t keep all your savings under the mattress. There have been a number of stories about people losing or corrupting their crypto wallets. Once

by _vdpp 4y ago

Same reason you don’t keep all your savings under the mattress. There have been a number of stories about people losing or corrupting their crypto wallets. Once it’s gone, it’s gone.

deleted 4y ago
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mwcremer 4y ago
Which raises an interesting question: what fraction of Bitcoin, for example, is effectively lost forever? I assume minuscule, but like entropy it never decreases?
- andirk 4y ago
  I assume its some large % of all bitcoin is lost especially from early adopters mining thousands of then worthless tokens.
- woodruffw 4y ago
  You assume wrong! Approximately one in five BTC minted so far has been lost. [1]: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/13/business/tens-of-billions-worth-of-bitcoin-have-been-locked-by-people-who-forgot-their-key.html https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/13/business/tens-of-billions...
notch656a 4y ago
Would you keep all your cash in the bank? Frankly I feel terrified if I don't have enough cash on hand to last at least a month. For instance the IRS has been known to freeze bank accounts of completely innocent business owners on wild goose chase accusations that small deposits are structured, for instance. It's also worth noting there are certain unique risks to exchanges that aren't really applicable to most bank accounts.
- tluyben2 4y ago
  Not sure if it’s my circle, but you seem an exception. I live in a tiny village and haven’t touched cash for years (somewhere 2018), nor has anyone I know. Personally I hear what you are saying as I had my accounts frozen (in my country, you can basically sue a company and start by freezing the assets of the company and their owners without any proof) a long time ago, so I always have a lot of accounts no one knows about (the tax office does but they are not allowed to provide those to lawyers). However, cash… Nah. I can kind of see that someone might put gold somewhere just in case the entire system collapses (which will end cash too), but outside that…
  - notch656a 4y ago
    Gold isn't really for when the entire system collapses. It's for when your own country collapses but some other place where gold is valuable doesn't. It's easier to shove a few grams of gold up your ass and make it to somewhere stable than to shove a roll of hundreds up your ass. This is actually what happened in Vietnam, as I understand, as some individuals bribed their way out with fisherman's boats using what gold they had.
    - tluyben2 4y ago
      Sorry, I was unclear, when I said system, I did mean my region or country, not the world.

by _vdpp 4y ago

Same reason you don’t keep all your savings under the mattress. There have been a number of stories about people losing or corrupting their crypto wallets. Once it’s gone, it’s gone.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

mwcremer 4y ago

Which raises an interesting question: what fraction of Bitcoin, for example, is effectively lost forever? I assume minuscule, but like entropy it never decreases?

andirk 4y ago
I assume its some large % of all bitcoin is lost especially from early adopters mining thousands of then worthless tokens.
woodruffw 4y ago
You assume wrong! Approximately one in five BTC minted so far has been lost. [1]: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/13/business/tens-of-billions-worth-of-bitcoin-have-been-locked-by-people-who-forgot-their-key.html https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/13/business/tens-of-billions...

notch656a 4y ago

Would you keep all your cash in the bank? Frankly I feel terrified if I don't have enough cash on hand to last at least a month. For instance the IRS has been known to freeze bank accounts of completely innocent business owners on wild goose chase accusations that small deposits are structured, for instance. It's also worth noting there are certain unique risks to exchanges that aren't really applicable to most bank accounts.

tluyben2 4y ago
Not sure if it’s my circle, but you seem an exception. I live in a tiny village and haven’t touched cash for years (somewhere 2018), nor has anyone I know. Personally I hear what you are saying as I had my accounts frozen (in my country, you can basically sue a company and start by freezing the assets of the company and their owners without any proof) a long time ago, so I always have a lot of accounts no one knows about (the tax office does but they are not allowed to provide those to lawyers). However, cash… Nah. I can kind of see that someone might put gold somewhere just in case the entire system collapses (which will end cash too), but outside that…
- notch656a 4y ago
  Gold isn't really for when the entire system collapses. It's for when your own country collapses but some other place where gold is valuable doesn't. It's easier to shove a few grams of gold up your ass and make it to somewhere stable than to shove a roll of hundreds up your ass. This is actually what happened in Vietnam, as I understand, as some individuals bribed their way out with fisherman's boats using what gold they had.
  - tluyben2 4y ago
    Sorry, I was unclear, when I said system, I did mean my region or country, not the world.