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I keep wondering whether I should be buying bitcoins now, but I have mixed feelings about it. I'm pretty sure its value will continue going up for a while, but

by Mahn 14y ago

I keep wondering whether I should be buying bitcoins now, but I have mixed feelings about it. I'm pretty sure its value will continue going up for a while, but I guess I'm still skeptical.

ihsw 14y ago
Like any investment it requires careful analysis, personally I prefer to pay attention only to the 200-day simple-moving average. Granted in the past 200 days it has changed a lot, however recent interest in it indicates that it may continue going up. Past performance isn't an indicator of future performance but it's a decent gauge of trends. Most news articles call it speculative because the people using it can afford to lose the USD value of the coins and there simply isn't enough mass adoption behind it to maintain its value (which would be true), so trade cautiously and ignore news about it. If you must then re-allocate your investment in or out on a monthly basis.
camus 14y ago
it's basically a bet,but you have more chance to win than in a casino, or at the lottery.
- tudorizer 14y ago
  wow, seriously? Ignorance is strong in you.
paulhodge 14y ago
If you just want to dip your toes in the water, you could always start mining. Doesn't take any initial investment or bank information or anything like that, just processing power.
- mistercow 14y ago
  Aren't the odds of making a single bitcoin as a lone miner, with an ordinary computer, over any sane period of time pretty microscopic at this point? To make any money that way, you'd need to join a mining pool, and at that point you're not really just dipping your toes in the water anymore.
  - paulhodge 14y ago
    First question, yes, I think you'd be talking about a timespan of months before seeing a reward as a lone miner. Joining a pool is pretty painless though. You just create an account, and probably give them an email address, and then start running GUIMiner or something. You also give them a Bitcoin address to send the rewards. That's it, no other personal information needed.
    - Mahn 14y ago
      How does that work? I guess the resulting bitcoins are divided between the people who participate in the pool of there's any success?
      - joeyo 14y ago
        That's right. There are a variety of different schemes that have been devised by the pool operators to enact fair compensation for the pool workers. Most pools pay proportional to the amount of work that the worker accomplishes with a fee for the operator. But there are many of tweaks and variations, some of which are to deal with bad actors (pool skipping) or to allow for a steady pay out to the workers in the face of the unpredictable variability in time between coins that the pool successfully mines. https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Comparison_of_mining_pools https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Comparison_of_mining_pools
    - StavrosK 14y ago
      I just read about that and joined one yesterday, though. I ran it for an hour or so and made a ten-thousandth of a bitcoin or so, at which point I calculated that it's probably not worth the electricity and shut it down.
      - jimktrains2 14y ago
        ฿0.10 is currently USD$13.47, that's almost double minimum-wage. I'm having a _really_ hard time believing your computer uses USD$13.47 of electricity an hour.
InclinedPlane 14y ago
If you want to buy because you think the value will go up for no other reason than that the value has been going up then you're just participating in a speculative bubble. You might as well be gambling.
- zanny 14y ago
  If stock markets and currency markets have taught us everything, to some degree, human behavior is slightly less random than a shuffled deck or rolled set of dice. Just a bit, though. Not much.
baby 14y ago
I was having the exact same thoughts when it was at 30$. I'm having a lot of regrets now.

by Mahn 14y ago

I keep wondering whether I should be buying bitcoins now, but I have mixed feelings about it. I'm pretty sure its value will continue going up for a while, but I guess I'm still skeptical.

ihsw 14y ago

Like any investment it requires careful analysis, personally I prefer to pay attention only to the 200-day simple-moving average. Granted in the past 200 days it has changed a lot, however recent interest in it indicates that it may continue going up. Past performance isn't an indicator of future performance but it's a decent gauge of trends. Most news articles call it speculative because the people using it can afford to lose the USD value of the coins and there simply isn't enough mass adoption behind it to maintain its value (which would be true), so trade cautiously and ignore news about it. If you must then re-allocate your investment in or out on a monthly basis.

camus 14y ago

it's basically a bet,but you have more chance to win than in a casino, or at the lottery.

tudorizer 14y ago
wow, seriously? Ignorance is strong in you.

paulhodge 14y ago

If you just want to dip your toes in the water, you could always start mining. Doesn't take any initial investment or bank information or anything like that, just processing power.

mistercow 14y ago
Aren't the odds of making a single bitcoin as a lone miner, with an ordinary computer, over any sane period of time pretty microscopic at this point? To make any money that way, you'd need to join a mining pool, and at that point you're not really just dipping your toes in the water anymore.
- paulhodge 14y ago
  First question, yes, I think you'd be talking about a timespan of months before seeing a reward as a lone miner. Joining a pool is pretty painless though. You just create an account, and probably give them an email address, and then start running GUIMiner or something. You also give them a Bitcoin address to send the rewards. That's it, no other personal information needed.
  - Mahn 14y ago
    How does that work? I guess the resulting bitcoins are divided between the people who participate in the pool of there's any success?
    - joeyo 14y ago
      That's right. There are a variety of different schemes that have been devised by the pool operators to enact fair compensation for the pool workers. Most pools pay proportional to the amount of work that the worker accomplishes with a fee for the operator. But there are many of tweaks and variations, some of which are to deal with bad actors (pool skipping) or to allow for a steady pay out to the workers in the face of the unpredictable variability in time between coins that the pool successfully mines. https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Comparison_of_mining_pools https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Comparison_of_mining_pools
  - StavrosK 14y ago
    I just read about that and joined one yesterday, though. I ran it for an hour or so and made a ten-thousandth of a bitcoin or so, at which point I calculated that it's probably not worth the electricity and shut it down.
    - jimktrains2 14y ago
      ฿0.10 is currently USD$13.47, that's almost double minimum-wage. I'm having a _really_ hard time believing your computer uses USD$13.47 of electricity an hour.

InclinedPlane 14y ago

If you want to buy because you think the value will go up for no other reason than that the value has been going up then you're just participating in a speculative bubble. You might as well be gambling.

zanny 14y ago
If stock markets and currency markets have taught us everything, to some degree, human behavior is slightly less random than a shuffled deck or rolled set of dice. Just a bit, though. Not much.

baby 14y ago

I was having the exact same thoughts when it was at 30$. I'm having a lot of regrets now.