Cryptocurrency

[David S.]

Help me understand why. Is it something intrinsically valuable about the investment or a sense anything down 2/3 must be a bargain?

From my perch atop Mt Stupid,

I don't trust "Them." The last couple years of lockdowns, ESG, and de-platformings has made me very cynical.

"They" seem to be actively destroying the dollar. They seem to be trying to institute CBDCs. Among other problems, CBDCs will include something at least adjacent to social credit scores, where they can monitor and control where and how you spend your space credits. The harder they push that insanity, the more valuable being able to trade outside "their" system may become. I think some sort of alternate currency has intrinsic value, if nothing else, as a hedge against the dystopia "They" seem so hell bent on trying to create.

I hope I'm wrong, and hedging against The Empire is unnecessary. I don't know, time will tell.

For a variety of reasons, I think BTC is currently the king of alternate currencies, including precious metals.

To be clear, I'm not so cynical that I'm liquidating my other investments and pushing my chips all in on BTC, nor am I suggesting that to anyone else do so.

[Borderland]

I think I would be more inclined to invest in land in an area that's growing. It's pretty easy to know where that is these days. Of course there's taxes to be paid while you own it and a certain amount of upkeep and keeping people from using it illegally, but if you buy it before the developers do then they have to buy it from you when they want it. I saw that happen where I live as the migration out of metro Seattle area began about 20 years ago. A buildable acre with a road and power went from 20K to 100K pretty fast. Not any buildable acreage left to purchase now and plenty of people would like an acre or two to build on here. My neighbor bought the 5 acres south of me with a run down cabin on it for 125K about 10 years ago. He had been searching the area for a year and moved on the listing lightning fast with cash. I just checked Redfin and the property is worth about 650K now. He refurbished the cabin and built a shop so he might have 350K in it total. That's 300K appreciation in 10 years. There's 7 acres north of me that I've watched for a long time but it's never been for sale. I couldn't afford now but I could have 10 years ago.

[David S.]

Land and precious metals are great stores of wealth, but they’re not liquid. The benefit of BTC is that it is very liquid.

I’m not putting all eggs in the BTC basket, but I think it deserves consideration as part of a balanced, diversified portfolio.

[Borderland]

Land and precious metals are great stores of wealth, but they’re not liquid. The benefit of BTC is that it is very liquid.

I’m not putting all eggs in the BTC basket, but I think it deserves consideration as part of a balanced, diversified portfolio.

Yeah, it's a long term investment. I haven't been investing in land or real-estate except where we live. That used to be a no brainer but not so much these days. The capital investment depends on too many variables for most people to handle, especially in this economy. I worked for my employer for 30 years so knew my pay check was there every month. Most of the work force these days don't have that.

Liquid is the price that day on the market.

https://commodity.com/trading/

Personally if I want liquid I'll just use cash. Cash is king.

[JCS]

An excellent, high level, discussion on the FTX scandal, etc.

Saylor is either crazy or a genius. Maybe a crazy genius. I have to limit my exposure to him or I'll want to sell everything I own and buy BTC.

[Darth_Uno]

Yeah, it's a long term investment. I haven't been investing in land or real-estate except where we live. That used to be a no brainer but not so much these days. The capital investment depends on too many variables for most people to handle, especially in this economy. I worked for my employer for 30 years so knew my pay check was there every month. Most of the work force these days don't have that.

Liquid is the price that day on the market.

https://commodity.com/trading/

Personally if I want liquid I'll just use cash. Cash is king.

Your cash lost 8% of its value this year.

Which still beat Bitcoin and Nasdaq pretty handily.

[Tensaw]

From my perch atop Mt Stupid,

I don't trust "Them." The last couple years of lockdowns, ESG, and de-platformings has made me very cynical.

"They" seem to be actively destroying the dollar. They seem to be trying to institute CBDCs. Among other problems, CBDCs will include something at least adjacent to social credit scores, where they can monitor and control where and how you spend your space credits. The harder they push that insanity, the more valuable being able to trade outside "their" system may become. I think some sort of alternate currency has intrinsic value, if nothing else, as a hedge against the dystopia "They" seem so hell bent on trying to create.

I hope I'm wrong, and hedging against The Empire is unnecessary. I don't know, time will tell.

For a variety of reasons, I think BTC is currently the king of alternate currencies, including precious metals.

To be clear, I'm not so cynical that I'm liquidating my other investments and pushing my chips all in on BTC, nor am I suggesting that to anyone else do so.

I'm with you. Well, I seem to recall the late, great Jeff Cooper writing that, at some point, .22LR would become the currency of choice. I still don't think he was far wrong, BTC notwithstanding. That said, I guess it would be kinda tough to purchase a car from a dealership with .22LR (I believe Mr. Cooper referenced purchasing a nice meal with it). so perhaps that's where BTC comes in. Of course, there is always silver and gold for bigger stuff. I *hate* that we can no longer have confidence that the gov won't bitch up the dollar (any more than they already have). Sigh...

[GJM]

https://www.wsj.com/articles/binance...ry-11670679351


Binance recently made a commitment to transparency, but it has a long way to go before it discloses enough meaningful information to give investors confidence in its future, accounting and financial specialists say.

The world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange is seeking to reassure customers about the safety of their holdings after the collapse of FTX. Binance’s position means its success or failure will weigh heavily on the entire crypto market.

[GJM]

https://www.politico.com/news/magazi...d-ftx-00073178

[Chance]

Pro blockchain piece:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/blockch...ts-11670345993

This is typical of the blockchain evangelist pieces I see online: high on praise and void of technical detail.

Blockchain is interesting from a conceptual point of view, but I've yet to see any application of it that wasn't a solution in search of a problem. Technically speaking, there's nothing blockchain can do that can't be more safely and efficiently handled by traditional architectures.

Maybe Goldman finally found blockchain's killer application, but I'll remain skeptical until I see a for-real write-up.