DXBtoDOH

Any thoughts?

scrubbedexpat141

I'll invest.

CRASH.

Arnold S

First off a couple of negative points about Bitcoin: the current liquidity attached to Bitcoin is laughable, the power now required to service Bitcoin far exceeds it's worth and, as far as I know, the current infrastructure it all sits on (spare garages, basements and ex-chicken sheds) probably doesn't have the global banking system loosing sleep just yet.

That said, the concept of Bitcoin has been revolutionary and has prefaced the way for block chain technology. I don't doubt for a second that the major banking corporations will come in with their own version at some point that will then go on to everyday usage.

The analogy I've been using for this is look at Napster and iTunes. Napster created the rouge technology and got enough people on board but it took Apple to really make it mass market and change the core business model of the music industry forever. An important point to note here is that when this was happening and Napster tried to go legit and compete with iTunes, they barely got a look in. For them the war was over.

It's not just with mp3 either, tech is filled with very similar stories. "Early adopters make roads that are eventually paved over" was the actual quote from someone with a large stake in Bitcoin in a documentary I saw not so long ago.

Because Bitcoin was first to market and there is a finite number it will always exist, but it's value will only be upheld by nostalgia and the classic car appeal of collecting it. Whether any or all of this happens this year, I've no idea and sadly don't get paid to make these predictions.

Arnold S

Given there's no market indicators for any of the 50+ crypto currencies out there, anyone that is day trading or investing is essentially playing "geek bingo" as a friend called it.

DXBtoDOH

That's what pop says. The concept of bitcoins is here for good and is the wave of the future but that's no guarantees it'll be bitcoin and not another cryptocurrency that will lead the way.

Similar situation with cars. In 1910 there were hundreds of car companies. Cars were clearly the wave. But it was a gamble which car company was going to take off and most, as you put it, were garage type / basement type outfits and fell to the wayside.

My guess is that the real long term fortune won't be from speculating on which cryptocurrency but which platform that serves the cryptocurrencies. There's likely to be much greater homogenisation and trending towards a common platform that will be widely used. Something like ethereum may be a better investment.

Arnold S

Having seen the average data centre that hosts your Dubai Mums type blog and then this - - made me realise that the actual infrastructure has a long way to go before it will catch up with the idea.

Another interesting tangent is whether it will be used outside of speculation/trading again. It's no secret what it's main use was prior to the huge spikes at the end of last year while the crazy fluctuations must have put a temporary halt even on those markets. If that sector, or a replacement, doesn't start using it again then you'll have only speculators holding digital thin air.

archie159

Millhouse

Might be of interest.
Global Economics Focus - Bitcoin (Jan 2018).pdf

scrubbedexpat141

The week before this was asked it was at $14,000...the day the question was asked it's gone from $11,000 to $7,000 at the start of Feb to it's current price of $11,000.

Mental.

DXBtoDOH

Stay away from it.

You'd need nerves of steel to play with bitcoins.

Millhouse

That's becuase it is netiher a currency nor an asset class.

scrubbedexpat141

I'm just commenting really. I'm not investing in it but curious in the last 6 weeks you could have lost a fortune or doubled your money....

weasel decentral

It's valuation was hardly ever based on usage though was it, some guys buying pot or guns on the internet isn't driving its value. Not exactly a dutch tulip scheme but somewhere in between, an idea with huge merit but not in it's current incarnation as a speculator's roulette wheel.
Who wants to use a currency that fluctuates worse than a Zimbabwean dollar
I think you are right that it will die, and probably this year. Bizarrely I think that the next crypto-currency needs a peg to the euro or dollar to get it off the ground, as the world isn't fully ready to embrace the 'digital thin air' yet.

I bought some a year or so ago to see how the transaction for buying and selling worked, it was pretty clunky which put me off. I did make 200% on my 50 euros though

Irishbeekeeper

Well I made some good money selling the vga cards needed to mine them till about jan of this year, not just Bitcoin but Etherium and its variations as well
I was lucky enough to juuuuuust get out of it with no losses but I know plenty of people around me who have invested a LOT of money in these cards and are sitting on dead stock as there are no new 'miners' coming in
Another factor in driving the price of the cards up was the lack of memory chips coupled with the chinese new year so everyone was banking on the shortage to drive prices up further but the new year has come and gone and the price of memory is coming down ever so slightly again so I expect prices of cards, ram and hard drives / ssds to come down as well...so hopefully once the prices are down close to their factory output price then the Return on Investment factor might start looking attractive for new miners.
I agree that the blockchain idea is here to stay and that datamining in any form will always remain now. And there will always be lazy people out there who want to 'make money' doing nothing but letting the computer do the maths for them.

jam25mack

You were selling VGA cards?!?!?!?! I din't know that!