Crypto Currency Thread
Discussion
x5x3 said:
so, suppose you have 10 BTC bought years ago for an average of £1K each. (and that is not me unfortunately!)
at what price would you sell;
a) 50% i.e. 5 BTC
b) 100% i.e 10 BTC
for me I think I'd have to cash out 50% if the price got to £5K
and 100% if the price got to £10K, or maybe I'd keep some in case they went further....
what would others do?
I wouldn't sell until I had something I wanted to buy with it. BTC is a currency, so why exchange it for another currency (especially one that's likely to tank further in coming years)? I just changed some £ for € as we're off on a late summer holiday. But I'm only exchanging what we'll need for a couple of weeks.at what price would you sell;
a) 50% i.e. 5 BTC
b) 100% i.e 10 BTC
for me I think I'd have to cash out 50% if the price got to £5K
and 100% if the price got to £10K, or maybe I'd keep some in case they went further....
what would others do?
Some people's mindset is speculative gain rooted in their national currency, whilst I have a much longer term view.
Behemoth said:
I wouldn't sell until I had something I wanted to buy with it. BTC is a currency, so why exchange it for another currency (especially one that's likely to tank further in coming years)? I just changed some £ for € as we're off on a late summer holiday. But I'm only exchanging what we'll need for a couple of weeks.
Some people's mindset is speculative gain rooted in their national currency, whilst I have a much longer term view.
I agree to an extent with your point about only exchanging if you need to buy something in another currency, however I do not agree with your implication that BTC is as safe as GBP/EUR. Although you could make the point that GBP/EUR/USD/etc could crash spectacularly I just cannot see that being likely - BTC (or other crypto) on the other hand is significantly more likely to suffer a major crash. At the end of the day it is un-proven and is an emerging store of value.Some people's mindset is speculative gain rooted in their national currency, whilst I have a much longer term view.
Consider the £10K or 10 BTC in the example - in 10 years time the £10K will be virtually guaranteed to be worth £10K (I'm ignoring inflation for simplicity) but the 10 BTC could be worth anywhere from £0 to £100 million.
BTC is a risky investment and we are all speculating.
x5x3 said:
I agree to an extent with your point about only exchanging if you need to buy something in another currency, however I do not agree with your implication that BTC is as safe as GBP/EUR. Although you could make the point that GBP/EUR/USD/etc could crash spectacularly I just cannot see that being likely - BTC (or other crypto) on the other hand is significantly more likely to suffer a major crash. At the end of the day it is un-proven and is an emerging store of value.
Consider the £10K or 10 BTC in the example - in 10 years time the £10K will be virtually guaranteed to be worth £10K (I'm ignoring inflation for simplicity) but the 10 BTC could be worth anywhere from £0 to £100 million.
BTC is a risky investment and we are all speculating.
I'm certainly not implying it's safer than GBP or EUR or USD at this stage. If it were, all my cash assets would be in BTC and I'm very very far from doing that.Consider the £10K or 10 BTC in the example - in 10 years time the £10K will be virtually guaranteed to be worth £10K (I'm ignoring inflation for simplicity) but the 10 BTC could be worth anywhere from £0 to £100 million.
BTC is a risky investment and we are all speculating.
Your answer reveals your mindset, though. You're naturally rooted in £, as we can expect most people to be. £10k purchasing power today is most definitely not £10k purchasing power in 10 year's time. You cannot ignore the effects of both inflation and currency depreciation. I'm very confident that £10k in BTC even at today's prices will be a lot more valuable than that in 10 year's time. Of course it's risky and nobody should invest what they can't afford to lose. I certainly haven't.
My point remains. Given an investment of X BTC there's little point in transferring it to fiat if your long term outlook is positive and you've nothing to spend it on, and of course that you can afford the risk.
I think that is a fair point, I am fixed in the fiat world as that is the only currency I can use today in the corner shop or the Maserati garage. At some point BTC (or one of the forks 
) may get to that point but until then we are forced to use fiat day to day. But I am open minded and therefore I am building a stake in a new (but very risky) store of value. The theoretical £10K would of course be invested not left as cash - decent pension funds etc are returning 8% or so at the moment so inflation/depreciation are not really an issue.
CGT is an interesting point for those who own more BTC than the annual CGT allowance but I suspect most will be under this amount.
By the way I am finding this discussion very useful - I do hope others are?
) may get to that point but until then we are forced to use fiat day to day. But I am open minded and therefore I am building a stake in a new (but very risky) store of value. The theoretical £10K would of course be invested not left as cash - decent pension funds etc are returning 8% or so at the moment so inflation/depreciation are not really an issue.CGT is an interesting point for those who own more BTC than the annual CGT allowance but I suspect most will be under this amount.
By the way I am finding this discussion very useful - I do hope others are?
x5x3 said:
I am fixed in the fiat world as that is the only currency I can use today in the corner shop or the Maserati garage.
Absolutely right. Equally, if I wanted to buy a villa in the Var, I'd need €. And if I wanted to buy a Corvette in California, $. My point is that you keep your investments where they are best nurtured until you need to use them. Both these transactions are far more efficient BTC to € or BTC to $, btw.
The Spruce goose said:
ive tried arbitrage before and got stung, but at least a heads up is always good.
Anyone any tips?
You need to use something much, much faster than BTC. And if there is an arbitrage opportunity that lasts for more than a few seconds or minutes then it's almost always down to a problem such as a closed wallet on the differently priced exchange or unusably low volume. Anyone any tips?
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