Bitcoin

[anonymous-user]

Hi all, has anyone got any experience with cryptocurrencies?
I assume Bitcoin is the market leader but is this the best to have a punt on with current market collapse?
Maybe someone could shed some light please.
Thanks in advance

[anonymous-user]

If only we had a thread about Crypto that had been running for several years.....

[Behemoth]

Yeah, but virtually everything apart from Bitcoin is utter junk. Slowly, people are beginning to realise this. So this one has a better title. It's high time the terms were decoupled.

[anonymous-user]

Joey Deacon said:

If only we had a thread about Crypto that had been running for several years.....

Yes and there are 1000's of pages across the network which have morphed beyond my comprehension, I was after someone with experience who could explain in layman's terms of how to buy/sell/hold Cryptos ( if that is the collective term used )

If you have read several years of posts, maybe you would be kind enough to explain the basics for me; cheers

[anonymous-user]

Behemoth said:

Yeah, but virtually everything apart from Bitcoin is utter junk. Slowly, people are beginning to realise this. So this one has a better title. It's high time the terms were decoupled.

Could you please explain why it needs decoupled and why ( simply ). . . . please allow me the benefit of not being up to speed on this subject

[anonymous-user]

mgsontour said:

Could you please explain why it needs decoupled and why ( simply ). . . . please allow me the benefit of not being up to speed on this subject

He posts that yet the BTC lightning network, touted as next big thing has flopped, smart contracts are done better by other coins, and BTCs success is fueled by Altcoins to name a few things.

So remember don't take everything people say as on here as gospel. Research coins you like and have a punt, not a bad time now as well, as markets look to be bouncing back. Coinbse is good one, i use it now. if you sign up use my link i get 8 quid
https://www.coinbase.com/join/dunn_u9

[anonymous-user]

Investing in bitcoin is the gold standard of the crypto world. Elysium just reminds me of the alpine a110.

Of course both could be garbage, but on balance of probabilities bitcoin is worth $6k today, but maybe not tomorrow. Either way elysium is worth st.

Ymmv, of course.

[Behemoth]

mgsontour said:

Could you please explain why it needs decoupled and why ( simply ). . . . please allow me the benefit of not being up to speed on this subject

I'd recommend that you read a book. The Little Bitcoin Book is a good short introduction for anyone new to this.

Other tokens carry little value, since scarcity coupled with demand are the key elements to the bitcoin protocol which are nigh impossible to replicate.

The word crypto is highly misleading. The cryptography in bitcoin is very run of the mill & in use throughout the internet in many other ordinary applications. The focus on cryptography is entirely missing the point.

[anonymous-user]

If you just want to have a punt, then ig index and most spread bet / cfd sites might be easiest

https://www.ig.com/uk/cryptocurrency-trading

[Henrico]

Put simply, it's got a fixed supply which is routinely halved every four years meaning it long term consistently increases in value. Also the fact no one person owns it means it's censorship resistant. Check out a guy called Plan B (https://twitter.com/100trillionUSD) for the future value potential and a guy called Simon Dixon (https://twitter.com/SimonDixonTwitt) for a good summary of why it's pretty far out.

[coldsnap]

If you can it's certainly better to have some than none. Bitcoin is not going to go away and the limited supply and increasing demand over the years will mean this is only going to go up in value, but it will as it has done, have big dips along the way.

[anonymous-user]

Doesn't the price of BTC have to be high to ensure that miners mine. Nearly 90% has been mined so if the price falls what incentive for the miners to keep the network going?

[Behemoth]

The difficulty adjustment every two weeks makes the system self regulating. It doesn't really matter what the price of Bitcoin is. If the price drops, hashing power drops & it becomes cheaper to mine for the bitcoin reward.

[JiggyJaggy]

Seems to be fluctuating quite a bit at the moment. With it being a finite source it doesn't seem bad as a long term option.

[anonymous-user]

Sambucket said:

If you look at the 3 month chart, bitcoin spotted Covid and the recession long before wall street did, so it has that going for it.

Did it? How so?

[anonymous-user]

In simplistic terms, if I'm being lazy and want to stick £500 quid out of a money box (I actually have this) into something, is bitcoin the place to put it? was thinking of premium bonds, but bitcoin might make more money. I don't have the time or motivation to play about with it, just want to leave it alone and check it from time to time.

[Benbay001]

MonkeyMatt said:

was thinking of premium bonds, but bitcoin might make more money.

Those are at polar extremes of the risk spectrum.

[Simpo Two]

MonkeyMatt said:

In simplistic terms, if I'm being lazy and want to stick £500 quid out of a money box (I actually have this) into something, is bitcoin the place to put it? was thinking of premium bonds, but bitcoin might make more money. I don't have the time or motivation to play about with it, just want to leave it alone and check it from time to time.

I don't see why not. The worst that can happen is you lose £500.

The worst that can happen with PBs is that you still have only £500 in five years.

[anonymous-user]

Benbay001 said:

MonkeyMatt said:

was thinking of premium bonds, but bitcoin might make more money.

Those are at polar extremes of the risk spectrum.

Exactly, if you only have £500 of premium bonds then I think with average luck you would win £25 every five years. Bitcoin on the other hand is not really any different to gambling at the casino.

If you can buy £500 of crypto and literally forget about it then you MAY make some decent returns. Only do this if you can effectively write that money off as a bit of fun.

Plus you need to hold onto that crypto no matter what, falls of 20% in a day are all par for the course.

[tertius]

MonkeyMatt said:

In simplistic terms, if I'm being lazy and want to stick £500 quid out of a money box (I actually have this) into something, is bitcoin the place to put it? was thinking of premium bonds, but bitcoin might make more money. I don't have the time or motivation to play about with it, just want to leave it alone and check it from time to time.

Simplest easiest and least effort: open a Revolut account and buy it through there.

Upsides: minimal effort, don't need a dedicated wallet, don't need to worry about how to transfer the money to an exchange or how to move your coins off; its more like getting exposure to BTC volatility indirectly

Downsides: you don't really own the bitcoin - as in you can't move your coins anywhere else, you can only transact through Revolut; as a consequence you won't get best price on the buy or the sell; its not wholly clear to me whether they really buy BTC on your behalf or not.