Bitcoin discussion

I’m interested in buying some bitcoin and holding it long term in hopes of it increasing in value. It seems I will need to find an exchange that can convert my dollars to bitcoin. But no exchange seems to give you full control of your own keys. The phrase “Not your keys, not your coins” is meant to warn buyers like me of the risks of not owning your private keys. So it seems my only choice is to…

  1. Find an exchange with low fees, and use them for the conversion.
  2. Transfer the balance out to a new wallet that only I have the private keys for.
  3. Stash my wallet’s keys in a safe place, and finally rest assured the coins are under my control.

I have no need to stay anonymous. But I have real concerns over the exchanges getting hacked, or the exchanges refusing to let me spend my money without a waiting period.

Anyone have experience? It seems as though step2 requires creating a bitcoin server. I don’t really want to, but I don’t know how else to be the sole owner of my wallet.

Run away, just run and don’t look back.

Buy gold or silver coins if you want real assets that will hold value. Silver has the greater industrial value, but gold holds more monetary value due to supply and demand. Until Nixon, both have always been used as the reserve backing for paper money.

imo digital “coins” are an illusion built on a pyramid scheme, looking for fools and suckers. Worth less than paper if that is even possible due to its virtual nature. ymmv

just my 2¢,
kb

Until 2020 I had no interest in it. But with the economies of the world vibrating, bitcoin’s usefulness has increased.

I must have posted the correct solution. The internet didn’t disagree with me. :cowboy_hat_face:

You can make your own wallet easily and transfer from the broker address to your personal one. The issue with bitcoin is most exchanges/brokers will happily take your fiat for crypto but rarely the other way. Making it only good for Internet points.

That’s my biggest concern.

That and KYC requirements most banks seem to love, no doubt to also demand buy-vs-sell prices (for tax purposes).

This is the guy you need to listen to. He speaks the truth.

Home Depot takes it. And Bitpay will convert it to Amazon gift cards. Home Depot and Amazon pretty much cover anything I could want to buy. But you are correct that I should keep my investing in the range of what I could spend at those places.

idk. He’s some random internet guy. I have a degree in Business with a minor in Economics. :stuck_out_tongue:

Any thoughts or ideas about what economic or business factors are involved with the exchange rate?

What determines the value of these “coins”—it went up over $4k in just the past 2 weeks.

i don’t have the formal education, but i have 40 years of experience with high negative returns on my savings and nest-egg money several times in stock market investments, both with “professional” advice (Merrill Lynch) and on my own research.

High risk, High reward. This is finance 101. Anything that goes up so fast, can and will go down equally fast.

Sorry about your loss kennybobby.
Bitcoin is like the stock market, the people that want a share of it are bidding against each other.
They are both volatile, but the ‘useful’ thing is that their volatility is somewhat reversed… Meaning investors tend to choose with each dollar they invest, do I want a piece of the future economy (stocks), or do I want to disconnect from the economy (bitcoin). So with the US Gov. printing more money to pump out, they are watering down the value of existing money. All while the chances of a full economy reboot are looking harder and harder. So for these reasons (and a few others) the current Bitcoin surge is for real-world reasons rather than the 2018 FOMO craze.
My decision to experiment with Bitcoin is just diversification, not the pursuit of profits. Your traditional view is that the a savings account is the safest place for your money. But these days your savings account effectively shrinks ~15% per year. Can you afford to lose that?

I should clarify too- Bitcoin is not an alternative to savings. It’s an alternative form of investing. Never invest more than you are willing to lose.

Bitcoin atm is TOO volatile to invest in now safely, if you invested early on when the price was low then its all uphill. But now with how it fluctuates in my opinion not worth the risk. Better to invest in index funds they have a fairly strong history with returns and generally double investment in 10 years give or take with an average of 7% annual dividend payouts that are reinvested.

And that’s solid thinking. But the economic situation is primed to give Bitcoin the credibility it needs in the year to come. IF it gains that cred, today will become the day it was a bargain. And the peak-and-fall that will inevitably come will both stay above today’s price. Today then becomes the “if you invested early” you mentioned.

PSA I am not a financial adviser. My opinions are only that, opinions. :smiley:

Well, I have day traded off and on for 12 years. I got into crypto about 3 1/2 years ago. There is a lot of money to be made in crypto. Don’t let anyone tell you different. Long term, “investment”, I’m not sure. Day trading crypto is awesome. 24/7 365 market, and no settlement waiting period. But it sick that being in the USA, we can’t short or trade in crypto. (I had a VPN so I didn’t live in the USA ;))
The most stable and trustworthy exchange I have found for US traders is Coinbase. When I started on there they only had four pairings.
But don’t be fooled by the recent spike. It had been three years coming. It’s been a bear market, and I suspect it will correct again after the first of the year. Altcoins are my thing. They tend to follow BTC.

I would say educate yourself as much as possible! I am mostly a fibonacci/Elliott wave trader.

I could go on all day about this. I would say find a successful crypto trader and start learning. Look at different traders, different strategies, all that.

Learn learn learn.
Then, learn some more. I’m still learning.
Many experts say gold and silver and yada yada are bad investments. People get into gold in case of the collapse of FIAT. Thats all bologna. We aren’t going to use precious metal as currency again. If there was a collapse, I believe crypto will be the safety net. Blockchain is robust, secure, and anonymous. You can already use it as legal tender at many places across the country, (stores and whatnot), and they have been rolling out ATM machines for a few years where you can withdraw real money out based on current exchange rate.
Now, in my opinion, it does fluctuate too much currently to be a viable, spendable currency for sure.
I would encourage you to explore it.

Ok, I’ve rambled long enough. Lol

Sounds like you made your mind up.
Go DEEP!
and good luck.

Stuff is VooDoo to me, can’t see it, smell it, etc.
Ya I know, so is faith in whatever brand of spirit/idol/book you do/do not subscribe to.
So it goes.

Oh and one more thing.
Open a free TradingView account and I think you can paper trade on there on the computer, but not the app.

I wish. I’d buy on the dips.

@DSTdrummer, thanks for the ramblings, I wish I had learned more about it in the past. I just never had any interest in it until now.

@Muto, I did! I bought $100 just before opening this thread. lol. I opened the thread in hopes of learning more and considering buying more.