PIMPING STOCKS

[call_me_ishmael]

I have owned Bitcoin since 2013. I bought 5K back then. Still have it. Haven't spent a dime of it. I know all about it.

I know especially how much VC money has been pumped into infrastructure around it, and still its usage is minuscule since everyone holds it on speculation.

Saying it went from 4000 to 9000 this year is factually true, but it ignores that from 2017 to 2019 it crashed from over 19K after being artificially pumped by Russia allegedly.

BTC is too slow and will require some significant forking and revamping to ever be a serious player. Can't buy those groceries without a many-minute-long-payment process to check the ledger is my understanding. I wouldn't know, I've been holding the whole time.

Maybe it's the future, but is there any reason for optimism thus far? In my opinion, not really. Seems to me like most of the VC money in crypto has dried up. The biggest reason to continue holding is the scarcity aspect and since I don't have a good answer for why it won't be a big thing.

Apple? Who the fuck really knows if they will last for more than 5 years from this date

With the money Apple has in the bank, they could continue to operate without earning a penny of revenue for the next 20 years or more.

[australianpackerbacker]

I have owned Bitcoin since 2013. I bought 5K back then. Still have it. Haven't spent a dime of it. I know all about it.

I know especially how much VC money has been pumped into infrastructure around it, and still its usage is minuscule since everyone holds it on speculation.

Saying it went from 4000 to 9000 this year is factually true, but it ignores that from 2017 to 2019 it crashed from over 19K after being artificially pumped by Russia allegedly.

BTC is too slow and will require some significant forking and revamping to ever be a serious player. Can't buy those groceries without a many-minute-long-payment process to check the ledger is my understanding. I wouldn't know, I've been holding the whole time.

Maybe it's the future, but is there any reason for optimism thus far? In my opinion, not really. Seems to me like most of the VC money in crypto has dried up. The biggest reason to continue holding is the scarcity aspect and since I don't have a good answer for why it won't be a big thing.





With the money Apple has in the bank, they could continue to operate without earning a penny of revenue for the next 20 years or more.

Bitcoin in 2019 is akin to the Internet in 1995. People also said things like, you're never gonna be able to stream a video on the internet, much less listen to music. Email? Who needs that? We have fax baby! Who remembers AOL? Same thing with scalability of bitcoin, and also use case and adoption, but youre not gonna see that with the lens you are currently looking through, the same way internet naysayers couldnt visualize a future where the internet was in any way shape or form useful. If you really knew as much as you say you do about it, you would also understand, that it is a nascent asset class, and it goes through major hype cycles, like you mentioned when price went up to 19.3k and dropped to 3.2k. This is entirely normal in an asset class that is in the hundreds of billions that doesnt have a clear-cut use case, other than being digital gold 2.0, an excellent store of value, just like gold, but better, because more gold can always be mined, but bitcoin is and always will be capped at 21million. Im not pro crypto as much as pro bitcoin, i think 99% of altcoins are scams. Think about the stock market, it fluctuates 1-5%, and its market cap is in the TRILLIONS. So there is literally hundreds of billions of dollars being traded daily, basically more than the value of the ENTIRE cryptocurrency market cap. So put that into perspective with regrads to volatility. Same thing happend with Amazon and a lot of early tech stocks in the late 90s/2000s, they crashed hard because "no use case". When was a great time to buy Amazon? Exactly that time, just like it was a great time to buy BTC at 3k.

Yes, its usage is minimal right now, just like people using computers in the late 90s and smart phones in the mid 2000s was minimal. But consider this. The amount of people in the millions, that know and use bitcoin(and many like me dont spend their bitcoin, right now for me its a store of value with future potential as a medium of exchange) is roughly 25-30 million. The global population is 7.8 billion. And LOOK at the price, from simply 25-30 million people interacting and engaging in the protocol!!! As of today still 9200. Lets call it 10k for arguements sake. Now imagine 300 million people all over the world actively adopt bitcoin as a store of value or medium of exchange. The potential is on a level that is soo fucking ridiculous im shocked more people dont genuinely look into it. But its hard for most people to use an alternative currency when fiat currency, i.e. paper money, still works for 2 billion people. So in many ways the system has to fail people, just like it did in 2008 before the Federal Reserve started printing money to bail out the greedy fuckers that got us into this mess in the first place, debasing the very currency that everybody "trusts".

None of us were taught about money in school. Coincidence? Hell no, its by design. Just like you werent taught how to eat the right foods or heal yourself. Most people dont truly understand how fiat money works, if they did, they would riot. The average lifespan of a fiat currency is 27 years, so the USD is an anomaly, in many ways, and the bankers(the fraudsters) just started printing money again, calling it quantitative easing and negative interest rates, to prop up and continuously beat the dead horse. This is called Keynesian economics. It doesnt work. Fiat money, is essentially what is called "soft money". So i have 1000USD and that can buy me a new car in 1940, but since the bankers continuously print more and more money, naturally that 1000USD has much less buying power than it did even 10 years ago, essentially robbing you of your spending power, while your wages are exactly the same! This is why we all live in a global kleptocracy, the value of what we EARN, through hard work, is undermined by the greedy fuckers in power.

Bitcoin reintroduces the concept of Austrian economics, where a fixed supply currency can never be devalued or lose buying power. Consider this concept, that is unfortunately a sad reality. Would bitcoin exist at all if everybody totally and implicitly trusted the current economic paradigm to serve them and all their needs wholeheartedly? Why would it even exist if the current system was honest and worked for everybody?

Also, like i said earlier, bitcoin is an evolving tech, in 2017 maybe at worst case you had to wait 1hr at the HEIGHT of its hype cycle for a transaction to be completed because the network was congested. But since then we have had other protocols built on top of bitcoin that have evolved. Look up lightning network. Instant transactions(less than 10 secs) with almost minimal fees. This is an evolving tech so your stories that you had about it in 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2021.....constantly need to be checked and evolved as computer science and cryptography does. Its not fair to compare bitcoin in 2010 to bitcoin in 2019 or 2029, but the overall trajectory is constantly evolving and going in the direction of largescale adoption.

https://www.lookintobitcoin.com/charts/bitcoin-profitable-days/

In the entirety of bitcoins existence, it has been profitable to hold bitcoin during nearly 94% of its ENTIRE EXISTENCE. Show me a stock, commodity, real estate, asset that has produced this result.

https://medium.com/@100trillionUSD/modeling-bitcoins-value-with-scarcity-91fa0fc03e25

This is what i was talking about earlier with regards to price appreciation, long term. Bitcoins stock to flow will be equal to that of gold, by 2024. Potentially valuing bitcoin up to 350-400k.

https://medium.com/coinmonks/bitcoins-natural-long-term-power-law-corridor-of-growth-649d0e9b3c94

Bitcoins long term power law.

All in all, ive put in 1000s of hours of research into understanding what the fuck this exactly is. And bottom line is, bitcoin in 5-7 years will become the defacto world reserve currency. And when this happens. There will be no more USD, EURO, FRANC, YEN, POUND. Why? Because bitcoin has the best, cryptographically secure, mathematically proven, sound monetary policy that is easily defined and predictable over the next 120 years, that cannot be altered or disrupted by any single entity or government. This is its true power. You no longer need to trust anyone or anything with financial honesty.

[call_me_ishmael]

But Bitcoin price was already inflated 4x by Russia.

And there is an inordinate amount of Bitcoin owned by the Chinese government.

Like I said, I am long Bitcoin, so I am not a total hater, but I have healthy skepticism about it. Everyone should. Right now it's just a value store as you mentioned. I am extremely skeptical that in 5-7 years the situation will be dramatically different than it is today.

[3irty1]

BTC is mostly used as a store of value, but it is a functional currency. I've traded for it, paid bills with it, bought a property with it, and sold it for cash. Its cumbersome but it works and the infrastructure has improved a lot since I received my first coins. In truth validation is much faster on the chain than with real world banks. It takes a week for a check to clear after all. It's as-if instant because there is infrastructure to repair a doublespend after that fact. Infrastructure for crypto is primitive today but like I said, it's night and day compared to 5 years ago.

I view it as a more practical version of dealing in something like gold. Similar in that it is counter cyclical and immune to inflation; better in that I don't need a literal vault to secure it or an armored car to transport it. Yes the splashes of whales can manipulate the value but this is also true of gold. Bitcoin smart contracts need more development, it's a small nightmare for example to figure out how to make BTC resistant to embezzlement in a joint situation or inheritable such that the benefactor can't just clean you out at their pleasure.

[australianpackerbacker]

But Bitcoin price was already inflated 4x by Russia.

And there is an inordinate amount of Bitcoin owned by the Chinese government.

Like I said, I am long Bitcoin, so I am not a total hater, but I have healthy skepticism about it. Everyone should. Right now it's just a value store as you mentioned. I am extremely skeptical that in 5-7 years the situation will be dramatically different than it is today.

With regards to Russia, i have no idea. Nor does it matter. There are cypherpunks and geeks that own 10s of 1000s of BTC, that if my prediction came true, would be richer than most COUNTRIES. Thats a bit of a mindfuck. If this does take over i do see a potential for global instability and civil war, short term.

The thing about the USD being the defacto reserve currency of the world is, they can push other countries around because of their power through monetary policy. When the playing field is equal, and this is the big shift i see happening, when the playing field is equal, when all countries currencies are comletley digitized and you and I can send a message on packer rats, and if i like your comment i can send you 5USD or whatever, when that happens, the clear winner in all of this will be the digital currency that has the most honest, transparent monetary policy, that cannot be altered or debased. If that 5 dollars i send you today is worth 3 tommorow, youre not gonna accept something thats not worth as much as the currency that over time constantly grows in value. And this day will come when paper money is no longer physical, but just numbers on a screen, were halfway there in many ways.

Well done for being long and also for buying in early, I only found out about it late 2017, and have been possessed by its potential to create a giant seismic shift in our understanding of money and how i feel that should work, for everybody.

[australianpackerbacker]

But Bitcoin price was already inflated 4x by Russia.

Also, if were gonna talk about manipulation. Lets first turn our attention to our own backyards. The CME futures gaps constantly fucks with bitcoins price, same thing Bakkt is trying to do. Futures trading is also a great way to manipulate price. They also announced that starbucks will be accepting crypto which is a ploy to steal your bitcoin, so that they have an even better chance of suppressing the price. The constant feet dragging by the SEC to approve a bitcoin ETF. I could go on, theres so much seedy shit goin down its not even funny, this is why transparent fixed supply currency is important, because it has the potential to eliminate bad actors....in government ESPECIALLY.

[australianpackerbacker]

BTC is mostly used as a store of value, but it is a functional currency. I've traded for it, paid bills with it, bought a property with it, and sold it for cash. Its cumbersome but it works and the infrastructure has improved a lot since I received my first coins. In truth validation is much faster on the chain than with real world banks. It takes a week for a check to clear after all. It's as-if instant because there is infrastructure to repair a doublespend after that fact. Infrastructure for crypto is primitive today but like I said, it's night and day compared to 5 years ago.

I view it as a more practical version of dealing in something like gold. Similar in that it is counter cyclical and immune to inflation; better in that I don't need a literal vault to secure it or an armored car to transport it. Yes the splashes of whales can manipulate the value but this is also true of gold. Bitcoin smart contracts need more development, it's a small nightmare for example to figure out how to make BTC resistant to embezzlement in a joint situation or inheritable such that the benefactor can't just clean you out at their pleasure.

This guy gets it.

[call_me_ishmael]

Maybe it will, maybe it won't, I have no idea so I stay long because I don't want to miss out if/when it does take off.

I am merely saying it is hardly the sure thing crypto enthusiasts make it out to be. My stance is cautious optimism with a hearty side of we'll side.

To the guy merely reading tech crunch headlines, it seems that a lot of the excitement around blockchain has waned in the past two years or so.

I don't have enough info to know if I think it'll blow up or sink. The story makes sense to me that it'll blow up but in practice it doesn't really jive with reality or perhaps I'm not patient enough.

[3irty1]

Maybe it will, maybe it won't, I have no idea so I stay long because I don't want to miss out if/when it does take off.

I am merely saying it is hardly the sure thing crypto enthusiasts make it out to be. My stance is cautious optimism with a hearty side of we'll side.

To the guy merely reading tech crunch headlines, it seems that a lot of the excitement around blockchain has waned in the past two years or so.

I don't have enough info to know if I think it'll blow up or sink. The story makes sense to me that it'll blow up but in practice it doesn't really jive with reality or perhaps I'm not patient enough.

Like so many promising technologies I get the sense that thousands of people are writing about it while only dozens of people are actually working on it.

[call_me_ishmael]

Like so many promising technologies I get the sense that thousands of people are writing about it while only dozens of people are actually working on it.

There was a huge influx of VC money and it seems like most of those companies never got past a seeding round or series A or are still very quietly working on it.

It sort of makes sense that if very few people are actually spending the stuff 'cause everyone is hodl-ing (or using it as a jump-between-other-cryptos currency) that the companies building infrastructure aren't generating a lot of cash.

How'd you buy a property with it?

[3irty1]

There was a huge influx of VC money and it seems like most of those companies never got past a seeding round or series A or are still very quietly working on it.

It sort of makes sense that if very few people are actually spending the stuff 'cause everyone is hodl-ing (or using it as a jump-between-other-cryptos currency) that the companies building infrastructure aren't generating a lot of cash.

How'd you buy a property with it?

Nothing special in my case. I had an uncomfortable portion of my money in crypto and found a person who was willing accept it just through normal craigslist. We used a crypto escrow service and I paid title people in regular cash.

I know someone who did something similar on Open Bazzar.

These days I'm told there are fancy smart-contract based real estate transaction solutions that cut out almost all the intermediaries and put all the paperwork on the blockchain. With that kind of tech there I bet there is a real future for real estate brokers who are crypto-literate.

[call_me_ishmael]

As mentioned numerous times, I don't really buy stocks outside of big tech since I believe it's still Day One for Amazon, Google, Apple, etc. With globalization, those stocks have SOOO much room to grow.

I am thinking about getting long Peloton. It's a great product that people lust after with great margins. If you like 10xing your money, join me in Peloton, set it and forget it and wake up 10x richer in 10 years.

[Bretsky]

As mentioned numerous times, I don't really buy stocks outside of big tech since I believe it's still Day One for Amazon, Google, Apple, etc. With globalization, those stocks have SOOO much room to grow.

I am thinking about getting long Peloton. It's a great product that people lust after with great margins. If you like 10xing your money, join me in Peloton, set it and forget it and wake up 10x richer in 10 years.

TELL me more about PELOTON. I have recently bought some ZOOM and DOCU and think they have some high upside in next ten years as well. I'm also pretty invested in Cloud Stocks and got into Square pretty early and still have that

[Freak Out]

I like my dividends.

[call_me_ishmael]

TELL me more about PELOTON. I have recently bought some ZOOM and DOCU and think they have some high upside in next ten years as well. I'm also pretty invested in Cloud Stocks and got into Square pretty early and still have that

ZOOM is awesome and makes a great product. I should look at their stock too. They completely usurped the video chat market which is bound to grow 10x over the next 10 years. I use Zoom at least 20 times per work day and it's consistently excellent.

Peloton makes high end fitness equipment but their core product is a SaaS offering where you join fitness classes with other people via streaming from home. People love it.