Author Topic: OFFICIAL: Blockchain / Crypto-Currency Portfolios and Discussion  (Read 402426 times)

maizefolk

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Re: OFFICIAL: Blockchain / Crypto-Currency Portfolios and Discussion
« Reply #250 on: August 21, 2017, 03:09:03 PM »
@bender

As lifeanon has also talked about, while you can certainly calculate an average energy cost per transaction for bitcoin by dividing the number of transactions by the amount of power consumed, the marginal energy cost of each bitcoin transaction is essentially zero.

Energy use scales with the total network hashrate, not with the number of transactions. Consider the case of bitcoin cash. Up to 8x as many transactions per block, and only 1/10th as high a hashrate. So right now the energy cost per transaction of bitcoin cash is 1/80th that of bitcoin itself or ~12.5x the cost of a visa transaction.* Continued increases in transaction scale per block have the potential to reduce average energy use per transaction further, and if something like proof of stake ends up in a widely adopted cryptocurrency, that would reduce power useage even more.

@Mr Mark

For bitcoin proper, it is likely that even with essentially "free" computer hardware, if you're using CPUs the amount of income you get from mining wouldn't be worth the extra wear and tear on your servers. If the company had a GPU heavy server farm and/or was interested in mining various altcoins where mining isn't dominated by custom fabricated ASICs built specifically for mining as has happened to bitcoin, it might prove to be a profitable way to use up idle compute cycles.

@Bicycle_B

Thank you, it makes me happy to hear the ongoing reports from my little experiment are of interest.

*Based on the statement about bitcoin using 1000x as much energy per transaction as visa.

waltworks

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Re: OFFICIAL: Blockchain / Crypto-Currency Portfolios and Discussion
« Reply #251 on: August 21, 2017, 03:13:26 PM »
We will have to agree to disagree on the deflationary part. If I were designing my libertarian fantasy currency, it would probably have some very slight inflation built in, just for the sake of keeping money moving through the system (not to mention preventing deflationary spiral sort of problems).

Regardless, Bitcoin is a LONG way from being used as a currency in any meaningful sense. The recent rise in popularity/price has certainly caused a lot of folks to buy fancy mining rigs and hoard their bitcoins, but that's not the same as walking to the store and getting a bag of apples. I know a few folks (normal folks who aren't interested in buying illegal Chinese drugs or whatever) who have bitcoin holdings and they look at me like I'm crazy if I suggest they could *purchase* something - there is no chance in hell they'll spend them, ever (though if the price drops enough, they'll panic-sell them!)

That's not a great setup for widespread adoption as currency. But I've been wrong before.

-W

lifeanon269

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Re: OFFICIAL: Blockchain / Crypto-Currency Portfolios and Discussion
« Reply #252 on: August 22, 2017, 06:41:42 AM »
Regardless, Bitcoin is a LONG way from being used as a currency in any meaningful sense. The recent rise in popularity/price has certainly caused a lot of folks to buy fancy mining rigs and hoard their bitcoins, but that's not the same as walking to the store and getting a bag of apples. I know a few folks (normal folks who aren't interested in buying illegal Chinese drugs or whatever) who have bitcoin holdings and they look at me like I'm crazy if I suggest they could *purchase* something - there is no chance in hell they'll spend them, ever (though if the price drops enough, they'll panic-sell them!)

That's not a great setup for widespread adoption as currency. But I've been wrong before.

-W

What do you mean by "not a great setup"? The hurdle to POS usage is merchant adoption, not the userbase.

A large portion of people putting money into bitcoin are simply doing so with their expendable or investable income. This is money that, if it weren't in bitcoin, would likely be in some other investment where it wouldn't be getting used for POS transactions there either. So the reason for that money not being spent isn't because the money is in bitcoin, but rather simply because the money that is being put into bitcoin is non-spending money to begin with.

That being said, once merchant adoption takes place (its only a matter of time), then given the fact that bitcoin is extremely liquid, the money will be right there available from the user base ready to be spent.

In the meantime, we have ample amount of bridge technologies using existing networks to help people spend their bitcoins if they need to. For example, for myself, I have a bitcoin debit card that allows me to keep my spending money in bitcoin up until the point in time when I spend it at a store. I simply move my paycheck into bitcoin and then use my debit card to spend it where ever I want. This allows me to dollar cost average bitcoin with my after-tax income. Considering bitcoin doubled over the last couple of months, this has allowed me to effectively double my take home pay. When taking this approach, using bitcoin doesn't cause someone to avoid spending, but simply be able to save more than they'd otherwise be able to. All it takes is a merchant to accept bitcoin and I can then simply cut out the middle-man (VISA) and pay directly with bitcoin to the benefit of both the merchant and I.

This leads me to my final point about deflation. The fear of a deflationary spiral with bitcoin is unfounded. Deflationary spirals can occur with traditional centrally manipulated fiat currencies because they are unpredictable. With bitcoin, at the point where deflation actually kicks in (a long time from now), deflation will be consistent and expected. That means that people won't forgo spending in favor of hoarding because of the knowledge that the bitcoin that they'd earn tomorrow will have the same deflationary properties as the bitcoin that they'd be spending today. We see this every day. If someone wants a new iPhone, then history shows that they'll purchase that iPhone when they want it even if it means that they'll save more money by simply delaying their purchase of it. While this isn't deflationary economics at play, it is consumer behavior economics. This consumerism will still be alive in a deflationary economic model. That means that regardless of whether or not the currency being used is inflationary or deflationary, consumers will still choose to purchase the goods they want over delaying that purchase even if it means they'll save more money in the long run.

maizefolk

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Re: OFFICIAL: Blockchain / Crypto-Currency Portfolios and Discussion
« Reply #253 on: August 22, 2017, 07:38:57 AM »
Lifeanon, would you mind pointing me towards the service that provides your bitcoin denominated debt card? I remember hearing some folks talk about those as a possibility years ago, but hadn't realized they were actually out in the wild already. Does the company providing the service take a significant chunk out of either your deposits or spending as fees? Recently found out the city where I live already has a "bitcoin atm" where folks can either deposit cash to purchase bitcoins or convert their bitcoins to dollars and instantaneously withdraw as cash. Fees are ... unfavorable to say the least though.

WRT deflation/inflation, the change in the absolute money supply of bitcoin is going to be very predictable over time. That doesn't necessarily mean that rates of inflation/deflation will also remain fixed, because changes in the velocity of money (how often the average bitcoin/euro/RMB/dollar is spent) can produce significant increases or decreases in the effective money supply. In good times people tend to spend more of the money they make and spend it quickly, so the effective money supply increases, creating inflation. In bad times, people tend to hold on to their money for much longer and build up emergency funds because they're worried about their next paycheck, decreasing the money supply and either reducing inflation or causing deflation.

Now to be fair, I should add that hyperinflation, which generally occurs when a government starts printing new money to service its debt, driving up inflation and hence interest rates which requires more money be printed to service the debt, is basically impossible with a cryptocurrency, but I did want to make the point that deflationary spirals are still quite possible with bitcoin or bitcoin like currencies (and remember the initial deflationary spiral of the great depression occurred with a gold-backed currency where the government really had very little power to increase or decrease the money supply).

waltworks

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Re: OFFICIAL: Blockchain / Crypto-Currency Portfolios and Discussion
« Reply #254 on: August 22, 2017, 07:46:35 AM »
I was not going to bring the great depression into this, but yes, Maizeman makes my point quite well. There are advantages to not having a central authority control the money supply (no hyperinflation) but we need to recognize that there are also HUGE disadvantages WRT the business cycle and the ability of a central authority to mitigate downside risks through currency manipulation.

Now, you might think the gov't does a shitty job of that. I'm not sure I'd disagree. But doing a shitty job of it might still very well be better than nobody doing the job at all.

-W

lifeanon269

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Re: OFFICIAL: Blockchain / Crypto-Currency Portfolios and Discussion
« Reply #255 on: August 22, 2017, 09:48:16 AM »
Lifeanon, would you mind pointing me towards the service that provides your bitcoin denominated debit card?

The card I use is the Shift card. They have a partnership with Coinbase that allows you to spend your bitcoin residing in Coinbase using this card. So I just keep my small amount of spending money each month in Coinbase (the rest in a private wallet) so that I can spend my bitcoin just like I would with a checking account. The awesome part is that there are no transaction fees involved. There is a one time $10 fee to purchase the card and then there are $2.50 ATM withdrawal fees (just like about every VISA card out there), but I don't really use it at any ATMs so that is not a big deal. That's it. No annual fee either. The cool thing as well though is that it functions just like any other debit card. So in cases where I'm at the store and pay with the card as "debit", then if the store allows it, I can ask for cash back if I need it. That allows me to instantly turn my bitcoin back into USD cash without paying any conversion/transaction fees at all.

https://www.shiftpayments.com/card/

There are a few other bitcoin debit cards out there, but most of them are prepaid cards that store the value on the card in USD as opposed to bitcoin. So you only receive the value of your bitcoin at the time you load the card. I didn't like that approach and most of those have many additional fees to them as well.

I was not going to bring the great depression into this, but yes, Maizeman makes my point quite well. There are advantages to not having a central authority control the money supply (no hyperinflation) but we need to recognize that there are also HUGE disadvantages WRT the business cycle and the ability of a central authority to mitigate downside risks through currency manipulation.

WRT to inflation/deflation, don't get me wrong, I didn't mean to oversimplify the economy down to just the money supply policy alone. There are other factors for sure that come into play when it comes to what contributes to market ups and downs. But the argument that there are outside forces that contribute to the effective money supply (such as fractional-reserve banking) is hardly an argument against having a decentralized non-manipulated deflationary currency. Any given type of currency isn't going to solve all the woes of a very complex economy.

The thing about bitcoin however isn't that it is necessarily forever static and can't be changed. It is the fact that it is decentralized and gives the power to a majority of its users instead of a powerful minority. In other words, if we got into a situation where the currency itself was what was holding our economy back (again, highly unlikely), then the currency (bitcoin) could only be changed if the benefit of that change received support from the community as a whole. This is where the idea of social good comes from with regards to bitcoin. But as was stated, it is highly unlikely that bitcoin's inherent nature will be the root culprit of any future economic perils and it will be more than likely that other destructive economic forces will be at play. Those other forces could be everything from fractional-reserve banking (that inherently leads to recessions at regular intervals), horrible lending practices, large-scale speculative bubbles, etc.

Finally, for what it is worth (since the depression was thrown out there), economists looked throughout American history and found that, outside of the Great Depression, there is no correlation between depression/recession and deflation (Atkeson, Andrew and Kehoe, Patrick. Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. Deflation and Depression: Is There an Empirical Link? January 2004). Yes, deflation made what took place with the Great Depression worse, but it wasn't and can't be the cause of it. For example, defaulting loans during an economic hardship can have the same effect as a contracting money supply that presents itself in a recession, but that doesn't mean that the resulting deflationary pattern was a root cause that gave way to that recession. The idea that deflation hinders economic growth is completely baseless.
« Last Edit: August 22, 2017, 09:51:49 AM by lifeanon269 »

waltworks

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Re: OFFICIAL: Blockchain / Crypto-Currency Portfolios and Discussion
« Reply #256 on: August 22, 2017, 10:34:15 AM »
Yeah, agree to disagree. IMO anything used as "money" (for exchange) needs to grow in supply sufficiently that hoarding it is never a good strategy (encourages investing, which is good, and consumption, which has positives and negatives). If you use your extra money to invest in... itself, that's not especially useful economically.

Bitcoin as constituted is mostly being hoarded, and the design of the system encourages this behavior. I don't see the current population of bitcoin owners (who as far as I can tell are speculators) agreeing to any major change that would increase the supply. Maybe that will change, but I'd bet on another crypto currency that is better designed winning out if we're talking about something used to facilitate exchange. I think bitcoin can survive long term as a substitute for gold - which of course you can also spend. Like gold, though, people generally won't spend it in everyday transactions.

-W

lifeanon269

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Re: OFFICIAL: Blockchain / Crypto-Currency Portfolios and Discussion
« Reply #257 on: August 22, 2017, 11:06:05 AM »
Yeah, agree to disagree. IMO anything used as "money" (for exchange) needs to grow in supply sufficiently that hoarding it is never a good strategy (encourages investing, which is good, and consumption, which has positives and negatives). If you use your extra money to invest in... itself, that's not especially useful economically.

Bitcoin as constituted is mostly being hoarded, and the design of the system encourages this behavior.

Bitcoin is only being invested in itself because of the fact that it has the potential to become the groundwork for a new global economy. Therefore, those investing in it now will be paid dividends for being early adopters. If, however, bitcoin does become a fabric of our global economy, then it will reach a point where its volatility and rapid rise in price will be greatly diminished. The idea that bitcoin could be mainstream while at the same time producing the returns we see today is false. At that point, individuals using it as a long term investment seeking gains will be a disappointed when compared with traditional investments in businesses that produce a profit.

Gold is not a good investment, it is a hedge against riskier but more profitable investments. The only reason why people don't spend their gold is because of the fact that it isn't convenient or liquid enough to spend. Therefore we resort to spending our dollars instead, but those dollars lose value over time. This loss of value impacts lower/middle class citizens more than it does the rich since a larger percentage of their income and net worth exists in USD. Having a currency that protects against this will help preserve the wealth of a larger portion of our population. This will have a huge impact on the distribution of wealth and the end result will be a much more stable economy. If however the economy were to go belly up do to poor economic policies or corporate greed (resulting in those riskier investments declining), then having a decentralized currency that citizens could flock to as a safe haven would be just what the world would need to help preserve the wealth of our most at risk populations. On the other side of that catastrophe would be citizens ready and willing to reinvest their preserved wealth into companies resilient enough to turn a profit. In fact, our next economic recession is when we'll see bitcoin's most important role become immediately apparent.
« Last Edit: August 22, 2017, 12:13:36 PM by lifeanon269 »

waltworks

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Re: OFFICIAL: Blockchain / Crypto-Currency Portfolios and Discussion
« Reply #258 on: August 22, 2017, 12:44:25 PM »
I disagree with basically all of that, but I don't think there's much point arguing about it further. Regardless, it will be interesting to see what develops over the next few decades.

-W

Tonyahu

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Re: OFFICIAL: Blockchain / Crypto-Currency Portfolios and Discussion
« Reply #259 on: August 22, 2017, 01:27:41 PM »
Hey all, glad the discussion is going well.

I want to let everyone know that IOTA is something you want to do some research on while the market cap is still under-valued.

Cheers!

onecoolcat

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Re: OFFICIAL: Blockchain / Crypto-Currency Portfolios and Discussion
« Reply #260 on: August 23, 2017, 08:09:29 PM »
Lifeanon, would you mind pointing me towards the service that provides your bitcoin denominated debit card?

The card I use is the Shift card. They have a partnership with Coinbase that allows you to spend your bitcoin residing in Coinbase using this card. So I just keep my small amount of spending money each month in Coinbase (the rest in a private wallet) so that I can spend my bitcoin just like I would with a checking account. The awesome part is that there are no transaction fees involved. There is a one time $10 fee to purchase the card and then there are $2.50 ATM withdrawal fees (just like about every VISA card out there), but I don't really use it at any ATMs so that is not a big deal. That's it. No annual fee either. The cool thing as well though is that it functions just like any other debit card. So in cases where I'm at the store and pay with the card as "debit", then if the store allows it, I can ask for cash back if I need it. That allows me to instantly turn my bitcoin back into USD cash without paying any conversion/transaction fees at all.

https://www.shiftpayments.com/card/

There are a few other bitcoin debit cards out there, but most of them are prepaid cards that store the value on the card in USD as opposed to bitcoin. So you only receive the value of your bitcoin at the time you load the card. I didn't like that approach and most of those have many additional fees to them as well.

I was not going to bring the great depression into this, but yes, Maizeman makes my point quite well. There are advantages to not having a central authority control the money supply (no hyperinflation) but we need to recognize that there are also HUGE disadvantages WRT the business cycle and the ability of a central authority to mitigate downside risks through currency manipulation.

WRT to inflation/deflation, don't get me wrong, I didn't mean to oversimplify the economy down to just the money supply policy alone. There are other factors for sure that come into play when it comes to what contributes to market ups and downs. But the argument that there are outside forces that contribute to the effective money supply (such as fractional-reserve banking) is hardly an argument against having a decentralized non-manipulated deflationary currency. Any given type of currency isn't going to solve all the woes of a very complex economy.

The thing about bitcoin however isn't that it is necessarily forever static and can't be changed. It is the fact that it is decentralized and gives the power to a majority of its users instead of a powerful minority. In other words, if we got into a situation where the currency itself was what was holding our economy back (again, highly unlikely), then the currency (bitcoin) could only be changed if the benefit of that change received support from the community as a whole. This is where the idea of social good comes from with regards to bitcoin. But as was stated, it is highly unlikely that bitcoin's inherent nature will be the root culprit of any future economic perils and it will be more than likely that other destructive economic forces will be at play. Those other forces could be everything from fractional-reserve banking (that inherently leads to recessions at regular intervals), horrible lending practices, large-scale speculative bubbles, etc.

Finally, for what it is worth (since the depression was thrown out there), economists looked throughout American history and found that, outside of the Great Depression, there is no correlation between depression/recession and deflation (Atkeson, Andrew and Kehoe, Patrick. Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. Deflation and Depression: Is There an Empirical Link? January 2004). Yes, deflation made what took place with the Great Depression worse, but it wasn't and can't be the cause of it. For example, defaulting loans during an economic hardship can have the same effect as a contracting money supply that presents itself in a recession, but that doesn't mean that the resulting deflationary pattern was a root cause that gave way to that recession. The idea that deflation hinders economic growth is completely baseless.

Why would you spend your BTC?!?!? 

LOL JK.

Personally I hodl though.

onecoolcat

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Re: OFFICIAL: Blockchain / Crypto-Currency Portfolios and Discussion
« Reply #261 on: August 23, 2017, 08:10:43 PM »
Hey all, glad the discussion is going well.

I want to let everyone know that IOTA is something you want to do some research on while the market cap is still under-valued.

Cheers!

The problem with IOTA is that noone actually knows how it works.  WTF is tangle?

bacchi

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Re: OFFICIAL: Blockchain / Crypto-Currency Portfolios and Discussion
« Reply #262 on: August 23, 2017, 11:22:34 PM »
Hey all, glad the discussion is going well.

I want to let everyone know that IOTA is something you want to do some research on while the market cap is still under-valued.

Cheers!

The problem with IOTA is that noone actually knows how it works.  WTF is tangle?

A graph with a start and an end (but not necessarily followed in sequence).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Directed_acyclic_graph

My first thought about IOTA is that, holy shit, it would gobble up RAM like nothing else.
« Last Edit: August 23, 2017, 11:24:25 PM by bacchi »

Tonyahu

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Re: OFFICIAL: Blockchain / Crypto-Currency Portfolios and Discussion
« Reply #263 on: August 24, 2017, 01:09:16 PM »
Hey all, glad the discussion is going well.

I want to let everyone know that IOTA is something you want to do some research on while the market cap is still under-valued.

Cheers!

The problem with IOTA is that noone actually knows how it works.  WTF is tangle?

A graph with a start and an end (but not necessarily followed in sequence).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Directed_acyclic_graph

My first thought about IOTA is that, holy shit, it would gobble up RAM like nothing else.

It is already optimized to be able to be ran on a regular smart phone, long term they want it to require as minimal processing for the "work" as possible.

Long term, I expect to see commercial Drones flying around us and landing on wireless charging stations (sharing economy) and payment will be done in IOTA :]

maizefolk

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Re: OFFICIAL: Blockchain / Crypto-Currency Portfolios and Discussion
« Reply #264 on: August 24, 2017, 03:57:24 PM »
So on here IOTA has a volume to market cap ratio of <1%, while a lot of other currencies in the top 10 seem to be more in the 2-4% range. Does anyone know of structural reasons for this to be the case or is it just a random piece of statistical noise?

lifeanon269

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Re: OFFICIAL: Blockchain / Crypto-Currency Portfolios and Discussion
« Reply #265 on: August 25, 2017, 05:57:04 AM »
So on here IOTA has a volume to market cap ratio of <1%, while a lot of other currencies in the top 10 seem to be more in the 2-4% range. Does anyone know of structural reasons for this to be the case or is it just a random piece of statistical noise?

Ya, that's one of my biggest concerns with IOTA. It isn't very liquid at the moment and almost all trading for it (> 90%) takes place on just one exchange. I would never feel comfortable putting more than just a few bucks in it. That being said, a few bucks in it might totally be worth it.

Tonyahu

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Re: OFFICIAL: Blockchain / Crypto-Currency Portfolios and Discussion
« Reply #266 on: August 25, 2017, 11:15:48 AM »
So on here IOTA has a volume to market cap ratio of <1%, while a lot of other currencies in the top 10 seem to be more in the 2-4% range. Does anyone know of structural reasons for this to be the case or is it just a random piece of statistical noise?

Ya, that's one of my biggest concerns with IOTA. It isn't very liquid at the moment and almost all trading for it (> 90%) takes place on just one exchange. I would never feel comfortable putting more than just a few bucks in it. That being said, a few bucks in it might totally be worth it.

New exchanges will be added soon, I see it settling around $1 when that happens

That exchange does not let me register. I have no way to trade for it even if I wanted to.

Bitfinex no longer allows US Customers

Padonak

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Re: OFFICIAL: Blockchain / Crypto-Currency Portfolios and Discussion
« Reply #267 on: August 27, 2017, 01:08:47 PM »
Following

daverobev

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Re: OFFICIAL: Blockchain / Crypto-Currency Portfolios and Discussion
« Reply #268 on: August 27, 2017, 05:06:44 PM »
I have... 0.02 Bitcoin from a free signup thing a couple of years ago, that I'd not thought about until I read this thread.

Apparently that's about $86 USD.

As a Canadian resident - what's the easiest way of getting this 'out' somehow? It's currently on Circle.

Can I transfer it to Paypal (I have both a US and Canadian account)? Google Play Credit?

zazpowered

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Re: OFFICIAL: Blockchain / Crypto-Currency Portfolios and Discussion
« Reply #269 on: August 27, 2017, 05:07:23 PM »
I built an iOS app recently to help ppl track their cryptocurrency portfolios easily. Would appreciate any feedback on it. Thanks!

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/coinbuddy-track-your-cryptocurrency-portfolio/id1271644974?mt=8

Hash Brown

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Re: OFFICIAL: Blockchain / Crypto-Currency Portfolios and Discussion
« Reply #270 on: August 28, 2017, 09:07:43 AM »
Any ideas as to why Litecoin is pushing higher?  I bought exactly one Litecoin for about $25 back in May and it's now at $65.  Obviously, I wish I had bought more, since the Ethereum tokens I bought as part of the same round of purchasing have barely budged. 

JAYSLOL

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Re: OFFICIAL: Blockchain / Crypto-Currency Portfolios and Discussion
« Reply #271 on: August 28, 2017, 09:40:24 AM »
Any ideas as to why Litecoin is pushing higher?  I bought exactly one Litecoin for about $25 back in May and it's now at $65.  Obviously, I wish I had bought more, since the Ethereum tokens I bought as part of the same round of purchasing have barely budged.

No idea, but got lucky and bought 2 right before the recent surge in price

BrandNewPapa

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Re: OFFICIAL: Blockchain / Crypto-Currency Portfolios and Discussion
« Reply #272 on: August 28, 2017, 10:53:11 AM »
Any ideas as to why Litecoin is pushing higher?  I bought exactly one Litecoin for about $25 back in May and it's now at $65.  Obviously, I wish I had bought more, since the Ethereum tokens I bought as part of the same round of purchasing have barely budged.

Not sure how much can be attributed...
https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/litecoin-surges-to-new-record-high/

Tonyahu

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Re: OFFICIAL: Blockchain / Crypto-Currency Portfolios and Discussion
« Reply #273 on: August 28, 2017, 11:38:15 AM »
Any ideas as to why Litecoin is pushing higher?  I bought exactly one Litecoin for about $25 back in May and it's now at $65.  Obviously, I wish I had bought more, since the Ethereum tokens I bought as part of the same round of purchasing have barely budged.

Litecoin is just highly undervalued IMO. Same technology as Bitcoin but faster block times, bigger blocks, cheaper transaction fees...etc.

neonlight

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Re: OFFICIAL: Blockchain / Crypto-Currency Portfolios and Discussion
« Reply #274 on: August 28, 2017, 12:19:04 PM »
I built an iOS app recently to help ppl track their cryptocurrency portfolios easily. Would appreciate any feedback on it. Thanks!

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/coinbuddy-track-your-cryptocurrency-portfolio/id1271644974?mt=8

Nice! I see you showing Neo in your screenshots. Cheeky way to tell everyone the app is up to date :))

Tonyahu

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Re: OFFICIAL: Blockchain / Crypto-Currency Portfolios and Discussion
« Reply #275 on: August 29, 2017, 05:06:38 PM »
I built an iOS app recently to help ppl track their cryptocurrency portfolios easily. Would appreciate any feedback on it. Thanks!

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/coinbuddy-track-your-cryptocurrency-portfolio/id1271644974?mt=8

Nice! I see you showing Neo in your screenshots. Cheeky way to tell everyone the app is up to date :))

Quality post to username ratio, friend

Hash Brown

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Re: OFFICIAL: Blockchain / Crypto-Currency Portfolios and Discussion
« Reply #276 on: August 31, 2017, 11:44:45 AM »
Any ideas as to why Litecoin is pushing higher?  I bought exactly one Litecoin for about $25 back in May and it's now at $65.  Obviously, I wish I had bought more, since the Ethereum tokens I bought as part of the same round of purchasing have barely budged.

Litecoin is just highly undervalued IMO. Same technology as Bitcoin but faster block times, bigger blocks, cheaper transaction fees...etc.

Still pushing higher toward $75.  It appears that its presence on Coinbase is the main reason why the price keeps pushing.  No doubt a bunch of people, just like I did, said I'll buy a few just to diversify.  These same casual users aren't going to the great lengths necessary to diversify into the rest of the top-10 coins since they're a hassle to buy. 

For that reason, Coinbase and similar exchanges hold a lot of power.  They are the kingmakers.  No doubt a lot of money is changing hands to both get specific coins on those exchanged AND off of them. 


onecoolcat

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Re: OFFICIAL: Blockchain / Crypto-Currency Portfolios and Discussion
« Reply #277 on: August 31, 2017, 01:27:03 PM »
Any ideas as to why Litecoin is pushing higher?  I bought exactly one Litecoin for about $25 back in May and it's now at $65.  Obviously, I wish I had bought more, since the Ethereum tokens I bought as part of the same round of purchasing have barely budged.

Litecoin is just highly undervalued IMO. Same technology as Bitcoin but faster block times, bigger blocks, cheaper transaction fees...etc.

The same could be said about just about every other cryptocurrency. 

Tonyahu

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Re: OFFICIAL: Blockchain / Crypto-Currency Portfolios and Discussion
« Reply #278 on: August 31, 2017, 05:48:05 PM »
Any ideas as to why Litecoin is pushing higher?  I bought exactly one Litecoin for about $25 back in May and it's now at $65.  Obviously, I wish I had bought more, since the Ethereum tokens I bought as part of the same round of purchasing have barely budged.

Litecoin is just highly undervalued IMO. Same technology as Bitcoin but faster block times, bigger blocks, cheaper transaction fees...etc.

The same could be said about just about every other cryptocurrency.

Hey man, you must be new to the whole sphere. There are few coins that are as fast as Litecoin right now. The only one that would edge it out is a private coin like XRP, possibly Dash and the GOAT (Ethereum).

Do a transaction with UBIQ (still love the platform) and let me know how long it takes to get 25 transactions.

maizefolk

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Re: OFFICIAL: Blockchain / Crypto-Currency Portfolios and Discussion
« Reply #279 on: August 31, 2017, 06:16:30 PM »
Well to clarify there are "faster transactions" and "faster block times"

Litecoin's blocktime is 2.5 minutes, which is much faster than bitcoin but not exceptional among altcoins*, but my understanding is that the lightening network is already up and running on litecoin, so individual transactions can settle much faster than waiting for the next block.

*DASH and ZEC are also 2.5 minutes, Ethereum is 15-17 seconds

robdwny

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OFFICIAL: Blockchain / Crypto-Currency Portfolios and Discussion
« Reply #280 on: August 31, 2017, 08:14:36 PM »
I'm using coinbase for ETH
I'm in the U.S.
Is there a good place that buys and sells all of the cryptocurrency with usd ?


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maizefolk

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Re: OFFICIAL: Blockchain / Crypto-Currency Portfolios and Discussion
« Reply #281 on: August 31, 2017, 08:18:18 PM »
What I do is go here (https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/neo/), click on the currency I am interested in, then on "markets" to find the places where that currency is being traded. In many cases it may be easier to buy bitcoins with USD with whichever exchange works best for you, then move the bitcoins to whatever site has active trading in the actual currency you want to buy.

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Re: OFFICIAL: Blockchain / Crypto-Currency Portfolios and Discussion
« Reply #282 on: August 31, 2017, 09:46:20 PM »
Any ideas as to why Litecoin is pushing higher?  I bought exactly one Litecoin for about $25 back in May and it's now at $65.  Obviously, I wish I had bought more, since the Ethereum tokens I bought as part of the same round of purchasing have barely budged.

Litecoin is just highly undervalued IMO. Same technology as Bitcoin but faster block times, bigger blocks, cheaper transaction fees...etc.

The same could be said about just about every other cryptocurrency.

Hey man, you must be new to the whole sphere. There are few coins that are as fast as Litecoin right now. The only one that would edge it out is a private coin like XRP, possibly Dash and the GOAT (Ethereum).

Do a transaction with UBIQ (still love the platform) and let me know how long it takes to get 25 transactions.

You misunderstand.  I replied just about every other crypto has faster block times, bigger blocks, cheaper transaction fees than BTC.

I am new.

Hvillian

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Re: OFFICIAL: Blockchain / Crypto-Currency Portfolios and Discussion
« Reply #283 on: September 01, 2017, 07:20:35 AM »
I'm using coinbase for ETH
I'm in the U.S.
Is there a good place that buys and sells all of the cryptocurrency with usd ?


I also use coinbase to deposit/convert $USD into BTC, ETH, or LTC, then send some of those to Bittrex to buy some of the other coins.  I have been able to find most coins that I am interested on there, and have had no major problems.  Just be careful to transfer the correct currency into the correct wallet.

robdwny

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Re: OFFICIAL: Blockchain / Crypto-Currency Portfolios and Discussion
« Reply #284 on: September 01, 2017, 09:40:03 AM »
I'm using coinbase for ETH
I'm in the U.S.
Is there a good place that buys and sells all of the cryptocurrency with usd ?


I also use coinbase to deposit/convert $USD into BTC, ETH, or LTC, then send some of those to Bittrex to buy some of the other coins.  I have been able to find most coins that I am interested on there, and have had no major problems.  Just be careful to transfer the correct currency into the correct wallet.

I have not done this yet, if I buy BTC
And it goes up in price. I take it and and buy another Côin from bittrex.
Will coinbase send me paperwork on profits ?
I'm just confused on how you keep track of all this if I was buying 3-4 different coins. 


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Tonyahu

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Re: OFFICIAL: Blockchain / Crypto-Currency Portfolios and Discussion
« Reply #285 on: September 01, 2017, 03:24:10 PM »
Any ideas as to why Litecoin is pushing higher?  I bought exactly one Litecoin for about $25 back in May and it's now at $65.  Obviously, I wish I had bought more, since the Ethereum tokens I bought as part of the same round of purchasing have barely budged.

Litecoin is just highly undervalued IMO. Same technology as Bitcoin but faster block times, bigger blocks, cheaper transaction fees...etc.

The same could be said about just about every other cryptocurrency.

Hey man, you must be new to the whole sphere. There are few coins that are as fast as Litecoin right now. The only one that would edge it out is a private coin like XRP, possibly Dash and the GOAT (Ethereum).

Do a transaction with UBIQ (still love the platform) and let me know how long it takes to get 25 transactions.

You misunderstand.  I replied just about every other crypto has faster block times, bigger blocks, cheaper transaction fees than BTC.

I am new.


ahhh I did misunderstand but I would still disagree in part. Either way, all good!

Glad you are on board, these % gains are once in a lifetime. I see this market slowing down volatility wise by 2018/2019 so now is the time to cash in...

phil22

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Re: OFFICIAL: Blockchain / Crypto-Currency Portfolios and Discussion
« Reply #286 on: September 01, 2017, 05:56:56 PM »
just speculation, but a lawyer employed by the firm representing the Winklevoss bitcoin ETF will now be in charge of ETF approvals at the SEC.  this could explain the recent bitcoin price surge (just about to reach $5k).

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-04/getting-that-etf-approved-may-grow-easier-as-sec-shakes-up-team

http://www.investmentnews.com/article/20170831/FREE/170839978/sec-names-dalia-blass-director-of-investment-management

ETFs are another step in the right direction for legitimizing cryptocurrencies and giving everyday investors access to them.  i expect a huge bubble to form when this happens, whether it's sooner or later.  long-term crypto holders will be fine but i think a lot of folks new to cryptos will get burned.

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Re: OFFICIAL: Blockchain / Crypto-Currency Portfolios and Discussion
« Reply #287 on: September 01, 2017, 08:17:09 PM »
I'm using coinbase for ETH
I'm in the U.S.
Is there a good place that buys and sells all of the cryptocurrency with usd ?


I also use coinbase to deposit/convert $USD into BTC, ETH, or LTC, then send some of those to Bittrex to buy some of the other coins.  I have been able to find most coins that I am interested on there, and have had no major problems.  Just be careful to transfer the correct currency into the correct wallet.

I have not done this yet, if I buy BTC
And it goes up in price. I take it and and buy another Côin from bittrex.
Will coinbase send me paperwork on profits ?
I'm just confused on how you keep track of all this if I was buying 3-4 different coins. 


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There is a way to convert fiat to crypto for 0% fees on gdax but you have to wait 4-7 days for your bank deposit to clear.  You deposit cash from your bank account and place a limit order on BTC, LTC or ETH.  Transfer the crypto to an exchange and trade it for whatever coin you want.  I generally do LTC because it has less transaction fees.  Pretty much regret exchanging my LTC now though...

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Re: OFFICIAL: Blockchain / Crypto-Currency Portfolios and Discussion
« Reply #288 on: September 02, 2017, 02:01:05 AM »
just speculation, but a lawyer employed by the firm representing the Winklevoss bitcoin ETF will now be in charge of ETF approvals at the SEC.  this could explain the recent bitcoin price surge (just about to reach $5k).

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-04/getting-that-etf-approved-may-grow-easier-as-sec-shakes-up-team

http://www.investmentnews.com/article/20170831/FREE/170839978/sec-names-dalia-blass-director-of-investment-management

ETFs are another step in the right direction for legitimizing cryptocurrencies and giving everyday investors access to them.  i expect a huge bubble to form when this happens, whether it's sooner or later.  long-term crypto holders will be fine but i think a lot of folks new to cryptos will get burned.

I think this is a really bad idea.  A huge bubble will form and then burst.  All of the Wall Street guys can smell that bubble and want a piece of the action, so pressure to legitimize cyrpto as an asset class is very real.  But there is absolutely zero SEC or other regulation of crypto so I don't see how they could ever permit it. 


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Re: OFFICIAL: Blockchain / Crypto-Currency Portfolios and Discussion
« Reply #289 on: September 02, 2017, 06:43:49 AM »
I decided to to buy some cryptocurrency I started through Coinbase and bought ETH
Now I'm trying to buy some other coins through bittrex. 
The biggest thing I'm trying to do is not leave the coins in either exchange. I am not the best with computers.
I'm just trying to find the easiest way to move it and what is the cost to take it out of these exchanges and into a wallet
Thanks for the  help


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Re: OFFICIAL: Blockchain / Crypto-Currency Portfolios and Discussion
« Reply #290 on: September 03, 2017, 03:13:46 PM »
I didn't feel like updating my mining experiment this weekend since at this point the currency fluctuations of bitcoin are overpowering any income from mining. I idled my more energy intensive mining rig, but am still currently bringing in ~$100/month and paying $~20/month in extra electricity.

So instead here are a couple of updates to the cryptocurrency market capitalization and market capitalization graphs. Currencies selected based on a mixture of overall marketshare and how much I see them discussed in this and other forums.





You can find versions of the first graph lots of places, but to me the second one is more interesting in a lot of ways. Since early August when the bitcoin cash fork occurred, the overall market cap of this basket of cyptocurrencies is up something like 85%, but if you look at the market composition over that same period, it's actually been quite stable, which suggests that people are dumping money into all the currencies roughly proportionately to their market caps (a lot like how index funds invest), or alternatively maybe for a lot of these cyptos, the currency:BTC exchanges rates are more "sticky" than currency:USD exchange rates, so their dollar prices are increasing to at least maintain bitcoin exchange rate parity.

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Re: OFFICIAL: Blockchain / Crypto-Currency Portfolios and Discussion
« Reply #291 on: September 03, 2017, 11:35:48 PM »
I decided to to buy some cryptocurrency I started through Coinbase and bought ETH
Now I'm trying to buy some other coins through bittrex. 
The biggest thing I'm trying to do is not leave the coins in either exchange. I am not the best with computers.
I'm just trying to find the easiest way to move it and what is the cost to take it out of these exchanges and into a wallet
Thanks for the  help


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Same question.

How easy is it to buy and sell a Bitcoin or Ethereum?

For instance, let's say BTC is $4k each and ETH is $500.

Can I just go on coinbase with $10k and purchase 2 Bitcoins and 4 units of Ether?

Then transfer them to an external hardrive wallet and disconnect it from my PC.

Then 1 year from now the prices double (BTC - $4k each / ETH - $1000). How easy it to sell and walk about with $20k (10k profit)

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Re: OFFICIAL: Blockchain / Crypto-Currency Portfolios and Discussion
« Reply #292 on: September 04, 2017, 09:42:50 AM »
I decided to to buy some cryptocurrency I started through Coinbase and bought ETH
...
I'm just trying to find the easiest way to move it and what is the cost to take it out of these exchanges and into a wallet

there are fees involved when buying/selling on coinbase, but it's not a big deal if you're only buying occasionally.  the ETH fee for transferring your ETH to an offline wallet for storage is minimal.

Same question.

How easy is it to buy and sell a Bitcoin or Ethereum?

For instance, let's say BTC is $4k each and ETH is $500.

Can I just go on coinbase with $10k and purchase 2 Bitcoins and 4 units of Ether?

Then transfer them to an external hardrive wallet and disconnect it from my PC.

Then 1 year from now the prices double (BTC - $4k each / ETH - $1000). How easy it to sell and walk about with $20k (10k profit)

yes you've got the basics down.  you will need to prove your identity to coinbase first though, but you can do simple identity verification for the amount you're looking to buy.  withdrawing to a wallet on an external hard drive is probably fine for keeping the coins safe for a year.  for storing coins longer than that there are a bunch of options out there depending on your needs and risk tolerance.

to sell on coinbase you'd simply have to send the coins back to your coinbase wallet, wait for the transaction to confirm, and then click 'sell' and withdraw the USD to your bank account.

you'd then need to report the USD gains as capital gains for your taxes.  keep your own records for dates/prices/quantities bought and sold and then make sure the tax documentation coinbase provides matches your records.

robdwny

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Re: OFFICIAL: Blockchain / Crypto-Currency Portfolios and Discussion
« Reply #293 on: September 04, 2017, 11:39:00 AM »
I decided to to buy some cryptocurrency I started through Coinbase and bought ETH
...
I'm just trying to find the easiest way to move it and what is the cost to take it out of these exchanges and into a wallet

there are fees involved when buying/selling on coinbase, but it's not a big deal if you're only buying occasionally.  the ETH fee for transferring your ETH to an offline wallet for storage is minimal.

Same question.

How easy is it to buy and sell a Bitcoin or Ethereum?

For instance, let's say BTC is $4k each and ETH is $500.

Can I just go on coinbase with $10k and purchase 2 Bitcoins and 4 units of Ether?

Then transfer them to an external hardrive wallet and disconnect it from my PC.

Then 1 year from now the prices double (BTC - $4k each / ETH - $1000). How easy it to sell and walk about with $20k (10k profit)

yes you've got the basics down.  you will need to prove your identity to coinbase first though, but you can do simple identity verification for the amount you're looking to buy.  withdrawing to a wallet on an external hard drive is probably fine for keeping the coins safe for a year.  for storing coins longer than that there are a bunch of options out there depending on your needs and risk tolerance.

to sell on coinbase you'd simply have to send the coins back to your coinbase wallet, wait for the transaction to confirm, and then click 'sell' and withdraw the USD to your bank account.

you'd then need to report the USD gains as capital gains for your taxes.  keep your own records for dates/prices/quantities bought and sold and then make sure the tax documentation coinbase provides matches your records.

Perfect explanation
The one that is getting me the biggest problems understanding because I'm not the best with computers. It's how to protect the different altcoins in a wallet or cold storage.  It just seems to be going over my head because you can't put them all in one place. I believe every coin has its own wallet I'm just not sure if they are safe to leave there also. 


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maizefolk

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Re: OFFICIAL: Blockchain / Crypto-Currency Portfolios and Discussion
« Reply #294 on: September 04, 2017, 12:46:12 PM »
So it sounds like China has decided to also ban ICOs (https://www.cnbc.com/2017/09/04/chinese-icos-china-bans-fundraising-through-initial-coin-offerings-report-says.html). Given that these are already generally illegal in the USA if you actually are getting a share of profits/decision making power (essentially anything that behaves like stock) that's probably going to limit the market for new companies trying to get their initial funding by launching a cryptocurrency. Although I guess they are still legal in the EU?*

*No an expert, please consult your local laws.

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Re: OFFICIAL: Blockchain / Crypto-Currency Portfolios and Discussion
« Reply #295 on: September 04, 2017, 12:50:39 PM »
The one that is getting me the biggest problems understanding because I'm not the best with computers. It's how to protect the different altcoins in a wallet or cold storage.  It just seems to be going over my head because you can't put them all in one place. I believe every coin has its own wallet I'm just not sure if they are safe to leave there also. 

i haven't used one, but for a non-technical person i think the Ledger Nano S (https://www.ledgerwallet.com/products/ledger-nano-s) is maybe the best option.  looks like it works as secure storage for several altcoins (and also allows you to make transactions).  keep the included recovery sheet secure in a separate location from the Ledger itself.

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Re: OFFICIAL: Blockchain / Crypto-Currency Portfolios and Discussion
« Reply #296 on: September 05, 2017, 09:51:31 AM »
Bitcoin Investment Trust (GBTC) ... Bitcoin Investment Trust (GBTC) is trading at a greater than 100% premium to its net asset value and charges a whopping 2% fee, 

I think I would just buy post tax


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Re: OFFICIAL: Blockchain / Crypto-Currency Portfolios and Discussion
« Reply #297 on: September 05, 2017, 10:18:32 AM »
At that point couldn't they be issuing additional shares, use the money from the new issue to buy more bitcoins and essentially be printing free money for themselves? I agree with mcampbell, pass on this.

From what I could find the weekly limit at coinbase is $10k/week (so you could invest more than half a million over the course of a year).

lifeanon269

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Re: OFFICIAL: Blockchain / Crypto-Currency Portfolios and Discussion
« Reply #298 on: September 05, 2017, 12:33:34 PM »
I did all the verification on coinbase and still only at 5k

My weekly limit when using a US checking account is currently $15k ($6k for credit card purchases). It has been that amount for quite some time, so I think that might be the max. The more I purchased with them, the more they increased it over time. So long as you did all the verification, just keep making purchases and it will gradually keep going up.

Tonyahu

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Re: OFFICIAL: Blockchain / Crypto-Currency Portfolios and Discussion
« Reply #299 on: September 05, 2017, 02:01:07 PM »
So I am hitting my limits on CoinBase and I want more. I heard GDAX was a good place to buy with lower fees once you get comfortable with wallets but I think I want to diversify into my 401k.

Now I am not sure this is a good approach to buying bitcoin, but for me I am willing to take the risk. I have most investments in tax sheltered accounts which would be great for trading bitcoin in. Unfortuntaly the only game in town right now seems like GBTC you can buy with fidelity. It seems to have a .0928 backing for every share kind of like IAU or GLD for gold, so at right nows price the value of BTC they hold is worth $405.88 a share and it costs about $750 a share. Huge premium.

I am going to take the plunge anyway and here is why.
  • I am trading with pretax money, and no taxes on the trades
  • No other options in my tax advatage accounts that I know of to hold btc
  • It is uncorrelated to all my other assets which makes my golden butterfly portofolio overall potentially better
  • The price could look inexpensive 5 years from now, good chance of amazon like growth

If another better priced fund comes a long that is a risk for the premium I am paying and could take some losses, but I will just switch to the other fund. I rather have an ETF that tracks the top coins, but this is what we have right now.

Check out Gemini.com, buy and hold the coins yourself, off the exchanges. Buying through a Trust or ETF defeats the entire purpose of this, not even considering the premium.