Should I buy bitcoins?!

[sun rise]

I made some money on the Hunt Brothers silver bubble (look it up) but it was like riverboat gambling. My sole good decision was to get out fast at a decent time far from the peak but up from where I had purchased the silver.

Years later during the housing bubble, a neighbor excitedly told me how he was going to get rich by buying and flipping houses a few months later. This was at the peak of the housing market just before the Great Recession when the estimated value of our home dropped to about 1/3 of what it had been at the peak. The guy? BUSTED.

Chasing a bubble is like betting on a slot machine. If you're very lucky and not overly greedy, great. When you don't understand what is going the odds you wind up with nothing go way way up. And even if you keep very cool headed you can still be 100% wrong.

 

[Jumi]

If there is one thing I believe in, it is cold hard cash

 

[Revoltingest]

 

[Father Heathen]

If you want to dabble, I would look into some of the other cryptocurrencies, many of which are currently inexpensive but also rising in value. I wouldn't invest any serious amount though due to the volatility, and especially not before doing some research.

 

[David T]

I have to say the following first:
1. I have almost no idea about what bitcoin really is!!
2. I am currently involved in building a personal house..so i have very little to invest in things like bitcoin..

also if you recommend taking such a step, then how to buy it?

Yes from me I will give you great deal. I am in Nigeria so if you will send your Information I can process right away!!!!

 

[The Emperor of Mankind]

No. there is no inherent value in bit coins.

There's no inherent value in any currency so that alone is not a good argument for not buying Bitcoin.

I heard people mining for Bitcoin.

This sounds simple but it's actually pretty complicated. I did a little research into this and I found that you have to factor in the amount of time your computer spends 'mining', as well as the power you consume in order to determine how profitable your Bitcoin mining operation is. In addition, since Bitcoin mining software uses the power of your GPU to function, you can get specially designed mining computers but these cost something like $1400 minimum. You need to sink a lot of money into just getting started, and the volatile nature of Bitcoin trading doesn't ensure a profit.

 

[blü 2]

I have to say the following first:
1. I have almost no idea about what bitcoin really is!!
2. I am currently involved in building a personal house..so i have very little to invest in things like bitcoin..

As with any gamble, speculation, take-a-chance, don't spend more real money on bitcoins than you can comfortably afford to lose. They have no intrinsic value (just some trading utility) and the demand for them at present is very largely driven by speculation. Some say it's not a bubble, but that's an opinion (in some cases a self-serving opinion), not a fact.

 

[suncowiam]

I have to say the following first:
1. I have almost no idea about what bitcoin really is!!
2. I am currently involved in building a personal house..so i have very little to invest in things like bitcoin..

also if you recommend taking such a step, then how to buy it?

You're too poor plus your house is a better investment unless you live in California.

 

[Subduction Zone]

In answer to the OP, yes:

 

[shunyadragon]

There's no inherent value in any currency so that alone is not a good argument for not buying Bitcoin.

Your extreme sarcasm noted.

Disagree completely concerning the major currencies of the world, where the currencies are supported by the governments and exchanged on international markets.

 

[Milton Platt]

I have to say the following first:
1. I have almost no idea about what bitcoin really is!!
2. I am currently involved in building a personal house..so i have very little to invest in things like bitcoin..

also if you recommend taking such a step, then how to buy it?

The easy answer is NO. Could bit coin continue to rise for some time? Sure. Could bit coin horribly crash? Even more likely. Investing AFTER the abnormal rise in an investment vehicle is always a bad idea. With bitcoin, there is not underlying physical asset. If you have money that you don't need and you like playing the lottery....go ahead. If you had invested in say, 2010, you would have been golden.

 

[The Emperor of Mankind]

Your extreme sarcasm noted.

Disagree completely concerning the major currencies of the world, where the currencies are supported by the governments and exchanged on international markets.

I was not being sarcastic. There is no inherent value to any currency; there is only the meaning we ascribe to them. Just like there is no inherent value to Mayan bean currency. The whole reason for currency exchange rates is to provide a standard to which we are told we must ascribe value to another country's pieces of metal & paper in relation to ours.

 

[Terrywoodenpic]

It is a very high stakes gamble.
If you can afford to lose the lot then it is an acceptable bet... certainly in the medium term.
For the criminal and extremely wealthy it is totally untraceable unit of wealth on which tax is never paid and borders can never hinder.
That not withstanding the violent fluctuations, has exponentially increased in value.
So if you are a billionair member of the criminal elite. Go for it.

 

[shunyadragon]

I was not being sarcastic. There is no inherent value to any currency; there is only the meaning we ascribe to them. Just like there is no inherent value to Mayan bean currency. The whole reason for currency exchange rates is to provide a standard to which we are told we must ascribe value to another country's pieces of metal & paper in relation to ours.

Conflicting and not coherent concerning the nature of currency in modern civilization.

 

[The Emperor of Mankind]

Conflicting and not coherent concerning the nature of currency in modern civilization.

Care to explain how my post is conflicting and not coherent? If currencies had their own inherent value we wouldn't need exchange rate mechanisms to set arbitrary standards to tell people how much they were supposed to value another currency in relation to their own. The whole concept of fiat currency and the labyrinthine nature of the financial system at large is based on the subjective value and trust we place in these. If tomorrow we decided that fiat currencies were worthless they would lose all value. And those who had accumulated vast amounts of wealth would actually have accumulated vast amounts of useless numbers on a screen/bits of paper & metal.

 

[shunyadragon]

Care to explain how my post is conflicting and not coherent? If currencies had their own inherent value we wouldn't need exchange rate mechanisms to set arbitrary standards to tell people how much they were supposed to value another currency in relation to their own.

That is how currency has inherent value. Without international recognition and exchange currency has not inherent value. The inherent value for currency rests ultimately in economy of the countries that issue the currency. This is why the USA, Canada, and European countries have the highest inherent value. The bit coin has no international recognition nor exchange value nor economic system to support it, therefore it is worthless concerning inherent value.

All the value of bit coins is in ones and zeros of computer language. What basis for value and exchange in this?

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

I have to say the following first:
1. I have almost no idea about what bitcoin really is!!
2. I am currently involved in building a personal house..so i have very little to invest in things like bitcoin..

also if you recommend taking such a step, then how to buy it?

This is a simple one. Anyone willing to act on investment recommendations from anonymous individuals on an internet forum shouldn't.

 

[Revoltingest]

That is how currency has inherent value. Without international recognition and exchange currency has not inherent value. The inherent value for currency rests ultimately in economy of the countries that issue the currency. This is why the USA, Canada, and European countries have the highest inherent value. The bit coin has no international recognition nor exchange value nor economic system to support it, therefore it is worthless concerning inherent value.

All the value of bit coins is in ones and zeros of computer language. What basis for value and exchange in this?

If by "inherent" value, you mean "intrinsic" value, Americastanian currency
has none...no gold or silver. The value isn't backed up by reserves of
any intrinsic value....only by everyone's trust. Same as Bitcoin (which
is more volatile.)

 

[Shia Islam]

Hey All..
This is Breaking News:

Bitcoin loses a quarter of its value in one day's trading

 

[sun rise]

If by "inherent" value, you mean "intrinsic" value, Americastanian currency
has none...no gold or silver. The value isn't backed up by reserves of
any intrinsic value....only by everyone's trust. Same as Bitcoin (which
is more volatile.)

I do have a single piece of US currency that says that it's redeemable in lawful money at a Federal Reserve Bank.

You are in essence correct about fiat money but the difference it the amount of greed and fear surrounding the two. Bitcoin and it's siblings are just the latest example of how fear and greed junkies are getting their fix and causing a bubble.

Intrinsic value does not enter into it as the silver bubble and tulip bulb bubble did have something real as their base but not enough to matter to the speculators.