patrick.net

AD says

"Keep an eye on gold, silver and Bitcoin (the Big Three of Alt-Investments)"

Gold and Silver, YES. Bitcoin NO. Bitcoin is nonsense.

Onvacation says

Bitcoin will never be money. It has negative intrinsic value. Without massive electrical input crypto will evaporate into the ether.

Eventually when Bitcoin reaches 21 million in circulation in 2140 then the mining ends, and yes each year it takes more time (and consequently more electricity which may economically motivate miners to use renewable energy) to mine Bitcoin.

When 2140 approaches, miners then convert to being part of an exchange and earn money only through transactional fees (as far as people selling and buying Bitcoin).

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Onvacation says

Without massive electrical input crypto will evaporate into the ether.

It's also possible for them to be technically subverted.

Bitcoin depends on people not immediately knowing what string to add to a block of transactions so that the hash of the block ends in a certain number of zeros. This deliberately makes them do a lot of computing work.

Someone might figure out a function which takes the number of zeros you need and gives you that string without that work. Or maybe quantum computing will just make the work trivial.

Misc says

Better yet, yank the Fed's ability to pay interest on reserves

Agree 100%. this just seems like the bankers all handing out money to each other...

Onvacation says

Bitcoin will never be money. It has negative intrinsic value. Without massive electrical input crypto will evaporate into the ether.

I've never understood why people value cryptocurrencies. It's fun to imagine a currency outside of government fiat, but cryptocurrencies can be created by anyone and there is no limit to how many can exist... How can anything be valuable if there is an infinite number of them available?

Fiat has just one currency per country or economic block... Though you have to trust the banks to regulate the supply...

Commodity metals are limited by the number of elements in the periodic table and the abundance of each...

Cryptocurrencies can be spawned into existence without any limitations.

AD says

Onvacation says

Bitcoin will never be money. It has negative intrinsic value. Without massive electrical input crypto will evaporate into the ether.

Eventually when Bitcoin reaches 21 million in circulation in 2140 then the mining ends, and yes each year it takes more time (and consequently more electricity which may economically motivate miners to use renewable energy) to mine Bitcoin.

When 2140 approaches, miners then convert to being part of an exchange and earn money only through transactional fees (as far as people selling and buying Bitcoin).

.

No one here plans to live that long afaik.

I'll be the broken record - first bitcoin and now AI are vast money sinks that divert money from purchasing real or productive assets; for the former it is gold and other precious commodities, for the latter, it is productive industries that serve humanity, like energy, construction, etc.

FortWayneHatesRealtors says

No one here plans to live that long afaik.

Don't have to. Every 4-year halving cycle, the block reward chops in half. If the price rise doesn't keep up, half the miners go out out of business each cycle, and the whole PoW security thing falls apart. Depends what the price does, but the whole thing can come crashing down in 4-8 years

stereotomy says

I'll be the broken record - first bitcoin and now AI are vast money sinks that divert money from purchasing real or productive assets; for the former it is gold and other precious commodities, for the latter, it is productive industries that serve humanity, like energy, construction, etc.

I think AI will eventually pay useful dividends to humanity... Eventually... It doesn't have much benefit yet, but I think it will. Whether the payback is enough recoup our investment before it exterminates us in another question...

Bitcoin, yeah, that's sort of just computer masterbation with no benefit to humanity... The energy consumed by it is not a good investment for humanity... That's just waste.

Maga_Chaos_Monkey says

If the pattern holds it's downhill now overall for the next year or so.

Did i call it or what l?

114,119 to 84,027, so far!

Context in Global Rankings
• United States: 8,133 tonnes (22% of global reserves).
• Germany: ~3,352 tonnes.
• Italy & France: ~2,400–2,500 tonnes each.
• China: Officially ~2,304 tonnes, but possibly closer to 3,000–4,000 tonnes if hidden reserves are included. My estimate is China actually owns 5K tonnes and USA owns 9K tonnes.

DeficitHawk says

Whether the payback is enough recoup our investment before it exterminates us in another question...

The price of silver is once again at an all time high. It is currently at $55.55. it was at $55.71 earlier today. It's previous all time high was back in October with a price of $54.50.

The previous two times it set record highs were in 1979 and 2011. Those times it spiked up and then went back down pretty quickly. It seems to be holding above $50 an ounce.

I have a jar with a couple hundred dollars worth of old "junk" (pre 1965 90% silver) coins that I had planned on cashing in when silver peaked over $50 an ounce. Here we are and I am not sure if I should cash in. If I took the cash (+/- $10K) what would I do with it?

Onvacation says

I have a jar with a couple hundred dollars worth of old "junk" (pre 1965 90% silver) coins that I had planned on cashing in when silver peaked over $50 an ounce. Here we are and I am not sure if I should cash in. If I took the cash (+/- $10K) what would I do with it?

Role the dice on this one. It is crazy that its holding at such a high amount. The two previous times I think were from market manipulation, this one people are buying it all up and we have a debt crisis. Even gold it at all time high.

Onvacation says

If I took the cash (+/- $10K) what would I do with it?

Invest it in your sailboat? Wait for it to crash and replace with silver eagles? HODL?

Maga_Chaos_Monkey says

Invest it in your sailboat?

Sailboats aren't investments.

If I had invested all of the money I put into sailing over the last 4 decades I would be a decamillionaire.

Onvacation says

Sailboats aren't investments.

Unless they help you save money like you live aboard it as a primary residence, or you save money using it for a vacation versus staying at an expensive resort.

Or you get your 6-pack captains license and make money using it as a charter boat.