Hey man, got any Bitcoin?

[gcgang]

Bitcoin surges to record above $2,500

Anybody ever buy any Bitcoin?

Anyone know how to buy it? Not that now, at $2500+, up 150% in 2017, is the time to buy it.

 

[donheff]

I took an online course about Bitcoin and the blockchain recently and was tempted to buy a portion of one (I think it was at around $875 at the time) but I concluded that I couldn't think of any use for the currency unless I got a taste for some illegal drug so I never bothered. MAybe I should have speculated.

 

[Newventurer]

Under the theory that you learn more about something by owning it, I went so far as to open an account at Mt. Gox in 2013, before they imploded. I never transferred money as I got squeamish about the limits on the withdrawal of the funds. I felt like I dodged a bullet when Mt. Gox went down. At the time I think it was around $350, oh well!

 

[Islandtraveler]

My kid got involved with Ethereum. Put $1500 into it 2 weeks ago. Worth $2400.00 today. If this doesn’t have .Com written all over it, I don’t know what does. I told him that he better be eyeing that chair when the music stops. God forbid he listens to the old man when it comes to investment advice.

 

[bobandsherry]

Bitcoin isn't investing islandtravler... You need to give your son advise on gambling.

 

[2017ish]

My kid got involved with Ethereum. Put $1500 into it 2 weeks ago. Worth $2400.00 today. If this doesn’t have .Com written all over it, I don’t know what does. I told him that he better be eyeing that chair when the music stops. God forbid he listens to the old man when it comes to [-]investment[/-] beer money advice.

Hopefully? Our eldest (San Fran engineer) did this with some play money as well, although longer than 2 weeks ago. He cashed out 50% yesterday and will let the rest ride a while. (Between he and his wife, they can afford to waste a little fun money on lottery tickets, which is what this stuff is right now.)

E.T.A.: As I told him, even the name Ethereum invokes fantasy.

 

[Free bird]

Put the Coin app on your phone & you can buy it.

 

[Fedup]

I wish I had at least $100 in bitcoin. I wouldn't mind $75million now. I now will buy anything Warren Buffet said he doesn't understand. That is a signal.
I think just like Google, we should invest a little bit of our money in moon shot type of stocks.

 

[Totoro]

Bought 5k worth when they were at $7 or $9 (can't remember exactly). Sold at around $20. I went through the Mt. Gox exchange. Didn't store money there for more than a few days, just to complete the transaction.

Yeah .. left a million on the table there

 

[sengsational]

I dropped $10 into bitcoin about 7 years ago, but I think I threw-out the thumb drive I saved it on.

 

[Teacher Terry]

A number of years ago my son started mining and we joined in. Right now we each have 17 bitcoins and intend to hold until it hits 10k/coin. Then will cash in some and hold some. We have cashed in some along the way. Even figuring in cost of miners and electricity we have made $ through the years with mining. We keep all the information in our safe so if something were to happen to my son his wife and us can have access to it.

 

[SecondCor521]

A number of years ago my son started mining and we joined in. Right now we each have 17 bitcoins and intend to hold until it hits 10k/coin. Then will cash in some and hold some. We have cashed in some along the way. Even figuring in cost of miners and electricity we have made $ through the years with mining. We keep all the information in our safe so if something were to happen to my son his wife and us can have access to it.

I recommended to my son that he mine for bitcoin with his spare computing power (he has a gaming rig with a 1080 graphics card in it), but he thinks that mining damages the graphics card. Something about heat variances damaging the circuits. I don't agree, but don't really know otherwise. Anyone know one way or the other?

 

[Koolau]

I learned painful lessons back in the 80's not to invest in something I don't understand. I'm sure I've left money on the table, but "Once burned, twice shy" is now my motto. YMMV

 

[Teacher Terry]

We have a dirt partial basement so with fans the computers stayed cool enough. Also my DH and son built them and they were in milk crates. When it ceased to be profitable he sold them. My son is the mastermind of all this and understands it. When we started it we decided that if we lost the $ we were fine with it because it was such a small amount.

 

[sengsational]

The price when I invested $5 was about $10 per BTC, so I must have got about 0.5 BTC, so now worth $1,300. "Only" 160% XIRR.

 

[Fedup]

You need to find the thumb drive. But how many hours does it take to mine one bitcoin?

 

[sengsational]

You need to find the thumb drive.

Yeah, I should start looking for it!!

But how many hours does it take to mine one bitcoin?

I didn't even try to mine. But, as I understand it, the true answer to your question is "indeterminate", because you might never get a coin.

The mining process involves simply running a crypto algorithm until it works. The more times you run it, the better your chances, but as most of us learned, even after getting "heads" 10 times in a row, the 11 time, the chance of a "heads" is still 50%.

 

[Totoro]

I recommended to my son that he mine for bitcoin with his spare computing power (he has a gaming rig with a 1080 graphics card in it), but he thinks that mining damages the graphics card. Something about heat variances damaging the circuits. I don't agree, but don't really know otherwise. Anyone know one way or the other?

If you keep it properly cooled, no issue.

However don't mine coins for profit with your home card: The electricity cost will be higher than the payoff, on average.

 

[SecondCor521]

If you keep it properly cooled, no issue.

However don't mine coins for profit with your home card: The electricity cost will be higher than the payoff, on average.

It would be a home card. Electricity is about 5 cents per KWh.

 

[mrfeh]

From what I've read, the days of mining for the average person are over. It takes serious metal to be in that game now.

I'm planning on throwing a small amount (< 1% of portfolio) at altcoins in the near future. Pure speculation.

 

[Totoro]

It would be a home card. Electricity is about 5 cents per KWh.

Your electricity cost is very low! Does that include transportation (network costs)?

Even then, bear in mind that an ASIC specifically designed for bitcoin mining is going to be an order of magnitude more efficient. And that's your competition. Think large Chinese computing farms with dirt cheap electricity. The last time you could be reasonably profitable doing mining with homegear was somewhere in 2013 I believe.

For the experience it might be fun though. If you want stable cashflows sign up for a mining pool. They share proceeds among participants. Otherwise you might get lucky or unlucky, never to see a single pay-off from mining in years.

Unless you can use someone else's electricity

 

[Fedup]

Without signing up for an account for bitcoin, I've found a stock symbol or maybe an ETF for bitcoin trust fund. I wonder how safe are these types of trust.

 

[Maenad]

My kid got involved with Ethereum. Put $1500 into it 2 weeks ago. Worth $2400.00 today. If this doesn’t have .Com written all over it, I don’t know what does. I told him that he better be eyeing that chair when the music stops. God forbid he listens to the old man when it comes to investment advice.

If losing $1500 teaches him investing humility, it will be money well spent, and a cheaper lesson than a lot of us learned!

Whenever I read "bitcoin", my brain changes it to "tulip bulb".

 

[Totoro]

Apart from the hype-factor, the tulip bubble is quite different:

• You can make more tulips easily. Bitcoins are fixed in (ultimate) number.
• A tulip has some inherent physical value (nutrition/beauty). Bitcoin doesn't.
• Bitcoins don't go bad after a while.

And the tulip hype as far as I remember was a very local thing. A handful of people drove up the hypothetical price, but very little actual trading took place.


This while a key driver behind bitcoin perceived value price is that it can be so easily transferred (one reason it is so popular in China, circumvent capital controls).


[/Pedantic]

 

[Fedup]

China and India.