I have decided to greatly diminish if not completely stop posting in this forum since there seem to be some people who prefer an echo chamber. Some of my posts have been on the snarky side but I have never said, nor do I think, that bitcoin is stupid or that people who buy it are stupid.
I simply question the fundamental economic value of cryptocurrency for most people. Past performance does not equate to economic value. The tulip bulb is, I think, a perfect analogy. Prices went up like crazy but there was fundamentally nothing to support anything but a nominal economic value for their beauty. Many people did not recognize that at the time and what looked like a sure thing ended badly for most.
I just hope those who read the evangelism but do not post do not get hurt and that is why I think a dialog is better than an echo chamber where only the same views are expressed and unsupported claims are not challenged. I know I appreciate it when people challenge my statements about other investments as people have done on other E-R forums rececently. They make me think and do my own research and I benefit from it.
But since questioning cryptocurrencies seems to be offensive to some, I will refrain unless clearly inaccurate claims are posted. Just as if someone encouraged people to stand on railroad tracks I would speak up to make sure they were warned.
You want to claim you are offsetting inaccurate claims and not calling anyone stupid then give the tulip bulb analogy, a three year period of the most ignorant of investing themes that fell to zero. However the actual mania lasted 6 months.
This board has been trolling any bitcoin adoption for 10 years.
https://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f27/missing-bitcoins-56568.htmlIt has been successful in keeping most of the members away from the problems of 60 percent bitcoin reductions. As a matter of fact Bitcoin has fallen more than 60 percent 3 times! That is 180% of all invested money saved by keeping people out of bitcoin at $20. The very first thread here compared Bitcoins to.....Tulip Bulbs!! which can be reproduced by anyone very easily and to an infinite amount. Cryptocurrency has a very hard limit. It has been around and increasing in value for 10 years and is going to be needed for digital purposes in ever increasing numbers.
A mania is "mental illness marked by periods of great excitement or euphoria, delusions, and overactivity" and are unsustainable. The fact that bitcoin has lasted this long is actual proof that it is not a mania, only that average investors who prefer stocks are unable to see the value.
For information purposes the 25,000 bitcoins mentioned in the very first thread here on the forum would be worth nearly 1.7 billion dollars today. 3,000 times the original investment. A meager $10,000 investment back then would be worth 30 million dollars today. And presently Bitcoin net worth is 2X the entire GDP of Holland.
To accuse the smartest and wealthiest people in the world who are working to increase the use of Cryptocurrency in ever increasing amounts as frauds and shysters (you don't use the word directly, you merely say this ecosystem is tulip bulbs, which was run by frauds and shysters) I strongly disagree with.
If Tim Cook, Elon Musk, Mark Cuban, Peter Thiel are considered rubes, then I am glad to be in that company. Miami is presently planning on giving all citizens shares in crypto currency. The major of New York, the financial center of the United States, is planning on having the city pay him in Bitcoin.