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Comment by randomopining | Hacker News Reader

Yet he doesn’t invest in Bitcoin. Why?

>"Cryptocurrencies basically have no value and they don't produce anything. They don't reproduce, they can't mail you a check, they can't do anything, and what you hope is that somebody else comes along and pays you more money for them later on, but then that person's got the problem. In terms of value: zero."

- Warren Buffett

I hold 6 figures in cryptocurrencies but it's really hard to argue with Buffet on this. After over a decade they're still almost entirely used for speculation. The only major real world use outside trading is on the black market. Unfortunately there's no signs of that changing anytime soon. How many more decades do we have to wait for cryptocurrencies to revolutionize how we transact?

Having been in it from the beginning, I can tell you that it isn't crypto that is failing to "revolutionize how we transact" - it is the existing system both moving at a slow pace and actively fighting the loss of control. The slow roll is understandable in one regard, but the delaying tactics are pretty transparent at this point. What is more frustrating are the instances of regulators killing exciting developments. I'd written Forex related software years before bitcoin, and I was very familiar with the way trading data is sold in tiers for stupid prices, so when I saw bitcoin exchanges dumping live - full order books through websockets... I was totally blown away. Then we started seeing really clever implementations of decentralized lending for margin accounts with market set interest rates... it was an amazing couple of years. Obviously such freedom is not to be tolerated, and what remains is a marginal improvement to the preexisting system.

How is that not "failing to revolutionize how we transact"? A promise of cryptocurrency was precisely that regulators and entrenched interests wouldn't be able to fight it effectively.

Finding out that they in fact can do so, and that the result is only incremental/marginal improvements to the system, is a falsification of that premise.

How? Well, you can start with the fact that it isn't over. If the objective had been to "revolutionize how we transact in less than 10 years" then you'd have a point. Now consider the reason why we're talking about delay instead of outright ban. States and institutions seem to know (in so far as large organizations are capable) that a crypto currency will inevitably be required in the somewhat near future, and a ban would be a massive strategic handicap. Hence the delaying tactics, like refusing to issue tax guidance for a ridiculous length of time.

Next, let’s look at a $100 bill. Or a diamond.

Because contrary to popular belief, Bitcoin is not any more a "hedge against inflation" than any speculative stock?

Same reason he never invested in Beanie Babies.

I am long in Pet Rocks

Have you heard of gourd futures?

The intersection of HN and WSB is both amusing and horrifying. I like it.

Same reason took him years to invest in tech, he only invest where his understanding makes him confortable.

Seems to me he understands Bitcoin, and thinks it is hot garbage

I've been mining Bitcoin since the early 2010s.

It is hot garbage... but it's hot garbage people will pay for, and I see no reason to sell now. I legitimately think BTC will hit $1m per coin, although I couldn't say when, and I definitely cannot say why.

I myself don't understand the attraction to it. I understand the arguments on a logical level, and even an emotional level, but they're not good arguments, imo.

Have you hodl’ed the whole time?

Tbh it makes sense on an individual level but on a societal level it’ll lead to inefficiencies.

On a societal level it would lead to a burning planet.

(Yea, yes, I know NOT A CRYPTO Spews out a months worth of car riding per transaction)

You expect BTC to reach $20 trillion market cap, nearly the size of the US GDP?

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