We also lived many decades without cell phones, laptops, personal computers or the internet. We were perfectly fine calling men in suits in nice offices and paying high for their research and paying high fees and commissions Bitcoin is the hardest money, a scarce digital asset, with supplies that can be verified by anyone since it's a bearer asset on a distributed public ledger (blockchain) in which the value can be transferred anywhere in the world in a matter of minutes with final settlement in about an hour, a collateral asset that is now widely accepted Funny that the biggest names in the investment world cannot convince the geniuses of ET like yourself of bitcoin's value, you know, the Paul Tudor Jones, Blackrock, JP Morgan, Fidelity, Citibank, Guggenheim, etc Tounge-in-cheek. Touche'
These things improved our life substantially. Bitcoin did not. In fact a lot of small gamblers destroyed financially a bit their own life. I know several of them personally. I can do the same but within minutes with a final settlement, without bitcoin. I do this all the time and these people are not interested in bitcoins as they cannot use it in daily life as most businesses refuse bitcoin as payment. They also have extra expenses and need much more time to get fiat money for their bitcoins and try to hedge the risk. That takes time and money too. If they would really believe in it they should switch all their fiat money in bitcoins. But that is clearly not the case. Even the big believer Tesla with his 1.5 billion $ in bitcoins is clearly not confident about the final outcome. The 1.5 billion $ in bitcoin represents less than 0.25% of the market capitalisation of Tesla. Not a real sign of confidence. Calling me a genius shows that you need non relevant arguments based on nothing as you have no clue what I invest in. So following your logic all people who buy bitcoins are geniuses, and the others are idiots. ROFLMAO.
1. It's called innovation. Something new did not exist before 2. What you're describing is not final settlement. You have incumbent intermediaries with IOU's and the transactions can be reversed, hence not final settlement, since your financial transaction assets are not bearer instruments, unless you're in person and handing out a physical asset 3. I called you a genius and other non-believers out of courtesy, I could have easily said "you people". You sounded respectful in your previous reply, hence it was my attempt to be courteous. Don't over analyze my words. English is my second language, we have cultural differences and I admit being tone deaf at times I would recommend for you to watch the video below in its entirety when you have time. I cannot explain the bitcoin as investment better than the video
When I was a treasury manager I made payments all over the world, for 100's of millions each year. Never had any problem with "not final settlement". All these payments with not final settlement, became in reality all final payments. It might even be an advantage. If you pay in bitcoins, and it is a mistake or fraud, you lose your money with your "final settlement". Ask Steve Wozniacki (Apple) who sold bitcoins. He lost his bitcoins and never got paid for it. The criminals paid with a stolen creditcard, so the creditcard company cancelled the sale. The criminals kept the coins and Wozniacki had to refund the money recieved. If you lose your password or your stick, you also have a final settlement that cannot be corrected anymore. Not much of an advantage. OK, I understand. The video you show is biased. Made by people who have financial interests in crypto's. They will only show the pro's and not the contra's. Let's call them good salesmen, snake oil vendors, or lawyers. I calculated already that my trading makes more money than buying bitcoins. With less risk and much smaller drawdowns. And money is always instant available as all positions are always closed intraday. So overnight risk. Up till now bitcoin is far behind on my results.
I appreciate your time and efforts in this discussion and even though we disagree on bitcoin and cryptos, I respect your opinion There's always an advantage from the sender's side with delayed settlements, due to the ability of reversing the transactions. Business operations have always relied on this delay and have incorporated it into the process From the receiving side, it's a disadvantage and they institute failsafe to protect their interests But the bottom line is if both parties wanted final settlement immediately, bitcoin (and cryptos, seems stablecoins are being used more for these types of transactions due to non-volatility of value) offers the option Having delayed final settlement for a $100M cross border payment means relying on intermediaries (i.e. banks and financial institutions) as "escrow" parties, even though they are not. Bitcoin and cryptos do offer escrow services (which means trusting a trusted centralized parties) or smart contract services or multisig (multi-signature private keys) if a delay is a business need Currently, $100's of millions and even billions of values in cryptos are being transferred every day, every night between exchanges. This is a huge advantage over wire transfer, due to trading opportunities that are short-lived If I wanted to send $100K instantly to a family member in Lebanon and it's night-time here and it's daytime there and my family needs it right now, final settlement offers an advantage I've never made a mistake transferring bitcoin (cryptos) to the wrong address. I've done thousands of transfers. I realize it's unreasonable to expect this of everyone, but it is in my case. I check the last 4 characters and the first 4 characters of the crypto address. Recently read a hedge fund received $100's of millions due to an error and was keeping it (not cryptos) Most important if it is an option, send a small amount first, once that shows up, then send the rest of the intended amount. This can act as a good faith in payments where a delay is needed. Send a "downpayment", other party performs a portion of the contract, and continue. It's easy to break down a big contract to many small pieces due to the speed of final settlement The video is very much biased for cryptos, but I do not believe they presented any incorrect figures and or information and I certainly did not see any outright lies on the video You are correct that there are many who can outperform bitcoin returns here on ET. I've seen some of the posts on other threads, there is an abundance of intelligence and creativity from many here. I wish you continued success Let me offer a counter argument. Bitcoin and cryptos trading markets are incredibly inefficient and there are enormous opportunities. Many wall street traders are moving to cryptos because of this I am very bad at trading compared to you and others and I accept that. In cryptos with so much volatility, even someone like me can be profitable as we get "bailed out" when we make mistakes. 10-30% loss on a position can be "fixed" by a 100-500% position. Taking big positions on more mature, less volatile cryptos and hodling for a longer time period, smooths out the volatility effects of smaller cryptos The crypto bull market makes me a genius and I'm very much aware of it. I'm watching bitcoin constantly 24/7 and ready to liquidate all my positions to stablecoins if I'm convinced it's a bear market. I can do this due to the 24/7/365 nature of bitcoin and cryptos I cannot possibly impose for you to watch another video but in case you find 15-20 minutes of time, please listen to the video from the point of it starts. It explains in details about delayed settlements in our financial system and it was an eye-opener for me and you might find it informative as well
I respect yoor choice too. You decided years ago to invest in bitcoins and took all the ups and downs. You deserve the profits you made. I am not jealous. I only have another opinion and I do like you: I follow my own opinion.