CYBERTRUCK :soypoint-1: :soypoint-2: Definitely a thing that exists

Almost like a deflationary currency incentivizes hoarding.

  • zifnab25 [he/him, any]
    ·
    edit-2
    2 years ago

    Almost like a deflationary currency incentivizes hoarding.

    Every time I kick myself for not mining a few Bitcoins back in 2008, I'm reminded of the guy who threw away a hard drive full of them by mistake. Also, remembered Mt.Gox rug pulling their clients twice before the coins were worth more than a few bucks.

      • zifnab25 [he/him, any]
        ·
        2 years ago

        investing is no better than gambling at a casino. It’s all about luck.

        That's simply not true. We're in a country and an economy that's structurally favorable to equity investment. Trading costs are artificially low. Returns are all goosed by federal and state policies. The USD being the global reserve currency guarantees inflows of cash pretty much indefinitely. Big Number Always Goes Up over time. Go back even two or three years, and there's really no point in which putting money into a basic EFT didn't beat the rate of inflation handily. Nevermind the yield garnered by real estate investment, pretty much everywhere since forever.

        The deck is definitely stacked, but getting a slice of the pie isn't difficult. That's what makes all this so seductive. The only thing keeping you from being richer is that you didn't start out richer to begin with.

        There is no model in the world that can sufficiently take into account all the complex variables and the non-linear processes that drive the market.

        You don't need a model to recognize that (population growth + consolidating wealth + Fed Money Printer Go :brrrrrrrrrrrr: ) = inflated asset prices.

        This isn't wizardry, its rent-seeking plain and simple. Buy capital at X and set rents at Y. You'll get X back in Y * Z years, and the rest is pure passive income.

        people who got rich in the process thought they were really smart for seeing the needles moving when in reality it was because they got lucky.

        This wasn't luck. It was very deliberate engineered public policy. The neoliberal economic model that's been in effect since at least Truman guarantees positive ROI for investors over the long term. Domestic business growth strategy combined with foreign resource exploitation juices the equity markets. And so long as the juice continues to flow, asset returns will continue to grow.

    • CyberSyndicalist [none/use name]
      ·
      2 years ago

      If you mined those coins you would have made a bunch of money, become a bitcoin true believer and convinced yourself that you are a genius. It would not have ended at cashing in those few bitcoins you would still to this day be pumping your income into it chasing that initial high with and your faith in bitcoin calcifying as unshakeable. The money you would have lost during the bitcoin crashes would have vastly exceeded the money you made in 2008 but you wouldn't be able to see that, you would just keep hodling and throwing your paychecks in expecting bitcoin to take over the world once the new kekapes drop.

      • zifnab25 [he/him, any]
        ·
        2 years ago

        If you mined those coins you would have made a bunch of money, become a bitcoin true believer and convinced yourself that you are a genius.

        Eh, I've gotten lucky before and it hasn't completely gone to my head.

        The money you would have lost during the bitcoin crashes would have vastly exceeded the money you made in 2008

        Its certainly possible. But given crypto peaked at the tail end of last year, and its still stubbornly above the last peaks in 2019 and 2017, I'm not even sure where I'd have found enough money to invest to suffer that kind of reversal.

    • Dimmer06 [he/him,comrade/them]
      ·
      2 years ago

      I've been involved with bitcoin twice and I've had the most shit luck with it. Luckily I didn't lose that much money but from what I've read that's actually most people's experience with it.

    • HiImThomasPynchon [des/pair, it/its]
      ·
      2 years ago

      I sometimes kick myself for not buying into bitcoin when I first heard of it,too. Then I remember I'd probably have dumped it all on opiates and OD'd in 2015.

    • sgtlion [any]
      ·
      2 years ago

      I had like half a bitcoin back in the day and lost it. It's easy to think "If I'd mined then I'd be a billionaire now!" but I guarantee you that 99% of people who even had a bunch of bitcoins sold them as soon as they were worth like twenty dollars because that would've looked like the peak at the time.

      • zifnab25 [he/him, any]
        ·
        2 years ago

        I just remember that, especially early on, getting your hands on an actual Bitcoin was obnoxious af. There were no reputable clearing houses. Mining was a pain in the ass and something of a crap-shoot, especially once bigger miners started entering the scene. All the bitcoin banks were pure scam. Wallets were full of scams. People were literally going into back alleys to trade these things.

        The whole system sucked.