re: Bitcoin has underperformed S&P500 over the last 5 years now - is it dead dead?

quote:

---

My only request would be the final sentence include “bitcoin and its derivatives cannot be acquired by retirement accounts”

I guarantee the ecosystem would collapse faster than NFTs.

---

Wouldn't that language targeting any financial asset do the same thing?

Hey I’ve seen this post before!

quote:

---

You’d need interest in the network to fall so much that a 51%

---

Agreed

quote:

---

BTC been around 20 years now, it's basically boomer gambling

---

More like Gen Z wish casting

quote:

---

BTC been around 20 years now, it's basically boomer gambling More like Gen Z wish casting

---

.

Boomers love the convenience of BTC ATMs. It’s amazing how many have warrants from the IRS requiring immediate payment to avoid imprisonment.

Sorry, I'm jumping in here a little late. To me, crypto is more about anti-censorship than it is about anything else. Decentralization is key to me.

I'm innately anti-authority. Always have been, and I don't know why. That's why I'm drawn to "crypto." It allows you, as a free individual, to operate outside of a centralized authority. The regular crypto thread guys may roll their eyes at me because I'm an Ethereum bull (I'll take the hate), but something like Ethereum allows you to trade what you own without anyone saying shite about it and stopping it. The system runs on consensus and has no single point of control. No one can turn it off. No one can tell you what to do with it beyond the constraints of the code.

I can trade USD for a stablecoin, send it to someone else using the Ethereum network, and I've just cut out the middle man who may not approve of what I'm doing. The counter argument would be criminal activities, and yes, that does exist in spades on things like Bitcoin and Ethereum, but it could also be something like a refugee trying to get money back to their family members in their totalitarian country to buy them safe passage out, but there's no way to get that money to them through the normal channels because the dictator has ruled all money orders illegal or something like that. That's technically a crime, but it could also be the morally right thing to do, and crypto technology makes this possible.

The same goes for tokenization. I could conceivably buy 10 shares of Stock XYZ, which has been tokenized and is cryptographically proven to belong to me on the blockchain and verified by consensus, and sell it to someone else without having to go through the normal channels.

You could even do it with real world assets like property. I could tokenize a deed and cryptographically protect it and write it on the public ledger, and then sell it.

Now, there are downsides. Custody is the main one as it puts the onus on you as an individual to keep your whatever safe, but there are also other things like code exploits that could pop up. That's why I'm not going to use a crypto ecosystem that hasn't been battle-tested like Bitcoin or Ethereum. I'm also not going to use a blockchain that is centralized because the centralizing authority could roll-back or shut down the network.

It's a freedom thing. Some people are drawn to that. Other people want rails and protection. That's fine, too. Whatever floats your boat, ya know? If you are drawn to that freedom aspect, and think others may be drawn to it in the future, then it may make sense to invest in whatever crypto ecosystem you prefer.

For me, that's mostly Ethereum, so I buy ether, since that's the currency used to transact on the Ethereum network. Same for Bitcoin.

Anyways, thanks for coming to my TED talk.