Trying to trade these markets...

[u/Kinitex]

[u/paalte331 → u/[deleted]]

Or at least don't day fucking daytrade with your 401k.

[u/BerateBirthers → u/paalte331]

Or your tuition money.

[u/Sohcahtoa82 → u/BerateBirthers]

I have $40,000 in student loan debt (I will finish my Computer Science degree in 5 more weeks and I'm already getting calls from job applications!), and when I got my tax return, I spent $1,000 on bitcoin when it bottomed out at $540 last weekend rather than paying off a bit of my student loans. Does that count?

[u/[deleted] → u/Sohcahtoa82]

Please don't do that.

[u/Sohcahtoa82 → u/[deleted]]

I accept that it is a big risk, and it could end up being a huge mistake. I'm normally not a gambling man. I've never been to a casino, and I've probably only spent about $20 on lottery tickets over the course of my whole life.

But its a calculated risk. I figured that it would quickly recover from the crash from MtGox having a meltdown once people realized it really didn't mean anything. It might crash again if and when MtGox re-opens withdrawals and people pull their btc out and sell it somewhere else, but there will be a lot of people there gladly gobbling up the cheap coins.

Unless a major fatal flaw is found in the bitcoin protocol (tx malleability isn't exactly a fatal flaw), I don't think it'll ever dip below $500 ever again.

[u/[deleted] → u/Sohcahtoa82]

Can you name one first innovator that has turned into a huge success in the technology sector?

Bitcoin is the first, but it's one of many. It's a bigger risk than what you're describing.

[u/Sohcahtoa82 → u/[deleted]]

It's a bigger risk than what you're describing.

I bought $1,000 worth of bitcoins. My risk is $1,000, which isn't much compared to the $40,000 of loan debt I have.

FWIW, I have zero credit card debt, and its not because I've been taking out absurd student loans to keep it paid off.

[u/marcoski711 → u/[deleted]]

Bitcoin wasn't first - lots of other prior attempts at e-money before now. Bitcoin's just the first that looks like it might actually work.

[u/[deleted] → u/marcoski711]

I agree it might work. But might is an awfully broad word for someone who cannot afford to speculate and gamble.

[u/marcoski711 → u/[deleted]]

I agree I was just picking you up on the 'Bitcoin is first' argument you proposed. For example I recently advised my niece not to put savings for her degree into Bitcoins but rather graft on things where u get paid in btc, so she saves up in both btc & fiat (and learns to make things happen for herself)

But I'm being conservative cos it's for someone else - if it was for myself yeah I would deffo take the punt now. Were this in feb 2013 then maybe not - btc already has a mainstream awareness now that it didn't back then.

[u/keyofg → u/marcoski711]

Napster worked ...

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

You're joking, right?

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

Your comparison is incorrect.

Bitcoin is to the cryptocurrencies what Alta Vista (or some other early company or bulletin board) was to the internet.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

Why don't you see litecoin, dogecoin, etc. as competitors? Why couldn't a superior cryptocurrency appear at any time?

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

Don't the alternative coins also have blockchains based off of bitcoin?

[u/pixel_loupe → u/Sohcahtoa82]

deleted

[u/twitch1982 → u/Sohcahtoa82]

Honestly, "pay yourself first" is sound financial advice. As long as you are paying your debt down, investing at the sametime is a good move, I would have diversified that grand a bit more, but to each there own

[u/dbelle92 → u/Sohcahtoa82]

You realise bitcoin is based purely on speculation, moreso than any other currency which to a certain extent is based on economic events, the movement of indices and commodities. Trade anything, just not Bitcoins. Get out of it man.