Reasonably safe Crypto funds when traveling.

[wholybee]

Originally Posted by skipperpete

Well stated Shanachie, the rise of the app based stock trading via Robinhood etc has introduced millions of “bigger fools” so the pro’s can stealthily unload the overpriced garbage that other pro’s won’t buy. I’m still a bitcoin true believer but no longer accept that the one cent Satoshi is just around the corner, there are too many ways for crypto to be derailed now that wall street is involved, I liked it better when Dimon et al was chirping about tulip bulbs and precious wentletraps. The US government is a major holder of bitcoin too, apparently confiscated proceeds of crime and now Larry Fink is diving in too.

I will repeat what I said upthread. The US government largely controls and can track Bitcoin. It is more transparent than using a Credit Card, where the government needs a court order for the records to see how you spend your money. And a traditional bank account, where except for large suspicious transactions privacy is also protected. The blockchain is fully readable by anyone, and has been decoded such that nearly every transaction is visible to the _individual_ that made the transaction.

The very large and public data hacks, with ransoms paid in bitcoin. Unless the money is converted to cash in someplace like Nigeria before the US government is aware, those transactions can be reversed, or redirected. That would be the funds you speak of as confiscated from crime. Even when the money is converted to cash quick enough, the government knows who got it.

The point is that as a currency Bitcoin is terrible. It's only use is a pyramid scheme investment, that has become legal to invest it. And I agree that with wall street involved, that is just another way for wall street to suck money from small investors. Bitcoin might be ready to run up for a while, until a major investor shorts a huge amount of it and it derails while they get rich of everyone else losses.

[Star Fire]

Originally Posted by GordMay

Evidently, the US SEC declared Bitcoin is not crypto [cryptocurrency], because it is not a security.
Securities are financial instruments that give the holder a tradable stake in a profit-making enterprise. According to the ‘Howey Test’: an “investment contract” amounts to a security if three conditions are met:
(1) there’s an investment of money;
(2) the investment is made in a common enterprise;
(3) there’s an expectation that profits will be derived from the efforts of others.
The IRS considers Bitcoin a convertible virtual currency, because you can convert it to cash.
The IRS also considers Bitcoin a capital asset, if it's used as an investment instrument.
Additionally, if you mine a Bitcoin, you are required to report it as income, based on the coin's market value, on the date you receive it.

Unfortunately, Bitcoin is very volatile [price fluctuates], because it is influenced by speculation, investor and user sentiments [fear and greed[, derivatives trading, and media hype.
The main difference, between bitcoin and other investment prices, is the magnitude in which its price changes. It isn't uncommon for Bitcoin to have a $2,500 difference, between its high and low price, for one day. The most volatile stocks see price ranges, measured in tens of dollars.

Does anyone want to buy a tulip? Vast fortunes have been made ...

The chart doesn't include the, more recent, higher prices.

There is no such thing as informed criticism of Bitcoin. All of your “financial experts” are wrong. Bitcoin is global, permissionless, decentralized, immutable.

But I’m not here to convince you. I’m here for freedom from central bank control and governmental debasement of my money. Inflation is theft. Everyone buys Bitcoin at the price they deserve. Do your own research.

All I can say is, there’s an aweful lot of you who should get used tot he idea of selling your boat because you can’t afford to cruise any more. My “worthless pet rock,” as Jeffery Epstein’s banker recently called it, from Davos, is worth a little over $42k, as of now.

Since we all have a computer, tablet, smart phone, rather than relying on what someone else says or worse, just making stuff up, use that rectangle of knowledge in you pocket. As google, “what is Bitcoin?” And then read what comes up. Do Tim don’t do it, I don’t really care. We can still be friends when we meet at some beach bar. But I just sold my house and converted it into bitcoin, 100% of it, because I know what it is and how it works. I would beg of you, at lest read the Bitcoin whitepaper, it’s only 8 pages…

Bitcoin.org or you can find it on YouTube, if you’re not the reading type.

I will not be responding to any of the comments about what you think it’s a scam. If you want to talk about how to safely custody your corn on a boat, that’s what I’m here for.

[skipperpete]

Yeah, I hear you Starfire, I initially bought 2 bitcoin at $100 each and converted them at $3,500 each after keeping them parked up for years but never even vaguely considered them as a portable cruising currency..... I have enough trouble keeping my mind clear with the 5 Asian currencies and 3 western currencies that wander in and out of my life on a regular basis. I’m always a bit surprised by the negativity toward crypto’s and to a lesser extent, physical gold, .....in a modest but still very rewarding way these have both worked out quite well for me and still are. I like whats happening with Etherium and Bitcoin but the rest of the crypto world is not attractive to me.

[s/v Jedi]

There’s two problems:

1. People see physical gold/silver and crypto as an instrument to make money. As an investment into future profits. None of them were designed to do that, they are all an equivalent to cash in your wallet.

2. People believe the government propaganda against all these. Of course there’s truth in it because criminals do use them just like they use fiat currency. The government is very worried that they lose their grip on the people and their wealth. Becoming financially independent is one thing but loosing control over those finances is another level where they lose their power over those who manage that.

I have been lucky to gain my financial independence when all these government controls weren’t as tight as today. Now, when I want to invest something or buy something or sell something, I have to explain it to “them” or it won’t happen. Except of course when you use physical gold, silver or crypto; they have no say over transactions that are equivalent to cash. But they try to block it in other ways, like limit/block conversions to/from fiat currency or you can’t bring physical gold when you travel across political borders.

I am surprised that no security check ever commented on my crypto hardware wallet that I have with me. I heard they hijacked someone to force him to give up the code to unlock his hardware wallet. It was a criminal but it’s the same key…

[Mickeyrouse]

Originally Posted by Shanachie

Be scared when Wall Street starts circling.


When that happens at a bank, the Federal Reserve tides them over. There's no Fed for bitcoin. So many speculators who were rich on paper will find that they have no money at all.

It’s just a matter of time. Tulips, South Sea Island Company, Mississippi Bubble, various other Ponzi-type schemes, Credit Mobilier, etc. And it won’t be Wall Street that suffers: it will be Main Street.

[barcoMeCasa]

Originally Posted by Star Fire

But I just sold my house and converted it into bitcoin, 100% of it, because I know what it is and how it works.

For real?? Wow, you gonna be so rich this bull run!! This one really shaping up to melt faces.

or depends who you listen to, some opinions from guys on a webforum or the world's largest global investment management firms who have been buying up by the billions of dollars. They do seem pretty certain what's coming.

Personally Michael Saylor et al seem much more worth paying attention to than "a bloke on the web" . MicroStrategy sitting on more than a $2 billion profit with their BTC holdings as of the other day. But what do they know?

[wyb2]

Originally Posted by Star Fire

There is no such thing as informed criticism of Bitcoin.
…

That’s an epic sentence.

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by barcoMeCasa

...
Personally Michael Saylor et al seem much more worth paying attention to than "a bloke on the web" . MicroStrategy sitting on more than a $2 billion profit with their BTC holdings as of the other day. But what do they know?

Michael Saylor has certainly demonstrated his enthusiasm for Bitcoin.

I’d be very pleased, for you, if your personal financial situation & circumstances, reflected those of Saylor, in any meaningful way.

Michael Saylor, the co-founder of software firm MicroStrategy, is selling $216 million worth of stock options in the company, with some of the proceeds going towards buying more Bitcoin for his personal holdings.
Speaking on MicroStrategy's fourth-quarter earnings call, Saylor explained that, "I was granted a stock option in 2014 with respect to 400,000 shares, which is going to expire next April if I don't exercise it by then." He added that he plans to exercise and sell 5,000 shares each trading day, starting on January 2nd and ending on April 25th, "subject to a minimum price condition."
Saylor said that, "Exercising this option will allow me to address some financial obligations, as well as to acquire additional Bitcoin, for my personal account."
Assuming it's held in one address, Saylor's personal Bitcoin holdings would place him among the top 103 Bitcoin addresses.

“Saylor's Sales: A Prediction of Future Bitcoin Prices?” ~ by Anders Bylund
➥ https://www.fool.com/investing/2024/...itcoin-prices/

Originally Posted by Anders Bylund

“... Michael Saylor, founder of MicroStrategy, began selling his company stock in January, a move anticipated by keen market watchers since November 2023.
His stock option plan, disclosed during MicroStrategy's Q3 2023 earnings call last November, was a response to options expiring in April 2024.
Saylor's successful Bitcoin bet is inspiring, but going all-in on a single investment is never the best idea ...”

[GordMay]

FWIW:
Michael Saylor owns two luxury yachts,
- the 45-meter [147Ft] Feadship M/Y “Harle” [1],
-and the 47-meter [154Ft] Delta MY “Usher” [2] (with her chase boat
- a 68’ Hampton M/Y “Splinter”), which Saylor bought [used] in 2013, for $31.5 million;

- as well as the 87-foot Warren Yacht “Moksha”, and the 36-foot cruiser “Julia”.

Usher and Harle are registered to Saylor-owned holding companies, AEROMAR MANAGEMENT COMPANY, and Enchantress Yachts LLC, respectively.
As an extension of Saylor’s maritime interests, his yachts are available for charter, through his company Fleet Miami [3].

1 ➥ https://www.yachtharle.com/ (pictured below)

2 ➥ https://www.motoryachtusher.com/

3 ➥ https://www.fleetmiami.com/news/miami-vip-yachting

[Star Fire]

I don’t buy bitcoin to have more dollars. I buy bitcoin to have less dollars.

Bitcoin is money. Fiat is just a currency. Know the difference.

When a gov. inflates a currency, it does not add goods/services to the economy. The value being represented by each new piece of currency comes from the debasement(dilution) of the existing currency. They are lite rally stealing your earned/saved value and giving it to someone else who did not earn it. Call it what you like, communism or socialism, it’s theft. Bitcoin cannot be debased. Saylor holds a larger percentage of his net worth in fiat or fiat denominated assets than I do. Have you seen his speech at the Atlas Society dinner where he calls it, “The Rearden Metal of money?” It’s on YouTube.

As a sailor, zinc is worth more than gold. Copper too. Gold is just a shiny rock. Everything trends toward zero, next to Bitcoin.

I’m working on building a company that will help companies integrate bitcoin payments into their businesses. Part of that will include Bitcoin ATM’s that will be extremely useful for cruisers to ashore local fiat, until bitcoinbecomes more common.

[barcoMeCasa]

plus give it a few years your music, concert tickets, car documents etc will all be NFT's

[donradcliffe]

There's a sucker born every minute. The crypto currencies have zero intrinsic value, and their crash will occur in my short time left on this world. Consider me a neutral observer, because I never invested in this elaborate Ponzi scheme.

In almost every country in the world, I can go to the ATM and pull local cash out of my brokerage accounts.

[skipperpete]

Starfire, I admire your enthusiasm and appreciate that we’re entering a completely new world of personal finance but at some point you need to do an un emotional cold blooded risk analysis of cryptocurrencies and NFT’s, there are developing technologies and global systemic fragilities that will surely challenge our financial strategies. We are definitely on the brink of the introduction of quantum computing...( I’ve just been listening to the Michele Simmons Boyer lectures) but even without this advance, current machine learning is challenging cryptography and password protection at levels not previously anticipated. The stability of the internet is also becoming problematic, loss of a stable secure internet is a frequent event in my travels and without that, crypto currencies are up s#*t creek. I’m pro bitcoin and Etherium, just don’t stake your life on it.... diversify a bit. Your comment about gold concerns me a little, its unwise to be zealous about cryptos and dismissive of other non mainstream wealth storage strategies,.... I’m now only lightly invested in tulip bulbs but have a sack of em just in case. ��

[GordMay]

There's this new cryptocurrency, called Decibel.
You just yell in your microphone, to get money.
It's a sound investment.

[Star Fire]

Originally Posted by skipperpete

Starfire, I admire your enthusiasm and appreciate that we’re entering a completely new world of personal finance but at some point you need to do an un emotional cold blooded risk analysis of cryptocurrencies and NFT’s, there are developing technologies and global systemic fragilities that will surely challenge our financial strategies. We are definitely on the brink of the introduction of quantum computing...( I’ve just been listening to the Michele Simmons Boyer lectures) but even without this advance, current machine learning is challenging cryptography and password protection at levels not previously anticipated. The stability of the internet is also becoming problematic, loss of a stable secure internet is a frequent event in my travels and without that, crypto currencies are up s#*t creek. I’m pro bitcoin and Etherium, just don’t stake your life on it.... diversify a bit. Your comment about gold concerns me a little, its unwise to be zealous about cryptos and dismissive of other non mainstream wealth storage strategies,.... I’m now only lightly invested in tulip bulbs but have a sack of em just in case. ��

Bitcoin, not crypto. Read “The Bitcoin Standard” by Saifedean Ammous.

“If you don’t believe it or just don’t get it, I don’t have time to convince you.”
—Satoshi Nakamoto

I’m very involved in the bitcoin community and I’m not going to waste my time rebutting all the FUD (Fear, uncertainty and, doubt). Like I said before, do your own research.