How do you decide which crypto currency to buy?

Thanks for the breakdown nobody asked for.

Au contraire mon Ami, I was answering the question posed.

No one's "buying in the dip", because as usual it's a dice roll between this being the dip and the highest it will ever be worth ever again.

Me lots I've said on here that I have paid for stuff in the uk all above board no guns or drugs. But I guess you don't want hear that.

Also my crypto is still out performing my stock Isa year on year. (I'm looking at 10 year terms).
To date crpto 47.3%
Isa. 19%
Returns
The crypto is free money as took my stake out years ago thanks to getting in on xrp when it was 11cents
So yeah buy the dip.
Nft is not my bag thou but I do like what tarrentino did with his.
Bring on the tulips.

Funnily enough, that’s not the impression I get when looking at it.

Funnily enough your impression has zero value.

So it’s either savings account or crypto. Right.

Enlighten me what better investment should be taking on a below average income?

No one’s “buying in the dip”,

Seems you're looking as hard as Alpin is.

Are you basing your assessments of crypto on the contents of this thread?

@sirromj not sure what you are trying to say with that video you posted

Are you saying we are all fools for not taking finacial advice from a crypto sponsored, anti vax, unqualified wellness coach/youtube celebrity with history of selliing unproven suppliments to his followers?

Enlighten me what better investment should be taking on a below average income?

Open an ISA with II or similar.
Buy this https://www.hl.co.uk/funds/fund-discounts,-prices--and--factsheets/search-results/f/fundsmith-sustainable-equity-class-i-accumulation/charts

Others are available, I only mention this one as it's the best performing thing in my SIPP.

Tempting as it was to buy into crypto, it's just far too risky to put any serious money into.
Is this a dip before it heads for 50K, or the decline to 5K where it will sit for a few years?
I don't think anyone has a clue one way or the other.

As a above, the stupid energy consumption and low transaction rates would appear to rule out bitcoin as a useable everyday currency.

Bedmaker linky no worky
But your right even an eco friendly non slave labor type Isa that nutmeg offer will knock spots off any bank and it's as socially acceptable as I guess the money market can be .
Lots of options now to build a nest egg but you have to do your homework.

And yes crypto is a huge risk but so are the rewards.

I've got price triggers pinging on my phone from last night but I've ignored them.

For now

Are you basing your assessments of crypto on the contents of this thread?

I'm basing it on its continued freefall being pretty indicative of market sentiment versus the the handful of influencers trying to keep the party going.

Even Elon hasn't tried to pump and dump with some cryptic emojis on twitter for a few months.

Elon was talking shit just last weekend

Surely that's nothing new....

Lots of people talking shit when crypto goes down.
Lots of people calling it ponzi shit when it goes back up.

Same people talk shit when it goes down again.
Same people calling it ponzi shit when it goes back up again.

Meanwhile everyone I know who got into crypto, holds, buys, sells when they need to, buys when it dips, is doing exceedingly well. They seem to not be bitter, and in general have a very good understanding of the use cases of the various cryptos.

Professionally, at work (banking), we're taking it *very* seriously. As a potentially systemic threat to operational activity and an opportinity to reduce costs and offer different products to market.

But hey. If the penny hasn't dropped that it's here to stay, that it's incredibly volatile but that volatility is dropping over time as the nascent technology matures and people become more invested, then please feel free - talk shit when it goes down, talk shit when it goes up - to your heart's content.

Maybe not your wallet's content. But if your heart is singing you've won at life eh?

🙂

Of course i've been buying!! I've been into this for years, it's all part of the fun!

Whilst all the naysayers on here are STILL coming out with the same old nonsense, loads of people have been making a pile of cash out of it! It's laughable really - the trouble with a lot of people is that they take advice of those who aren't qualified to give it - this being a prime example.

Buy some and sit on it, see how you get on, if it goes tits up then that's that.....but what if it doesn't??

Me lots I’ve said on here that I have paid for stuff in the uk all above board no guns or drugs. But I guess you don’t want hear that.

No I genuinely would like to know what you bought. How many businesses accept doge coin, cardano etc as a form of payment?

Meanwhile everyone I know who got into crypto, holds, buys, sells when they need to, buys when it dips, is doing exceedingly well. They seem to not be bitter

My mate is seriously bitter about it. He seems confused as to why the arse end fell out of Crypto in the last few weeks and why he is losing money. If you're working in banking then perhaps those you know have a better understanding of how money markets work. I would say those people are in the minority, not just among the cryptonites, but the general population. My old man was a stock broker. Few old friends work in the City. Not sure any of them would claim that they wholly understand the financial markets.

Bitcoin is half the value it was 2 months ago. I'm guessing now is a good time to buy?

You're GUARANTEED to double your money.

Alpin I've paid my sparky with bit coin paid club subs with xrp into a central wallet address.
I've even paid for something off ebay France and had it shipped to the uk my bum did squeak on that one but it was only 80 odd euro

👍

Honestly wasn't aware that people or institutions are willing to take crypto.

On, I can understand your sparky taking it.... No vat/cash in hand without any trace with the added bonus of a speculative increase in his days money.

There's an ice cream parlour near me accepts bitcoin

Sparky paid tax on it as he had to claim the vat back on materials he has not done cash for years cards or bank transfers he did well if he kept the Bitcoin.

Does my thinking on it make any sense to anyone? I can see crypto replacing cash, cards, transfers, in the same way that cards have mostly replaced cash. However I suspect that it will more likely be stablecoins which do this as they are, erm, stable. USDT to replace physical dollars and card transactions? Why not? More practical for day to day stuff than cardano or ether.
However, far from from being the deregulated, government-free currency bitcoin was designed to be I can picture it going the other way. What if China makes the yuan a crypto currency? A stable, digital cryptocurrency controlled by the CCP and who's block chain can be used to monitor every single transaction anyone ever makes with anyone else. I think someone pointed out something similar a few pages ago, and it did make sense
There may be other uses for crypto, but if it is going to replace fiat then I think that may be what happens, not new currencies, but new ways of using the current fiat currencies.
.
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I'm not selling BTW, nor buying any more than normal, just putting the same steady trickle in which I am fortunate enough to be able to afford to lose if the whole thing collapses. I'm thinking hold it for five years, adding (very!) little but often, I might be able to pay off my mortgage and retire then, I may just be able to buy a nice cake, who knows.

If you’re working in banking then perhaps those you know have a better understanding of how money markets work. I would say those people are in the minority, not just among the cryptonites, but the general population. My old man was a stock broker. Few old friends work in the City. Not sure any of them would claim that they wholly understand the financial markets.

People who have a good understanding of how markets function don't need to work in a bank. 😉

Ah, like all those crypto investors?

I have soaked up most of what has been said here, and putting aside the "it's sh!t" "It not sh!t" points of view, it is quite disheartening to see that it is mainly viewed as an investment opportunity and not a currency. I assume that this is the main reason it is so unstable because rather than using it for its intended use, people are just trying to make money from it?

I am dumb when it comes to all things finance so to most of you my thoughts will probably be naive at best, probably stupid. I know that people make money out of normal currency as well, but it seems that the sole purpose of crypto is to make people money, or lose it.

I guess until this attitude changes and/or mainstream businesses start to accept Crypto as legitimate payment, we will all still be arguing over whether it's a good time to buy.

I might start a thread asking if now is a good time to buy Lira 🙂

However, far from from being the deregulated, government-free currency bitcoin was designed to be I can picture it going the other way. What if China makes the yuan a crypto currency? A stable, digital cryptocurrency controlled by the CCP and who’s block chain can be used to monitor every single transaction anyone ever makes with anyone else. I think someone pointed out something similar a few pages ago, and it did make sense
There may be other uses for crypto, but if it is going to replace fiat then I think that may be what happens, not new currencies, but new ways of using the current fiat currencies

But how does any of that make an improvement of the system that we already have?

I’m not selling BTW, nor buying any more than normal, just putting the same steady trickle in which I am fortunate enough to be able to afford to lose if the whole thing collapses. I’m thinking hold it for five years, adding (very!) little but often, I might be able to pay off my mortgage and retire then, I may just be able to buy a nice cake, who knows.

I've said many pages back.
Do you want it to be a currency?
In which case it will need to hold a steady value

Or are you using it in the hope that you may get rich?
In which case you'll want volatility.

But, you cant have both.

I guess until this attitude changes and/or mainstream businesses start to accept Crypto as legitimate payment,

The problem is its a bit chicken and egg in that businesses arent going to overly willing to accept Crypto due to the risks of the swings in price.
Several tech companies which did accept bitcoin stopped doing so since it was impossible for them to hedge the risk effectively.
It is a risk which exists for normal currencies but there is the forex industry and generally the swings are unlikely to be extreme and hence affordable.

’ve said many pages back.
Do you want it to be a currency?
In which case it will need to hold a steady value

Or are you using it in the hope that you may get rich?
In which case you’ll want volatility.

But, you cant have both.

Currently, it's firmly the latter. I very much doubt it'll ever become a currency. You'd be better off with the Italian Lira circa 1970.

I assume that this is the main reason it is so unstable because rather than using it for its intended use, people are just trying to make money from it?

That's essentially how I treated it. I started with about £1500 in Bitcoin, that became about £5.5k when I backed out (bottled it). Took my original investment out, re-invested the £4k, which became about £12k. Pulled some out, as back in November '20 it was pushing on £12k a coin & all I could feel was a bubble, so I decided to bail out.

Had I shown a bit of commitment, I could have had a lovely payout, as I sat back and watched in pretty much quadruple in value in 4 months. Ah well.

Have just started again in the last 24 hours actually. Gone back to my roots of the original £1500, but i've spread it across BTC, ETH, ETC, LTC & a load of minnows who have tanked. I will try an keep an eye on it to move stuff on when I can & that's about as much science as I can give my brain to whilst working. Will see what happens.

Even bought some Euro's this week at 1.20 to the pound 🙂

But how does any of that make an improvement of the system that we already have?

It isn't (a least not for us) But people like the Chinese government might like a record of every transaction their citizens ever make.

I’ve said many pages back.
Do you want it to be a currency?
In which case it will need to hold a steady value

Or are you using it in the hope that you may get rich?
In which case you’ll want volatility.

But, you cant have both.

I'm expecting there to be crypto dollars and crypto pounds and yens and euros and whatever one day, basically another way of keeping track of who owns what and transfering it from one person to another, a bit like a stablecoin just now. The technologies being developed work fine for that. The current crop of 'currencies' will be useless for it though. In the mean time I'm just going to see if I can make a few quid out of them before the bandwagon grinds to a halt.

I think the issue with crypto, is that people don't nessescerily see it as a high risk volitile investment.

In any other investment situation, you would look at such things, and also possibly spread your investment capital proportionaly, over low, meduim and high risk investments.

If you start looking at is as any other investment, it suddenly looks very risky. Potential for % return is high, but potential for loss is also high, depending if you happen to buy or sell at the right time, which seems to pretty much depend on which way the wind is blowing on any given day.

It's more like forex day trading rather than 'safer' investments.

Volatility?

https://www.forbes.com/sites/sergeiklebnikov/2022/01/24/stock-market-panic-is-setting-in-as-sp-500-enters-correction-territory/

Buy the dip!

Doesn’t crypto currency have an awful environmental record in terms of carbon emissions and electronic component waste?

If so, should we be buying any of it?

I've been a critic of the 'beer money brigade' on here but I get that blockchain, web 3.0 and crypto has a massive future but I've been struggling to see investment opportunities. I started looking at investments that I can make inside a SIPP or ISA but the FCA have brought the shutters down on EFTs linked to crypto which leaves very little to go for:
1 a fund based on companies that hold significant bitcoin e.g. Microstrategy
2 Argo Blockchain - good mini series on the company on Youtube, and how they are getting into clean energy for mining and they also have some smart people in the company. But the Khazaks are doing massive mining with cheap electricity using chinese rigs which will hurt Argo.
3 Block aka Square run by Jack Dorsey. Share price is massively down and took another hit recently when apple started talking about taking payments on iphones where you go into a small shop and tap your credit card on the owners iphone so no need for the devices Block are pushing.

It seems a bit like the early days before the dot com bubble burst with companies like aol, yahoo etc that were huge at the time but are now bit players or bought up for buttons.

Any other areas to look at?

There's also ARK etf run by Cathie Wood who is a massive proponent of Bitcoin, and has various holdings in things associated with crypto. It's taken an absolute battering recently of course.

Does crypto actually have a massive future?
For the record I am a "beer money" dabbler in Cardano but have recently bought a bit of Etherium with a view to buying NFT's. For something that is supposed to take over from traditional cash etc there are fees everywhere - buying it, selling it, sending it and finally "wrapping" it or "gas money" so that an actual purchase can be made.
It doesn't fill me with confidence.

There’s also ARK etf run by Cathie Wood who is a massive proponent of Bitcoin, and has various holdings in things associated with crypto. It’s taken an absolute battering recently of course.

From what I can see you can't buy these in a SIPP or ISA wrapper?

Doesn’t crypto currency have an awful environmental record in terms of carbon emissions and electronic component waste?

If so, should we be buying any of it?

If you're only dabbling with beer money then steer clear of Ethereum or any Ethereum based tokens because the fees are just too high to be able to make it worthwhile, you won't be able to do anything with your tokens, and it will be a shit experience.

For beer money amounts, Osmosis and Keplr are brilliant. Very low fees, high interest, daily rewards, airdrops. Lots of gambly fun 😉

I wonder if there’s any way around this (except faster, more energy efficient computer processors) or is it just going to get even worse?!

This has been done elsewhere, but here's a quick recap: The two main cryptos (Bitcoin and Ethereum) are 'Proof of Work'. It's a long story but basically more power use is considered better (more secure). They are designed in such a way that more efficient CPUs won't really bring down the energy use.

There is an alternative called 'Proof of Stake'. This basically removes 90% of the requirement to burn baby robins, and Ethereum has been planning to move to PoS since about 2015. Bitcoin will never move to it, and plenty of other smaller coins use it. It has various issues too, but energy use isn't one.

The only thing that will dent bitcoin's energy use is if the value falls below the cost of the electricity used in mining it, and all the miners start to sack it off. Unlikely in the shortterm, as the miners are all trundling round developing countries (and, er, Texas) to find the cheapest electricity they can.

No one is really using bitcoin on the bitcoin network to buy coffee. Fees more than the value of a coffee.

However they are buying coffee on the layer 2 bitcoin lightning network. That's how El Salvador are doing it.

In this case, think of bitcoin on the bitcoin network as gold and bitcoin on the lighting network as cash (i.e.) gold that you can use day to day to buy coffee.

I know - cash is no longer pegged to gold so can be printed willy nilly by any government- And that is the entrance into the rabbit hole.....

No one is really using bitcoin on the bitcoin network to buy coffee. Fees more than the value of a coffee.

However they are buying coffee on the layer 2 bitcoin lightning network. That’s how El Salvador are doing it.

I could well be wrong, but my understanding of the lightning network is that it just secures a transaction before it can be made on the blockchain? The blockchain is the ledger for the transaction. The lightning network just allows it to happen in a practical time frame.

Does crypto actually have a massive future?

Most probably. Nobody really knows what for yet. It might be nothing to do with money.

For beer money amounts, Osmosis and Keplr are brilliant. Very low fees, high interest, daily rewards, airdrops. Lots of gambly fun 😉

I've put some money in to find out a bit more about this. It reminds me of a roulette wheel in the casino which I guess is what you are saying?

So much going on in the crypto world. Ive sacrificed a fair wad of cash on Pulse x. Lets see if Richard Heart can work some magic.

I’ve put some money in to find out a bit more about this. It reminds me of a roulette wheel in the casino which I guess is what you are saying?

No just poking at the people saying crypto is nothing more than gambling. I don't do gambling other than a lottery ticket here or there.

The fun for me is deciding how to distribute my ~$1 of daily rewards and when the price is down like it is now, imagining how it's all going to add up across the year. The gambling is the will it or won't it.

The other night there was something about crypto in a dream and on waking I couldn't shake the emperors new clothes feeling. HUAHUA on Osmosis has an APY around 400%! It's literally free money from code! Imagine if all that was required of the code was to take a numeric input, multiply it, and return the result. Nobody would accept that. Where is the line drawn for the digital currency being acceptable? Served to remind me I lack a good conceptual understanding of the whole thing.