Why bitcoin is not an investment

[Nutria]

http://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/bitcoin-exchanges-risks/

Cryptocurrencies were supposed to offer a secure, digital way to conduct financial transactions, but they have been dogged by doubts. Concerns have largely focused on their astronomical gains in value and the likelihood of painful price crashes. Equally perilous, though, are the exchanges where virtual currencies are bought, sold and stored. These exchanges, which match buyers and sellers and sometimes hold traders’ funds, have become magnets for fraud and mires of technological dysfunction, a Reuters examination shows, posing an underappreciated risk to anyone who trades digital coins.

This is quite common. For example:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/francescoppola/2016/08/06/theft-and-mayhem-in-the-bitcoin-world/#16fcb886644f

A major Bitcoin exchange, Bitfinex, was hacked and nearly 120,000 BTC (around $60m) was stolen. The price of Bitcoin promptly crashed, and Bitfinex was forced to suspend trading. Suddenly, Ethereum was not the only basket case cryptocurrency around.

https://www.wired.com/2014/03/bitcoin-exchange/

Its collapse into bankruptcy last week – and the disappearance of $460 million, apparently stolen by hackers, and another $27.4 million missing from its bank accounts – came as little surprise to people who had knowledge of the Tokyo-based company's inner workings.

[Spiffster]

Thanks for the warning... I dont think any reasonable person here would throw retirement funds into BTC at this point in the game. I have discussed BTC a few times on this site, but if I came across as promoting BTC as a stable investment then perhaps people didnt read or understand all my posts. Investment / speculation... really just semantics at this point IMO. It is what it is, and BTC is certainly not for the faint of heart.

That said, China is (mostly) out of the game and BTC is still holding above 4000. None of the US based exchanges have ever been hacked. Still a lot of fear mongering going on which contributes (at least a little bit) to volatility. Yes BTC is a volatile investment, er excuse me "speculation" since apparently its tabu to call such a thing an investment lest I potentially mislead people who cant figure things out for themselves.

[colby99]

Bitcoin is highly volitile. There have been major swings in prices. It's highly manipulated. There's no regulation governing it. It has no intrinsic value.

[Spiffster]

Duplicate post

[Spiffster]

BTC is "highly manipulated"? In what way? Not necessarily disagreeing, just genuinely curious.

"It has no intrinsic value." This is a subjective statement. I have actually used BTC to purchase (legal items, thank you) and transfer $, and make (non-BTC) investments that would have not been possible or difficult otherwise.

[Nutria]

"It has no intrinsic value." This is a subjective statement.

On the contrary, it's completely objective, since there is no "melt value" of bits. The same goes for fiat money stored as nothing more than bits in a bank's computer.

(Even paper money has intrinsic value, since -- if worse comes to worse -- you can wipe your bum with Benjamins.)

[Sam1000]

I wouldn’t say bitcoin is a good “investment”.

There’s incredible volatility in this space, and one day the bitcoin bubble will burst. So if you’re going to invest in this space as a speculation, you just need to proceed very, very carefully. And “invest” no more than you can absolutely afford to lose.