XRP certainly being ramped....

[Chivas]

I'm an experienced investor but nonetheless have avoided all Crypto investments to date. The lack of asset backing and regulation has always put me off

 

However gotta move with the times and my normal twitter feed is filled with XRP and moonshots (sorry Boris).....always wise to follow the money (slicing as you go) but some of the anticipated valuations makes Bitcoin seem like pocket money. Whats the attraction here  ??

Edited December 6, 2020 by Chivas

[Barnabe]

XRP is thrash, it kind of goes against everything crypto stands for, as it is controlled by a single entity.

Having said that I put some money in it for pure speculation since everyone likes it, but I treat it like a casino. If it pays off, awesome, if not, I won't lose much.

 

Before you go into crypto you should understand what it's all about - no different than any investment really. This is a great book to get started:

https://www.amazon.com/Inventing-Bitcoin-Technology-Decentralized-Explained-ebook/dp/B07MWXRWNB

 

The main attraction of crypto currencies are:

• Decentralised, no one single entity controls them (controlled by consensus)
• Governments cannot confiscate them (easily)
• Fully portable, you can move them around in a thumb drive, transmit over the Internet etc (but make sure you keep it safe)
• Deflationary (limited and fixed supply)

I personally wouldn't touch any coin that doesn't meet the four criteria above AND it's not on the top 10 most traded crypto currencies at the moment. Ether is an exception for me even though it doesn't meet the fourth criteria, as it is used as a raw material to build other coins and technologies. In a way if bitcoin is gold, ethereum is more like copper / aluminium / etc.

 

One thing to bear in mind is that most of the coins that exist now won't stand the test of time and will certainly disappear. However in my opinion, Bitcoin is here to stay.

Although to be honest I have some I bought much cheaper and wouldn't buy at the current price. I won't be surprised if the price dips to $10k before shooting up past $20k again.

 

But who knows, it might never go below the current price ever again. If you zoom in the charts in the last 10 years, you'll see that bitcoin shoots up to a new all time high then drops 80%, and slowly creeps up to that all time high, which becomes a new plateau from where to shoot to another all time high. This exact pattern happened last in Jan 2018 (goes to $20k), then dropped massively in 2019 (down to $5k), hit a bottom in March this year, and now seems stable at $20k again.

 

Note that all of the above applies to an investment that you should look to hold for a minimum of 3 years. The strength of crypto is its deflationary nature, which will ensure it will keep rising against fiat currencies, which are deflationary by concept.

 

If you're looking for pure speculation, then pick an coin in the top 10 most traded cryptos and just go for it: https://coinmarketcap.com/

 

The final rule of thumb is - this is an extremely volatile and risky investment. Don't invest more than you are prepared to lose. All of the above is my opinion only, and it's not impossible that we wake up one day and it's all gone to zero!

[Chivas]

46 minutes ago, Barnabe said:

 

The final rule of thumb is - this is an extremely volatile and risky investment. Don't invest more than you are prepared to lose. All of the above is my opinion only, and it's not impossible that we wake up one day and it's all gone to zero!

 

Yep agreed and its one of the reasons why until now that I've never ventured into the Crypto world

[Barnabe]

6 minutes ago, Chivas said:

 

Yep agreed and its one of the reasons why until now that I've never ventured into the Crypto world

 

I consider it the main wild card in my portfolio. I'm a conservative investor otherwise, I only invest in ETF for the main world indices (no individual stocks or "themed" ETF) plus a little bit in gold and silver.

 

If it pays off, it can pay off handsomely. If not, it's a small portion of my portfolio (around 10%), and the rest will cover the loss.

I'm currently sitting on a nice fat "paper profit" on my bitcoin, but I don't think I will sell in the foreseable future.

EDIT: There's an error in my first post above:

Quote

The strength of crypto is its deflationary nature, which will ensure it will keep rising against fiat currencies, which are deflationary by concept.

 

The last part should be "inflationary by concept".

 

 

Edited December 7, 2020 by Barnabe

[phetphet]

I have a small about of XRP and thereis a utility fork coming up and I received a message from Bitkub that I will get one Spark coin for every XRP that I hold on 12/12.

Maybe it is this that is driving the price up at the moment.

 

According to the announcement of Flare Networks airdropping on 12th December 2020 at 07:00 AM (GMT+7), XRP holders will receive a new Spark Token at 1:1.

As Flare Networks developers aim to develop Spark Token to be a safer and more secure system, they are allowing the XRP owners to receive Spark Tokens. 

By this event, Bitkub will support Spark Token as we will provide the new coins to XRP holders at 1:1 portion. However, users are required to possess XRP in Bitkub wallet before 12th December 2020 at 07:00 AM (GMT+7) in order to receive the new coins. We will announce the schedule in regards to disabling deposit, withdrawal, and trading service of XRP shortly.

[Susco]

Yes XRP is doing really well. NOT

 

I recall a member on this forum who claimed earlier this year that XRP would be $100 by the end of the year, it was $0.18 at that time, and that he invested all his teacher salary in XRP.

 

Then recently he posted here that he invested all his salary in Bitcoin, so he is more likely a resident troll.

 

[Barnabe]

Yeah that was a disaster. As I said above it was the wild card in my portfolio, and wild it was indeed. I sold it yesterday as soon as I got the news that would be delisted from Coinbase. It’s going to zero.

 

Made a huge 66 percentage loss, however luckily in actual fiat terms is not much, and the recent advances in btc, LTC and eth more than cover it.

 

Learnt my lesson - I won’t ever put money into sh!tcoins again. From now on it’s BTC, LTC and ETH for me only.

[Susco]

12 minutes ago, Barnabe said:

Yeah that was a disaster. As I said above it was the wild card in my portfolio, and wild it was indeed. I sold it yesterday as soon as I got the news that would be delisted from Coinbase. It’s going to zero.

 

Made a huge 66 percentage loss, however luckily in actual fiat terms is not much, and the recent advances in btc, LTC and eth more than cover it.

 

Learnt my lesson - I won’t ever put money into sh!tcoins again. From now on it’s BTC, LTC and ETH for me only.

 

I didn't have you in mind with my remark, but in my opinion, the other coins are subject to the same disaster.

 

There may be big profits to be made currently, but when it happens, it will go as fast as with XRP..

 

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/nouriel-roubini-says-bitcoin-bubble-will-go-bust-144807645.html

[Barnabe]

There will always be naysayers like Roubini for crypto currency. Most of them will disappear into oblivion, but I have a feeling (and I’m making a small bet) that at least bitcoin is here to stay.

 

I do agree that current prices are going to crash, and we will see action by governments to limit its use. But I also think most people are starting to realise that fiat currency is backed by faith and in some ways not so different from bitcoin.