El Salvador "bought the dip," added 150 Bitcoins to its holdings

[Squid Surprise]

How about India then (5th largest economy)....are they a dictatorship too?

India considering crypto ban

If they flip as well maybe the wheels come off on public trust in crypto and it's all worth nothing. Would you really bet everything on this?

Let's try and think logically... if you are a sovereign nation with your own currency, would you want there to be another currency that your citizens could use that you have little to no control over?

Of course nations don't like it... the argument is whether "regular people" should like it... and, so far, the answer to that has been a resounding YES.

 

[MasterMace]

These countries are going to be shocked to learn that nations with a finite amount of currency fall apart, just like the Romans after they stopped expanding.

 

[Beerfloat]

Let's try and think logically... if you are a sovereign nation with your own currency, would you want there to be another currency that your citizens could use that you have little to no control over?

Of course nations don't like it... the argument is whether "regular people" should like it... and, so far, the answer to that has been a resounding YES.

Are they regular people though? Or mostly technically inclined people who are thinking it could get them rich and/or FOMO?

 

[Squid Surprise]

Are they regular people though? Or mostly technically inclined people who are thinking it could get them rich and/or FOMO?

It started that way... but as crypto hits the mainstream, more and more non-technically-savvy people are getting in on it.

As convenience and value increase, more and more will embrace it. Nationalism is disappearing - with modern technology, I can interact just as easily with someone from Japan as someone 500 kilometers from my house (I live in Toronto, Canada for anyone needing context here).

Why shouldn't I share the same currency with someone halfway across the world?

 

[NightAntilli]

Are they regular people though? Or mostly technically inclined people who are thinking it could get them rich and/or FOMO?

Bitcoin has gone beyond getting rich quick. Adoption has become big enough to make it a bit more stable... More importantly, the price is so high that laymen don't see it as an option to get rich quick anymore. Nobody expects Bitcoin to do a 25x to reach a million dollars, even though it might. So people are moving into alt coins instead. They are trying to buy the likes of Cardano, not knowing that they're better off buying the more expensive but lower market cap coins like the $200 Elrond (not financial advice).

This space moves extremely quickly. In 2017 ICOs were the get rich quick schemes. Now it's NFT art. I myself flipped an NFT for literally 140x profit last month. In reality, it's not 140x, because the other NFTs that I bought didn't get that kind of return, so it's closer to maybe 100x. But even then, the price of the crypto went up as well, with more than 400%... So yeah, I can't complain.

You have to know how to play the game, and you can actually win at it. Granted, most people don't know how to, and it's definitely not easy. There are some people that do better than me, and a lot of people that end up losing it all.
Next boom will be GameFi. Just like crypto kitties were the first NFT that blew up, and it still took a while for the rest of the NFT space to blow up, there are some GameFi projects out there blowing up right now, like Axie Infinity... But it'll be a while before the rest of the market catches up. I already invested in a few potential sleeper hits.

After GameFi, who knows what else crypto will bring. But the main rule still stands... Don't invest in what you don't understand, and don't invest money you're not willing to lose.

 

[Beerfloat]

Bitcoin has gone beyond getting rich quick. Adoption has become big enough to make it a bit more stable... More importantly, the price is so high that laymen don't see it as an option to get rich quick anymore. Nobody expects Bitcoin to do a 25x to reach a million dollars, even though it might. So people are moving into alt coins instead. They are trying to buy the likes of Cardano, not knowing that they're better off buying the more expensive but lower market cap coins like the $200 Elrond (not financial advice).

I also don’t give financial advice, but I’ll say this. Truly understanding crypto is realizing it is all garbage and still profiting from it.

Do not nurse preferences for any particular type of coin or other artificial commodity, but embrace crypto’s extreme volatility as opportunity rather than a weakness. All that matters is which product has the trading volumes at any given time and how many exchanges are available to arbitrage it. Everything else is just glorified gambling.

 

[Norsiiii]

Sure but that is actually a feature to many economists, even conservative ones. I wouldn't want to get into that discussion tbh, for risk of running into a pack of hungry libertarians.

But it's also why cryptos like dogecoin, which has an unlimited supply, are somewhat likelier to succeed as actual currency rather than just a speculative store of value.

On the first point, governments like it because they get the easy option of simply turning up a dial on inflation whenever they feel like it to inflate themselves out of debt, and so that they can simply print as much currency as they want during times of minor crises to keep the population temporarily placated before the bulk inflation starts to kick in.

This control over inflation also allows them to keep the inflation rate ticking upwards artificially during times of economic slowdown in order to force investors to not just dump their funds in cash, and force them to do something more economically useful with their money.

On the second point, no, not really, because by definition cryptos are decentralised, so there is no body such as a government that is able to benefit from having complete control over the nation's currency. The fact that those fiat currencies inflate is not what makes them useful to government, it's the fact that their inflation can be 100% controlled in either direction. You can't do that with any DeFi.

 

[Beerfloat]

The fact that those fiat currencies inflate is not what makes them useful to government, it's the fact that their inflation can be 100% controlled in either direction. You can't do that with any DeFi.

I don't think we are very much in disagreement, but I feel I need to note here that while the control part is good to have, the key benefit for governments is just having a degree of inflation in the first place.

Because government, along with society at large, needs to encourage private investment instead of hoarding. Which is why deflationary commodities like Bitcoin and Ethereum utterly fail as currencies. And Dogecoin is slightly better suited.

 

[NightAntilli]

I also don’t give financial advice, but I’ll say this. Truly understanding crypto is realizing it is all garbage and still profiting from it.

Do not nurse preferences for any particular type of coin or other artificial commodity, but embrace crypto’s extreme volatility as opportunity rather than a weakness. All that matters is which product has the trading volumes at any given time and how many exchanges are available to arbitrage it. Everything else is just glorified gambling.

Well... Can't say all of them are garbage. If we say over 95% of them are garbage, I would possibly agree. There are many real products here with real utility...

Would you keep $100k in a bank that can go bust at any moment, doesn't give you a respectable APY, and refrains you from withdrawing it all at once, and have it inflate away? Or would you spread that across 5 different blockchains, stake some for 7%+ APY, do some yield farming for 100%+ APR and be able to transfer them however often you like?

I'm not lying if I say that my wealth is spread into about 80% crypto, 15% stocks, and 5% bank deposits. And trust me, I didn't put 80% of my wealth in crypto. I'm not stupid lol. But... It simply grew to become such a large portion over time. It might be a good idea to do some rebalancing soon, but I see no need, yet. The rebalancing is likely going into buying physical hardware to further support crypto, at least partially... I'll soon be setting up a Lightning Node, simply because the mass adoption of Bitcoin seems to be inevitable. Might as well jump on the bandwagon.

I don't think we are very much in disagreement, but I feel I need to note here that while the control part is good to have, the key benefit for governments is just having a degree of inflation in the first place.

Because government, along with society at large, needs to encourage private investment instead of hoarding. Which is why deflationary commodities like Bitcoin and Ethereum utterly fail as currencies. And Dogecoin is slightly better suited.

You're right, which is why to me, Monero is a very important coin. Especially with arguably tyrannical CBDCs around the corner...

But technically, Bitcoin is still inflationary. It's just the adoption that's through the roof.
When Bitcoin is no longer inflationary and adoption has reached its peak, it might actually be the most stable asset ever. I don't think hoarding will be something that lasts forever for Bitcoin, because fees need to be paid for every transaction, and the miners have costs to take care of, meaning that the Bitcoin will inevitably need to remain in circulation.
At the same time, exactly because of its stable value, people will likely only spend it on necessities or products/asset that should outperform it. This would likely lead to a healthier society rather than the current blind consumerism that we face.

Enough rambling from my side for now lol.