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Bitcoin Government The Almighty Buck United States

Nearly a Third of Millennials Say They'd Rather Own Bitcoin Than Stocks (bloomberg.com) 312

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: A survey by venture capital firm Blockchain Capital found that about 30 percent of those in the 18-to-34 age range would rather own $1,000 worth of Bitcoin than $1,000 of government bonds or stocks. The study of more than 2,000 people found that 42 percent of millennials are at least somewhat familiar with bitcoin, compared with 15 percent among those ages 65 and up. Bitcoin rose more than 6 percent Wednesday to as much as $7,545, helping to push the value of the total cryptocurrency market above $200 billion for the first time, according to CoinMarketcap. The digital asset has soared more than 600 percent this year, compared with gains of 15 percent for the S&P 500 Index -- which might explain millennials' attraction.
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Nearly a Third of Millennials Say They'd Rather Own Bitcoin Than Stocks

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  • by bobbied ( 2522392 ) on Wednesday November 08, 2017 @08:11PM (#55516575)

    Don't run with the herd if you want to make real money..

    • So you'd rather play 'The Hat,' would you? Hmmm.

    • Um... Running with the herd is a very effective way to make money.

      You just have to stop running before most of the heard when you get near the cliff. :-)

    • Don't run with the herd if you want to make real money.

      I get the no risk / no reward sentiment, but... animals that break away from their herds are often the ones killed and eaten first.

      • And sometimes the herd is heading over a cliff where they all die... It's all in how you look at it.

  • And this... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Type44Q ( 1233630 ) on Wednesday November 08, 2017 @08:15PM (#55516599)
    And this is how the unknowing are separated from their wealth. Buy high, sell low, boys.
    • Buy high, sell low, boys.

      It worked for Tony Montana!

      Oh, wait a minute. It didn't work. He died in a hail of bullets. But he was as high as a kite when it happened.

    • Re:And this... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by McGruber ( 1417641 ) on Wednesday November 08, 2017 @09:10PM (#55516877)

      And this is how the unknowing are separated from their wealth. Buy high, sell low, boys.

      Note the source of the survey... from the article:

      A survey by venture capital firm Blockchain Capital found that about 30 percent of those in the 18-to-34 age range would rather own $1,000 worth of Bitcoin than $1,000 of government bonds or stocks. The study of more than 2,000 people found that 42 percent of millennials are at least somewhat familiar with bitcoin, compared with 15 percent among those ages 65 and up.

      The true suckers are going to be those buying Bitcoin polling sponsored by mainstream media (CNN and/or FoxNews) finds 30% of people would rather have bitcoin than bonds or stocks.

    • Bitcoin appears particularly attractive because it hasn't (permanently) gone down yet. Every bubble has hordes of supporters and investors who are convinced their favored investment is "special" and can't go down. And it always does. Unfortunately the losers are one last ones left holding the bag, not always the people hyping up that particular investment.

      In my time, I've seen this happen with gold (1970s/1980s), the tech bubble (1990s), the housing bubble (2000s), and oil (2010s). A lot of people fl
      • In my time, I've seen this happen with gold (1970s/1980s)

        Would you say current gold owners are "holding the bag" ?

      • Re:And this... (Score:5, Informative)

        by tlhIngan ( 30335 ) <slashdot.worf@net> on Thursday November 09, 2017 @04:13AM (#55517935)

        If you're investing in something because it's continued to climb and you're convinced it can't go down, you're simply wrong. It can, and it will. Maybe not tomorrow, but eventually. Bitcoin is a bit more insulated because it's designed to become harder to acquire over time (which coincidentally enriches early adopters), so the supply constriction enhances an increase in value (e.g. imagine what would've happened to home prices if the more people bought homes, the fewer homes builders were allowed to build). So its crash won't happen until enough people realize how stupid a trait that is for "currency" or something with no intrinsic value.

        No, it will happen like all bubbles do - it pops when people start cashing out. It's worse with Bitcoin because its very low transaction rate means it can be extra volatile.

        Even more volatile will be the exchanges - if someone were to convert more than a few bitcoins, will exchanges have the liquidity to perform the exchange? If you have say, 100 bitcoin and it reaches $10,000/BTC, you're looking at a million bucks. Will the exchange you use have the liquidity to cash it?

        This could easily lead to a run as people trying to cash out run into exchanges unable to cash out - they simply run out of cash.

        That's the likely scenario that will crash it - someone starts selling, exchanges stop being able to exchange and everyone is locked into bitcoins because there is no liquidity to convert it. The exchange rate falls sharply because exchanges with money will realize they will run out of it fast as the thunderous crowd of people trying to cash out come knocking.

  • by sandbagger ( 654585 ) on Wednesday November 08, 2017 @08:21PM (#55516615)

    BitCoin are unregulated investment instruments. They can't keep climbing indefinitely and some people will lose their shirts.

    Not you of course. No, you're special.

    The most dangerous words in finance are 'this time is different' and no, no it's not different. Investments are regulated so that people are protected from the Bernie Madoffs of the world and it's necessary to do so.

    • Investments are regulated so that people are protected from the Bernie Madoffs of the world and it's necessary to do so.

      So, you're using a real-world example of some shit that actually recently happened to say that "investments are regulated" so said thing can't happen? I think I'm lost.

      • by ClickOnThis ( 137803 ) on Wednesday November 08, 2017 @09:23PM (#55516935) Journal

        Investments are regulated so that people are protected from the Bernie Madoffs of the world and it's necessary to do so.

        So, you're using a real-world example of some shit that actually recently happened to say that "investments are regulated" so said thing can't happen? I think I'm lost.

        Bernie Madoff went to jail for what he did, and he'll probably die there.

        Regulations may not prevent shit from happening. But when you have regulations, you can make shit happen to people who violate them. Thus providing an incentive to the would-be Madoffs of the finance world to behave themselves.

    • BitCoin are unregulated investment instruments. They can't keep climbing indefinitely and some people will lose their shirts.

      Wow, now that you mention it, I've never heard of a single regulated investment instrument where anything like that happened.

    • They can keep climbing in definitely... I guess the heat death of the universe will eventually put a stop to ... everything, but before that, there is no reason the value of bitcoin can't keep going up. I don't think it can keep going up at the rate it's at, but even if it just plateaus no one need lose their shirt.

      If it were true that nothing can keep going up in value indefinitely, then gold would have become worthless by now.

      As long as there is limited supply of something, and no cap on the amount of p

  • which weighs more.... a pound of feathers or a pound of lead?
    • by Kenja ( 541830 )
      Well the pound is weak right now due to brexit, but I think you could buy more grams of lead for a pound than you could feathers.
  • I'd love to have been a fly on the wall at the meeting where they
    came up with that name.

    But I've, like, watched a few episodes of W1A or something and I suspect it's totally a close substitute.

  • Too young to know (Score:3, Insightful)

    by manu0601 ( 2221348 ) on Wednesday November 08, 2017 @08:34PM (#55516697)
    Perhaps millennials are too young to remember what a bubble is?
    • by Megol ( 3135005 )

      Most would remember the dot-com bubble at least.

      Using the definition of millennials as those born 1981-1997, the end of the bubble as 2001 and assuming a level birth-rate and sufficient understanding of the world to remember the bubble at 10 years:

      Percentage of millennials remembering the bubble = percentage of millennials being 10 or older in 2001 = percentage being born in or before 1991

      = (1991-1981)/(1997-1981) = 10/16 = 0.625

      62.5 % should remember at least one bubble. Given the above assumptions hold of

  • Do it right. Invest in blockchain companies and their technologies. Not currency.

  • Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Wednesday November 08, 2017 @08:53PM (#55516797)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • The run is nearly over and everyone and their dog are now jumping in

      Most posts on this topic right here are negative (as they've been for years), and they get moderated as insightful. Doesn't seem like everybody is jumping in right now.

  • > The digital asset has soared more than 600 percent this year, compared with gains of 15 percent for the S&P 500 Index -- which might explain millennials' attraction.

    I wonder about the causality in this sentence...

  • In other news (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Registered Coward v2 ( 447531 ) on Wednesday November 08, 2017 @08:58PM (#55516823)
    1/3 of millennials don't understand risk, volatility or liquidity.
  • by geekmux ( 1040042 ) on Wednesday November 08, 2017 @09:18PM (#55516913)

    "The study of more than 2,000 people found that 42 percent of millennials are at least somewhat familiar with bitcoin..."

    2,000 people didn't read anything and just clicked "I Agree".

    Yup, there it is, on page 37 of the Investing 101 EULA...the definition of volatility...

  • by PopeRatzo ( 965947 ) on Wednesday November 08, 2017 @09:39PM (#55517019) Journal

    A third of millennials would rather own bitcoin than stocks.

    Forty-three percent of millennials prefer socialism to capitalism.

    Discuss.

    https://thefederalist.com/2017... [thefederalist.com]

    https://legalinsurrection.com/... [legalinsurrection.com]

  • How many millenials even own a house?
  • At least a third of millennials are financially illiterate.

    "Bitcoin" is a specific asset. "Stocks" are a class of asset. You want your assets diversified so that if something terribly wrong is found with one of them (e.g., a cryptographic flaw in Bitcoin) you are not wiped out.

    If you were invested in a diverse portfolio on Black Tuesday-- the day the stock market crashed setting off the Great Depression -- you'd have been find even if your portfolio consisted entirely of stocks. It was people who put all

  • Nearly a third of millennials are complete idiots.

  • In related news (Score:5, Insightful)

    by dave562 ( 969951 ) on Wednesday November 08, 2017 @11:29PM (#55517385) Journal

    100% of millennials have never been personally affected by a commodity bubble bursting.

    Sometimes people have to learn lessons the hard way.

  • I wonder how qualified those "millennials" were.
    If they were not enough, the original question could turn to: do you prefer to own a pasta drainer or a smartphone?

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • The entire stock market seems to consist of a bunch of morons that have no idea what they're backing, but just want some money, based on charts they've seen. This was especially hilarious when the fuckwits jumped to Nintendo stock when a game by Niantic and The Pokemon Company became super popular. It's also pretty evident when you watch "investors" on shows like the Shark Tank.

    Bitcoin has some chance at catching on, but not until major retailers start using it. I mean, the money we use right now isn't
  • by TRRosen ( 720617 )

    This is exactly why it should be banned immediately before it causes real damage and deaths.

  • Put all your eggs into one basket, that's real smart.
  • Two thirds of them think having tribal tattoos and piercings designed to take a ship's hawser make them original and creative.

    I wonder what the degree of overlap is.

UNIX was not designed to stop you from doing stupid things, because that would also stop you from doing clever things. -- Doug Gwyn

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