Bitcoin

[MRubey]

Bitcoin, like ai is difficult to understand but inevitable. It is the only incorruptible (can’t be inflated or distorted) unit of account on the planet. Nation states have discovered this as has Wall Street. Bo Hines, Trumps top crypto advisor recently stated they intend to purchase as much BTC as possible. This is to occur in a manner that does not require tax payers funds. At the same time BlackRock wants it all. Bitcoin is thought of as the token BTC. But what it really is, is the Bitcoin network. The largest most powerful most secure computer network that has ever existed. That is the true value for a whole host of reasons. The book Soft War* written by Mjr Jason Lowery which was censored from printing by the DOD shortly after it came out, outlines Bitcoins importance to future national defense. Michael Saylor, founder and Executive Chairman of Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) (Strategy holds $40B in BTC and is the only stock to outperform Invidia) believes that Bitcoin will be the money of the ai’s. They will require a digital globally functional, autonomous, uniform, and politically neutral form of exchange of value. Saylor also points out that in a market volatility is vitality. Volatility goes both directions. If you look at a chart of BTC since inception you will see that it does make wild swings. But those swings occur within a channel that moves only upwards to the right. As it matures it has also become less volatile. Now with the constant bid coming from nation states and corporate institutions Bitcoin has weathered recent events without the magnitude of downdraw that used to be normal.
The risk of Bitcoin is no longer owning it. But rather having zero. In another year or two it will likely become impossible for an individual to obtain a meaningful amount.

*Soft War is available for free as an audiobook on YouTube

 

[andromedaaudio]

The risk of Bitcoin is no longer owning it. But rather having zero. In another year or two it will likely become impossible for an individual to obtain a meaningful amount.

Gaap.
You really want it to go/talk it up

 

[Folsom]

Check out buying and selling by ETFs.

 

[MRubey]

Check out buying and selling by ETFs.

A large percentage of the ETF activity has been shown to be a yield harvesting arbitrage trade popular among hedge funds where they buy the ETF and short the futures. They move in and out like a huge school of fish.

 

[Folsom]

A large percentage of the ETF activity has been shown to be a yield harvesting arbitrage trade popular among hedge funds where they buy the ETF and short the futures. They move in and out like a huge school of fish.

It's not a surprise. Everyone is trying to make a buck. When people talk about regulation I'm interested in it for things like this, and CEX problems. Most of the rest of it, no.

 

[MRubey]

It's not a surprise. Everyone is trying to make a buck. When people talk about regulation I'm interested in it for things like this, and CEX problems. Most of the rest of it, no.

I used to resent it. A lot of people still do. But it’s perfectly legal and pretty smart. It’s not a problem. All the various trading schemes provide liquidity. It’s good because these people are interacting with the asset. At some point they will realize how valuable it is and just keep it. Regulation is not going to outlaw sophisticated trading. It will hopefully outlaw things like rehypothication. The practice some exchanges have of reselling assets held in custody. This undermines Bitcoins fixed supply and is basically dishonest.
Charles Schwab just announced they are setting up systems to allow their customers to buy and sell crypto. I think the days of the native crypto exchange are numbered. The suits are taking it away from the hoodies. This is aborant to old school OG Bitcoiners but it’s a natural evolution of the growth of the asset.
It’s never going to be a day to day currency of exchange which was the original intent. It’s going to be traded and hoarded by the wealthiest entities in the world. It already is and that will only increase. The fiat currencies of the world are all sinking ships. Bitcoin is digital gold.

 

[Folsom]

I used to resent it. A lot of people still do. But it’s perfectly legal and pretty smart. It’s not a problem. All the various trading schemes provide liquidity. It’s good because these people are interacting with the asset. At some point they will realize how valuable it is and just keep it. Regulation is not going to outlaw sophisticated trading. It will hopefully outlaw things like rehypothication. The practice some exchanges have of reselling assets held in custody. This undermines Bitcoins fixed supply and is basically dishonest.
Charles Schwab just announced they are setting up systems to allow their customers to buy and sell crypto. I think the days of the native crypto exchange are numbered. The suits are taking it away from the hoodies. This is aborant to old school OG Bitcoiners but it’s a natural evolution of the growth of the asset.
It’s never going to be a day to day currency of exchange which was the original intent. It’s going to be traded and hoarded by the wealthiest entities in the world. It already is and that will only increase. The fiat currencies of the world are all sinking ships. Bitcoin is digital gold.

I think you misunderstand. When liquidity partners do certain types of things that are illegal for a CEX to do, and such, it is skirting laws that exist in normal trading for stocks etc, because they currently can get away with it. In fact some of it is in such a grey area that certain organizations like WinterMute still find themselves dealing with lawsuits.

 

[MRubey]

I think you misunderstand. When liquidity partners do certain types of things that are illegal for a CEX to do, and such, it is skirting laws that exist in normal trading for stocks etc, because they currently can get away with it. In fact some of it is in such a grey area that certain organizations like WinterMute still find themselves dealing with lawsuits.

I’m all for complying with the law and only wish it were a more prevalent attitude.

 

[andromedaaudio]

Bitcoin, like ai is difficult to understand but inevitable. It is the only incorruptible (can’t be inflated or distorted) unit of account on the planet. Nation states have discovered this as has Wall Street. Bo Hines, Trumps top crypto advisor recently stated they intend to purchase as much BTC as possible. This is to occur in a manner that does not require tax payers funds. At the same time BlackRock wants it all. Bitcoin is thought of as the token BTC. But what it really is, is the Bitcoin network. The largest most powerful most secure computer network that has ever existed. That is the true value for a whole host of reasons. The book Soft War* written by Mjr Jason Lowery which was censored from printing by the DOD shortly after it came out, outlines Bitcoins importance to future national defense. Michael Saylor, founder and Executive Chairman of Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) (Strategy holds $40B in BTC and is the only stock to outperform Invidia) believes that Bitcoin will be the money of the ai’s. They will require a digital globally functional, autonomous, uniform, and politically neutral form of exchange of value. Saylor also points out that in a market volatility is vitality. Volatility goes both directions. If you look at a chart of BTC since inception you will see that it does make wild swings. But those swings occur within a channel that moves only upwards to the right. As it matures it has also become less volatile. Now with the constant bid coming from nation states and corporate institutions Bitcoin has weathered recent events without the magnitude of downdraw that used to be normal.
The risk of Bitcoin is no longer owning it. But rather having zero. In another year or two it will likely become impossible for an individual to obtain a meaningful amount.

*Soft War is available for free as an audiobook on YouTube

Kinross gold will present its earnings beginning of may .
They expect a 120 % year over year increase .

When is the Bitcoin earnings report coming out ???
Or is it a speculative bubble ( just like gold lol )

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/kinross-gold-kgc-earnings-expected-140116938.html

 

[andromedaaudio]

https://www.investing.com/news/commodities-news/gold-prices-are-up-29-in-2025-outperforming-all-asset-classes-93CH-4169405

According to UBS gold beat everything incl BTC this year

 

[Tangram]

https://www.investing.com/news/commodities-news/gold-prices-are-up-29-in-2025-outperforming-all-asset-classes-93CH-4169405

According to UBS gold beat everything incl BTC this year

I used to make a living as a gold analyst. After many, many years of disappointment, gold, courtesy of central bank and Chinese retail buying, is FINALLY fulfilling the predictions that have been made by gold “bugs” for 30 years. I own a number of gold equities as ballast for my broader portfolio and they have been a welcome addition. The total market cap of the world’s fold equities is a fraction of even just on Magnificent Seven stock so when the rest of the world piles on, watch out. As for BTC, never touch the stuff.

 

[MRubey]

Gold revaluation is in the conversation.
BTC? Follow the money.

Official Reserve Revaluations: The International Experience

The Federal Reserve Board of Governors in Washington DC.

www.federalreserve.gov

 

[Folsom]

Take a look at the long graph on gold. It was in a 10 year slump where everyone was underwater on it before covid.

My prediction is feds lower interest and it dumps not long after. In fact I'd be surprised at anything that doesn't then.

 

[andromedaaudio]

Take a look at the long graph on gold. It was in a 10 year slump where everyone was underwater on it before covid.

My prediction is feds lower interest and it dumps not long after. In fact I'd be surprised at anything that doesn't then.

My prediction is it will go ballistic not long after the fed cuts .

Governments are in so much debt all over the world that in order to fullfill the interest payments , rates have to come down eventually , causing inflation
There is no way out of this hole then to print money and debasing the fiat currencies.


Which will lead to a new Gold standard of some sort.

I bought KGC for example at 3.70 USD in 2018 and im doing just fine

 

[andromedaaudio]

Of course there is a way out and thats limiting spending.
I ll leave it at that.

 

[Folsom]

Historically interest rate cuts are followed by massive corrections.

 

[Williamad33]

Yes, well, at least in cryptocurrencies. But I wouldn't say "Bitcoin" as I don't bother to hold it. Ethereum is my main interest as it has usefulness & longevity. I'm also interested in XRP. To lesser degrees a few other things, ICO's and such.

Problems with Bitcoin:

The nodes are ran by generous people that may have an interest in Bitcoin itself. Nodes get nothing for running a node, so there's so few that Bitcoin is sluggishly slow and can take up to a week to pass funds through, when the idea is basically instant... (nodes are where all the transactions occur, and information is stored "decentralized")

It's only profitable so long the cost of electricity to minting is good. This basically means it's forced to inflate more than it should, because it has to match the electricity for minting and then some. At some point this may because a serious problem. The only thing that works in it's favor is that it's all but impossible to get any real BTC unless you have an industrial-ish sized operation these days. In fact someone may have invested in solar power or something, so their ROI would become a reality.

It has no technology and it's not even very anonymous anymore. So it only works as a currency, and it has no ability to do anything. The Wave "crypto" and others are trying to use it as a currency but implement smart technology on top of it or something... seems like they're trying to keep a sinking ship afloat that gains mass constantly.

It's an ecological disaster. BTC has produced massive influx of manufacturing ASIC miners that use hordes of power. Any huge mining operation is using as much power as small towns.

Ethereum by comparison:

It is mined right now, to keep it having a reasonable inflation rate, or maybe deflation, in this case. In the future it will go to Proof of Stake. That means it won't be eating up massive amounts of power. The nodes that have enough ETH will get to vote on consensus for some things, and decided on how much ETH (ether) is used for transactions. So self preservation and compensation for running nodes will keep it in check. (some ETH will be burned during transactions that never comes back)

It has great technology. It can make smart contracts. The eliminate contractual clauses. They can have limits, dates, etc in them. Here's a place to start with them.

The system supports Tokens. Tokens can be used as seen fit, but ICO is the most popular use. Basically a company needs investors so they trade Tokens for ETH, with a big sale of them for a week or month or such. Once the company is up and running the idea is they'll buy back the Tokens and burn them. Whomever owns the Tokens is the company owners, so if enough are bought back (they're tradeable so they have their own prices) the amount of owners will be smaller. That way the owners can actually vote and make decisions.

The Big Threat to Cryptos:

Taxes. They're bat**** crazy. Utter nonsense. They're so dumb currently that no one even complies. I can go into some detail on this if you wish, but basically the gist is they're UTTERLY ignored because of incompatibility nonsense.

Really thoughtful breakdown — you highlight a lot of the big debates around BTC vs ETH.
I agree with you that Bitcoin’s energy use is a real issue. The argument about decentralization often ignores the fact that industrial-scale mining farms dominate the network anyway, which makes the “ordinary user running a node” almost irrelevant. It’s become less of a currency and more of a store-of-value narrative, but even that feels shaky when speed and fees are compared to modern alternatives.
Ethereum on the other hand seems more future-proof with the shift to Proof of Stake and the flexibility of smart contracts. That’s what makes it more like a platform than just a coin — it actually does something beyond just payments.
As for taxes, yeah, the regulatory environment is messy. It’s hard for average users to even comply properly when the rules don’t match the technology. Until governments create frameworks that are both practical and enforceable, most people will keep treating crypto as a grey area.

 

[Ron Resnick]

Really thoughtful breakdown — you highlight a lot of the big debates around BTC vs ETH.
I agree with you that Bitcoin’s energy use is a real issue. The argument about decentralization often ignores the fact that industrial-scale mining farms dominate the network anyway, which makes the “ordinary user running a node” almost irrelevant. It’s become less of a currency and more of a store-of-value narrative, but even that feels shaky when speed and fees are compared to modern alternatives.
Ethereum on the other hand seems more future-proof with the shift to Proof of Stake and the flexibility of smart contracts. That’s what makes it more like a platform than just a coin — it actually does something beyond just payments.
As for taxes, yeah, the regulatory environment is messy. It’s hard for average users to even comply properly when the rules don’t match the technology. Until governments create frameworks that are both practical and enforceable, most people will keep treating crypto as a grey area.

Welcome to WBF, William!

 

[Ron Resnick]

I agree with you that Bitcoin’s energy use is a real issue.

I don't see this as an issue. Miners are paying one way or the other for the electricity they use.

It’s become less of a currency and more of a store-of-value narrative, but even that feels shaky when speed and fees are compared to modern alternatives.

For Bitcoin I never subscribed to anything but a store a value narrative, and for that speed and fees are irrelevant.

Ethereum on the other hand seems more future-proof with the shift to Proof of Stake and the flexibility of smart contracts.

I don't know your definition of "future-proof." I think smart contracts are completely brilliant, which is why I do own some Ethereum.

For a store of value purpose I'm much more comfortable with a proof of work token with a capped supply than with a proof of stake token with no supply cap.

 

[andromedaaudio]

BTC has nt really gone anywhere the past couple of years .
My gold and especially silver miners are doing very good .
EXK being the best today 14 % up.