Crypto Buffet & Munger Deride Bitcoin as "Swapping Turds"

A few well-run companies did nicely. Most didn't.

Aside from US examples like Amazon, here in Australia REA group sold for around 9c in 2001, taking a fall of almost 90% in just one year. Today the shares sell for over $166 dollars. The WA based ISP iinet was another example. The shares slumped massively and the company narrowly escaped bankruptcy after experiencing cash flow difficulties. Later, when conditions improved the shares went up over ten fold before the company was taken over. A wild ride.

Then there were those companies that mined the market, taking full advantage of the gullibility of 'investors' but producing nothing. Most of those went belly-up, some going bust a few scant months after being floated. At one time I compiled a list of directors whose companies underperformed the market. (lost all of that information when my computer died, some mugs just don't do backups).

 

Bitcoin is hard money with a fixed supply and known issuance rate which has never been changed and likely never will. The same can’t be said of all the other coins. Bitcoins fair creation and early distribution can never be replicated.

 

Bitcoin isn’t tulips or the south sea bubble! It’s one of, if not the greatest breakthroughs in recent history

 

So other than being of a fixed supply and a known issuance rate, what is the actual purpose of it?
A store of wealth? A means of transacting? A means of speculating?
There are plenty of established substitutes for all of the above.

Whats to stop any other 'coin' following the same script of limited supply and acting as an identical substitute? Or in other words, what makes Bitcoin so special?

 

They are planning a buy out

 

Bitcoin is a store of wealth and a’means of transacting. What other established substitutes have the same qualities?
Like i said bitcoin creation is unlikely to ever be replicated. It was a fair distribution with no premine and has no leader or foundation controlling it and hence no central point of failure.

 

Could Bitcoin not be replicated with another crypto?
There already exist stores of wealth and means of transaction, infact regular currency is probably a superior means of transacting as its trusted by the majority of the population.
As a store of wealth, that really only hold true for the coin enthusiasts.

The blockchain idea is great, but I dont really see bitcoin (or any crypto) solving any significant problem that exists for me, and im guessing the majority of the population feel the same way and hence its primary role to most people being a speculative instrument.

 

An emphatic yes. There are plenty new coins out there. Some dodge-ier than others.

 

The South Sea Bubble was based on a legitimate enterprise. The stock or consol saw a ten fold increase. In retrospect this is pretty tame compared to crypto.

Question for the boffins. If my computer crashes and I lose all my data, does this mean I have lost my stash of virtual coins? Appreciate an honest and patient answer for what might seem like a silly question.

 

A bubble-era stock promoter, caricatured as a "night wind hawker" (The Great Picture of Folly, 1720)

If you changed the dates around from those times up too yesterday for theThe South Sea Bubble and the long list then there is no difference this time around..

That's a good question if the links shutdown..

 

Guys, things are a lot different for crypto in 2021:

- You don`t need to cash out, you can just spend -> Binance credit card
- You can cash out easily
- If you are a millionaire or even billionaire there are exit strategies (like all the businesses)
- Governments have now some sort of regulation in regards to taxes -> they have recognised crypto as a form of "investment"
- Disruption is here: you can be a believer and embrace it or you can be a naysayer and wait for the new technology to be implemented in our day to day life
- This year is the Decentralised finance year.
- Doge has done 260x in 5 months. Yes it`s speculation, yes it`s high risk, why not try? Dogecoin is one of few.

 

You tell it like it is about the speculation bit.

A silly question question. What happens if my computer goes completely kaput (it's happened more than a few times). Do I lose my wallet? How common is it for people to be locked out of their accounts & who can you turn to?

 

No. These days nobody stores a wallet on their computer. We have seed phrases, hardware wallets and multi sig which make it pretty hard to lose coins

 

No bitcoin cannot be replicated. It’s creation and early distribution cannot. The infrastructure now in place make it virtually impossible for something to overtake it.

 

I thought bitcoin had for all intents and purposes been replicated to one degree or another by everyother cyrpto currency.

So what is the point of Ethereum, dodgecoin, and the thousands of cryptos if bitcoin cannot be replicated and its infrastructure unable to be overtaken?

Thats the part I struggle to understand... if bitcoin was somehow justified to be worth a gazillion dollars wouldnt one just use another of the thousands of cryptos out there for whatever productive purpose is supposed to exist for them in the first place?

 

A hypothetical here. Let's say (for arguments sake) there were massive gold discoveres in multiple places around the world and quite suddenly the supply of gold suddenly went up one hundred fold. What would happen to the price of gold? Think about it....

Creating new digital coins is not overly hard to do The arrival of so many new and different kinds of digital coins does not bode well for the original and best, namely Bitcoin. This has to be one of the worlds greatest bubbles. Of course I'd happily buy in if some other greater fool bought it off me. But I'm too nervous for now.

 

That’s just it there is no point to the other cryptocurrencies! Other than making the founders wealthy when the pump it after they’ve given the lions share of tokens to themselves and theirs friends.

 

Hypothetically if all of a sudden massive amounts of silver and copper are found what does that do to the price of gold? (This is basically what you asked!) there’s only one bitcoin. Can’t be replicated. You can make a million other tokens doesn’t matter. They don’t have the bitcoin network effects. You are also welcome to make you own internet. Good luck getting any traction with it though. That ship has sailed.

 

Creating a network is not overly hard to do. Why don’t you create a new better internet? Think you’ll get any acceptance? TCP/IP, SMPT had superior protocols but they’re too widely accepted now. Bitcoin is the cyber money protocol. Highly unlikely to be overtaken. It’s too far ahead

 

Here's a real world use case of how crypto is disrupting current encumbents. Just paid the ATO a six figure tax bill through bpay using cryptos. Who says you cant cash out in bulk? Took me all of 30 seconds and done at the comfort of my own home. Was a much faster and painless experience compared to going through traditional banking methods. The ATO and Bpay seem to be fine with it as well. Seems like a pretty solid validation.