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comment by kleinbl00
kleinbl00  ·  2461 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Too late to join the ETH train?

I would not invest what you cannot afford to lose.

I would not purchase without the understanding that the value of your purchase can go to zero.

I would not speculate on the assumption that the gains ETH has experienced so far will continue.

I would not throw money at a thing with no marginal utility if there are things with marginal utility to throw money at.

I would not purchase into the cryptocurrency ecosystem because others are, or because the hype is driving you, or because there are crazy riches to be had.

I would keep in mind that many responses you will get here will be from people that, like myself, invested in ETH when it was effectively a penny stock. Our investments are now large but our exposure is not. We can afford to be dispassionate about it because our money is "potential money" without ever having been "actual money." It's a lot easier to be casual about something when you can afford to lose it all.

THAT SAID

The intrinsic value of Ethereum, as a technology, is non-zero.

The technological innovations of Ethereum, as a technology, are open and promising.

The community around Ethereum, while young, naive and outspoken, is also talented and innovative.

The network effects of the Ethereum Network, while modest compared to existing banking networks, are robust and expanding rapidly.

_____________________________________

You should read this. I tell anyone who asks me about cryptocurrency that it's a wretched den of scum and villainy. I have zero evidence and nothing but speculation but that speculation leads me to believe that the Russians caused the Flash Crash because they could (put in a bunch of super-low orders on one side, dump a giant market order on the other side, collect everyone's tears and put it in your wallet). There is circumstantial evidence that an outage a month or so ago that saw the market cap of Ripple spike above ETH was due to coordinated DDOS and market withdrawals. Cryptocurrency manipulation is real, unregulated, and unstoppable and if you thought beating a market that's nominally "fair" was tough, try it when there are no rules.

But I still hold ETH. I intend to keep holding ETH. I think its value will increase. And frankly, the crypto nerds don't sound half as crazy as the goldbugs.

I told my father I'd made some money in cryptocurrency. He advised me to sell everything now before I lost my shirt.

"Now" in this instance was March and ETH had yet to broach $15.

Bitcoin went to $1000 before it went back down to $170. If I'd bought Bitcoin at $1000 and it went to $170 I would have been quite bitter. ETH could easily go to under $100 again. Like next week. Or tomorrow. But I don't think it'll ever go back down to where I bought it.

And I bought Bitcoin at $170.

Your mileage may vary.





demure  ·  2461 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Thanks bl00. Appreciate it.

am_Unition  ·  2461 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I tried to get in on ETH a few days ago when it was at like $230, bank canceled my debit card as soon as coinbase charged it.

Now I just looked it up and it's back around $250, neato.

I think it's a good time to buy.

kleinbl00  ·  2461 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Coinbase and Kraken are sketchy. They worked okay when the world was small but it isn't anymore.

WA state and NY state passed laws specifically against sketchy-ass cryptocurrency exchanges; this is why Coinbase, Kraken and Poloniex have discontinued trading there.

Gemini is compliant with 50-state law, so far as I know.

demure  ·  2461 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Edit: actually, what makes them sketchy?

steve  ·  2461 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    Coinbase and Kraken are sketchy.

Pray tell where are you reading these days?

kleinbl00  ·  2461 days ago  ·  link  ·  

https://www.facebook.com/groups/Ethereum/

Not for the knowledge, but more for the lack thereof. But more importantly, I recently recommended both Coinbase and Kraken to people and they had horrific experiences. It's pretty clear that both exchanges are overextended and out of their depth and that's how Mt. GoX happened.

There was no reason for GDAX to allow a 10,000 ETH market order. Neither you nor I nor anyone we know would be allowed to do a hundredth of that. But for some reason, GDAX let it through... which is troubling as hell.