NWR Selling bitcoin

Geordie Torr

Geordie Torr

Location
Winchester, UK
Slightly random question. I jumped on the bitcoin bandwagon some time ago and bought a tiny quantity that is now worth a not-insignificant amount. I may come to regret this in the future, but I'm thinking of selling most of my stash while the price is crazy high. Does anyone have any experience of selling bitcoins and any advice on doing so?
 
Tom Cannavan said:
Someone will no doubt have fabulous knowledge of this Geordie, but not me: I still don't understand it, still don't trust it, and that's probably why I will never be rich :)
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It was a means to an end for me at first, which is how I learnt how to buy and store it, then, when the price started to go mad, I thought it might be worth a punt investment-wise - and now it seems it's probably not a bad time to cash in.
 
I use Coinbase Pro. Quick and easy enough to get set up and go through KYC, probably the best balance between fees and user friendliness, and has a liquid BTC/GBP market so don't need to worry about FX.

Make sure to use Coinbase Pro rather than standard Coinbase. Fees are less just a more trading oriented UI.

It's also a comparatively reliable/known quantity in a bit of a wild west of a market.
 
I like Nouriel and agree with him. Bitcoin is a ponzi scheme which is manipulated by dodgy insiders and is a symptom of the structural instability of financial markets.

If you speculate in something you don’t understand prepare to lose everything you invest. But it could go up multiple times In the mean time. Nouriel was saying this when Bitcoin was at $10k.

www.bloomberg.com

Flintstones Had Better Monetary System Than Bitcoin: Roubini

Nouriel Roubini, a professor at New York University's Stern School of Business, says there are "pump and dump schemes" contributing to the surge in Bitcoin and adds that the cryptocurrency will never be used as a means of payment for goods and services. He speaks during an interview on...
www.bloomberg.com www.bloomberg.com
 
Jeremy Caan said:
It's also environmentally terrible because the mining and transactions require such extraordinary compute power.
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This is my main beef with it, perhaps I am a dinosaur and plain don’t understand it but the “value” seems to be derived from “work” which is expending precious resources for no real reason...

At least with other environmentally terrible stores of value (e.g. precious metals) there is actually something useful that can be done with them, not that it often is.
 
That's the problem with bitcoin. The theory is that it is a naturally limiting item that requires more and more energy to "mine" therefore should go up in value for ever. The difference between it and diamonds (for example) is that it has no intrinsic value. You can't make a high-end stylus out of it or wear it as jewelry. It's value is purely based on other investors wanting it more than you. So it's impossible to say when is best to sell it. I do predict the day when it becomes worthless overnight. I just don't know when that will be and nor does anyone else. I guess it depends on whether there is something else you would rather have than Bitcoin.
 
Jonathan Hesford said:
That's the problem with bitcoin. The theory is that it is a naturally limiting item that requires more and more energy to "mine" therefore should go up in value for ever. The difference between it and diamonds (for example) is that it has no intrinsic value. You can't make a high-end stylus out of it or wear it as jewelry. It's value is purely based on other investors wanting it more than you. So it's impossible to say when is best to sell it. I do predict the day when it becomes worthless overnight. I just don't know when that will be and nor does anyone else. I guess it depends on whether there is something else you would rather have than Bitcoin.
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I wouldn’t call myself a cryptocurrency acolyte but I think this is a substantial oversimplification, and your “theory” is not the ethos or point of increasing difficulty at all. The diamond analogy is flawed - they absolutely have no intrinsic value until they have an application; therein is the value.

Bitcoin’s primary usage [at this time] is for transferring money relatively anonymously. As soon as a sum goes through two or three transfers it becomes basically impossible to trace. That application means it has a value to a certain group of people. As soon as that can be policed, sure, the value will likely drop, but the very point of many crypto currencies is a self regulation component that cannot be altered by outside forces. This is how the concept of Bitcoin came to exist and why statements about it no longer existing demonstrate a fundamental misunderstanding about its purpose or function.

Bitcoin was just the first, and is extremely inefficient. It was an exploratory application of blockchain technology that was latched onto because of the massive value in the aforementioned application.

There are many other cryptocurrencies that have very practical uses with far lower computing requirements - Ethereum 2.0 is going a long way to solving these embryonic issues of a new technology. Blockchain technology is here to stay, cryptocurrency by extension will be too.

I repeat, I am not a cryptocurrency acolyte. I just think it’s important that commentary on such a complex topic is at least relatively accurate.
 
I have bought some years ago for 'anonymous transfer', at the time you have to buy from someone online based on their review, a bit like bid for wine. Of course I badly regret I didn't keep a tiny bit in the wallet after that transfer, just like why I didn't buy a London flat ten years ago.
 
Po-yu Sung said:
I have bought some years ago for 'anonymous transfer', at the time you have to buy from someone online based on their review, a bit like bid for wine. Of course I badly regret I didn't keep a tiny bit in the wallet after that transfer, just like why I didn't buy a London flat ten years ago.
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I regret that I no longer have the password for the wallet where a friend of mine gave me some btc a few years back
 
Geordie, whatever the rights or wrongs of it, your original question was how to sell it. You also implied a 'should I sell now?'. Many moons ago I bought some shares in railtrack when the government offered them on allocation - about 300 I think which cost either £250 or £500. Either way it was a massive chunk of my savings but my parents reckoned it was a sure fire winner. They have always been of the opinion that you simply keep these things for a rainy day. I have always thought that once you get to a certain point then it's time to cash in your chips and be happy with what you have and don;t even think about what if... I sold my shares in my third year of university for roughly 17.5k. If I'd waited another couple of months I would have got 19K, but if I'd waited another 6 I'd have more or less got my money back and not much more because they tanked completely. That money paid off my student debt and went towards the deposit on our first house. So if you are happy with the value you are going to get out of these now, if I were you I'd get out whilst the getting is good, but obviously I know nothing about bitcoin or which direction it is likely to go in!
 
Julian Seers-Martin said:
I wouldn’t call myself a cryptocurrency acolyte but I think this is a substantial oversimplification, and your “theory” is not the ethos or point of increasing difficulty at all. The diamond analogy is flawed - they absolutely have no intrinsic value until they have an application; therein is the value.

Bitcoin’s primary usage [at this time] is for transferring money relatively anonymously. As soon as a sum goes through two or three transfers it becomes basically impossible to trace. That application means it has a value to a certain group of people. As soon as that can be policed, sure, the value will likely drop, but the very point of many crypto currencies is a self regulation component that cannot be altered by outside forces. This is how the concept of Bitcoin came to exist and why statements about it no longer existing demonstrate a fundamental misunderstanding about its purpose or function.

Bitcoin was just the first, and is extremely inefficient. It was an exploratory application of blockchain technology that was latched onto because of the massive value in the aforementioned application.

There are many other cryptocurrencies that have very practical uses with far lower computing requirements - Ethereum 2.0 is going a long way to solving these embryonic issues of a new technology. Blockchain technology is here to stay, cryptocurrency by extension will be too.

I repeat, I am not a cryptocurrency acolyte. I just think it’s important that commentary on such a complex topic is at least relatively accurate.
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That's interesting info. I guess I just see it as a substitute currency. Most people view Bitcon as a way to make money from nothing. It's more attractive than other forms of speculation or gambling because there is no-one, as far as we know, taking their commission like bookies and brokers.

Blockchain technology is interesting but its use as a virtual currency that is mainly valued for its increase in value, Ponzi-scheme like, seems to me an abuse of that technology, enabling money-launderers and corruption to flourish. It doesn't help that a lot of organisations that pump and pimp Bitcoin are ones that I distrust. It seems to me like a form of dirty money with little benefit to society and probably a negative effect on global issues of equality, poverty and stability.

I am open to the debate though. I'm no technophobe.

Mind you, I've never speculated on wine either.
 
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