Bitcoin! (Part 3)

Buenos días muchachos! ¿Cómo están todos?

Haha sorry guys, I’m still too caught up from watching old school gangster films these past couple of nights as a celebration of two weeks off work.

Friday night it was “Boyz n the Hood” and last night “Blood in, Blood out” (hence the Spanish twist).

CRENSHAW MAFIA YO! ROLLIN’ 60’s YA FEEL! LIFE’s A RISK CARNAL! VATOS LOCOS FOREVER ESE!

Man, they just don’t make movies like they used to anymore.

I was reminiscing about this to MrsFrugalSamurai-to-be in the middle of “Blood in, Blood out” when she asked me why I was so into “such old movies”.

“Because you’re there with them Latino gangbangers every step of the way, mi niña bonita.” Does some random gangster hand gesture.

“Wait… Mexicans are Latinos?”

“Huh? Yeah? Of course they are.” Quizzical facial expression appears.

“So Jennifer Lopez… she’s Mexican?”

“Er… I think she was born in the Bronx to Puerto Rican parents.” Genuine confusion spreads.

“The Bronx is in Puerto Rico?”

FACE PALM.

What I have to put up with guys – it’s probably safer to continue our conversation last time on bitcoins (although I don’t think she understood what I was saying there either).

Hm… where was I… oh yeah, discussing whether or not to invest in it (continued from last post):

Illiquidity

Don’t just take the bitcoin price at face value – much has been said about the numerous middle-men who at certain times cannot execute trades or quote vastly different prices. Sometimes it takes 4.5 hours on average to confirm a transaction. For an asset which rises or falls by double digits every hour – that is a crazy long time to find out what price you actually bought/sold at.

A fundamental aspect of a widely accepted asset class is price confidence – if you cannot be confident regarding what price you have entered or exited into, it cannot be sustainable.

But there are potential solutions on the horizon that may solve the liquidity issue. Nothing concrete as yet but watch this space!

There’s money to be made.

In case you haven’t noticed, bitcoin (and cryptocurrency) has minted several multi-millionaires, even billionaires, like this guy.

Fuck you guy! Lucky bastard.

Fact is though, vast majority of these early adopters are exactly that, early adopters.

The big moves always reward those who get in early before any boom – would investing in cryptocurrency now make you into an overnight millionaire still?

Very slim but possible – question is, which one?

It’s a jungle out there.

I’ve stated early on that cryptocurrency is unregulated and has very little, if any government oversight. This makes it the proverbial wild, wild west with stories of hacking, theft, pump and dump schemes, insider trading, collusion all possible on a daily basis.

There are plenty of platforms and digital “wallets” out there – but the internet man. Scary stuff happens sometimes.

Consider other Cryptocurrencies

In saying all this, be mindful that the cryptocurrency market is worth around $530 billion (at time of writing) with bitcoin just under $230 billion. There’s still another $300 billion worth of cryptocurrency out there.

Bitcoin’s primary advantage is its early entrant status – but there are signs that other cryptocurrencies are catching up with better enhancements to some of the issues identified with bitcoin – Ethereum, Ripple, Litecoin are some of the names touted about.

If you are considering investing in cryptocurrency – explore some of the others.

In the last post in the series I’ll sum it all up and discuss what I think about it all – come back and find out!

What do you think? Did you enjoy this post? Please help me out if you enjoyed this and click on the little “follow” button at the bottom right and be a follower! Thank you greatly!

P.S. Every post is the personal opinion of yours truly, please do your own research before committing to any investment decision. But if you feel influenced by my writings, GREAT! Send me your dollar now (private message for where to send your money).

P.P.S It’s so ironic that I post a couple of topics on bitcoin and the bitcoin price just crashed – sigh, are the bitcoin whales avid readers of TheFrugalSamurai also?

P.P.P.S I almost forgot but it’s Christmas Eve people! I hope everyone is well loved, well fed and well entertained whoever and wherever you are.

I give thanks to our Lord that for a moment in time we all stop and wish each other goodwill no matter our race, religion or creed. Truly it is the human spirit at its best.

Merry Christmas!