Regulator warns Bitcoin buyers: Be ready to lose all your money

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-42360553

by dberhane • 9 years ago

27 17 9 years ago

bbc.co.uk

wyldfire• 9 years ago

shrug, please get in the queue.

ipince• 9 years ago

Well there's nothing new here.

Also, such poor headline. "Be ready to lose all your money" sounds like a threat. He really said "be prepared to lose all your money", which sounds more like sound advice.

jazoom• 9 years ago

Those sound the same to me

Zak• 9 years ago

The headline sounds like a threat: "we might take your money through regulatory action". The statement was actually that the value of cryptocurrency is volatile and it's risky as an investment or store of value.

This is sound advice for someone who doesn't know much about it and is only interested because they've heard about people making huge profits. It's not news at all to most of the HN audience.

thephyber• 9 years ago

This seems pretty late in the game. BTC was whitepapered in 2008 and implemented (in code and network) the same year.

If the intention of central banks is to "protect peoples' investments", they should have warned about these concerns earlier.

At the risk of using Trump's favorite "ism", Wall Street and central banks don't exactly have a great reputation for "protecting peoples' investments" either. In fact, the EU and the US federal government are enablers of the same crappy behaviors that encourage financial swindling and speculation.

tehlike• 9 years ago

Granted, they have been warning about it since early days.

maxander• 9 years ago

I think your two points explain each other- there’s just so much general reckless malarkey going on in finance already, that banks don’t see the point in even thinking about a risk that involves less than half a trillion dollars.

Bitcoin isn’t any more volatile than it was, but the potential bust has gotten big enough to garner attention.

jdlyga• 9 years ago

I only have the pure profits that I've made off bitcoin invested in bitcoin nowadays.

dragontamer• 9 years ago

This is a common investing fallacy. It doesn't matter "where" you get your money from, money is money.

If you have $30,000 today, be it from BTC or from Work, it doesn't matter. If you lose it all tomorrow to a crash, you lost $30,000.

If you have $50,000 in BTC, it doesn't matter if you "only spent $1000" a few years ago. Its $50,000 (minus capital gains taxes).

supercanuck• 9 years ago

What he is saying is that he is investing only so much that a financial crisis (total loss) doesn't result in a personal crisis (divorce, can't pay rent, etc)

Klathmon• 9 years ago

Yes but if I invested $1000 and sold 1/2 for ($1000 + any taxes/fees that might apply) some time later, if it crashes to 0 I am not at a net loss.

You can call it a fallacy all you want, it's one I'm more than happy to indulge.

alanpca• 9 years ago

Really, it's only $50,000 if they realize the gains. In gambling what OP is referring to is "free rolling".

justifier2• 9 years ago

Hoping to see a public statement about the uncertainty surrounding the foundational math of cryptographic hash functions instead it's the same volatility argument where the response is 'that's why I'm interested!'

gitgud2• 9 years ago

Have you got any reference links for this? I can't find anything matching this cryptographic uncertainty

justifier2• 9 years ago

In a broadly abstracted sense: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/P_versus_NP_problem

xster• 9 years ago

Title: "The US Army: prepare to die! buahahhahahaha"

Article: The US Army says if you're facing imminent death due to natural or unnatural causes, the US Army is under no obligation to mobilize itself and somehow find the cure to cancer or perform other miracles to cure you.

Regulator warns Bitcoin buyers: Be ready to lose all your money

Related Stories