Bitcoin

[scooterscot]

No many people have 48 bitcoins. If you have 48 bitcoins now, you are either going to end up laughing, or crying, depending on whether you bought them for $16 each or $16,000 each.

I've seen predictions saying they will top $1m each easily.

Fill yer boots and don't sell a single one until you are a billionaire!

Bought most for £600-750 a piece earlier in the year. Happy to leave them until the end of 2018, but not a minute later.

And if you think it's easy... I can tell you it is far from it. Watching your portfolio swing +/- £100k in a couple of days would have most coming out in ulcers.

[Hobosapien]

I always thought a gambling payout was just getting back some of your earlier 'failed winners'. Rare that someone comes out on top over their gambling lifetime.

That's ok when it's only a few quid on the fruit machines, or on a three legged nag, or a sport's result. Not much harm done. When there's people blindly throwing themselves under the bus thinking it's a way out of the poverty trap is where it gets a little less savoury.

At least the relatively high barrier to entry is stopping most general public from going through with their desire to get on the bitcoin train to the moon. Another thing highlighting it's not yet ready for prime time use, not public friendly enough.

Now if someone released a one-click app so all those glued to their 'smart' phones could 'invest', things would heat up even more and you might see a bitcoin 'worth' a million apiece.

[scooterscot]

Now if someone released a one-click app so all those glued to their 'smart' phones could 'invest', things would heat up even more and you might see a bitcoin 'worth' a million apiece.

Let me know when you're beta testing your app...

[Hobosapien]

Let me know when you're beta testing your app...

I don't have the skills, even if it is all drag and drop these days.

Might be a nice Plan B (as in bitcoin ) for someone. Just need to advertise the highest exchange buy in price to the user and buy from the cheapest exchange instead to make a nice instant profit on each transaction.

[SimonMac]

Is that even a relevant comparison?

BitCoins "market cap" is the sum of all the bitcoins in circulation * the current price.

Visa's market cap is the sum of all it's shares * the market price.

The value is what someone is prepare to pay for it, which is not the same as the market price

[BrilloPad]

The value is what someone is prepare to pay for it, which is not the same as the market price

Except in a perfect market.

I suspect bitcoin markets are some of the least perfect....

[_V_]

UK housing crash will come soon enough for all to see you can't miss it. That's a bubble which makes Bitcoin look like dimple.

UK Property is "worth" about 7 trillion pounds. Bitcoin market cap is worth about one London street in SW1.

Latest calculations I've seen is roughly 0.04% of the worlds population own bitcoin.

Based on this $1m+ for a single bitcoin seems highly likely in the near future. People won't talk about a bitcoin, but probably a μBTC as the main unit of currency.

[_V_]

I think you mean London?

Some say the world's reserve currency is the London property market....

I think that's actually the worlds money laundering market.

[stonehenge]

Bitcoin, Ethereum in a SIPP

For anyone interested, you can buy these ETN trackers in some SIPPs eg. Hargreaves Lansdown, AJ Bell.

https://xbtprovider.com

I'm taking a small punt on the off chance that this madness will get even more bonkers before it runs its course.

[Hobosapien]

...
Based on this $1m+ for a single bitcoin seems highly likely in the near future. ...

Not while it's open to government interference. They won't allow the plebs to hold the value when they can regulate and restrict it to their 'backers'.

First they'll come for the exchanges, ...

The internet is only as free as your ISP.