
Ask HN: Do you hold any cryptocurrencies? - kingnothing
With the recent surge in value of basically all cryptocurrencies, I&#x27;m skeptical the trend will continue. I&#x27;ve previously invested and exited and am no longer holding any at all. What&#x27;s your stance? Why do you or don&#x27;t you include it in your portfolio?
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lotyrin
I guess this isn't the kind of thinking that's very popular lately, but I
don't now nor have I ever had long positions in anything blockchain related,
for pretty simple reasons.

I don't try to time markets, and I avoid things that seem volatile or
overbought, most of the assets in this class have consistently seemed to be
both.

Currencies of any kind aren't really exciting to me aside from the utility
they provide when utilized for something new that wasn't possible without
them, and sure there is some of that activity within the blockchain sphere,
but nowhere near enough of it to account for the current capitalization.

Technically, blockchain isn't very remarkable to me aside from the mining
Proof-of-Work scheme being an amusing hack when I first heard of it, but is in
practice a pretty large detriment. Even if these data structures and
algorithms were radically revolutionary, I wouldn't speculate in them.

From my survey, coin schemes gain only attention from being implemented atop
blockchain -- no real reason to use the technology and be wrapped up in the
volatile markets or to pay the price of the mismatch in design between a
trustless distributed system and whatever their actual problem domain is. Most
could provide their supposed value proposition while being a boring
centralized system, a small trustful distributed system, or (very rarely) a
more purposefully designed byzantine-tolerant system, and the only thing
they'd lose is publicity.

Aside from all of the problems specific to blockchain, in general I see no
reason as an individual investor to be in long positions on commodities or
currencies as they are systems of zero-sum exchange; I much prefer to
capitalize into the positive-sum system that is industry and owning
diversified stakes in the productivity and growth there.

------
socratesone
I sold some in the recent run up but by and large still think worth to include
some now, given the following potential:

1\. Store of Value: Bitcoin is better than gold at what gold does. Gold is
about $7tn. BTC ~$180bn

2\. Anonymous payments (Monero, Zencash, ZCash): Many use cases for wanting to
pay in an untraceable way

3\. Global payment network: Move large amounts of money around the world with
only an internet connection; faster and cheaper than remittance options today

4\. Censorship resistance: As hard as cash to censor, but you can move much
larger amounts of it instantaneously, around the world.

5\. Diversification potential: Sketchier since its early and return drivers
are not yet clear, but early results show no correlation with existing asset
classes, which if true would be a huge boon to asset managers

I am less optimistic about in near term about:

1\. Smart Contracts: Think we are farther away from the vision of smart
contracts creating a trustless society blah blah than most people think. Right
now 99% of smart contracts swap ether for ICO tokens. There is potential, but
IMO very very overvalued right now.

2\. Most ICO funded start ups

Practically, I think due to BTC's head start it will win the digital gold box
- it's my biggest digital asset position.

ETH has a head start in the smart contract world, but upstarts like EOS and
Cardano promise better scalability and governance - so I have some of those.
Plus my view is ETH will have a tough time once ICO bubble bursts, so not
holding in short term.

Have some of the privacy coins too (XMR, ZEC). And have tiny positions in
tokens from most promising projects.

~~~
lisa_henderson
> _Store of Value: Bitcoin is better than gold at what gold does. Gold is
> about $7tn. BTC ~$180bn_

I don't know many women who feel this way, and women's interest in jewelry has
historically helped establish an important floor for the value of gold. If
civilization collapsed tomorrow women would work hard to protect their gold,
but not their Bitcoin (or similar). But of course , it doesn't require
societal collapse to put downward pressure on Bitcoin.

~~~
muzani
startup idea: watches that store bitcoin

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rudiger
Yes. I'm lucky to have invested in June 2011, six years ago, when the price of
bitcoin was around ten dollars[1].

I've never sold because I still believe in the long-term potential of Bitcoin.

[1]:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2612486](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2612486)

~~~
khaledtaha
Do you think the latest surge is sustainable?

~~~
rudiger
No idea. It's very difficult to time the market.

------
vintageseltzer
I am confident we are in the very nascent stages of cryptocurrency, and that
it will be huge within ten years. I am not so confident that Bitcoin will be
the predominant currency, but it's my best option right now. I invested an
amount that I am comfortable losing completely and plan on holding long-term.
Maybe it will turn into something big, maybe it will be worthless. No risk, no
reward.

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wakkaflokka
I bought ether immediately after the EEA launch and sold roughly around when
the most recent China exhange ban news started. Made a 900% return and then
pulled out. I've got it tucked away to take care of a house down payment, but
I'll admit I'm occasionally tempted to put some back in. The truth is that I
got lucky with ether; not sure I want to put any more fun money into it.

------
11thEarlOfMar
We are discussing whether to purchase bitcoin at this moment.

Our thinking:

Possible negative outcomes:

a. Bitcoin is widely regulated or outlawed in ways that reverse it's growing
popularity and it eventually flames out.

b. Another virtual currency comes into prominence and bitcoin holders or new
investors migrate to that new currency

c. Bitcoin turns out to be a fad and people just lose interest in it.

Possible/Actual drivers for demand:

d. Bitcoin already has a following that values all bitcoins at $180 Billion.

e. Governments have been slow to regulate it. China has regulated it (many
have some guidelines/regulations in place or becoming law soon), 5 or 6
countries (of 195 total) have outlawed it.

f. Financial institutions are starting to formally recognize it, including
Fidelity (Fidelity is mining bitcoin) and CME offering futures.

g. Bitcoin has a finite supply, unlike all other currencies. So demand cannot
be mitigated by increasing supply.

h. Businesses are beginning to accept bitcoin, such as: Microsoft, Virgin
Galactic, Expedia, Subway, Whole Foods, (maybe 100 other lesser known
companies)

------
muzani
The goal of cryptocurrency is to be used as currency. Few people are using it
as an actual currency. So it will potentially go much higher until people
start using it for digital purchases, much like credit cards are used today.
Even when it is at that size, it would still grow slowly, similar to gold.

It is very much a bubble at this point - something many people buy to sell off
at a higher price. The difference between the crypto bubble and many other
bubbles is that it's still much less than the potential value.

So personally, I hold on to Bitcoin, which is already stable and proven. The
others look good too but are still at very high risk of failure.

I have no regrets not buying earlier because they were all uncertain in the
past.

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decentralised
I'm holding a significant amount myself. I work on Blockchain projects and I
believe cryptocurrencies are the future of money so it would be negligent of
me not to.

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agitator
I think cryptocurrencies in general have a long future, and seeing as how many
exchanges require bitcoin to exchange to other coins, i think the value of
bitcoin will climb by default. No reason for everyone to start bailing on it
so far. Personally I have some assets distributed among a few different coins
because I feel like the value will go up across the board, and also to hedge
competing cryptocurrency technologies.

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kleer001
Yes. Some of some. Dodgecoin, hahaha, j/k. Seriously though, everyone should
be dodgy about their holdings, for cheese's sake.

My stance is hopeful, but distant.

It's in my portfolio because I believe in the revolutionary value of the
technology and the anonymous position of its founder is profoundly unique and
powerful.

If you want to invest, in anything, the best bet is to form a plan and stick
to it.

What's the overall best plan? There isn't one. But dollar cost averaging with
buy-and-hold gets close. What's that? Invest the same amount every fixed
period of time. Like, 100$ every Tuesday or $500 on the first of the month. It
doesn't matter, do what you're comfortable with. But don't buy more when it
looks cheap and don't sell when it looks high. Just keep building, just keep
building.

What else? Once your plan is in motion kill all your google alerts and rss
feeds and so on and so forth. You need emotional distance or you will drive
yourself crazy. Basically build a machine and let it work.

~~~
Jack000
heh, I traded my 0.3 btc for doge 3years ago because it seemed to be getting
traction as a microtransaction currency.

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f00_
I have like 400$ in all the stuff on coinbase (BTC, LTC, ETH) + Factom (Austin
startup, head developer is Paul Snow, used for maintaining trail of
ownership?), 0x (decentralized exchanges), Augur (decentralized prediction
market), and Ripple (private blockchain functioning as a clearing house for
banks)

If you need to put your money somewhere, and you've filled up your Roth IRAs,
are in index funds, real estate (?), I don't see why not. I think the baseline
argument is diversification, the high volatility, and lack of regulation

Now is probably not a great time because the price (of bitcoin) is so high, or
maybe it is... No one really knows, it's all pure speculation

I wish I would of put a lot more than 400$ in Nvidia last year personally:
[https://finance.google.com/finance?q=NASDAQ:NVDA](https://finance.google.com/finance?q=NASDAQ:NVDA)

------
jotjotzzz
I hold some crypto.

Though at current, I do feel BTC is currently in a bubble. I have a nagging
feeling of manipulation in the BTC market, or maybe it is just me. When
corporate big-wigs start talking about Bitcoin, there is no stopping these big
corps doing a pump and dump. I would be wary. (Or maybe it is just me?).

------
hawkweed
I'm holding small amount of Verge (XVG) privacy coin.

Verge team is releasing Wraith protocol very soon
([http://www.wraithprotocol.com/](http://www.wraithprotocol.com/)).

~~~
tfmatt
Happy to see Verge mentioned. The privacy features it incorporates really
makes it a great privacy coin. There is an active team behind the coin and
like you mentioned, Wraith will be a game changer.

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throwawaymdma
(Throwaway as I don't want people tracking me down but want to be transparent
as I find it interesting when other people are)

I'm a mid-30s senior tech person in NY. I've been in and out of crypto over
the past few years as a hobbyist speculator.

Heard about BTC in 2012-ish and thought it was an interesting novelty but
probably wouldn't amount to anything worthwhile. Tried to buy/mine some but it
was hard so gave up. Bought some drugs with it in 2013 (a night out that
"cost" me $70k at current prices hah). Made about $3-4K in the 2016 surge, got
out for a while, got back in around $1,300 just before it went crazy again.

I have a crypto portfolio worth about $20k, my cost was around $9k. It's about
5% of my net worth which I consider high, but I want to to try and get ahead
by taking a few measured risks and this is one of those attempts. Most of my
net worth is in boring investments like Vanguard index funds/401k and I have 6
months expenses in cash so I'm otherwise a fairly conservative investor.

My crypto portfolio looks like:

* 40% BTC

* 20% ETH

* 20% LTC

* 10% IOTA

* 10% Spread between DASH, OMG, LSK, NEO, EOS

BTC has been the money maker (up 140%), IOTA was my "missed the BTC boat lets
try something emergent" punt (not worked out so far, I'm down 40%), the other
10% are just to give me an incentive to follow the tech.

I think I'm probably too late to get life-changing riches from crypto, but am
buying and holding using money I can afford to lose until it either goes to
the moon or goes to zero as there is a small chance I am not too late. I'm
back to putting my monthly savings allocation into Vanguard now though.

My brother (non-tech industry) put a few thousand into Bitcoin a couple of
months back, I advised him not to. I'd stand by that advice.

I think cryptocurrencies are the start of something extremely interesting, but
I'm not sure if the current crop will be the eventual winners. I'd recommend
people in tech picking up small amounts of various emerging currencies just to
understand the ecosystem and how it works. It's a fascinating field.

------
jbb67
Played with bitcoin a few years ago, and sold all but a few fragments of the
last coin. The few fragments are now worth as much as my original spend!

I consider all cryptocurrencies to be way too high risk for my desired
investment profile but I'll happily leave my 0.06 coins and see what happens.

Bitcoin needs to become more stable so that it can be used for payments rather
than speculation. I'll probably buy small amounts to spend and trade but not
as an "investment".

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bitxbitxbitcoin
You sold every single one of your cryptocurrencies? I don't believe it's an
all or nothing stage right now at all. Do you plan to buy back in after the
predicted dip?

~~~
kingnothing
I made a very strong return and sold my holdings. I would buy back in after
the dip -- I did the same thing after the last crash.

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baccredited
I have approx 1% of total net worth in the following portfolio

coins:

    
    
      BTC
      FIL
      SALT
      LAT
      COB
    

companies:

    
    
      balance - wefunder.com/balance
      polymath.network
      shapeshift.io
    

I consider all of them short term, except BTC (which I will sell when I
retire, or it is superseded) and Shapeshift (which I'm forced to hold until a
liquidity event).

I could see going as high as 5% of total net worth in crypto, but not yet.

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arisAlexis
I think its a new financial paradigm shift. I hold the good ones eth monero
neo and speculate with others like the stock market. If this is a bubble you
will lose a bit of money. If its not you will lose a big chance.

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tuananh
1 guy shows off his acc on my facebook feed today:
[https://i.imgur.com/EDNBOiG.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/EDNBOiG.jpg)

his setup: [https://i.imgur.com/T1TPIwI.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/T1TPIwI.jpg)

~~~
coryl
Something suspicious about this screenshot, BTCZ isn't worth much at all.
Entire market cap is 3m

[https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/bitcoinz/](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/bitcoinz/)

~~~
tuananh
ah i dont know anything about cryptocurrencies :D thought it's same as BTC

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znt
Institutional money is coming in next year, via CME Bitcoin futures and
possibly ETF. It would be wise to hold some crypto in case the bubble gets
even crazier.

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quickthrower2
Have a "small" amount. Can't be bothered timing the market so will probably
hodl for.a.few years.

