I told my wife I would find some counter arguments before I dump Vanguard and move our IRAs where I can put it all into bitcoin.
Anyone have a source for coherent counter arguments to our Bitcoin Echo Chamber?
31 sats \ 0 replies \ @Krv 16 Jan freebie
There are tons of critiques, but the vast majority are bunk. As someone pretty much all-in myself, I think I can provide some genuine criticisms. :
- Although Bitcoin has weathered many years and appears quite solid, there is a possibility of an unforeseen bug with devastating consequences to trust in the system.
- There may be a hard fork or soft fork that yields unintended, unpredictable consequences. I believe BlackRock has a stipulation that allows them to choose which chain to use should a fork occur. Is this an attack vector? Don't know.
- While volatility seems to be decreasing from past levels, it's challenging to predict if this trend will persist.
- There is significant centralization in the mining infrastructure. Only a few entities control which transactions go into a block. Efforts are underway to address this, but it's uncertain if they will succeed.
- Many governmental entities likely want to exert pressure on the on-off ramps. I'm not sure if this poses a risk for the ETFs; perhaps it's a benefit, but I believe it could impact the long-term value of BTC.
Although it was I do, I would never recommend someone put in all funds. But at this point, there's so much potential upside it would be foolish to not invest some amount you feel comfortable with.
With so many wealthy people in the system now, they will most likely be pumping their bags and they are certainly aware of the risks themselves.
reply
10 sats \ 0 replies \ @kepford 16 Jan
Most people struggle with bitcoin for two reasons.
- Their world view
- Their ignorance of the technology.
The second is much easier to fix. If you believe in the status quo world order. If you think it works and is moral and going in the right direction you will struggle with WHY we need something like bitcoin. If your eyes are open however you can see the need.
Then the question is, does it fix anything.
reply
15 sats \ 0 replies \ @kepford 16 Jan
So, in case you are not aware the ETFs are not bitcoin. They attempt to be indexes on the price of bitcoin. The government while unlikely at this point could seize the funds as they did with gold. Only it would be easier since most is just on Coinbase. Better to get real bitcoin, not your keys not your coins. The best way to hold bitcoin is with no KYC and self custody where only you have the keys.
But since you asked off the top of my head here are the arguments I hear. Many of these are from "respected" financial and government officials over the years.
- Its to volatile, Don't buy bitcoin
- Its only uses are for drug dealing, money laundering, and terrorism
- Its not private. Its not even good for drug dealing, money laundering, or terrorism.
- It isn't controlled by the USA. The greatest government in the world.
- Cash is better. This is all a psyop to bring the cashless society
- A CBDC would be better. It will allow the government to send cash to citizens faster and track how they spend it more easily.
- Its controlled by a group of shadowy super coders
- Its open source. How can anything me secure if we all can see the code
- Both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton don't like it
- Its slow. There are much faster cryptos
- It can't handle all the transaction that happen in the world so it will never scale
- If something goes wrong you can't call up the CEO of bitcoin and get it fixed
- What if someone turns off the bitcoin computer?
- If the Internet went offline it wouldn't work.
- Gold is better. If gold prices go up miners will mine more gold and bring the price back down. Bitcoin has a fixed inflation rate unaffected by market price, usage, or demand.
- There will only ever be 21 million so what happens when we run out of bitcoin?
- The US will ban it like China banned it.
- Its anti American. Many enemies of the US use it.
- It must be stopped because nations on the naughty list use it and the US can't stop them from transacting.
- It allows persecuted groups in oppressive nations to store wealth and transact without censorship.
reply
10 sats \ 0 replies \ @geisterde 17 Jan
There will be a hard fork eventually, to fix the timestamping issue. This will cause a lot of people to see bitcoin less as something that exists in the world and cant be stopped, and more as some temporary social arrangement that could simply die for lack or interest.
We are stuck with 1mB blocks that pose a critical risk to scaling. The whole world cant use bitcoin L1, they couldnt even all use lightning. The maximal decentralizability of L1 verifiability could land us back in centralized custody.
Hey, seriously though. Spread it out a little bit, its easy enough to look at the direction things are headed in and make a good bet. Amd/intel/nvidia/tsmc, own them all, they all are winning in the long term. Turning your ira into a bitcoin etf thermometer wont help you sleep.
reply
0 sats \ 0 replies \ @hodlpleb OP 16 Jan
Just want to provide an addition to my original post - I am personally well aware of the benefits of bitcoin, self custody vs ETFs, etc - My Family is on a Bitcoin Standard - I am just looking for rational counter arguments about why maybe we should not put our IRAs, which we've had for years, into bitcoin-related assets.
reply
0 sats \ 2 replies \ @grayruby 16 Jan
Anti bitcoin arguments are irrelevant in this case because there is no argument for why people shouldn't have access to purchase Bitcoin if they want to. Gatekeeping is stupid. So regardless of ones stance on Bitcoin why stay with a provider that wants to act as a condescending parent. They work for you, not the other way around.
reply
50 sats \ 1 reply \ @hodlpleb OP 16 Jan
I agree with your statement - but what I'm looking for is arguments about why I should not put BTC ETFs into my IRA
reply
10 sats \ 0 replies \ @grayruby 16 Jan
If you are heavily invest in Bitcoin outside of your IRA it could make sense to not have Bitcoin in your IRA as a hedge in case Bitcoin fails. That being said, you could always have a small percentage of Bitcoin in your IRA as well but that would be the argument to not be heavily invested within your IRA.
Same idea as not selling your house for Bitcoin. Safety net in case something goes horribly wrong.
reply
42 sats \ 1 reply \ @fishyness 16 Jan freebie
deleted by author
reply
0 sats \ 0 replies \ @kepford 16 Jan
Yeah, read the Bitcoin Standard and the Fiat Standard. Both taught be more about the reasons gold and fiat work so well better than any gold bug or fiat believer ever did.
Also learned about the tradeoffs which is what you really have to do when considering things like this.
reply