Parsad

Because I've been following blockchain and crypto ever since Patrick Byrne started buying up blockchain companies and $10M worth of bitcoin through OSTK, which was the first major retailer to accept BTC. I also tried to buy Netcoins over six years ago through PDH when it was still a private company. Cheers!

Lightning would only work if it is fully decentralized and off-chain. Currently, the P2P transactions only occur with a security on-chain transaction if I understand correctly...I haven't actually conducted a transaction on Lightning, so correct me if I'm wrong. Also, what is stopping someone else from creating another competing layer 2 network that is superior and aligned with a different currency. Remember, I said I have no problem with crypto and especially blockchain networks. I'm just saying investing in the current batch of crypto is like throwing darts. It's not investing...it's speculation. Cheers!

No, it's completely different. It would be like eliminating visa altogether. The idea would be the transaction goes from my wallet to your wallet with no middleman fee. The only fee would be a nominal one from my wallet institution to me for the transaction. The transaction would also be instantaneous with no hold, no fraud, regulated and could be corrected if an error is made. Current wallets cannot do that other than no hold. Cheers!

Ok, you guys are the ones making the argument that BTC will replace fiat currencies. Well, you don't need billions of trading happening, you need trillions each day! You need price stability in the currency...you need transparency of ownership...you need regulation otherwise you will create behavior that perpetuates destructive correlated risk. In terms of daily transactions...the USD and other fiat currencies aren't moving 10% a day in value. You need stability in any fiat currency. The lightning network you speak of has nothing to do with the cryptocurrency and everything to do with blockchain technology...which I've been a proponent of for 10+ years! Blockchain is in it's infancy, like the internet was or the combustion engine. It is incredibly difficult to predict long-term winners within early days of new technology. Trying to is speculation...not investing! Cheers!

I've been following blockchain and crypto probably longer than anyone on here, so I'm certainly not making uninformed comments. I have 100% belief in blockchain. I have far less certainty in the current batch of crypto other than maybe Ethereum. And even that is a longshot! I can tell you for a fact...not some nonsensical statement...that the support for BTC is based on speculative behavior. Not driven by technology, utility, liquidity, etc, nor is it backed by any hard asset. It is volatile, consumes massive amounts of energy, is currently not liquid like fiat currencies, nor is ownership transparent and regulated. That's a lot of things working against it! And here you guys are telling other people that they are wrong, when you have no proof or support that you are right either. Cheers!

Winklevii get deeper in trouble: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/sec-charges-genesis-gemini-with-selling-unregistered-securities-220036368.html Cheers!

I think you're being unfair and perhaps a bit defensive. I've always argued that crypto at best is commodity-like...the operative word being "like". Very different than "same". Crypto has zero utilitarian value. Every commodity has some utilitarian use...gold, lithium, pork bellies, orange juice, etc. So crypto cannot be a commodity. Commodity by definition means "a raw material or primary agricultural product that can be bought and sold, such as copper or coffee." So that argument has no merit! The truth is, crypto is essentially similar to art/collectibles etc, where the value is arbitrary and speculative. The network and adoption is irrelevant. It is too volatile and illiquid (in common daily use) to be used to replace dominant fiat currencies. At present day, I would argue that the current format of crypto is akin to trading stamps where they can be used similar to barter, but not really currency. One day, digital currencies will use blockchain and at that time, asset-backed networks of crypto may be used as replacements for some fiat currency, but we aren't there yet. And I have my doubts about the current batch of crypto being a dominant player in the future. Cheers!

Will be interesting to see what they did. Brian is probably one of the best in the world at what he does...rarely does he put a foot down in the wrong place. I was surprised by how much they were allocating in Q3...so they probably had some idea that things were peaking. Cheers!

One of my favorite videos of the three Gods...Page, Beck and Clapton...only thing missing was Hendrix! Page is at a whole other level, but shows how amazing those guys are/were. The different style and sound each had...the respect for one another! Cheers!

RIP Jeff Beck! One of the most influential guitarists of all time...right up there with Hendrix, Page, Santana, Keith Richards, George Harrison, Prince et al. https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/11/entertainment/jeff-beck-death/index.html

Garbage! After my first couple of years investing in stocks, I decided I wasn't going to read another analyst report ever again in my life! It is an absolutely unnecessary industry and a racket for investment banks. Although, if you get them free they make great fire starters for your wood fireplace or in a crunch...toilet paper! Cheers!

Who are you talking about? Murray Pezim? Cheers!

Hilarious! That's pretty damn funny. Cheers!

Based on current drone technology, I'm sure people will be mistakenly spotting more UFO's based on what they can now do: https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/skymagic-drones-dubai-spc-intl/index.html Cheers!

Some of the numbers of manipulation of crypto markets is mind boggling if accurate! Cheers! https://www.thestreet.com/investing/cryptocurrency/billionaire-mark-cuban-warns-of-potential-new-crypto-scandal-fraud?puc=yahoo&cm_ven=YAHOO

This probably belongs in the crypto thread but still a very good example of how institutions (old and new) forget or underestimate correlated risk. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/winklevoss-twins-big-mess-crypto-205838099.html I think Buffett and Ajit Jain's greatest strengths compared to virtually all other investment managers or insurance managers is this complete understanding around, and conviction to avoid, excessive correlated risk. One of the most amazing things I've ever seen was when Berkshire acquired GenRe, Buffett instantly began dismantling thousands and thousands of derivatives contracts...avoiding the blowups seen in 2008. He also unwound their position in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac years ahead of everyone else as well, after they watched Fannie and Freddie start to do things where they had forgotten about correlated risk and excessive leverage. In 70 years of investing, I don't think Buffett has ever underestimated this one thing! Thus the reason why there are very few down years and those are usually insignificant. Cheers!

I'm just throwing out a low number based on other analyst reports for what the overall portfolio is worth. For me, the $500M value is the ownership in tZero alone. Cheers! https://www.tzero.com/ https://www.cnbc.com/2017/12/14/overstock-com-ceo-aims-to-sell-or-reorganize-e-commerce-biz-so-he-can-focus-on-blockchain.html

Another example of small players being able to manipulate massive amounts of crypto. There were/are probably thousands of such small players trading billions and billions in total every day. Cheers! https://finance.yahoo.com/news/25-old-traded-2-billion-113812994.html

I'm going to stick to what I threw out last year...it's just become a bigger bargain and ridiculously cheap. Maybe the cheapest it's ever been other than during the March 2020 pandemic. OSTK - Overstock.com Jonathan Johnson runs it now instead of the erratic Patrick Byrne. They switched over to selling higher margin "Home" goods instead of everything, so that cut into sales over the last 6 months. But essentially: You have a $2B revenue online retailer that is completely profitable selling for $850M. But they have $430M of cash on hand that they don't use...plus a corporate office that is worth north of $70M. Only about $35M of debt that was issued to build the corporate office for $50M. Finally, you have their entire Medici Ventures portfolio, including the stake in tZero, that is now managed by tech private equity firm Pelion Ventures. That portfolio is worth a minimum of $500M and could be worth up to $4-5B depending on what they can do with it and how they monetize it over the next few years. So you're paying net $400M or so for the entire retail business that does $2B in revenue and a no expiry call option on all of Medici Ventures. If you believe in blockchain long-term, this one is frickin' cheap and a true deep value stock! Cheers!

Shocking what happened in the Buffalo/Bengals game. I saw it happen live…Hamlin just got up, paused, and fell backwards like a rock. I knew it was a cardiac arrest right away, since there was no helmet to helmet. The helmet hit him right in the chest. He’s in critical condition. Poor guy came in for their hurt starter last week. Best wishes to Buffalo and their fans! Cheers!

Over the weekend, I binge watched the 2020-2021 seasons of Larry David's "Curb Your Enthusiasm". They were just awesome! I've watched all of the other seasons and they were great, but the hilarity, wit and maniacal level of comedy in these two seasons reminded me of "Fawlty Towers" spectacular single season. Amazing, how David remains so annoying and entertaining at 75! And he continues to attack society's norms fearlessly. Cheers!

I'm sure some of the rich even get annoyed when their assets fall in value...thinking about Elon Musk and his margin calls on TSLA due to his Twitter purchase. The smart ones like Buffett never get overleveraged and live well below their means. If you do it like Buffett, even if you are getting only average returns, you will slowly become financially independent and never get into financial trouble. Few people are patient enough to build it through their life time. Everyone wants to be rich tomorrow! The irony is that if you just live below your means...you are already in better shape than 60% of people! No matter how much you are earning. Cheers!

It's not institutionally inspired, but just human nature. The institutions do a good job of propagating it. Human's are always more psychologically traumatized by loss of money, rather than the equivalent amount gained. Almost everyone will buy more of something when it is on sale, but God only knows why 90%+ of society doesn't feel the same way when their house, stocks, bonds, etc drop in value. Only about 2 in a 100 people are built where they feel the reverse...they get excited when stocks fall. I'm actually even more perverse...I actually get more fearful when they start rising! I'm happy loading up when the world is apparently "collapsing", but start getting more fearful when something goes up 50-100% in short succession! Cheers!

Done. You can answer in the poll now too. Cheers!

My whole point when I started this thread: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/u-charges-accused-mango-crypto-223055202.html If this one guy can manipulate a smaller crypto market by himself, why couldn't larger players manipulate larger cryptocurrencies? Without more oversight, regulation and disclosure, there is no reliability at all around any current cryptocurrencies. Cheers!