Anybody that has that kind of gain in the last few years from Bitcoin et al., would be nuts to not be cashing some of it out. More and more headlines by the day are sounding like a rehash of the dotcom bubble type insanity that occurred right before the crash. The lifestyle difference between $300m and $800m, or $1b and $6b, is not meaningful enough to risk giving 50% or 97% of it all back in a serious crypto crash.
In my opinion, the crypto boom will follow a nearly identical path to most bubbles that involve new, valuable technology. The bust will last for several years, most coins & ICOs will end up entirely worthless, a select few will remain very valuable, and the new technology services (that touch the real economy) built on top of blockchain in the following 10-20 years is where all the lasting wealth & impact will be made (trillions of dollars in new wealth globally, due to productivity improvements from new services/products, affecting most aspects of commerce & economy eventually). Most of the bubble wealth created in the present crypto mania, will never get cashed out (can never be cashed out), it'll die in the fire as with all bubbles. It's the classic over-done splurge that you see with all new technology (try every possible permutation, along with 37 copies of each), it simply means 99% of the coins will vaporize.
Remember the last frustration you had with software, hardware or your hobby? Imagine you can solve it for yourself and others just by throwing money on the problem. There is a saying, that the rich are just frustrated mariners, all they want is a larger boat. If you are in that category, then yes, your lifestyle difference won't be large with a $100m and $1b
Don't forget the housing bubble. The first time it occurred to me that housing was a bubble was when I heard the economist for the National Association of Realtors say on the radio this time was different because of a paradigm shift. It reminded me of what I had heard during the dot-com bubble.
That's exactly what was claimed about the Internet bubble, over and over and over again in every bubble touting story about how it was "the new economy" and "different this time."
Besides the Internet did in fact involve a once in a generation economic paradigm shift. Just ask China, $6+ trillion in annual online payment processing / exchange flow. Their entire economic output was $800 billion circa 1998. Entire vast industries have been and are being reshaped by the Internet. Crypto-currencies can never reach the paradigm shift scale of the Internet, they're sub to it.
There are in fact lots of other examples. The automobile didn't generate an economic paradigm shift? It sure did, massively; amounting to reshaping the entire way people live, travel, and how and where things are built, how commerce is transported & transacted, how food is distributed, and so on. Was there a huge automobile bubble? There sure was.
Paradigm shifts do not banish economic fundamentals / realities, they're ultimately beholden to them, which is what inevitably destroys the bubbles.
There were at one time hundreds of automobile companies. Most of which were outright scams.
Much like the dot com bubble the scams went bankrupt and lost every dime, some got bought out for pennies on the dollar, and then there were a dozen or so survivors that actually created long-term wealth.
What is this paradigm shift? Bitcoin is a terrible currency, is about as good a store of value as tulips and beanie babies (Actually, beanie babies are better - at least you can play with them.)
You may say blockchains are a paradigm shift (I don't believe that), but even if they are, there is absolutely no reason for why Bitcoin is the best blockchain that has, or will ever be created. If they are a critically important paradigm shift, then I can with 100% certainty say that bitcoin will be completely dead in the near future - much like Mintel vs Internet.
Sigh, BTC fanboism sounds so much like 70s scammy cults, it’s annoying.
Folks, you’re so blind to the risks and obvious manipulations it’s heart wrenching, but the stupid dismissiveness of anything else — and the arrogant superiority complex that comes with it — makes me want to invest in popcorn.
It's not just a new form of exchange, it's a new way of storing and transfering ownership and value in an immutable way -even by the most powerful entities of the world. For the first time in history the separation of state and economy is something conceivable. That's not only an economic paradigm shift, when materialised (and I firmly believe it will, because it makes so much sense), it will affect practically every aspect of society.
In my opinion, the crypto boom will follow a nearly identical path to most bubbles that involve new, valuable technology. The bust will last for several years, most coins & ICOs will end up entirely worthless, a select few will remain very valuable, and the new technology services (that touch the real economy) built on top of blockchain in the following 10-20 years is where all the lasting wealth & impact will be made (trillions of dollars in new wealth globally, due to productivity improvements from new services/products, affecting most aspects of commerce & economy eventually). Most of the bubble wealth created in the present crypto mania, will never get cashed out (can never be cashed out), it'll die in the fire as with all bubbles. It's the classic over-done splurge that you see with all new technology (try every possible permutation, along with 37 copies of each), it simply means 99% of the coins will vaporize.