Back in 2015, I needed to buy some weed but my local dealer only accepted bitcoin..

Full video: https://youtu.be/J2K1fgVyh5Y?si=MlMgSVlMW3llUCoZ

Throughout the history of bitcoin, there has never been a three year period where the value of bitcoin at the end of the three year period was less than the beginning of the three year period.

Everything else is just noise.

I have seen this kind of topic a hundred times. I never though I would be the author of one of them though.

I have been in crypto since 2017. I read everything I could on it before making my first purchase. I bought a ledger a long time ago as it was one of the most secure item to hold my cryptos. All my crypto-savings were on it.

A couple days ago I saw that my PayPal account has been hacked and someone stole 1000$ by making a purchase with my credit card. I called my bank, cancelled it and got refunded.

This morning I went on the ledger app to check my btc and saw 3$ instead of the 30k (0.3BTC) I had. And then everything clicked. Someone did not hacked my PayPal but my iCloud. And somehow found my encrypted file with some seeds on it.

It is my entire fault and I am the only responsible for what happened to me.

I guess this message is to warn everyone. Sometimes your crypto is secured, but something else isn’t and they hack from there.

To the person who stole my money, have fun with it, I personally hope that you will choke on it and die slowly.

Edit: guys I know I was dumb. Don’t rub it in. To answer the most common comment, yes I know that you don’t write your seed phrase online. But when I bought my ledger in 2018 I didn’t know. And I did not even remember I did that. Like I said: it’s on me.

Some people get wayy to emotional on lil 5-7% movements

99% of people lose money trying to trade Bitcoin.

100% of HODLers with at least 4 years in the market are green right now.

Stop thinking you're a genius and just buy and HODL your Sats. You're dumb like 99% of people (me included).

It's not that difficult:

1. Pay all your monthly bills.

2. See how much money you have left (if you have zero... Well... I will pray for you).

3. Decide how much of that money will be used to buy Bitcoin. I will not say the annoying cliche "OnLy iNveSt WhaT yOu cAn afFord tO lOsE", because let's be honest.. most people can't afford to lose a single thing, they're desperate for a solution.

So the best advice I could give you is: Because of the halving cycle which happens every 4 years or so, Bitcoin tends to be higher than it was before after 4 years, but between the time you buy and that 4 year time frame, a bear market can occur. So make sure to just buy Bitcoin not with "what you can't afford to lose", but with an amount of money you can afford to leave untouched for AT LEAST 4 YEARS. That way if a bear market starts you can wait for a better opportunity to leave without selling at a loss.

And finally:

1. Besides the previously advice, the ideal scenario is: NEVER SELL YOUR BITCOIN. HODL FOREVER. That's not some meme advice, there's a reason why people tell everyone that. If you sell your Bitcoin you're exchanging a valuable asset that increases its value over time, for an asset (USD, EUR, etc) that is based on being infinitely printed, decreasing its value over time. Why the hell would you do that?

If you keep your money in Bitcoin, 4 years from now you will need less Bitcoin to buy the same stuff today. On the other hand if you keep your money in Fiat, you will need more Fiat to buy the same stuff today.

The only situation you should sell your Bitcoin for Fiat is if you need to use fiat to pay for something that will save your life or the life of someone you love. Because at the end of the day that's more important than money.

But if you have another choice, always chose not to sell your Bitcoin. You have no reason to sell your Bitcoin. You can spend your Bitcoin if you want and replace it later, that's what Bitcoin was created for. But don't exchange your valuable Sats for trash Fiat without a really good reason. I can guarantee that you will regret it in the next 4 years.

The weak sold. The strong HODL.

Yeah, the price is up now—but it might dip again.

Let traders play each other. But I’m not playing their game. I’m just HODLING. You only lose money if you sell.

1 BTC = 1 BTC

w/e

sue me (but only if it’s payable in BTC)

We will always remember the brilliant things you have created. Thank you. Rest in peace

I wanted to share my experience for those who are considering leverage trading.

I've been in this space for over a decade and early on I learned I should stay away from leverage... or rather I thought I did. For some reason (long story) I decided to go long on bitcoin with leverage. I wanted to be stress-free so I kept a significant balance (5 figures) and used little margin. I entered at around 82k last week and my liquidation was at around 74k, which I thought was very safe. All was good until Sunday. I can't explain the stress I suffered the following days. At some point the price touched 74.4k, very close to liquidation. The whole time I was literally this guy looking at the chart deciding whether to exit and lose 60/70/80% or wait. I couldn't work, eat, spend time with family or friends, or do anything other than think about why I did this stupid trade. It was money that I could afford to lose, but the psychological damage of losing it would have been hard. In any case I decided to wait. Fortunately yesterday I was able to exit safely with minimal loss (I could have waited more and exit with gains but I wanted to be out ASAP).

I think my life expectancy just dropped a little after all this, but hopefully this time I learned the lesson. No more leverage trading for me. I truly can't believe people do this on a daily basis!

I see a lot of people not understanding why Saylor says that Bitcoin is not competing with the dollar. I'll explain it by using my freezer analogy.

Bitcoin is like a freezer and the dollar is like a refrigerator. Freezers do not compete with refrigerators. When you go shopping for a new refrigerator you are not comparing it to your deep freezer you have at home. Why? Because they both do different things and both solve different problems we have with food.

If you want to make eggs and have those for breakfast tomorrow or in the next week you keep them chilled but not frozen. If you want to drink milk or use some cheese you are going to keep them in a ready state. Are they slowly going bad? Yes. But you are willing to accept that for the ability to consume them anytime you want in the short-term without having to wait or have a weird taste.

If you want to preserve steak for 6+ months because you know you'll use it, just not sure when, you deep freeze it. If you want to keep food with certain properties because they are better that way (such as ice cream) you deep freeze it. Sure, you could always take the steak out and eat it, but it's going to hurt, a lot.

If you take Bitcoin and spend it, it's going to hurt, a lot. It's highest and best use case is not as a currency. It can be used as a currency just like the frozen steak can be eaten, however that's not ideal. It's highest and best use case is as a store of value against all other forms of spoilage and decay.

Last thought and I'll leave you with this....... Imagine you go over to your family's house and every time you're there they complain about food going bad and how they cannot store lots of meat and other things like ice cream. They don't understand how other people are doing it. And when you ask them to show you, you notice they only have a refrigerator in their kitchen! Well, your solution for them wouldn't be to tell them to get rid of the refrigerator because that's the thing causing them to not store food long term. You would tell them that they need to go buy a freezer and that will allow them to not only store food for longer but more of it! They can keep the refrigerator, it has it's place in the kitchen, but they need to understand it's purpose and that they're not supposed to use it to store ice cream.

This is what Michael Saylor means when he says that Bitcoin doesn't compete with the dollar.

Let's all count

So I first got into Bitcoin around 2017ish. I decided I would start dca'ing $10 a week. I stuck to it for about 2 months and then BTC dropped to around 20k and I got scared about dumping any more money into it however, I also never sold any of it. Over the following months turned into years and I pretty much forgot all about it until I started seeing that it was making waves again at the end of last year. I checked and to my surprise my money invested had more than doubled! Excited as I was, I still did not sell any. In fact, I finally started dca'ing again. Imagine if I had just stuck to my plan way back in '17 I'd have a pretty hefty chunk by now. Should, coulda, woulda... point is the best time to invest is yesterday, the next best time to invest is today. Even though as of today I'm only up 13% overall, at least something happened that got me back in. It's fun watching my Sats grow every week. I don't even really care what the USD value is at this point. I just continue to put in a little every week and I'm confident that over time my small investment will grow exponentially. Keep stacking my friends.

Source: https://bitinfocharts.com/comparison/bitcoin-transactions.html

Hey everyone

I've been exploring the idea of using BTC as collateral to borrow funds, while maintaining long-term exposure and potentially avoiding taxable events from selling. However, my main concern is managing the repayment process.

For example, if I pledge x BTC as collateral for a loan of x dollars, the arrangement would require monthly repayments (interest, and possibly part of the principal). So, my question is: How do you fund these repayments without ever having to sell your BTC? Do you rely on other income sources entirely, or are there creative strategies that have worked for you?

I'm curious about your experiences, insights, and any pitfalls you've encountered with this strategy. Looking forward to your advice!

Thanks in advance.

Some people say gold is better than Bitcoin, while other people say Bitcoin and gold are equally good, and BTC is just the digital version of the physical gold.

This notion is based on the idea that both BTC and gold are capped, but this is not exactly true.

Bitcoin is capped at 21M coin, and there is a finite amount of gold on Earth, yes, that's correct. However, NASA and other tech firms are exploring mining options for asteroids containing gold.

Most people aren't cognitively capable of understanding and comprehending the size of celestial bodies, but golden asteroids and infinite gold are basically the same thing.

If mining is conducted on golden asteroids, the amount of gold will be so huge, that we can assume we will never run out of gold or reach a point where demand outpaces the supply.

If space mining happens, gold price will go down significantly.

It will eventually happen, it's just a matter of time until we have fully re-usable rockets and launching costs are reduced to the point, where constant launches, missions and returning rockets are a profitable business.

Bitcoin solves this, because there are no asteroids containing Bitcoins.

Gold will always be finite... until it isn't.

Technically, Bitcoin's 21M supply can be increased, but this requires the approval of nodes and miners, meaning everyone will have to agree to lose profits, meaning it's never gonna happen.

Gold is irreplaceable part of modern electronics, yet Bitcoin still outperforms gold.

The lightning network is a second-layer solution on top of the Bitcoin blockchain that enables quick, cheap and scalable Bitcoin payments.

Here is the place to discuss and learn more about lightning!

Ask your questions about lightning

Provide reviews, feedback, comparisons of LN apps, services, websites etc

Learn about new LN features, development, apps

Link to good quality resources (articles, wikis etc)

Resources:

• Here is an awesome list of resources compiled by Jameson Lopp: https://www.lopp.net/lightning-information.html

• Want to test out your lightning fire power? tip the Bitcoin devs! https://bitcoindevlist.com/

• Previous threads: Search

• Lnbook getting closer towards being finished and can already be seen at: https://github.com/lnbook/lnbook

• Lightning Dedicated YouTube Channel: https://youtube.com/renepickhardt

• Also there is the playlist by chaincode labs: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpLH33TRghT17_U3as2P3vHfAGL8pSOOY

• Lightning stores: https://www.lightningnetworkstores.com/

• Learn more and talk about lightning right here in r/Bitcoin, r/bitcoinbeginners, r/thelightningnetwork, and the r/Bitcoin chat