Official cryptocurrency thread (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Altcoin)

[Doobs]

.

I've avoided any Polk videos until now because I couldn't bring myself to listen to someone advocating crypto who is so new to the scene. However, this video nails some absolutely great points and he covers more about how crypto is being debated. He's also quite funny imo.

Doug Polk has said before he has invested for 4 or 5 years and I have even paid him money. 

This video is just irritating though.  I have watched financial channels and, lets just say, some people know a lot less than others.  Every time someone gets a chart out, I wince a little.  Whilst it was obvious the guy on the TV was stretching his knowledge quite a bit, Polk didn't seem very sharp here.  I was left wondering how can someone who has so little to say on the topic have 100k subscribers.  Just shocked me a little.  Maybe the other videos he produces on the topic are better?

Love his poker videos, but I really don't think this does him any good. 

[lucky_scrote]

A couple of pages ago there was a discussion between gooner and Jez.

Jez mentions the best way to keep coins is on a hardware wallet, gooner replies that leaving money on an exchange is stupid. I agree with both of these statements btw.

The discussion then gets sidetracked with gooner saying he would much prefer to have money tied up with a firm like HL than keeping it on coinbase. I think it's important to clear something up for people who read this thread but don't understand the dangers of crypto:

It is a risk leaving your private keys with anyone else. It is a risk putting it on an exchange since you lose some of your privacy and that if the exchange goes tits up, you lose your coins. You also don't control your private keys so you are at the mercy of them. In regards to paying a company to look after your assets, that is perhaps something that is preferable for someone who wants to have a part of his portfolio in crypto but wants nothing to do with it. Firstly, you have to pay them to look after your funds when a hardware wallet is free. Secondly, I really hope they store the private keys themselves. If bitcoin were to fork and the new chain were to become the main bitcoin, you can kiss goodbye to your funds. It is possible that bitcoin goes to 0 and the new fork (call it bitcoin blonde) replaces the old bitcoin.

Hardware wallet > exchange or finance service company because it's safer and free.

Exchange or finance service company > Hardware wallet because having a hardware wallet requires a little diligence to keep your funds 100% safe.

Not sure where you get the name Lambo from, but thanks for letting me know a SIPP cannot be vested before age 55. I must remember to tell my corporate/individual clients that I have advised over my many years, working in the pensions industry .

Nice

[Doobs]

The SEC (US Regulator) has waded in today.  They are writing to all fund managers who offer/are planning on offering crypto linked funds with 31 questions.  The ones highlighted were how they kept their cryptos secure and how they ensured a fair price.  These were pretty high on my concerns about these funds a couple of days ago.

As an aside, how do you guarantee security if you have a hard wallet?  Surely someone could steal it?  I can't think of many friends I would trust with a key to a big stash of bitcoins and then they can get robbed to?

[SuperJez]

As an aside, how do you guarantee security if you have a hard wallet?  Surely someone could steal it?  I can't think of many friends I would trust with a key to a big stash of bitcoins and then they can get robbed to?

It's not a guarantee of security that is correct.  If someone steals your hardware wallet you are safe provided you put a decent PIN code on it.  The code cannot be hacked or the wallet itself taken to pieces in a way that could get the private keys.  The PIN code could be guessed if you have reused a code you used elsewhere or written it down or used a stupid one like 1234.  It could not however be brute forced.  In the case of trezor the amount of time you have to wait between pin entry attempts increases exponentially every time you get it wrong.  A few wrong guesses later and you are waiting months for just one more attempt.

However the 24 word phrase in the wrong hands is immediately gg all your funds with someone who knows what it is.  The safest play there is to seperate it into two halves and place it in two different locations but that is where the weakness lies.

This to me is an area of complexity and danger that cryptos have to significantly improve on to get widespread adoption.

[kukushkin88]

A couple of pages ago there was a discussion between gooner and Jez.

Jez mentions the best way to keep coins is on a hardware wallet, gooner replies that leaving money on an exchange is stupid. I agree with both of these statements btw.

The discussion then gets sidetracked with gooner saying he would much prefer to have money tied up with a firm like HL than keeping it on coinbase. I think it's important to clear something up for people who read this thread but don't understand the dangers of crypto:

It is a risk leaving your private keys with anyone else. It is a risk putting it on an exchange since you lose some of your privacy and that if the exchange goes tits up, you lose your coins. You also don't control your private keys so you are at the mercy of them. In regards to paying a company to look after your assets, that is perhaps something that is preferable for someone who wants to have a part of his portfolio in crypto but wants nothing to do with it. Firstly, you have to pay them to look after your funds when a hardware wallet is free. Secondly, I really hope they store the private keys themselves. If bitcoin were to fork and the new chain were to become the main bitcoin, you can kiss goodbye to your funds. It is possible that bitcoin goes to 0 and the new fork (call it bitcoin blonde) replaces the old bitcoin.

Hardware wallet > exchange or finance service company because it's safer and free.

Exchange or finance service company > Hardware wallet because having a hardware wallet requires a little diligence to keep your funds 100% safe.

Not sure where you get the name Lambo from, but thanks for letting me know a SIPP cannot be vested before age 55. I must remember to tell my corporate/individual clients that I have advised over my many years, working in the pensions industry .

Nice

As always thanks for posting, informative stuff. Now, about this Bitcoin Blonde, maybe we've stumbled on a way to find the forum. For a little while at least.

[kukushkin88]

:-)

[titaniumbean]

.

I've avoided any Polk videos until now because I couldn't bring myself to listen to someone advocating crypto who is so new to the scene. However, this video nails some absolutely great points and he covers more about how crypto is being debated. He's also quite funny imo.

this line legit made me snort out loud.


v v good   

[Longines]

Glad it wasn't just me bean...


In other news:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/01/20/revealed-tax-free-bitcoin-loophole-could-cost-treasury-millions/

HMRC is expecting to see a surge in the number of taxpayers declaring gains from cryptocurrencies this year after many investors sold their holdings after values soared, leaving them with huge profits.

However the taxman's anticipated windfall could be far less than expected thanks to a loophole which lets taxpayers class their investment in cryptocurrency as "gambling", winnings from which are tax-free.

[DropTheHammer]

HMRC can go whistle!

[lucky_scrote]

https://hackernoon.com/this-time-is-different-part-2-what-bitcoin-really-is-ae58c69b3bf0

[Longines]

https://twitter.com/zackbloom/status/954595391785201666

We live in a post-parody society where it's impossible to invent anything more ridiculous than reality

Click to see full-size image.

[acegooner]

Glad it wasn't just me bean...


In other news:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/01/20/revealed-tax-free-bitcoin-loophole-could-cost-treasury-millions/

HMRC is expecting to see a surge in the number of taxpayers declaring gains from cryptocurrencies this year after many investors sold their holdings after values soared, leaving them with huge profits.

However the taxman's anticipated windfall could be far less than expected thanks to a loophole which lets taxpayers class their investment in cryptocurrency as "gambling", winnings from which are tax-free.

This article is shocking, I would like to know who the HMRC spokesperson is, they haven't got a clue what they are talking about.

HMRC have issued specific guidance about the tax treatment of bitcoin, it is clear that within this guidance that any gains in excess of the annual allowance like any other investment are subject to CGT. To suggest that early investors who do not have other similar "technology" type investments would be able to successfully claim gains as  gambling winnings is laughable. That in itself is opens up a situation where there is discrimination between investors depending on their investment background. Claiming ignorance is not an excuse either.

Sometimes the broadsheets turn out some utter tripe when it comes to personal finance articles and investments.

With regards to holding bitcoin in a hard wallet/exchange or within a tracker fund such as offered by HL it really does boil down to personal circumstances as I alluded to last week.

[Doobs]

Glad it wasn't just me bean...


In other news:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/01/20/revealed-tax-free-bitcoin-loophole-could-cost-treasury-millions/

HMRC is expecting to see a surge in the number of taxpayers declaring gains from cryptocurrencies this year after many investors sold their holdings after values soared, leaving them with huge profits.

However the taxman's anticipated windfall could be far less than expected thanks to a loophole which lets taxpayers class their investment in cryptocurrency as "gambling", winnings from which are tax-free.

This article is shocking, I would like to know who the HMRC spokesperson is, they haven't got a clue what they are talking about.

HMRC have issued specific guidance about the tax treatment of bitcoin, it is clear that within this guidance that any gains in excess of the annual allowance like any other investment are subject to CGT. To suggest that early investors who do not have other similar "technology" type investments would be able to successfully claim gains as  gambling winnings is laughable. That in itself is opens up a situation where there is discrimination between investors depending on their investment background. Claiming ignorance is not an excuse either.

Sometimes the broadsheets turn out some utter tripe when it comes to personal finance articles and investments.

With regards to holding bitcoin in a hard wallet/exchange or within a tracker fund such as offered by HL it really does boil down to personal circumstances as I alluded to last week.

I suspect the writer of the article has misunderstood and they were talking about spreadbetting or similar. 

[acegooner]

Glad it wasn't just me bean...


In other news:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/01/20/revealed-tax-free-bitcoin-loophole-could-cost-treasury-millions/

HMRC is expecting to see a surge in the number of taxpayers declaring gains from cryptocurrencies this year after many investors sold their holdings after values soared, leaving them with huge profits.

However the taxman's anticipated windfall could be far less than expected thanks to a loophole which lets taxpayers class their investment in cryptocurrency as "gambling", winnings from which are tax-free.

This article is shocking, I would like to know who the HMRC spokesperson is, they haven't got a clue what they are talking about.

HMRC have issued specific guidance about the tax treatment of bitcoin, it is clear that within this guidance that any gains in excess of the annual allowance like any other investment are subject to CGT. To suggest that early investors who do not have other similar "technology" type investments would be able to successfully claim gains as  gambling winnings is laughable. That in itself is opens up a situation where there is discrimination between investors depending on their investment background. Claiming ignorance is not an excuse either.

Sometimes the broadsheets turn out some utter tripe when it comes to personal finance articles and investments.

With regards to holding bitcoin in a hard wallet/exchange or within a tracker fund such as offered by HL it really does boil down to personal circumstances as I alluded to last week.

I suspect the writer of the article has misunderstood and they were talking about spreadbetting or similar. 

Possibly, but as someone has already mentioned on this thread you can trade CFDs on many coins. Now that would not be subject to CGT. But like the HL tracker you do not hold the underlying asset.

[SuuPRlim]

not good for your health this bitcoin stuff