Cryptocurrencies - bitcoins, ether and the rest; let's ripple out...

[Auntpodder]

Further to the AIBU discussion on other people's finances, is there mileage on a discussion about the different cryptocurrencies? I've dabbled a bit and find them fascinating even though I'm very much a novice and pretty innumerate. I bought a fraction of a bitcoin a couple of years ago which has done well, thought about ether earlier this year but only got round to it recently and there was lots of talk about ripple so bought a few last weekend.

I know that (rightly) no financial advisor would ever suggest investing in them, but as a bit of fun, I'm finding them just that - but would like to hear other people's experiences.

There has ben lots of talk on the MLM Botwatch thread about cryptocurrency. The gist of it is that they are just complete scams. Bitcoin is an anomaly. If you are supposed to be 'mining' and trading coins with each other in order to earn money at an unspecified point in the future then it is a complete scam.

Well, you are waaaaay ahead of me (never heard of ether or ripple ), but I am fascinated about the concept of virtual currencies.

I am going to sit quietly here and lurk.
Good luck with your investments

interested :-) thank you for starting the thread!

it's not something I'ld "bet" on unless I had it to lose (as with any other risky venture) but interested to learn more, out of nosiness if nothing more

Claudia is right. A lot of these schemes are buried in multi level marketing scams and will take your money while promising future rewards which will not materialise.

People think they are investing in something but they don't really understand what they are doing. I think if you don't fully understand what you are doing and acknowledge that a financial adviser would advise against it, it is probably not something you should put money on.

It's not a scam Claudia, it was possible to mine Bitcoins years ago, and still is, but not really worth it, but they are legitimate currencies, how is it a scam?

It's only a 'scam' in the way that any money is a scam.

Do you have any understanding of financial markets?

That's not to say all current cyrptos will be successful, some will undoubtedly go the way of Betamax, but cryptocurrencies are the future of finance and banking.

ripple looks interesting

How do you get started?

To those people expressing an interest in this type of investment, please be very wary of people contacting you privately offering you an opportunity to invest in a scheme where they have had success. They are likely lying and trying to recruit you into their pyramid scheme so that they can get paid a proportion of your investment. If they tell you they have earned money or know of people that have, it will not be true, I promise you.

In fact, if anyone does receive a message like this, please copy and paste it here so we can see the sorts of scams people are involved in.

Toobusytowee

I suppose the point of a thread like this is to share legitimate sites

I wouldn't just google/youtube and sign up without asking around

Obviously, what Too just said, beware of snake oil salesmen.

That's not to say cryptos are a scam, but as an emerging market, they are vulnerable to scammers and innocents.

I'm not selling anything to anyone, it's up to you how you invest your cash, I do have an interest though and I think cryptos will take over traditional currencies eventually.

Be careful and aware though!

My investment matches my (lack of) knowledge. It's a very small amount and a sum I can afford to lose it. The (much more knowledgeable) friend who first told me about them remains a fan of bitcoin because (to him) there is an aim to democratise money and approves of the blockchain and the mathematical premise behind it.

Here is an article about crypto currencies and Multi level marketing (MLM). It mentions ripple. It is not an MLM, but they were fined after a civil and criminal investigation about anti money-laundering rules.

behindmlm.com/mlm/ripple-labs-fined-700000-mlm-cryptocurrencies/

if there are going to be lots more "beware of wrong'uns" posts can we at least have a few suggestions of legitimate trading sites thrown in the mix?

I think as a crypto virgin, just look around, have a read, there's plenty of information out there and there are lots of exchanges, have a look at Poloniex, it's one of the biggest UK free exchanges, just get a feel for what they are and how they're traded and the market.

I think to call it a scam is ridiculous, Bitcoins have been around for a while now and are becoming a fairly powerful player.

It's quite easy to Google and see what they actually are.

Just keep your head and accept the World changes, as government cedes to corpocracy, so national currencies will eventually cede to cryptos, the centre never holds!

Have a look at Kraken too.

I'm not at all knowledgeble re cryptos, but it seems to me that calling cryptos a scam is the same thing as calling shampoo a scam just because some scammy MLMs peddle shampoo?

thanks HairyHands

I'm not saying bitcoins are a scam. I know a lot are just fine. It's just that there are people out there in dodgy schemes that search for people who are curious about this type of thing and target them.

By all means, have a look around and listen to advice from people who understand it all. I just thought it prudent to raise awareness of the many scams that are out there and have lost a lot of people money.

Please don't be put off making a genuine investment, I am sure there are many out there.

Sorry, I meant crypto currencies, not bitcoin!

Too, I would think this was a chat about investment in general, not someone trying to sell someone an 'opportunity', to invest in their MLM, the two currencies mentioned in that article I've never even heard of, so to put people off a legitimate investment opportunity because there are scammers out there is a bit scaremongery.

I would like to think anyone that's interested will have a look at cryptos and invest independently, not just because someone feeds them some bollox with a silly graph and promises of untold riches.

I've used Bittylicious for bitcoin and ether (but don't think it's geared up for Ripple so I used Kraken for that but there was a foreign exchange fee involved) - you will have to register if you want to buy any more than the minimal amount I did. Many people recommend Coinbase.

Periodically, in the past, there have been cyber attacks where people's bitcoins have been stolen from exchanges so the advice often given is to store them on the hard drive of your own computer or a secure wallet like Armory which is thought of as more secure. These come with a very long password.

On a lighter note, apparently a few years ago, some kids in the US did a school science presentation on how to buy Bitcoin and did so in class. With luck, they shouldn't have any problems paying for college. But it might be an urban myth.

I'm not being scaremongery. I'm being sensible. Hopefully people investing will be as well. But the point remains that many people have been sucked into scams and are currently trying to recoup lost money by persuading others to invest. A thread like this will attract these people.

I know it sounds silly and far fetched and people probably think they won't be scammed, but it happens all the time.

Go to the proper trading pages to invest, as advised upthread. The scammy ones can't be bought this way, they deal in shady person-to-person sales.

I absolutely agree with you Too, never ever take an investment opportunity from an individual offering you great returns. Look into the market yourself, read about it and inform yourself.

I do think it's a great opportunity for people though. My interest is purely from a HFT POV, we work from an algorithm, so don't look at the individual currencies, and from that angle it's a good market, no emotion, nothing else.

I do think cryptos will be the future though, but with BC trading at about £1700 and looking like the market leader, it may be too late to get in on a small investor POV, I would look at Ripple and Ethereum though.

As for storage, we take most in Sterling and keep a some BTC in a wallet as Aunt recommended.