Re-run of the Crypto poll. Please vote and not just dismiss

Thank you for the translation even though the request was insincere. Hint was the smiley face. Just wanted a dog at edukashun starndads excetra.
Maybe engage the vocabulary police at the same time.😁

Ouch! I am in the over 50s. I am so hurt😉, as others may be, by your ageist comment. Some are touchy about PC. Init!
You are living dangerous by mentioning the national treasure, ( not financial advice), from the wrong side of the hills.

It would be interesting to see what the figures would be for, gold or silver, which equally generate no income and are only have value because others think they have a value.

I don't think that the older are less open to new ideas, I suspect they have more life experience, which is slightly different and likely to have far more finance education than your daughter's IT students.

The other interesting thing is how few under 35s there are in the vote, despite P2P being a "modern" investment mechanism, maybe they are working or they are broke...or maybe they are chatting about P2P on facebook

Some of the technologies associated with crypto currencies eg blockchain and the programmatic contract nature of Etherium are really exciting and will ultimately change the way the world works for the better.  That having been said I am extremely sceptical of the currency angle.  A currency needs to do three things:-

1.  A medium of exchange.
2.  A store of value.
3.  A unit of account.

Looked at from this perspective crypto makes for lousy currency.  As does gold (as somebody alluded to earlier in the thread), the difference is that gold at least has some industrial uses, and looks pretty.

Also as was said above investing in currencies is essentially a zero sum game (actual currency purchases for trade or for holidays etc are marginal when total flows are considered).  imho the current crypto craze* will see a few people make out like bandits, and the vast majority lose their shirts.

* eg Kodak shares going up 300% on the announcement of their new crypto currency last week.  As nice an idea as allowing photographers to imprint ownership and guarantee earnings from their work is it in no way justifies such a jump in their share price.

It's like the late 90s all over again when all you had to do was have "internet" in your company name and your share price rocketed.  We know how that ended......

I'm not sure that all of the Kodak share price increase was down to the employment of a Crypto type technology within their company. I think that some of the price rise was also due to the fact that Kodak have now voiced their intentions to attempt to move with fast moving technology.

On the other point of Crypto currency having no store of value etc. Some Crypto technologies do have a store of value. Some even have reserves of value that is backed up by a deposit of FIAT currency (Tether is just one such currency that is tied to a $ value, hence the name Tether).  However, the most useful, as far as I am concerned are the tokens rather than the currency. These tokens allow financial institutions to use the blockchain technology that they are so desperate to incorporate into their business models. The companies that issue these tokens have a large amount of funding put into them to create a viable business model and provide very valuable platforms for financial institutions to utilise. In my mind, as these tokens are being used to obtain services, they then have an inherent value.

Before people start to bring morals into this (Please take this comment as it is intended, no malice or judgement), we need to remember why this forum is here. To give investors in P2P the edge when it comes to investing in P2P platforms and ensure they are not left holding the poo parcel at the end of the day. If that were not the case, I would not see so many people dumping on the SM on so many sites after reading comments in the DD area. There seems to be no moral misdemeanour involved with passing off a loan part that you have just found out is heading south, or am I reading this wrong?

Of course there will always be winners and losers. I am afraid that is life. If everybody were the same, who would serve you your McDonalds (Assuming you go there)? We are not all equal and we never will be. I guarantee you that many of the people on this forum have made money in ways that others would not agree with. Investing in diamonds, precious metals, etc. Are the diamond and precious metal mines mined by a group of suit wearing individuals or are the miners (Mostly) down trodden individual's who earn very meagre wages?

So while I may be looking to make money from other investors who do not have the same luck as me, this is not the only investment in this world that is immoral.

But, as I said, this is just my opinion.

There is a theory (More than a theory really!) that the Crypto markets are being driven by FOMO. I am pretty sure that it is to be honest as there are millions of accounts at Binance and Kraken waiting to come online but have to clear security checks.  Can you imagine what all that extra money COULD do to the price of Bitcoin with people desperate to get their hands on one?

The thing is about media is that they have a big audience and can put across any view that they want. You only have to look at the press coverage during an election to see what influence over the general public the press can have.  For every article you can find to support not buying Bitcoin, there will be a hundred to support it, and vice versa.  I personally think you have to look at it, weigh it up, calculate what you are prepared to risk and either jump or walk away.

The only problem I see with you wishing you had years ago, is that you now think that the opportunity has been lost. Lets hope you are not saying the same again in 5 years (FOMO!)

Not all investments are zero sum games. I like to invest in a company that creates wealth then everyone's a winner.