Investment Thread

[Wheat/"/"/"]

Things are happening fast...

Venmo/PayPal added 77 million users access to crypto currencies today in the US.

[YmoBeThere]

$200 billion wiped off crypto market in a day as bitcoin plunges below $50,000


https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/23/bitc...ndroidappshare

[bundabergdevil]

$200 billion wiped off crypto market in a day as bitcoin plunges below $50,000


https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/23/bitc...ndroidappshare

Heck of a ride.

[YmoBeThere]

$200 billion wiped off crypto market in a day as bitcoin plunges below $50,000


https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/23/bitc...ndroidappshare

For reference down 21% in 10 days.

[budwom]

semi apropos to all this...I saw a piece in Business Week which said that when bitcoin mining peaks in China in a couple years, it will annually consume more power than the entire country of Italy uses in a year.

There has been some weird fallout along these lines...a few years ago, some bitcoin miners set up operations WAY up in northern NY state, where costs are low, and power is ultra cheap due to hydro power. Giant server farms.
But (there's always a but) they consumed so much power that it exhausted the "cheap" power the area was entitled to by contract, and normal human beings in the area suddenly saw gigantic increases in their power bills. Not sure how they worked that out.

[PackMan97]

semi apropos to all this...I saw a piece in Business Week which said that when bitcoin mining peaks in China in a couple years, it will annually consume more power than the entire country of Italy uses in a year.

There has been some weird fallout along these lines...a few years ago, some bitcoin miners set up operations WAY up in northern NY state, where costs are low, and power is ultra cheap due to hydro power. Giant server farms.
But (there's always a but) they consumed so much power that it exhausted the "cheap" power the area was entitled to by contract, and normal human beings in the area suddenly saw gigantic increases in their power bills. Not sure how they worked that out.

Until we have unlimited power, I just don't see cypto as a long term solution. It's not going to be long before the environmentalists target it, and to be honest, I'm surprised it hasn't happened yet.

[Bluedog]

Until we have unlimited power, I just don't see cypto as a long term solution. It's not going to be long before the environmentalists target it, and to be honest, I'm surprised it hasn't happened yet.

I'm not knowledgable about this topic, but found the two below articles interesting:
https://www.independent.co.uk/climat...-b1819545.html
https://www.forbes.com/sites/rogerhu...h=11c93bb420a7

Seems like the key is to transfer the power usage to renewables that mine bitcoin or in places where there is excess power supply.

It's also interesting that when googling "environmentalist cyrptocurrency," it's mostly articles ASKING the question. You're right that it doesn't seem like environmentalists have targeted it much yet.

Let's just set up a couple nuclear plants for bitcoin mining and we'll be all set. It's cheap (once the plant is built...) and clean.

[Kdogg]

semi apropos to all this...I saw a piece in Business Week which said that when bitcoin mining peaks in China in a couple years, it will annually consume more power than the entire country of Italy uses in a year.

We learned this month that a vast amount of Bitcoin mining is concentrated in a limited area in a region of China where coal is cheap and king. One mine got flooded and it took down about 20-30% of the global hash rate. The geopolitical ramifications of this “discovery” don’t bode well of Bitcoin’s future. If anyone can control 51% of the network hash rate they can grind the whole thing to a halt.

I
Seems like the key is to transfer the power usage to renewables that mine bitcoin or in places where there is excess power supply.

It's also interesting that when googling "environmentalist cyrptocurrency," it's mostly articles ASKING the question. You're right that it doesn't seem like environmentalists have targeted it much yet.

You are looking for Chia coin. It’s still in the infancy stage. It uses storage and time instead of power hunger GPUs and ASIC machines. They “plot” and “farm.” There are already hard drive and SSD shortages in China from these guys. Glad I built my computer over the holidays.

[howardlander]

Hi all

In preparation for retirement in a couple of years, I sold some shares I had in NVidia. I made a fair amount of money on the shares, but felt like I didn't need the volatility at this point in my life. Our investment guy is proposing a few possible places to put the money. One of them is in some of the Lord Abbett funds. I had never heard of this fund family before. Does anyone have experience with these funds or an opinion to share? If it matters, the amount is about 200k.

Howard

[CrazyNotCrazie]

Hi all

In preparation for retirement in a couple of years, I sold some shares I had in NVidia. I made a fair amount of money on the shares, but felt like I didn't need the volatility at this point in my life. Our investment guy is proposing a few possible places to put the money. One of them is in some of the Lord Abbett funds. I had never heard of this fund family before. Does anyone have experience with these funds or an opinion to share? If it matters, the amount is about 200k.

Howard

I have a few former colleagues whose work I respect who work on their muni funds. I don’t think that is particularly helpful but I figured it is something.

[budwom]

https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/27/inves...gos/index.html

Fallout from investment "genius" Bill Hwang now hits $10 billion...LOL at the Credit Suisse ($5.5 billion in losses) "risk manager" who may struggle to get his next gig.

[bundabergdevil]

I did not realize how many crypto assets there are.

[YmoBeThere]

I did not realize how many crypto assets there are.

Dozens. And yet, everywhere I want to spend my US dollars has no issues taking my credit card, cash or check.

[bundabergdevil]

Dozens. And yet, everywhere I want to spend my US dollars has no issues taking my credit card, cash or check.

I occasionally barter goods and services still.

[budwom]

I occasionally barter goods and services still.

I am a known barterer myself...rural living lends itself to that...

[duke79]

I am a known barterer myself...rural living lends itself to that...

LOL, perhaps I should not ask this on an open thread, BUT are you declaring on your state and federal income tax returns the value of what you receive when you barter your services??

[bundabergdevil]

LOL, perhaps I should not ask this on an open thread, BUT are you declaring on your state and federal income tax returns the value of what you receive when you barter your services??

(Narc)

[YmoBeThere]

I occasionally barter goods and services still.

People needing help getting stuff from the upper shelves at the grocery store

[bundabergdevil]

People needing help getting stuff from the upper shelves at the grocery store

Oooh, call-back. Yeah, I charge the little old ladies for that service!

[YmoBeThere]

LOL, perhaps I should not ask this on an open thread, BUT are you declaring on your state and federal income tax returns the value of what you receive when you barter your services??

Oooh, call-back. Yeah, I charge the little old ladies for that service!

It would be interesting to see how the IRS valued that...