Gold Price; I Would Have Expected....

[FreeBirdTim]

The obvious problem with paying with bitcoin is the ridiculous price fluctuation of it. Up 7k one week, down 7k the next week. You buy $1,000 worth of merchandise at Home Depot and pay with bitcoin. A week later that $1,000 worth of bitcoin is now worth $1,100! You just paid 10% more for your materials.

And how do the businesses get real money for it? They'd have to use a bank that would accept bitcoin deposits. I checked and Bank of America, Chase, Navigant and Citizens do NOT accept bitcoin deposits. The fact that bitcoin has been around for 15 years and still isn't trusted by most businesses tells me all I need to know about bitcoin.

 

[bc5391]

Bitcoin is a Ponzi scheme as stated. There is nothing backing it up except thin air. Do you have any idea of how many digital currencies there are? I lost count, but somewhere in the neighborhood of each day of the year. Most go away in 6 - 12 months, then 2 more pop up.
Granted our Dollar is a fiat currency , but gold and Silver have had value since before Christ was born.

 

[bc5391]

Are they cracking down on you guys with cash?
Ten yrs ago after I had worked at place for a number of yrs and saved up money, cash for another car, we decided to buy one. My current one had become a money pit.
When I went to buy it I was taken aside in a room where I had to sign forms declaring where and how I had got the money from. Not their forms but ones they have to submit when a transaction is above $10,000 for the govt. I think its got even stricter now. Some banks are even asking the customers when they withdraw for a reason they want the money which they record. Your money and you have to tell them why you want it. I heard a radio show where they were talking about it and one guy rang in and said his best excuse which left the teller speechless was "my girlfriend is psychotic and on crack, if I don't buy her any who knows what she'll do!"
There were some hilarious stories from others.

Been like that forever here in the US. I have worked in the auto industry since the late 1970's, dealers always had to report cash transactions over $10k even though most cars did not cost that much back then. I think the few were Mercedes, Volvo, Porsche

 

[pepperj]

Bitcoin is a Ponzi scheme as stated. There is nothing backing it up except thin air. Do you have any idea of how many digital currencies there are? I lost count, but somewhere in the neighborhood of each day of the year. Most go away in 6 - 12 months, then 2 more pop up.
Granted our Dollar is a fiat currency , but gold and Silver have had value since before Christ was born.

As of March 2026, the estimated number of cryptocurrencies in the world varies significantly depending on whether you count all created tokens or only those that are actively traded.

• Total Created Assets: There are over 37 million unique cryptocurrencies in existence.
  • Some data providers tracking the entire blockchain ecosystem estimate this number could even exceed 50 million.
  • This high figure includes "dead coins," abandoned projects, and millions of low-utility tokens created on networks like Solana.
• Actively Tracked Assets: For investors, a more practical number is around 18,000 to 22,000 active cryptocurrencies.
  • CoinGecko: Tracks approximately 18,245 coins as of March 2026.
  • CoinMarketCap: Reports tracking over 22,000 active cryptocurrencies, though they have registered nearly 30 million total assets on their platform.
• Market Concentration: Despite the vast number of coins, the market remains highly concentrated.
  • Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) together control roughly 75% of the total crypto market value.
  • Major exchanges like Coinbase are selective, listing only about 319 well-vetted cryptocurrencies.
    

 

[BennyV]

Bitcoin is a Ponzi scheme as stated. There is nothing backing it up except thin air. Do you have any idea of how many digital currencies there are? I lost count, but somewhere in the neighborhood of each day of the year. Most go away in 6 - 12 months, then 2 more pop up.
Granted our Dollar is a fiat currency , but gold and Silver have had value since before Christ was born.

You’re entitled to your opinion.

 

[bc5391]

As of March 2026, the estimated number of cryptocurrencies in the world varies significantly depending on whether you count all created tokens or only those that are actively traded.

• Total Created Assets: There are over 37 millionunique cryptocurrencies in existence.
  • Some data providers tracking the entire blockchain ecosystem estimate this number could even exceed 50 million.
  • This high figure includes "dead coins," abandoned projects, and millions of low-utility tokens created on networks like Solana.
• Actively Tracked Assets: For investors, a more practical number is around 18,000 to 22,000active cryptocurrencies.
  • CoinGecko: Tracks approximately 18,245 coins as of March 2026.
  • CoinMarketCap: Reports tracking over 22,000 active cryptocurrencies, though they have registered nearly 30 million total assets on their platform.
• Market Concentration: Despite the vast number of coins, the market remains highly concentrated.
  • Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) together control roughly 75% of the total crypto market value.
  • Major exchanges like Coinbase are selective, listing only about 319 well-vetted cryptocurrencies.

37 mil, that is mind blowing. I still have my coinebase account, which is why I thought there was 300+

Point is, coinebase at one time would give you tokens, many of them went from a $6 value to worthless in less than a year, I kept many of them, only because they were free, but when free is worthless, then that is what you have.

For someone to convert everything they own, say $10k or $1,000,000, into bitcoin, ethern , dogcoine or any other digital currency. Then the market turns, which it will at sometime. Now your $10k is worth $1k and your 1 mil is worth $10k, the question is What would you do?
For that answer one has to look back at the stock market crash in the early 1900's, or even as close to the crash about 20 years ago. I knew several people who lost everything, one couple committed murder/suicide. Your mind will tell you, that you can never recover.

I can go to the park, find a couple of rings, buy food for a month, can you find a digital currency?

 

[bc5391]

You’re entitled to your opinion.

Yes, and having played the markets, and coming very close to loosing my shirt, long term (over 24 hours) is a no -go for me.
Before 24 hour trading, I was trading gold futures, all odds were on computers crashing at the turn of the Millennial, I was about $90k ahead when I went to sleep, no way to add more contracts or get out, trading was only when the markets opened in your time zone. When the markets did open I was $30k in the hole, by some stroke of luck, buying and selling multiple contracts, I broke even before the markets closed.
After that I switched to Forex trading, wrote several trading robots with the help of another person, but the robots could not be left on overnight either.
bottom line, the year 2000 turned me into a day trader. For anyone who is able to keep there $ in long term, my hat is off for you.

 

[pepperj]

37 mil, that is mind blowing. I still have my coinebase account, which is why I thought there was 300+

Point is, coinebase at one time would give you tokens, many of them went from a $6 value to worthless in less than a year, I kept many of them, only because they were free, but when free is worthless, then that is what you have.

For someone to convert everything they own, say $10k or $1,000,000, into bitcoin, ethern , dogcoine or any other digital currency. Then the market turns, which it will at sometime. Now your $10k is worth $1k and your 1 mil is worth $10k, the question is What would you do?
For that answer one has to look back at the stock market crash in the early 1900's, or even as close to the crash about 20 years ago. I knew several people who lost everything, one couple committed murder/suicide. Your mind will tell you, that you can never recover.

I can go to the park, find a couple of rings, buy food for a month, can you find a digital currency?

I buy and sell on a true and tested method.
I want to see the whites of their 👀.
Not asking for a lot requesting that, and amazing fact of this method.
It has always produced a purchase or a sell when it did happen.
I can't believe in the invisible currency of today.
No power, or a computer crash, a forgotten password, and a person is left with nothing.

 

[robertk]

I knew several people who lost everything, one couple committed murder/suicide. Your mind will tell you, that you can never recover.

That is so sad. Yes, it would be a massive blow, but it should not be life ending. We all enter the world with nothing, and we all leave it with nothing. You can always restart. Maybe you don't rise quite as high -- or maybe you go higher than ever. You just never know.