from Hacker News

Ask HN: IF the Bitcoin bubble bursts, where would you invest next?

by 1k on 11/27/17, 6:20 AM with 43 comments

• by 0bsidian on 11/27/17, 11:29 AM

  I would buy more Bitcoin.

  The world needs a censorship-resistant digital vault to store wealth. Bitcoin is basically a very cheap "Swiss bank account as a service" for the world's unbanked.

  Some use cases I can think off the top of my head:

  (1) You are from Syria and need to flee war and escape into Europe – however bank transfers into Europe are almost impossible if you are a common Syrian. Bitcoin allows you to take your wealth with you, in your brain, as you escape across the border, by just memorising your twelve word private key.

  (2) You are from Venezuela or Zimbabwe – The government has issued capital controls and is devaluing currency by the day. You transfer your wealth into Bitcoin in order to offset capital erosion due to hyper-inflation. When the situation stabilises, you transfer your Bitcoin back into fiat.

  (3) You are Saudi billionaire Al-Waleed bin Talal. The government freezes all your assets in a political coup. If you have a portion of your wealth in Bitcoin, you could protect them from government expropriation and anonymously transfer them to associates or family members abroad.

  I truly believe that Bitcoin will serve the unbanked of the world. We're not there yet, but these are very early days for crypto.

  Sorry for the long winded response, I get excited when talking about BTC.

• by zaarn on 11/27/17, 11:00 AM

  Invest in Butter and Corn, when the Bitcoin Bubble inevitably bursts Popcorn will be in high demand.

  I think it would not be a bad idea to just follow investment advice; take a well performing index or ETF and stick to that. Maybe invest some into bitcoin again after the bubble has burst and it has a closer to reality value.

• by BjoernKW on 11/27/17, 8:01 AM

  A small amount in Bitcoin is the only speculation I indulge in. For now Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are just that: Casino money.

  In terms of real investment ETFs and - to a lesser extent - individual company shares are still the way to go.

• by quickthrower2 on 11/27/17, 10:26 AM

  I don't consider Bitcoin to be an investment per-se. More of a punt. If I need an alternative way to punt, maybe some penny stocks?

• by megadethz on 11/27/17, 11:42 AM

  I’d look into Monero and Zcash. Allow my wealth to be truly private.

• by surreptitious00 on 11/27/17, 7:40 PM

  Ethereum, the flippening will happen and when it does it will happen fast. Ether transfers in seconds for a fraction of a penny, it's a better cryptocurrency that bitcoin and that's not even its billing. It has far more utility and will use far less energy with a hybrid Proof of Stake/Proof of Work and eventual Proof of Stake consensus. So much more in the works, Ethereum's brightest days are ahead. All that while bitcoin squabbling brings it low, fork after fork after fork. It stands as an amazing proof of concept does bitcoin, but in a short number of years it will be in a museum.

• by raphaelj on 11/27/17, 2:07 PM

  Bitcoin is just pure speculation at this point. Like gold, Bitcoin's value comes from the fact that more and more people are interested in buying it. Unlike stocks, it does not generate real money through dividends. For every person that got rich with Bitcoin, some other unlucky guy will lose the very same amount of money. When the bubble will burst, it will be zero sum game.

  Index-based ETFs should be the way to go for casual investors. Put some money in half-a-dozen index funds from the US, EU and Asia, and you'll get a low-fee, relatively stable and 7% average yearly ROI.

• by bsvalley on 11/27/17, 3:45 PM

  If I could predict the future I could come up with a very helpful answer to your question. Unfortunately... ;)

• by matchmike1313 on 11/27/17, 6:28 AM

  I would probably lump my money in my existing Wealthfront account. I invest <5% of my disposable income in various cryptocurrencies, I view them as volatile commodities.

• by dabockster on 11/28/17, 3:36 AM

  The thing to keep in mind is that if the Bitcoin bubble bursts, then Bitcoin will go down for sure. However, the altcoins will probably recover for a year or two after the crash. The most drastic thing that would happen is that all the altcoins would be valued against something other than BTC, and the market would adjust accordingly.

  At the time of this writing, I have investments in BTC, LTC, XMR (Monero), ARK, and RDD (ReddCoin). While BTC does represent around half of my total crypto investment, I wouldn't be completely screwed since one of the alts would probably take its place. I could see either Monero or one of the Bitcoin forks taking over in that scenario.

  So, answering the question, I'd still invest in crypto. But I wouldn't invest in Bitcoin directly anymore.

• by shepardrtc on 11/27/17, 3:13 PM

  Ripple. Its more stable and is being adopted by financial institutions (AMEX being one of the biggest so far). I honestly think it'll be the first widely used crypto. Its a little different from Bitcoin, but I think it'll do well in the long run.

• by mancerayder on 11/27/17, 5:57 PM

  Related question: If the Bitcoin bubble bursts, will capital exit the cryptocurrency space, taking other currencies down with it (my hunch) or will another coin, ETH or Litecoin (or another), replace it?

• by mdotk on 11/27/17, 8:19 PM

  Why has it gone from P2P payments to store of wealth now?

• by boobsbr on 11/27/17, 12:56 PM

  Does anyone spend BTC? Seems like these upward spikes in value would incourage people to buy and hold indefinitely.

• by vinchuco on 11/27/17, 4:09 PM

  When the tulip craze happened, where did people invest next? (not claiming it's the same)

• by Merthurian on 11/27/17, 10:28 AM

  The dip.

• by onecooldev24 on 11/27/17, 8:25 AM

  If the bubble bursts the right place to invest would be bitcoin itself. Whether you like it or not BTC is here to stay and most likely going to be the next currency.

  A lot of people hate BTC on this forum cause they feel they missed out.