cryptocurrencies

[Seattle]

So you didn't lose money then. That's good.

But indeed, as we both seemed to agree a couple of years back on this thread, bitcoin isn't a currency. It's closer to being a speculative commodity. You say it's like gold but I'm not sure that's a good analogy, as it is the opposite in terms of stability and predictability. With most commodities, say gold, oil, coffee, one can predict roughly how they are likely to move based on external information. One does not seem to be able to do that with bitcoin.

Its reputation also seems to be increasingly tarnished (haha) through its use by the criminal underworld, rogue regimes (e.g. Iran) and shady politicians and others who need to disguise the nature or origin of their finances.

I'm sure you are well out of it, anyway.

I don't think it's tarnished. The dollar is used by criminals far more than Bitcoin is.

It is, or was, more of a speculative investment, like tech, and reacted much the same, doing better in high liquidity years. Gold isn't that predictable and does nothing for years then just went up 60% last year.

Gold is more a hedge than a high yielding investment and to the extent that Bitcoin has matured, it will be similar. If it still has a little more growth, due to adoption, left then it will continue to react like a speculative investment.

These things don't generally turn on a dime. The growth will continue to slow down and at that point will just be a debasement hedge. IMO, there are better ways to do that if the fast growth stage is over.