MIT Bitcoin experiment nets 13,000% windfall for students who held on

Re:MIT Bitcoin experiment nets 13,000% windfall for students... by geofft on Saturday June 05, 2021 @03:46PM (#27407971)

This is a bizarre (and bizarrely non-objective) framing. You can trade US dollars for Bitcoin and Bitcoin for US dollars at any time. Why does it matter that some students got $50 in Bitcoin and chose to sell it for USD - isn't it equally "bad" for them not to have bought another $50 of Bitcoin with USD, which also would have gained the same amount of value?

Why does the author say that one student "unfortunately" turned their $3-4 per delivery, transmitted to them in Bitcoin, into USD, but not take issue with the many students who got $3-4 in tips from various jobs and didn't turn them into Bitcoin?

(Not to get into the weird framing around a "lesson in regret," when they quote students who say that they have no regrets.)

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Re:MIT Bitcoin experiment nets 13,000% windfall for students... by skinnymuch on Saturday June 05, 2021 @04:05PM (#27408075)

I think of this on and off frequently too. Society sort of nudges the narrative of the article however and so I forget how irrational and negative that thinking is...unless of course you got lucky and succeeded in whatever scenario. Though in that case you’d be happy regardless.

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Re:MIT Bitcoin experiment nets 13,000% windfall for students... by _bhlv on Saturday June 05, 2021 @04:13PM (#27408122)

You're either delusional or extremely (emphasis on the 'extremely') divorced from reality. So losing out on a $10,000+ gain is 'a good thing' in your book?

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Re:MIT Bitcoin experiment nets 13,000% windfall for students... by geofft on Saturday June 05, 2021 @05:35PM (#27408640)

I think you completely misread what I said. I didn't say that losing out on a $10,000+ gain is a good thing. I'm just asking why we are only selectively applying that argument to certain lost gains.

Every single person who had $50 lying around in 2014 who didn't buy some Bitcoin also lost out on a $10,000 gain, did they not?

Why do we criticize those people who had $50 worth of Bitcoin and sold it, and ended up with $50 in USD - but not those people who had $50 of USD and chose not to buy Bitcoin?

What's the difference?

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Re:MIT Bitcoin experiment nets 13,000% windfall for students... by gus_massa on Saturday June 05, 2021 @04:36PM (#27408269)

The main problem is that the press cherry-pick the case where there was a huge (potential) gain, and ignore the other.

Do you see an article that says: "Islanders that dumped the Auroracoin immediately got US$10, but hodlers can't even sell the coins now"

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Re:MIT Bitcoin experiment nets 13,000% windfall for students... by prepend on Saturday June 05, 2021 @04:25PM (#27408194)

It’s silly, I think, to worry about these sorts of things because the right decision at the time was to spend, not to save. Given the information at the time, it was perfectly fine.

Obviously $10k is good, but I see no reason someone would have regrets or spend any time thinking about it.

If someone gave you $20 to spend on stuff and you bought dinner that’s a fair exchange. The one in a billion chance that it will be worth $10k years later is no reason to save it.

It’s like feeling bad about not buying Amazon stock early on.

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