what would your life be like if you bought $100 in Bitcoin and held the last 7 y

My advice to you would sell it I doubt you will be able to get $2000. for it there will definitely be large transaction fees, I don't like it, it smells like a scam to me, I would never take payment in Bitcoin, there is nothing backing it, block chain as it is described to me is a classic Ponzi where the last in are going to left holding the bag.

Bitcoins are only "kind of" legal in the US. All transactions are still subject to taxes and anti money laundering laws etc.
In other words any large transaction the government finds out about you are going to suffer the IRS crawling up your ass~!

People actually believe this shit.

Well congratulations to those who did it own! (Juicemane aceing poker. Now aceing bitcoin. Guy is on a roll!)

I got a bit into the mathematics behind it, but that never gave me a clue as to why the price was running up so I was never tempted to buy.

Today we find it was due to demand in Japan (and future ransomware too, I bet). Guess the Japanese are to used to deflation after three decades of dealing with it.

How big is the bid/ask spread typically on it?

@Dougster tha bid ask spread is not the measure for this particular type of investment the correct question would what is the premium you need to pay to redeem your bitcoin or in other words who is going to make a market and actually convert it to dollars and what will that cost you ?

Really? B/c every other currency exchange I've seen (not matter how small: e.g. ones on the street or in Stockholm) have a big ask to convert between currencies. How does Bitcoin work?

Not sure of the answer but since the currency is not backed by a sovereign those folks that are in it at some point going to ask who guarantees the value. At that point it becomes irredeemable this fits the general description of a Ponzi Scheme.

Remember money in general is tied to something that has intrinsic value whether in be gold or the full faith and credit of a sovereign, you measure the value by how likely the backing is to fail. Gold not so likely,United States Treasury, again not so likely to fail, how about a Venezuelan monetary unit , from the time you you receive payment then go to the store the amount of money needed to buy a loaf of bread can double. So here you see that a bitcoin is more than a little bit of the emperor has no clothes on.

I actually agree that Bitcoin could have a stronger foundation than paper currency: i.e. mathematics* (*sort of) which I'll take over full faith and credit of a government. My whole problem with it is that they jiggered with the original protocol to make it inherently deflationary. Which seems especially bad since technological advances could well be making things inherently deflationary already w/o out it. Double whammy!

The protocol could easily be tweaked to make it inflationary, however. So I might be willing to invest in a inflationary relative. Anyone know of one?

I found 58 cents in a jacket of mine the other day. Hard to tell how long it was there. Think it's worth more than 58 cents today?

^^^Maybe tomorrow

i'll give you $.58 for it minus what it costs in postage.