> being scammed while watching it happen and thinking "this is a scam" and still going along with it would be infuriating.

Thanks, I understand much better: it's a fear of the risk of partaking into something you may disapprove if it doesn't become what I think it will become.

What BTC spot price would it take for this fear to go away? Will you always have this fear? Even in say 20 years from now?

> By comparison, I don't understand at any level why BitCoin's price is what it is, and have no confidence it won't collapse suddenly and completely instead of going up.

I understand even better- the fear comes from a lack of deeper understanding. Most people on HN know little about economic and finance: I laughed a lot when reading the reactions to the recent cash flow article!!

Even then, you are right, Bitcoin is not a very clear cut case - it has risks, like everything.

> Buying a cheap speculative thing and losing it is one thing, throwing away money on an idea I think is stupid and overpriced and then losing it, is another.

Except the "stupid" part, I get it know. I would suggest you study economics, if you are interested. It's a great way to have strong bases, on which finance will be a great addition later!

It won't make crypto seem perfect - quite the opposite. After you learn macro, you will see the danger of a pure crypto world where no currency would be a competitor. But you will also learn the difference between normative and descriptive economics, and you will see it can (and likely will) happen, due to game theory.

> Are you beating yourself up for not investing in NCYT?

No, I have more than enough. I don't bother with investment anymore.

> Somewhere, on some market around the world, some stock is jumping large multiples every year, or quarter, or month - and missing out doesn't affect you at all

It's a fun thing for some people, but not for me. Now I'm more interested in pure technology - not in playing the same game again and again, only in some slightly different markets.

> Other exchanges have had lots of people able to buy bitcoin, then when they try to sell the exchange gives them the runaround and won't pay any money:

Yes, lots of shady people. Regardless of what you do, please, NEVER leave any money, crypto or otherwise, on an exchange. Keep everything at home.

> The financial amounts that would make a big difference are: a free house (pay off mortgage / buy a property outright), or instant retirement and freedom from work forever

Sorry, can't do. I don't like giving bad advice. And it would be irresponsible for me to suggest you any course of action without knowing how much you can tolerate losing.

> a few more that could soak up the $500 if that's what I wanted to do with it, that I have more confidence in, and less disgust for, than BTC.

It's interesting how you have "disgust", just like you said "stupid" before.

It seems to me it's not just risk and lack of knowledge, but something else too.

So I still don't understand you :)

> precious metals, real estate, that can't be inflated away as easily by central policies

Actually, one executive order to ban gold (which you can't hide as well as crypto), a few change of laws to cull NIMBY, and they can (and will) be inflated away whenever the government wants.

> What does that gain you? And what about the obvious objection that you don't fully control BitCoin?

Network effect make it stable and large. And the control I have on the very small part I still have is enough to protect me from most risks of inflation.

For the rest, real estate (etc) ensure I won't ever be middle class let alone poor, barring WW3-like scenarios (even then, I may have diversified enough to take it)

> The hacker spirit I respect is Fabrice Bellard writing a JavaScript virtual machine emulator

We have similar tastes then!

> The "hacker spirit" of today seems more like growth hacking your Wordpress blog with SEO while you arrange some poor people on an outsourcing site to drop-ship nutritional supplements in your name so you can spend your free time writing a TEDx talk about how you attended a weekend hackathon and got a sneakerbot running on a Raspberry Pi so it can scalp limited edition sneakers and sell them on eBay at a huge markup.

I agree, I find most of HN very distasteful. There are a lot of posers, and very few doers in about everything - and even more on new things like crypto.

> Are you sad for me that I didn't buy Apple or Amazon stock

Yes, if I had told you about it, I would be, especially for Amazon as I saw the opportunity and talked to a few people. Apple, no, it was far from clear cut.

> Isn't there supposed to be more to life and more to people than how much money they have or how much they want to participate in various markets?

There is, but you can't do that until you have fixed the money problem. Freedom brings creativity. You have to be in post-scarcity, and while some people like Bellard can, lots of people are just too tied to their job or the necessity of life. Even worse, if you give them money, they use it to hurt themselves. It's as if money couldn't help people unless they earned it through their work.

> I think giving up sugar would be clearly beneficial, I can't make myself do it.

Thanks for taking the time to say that- it makes me realize I may harbor too much guilt from now being in a different situation than most people here.

You may have some negative feelings about crypto. Have a look at the cool things. It may change your mind- or not? For me, now it's just fun to play with.

Thanks again for your time and the respectful conversion. It's very enlightening to me. Let's keep in touch?