Quote from: piramida on May 23, 2014, 01:24:39 PM

Quote from: 600watt on May 23, 2014, 01:17:10 PM

the community should support people that are doing the difficult move to get invested in bitcoin, and it should try especially help those who have suffered losses and not laugh at them. not that the community could not afford this. it is not lacking funds. it seems it lacks empathy.

i would also donate.

I very much do not agree. I don't think investing into bitcoin should be accessible by grandmas at this point in time. Somebody who has never invested before should probably consider huge mutual funds with 3% yearly guaranteed returns, not the super risky and volatile tech investment. Encouraging somebody who obviously is not a professional or risk-tolerant trader would just lead to other Veronicas losing money, you are not helping, quite the contrary.

However, I very much do like the spirit of helping the good cause, as with supporting the wrong Satoshi; just don't encourage people to invest their money under a false premise that they will be helped if it all goes wrong - most of them won't. You are spawning actual losers and false beggars with acts like this. Sorry if that sounds harsh but that's how it is.

Absolute agreement.

That's why I'm preaching over and over again we shouldn't present Bitcoin as "the investment made in heaven" to newcomers, but instead say:

Rule 1: Read the Satoshi white paper. (Answer A) Does it get you excited? Do you feel this is going to change the world? Good, consider investing (but see rule 2). (Answer B) You have no fucking clue what all the numbers and weird math symbols mean? Please abstain from investing, for your own good.

Rule 2: Never invest more than you can afford to lose. Depending on what you earn, what your family status is, that could mean $100 or $1M. But be honest with yourself in appraising how much you really can afford to lose without going nuts (or broke).

Rule 3: You're still here? Welcome on board! Be prepared for wild price swings. Historically, price has appreciated fantastically, but nobody knows how high exactly we will go in the long run, and how much time there will be between highs and lows. If the thought of sitting on a USD net loss for more than a year makes you squeamish, you probably should invest only a fraction of what you originally had planned to put in.