If Someone Posted on a Forum Claiming to Have a $45m Crypto Portfolio, Would You Believe Them?

z0s0 on 04/04/2021 - 18:53
Last edited 07/04/2021 - 20:50 by 1 other user

Strictly hypothetically of course. But let's say someone made this wild claim whilst refusing to provide any evidence whatsoever. Would it likely be the truth in your opinion?

Particularly when you consider that anyone inclined to post such a thing must be craving the attention and approval of his/her forum peers.

It's trivial to prove that you control a Bitcoin address, so if you happen to control an address holding a large sum of Bitcoin, then it would be very simple to provide some evidence to back such a portfolio claim.

EDIT:
Fellow ozbargain member "cloudy" wrote a great post highlighting the logical gymnastics required to make these claims credible:

https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/615103#comment-10302391

Poll Options expired

  • 65
    Yes
  • 458
    No
Financial

Comments

  • brendanm on 04/04/2021 - 18:56
    +50

    If someone posts anything anonymously on the internet, would I believe them? No.

    • spackbace on 04/04/2021 - 21:02
      +53

      But I really am a Nigerian prince!

      • This Guy on 05/04/2021 - 10:07
        +4

        You sell used car's now too?

        • spackbace on 05/04/2021 - 17:23

          Nup, busy setting up an import business for the next hydrogen powered, ev backup LC400

          • This Guy on 05/04/2021 - 18:16

            @spackbace: Whoosh.

            Good to hear. You were always too good just to be a sales person. Good luck!

      • mohan76 on 05/04/2021 - 19:11

        nah i don't believe any prince with 2 digit millions, new norm is 3 digit millions

      • [Deactivated] on 06/04/2021 - 06:48
        -1

        here take my bank account details for the holding deposit so I can get my 100million from my dead uncle

    • benaud on 05/04/2021 - 17:16
      +2

      I don’t believe you

      • brendanm on 05/04/2021 - 17:17
        -1

        I don't believe that.

  • 2jzzzz on 04/04/2021 - 18:56
    +10

    No
    What are they even doing on this site?

    • aoeueoa on 06/04/2021 - 06:08
      +8

      Excuse me I'll have you know my net worth is $54 trillion and I still like a good BOGOF 6 McNuggets deal.

      • ThithLord on 06/04/2021 - 08:14
        +1

        You get McDonalds chicken nuggets? LUXURY

    • smartazz104 on 06/04/2021 - 13:56
      +1

      You don't get rich by paying RRP.

  • ozhunter on 04/04/2021 - 19:20
    +17

    No lol, but I would if it was $46m.

    • Kangal on 04/04/2021 - 22:05
      +8

      Personally, I think it's too high/ridiculous to believe. If they said they had $42.0 Million that's much more likely to be true in my horrid opinion.

  • holdenmg on 04/04/2021 - 19:25
    +1

    Nuh.

    If you had $45 million, you wouldn't post it yourself, you could pay people to do it for you. lol

    Also, the first rule of fight club is…

  • idjces on 04/04/2021 - 19:34
    +25

    I find it incredibly ironic that people without wealth, seem to believe that those with wealth, wouldn't spend time on a site like ozbargain. Clearly those who have accumulated wealth, understand the value of money.

    The 'rich' who would not visit ozbargain, either sell their time for a lot of money, or came into it through luck (lotto, inheritence)

    I can`t find the link about wealthy people also choosing to shop at wal-mart - but this is close enough
    https://www.joshuakennon.com/the-importance-of-frugality-in-…

    • z0s0 on 04/04/2021 - 19:50
      +2

      Don't see how this has anything to do with the facts stated in my poll. Plenty of wealthy people participate in ozbargain; however they seemingly don't exhibit the behaviours described above.

      • idjces on 04/04/2021 - 20:14
        +11

        "the facts stated in my poll"

        Which facts?

        He said he lent out large sums of his crypto to earn interest, so they won't be under an address he controls.

        Secondly, why would he risk identifying a btc address he owns, for anyone on the internet to track his transfers? I'm not about to go advertising my stock holdings or land title

        • z0s0 on 04/04/2021 - 20:24
          +1

          The fact that said person would be seeking attention by making such a claim, and the fact that they would simultaneously fail to provide any evidence to back the claim.

          There is no risk in exposing a bitcoin address. It's all public anyway, that's the whole point of the public blockchain.

          • idjces on 04/04/2021 - 20:46
            +9

            @z0s0: Being public makes it accountable, it doesn't make it identifiable.

            There are large personal risks involved with tying anything extremely valuable to your identity (real or pseudonym's)

            Any 'evidence' provided is also easily fraudulent. There are no good outcomes in doing what you proposed

            • gromit on 07/04/2021 - 15:33

              @idjces:

              There are large personal risks involved with tying anything extremely valuable to your identity (real or pseudonym's)

              But that is exactly what he has done by posting about it on forum. I have to agree with the OP, the behaviour doesn't make a lot of sense and reeks of attention seeking and if real, stupidity. that is ignoring the terrible financial advise they tried to give.

          • turbochris on 05/04/2021 - 10:18

            @z0s0: Moved reply to main thread

    • elgrande on 04/04/2021 - 20:04
      +6

      or came into it through luck (lotto, inheritence, bitcoin)

    • Blitzfx on 05/04/2021 - 20:11
      +3

      Spending time doing important life-essential chores like buying food from walmart is a world apart from spending unproductive time writing a thesis on ozbargain.

      Here are just a few examples of how we achieved that early on in our lives:

      Did you notice this part in your own link? Early-on, ie. when he had small money. When you start playing with big money, it becomes increasingly cost inefficient to nickel and dime everything in your life when you can spend that decision time making bigger calls.

      45m is not small money and I find it very difficult to believe they suddenly stopped hustling and chose to waste time typing up a story on ozbargain.

    • cloudy on 05/04/2021 - 22:45
      +33

      Firstly, I think all walks of life use ozbargain. Many well off people would certainly use ozb as its ingrained to get a "bargain" getting investing is all about getting a bargain.

      But techleads story, which is what this post is referring to is interesting.

      I went thru all his posts to pull out his statements of facts, i'll copy paste some and sum up others
      - he has 45m USD approx 60m AUD
      - he is early 30s (lets assume that means 33) any older and you would say mid 30s right?
      - he said he used to own stocks and gold etc
      - he said "Fund managers are selling gold to buy Bitcoin in 2021, I already did that in 2015." So he had invested in gold up until 2015 where he sold out and went all in on BTC in 2016.
      - First made his invest investing in BTC in 2013, after looking it at it for 4 years in 2009, the year it was created.
      - he said he has 35% in BTC, and total of 30 coins (including ETH and ADA). I will have to assume some sort of return profile based on BTC, seems like a lot of coins follow BTC rise and fall anyway, but assumptions have to be made.
      - He does acknowledge that you can't buy the bottom or pick the top, but says BTC going to 1mill bucks is inevitable several times.
      - He does seem to imply he can pick the bottom though (even though you can't).

      By "Mid 2020 crash", I presume you mean the March 2020 covid flash crash where it went from $7800USD to below $5000USD? I remember that night very well, when it started crashing, I was pulling every last cent from my bank accounts to send to the exchange to buy Bitcoin. Unfortunately I was held up by daily transfer limits, $20k T_T. I was buying as much as I can.
      - He does seem to hold fiat during march 2020, but does seem to be "all in" in 2016.
      - He was invited to provide some screenshot but declined, only asking for you to believe him or not.

      Let's lets do some deducing.

      So in 2009, when he was circa 20yrs old he was aware of BTC creation.
      By 24 (2013) he bought his first bits of BTC (I wonder how much money one saves up by the time they are 24, but clearly from his prior posts it isn't his only investment) So one has to conclude this wasn't a big sum. You can take a stab at what a 24 year old investing stocks, commodities, crytpo would throw at each class. My guess is not much, maybe 1 or 2k tops.

      By 27 (2016) he has gone all in, he has lost money in gold ( you pretty much have to given golds chart unless he is extremely lucky).

      Ok, lets pause and assume this is when he made the bulk of his money. BTC has 100x in price since 2016. (pretty good money, but how much do you need to be a 45m USD net worth now?).
      Well you need 450,000 USD, or approx $600,000 AUD saved up, and put it all in BTC at this time, at 27. Even if you don't assume this is the moment where he made the bulk of his money, you'd still think he would need about 75% of it for his story to be plausible.
      So he must have worked and saved 450,000 AUD by 27. To any reader here, how much did you save by the time you're 27? How much do you have to earn to save that figure by 27?

      And lastly, of course in 2020 he was asking if his 5 yr old TV is worth fixing. But goes on to call anyone who points it out as snobs and claiming he is just interested in fixing and fidgeting with tech. Personally, that also doesn't add up. There's a huge difference between someone wanting to learn how to fix something, and someone who asks if something is worth fixing.
      The first statement is something you can google, how to fix dead pixels? The other implies you want an opinion on the time/effort trade off (usually considered by people who are tight on money).

      Also, please consider the following.
      There is a wide opinion that cyrto is a pyramid scheme, for such to exist more new users are required to join the club, but raising awareness, inciting greed and FOMO it helps draws in more people who wish to "achieve financial freedom" So he has clear incentive to "educate" us all on the benefits of BTC etc…

      He is also a life long BTC (as he claims), yet when BTC was 1/10th the price of today, he was posting about how to fix his old TV instead of starting the thread that he did last week? If I was so sure of something, and already made millions (4.5 USD to be approx). I think I would of stated the humble brag already. Instead he chooses today, hmm, only he knows why. But I can only assume, and I assume there's plenty of fluff in amongst much info on crytpo on his thread.

      also sorry idjcs, after starting to type I digressed away from your original post. sorry!

      • [Deactivated] on 05/04/2021 - 23:57
        +3

        Not going to reply to this entire post but just some key points.

        By 24 (2013) he bought his first bits of BTC (I wonder how much money one saves up by the time they are 24, but clearly from his prior posts it isn't his only investment) So one has to conclude this wasn't a big sum. You can take a stab at what a 24 year old investing stocks, commodities, crytpo would throw at each class. My guess is not much, maybe 1 or 2k tops.

        What??? He could've easily had way more invested when he was 24. I had more than that invested when I was 18.. That's an entire 6 years to make something more. If he dropped $10,000 on BTC at $14/coin in Jan 2013 he would have had over 700 bitcoin and maybe he's lost some to buying some stupid shit, just as plausible mate.

        And lastly, of course in 2020 he was asking if his 5 yr old TV is worth fixing. But goes on to call anyone who points it out as snobs and claiming he is just interested in fixing and fidgeting with tech. Personally, that also doesn't add up. There's a huge difference between someone wanting to learn how to fix something, and someone who asks if something is worth fixing.

        Why would he sell when Bitcoin is on a downtrend? As the man said he was putting all his fiat savings on the crash so ofc he'd be reparing a TV, that'd go to waste elsewise? Some people are just cheap and don't know how to spend money when they have money. For example I AM still eating $1 hamburgers from Macdonalds or walking 30 minutes to a train station when its 40c when there are no buses while my account goes up and down tens of thousands within hours and I'm still just learning to spend money lol I used to be way worse. Put it this way, every $1 you spend now could be $100 in the future, literally in this guys case when Bitcoin hits $1m..

        • spackbace on 06/04/2021 - 00:42

          Is it worth saying that their username, techlead, is associated with a possible scammer? I'm not saying it's the same person, just seems an interesting name to pick
          https://amp.reddit.com/r/PHP/comments/e3upte/thoughts_on_tec…
          https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4xKdmAXFh4ACyhpiQ_3qBw

        • cloudy on 07/04/2021 - 19:37
          +2

          Allow me to respond, but i premise to say anything is possible, so i'm not dismissive of TL, I'm pointing out he is an extraordinary individual if he is what he say he is. Therefore he really needs to have a pretty clear and credible story or else it's hard for me (at least) to believe.

          Opportunities for him to prove himself with a screenshot were denied.

          What??? He could've easily had way more invested when he was 24.
          yes, absolutely. Same here. And from my experience, and TL as well, we usually throw money around like darts here and there. Most people start investing in things they know, TL also states he started off with stocks and commodities. It's only fair to assume, at a young age (for both OP and the cryto market) we all start small. It's fairly unreasonable to assume your first foray into investment is a large bet on something unknown right?
          When I was 24 I had close to 100k to invest. But I would throw it around the usual names of stocks of 10k here and there on WOW, Banks, and smaller sums on some "riskier" stocks etc and kept some in cash (interest rates back then weren't all that bad. I use quotation marks for risker stocks because those were risky, but crytpo back then was more akin to black and white at Crown.

          I should note, I also like a bit of poker at crown too, which is the kind of risk I would think most people associate with crypto today (let alone in 2010). And if i dropped 1k at crown that'll be a lot, I can't imagine a young lad going in with 10k pops right? Is that what you do?

          Why would he sell when Bitcoin is on a downtrend?
          Look at any downtrend. In any market, there is always volume. In fact, during March of 2020, more volume than usual by a wide margin on anything that trades. For every buyer there's a seller. So there are more people selling anything BTC included in a downtrend.
          I know I didn't answer why people sell, I am simply saying there are plenty of sellers when its going down.

          As the man said he was putting all his fiat savings on the crash so ofc he'd be reparing a TV
          Sure, the other arguement people are saying is that his wealth was crashing then and was worried about his finances so repairing the TV is logical.
          I personally don't buy the story that someone, in March 2020, with approx 4.5m of wealth at the time, needs to penny pinch. But its up to you.

          Put it this way, every $1 you spend now could be $100 in the future
          Well, this might seem the obvious to me, but it might not to you so i'll just type it out.
          This is probably what a crytpo bull wants people think/do. Guys skip breakfast, save that $4 coffee. That's a 4million dollar coffee there!!

          I completely get some people can be cheap, and frugal etc. That to be is completely normal and part of some peoples lives. Very conservative nature. Fits right in someone dumping life savings into unknown asset class which in his words, is great for holding and doing nothing with it…..is that really character consistent???

      • idjces on 06/04/2021 - 15:15
        +1

        But techleads story, which is what this post is referring to is interesting.

        Great summary!

        It would be hilarious if he is actually the guy in spaceback's youtube link. I haven't watched any of them yet.

        The title of the post and the OP seemed rather clickbait, but I could understand his logic in all of the comments throughout the thread.

        I agree with your rough deductions of where his portfolio must have been in early 2020. I could see it easily being well under $5m, with a large portion of that tied up in a smsf. He would've been in a far different financial position back then, on top of the pandemic/market crash just starting to rear it's effects. So the complaints about repairing a TV don't seem all that suspicious.

        I've seen so many opportunities for people to 5x-20x or more, their capital over the past few years. I have seen first hand people make significant sums of money, more than enough to pay off a home. I've learnt for myself, there is no way that I am capable of picking which investment will see such the huge change in perception by the market, so I never commit significant sums to any single investment. I'll be wrong more times than I am right.

        https://imgur.com/a/QIfA0io

        ^ Seems I'm not smart enough to predict when and if the market will choose to change direction, or I would have committed more. As always, it's easier to see what decisions I should have made, in hindsight.

        From what I've seen, it's certainly plausible for someone to come along and turn out to be the lucky bastard, that finds themselves on the tail end of the bell curve. That in hindsight, both chose the right investment(s) early, and committed significantly, rather than being regular joe in the middle of the curve. Who was either wrong in their market predictions, or didn't commit enough to their prediction.

        • [Deactivated] on 06/04/2021 - 15:53
          +2

          For every 1000 people who couldn't predict the top of every market for some free 1000x gains like us there's a lucky bastard that did and for every 1000 lucky bastards that didn't make a post about it sure 1 guy could've haha.

    • Click_It on 06/04/2021 - 13:05
      +3

      Off topic but true story, one of my mentors has a buddy in Australia's billionaire club (most would not know him by name but everyone would have shopped in the stores his company owns) who my buddy still calls a cheapskate with his shopping habits.

      On a different note, there was a really interesting study on how the socio demographic groups spend in Australia. The lower to working class are the ones buying all the depreciating assets from cars to nike shoes and guess who's on the other end of those transaction? It's the guys in the top 50 mostly. But the study showed as you move higher through the classes, the spending patterns on depreciating assets reduce. Financial education plays a huge part but if anything they are more savvy about bargain hunting than those of whom the bargain has a larger impact. It was really interesting, if I ever find it I'll post a new thread about it.

      Back on thread topic, someone having a $45M portfolio in crypto is not unbelievable in the sense that they are common (we call them whales) but in general are they broadcasting to the world about their accomplishments? No, generally speaking they are not. Why make themselves a target unnecessarily? That is what I question here. Sure they exist but there is nothing to gain and everything to lose. Crypto is the wild, wild west.

    • pformag on 06/04/2021 - 13:31

      Can't see Andrew Forrest spending 1 sec on Ozbargain.

  • Halo375 on 04/04/2021 - 19:38
    +16

    Why would I care? Btw - rich people use the internet too you know.

    • HelpMeiCantSee on 05/04/2021 - 08:26

      No they don’t. They use skynet.

      • Entheogen on 06/04/2021 - 19:25
        +2

        Username checks out…

  • mapax on 04/04/2021 - 20:22
    +3

    Obligatory they could give me some to prove it comment.

  • owli on 04/04/2021 - 20:31
    +6

    the crypto 'filling the void' techbro archetype is insufferable - i'm with you - but why's it getting to you so much op? so much that you made a passive agressive meta post

    • z0s0 on 04/04/2021 - 20:47

      Just think it's a timely moment to remind people not to believe everything posted on the internet, especially when devoid of evidence.

    • bargain huntress on 05/04/2021 - 10:30
      +2

      filling the void?

  • AndyC1 on 04/04/2021 - 20:55
    +1

    This is oz bargain, not oz trivia. Cannot see any bargain related info in the post.

  • serpserpserp on 04/04/2021 - 20:59
    +9

    No. Why does OP care?

  • spackbace on 04/04/2021 - 21:02
    +7

    https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/613895

    Thinly veiled attack is obvious and unnecessary

    • blehgg on 06/04/2021 - 09:54
      +1

      "How to get on the front page of ozbargain"

  • hasher22 on 04/04/2021 - 21:23
    +14

    The person that made the AMA isn't persuading anyone to invest in cryptocurrencies. I am sure there are plenty of portfolio rich people on this site and there are plenty of rich people that like to give advice or share their knowledge without wanting anything in return.

    Do they have a hidden agenda? Maybe

    If you read his replies, he's not directly leading to any specific website or currency, nor advertising or promoting any products or services. And he tells people to do research before buying.

    Only that user knows if he's sitting on a 45m portfolio.

    • Kangal on 04/04/2021 - 22:27
      -6

      If you've invested money into something with no actual value, wether that is 45 hundred or 45 million is pointless…. because wether they admit it (or not), their agenda is to have you (more people) buying into those same assets.

      As with more hype/advertising/participation, what you end up with is an increase in that "valueless" assets worth. That is necessary for the investor to withdraw his funds at a later date and turn a profit. After all, you could buy Bitcoin back when for USD $100, and the value can hit USD $1,000,000 but if you NEVER sell it, then you essentially lost that $100 and NEVER made any profit. However, to the credit of mass gatherings of people, community, internet, etc etc, Bitcoin has made 3-4 major rises in its lifetime so far. It is at the stage of "too big to fail" but then again they said that about Tulips, ExxonMobil, Lehman Brothers, etc etc.

      • bargain huntress on 05/04/2021 - 10:34
        +2

        no actual value

        can't you say the same thing about money?

        note cash is just plastic / fabric / paper

        digital cash is just numbers in a computer

        crypto currency doesn't feel that different to me?

        • Kangal on 05/04/2021 - 15:38
          +1

          Exactly, that's what I was alluding to.
          Money itself is an exchange medium, so that we don't have to resort to bartering our services and/or goods, for other services and goods. What gives money its "value" is its widespread adoption, its convenience, its heritage, and its stability. Not to mention money is backed not only by private enterprise, but has government, legal (and military) backing too. These are things that Bitcoin, let alone all cryptocurrencies combined, simply do not have.

          Crypto has a very poor track-record when it comes to utility. It really has no actual value, and that's not hyperbole, its a fact. What crypto does have is a means of storing wealth.

          Then again, that is what most stocks/bonds have as well. However, stocks actually end up going to a company that can utilise that capital to increase their performance (for instance, Apple own the entirety of the Apple Ecosystem, iOS operating system, chipsets, hardware, marketing, etc etc…. all of that requires a HUGE amount of R&D which is expensive, and generally it will tap into the funds it is afforded by its financiers/stock market to bring it into reality).

          PS: Don't be a coward, instead of negging me, reply to me with what you disagree with and we can examine that. You may be misinformed, or me, but anonymously negging without a discourse just doesn't help anyone.

          • Cave Fire on 05/04/2021 - 16:50
            +2

            @Kangal: Maybe research what blockchain is and then what crypto coins/tokens are. It's basically like being around when a new stock market has been invented. Blockchain and crypto have definite utility in speed and transparency.

          • bargain huntress on 05/04/2021 - 17:44
            +1

            @Kangal:

            PS: Don't be a coward, instead of negging me, reply to me with what you disagree with and we can examine that. You may be misinformed, or me, but anonymously negging without a discourse just doesn't help anyone.

            wasn't me

          • ThadtheChad on 05/04/2021 - 19:21
            +1

            @Kangal: Not everything is a memecoin mate.

            Have a look at the other big name in the space. BTC would loosely be called a "proof of concept", it's (incorrectly) been used by mainstream media as being synonymous with "crypto". However, you need to look at the other big name in the space, Ethereum. Given it's ability to allow "execution" of smart contracts etc, there is some amazing stuff coming into the fore in this space.

            Some really promising relatively recent developments on this tech has been decentralised finance, non-fungible tokens etc. There is a lot of work going on this space by big names looking to adopt tech or hook into the ethereum chain.

            I would recommend reading up on this further and not trivially handwave this stuff away. Know that there are big names even in Australia doing PoCs etc on derivative blockchain tech or directly looking to use smart contracts.

            Full disclosure: I've been reading about and dabbling in cryptocurrencies, first as a hobby (~2012) and then took a more professional interest/technical deep dive since 2015.

            • Kangal on 05/04/2021 - 22:03
              +1

              @ThadtheChad: The blockchain, itself is a technology. I never discounted that. However, using that only as a currency… well, that is what is called cryptocurrency.

              And cryptocurrency, well, that's what we are discussing here. Not the blockchain technology. As full disclosure, I come from having Bitcoin background since 2012. Do I have regrets? Sure. But that doesn't make what I said untrue.

              • ThadtheChad on 05/04/2021 - 23:27
                +2

                @Kangal: Just a clarification, I'm not talking about blockchain tech in general. We know that a immutable distributed ledger has tons of applications and all manner of use-cases.

                BTC started the fun and games, and showed the power of decentralisation and blockchain tech. I think the biggest problem is that most layfolk still think cryptocurrency = Bitcoin; (which still have huge brand recognition but little else; not belittling BTC, it is the forerunner of this whole paradigm). This is not entirely true, as it is eroding market share to gen-2 cryptocurrencies with actual utility.

                Have you seen the cool things you can do with crypto these days? We have stablecoins (USDC, dai etc), CDPs, ChainLink that gives oracles for smart contracts, DEXes like Sushi and Uniswap, actual "ETFs" on crypto through PieDAO, technology like Automated Market Makers that allow DEXes to operate through liquidity pools etc.

                This "tech stack" of capabilities is forming a new base-layer for financial settlements, and is very much front and centre of the radar of most Fintech (and financial institutions). As an example: https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaeldelcastillo/2020/12/02/v…

                Cryptocurrencies as a store of value actually complements FIAT. Look at tether, Dai, USDC etc. These are meant for easy on-ramp and off-ramp into the "cryptocurrency environment".

                FIAT has the value it has due to the weight of a nation behind it… for better or for worse (gold backed currencies have long been a thing of the past). So this makes it extremely susceptible to geopolitical (profanity) and just generally dicey stuff like QE where "..the money printers go BRRRRR".

                Store of value - aka stablecoins (and even regular crypto like Zcash, BTC, ether etc) have some utilities that a lot take for granted being in the first world.

                Let me paint a simple situation, there are situations where monetary transactions need to take place in a zero trust manner. Doesn't even have to be nefarious/sketchy, since not all governments have the best interest of their citizenry in mind. Remember the HK protests, or the craziness in Venezuela (still going on), cryptocurrency provides a very useful fallback when the existing financial framework is being monitored (or completely FUBAR in the case of Venezuela).

                PS: I have made and lost fortunes in crypto… :D Do I think it's still in it's infancy and will eventually be ubiquitous? Abso-effin-lutely.

        • Blitzfx on 05/04/2021 - 20:21

          You can't say the same about money.
          Money, or fiat currency, has several attributes/features that give it more value than bitcoin. Some money are backed (indirectly) by the gold standard and will carry more weight than digital.
          Moving away from gold+silver coins, to non-gold/silver coins, to paper notes, to digital, is a sliding scale and is why people will take cash out from their banks and ATM in dire times.

          Right now, there is intrinsically less value in bitcoin than there is in paper money.

  • JFFTech on 04/04/2021 - 21:30
    +18

    z0s0 - If you went through the original post of the $45m crypto portfolio, the amount of the information that he/she has shared was very valuable and informative. Unfortunately, I don't see any such value in your post except for the fact that you couldn't seem to digest that fact. To me, it didn't matter whether the OP of the original post holds $45m or just $45, but the process that he/she explained in building a portfolio, the rationale, the approach was firsthand information and would have added value to many ozbargainers. I'm not suggesting you to believe in the value of the portfolio but please believe in the information that was provided. If you do think that the original post had incorrect information, then please challenge that and it's how one shall show their contribution. Cheers.

    • bargain huntress on 05/04/2021 - 10:36
      +3

      i'm still reading it over and over trying to digest

      it's like the most interesting thread i've ever seen here so far

  • Trying2SaveABuck on 04/04/2021 - 21:43
    +2

    Without any sort of proof i probably wouldnt believe them…..

    In my experience ppl with money have no interest bragging to poor people they let there overpriced car/watch/suit/house/suburb they live in do the talking for them.

    I know some people i would put i the 'very rich category' (net worth >5m) most of them have only talked to me about money when asked and it isnt something i really do i unless im asking for advice on investing, property etc

    • Fredfloresjr on 07/04/2021 - 14:04

      Mayweather and Kardashians left the group

      • Trying2SaveABuck on 07/04/2021 - 14:10

        Celebrity wealth is 'different' there money is driven by populous and public interest if people arent interested in them they wouldnt be rich

        Fame is actually a bit of a curse imo because even if you're wealthy the freedom to use that wealth is limited - ie Kim put a few picture on Snap chat and ended up getting robbed!

        Floyd had a 'dispute with a women' now he is a wife beater

    • snooksy on 09/04/2021 - 09:01

      Over $5m is comfortable/wealthy. I know a person who has an office next to me at work who is worth over $650m. He is very wealthy but he is not Buffet, Gates, Bezos wealthy. Those guys I would put in the ultra wealthy category. The guy who owns the office I work in worth $650m+ is very wealthy and the $5m guy - comfortable or wealthy. The guy in my office looks like a regular guy driving a decent car. He doesn’t talk about or ever really show off his wealth. If you see him at a restaurant he is sitting there quietly enjoying the same food you or I eat. However he owns a number of expensive properties all over the world and can buy or do whatever he likes. There are also people in the $100m wealth category that are wealthy but still working to get to the next level. These people have nice houses and the like but they still worry about money. When you get to $500m plus It seems to me the worry goes away because you are making more in interest/dividends than you can spend.

  • p1 ama on 04/04/2021 - 21:49
    +18

    Sidestepping the question, but I'm always curious as to why people get so pumped up over believing or not believing people on forums. I just don't see why it matters.

    The way I see it is that I would be agnostic on it. I wouldn't actively believe or not believe the claim because there is no evidence either way, and because it really doesn't affect me at all whether it is true or not. In other words, I'm not going to accuse the person of lying, but neither am I going to defend the person from such accusations. The truth is that I simply just wouldn't care if some random person I didn't even know had a $45m portfolio of anything. If it was a friend of mine, then yes, there would be some motive to "get to the bottom of it" so to speak, but not some random person I've never known.

    I just think that everyone's desire to become the arbiter of truth, the idea that somehow whether random and unimportant things are true or not is worth mulling over explains a lot of the issues in society today - conspiracy theories, jealousy, obsession with likes/attention…etc. I just think the world would be a much better place if we were all a bit more humble and just took a more agnostic view on things that we've seen no evidence for, particularly things that don't even affect us. I think the instinct to try and disprove others' claims just turns us into bitter, resentful, toxic creatures.

    • Blitzfx on 05/04/2021 - 20:46
      +1

      Some people prefix their commentary, or hedge their value on "i'm an expert in X-thing", and there's whole markets built around that, such as pyramid schemes, scams, MLM, voodoo magic etc.

      Lots of self-claimed experts or achievers leverage that lie to lend credibility to their bogus claims. I'm with OP on this, so I went in cynical and skeptical.

      You could even flip it back onto the $45m rich kid and ask why they even mentioned anything personal at all when it's 100% irrelevant to the merits of their claim.

      But otherwise, 100% agree with you on how people should be viewing others. I think in recent times, it was very humbling to watch a discussion between a junior and seniors/experts at work, who didn't pull rank (and didn't introduce themselves with a title), and spent time actually explaining a concept. It was almost comical to see their reaction when they found out the expert had a phd and had been working on it for several years.

  • JIMB0 on 04/04/2021 - 22:01
    +10

    Not when their other posts are about getting $20 back from Optus.

  • djones145 on 04/04/2021 - 22:01
    +2

    I've got a 45m property portfolio

    I can't show u as I'm on a oil rig, unable to give u addresses. however send me 1k in bitcoin's and I'll send u some addresses of my property ehich u can go have a look

  • pegaxs on 04/04/2021 - 22:33
    +1

    I had a $45 million crypto portfolio, but then I yolo’d it all into $GME @ $320US.

  • Switchblade88 on 04/04/2021 - 22:33
    +5

    Anyone inclined to post such a thing must be craving the attention and approval of his/her forum peers.

    REALLY?? Let's have a look through your post history.

    Well, I'm in UK right now. Will be off to NL next week, then Germany, Italy and eventually off to Spain to ride out the Autumn

    Huh.

    Back to your original 'complaint', I can do some basic maths with a historical record of crypto's price history to plausibly prove I could make $45 million over the last 10 years or so. I wouldn't even have to buy it all at $100 per Bitcoin, it'd be trivially easy to prove even with dollar-cost averaging. One should practice what they preach - and in the case of @techlead, I have no reason to think the information he provided was not based in their personal experience. Therefore, it is quite plausible he has $45m in crypto, as he stated.

    • spackbace on 04/04/2021 - 22:45
      +5

      Yep, OP isn't adverse to talking about their financials yet apparently someone else is bragging if they're doing similar…

      • z0s0 on 05/04/2021 - 08:03
        -8

        Happy to provide evidence of my statements in both of those claims to anyone doubting their veracity. They're pretty uncontroversial though, and that's why it's likely no-one had any trouble believing them.

        • spackbace on 05/04/2021 - 10:35
          +10

          The thing is, no one cares either way…

          • Ebany on 07/04/2021 - 08:54
            +1

            @spackbace: But they do care, hence the downvoting

        • bargain huntress on 05/04/2021 - 10:40
          +1

          i don't think that would be a very good idea z0s0

          you could be exposing yourself to all kinds of danger

  • negger on 04/04/2021 - 23:28
    +12

    Whether he made 45m or 4m is irrelevant. He has an interesting story and seems to be knowledgeable in the area. More importantly he shared that and I like such a thread over crap like this, lol

  • SF3 on 05/04/2021 - 00:59
    +1

    If someone posted on a forum claiming to have a $45m crypto portfolio, would you believe them?

    Why is this even a question… and who cares…

    Even if it is legit, you can’t copy them as the opportunity was in the past, unless you have a time machine.

  • YeemaiI on 05/04/2021 - 01:19
    +1

    Yes, because I am u/DeepMod:Foul LanguageValue

  • endotherm on 05/04/2021 - 01:32

    All my cash portfolios are guaranteed by the Australian Government. I have $20 in my wallet which is guaranteed to be worth $20.

    • bargain huntress on 05/04/2021 - 10:41

      doesn't it cap out at $250k in total?

    • witsa on 06/04/2021 - 06:13
      +10

      Your $20 note is guaranteed to be worth $20 but nothing guarantees $20 to be worth anything.

      • Leeroy Jenkins on 06/04/2021 - 14:53
        +1

        This! You got my thumbs up.

      • bargain huntress on 06/04/2021 - 16:19

        yes lets all take a nice holiday to zimbabwe where a loaf of bread once cost $35 million dollars, and may soon again.
        apparently if catch a transport of any kind, when you buy your ticket to come home, it costs more than when you left.

  • netjock on 05/04/2021 - 01:38
    +1

    If you had $45m I am sure you have better things to do with your time (like figuring out how to spend it) than to try convince strangers you deserve a pat on your back. Most people are better off saving regularly into share portfolio (index) than looking at get rich scheme. Unfortunately all the FBA, day trading, property and crypto seminars are telling you there is no shortage of suckers who believe for $3k it is a good deal when the best deal is selling $3k a course then wrapping it up at the end of 3 days for a riskless profit.

    • bargain huntress on 05/04/2021 - 10:42
      +3

      well what's that old saying? something like; you don't make money in a gold rush digging, you make it selling shovels?

    • cloudy on 05/04/2021 - 20:31

      If you had $45m I am sure you have better things to do with your time (like figuring out how to spend it) than to try convince strangers you deserve a pat on your back.

      nar bro, he is using his time asking forums on weather or not its worth fixing his 5yr old TV.

    • Leeroy Jenkins on 06/04/2021 - 14:56
      +2

      When someone has enough money for a lifetime, earning and spending money is their least concern. Why wouldn't they be enjoying ozbargain? They are the type who would most likely be chitchatting on ozbargain than us peasant workers who have to worry about money all the time.

      • netjock on 06/04/2021 - 15:38
        +1

        Why wouldn't they be enjoying ozbargain?

        Alright mate. If I had $45m would I really be worried whether I paid $78 or $39 for a keyboard and mouse set? Actually I would hire someone else to do my typing for me.

  • poboy on 05/04/2021 - 07:24

    I have just enough care factor to post that I wouldn't care enough to have an opinion.

  • Donaldhump on 05/04/2021 - 08:15

    Why do you even care! Either way they are a tool

    Good/most people with lots of money are humble and won’t flaunt it

    Dumb/most people who flaunt having lots of money are poor as shit

  • turbochris on 05/04/2021 - 10:20
    +3

    Instead of wasting your time sniping at others from a position of ignorance, why don't you educate yourself on bitcoin and crypto.

    1. It is recommended for privacy purposes to use a different Bitcoin address for EVERY transaction. This means that someone involved in crypto to any sort of degree holds dozens of bitcoin addresses and there is no way to see their total holdings in the way that you assume.

    2. Hierarchical Deterministic (HD) wallets were developed (way back in 2012) to assist in managing all these addresses by creating a mechanism to generate new addresses from an initial cryptographic seed. All modern hardware wallets such as Trezor and Ledger support these mechanisms and allow you to manage many bitcoin addresses easily.

    Some further reading if you are interested:

    https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Address_reuse
    https://coinsutra.com/hd-wallets-deterministic-wallet/
    https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/master/bip-0032.mediawi…

    • z0s0 on 05/04/2021 - 10:46
      -4

      I'm fascinated as to how you think anything in your reply is in the slightest way relevant to the question posed in this poll?

      • turbochris on 05/04/2021 - 11:04
        +1

        Let me dumb it down for you:

        Your quote:

        "It's trivial to prove that you control a Bitcoin address, so if you happen to control an address holding a large sum of Bitcoin, then it would be very simple to provide some evidence to back such a portfolio claim."

        Is based on a faulty assumption that people store all their Bitcoin on one address.

        Therefore your poll is irrelevant.

        • z0s0 on 05/04/2021 - 12:04
          -4

          There are of course many ways to provide evidence of such a hypothetical claim, should the claimant be doing what you say (just your supposition, in any case)

  • this is us on 05/04/2021 - 10:45
    +3

    I don't care… I believe it as much as I believe someone has $45m under the mattress, or stocks, or gold, or properties…

    They are all possible options, and the way how people get this amount of "money" is not relevant as it doesn't mean other people would be able to achieve the same results. To have $45m in crypto you just should have invested in crypto many years ago… Some people invested $100, others had millions and invested millions… That doesn't mean anyone else should invest in crypto today, or that similar results are achievable in the future.

    We've seen posts even on Ozbargain clearly trying to convince people that crypto is a good idea… It might be… Gold might be.. Properties might be… Telco stocks might be…

    If you are not willing to completely lose your money in a matter of minutes or days, you should not invest your money in any risk investment…

    I'd say some people have millions in crypto, but most of these "I have millions in crypto, ask me how" we see online are BS.

    If I had millions, I would be on my island with my family and dogs just waiting for this covid crisis to get better so I could keep travelling all around (maybe in my private jet), and I most definitely wouldn't be flaunting about it. I wouldn't like to be anywhere close to anyone who flaunts their money.

    • netjock on 05/04/2021 - 14:11

      I agree. If you have $45m enjoy it instead of going online and getting congratulations from strangers.

  • eggles01 on 05/04/2021 - 13:49
    +3

    Hi,firstly I am not an expert,my thoughts are that all these currencies require new blood,when these little people buy into what ever, the demand of the product increases,when it has increased to an amount that the manipulators wants it at then they withdraw their big profits the price drops,they wait until the price iis at its lowest that they want they then start buying again thus starting to increase the price and once again the demand now start to increase,in other words take the demand away from the product,the product will collapse,

    • Kangal on 05/04/2021 - 15:45

      Careful, I said the same thing above (in a different way) and got negged for it.
      OzBargain is for cheap eneloops, Xiaomi's, and traffic advice… it's not for truth ; )

  • Mistredo on 05/04/2021 - 15:49
    +3

    He wants to share a story about how crypto is amazing, so more people jump the ship, and he can benefit from it.

    Crypto is a more sophisticated Ponzi scheme, requiring more people to bring their capital to it.

    His post was just blind propaganda.

Login or Join to leave a comment
Login Join