Why Are You Sceptical of Bitcoin?

welcomeUniverseWorld on 31/05/2026 - 19:02

Bitcoin discussions often attract scepticism, and I’m interested in understanding why.

I’m not looking to argue or persuade anyone to buy Bitcoin—just to hear from those who are critical of it.

I’d especially like to hear from people who have researched Bitcoin and concluded it’s not a worthwhile investment or store of value.

If your opinion has changed over time, I’d also be interested in what influenced that shift.

Please keep the discussion respectful. I’m here to understand different viewpoints, not debate them.

Financial Cryptocurrency

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        • welcomeUniverseWorld on 02/06/2026 - 07:33

          Do you regret not investing just a tad bit?

          • 1
          • smalltime0 on 02/06/2026 - 15:33

            @welcomeUniverseWorld: Nope, I still think it's just a speculative asset.
            Even if I had thrown $20 (+ transaction fees) into it at the time, I would have probably sold out at some sort of milestone.
            Maybe when it reached $10? Maybe when it reached $100? I wouldn't have held on to its peak.

            • 6
    • Dr Phil on 01/06/2026 - 07:31

      And right now the trend is down, down, down

      • 2
      • moar bargains on 01/06/2026 - 14:33

        I like to refer to it as 'doing a Coles': Down, down, prices are down!

        • 1
        • nobro25 on 04/06/2026 - 09:20

          Didn't Coles get a class action for faking "lower prices" and their lawyers are scrambling to defunct the lawsuit.

          Btw I'm not associated in any shape or form with Coles and any NDA will not work. Not to mention this is public knowledge.

          • 2
          • moar bargains on 04/06/2026 - 11:03

            @nobro25: Yep, they were recently found to have misled consumers. And Woolies is in the firing line now. With any luck, they'll both get a good hard smack on the wrist and won't do it again for a good 6 months or so.

            That's not the point though. When talking about shares, crypto, house prices, whatever, when I say "doing a Coles" it means prices are going down (or expected to).

            • 0
        • welcomeUniverseWorld on 02/06/2026 - 07:32

          Just like Coles down down, Bitcoin has its own controversy

          • 0
      • welcomeUniverseWorld on 02/06/2026 - 07:31

        After winter comes summer, after summer comes winter.

        Its natural

        • -3
        • LFO on 03/06/2026 - 10:10

          Actually Spring and Autumn will be stuck in between the two …

          Meaning it is a far longer (smoother?) transition.

          • 2
    • welcomeUniverseWorld on 02/06/2026 - 07:31

      Bingo!

      • 0
  • altomic on 01/06/2026 - 03:04

    I am just waiting for my NFTs to make a comeback.

    Any day now…..

    • 7
    • Cluster on 01/06/2026 - 10:44

      My Ape collection is surely going to be worth millions any day now.

      • 1
    • welcomeUniverseWorld on 02/06/2026 - 08:22

      NFTs were so far ahead of their time they’ve
      decided to stay there. Haha

      • 0
  • rexanator619 on 01/06/2026 - 09:56

    It's both a scam and gambling. I'd rather invest in real tangible assets such as property and precious metals.

    • 5
    • ForkSnorter on 01/06/2026 - 10:13

      precious metals.

      And yet, you don't actually get to own those metals. It's all digital, on paper only. See what happens when you ask to take those metals home and put them under your bed.

      • 2
      • plmko on 01/06/2026 - 10:37

        Same could be said about ETFs but yet you get forums here recommending them to others.

        • 1
      • rexanator619 on 01/06/2026 - 11:22

        Physical metals paired with a good safe!

        • 1
        • 7ekn00 on 01/06/2026 - 12:34

          Agreed!

          • 1
      • freefall101 on 01/06/2026 - 12:12

        You can get the physical item if you want to. Gold bars are still heavily used in the world, they're less traceable than bitcoin (and "washing" them just involves melting them down, any marks on it will disappear). I'm sure there's plenty of gold in the world under beds and buried in the backyard.

        • 1
      • SlickMick on 01/06/2026 - 13:25

        ?
        you can either have them delivered, or pay for storage.

        • 1
    • welcomeUniverseWorld on 02/06/2026 - 08:38

      Bitty is bad, which is why I prefer assets that
      require debt, insurance, storage, taxes, and a
      priest to explain stamp duty.

      • 0
      • rexanator619 on 02/06/2026 - 13:25

        A quality, fire resistant safe can be used for all valuables (not the cheap Bunnings or OW crap). For property, while harder to find, the unicorns still exist… It is not impossible get a combination of capital growth, positive gearing and tax/depreciation benefits!

        • 1
  • Wiadro on 31/05/2026 - 20:31

    i made a f-ton of money on alt coins.
    my best were:
    got solana in 2020 sold in nov 21
    Ethereum in like 2016 was sold in 2017

    now im out of it, its dead for now.
    bear market

    • 4
    • localhost on 31/05/2026 - 20:46

      Same here, made a lot of money from some shitcoins, some of them already delisted from all exchanges.

      But for bitcoin - it provides a solutions to a lot of non existing problems. As that will fade in time.Until next pump and dump scenario.

      • 3
      • Wiadro on 31/05/2026 - 20:49

        i remember I made like 3k on Taco coin in like 2 days, converted to eth again, and withdrew from my trust wallet, and the next day it was dead at like 0.0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001

        • 3
        • localhost on 31/05/2026 - 21:34

          Do you remember LUNA? Was $100 four years ago and dropped to almost zero, after that came back to $1-2.
          Bought a lot at 0.00001 just for fun:)
          Sold at $1.60. That were a really good times.

          • 5
          • Wiadro on 31/05/2026 - 22:55

            @localhost: lol yes i remember luna, i reckon i lost like 200 bucks on that when it died.

            • 2
      • welcomeUniverseWorld on 02/06/2026 - 08:09

        Bingo

        • -1
    • welcomeUniverseWorld on 02/06/2026 - 08:09

      The force is strong with this one. He understands

      • -1
  • SBOB on 31/05/2026 - 21:56

    https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/943341
    Man , just buy it or don't.
    One post you're out for good , another you're gonna buy back in.
    Even though I have a ledger in a draw, you either take it for what it is , which is a speculative asset with no real underlying value, or you just ignore it :)
    I'd almost be happy for any non stable coin crypto to go to $0 so crypto bros would just stop trying to make fetch crypto gains happen

    Block chain based crypto for fund transfers, smart contracts etc are all amazing ideas. None of them require speculative underlying tokens whose value needs to swing wildly or grow exponentially to the moon

    • 4
    • welcomeUniverseWorld on 02/06/2026 - 08:21

      the token is the incentive layer. annoying detail,
      admittedly

      • -2
  • grr1701 on 05/06/2026 - 11:14

    Because it’s gambling; usually with relatively large amounts of money. And trump can manipulate the market so easily.

    • 4
    • welcomeUniverseWorld on 05/06/2026 - 12:09

      Like oil, stocks or any other things Trump has his eyes on?

      • 0
  • saltypete on 31/05/2026 - 20:08

    I don't see that it relates to a value of any objects or services. And to me it seems to be speculative - like tulips….
    So, it's not a fit for my risk profile.
    I don't begrudge others doing OK with it, but don't ask me to crowd fund folk that lose their home through it….

    • 3
    • welcomeUniverseWorld on 02/06/2026 - 07:55

      bitcoin may go to zero, but at least it never asked
      for a bailout. funny little detail.

      • 0
      • R-Man on 02/06/2026 - 09:16

        Why do you talk so differently in your comments compared to your original post? Another funny little detail.

        • 4
        • welcomeUniverseWorld on 02/06/2026 - 16:41

          Maybe my replies are a bit different because I can easily switch in my head from one side to another. Are my replies really different?

          • -1
      • saltypete on 02/06/2026 - 09:13

        No, but the sob stories from 'investors' are a fairly common occurrence.
        Conversely if a steelworks needs a bailout it argues that it produces useful things and gov can weigh up the benefits.
        You do you mate - and relax smugly by the pool with your bitcoin derived riches.

        • 3
  • AustriaBargain on 31/05/2026 - 21:28

    Investing cash into something in the hopes other speculators will keep driving the value up, when there's no actual productive value, no historical value, nothing actually produced, it usually doesn't end well. As we've learned these last 27 years it doesn't even work when just trading regular existing houses between each other. It'll all be over one day and people will lose a fortune.

    • 3
    • welcomeUniverseWorld on 02/06/2026 - 08:18

      We live in a country built on housing

      • 0
      • Some Random Guy on 03/06/2026 - 11:30

        *we live in a country where everyone trades their tangible work for housing, however, we've reached a boiling point where everyone is trading work for speculative investment in housing and if this keeps continuing the country will collapse (without immigration) as their won't be enough tangible work done to service the loans. Hence, why the current government is removing the incentives.

        Like we know speculative investments are a bad thing and the government has spent all it's political capital on ensuring the economy doesn't become a bitcoin…

        • 0
  • Clear on 31/05/2026 - 22:48

    My bitcoin funded house is going well in the current real estate market. More than doubled in value.

    • 3
  • ForkSnorter on 01/06/2026 - 05:17

    Skeptical because everyone is just like me and you. They want to get money out of it. They don't want to do any work for that money. I.e. it is a get-rich scheme for whoever manages to get in at the right time, and out at the right time.

    • 3
    • welcomeUniverseWorld on 02/06/2026 - 08:25

      people wanting more money for less work is less a
      bitcoin problem and more a human operating
      system. Humans are greedy

      • 0
  • dowhatuwant2 on 01/06/2026 - 08:12

    No inherent value.

    • 3
    • welcomeUniverseWorld on 02/06/2026 - 08:26

      correct. neither does money. now we’re getting
      somewhere.

      • -1
      • dowhatuwant2 on 02/06/2026 - 19:36

        Money is backed by a Nation of resources typically.

        • 1
  • 7ekn00 on 01/06/2026 - 08:17

    Here is a grain of sand, my neighbor will give me a dollar for it, will you give me two?!?

    Same system, trust me bro :P

    • 3
    • welcomeUniverseWorld on 02/06/2026 - 08:27

      perfect, now make the sand scarce, portable,
      divisible, verifiable, uncensorable, and settle it
      globally. otherwise yes, identical

      • -1
      • 7ekn00 on 02/06/2026 - 11:16

        sand scarce, portable,divisible, verifiable, uncensorable, and settle it globally.

        that all fits under "trust me bro" just like gold, silver, diamonds, etc

        so many useless parameters that are not tangible and sound good to the uneducated ;)

        Why do I need a grain of sand or a bitcoin or a diamond, or a gold ?!?

        • 3
        • welcomeUniverseWorld on 02/06/2026 - 15:00

          if usefulness determined price, diamonds
          would be cheaper and plumbing would have
          a trillion-dollar market cap

          • 0
  • theHMASfriendship on 01/06/2026 - 09:22

    I prefer a form of tender I can fashion into a money suit and top hat, and then walk past some poors. Green is my favourite colour.

    I am unable to do this with bitcoin so I am skeptical of it's use case.

    • 3
  • DingoBilly on 01/06/2026 - 09:41

    I've researched it a lot, put money in, got involved in ETFs, made some 10s of thousands, and have friends that are millionaires from it.

    I can comfortably say it's full of shit as can they. Based on absolutely nothing, and is completely dependent on hype and people getting others to buy in for its value. We were lucky but we never thought crypto had value. We all understood it was just gambling and passing the cost to others.

    I can understand the use case for something like Solana at least, as they can genuinely replace something like Visa or Mastercard and have OSKO like transactions. But Bitcoin is almost entirely useless.

    The one argument I've seen that makes sense for it is in corrupt countries with hyper inflation where USD is hard to come by. There it makes sense to buy bitcoin as it's more stable than your own currency.

    Otherwise, you're a fool for buying into it. Just a pure gamble.

    • 3
    • welcomeUniverseWorld on 02/06/2026 - 08:32

      “I got rich gambling and everyone else is a fool” is
      a beautiful memoir title.

      • 0
      • cloudy on 02/06/2026 - 14:46

        What the wise man does in the beginning, the fool does in the end

        • 2
      • DingoBilly on 02/06/2026 - 11:55

        I didn't get rich.

        My friends were close. They had close to 20-30 million at one point. But lost 10-20 million of it due to the market crashing.

        Still, 5-10 million is enough to retire on and I think they learnt how fickle and bullshit the whole market is. They used to talk about how it would change the world and how important it was, then when it crashed it was just a matter of "Well, (profanity) that shit.. I'm out!"

        • 0
  • jizmo on 01/06/2026 - 11:31

    Old saying.
    Shit in one hand is worth more than a fart in the other.

    • 3
    • welcomeUniverseWorld on 02/06/2026 - 08:47

      the problem is the market has spent 15 years
      pricing the fart higher.

      • -1
  • freefall101 on 01/06/2026 - 19:28

    About 25% of bitcoin are exposed to quantum computing attacks being able to break those accounts (thanks to public keys being public and not secure against quantum attacks). Even news of quantum attacks being possible drops the value of bitcoin and there's no plan to fix this.

    The day a bitcoin account is hijacked via a quantum attack, the price will tank. The large groups holding crypto as part of a "strategy" will orchestrate their exit from the market and it'll be worthless.

    I don't day trade, so having crypto as part of an investment strategy just seems insane to me. I also don't have any deep knowledge of the market either - it's more opaque than any other kind of investment available. I'd want to be making massive returns to take on such a risk.

    That said, I've made money from crypto in the past. Back when it was in the "license to print money" stage - I had ~2K bitcoins at one point (I needed cash and sold them for $10k, boo). But the cost to get into the market is far too high to want to be involved.

    • 3
    • tenpercent on 01/06/2026 - 19:32

      I had ~2K bitcoins at one point

      That's gotta hurt.

      Based on current exchange rates, 2,000 Bitcoin is worth approximately A$204.6 million (calculated at roughly A$102,323 per BTC).

      • 2
    • whyisave on 02/06/2026 - 13:47

      I had ~2K bitcoins at one point

      Ouch :-(

      Hence, why you're on OzB … sharing these tales.

      • 2
    • welcomeUniverseWorld on 02/06/2026 - 08:51

      “I had 2,000 BTC” explains about 94% of this post
      .

      • 0
  • mrvaluepack on 05/06/2026 - 09:19

    Ouch 10k fall in price in 3 days….go buy some more now Op.

    • 3
    • welcomeUniverseWorld on 05/06/2026 - 12:09

      My purchase might happen between Oct 12-14 possibly around $47-48K

      • -1
  • TEER3X on 31/05/2026 - 19:35

    I really thought it was skeptical not sceptical….

    I think the American spelling makes more sense, which is rarely the case

    • 2
    • altomic on 01/06/2026 - 03:01

      I am scheptical of both those spellings.

      • 4
      • moar bargains on 01/06/2026 - 14:41

        Queen's King's English right here.

        • 1
  • StalkingIbis on 01/06/2026 - 09:17

    It doesn't generate any profit or do anything to make money unless someone buys it from you for a higher price than you paid….even with art you can charge an admission price to come and view it.

    • 2
    • welcomeUniverseWorld on 02/06/2026 - 08:30

      not producing cash flow is a valid criticism. it’s just
      not the same thing as having no value.

      • 0
  • plmko on 01/06/2026 - 10:46

    People are over explaining bitcoin. Bitcoin is down because AI stocks are making strong returns. The market cannot absorb everything.

    Clear evidence of this is Nvidia stocks stagnating despite other related stocks gaining when we are before SpaceX IPO. Again market needs to sell down assets to absorb this.

    Watch when the market turns.

    • 2
  • Lucille Bluth on 02/06/2026 - 06:26

    I am mortgage free because of it. Have kept buying it, every fortnight including in my SMSF. Follow the four year cycles.

    • 2
  • FoundItCheaper on 02/06/2026 - 12:26

    Without consulting AI - just off the to of my head:

    1) You can't cash it back out into the effort that was used to mine it
    2) It's not great technologically - transactionally specifically
    3) It competes in a market where literally anyone can create a clone, with or without small technical changes
    4) A bug, while highly unlikely, could be found in it taking it to 0
    5) Zero governance, all the risk - whether this is a positive or negative is up to you
    6) It has been mega-hyped
    7) Nobody who is investing in it can explain why they're doing so other than "It's going up!"

    Good luck to anyone riding it as a trade proposition, have fun.

    • 2
    • welcomeUniverseWorld on 02/06/2026 - 14:54

      “anyone can clone it” remains undefeated until you
      ask why the clones aren’t worth the same.

      • -2
      • FoundItCheaper on 04/06/2026 - 13:47

        Sure, 3) is good, but 7) is a better question.

        • 0
        • welcomeUniverseWorld on 04/06/2026 - 15:56

          Bitcoin lets someone transfer value directly to another person without needing approval from a bank, payment company, or government-controlled intermediary.

          Try withdrawing $30k right now from atm or from a bank as cash. You will not be able to.

          On top, everything you do gets big brother watching you.

          If you take enough precautions, you can be your own bank. However the market will determine what ends up as the most preferred at the end

          • 0
  • skillet on 02/06/2026 - 17:57

    So it's digital money? Why can't I use it at Dominos? I just checked it started in 2009. That's 17 years ago.
    Wait what? Ransomware can be paid with Cryptocurrencies ? Crypto also can be used to pay for drugs? Wow!

    I can't unbelieve that crypto value is largely stabilized by investors and exploited by illicit trades.

    • 2
  • Spic3y on 03/06/2026 - 07:48

    I like the idea of a decentralised currency that can be used for buying goods without being tracked but that's not what bitcoin is any more. Most people think of it as an investment or stock instead of a currency.

    • 2
    • welcomeUniverseWorld on 03/06/2026 - 15:59

      Bitcoin have moved away from being the thing against the system to be part of the system. Sad but true

      • 0
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