What should I do with this £200k ?

[forlesen]

One aspect of this extraordinary story could do with further clarification.

Looking at the price history for bitcoin on Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_o ... ue_history), they have been valued above $1 per bitcoin since 2011, and over $100 per bitcoin since 2013, so (accepting that it really was a payment of little value) the payment in question presumably dated from more than 6 years ago. And yet the OP's son and his friend are only 14 now, so were they really earning money from Minecraft from the age of 8?

[DrBunsenHoneydew]

Just a quick note that since this thread started a whole 5 days ago, the 50 bitcoins have moved from $208,000 to over $300,000 by 9pm last night!

[Mike88]

Moderator Message:
I'm not sure this is truly a DAK but I can't immediately think of a better board to put it in. Please try and keep the discussion broadly to the questions the OP has posed (chas49)

(mod hat off ) I can't help with the moral dilemma at the moment, but you might want to consider if there are any tax implications for your son. Is this a gift or income? Foreign earnings? Perhaps you might want to do a post over in the Taxes board (viewforum.php?f=49) to attract responses on that specific element?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/expert ... rofit.html

[john10001]

Well done!

But he certainly shouldn't leave it all in bitcoins. Cos whilst they have climbed inexorably, they are still an investment bubble with no real underlying value, which could disappear tomorrow. Personally, I'd convert a fair whack (75% say) to something more solid like cash, bonds or shares (tracker funds)

THEN worry about where it came from and tax. If the lads have done work to earn this money then I think it should be taxable, rather than a gift Note that age is largely irrelevant to the taxman. With a few exceptions, Children have all the same tax allowances and liabilities as adults.

Gryff

What happens when Bitcoin reaches 100,000 in a year's time and you sold a lot of it? It could just as easily go the other way. When so many people start to shout about a bubble and CEO's of banks are talking something down that is when I know to go the other way. There is one chap I know of who had I think it was 10,000 bitcoins and he sold them all when the price jumped from something like 4 cents to 9 cents. If he had kept hold of them he would be a multi millionaire now with the price at $7000.

As far as bitcoin having no underlying value you are correct it is a global digital fiat currency but then again what value does the Pound, Dollar, Yen, Yuan, Euro have? Exactly the same they are all fiat currencies. The value is what people place in it based on your future tax receipts, and the faith you have in the government that backs it. If anything I think that bitcoin being a decentralised digital currency without much government interference (so far) is the better fiat currency to put faith in than national currencies right now as the risk is spread more and diversified away from any individual currency or nation. The digital currency is in demand and like gold is not very abundant which is what has pushed the price up. Central banks can't print it like toilet paper like they do with national currencies.

The advice to sell some bitcoin though might actually be good right now as it looks like it will correct before it makes any move higher but I would do this with extreme caution because I think selling and especially shorting bitcoin is high risk. Much higher risk than buying it. Much higher risk than going long oil and not shorting oil.

As for the moral dilemma it seems to have been a gift from one friend to another but because it was such a large gift I would be honest if it were me and mention it to his parents to see what they have to say and if they want the bitcoins to be returned. I think honesty is always the best option.

John

[Clitheroekid]

The advice to sell some bitcoin though might actually be good right now

Two points occur to me from a purely legal point of view:

1. Can the boy enter into a valid contract for its sale, if he's only 14? I haven't even attempted to investigate the legalities of the sale and purchase of Bitcoin, but I can see it as a potential difficulty.

2. The father - or anyone else for that matter - needs to be very careful of offering any advice to the boy regarding what to do with the Bitcoin. As he's a minor, if such advice - no matter how well-intended - turned out to be negligent then the boy could, on reaching 18, claim damages. And with sums like this floating about the damages could be huge.

[Clitheroekid]

Then on Saturday, the Swedish friend casually gave my son 50 bitcoins so now my son has his $1000 in one money account and £212,000 in his bitcoin wallet.

Seeing as your son's 50 bitcoins are now `worth' around £550,000 I was wondering what, if anything, had been decided?

[didds]

FYI etc I'm trying to help a chum extract some bitcoin into cash ... Its been almost a month now to get his validation to bitstamp confirmed, in order to start to extract etc.

So its a slow process, unless all your ducks are already in a row.

didds

[swill453]

FYI etc I'm trying to help a chum extract some bitcoin into cash ... Its been almost a month now to get his validation to bitstamp confirmed, in order to start to extract etc.

Meanwhile...

A boy asked his bitcoin-investing dad for 1 bitcoin for his birthday.

Dad: What? $15,554??? $14,354 is a lot of money! What do you need $16,782 for anyway?

Scott.

[Clitheroekid]

Just a follow up enquiry to mjbdreamer. This story fascinated me, and I would be very interested to know how, if at all, it was resolved.

[Gaggsy]

Just a follow up enquiry to mjbdreamer. This story fascinated me, and I would be very interested to know how, if at all, it was resolved

Me too. But he hasn't exactly been prolific with his posts. Last seen in May.
Wonder if this is the same mjbdreamer on Twitter? - https://twitter.com/mjbdreamer

[mjbdreamer]

Not prolific - apologies, setting up a business that has consumed every waking minute for a while.

Son & bitcoin - I advised him to return them, it wasn't right. He did so. I am still a crypto fan and invest more in crypto than in other stocks.

BTC overtook Mastercard in volumes of $$ shifted daily a few years ago. $2Bn per day in 2017, $23Bn in the last 24 hours. Price action is not for faint hearted, my suggestion is buy (any amount, £10 - £1m) and just hold until it doubles. Ignore any prices between buying and doubling.

Cheers,
mjbdreamer, the non-prolific one.

PS: Twitter - yes, 'tis moi. Largely rubbish, occasionally rude with Americans.