I prefer peace

So I was browsing through the topics and comments on this forum, and I noticed some folks suggesting that relying solely on Bitcoin isn't the best idea. They say investing in land is a solid option too. Honestly, I'm pondering whether it's worth it to invest in land myself. But before anyone jumps in with criticisms, I'd ask that only those familiar with Nigeria's situation respond because this is really about my country. If you buy land in the U.S. legally, you're probably in a good spot. But here, it's a different story. In Nigeria, even if you've got all the paperwork and deeds for the land you bought, it doesn’t guarantee it’s really yours if the government decides to take it for public use. Having the right documents only means you might get some compensation and it protects you from scams where people sell the same land to multiple buyers. I've seen family members lose their properties this way, and my uncle even died over a land dispute. Seriously, don’t lecture me about it, because here everything seems to belong to the government. Now can you imagine someone telling me to cash out my Bitcoin while I'm in the green and start buying land? They say it's a smart investment, right? But honestly, I’d prefer to stick with Gold and Bitcoin. Why? Because those are truly mine. There’s no drama over ownership, and no one’s gonna come after me for what I have since it’s all under the radar. I do plan on getting land and building a house eventually, but...

It's obvious from the tone of your write-up that you're hurting from something and that something recently happened. I empathize with you. Sorry about your loss, your uncle and the land tussle. Most of these ugly things that happen in Nigeria are avoidable. It's just that the country doesn't have strong and strengthened institutions that are independent on their own to handle them. There's always a godfather somewhere trying to pull strings to favour their own at the detriment of those who aren't known or influential or wealthy. Concerning land issues, it's advisable to always chart any land before buying it so as to find out if it's a land in government space or in dispute. Then get it registered and the necessary documents obtained. If anything happens, you get compensated as you rightly admitted. To buy a land without any documentations is high risk and should be discouraged. About Bitcoin investment, it's good to know that it's not all that rosy for Bitcoin all the time. It also has its downtrend where its performance goes really steep and bad.

Every investment has its own risks, and if Bitcoin is your safe haven, then very good. The reason why I prefer Bitcoin investment is because it's safe; only you have control of it, and no one can tamper with it. I have come across many cases whereby some people invested in land, but after some years, the government decides to use the location of the land. Sometimes they compensate owners of landed property, and sometimes they claim the land without any compensation. Your Bitcoin will always be yours, but your land may also belong to the government too.

My condolences for what happened to your family. Of course, you should evaluate the advice based on your own preferences. What you're experiencing isn't ideal for property investment, as most people believe. In fact, it's like investing in Bitcoin on a centralized exchange where you don't control it. Bitcoin also teaches the importance of having your wealth legitimate and absolute, both technically and legally.

The land becomes harder to get with each new year hitting in.. And I agree with you about the control - if you truly have the custody over your BTCs, and you don't do something toward breaking that - you are good to be free and use it as you see fit.

This is not just a Nigerian case only, in any other region where the government are in charge of what's the do and don't of things in the nation, they get to influence those things whichever they wants to without the real owner having a lot of say in it. Of cause, buying of land is not soo risky because there are still a lot of areas that the government don't interfere in when it comes to private ownership of land. As an investor, you've got to identify the various risk that's associated with every and any kind of investment you're going into including bitcoin investment. Being able to do that is the only guaranteed way of minimising risk in the asset you're investing into.

People say that investing in land is safe and profitable in the long term because its value tends to rise over time, especially in strategic locations. But I personally don't see that investing in land is that profitable, because you need to pay taxes annually, it has low liquidity, and there's a risk of land disputes, especially in my area where there are so many land mafias. So if you don't have a very strong backing to defend your land, then there is a big possibility that your land certificate will be overwritten by someone else. However, these issues don't apply if you invest in Bitcoin. You have full control over your assets, and as long as you possess the private key, no outside party can seize or overwrite your ownership.

bitcoin is an asset same as others it has its risks but most importantly it has its pros and most of the time the pros outweigh the cons which is why despite bitcoin not being rosy all the time people still stick to it

Investing in land will bring profit in long term but the place need to be developing place because if is not a developing place the place will just be like that and the land won't have value. But if you have a good place and you buy land the next 10 to 20 years you will be much profitable, and why bitcoin have more advantages on land is volatile and anytime the price can raise and you can get double of the funds you used for buying land. For me to buy land and keep is better I invest in bitcoin for long term first before talking about buying of other property. Some people will be claiming your property when he as be long you didn't go for checking probably and you can lose the land but in bitcoin if you have a secret key safe no one will claim it.

Land is legally complicated, you need to check the documents clearly and better with a lawyer to see if there is any issues with previous owner and clear everything and then only you should buy. And even if you buy the land still government can acquire that land if they needed for a government project, infrastructure development,etc. SO yes, bitcoin gives the absolute wonership and no one can take that away from the real owner (who holds the keys).

The place needs to be  developing place for the land to have better value and this is one of the reasons why the government targets those vicinity than others, once a place gets better attention it takes the grace of God not to start facing difficulties here and there. As for someone who is an average Nigerian who wants to do case? Who wants to go to court and fight for justice, something that might never even work out in your favour? In the end you will be the one spending another big amount of money on the case, many people started this and till now their lives never remain the same again. I choose Bitcoin with it's volatility, the life I seek for is not to be trampled on like a can of soda and still not be able to do anything about it because no one is power than the government, choosing Bitcoin is automatically avoiding such conflicts. Thanks for your opinion.

Mate, I absolutely understand your fear here and I also have an uncle living in Nigeria who was a victim to land dispute and he lost the land too, although he is now late and the case of the land dispute also die too after his demise. There have also been countless stories from people that lost their land but regardless, I won't hesitate to get a land, invest on Bitcoin and also on other assets, apart from that my uncle that lost his land, I also have other relatives and many of them are based in Nigeria and they have acquired lands and have built houses on it, yet they have not faced any dispute issues for more than 30 years now. Some lands that they purchased at a very low cost is now more than 100x of the price they bought it, so if you don't buy now when you have the opportunity, you will end up buying it at a high price.  Imagine preventing yourself from buying a piece of land at ₦1m today and then you go back to that same location in 10 years time to still buy that same land for ₦30m? Before you buy, just make your proper research too, don't buy a plot of land in random place.

Does this not apply to Bitcoin, too? If your government decided to confiscate Bitcoin, then your government will confiscate it.  This is not different from the land issue.  After all, as you stated everything belongs to the government.  Even precious metals are not excluded too. Mentioning precious metal, I think there are instances where a government implemented a limit on the ownership of gold and then confiscated or forcefully sold the amount of gold to the state that exceeded the limited allowable gold ownership.

I understand your feeling and reason for the decision. One of the reasons that prevented me from acquiring land with my friends in one of the major cities in Nigeria back in 2017/2018 was this fear of either double selling by the owner or the government obtaining it, and I deeply regret my action today. One thing about land is once you have enough information and the right source, part of your problem is solved. I don't worry about the government grabbing my land for development as long as valuers check the land and I get compensated with what the land is worth. But nobody needs to force you to change your mindset from what you have chosen, but know that when you are ready to buy land, the value will never remain the same, especially in developing cities in your country, but as long as you have enough money, that should not be a problem. Bitcoin, gold, and other valuable assets are also good choices of investment as long as you are getting what you want from them. Also, don't try to discourage other people from investing in land.

If you don't use centralized entities to expose yourself to BTC - then, no. How would they know in the first place about it?

That makes sense if the laws about obtaining and owning a land in your country is so unpredictable. Even I if I am in that kind of situation, I'll choose peace of owning my assets in the form of Bitcoin rather than diversifying it with real estate or lands. It is not surprising that governments can do whatever they want even if there's the rightful owner of the property. If they want to take it, they'll do everything in their capacity to do it. They could pay the owner or they could just put it into court and get that land without spending so much money. So, there are two sides of stories why you don't like to diversify in lands. While for the others who are in a stable economy and country, using their Bitcoin profits for buying land is a good option.

As a Nigerian, I understand everything you said and have also experienced ugly situations that poped up from land dispute. A brother can kill his fellow brother for their family land and the government wouldn't do anything. You can wake up one morning to see that the government have issued you papers to evacuate your landed property. In the olden days, land was what you use to measure the riches of a man but not nowadays, that there are different asset with good ROI than land. Bitcoin is good especially, when it's in your custody because no one will be able to know the measure of your funds invested into bitcoin. If you keep your bitcoin investment secret, nothing will happen to your investment.

Bitcoin provides the biggest opportunity there is - freedom. Freedom from being dependent on someone besides yourself for things you own. And this factor will always outweigh any other pros there may be in any other type of store of value.

You make sense anyways but i can tell you that you live in a country that doesn't value the fundamental rights of its citizens if not why will you acquire a land with all necessary legal documents and the government hijacks it without compensation for the damages they have caused you. If it were a developed country and the government does such a thing, you have the right to sue the government or haven't you seen a citizen winning a case against the government before? Another thing is that some of the cities and towns in your country may lack proper urban planning because if they do, the government needs not to encroach on other people's properties just because they want to build an infrastructure. However, if you choose to invest in bitcoin alone without investing in land or buying a house due to your fear of losing it someday to the government does it mean you will live all your life without buying these properties? these are literally essential things that is needed in life so they're unavoidable. Investing in bitcoin is the best decision but also try and buy physical assets, remove the fear of what happened to your family and move on. Life can be so challenging sometimes especially when you are in your comfort zone and someone comes to take away your happiness but don't let that weigh you down. All you should pray is never to stop earning, whatever you lost, with time you can still afford them again.

First of all, those who suggest real estate as a viable investment option and suggest that people should invest in it don't only mean buying lands, or plots as we call them, but it could be anything, like a built house that you buy at a location that you know is worth it since the price will increase after a few years, and meanwhile, you can rent it to responsible people and maintain it well. There are other options as well such as shops that you can purchase and give on rent, these all fall under the real estate category, and you don't specifically need to buy lands and then sell them without building anything on them and allow your government to take over and make you lose money. Secondly, a suggestion is a suggestion, and it should be taken that way. When I suggest you to invest in something, you should consider my suggestion, and then evaluate everything like your financial status, where you live, the market of the thing I suggested in your country, and then you take a decision whether it's a good option for you or not. Real estate is a very lucrative investment area, but as I said, it also depends on where you live, and if you want to make an investment in something, you should know everything about that and where it stands in your country or surrounding where you live. So, just because people make that suggestion, it doesn't mean that you have to do it. If Bitcoin and Gold work better for you, then obviously you don't need to get into real estate, especially not by selling your bitcoins or gold that you already own.