by Ramin Mazaheri for the Saker blog
Some are talking of “fear and euphoria” in the crypto-currency world, but what’s to fear?
Last month Bitcoin’s multi-year existential crisis was surprisingly resolved with only a couple days of panicking.
In short, those who wanted to implement technological changes to make Bitcoin more of an everyday currency and less of a stable store of value – lost. The losers threw a tantrum, which turned out to be minor, and some moved their power and money into the cryptocurrency called Bitcoin Cash. There are only 3 major components to Bitcoin – the software developers, the miners and the People: Bitcoin Cash thought the miners could end this triumvirate and assume dictatorship, but failed…but also tripled the value of Bitcoin Cash, so don’t cry for them. However, they have earned a lot of ill will as a result of this power play among the developers (who support Bitcoin (the original, the daddy, the ‘capital B’ bitcoin) and the People who are long-term holders like me.
So, this existential threat has been resolved and…now what’s to fear? Nothing but fear itself, as far as I can see.
And that is why money has flooded in, causing Bitcoin has surged $2k in two weeks and cross the psychologically important $10,000 barrier. I look at Bitcoin now and I’m like “It’s up to ten thousand one hundred? Big deal – what’s another hundred bucks?”
Where is the money coming from?
For sure, the US market has barely been tapped – it’s been nearly all Japan. When China threw crypto for a loop in October by banning ICOs, Japan took advantage by going all in, and they had already recognised it as a legal currency and boosted demand by exempting it from their 8% sales tax (until 1989 Japan had no sales tax (a regressive tax because it falls unfairly on everyone), but they adopted American neoliberalism…). Japan now has 60% of the bitcoin market share.
But the money is about to flood in from US, from the 1% and the 99%.
It will definitely start flowing from high finance, and this is a major reason why Bitcoin will keep ballooning this month: the Chicago Board of Options Exchange – the largest options market in the world – will launch Bitcoin futures in a couple weeks (date is not set). This means high finance has given its ok to bitcoin (or at least a key player in the world of high finance), and the funnel has been set up in oder to flood in money…thus increasing demand and thus increasing price – don’t need a PhD in economics to grasp that.
In a great tweet by Max Keiser, early Bitcoin advocate, excellent anti-imperialist political thinker, former Wall Street banker and my former office colleague, Keiser notes that interest in Bitcoin is so high that Wall Street types are not going to want to end 2017 without at least some Bitcoin exposure on their books to show their clients. That appears totally logical to me, and thus more big money into bitcoins in December.
The end of the existential crisis means that the “early adoption” phase may be just now crossing into the “mainstreaming” phase. The largest bitcoin exchange added 100,000 new users…yesterday. This week the hugely popular US show “The Big Bang Theory” will feature an episode revolving around a bitcoin storyline. Undoubtedly, many Americans discussed bitcoin at the Thanksgiving table, giving rise to this rather hilarious meme which illustrates how “the rich get richer”, because you first need money to invest in order to make money investing.
The bottom line is: there are more registered users at the most popular internet bitcoin site than active accounts with Charles Schwab; Bitcoin is traded 6 times more than Apple, the most traded stock; crypto-currency market capitalisation as a whole is worth more than Wal-Mart.
No matter how you cut it: this is…definitely not nothing.
Add all this up and: who is a Bitcoin bear right now?
Even if you have absolutely no notion of its political significance – and it is huge – everyone is buying and will buy for the near future.
What are the risks? Right now, as I said, nothing is foreseen. China/JP Morgan Chase’s Jamie Dimon did a coordinated hit (planned or coincidental) when Bitcoin hit $5,000 – maybe another is coming at $10,000?
Bitcoin has been banned in Morocco, Vietnam and other countries, but places like Iran are “welcoming“ and “preparing the infrastructure” for it, while North Korea is now holding classes in it: countries such as those, subject to horrific, inhuman international blockades, will be more than happy to thumb their nose at the West while becoming the Switzerland of Bitcoin, the places Bitcoiners can definitely, undoubtedly cash out.
Bubbles do abounds right now – stocks are at an all-time high, as is real estate. But the latter two are solely due to the abuse of central banks’ powers to print money, and they DEFINITELY are a bubble. I wrote a bitcoin-free 7-part series explaining how the age of austerity has done nothing to strengthen the “real economy” of Europe, which is why they are bubbles, and which proves that – just as in 2012 – the world’s largest macro-economy STILL remains the global economy’s weakest, least-democratic, most banker-cabal dominated link in the chain.
I have also written that when this neoliberal/central bank/austerity bubble pops (via the end of Europe’s QE, which has been further postponed until next year) money will flow into the safe haven of bitcoin.
Is there going to be a dip or correction? Of course, this is capitalism, and some big-holding Bitcoiners are going to cash out. However, a recent poll of 600 bitcoiners found their average cashing-out price: $196,000. Maybe the average newly-arrived Grandma feels differently, but bitcoin is capitalist: old money has weight.
Is there going to be a “black swan event”? Those can never be predicted by definition, but there probably will be. And they could happen anywhere: Maybe the black swan will happen in NYC’s stock exchange, or London’s real estate market, or China will finally, rightfully take back Taiwan – who knows? If you think like that I suggest you don’t invest…or even get out of bed in the morning.
Investing advice from a daily hack journalist
Hey, I’m a seasoned vet in the mainstream journalism world! And a newbie hack in the bitcoin journalism world….
What’s certain is that this whole Bitcoin process is just getting off the ground, is not going away, block chain is going to disrupt a lot of industries, central banks deserve their comeuppance for printing money solely to bail out the 1% and not the 99%, credit card companies and private banks are immoral and anti-social, and that a lot of people are going to fight tooth and nail for bitcoin for both good reasons and bad reasons.
Investment advice from me? Stick with Bitcoin – it needs to survive. I want it to survive more than I want it to make money, which is why I stopped investing in it (also: I have no money (and very little crypto)). Not only are these the most conservative investments in crypto-currency, but you should ethically support Bitcoin and its brethren: Litecoin (truly the first fork of Bitcoin) and Vertcoin, the most ethical coin out there (sadly, finance cares not for ethics so it’s hard to say if Vertcoin will make money). The reason I advocate these 3 is that it’s essentially the same developer team working on all 3 – changes on Bitcoin will filter down to Litecoin and Vertcoin – they are inextricably linked and were created for exactly this inextricability. Litecoin has ballooned recently because it was tapped by Bitcoin’s team for the first “atomic swap” – safely conducting a transaction with one party in Bitcoin and the other in Litecoin. Atomic swaps are a big deal in the future, unless there is only 1 crypto-currency (rather doubtful).
Beyond that, there’s Ethereum: How is it that Ethereum can provide the software basis for nearly every other crypto-currency, also have ties with scores and scores of top companies thus is clearly already tapped for approval by industry, perform more daily commercial transactions than any other crypto-currency…and yet be worth so much less than Bitcoin? People are literally screaming for Bitcoin’s head; everybody loves Ethereum. Yes, Ethereum has shot up 60% in the past 10 days, but it remains totally undervalued given what I just related, at least to me. I believe in the developers, and Bitcoin and Ethereum have the two best teams, no doubt.
And developers are what it’s all about. For one thing, many of the little tricks and specialities that other alt-coins have focused on and succeeded in developing…the Bitcoin team will eventually get around to those. Things like anonymity, faster times for easier commercial use, etc.
And developers are what it’s all about because tulips and bitcoins have very little in common: One is something which grows in the ground (or doesn’t) and the other is based on technology and methodology which will – without a doubt – revolutionise many industries, machines, jobs and lives. So I’d go with the developers, ethically and financially.
The People are going to go with them too: the average person who wants to make a buck is going to buy the established cryptos – it’s those who already have the main ones who take a chance on the fly-by-nighters. If you don’t care at all for ethics, or feel justified in hedging your other more-ethical bets, then buy one of the most popular cryptos: Ripple, which is not crypto at all, but a way for banks to swap different currencies more easily. Banks love Ripple, which is made expressly for them.
Bitcoiners will have sweet Christmas dreams, despite the doubting Thomases
If you think this is all “just a bubble”, I contend that you haven’t done your homework on what crypto is all about.
Anyway, if this currently is the 4th or 5th “bubble”, that’s fine – after every correction it has bounced back higher. So hold on – or what are you, some lazy speculator who doesn’t work for a living?
The weak point remains unchanged: the point of interface between selling your crypto and getting cash. That must be regulated for society’s welfare and benefit – sorry to all the juvenile, egotistical libertarians. Governments could block or drastically control the online exchanges via the new net neutrality bill – that’s an issue, but not fatal to the idea of crypto as a whole.
The US Senate is reportedly considering a bill to modernise money laundering laws which some fear would, “criminalise bitcoiners”. Now how is that going to work with Chicago futures exchanges? Is bitcoin going to finally get some high finance guy sent to jail? Doubt it…. Anyway, do you think people will believe that ALL bitcoin transactions are used for drugs and criminal activities? That canard is running out of steam with John Q. Public, especially when his grandkids told him to buy bitcoin.
I’ll stop here with this crucial political, and geopolitical, reality which not everyone grasps: There are simply too many competing interests here at play to fully “stop” or “ban” bitcoin. NYC bankers don’t like it – Chicago commodities traders do; Beijing is lukewarm – Tokyo is already all-in; London is aghast – Tehran wants revenge; wire transfer companies hate it – migrant workers love sending their money back home for just pennies instead of $30 on both ends.
I can go on and on like this. Bitcoin is just too universally disrupting to be disrupted itself.
Finally, also dispense with this bit of absolutist thinking: everything everywhere will not be bought and paid for with Bitcoin in our lifetime…that doesn’t make it a bad (or unethical) investment; if bitcoin takes just a small share of the market occupied by paper (fiat) money, credit card money, gold, silver, Picassos and other mediums of exchange…it will be far more valuable than it is now.
Again, one must get past the capitalistic, zero-sum idea that Bitcoin has to conquer completely and totally: no, it just needs a foothold to become enormously influential.
And if this is how Bitcoin ends 2017 – imagine how it will end 2018. Not in flames, I am fine with predicting.
The biggest threat to bitcoin remains a capitalistic, libertarian ideology of selfish greed which threatens to replicate the exact same 1% cabal we have right now…but with bitcoins.
I proved the leftist utility of bitcoins with just the first sentence of this previous article, but right-wing reactionaries and left-wing disinterest in all things financial threaten not just bitcoins, but all human endeavours.
No change there. No change in bitcoin either – keeps going straight up.
Ramin Mazaheri is the chief correspondent in Paris for Press TV and has lived in France since 2009. He has been a daily newspaper reporter in the US, and has reported from Iran, Cuba, Egypt, Tunisia, South Korea and elsewhere. His work has appeared in various journals, magazines and websites, as well as on radio and television. He can be reached on Facebook.
Bitcoin is a zionist scam meant to take the cash out of your pocket — because money is power — and replace it with easily disappearable electronic currency.
Whereupon your every decision can monitored and catalogued, as you are forcibly placed on a centrally controlled electronic teet.
This ‘Leftists for Bitcoin’ meme you are constantly pushing is utterly laughable.
Good to see you back, C I, eh?
It’s been at least a year hasn’t it?
Still I think the biggest problem people have on the crypto-currency topic is not their mirth over the absurdity of it all. but rather their extreme religiosity-like up-tightness and inability to shed a sort of mental tension and Fear of the Unknown that causes them to leap to drastic conclusions such as yours.
Did you ever consider that the reality of the situation and its as yet undetermined future just might possibly lie somewhere in between Lynette Zang’s belief that Cryto-Currency BTC, ETH, etc is a bankers’ plot to chip everyone and control your every breath and The Visions of NIRVANA enthralling those giddy fools who believe (I can forgive them temporarily….there is SOME basis for their pride!) that they are the New Chosen Ones Who Are Anointed With Sacred Knowledge of the Crypto-TRUTH Which Shall Save Humanity in the Next Thousand Days….And (adding to their obnoxiousness) they not coincidentallly can add: “I Got In Early: At Two or Three Digits(in dollars) a Bitcoin, Still Have a Few Dozen or Even Hundreds of Them Left and NOW (Pour the Champagne!) We Are Into 5 Digit BTC Territory!!!
I think there is plenty of supreme irony and humor in the situation to go around and you’d be better off lightening up and enjoying yourself a lot more, because your laughter at Ramin does seems a bit strained……
I always liked your comments, and now that you are back commenting (hopefully regularly!) it would be cool to see you having a bit more fun, than I see you having in this dreary first comment on Ramin’s article.
Actually, I started my day with some fun on this topic of Bitcoin, raised by Gordon, over in the thread “The Zionist-Wahhabis Are Gearing Up for a New War,…..here, in response to Anonymous’ reaction to Gordon’s comment, which struck me as quite ironical: Arguments in the Internet of Ideas totally closed to the notion that an “Internet of Money” could also, possibly exist….and ALSO have ANY positive application, as a flank in Stopping The Empire’s War on Humanity:
/the-zionist-wahhabis-are-gearing-up-for-a-new-war/#comment-450066
Are you so sure?
I am not sure of anything except that I intend to find out a lot more on the subject and Andreas Antonopolous’ The Internet of Money and Mastering Bitcoin ( books ) just arrived at my doorstep today.
And I’d be glad to read another book you might recommend of the devious plot you believe it is.
Before we rush to judgment in rendering a verdict, both Plaintiff AND Defendant ought to be allowed to present their cases………………….no?
The issue is very commplex, because BitCoin encompasses many financial issues.
It portends to be:
1. A medium of exchange (currency)
2. A store of value (specie, or money)
3. A medium of trust (blockchain)
4. An expanding resource (to 21 million, via ‘mining’)
1. as a medium of exchange, it is seeking to replace the *dollar* or Federal Reserve Note (FRN).
In theory an FRN is just as ‘real’ as a bitcoin, as it has no intrinsic value as a fiat currency (as opposed to a specie crrency). However there are some major flaws in this logic. The FRN , while apparently nothing more than a unit of debt issued bythe FederalReserve, has at its core the *collateral* of value represented the wealth, and brute force of the US government. The 21 trillion dollars of US debt is ultimately backed by a similar value of real estate, ports, and public assets, including the wealth of citizens. Look at greece as an example of when the collateral is foreclosed upon.
Upon what is the market cap of Bitcoin (and most other crypto-currencies) based? If i have a billion dollars in bitcoin, precisely who is it legally backed by? Absolutely no one is legally bound to accept this medium as a means of payment on debts, unlike the FRN. Some countries might adopt it, But the tide isrising against it, as it fundamentally is designed to sabotage the powerof the central banks that nations use as the crux of their economies.
While bitcoin(BTC) came into being as a libertarian dream of escaping central banking and national economics, its lack of a legal and binding structure makesit more akin to trading oxycontins for favors, than tulips as a store of wealth. Bt the issue of most concern is who is actually controlling it, other than governments, and large corporations – the very entities that bitcoin was designed to escape from.
The issue, and this is absolutely crucial – is mining.
For qite a while now, mining the btcoins by solving ever greater mathmatical puzzles has required exponentially greater computational and electrical power. At a current cost of producion of around $1000/BTC only those with the most expensive equipment and access toresources an mine these realistically, and governments and corps have the power and resources to basically dominate the market cap- thus making them subject to the very manipulation they are trying to void.
Assume this scenario: Company A owns Compnies B and C. A mines a million BTC at a price of say, for arguments sake $1000. Company B buys the million from A at $2000, raising the overall price, and company C buys that million at $4000. In effect the price has quadrupled while no money or bitcoins have *really8 exchanged hands. The transactions are for all to see on the blockchain ledger, but the identities of the ‘sellers’ are invisible to all but state actors.
The possibilites for manipulation at this point are endless. A similar shell game, but in reverse – is being used by central banks to suppress the value of gold.
Though BTC was never designed for wide adoption,and scales miserably as a currency for actual transactions, the fact that it is rather easily now controllabe by governments which now posess the tools to track actual account holders. again defeating its reason for being: Transactional PRIVACY.
The ‘trust’ implied by the blockchain is fictional.It is a complete ledger, but the problem s that the anonymity at the user level, means that theiris absolutely no recourse for fraud or theft. A creditcard or Paypal is infinitely more secure as a means of consumer safety for purchases.
Its primary use, especially in asia is money laundering for tax avoidance. Putin has nipped that issue in the bud with his version of blockchain currency, and other countries are likely to follow suit wth national cryptos replacing the credit card payment systems, and enablng a more consumer direct wire debit system unavailable in the states – so the blockchain concept is not without merit – as long as the consumer does not have to download the ledger itself (utterly massive or Bitcoin).
There are plenty more issues, but it is gettng late….
(please excuse typos)
Bozie
As an addendum to my prior post:
2. A store of value (specie, or money)
What is money?
A seemingly simple question, but the most troublesome and complex for any ‘advanced’ society.
Economists have labored over it for centuries, and there is no conclusive answer.
The answer is always abstract, and shifting:
It is the basis of a medium of exchange.
It can be large rocks (maya), iron bars(lycurgus), shiny metals(ancient mid-east), sea shells (indians), or Winter Wheat ( George Washington).
But Marx probably elucidated it best as: A unit of labor.
People labor for ‘money’ – usually in the form of specie (coinage – which has intrinsic ‘value’), or fiat (IOU’s).
That much is a given.
While fiat systems are not a new idea – Ghengis Khan and Abe Lincoln imposed them on their populations (along with many others) – their backing – or collateral as an IOU was the power of the state itself.
So, in essence money as a store of value has been traditionally of two types:
A. The power of the State expressed in its fiat currencies.
B. Units of intrinsic cultural value: gold, silver, rhodium, wampum, winter wheat, tobacco, etc.
While all fiat currencies have a limited lifespan (Weimar Deutschmarks, anyone?) – cultural value items, can last indefinitely in value (precious metals) – or become reduced in significance: Winter what, tobacco, and wampum will always retain some value. From a Marxist viewpoint – they also represent significant investments in labor, and thus have ‘value added’.
But… there is now a new third:
C Cryptocurrency: This is abstracted fiat *WITHOUT* state or financial backing. Though something states and banks are expressly able to control the major production of.Through sheer computational capacity. As such it is an abstracted ‘significant investment in labor’ insofar as the energy extraction required to run the mining computers, but in real terms, it is far divorced from the gritty realities of say, gold mining. But it has zero cultural value. It is only a string of numbers to which an IOU is attached. It is nothing more than a fiat *derivative*. It is a share of stock – not in a corporation – but an algorythm.
This concept began its life as online game player tokens, where people purchased imaginary items for real money to use in an imaginary universe. It was a simple step from there to to make the tokens reconvertable back to real money.
But while a Steam game token is of no value outside the Steam universe, cryptocurrencies have simply divested themselves of the game content, so that the tokens are no longer backed by even fictional cultural value (ie. magic spells).
They are the ultimate medium of exchange of the free market (social darwinist) libertarian. But it is also the ultimate tool for the neoliberal banksters, who with their State brethren can control, or eliminate this market according to its whims.
With its primary use in much of the world the escape from capital controls, and in the US – the controlled implosion of the petrodollar – it is the ideal place for the corps to lure the proles, as it is much more easier to control than the FDR confiscation of gold. And cheaper too. A few minutes of programming, and a few executive orders and all the major crypto exchanges can be shut down. All the FED needs to do is remove SWIFT from all banks that deal with cryptos (or BTC in particular). In short, wherever the WTO exists, BTC can be controlled, in a manner far greater than fiat currency.
Or precious metals.
It would be like having a million dollars worth of plutonium bars. If no agency was legally permitted to transact in them, their *real value* becomes zero. (A similar argument can be made for precious metals, but in reality – only with great difficulty and financial upheavals – with value returnable upon removable of restrictions. A crypto disrupted can lose its value forever).
That said, while I do forsee a dismal future for BTC as a store of value, as it threatens the status of the dollar – I would imagine that the Blockchain Technology – a godsend to the Central Banksters – will eventually be used as a medium for the SDR that is already slated to replace the Dollar by the IMF. Perhaps, as Etherium, it has already come into being. More likely, amid the Babel of bitcoin clones, something will emerge as a world currency – but firmly under the control of the major corporations, banks, and deep state operatives.
One would be best to stick to Steam tokens for DarkWeb transactions.
There is a seeming promise of Monero, and its clones, which promise to provide total anonymity at both client and transaction sides – but how to purchase these tokens without attraction of State agencies designed to look precisely for such transactions and label them as direct proof of ‘money laundering’.
So… back to the issue of VALUE.
Can something have value that is so easily stolen, seized, abused, or frozen?
Indeed real estate and fiat money both have such ‘value’.
But I see a certain cognitive dissonance arising when a new store of value has these same faults – particularly when their key marketing points are that they are immune to them.
Another critical issue is that a store of value cannot be volatile. Something so easily subject to wild swings of value is not safe for any *long term* use, as is, say precious metals, which have had wild swings, but always an upward and guaranteed value over the long term. Plus as an actual medium of exchage (vs store of value) – it is highly deflationary.
A unit of labor earns ever LESS BTC. Great for early adopters, but dreadful for an economic system. And this is guaranteed, as the total supply is limited.
In fairness this issue os one of the weaknesses with the Gold Standard. Limited quantities require ever more devious ‘fractional reserve’ currencies to keep deflation at acceptable levels.
The ultimate issue is that with near zero interest rates, and industrial capital stagnation (in the West) that the only place to earn money on money are the financials like junk bonds or stock – totally risky – or the casino capitalism of derivatives like crypto currencies.
to be Continues…
Bozie
3. A medium of trust (blockchain)
A blockchain is a permanent ledger, of transactions and transactors. In BTC the first is pulblc, and the second is supposedly private. New technology can however track owners of bitcoin transactions rather quickly. Another principle of its design being compromised.
The blockchain is revolutionary financial concept being a real time ledger of all activity from everything from coin tokens to cans of soup and shipping containers. However, its ‘trust’ – or immutability of past transactions and prevention of fraudulent current transactions is based solely on cryptographic software ‘keys’ that in theory cannot be hacked within the lifetime of the universe. Some are even designed to thwart decryption efforts by the oncoming quantum cmputers.
The problem with this concept of trust based on security, is that tt is nearly always centered on a ‘password’ based method – though here exquisitly more elaborate. Take a 4000 character (or bit) key and try to hack it by guessing at its contents and even at trillions of tries per second, it will take trillions of years. Versus a few hours for a regular 7 character password.
But why even bother with a ‘brute force’ attack on encryption. Do modern hackers try to even hack passwords these days? The answer is no. Paswords are irrelevant, an so is likely to be cryptographic keys.
The solution is simplicity itself: Have your target send you (the hacker) the keys, and any and all relevant personal information, like bank accounts, credit card ‘s and your teenage kids nudie pics.
Trojans and spyware are ever more sophisticated these days, with the best being undetectable by the best ‘scanners’ over a period of years. Some, like stuxnet would never have been found, unless someone knew about where to look for it. and that, by now i ancient technology. Spyware has already migrated to hardware, and can live in hard drive controllers, and even – as mentioned – in CPU cores themselves. And if the NSA can access something, so can ultimately a pimple faced kid in his parent’s basement.
Their purpose is first and foremost to send to its owners-keystrokes, screen captures, and any files of possible interest.
There is no need for anyone to crack your cryptographic keys, when they can steal them.
This is a very real issue, not just for bitcoin, but all forms of financial online acivity, from Paypal to online banking.
Personally i do not do *any* form of online banking.
A public blockchain is perfect target. You can tell exactly how much wealth is tied to particular accounts, and over time the currently secret account tracking software will leak to the script-kiddie level, and from there it is smiply a matter of sending popular software ‘updates’ to accounts with the most BTC to harvest.
True. The anonymity of Bitcoin was broken quite some time ago, i.e. all your transactions on the “block chain” can be retrieved by the authorities, “Ve haf vays und means”. It is the blockchain that is revolutionary, not the Zio-currency scam (don’t forget that “crypto” actually has two meanings ;) ).
Unfortunately the powers that be see the totalitarian utility of the block-chain and they call most of the shots. Luckily, many free-spirited bright sparks are developing benign applications using the “block chain” model. But Bitcoin aint one of ’em. Beyond the mythical creator, tis Zionists in control all the way down.
Read the last link in Ramin’s article, it also explains what Bitcoin is.
@C I eh
>> Bitcoin is a zionist scam meant to take the cash out of your pocket — because money is power — and replace it with easily disappearable electronic currency.
Zionist scam maybe, surely they (the chickens) have paid for it. They payed to become slaves believing to get freedom.
Not a bad plot, is it?
”This means high finance has given its ok to bitcoin (or at least a key player in the world of high finance), and the funnel has been set up in oder to flood in money…thus increasing demand and thus increasing price – don’t need a PhD in economics to grasp that …”
And you don’t need a PhD in Economics to recognise a bubble when you see it. There is a mass of speculative capital with nowhere to go. When it sees anything which looks anything like a buying opportunity it rushes in. Result? Speculative bubbles that pop – high tec in 2000, property in 2008 and the super debt-bubble in … ? I all began with the South Sea bubble and the speculation mania has not abated since. Yeah we know ‘this time it’s different’ I doubt it but time will tell.
I should have added, regarding the existential crisis: What was solved, perhaps temporarily but certainly crucially for the current development of bitcoin as a whole, was the question of, “Is Bitcoin a store of value or a currency?” The community came down on the side of “store of currency”. And that’s the right call.
Because of the fears of a “bubble”, there is no reason for Bitcoin to expand any faster than it already is. It needs stability far, far more than it needs to be introduced to the mainstream. Becoming a currency should, and likely will, come after stability is secured, so Bitcoiners made the right choice.
That’s the matter! «“Is Bitcoin a store of value or a currency?” The community came down on the side of “store of currency”.»
Some forces are now speculating madly in Bitcoin, so it seems much more like a “store of value” than a “store of currency”. If Bitcoin is not useful for anything other than investment, “store of value”, if it is not going to be used as a currency, then we are watching a bubble. What Bitcoin «needs» is not the question, because other parties than Bitcoin can make it fail.
I watched Sophie Shevardnadze interviewing CEO of Bitcoin Cash Rick Falkvinge on RT:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=4&v=l6Obc_cJba4
Nothing alarming in that interview, so wondering whether I should go for bitcoin or bitcoin cash, I finally consulted Mr. Falkvinge’s homepage finding the following entry from 17th of November:
https://falkvinge.net/2017/11/17/new-google-management-decided-search-cost-20-take-eight-hours-deliberately-unreliable-bitcoin/
Yes, Falkvinge is CEO of Bitcoin Cash and has probably vested interests here (an ad hominem argument of course) Anyway I think his allegations should reach a bigger audience and be debated:
«Around 2014, a couple of people hijacked Bitcoin, for all intents and purposes, stripped the original known coder (Gavin Andresen) of his coding access privileges, and set out in a new direction.»
[…]
« You see, you can’t buy big quantities of bitcoin — which is more or less “Blockstream stock” at this point — directly, not in amounts of millions of US Dollars. So this thing called Tether popped up, where a company named Tether claimed to issue US Dollar Tether, where one Tether was supposed to be good for exactly one US dollar. Today, the bitcoin price (the price of something that is unreliable, slow, and expensive, and which nobody uses anymore for anything remotely practical) isn’t driven up by people buying it for US Dollars anymore, but by institutions buying it for large amounts of Tether, which is “kind-of-dollars-but-not-really-but-we-still-pretend-so”.»
I’m sorry, I made a huge early-morning mistake in my comment:
“Is Bitcoin a store of value or a currency?” The community came down on the side of “store of currency”. And that’s the right call.” – that’s what I mistakenly wrote.
No, the community chose this month to essentially make Bitcoin a “store of value” over a “currency” (LOL, a “store of currency” is quite muddled, but not a bad phrase for what Bitcoin could be, as it shatters paradigms). But chosing as “store of value” is the right call at this stage of development.
Felix, Bitcoin Cash wants it to be a “currency”. I think that is certainly premature for Bitcoin. If Bitcoin Cash wants to try and do their own thing, fine, but Bitcoin Cash’s tantrum and ploys risked crashing Bitcoin this month…and the undemocratic cabal-fashion they did this ploy is not ok. So I don’t support Bitcoin Cash. Bitcoin Cash does not have anywhere close the developer team as Bitcoin, so I don’t recommend them. They are moving too fast and offer too little in terms of technological achievement/ability, IMO. It doesn’t mean they won’t succeed – after all, this is capitalism.
And Felix, I believe that “store of value”, besides being the necessary and logical first step to solidity and going mainstream as a currency, does indeed have tremendous value and does not inherently make it a “bubble”. The reason for this is what you have likely already heard: Bitcoin sits in opposition to “bad actors” – hyper-printing central bankers who bail out the 1%, and criminally usurious private bankers. If I can store my money with Bitcoin – thus giving both those two entities less of my money to play with and less legitimacy…then I’m for Bitcoin and the other top cryptos.
Dear Ramin Mazaheri,
I wanted you to comment on Mr. Falkvinge’s allegations:
«You see, you can’t buy big quantities of bitcoin — which is more or less “Blockstream stock” at this point — directly, not in amounts of millions of US Dollars. So this thing called Tether popped up, where a company named Tether claimed to issue US Dollar Tether, where one Tether was supposed to be good for exactly one US dollar. Today, the bitcoin price (the price of something that is unreliable, slow, and expensive, and which nobody uses anymore for anything remotely practical) isn’t driven up by people buying it for US Dollars anymore, but by institutions buying it for large amounts of Tether, which is “kind-of-dollars-but-not-really-but-we-still-pretend-so”.
The company Tether insists that they have backing; every Tether has a US Dollar backing it. There has been no proof to this. There have just been regular conjurings-up of new batches of ten, twenty, thirty million Tethers — not US Dollars, but Tethers — that are spent pushing up the bitcoin price as though the Tethers were dollars, and this happens basically every time the Blockstream PR machine happens to need a little boost. Maybe the Tethers are backed by dollars on a one-to-one ratio, as is asserted and refused to be proven. Maybe they aren’t. Sure as hell doesn’t look like they are.
This whole story reeks of a lot of people going to a lot of prison in a few years.»
https://falkvinge.net/2017/11/17/new-google-management-decided-search-cost-20-take-eight-hours-deliberately-unreliable-bitcoin/
Provided Falkvinge tells the truth, I cannot see that your claim, «Bitcoin sits in opposition to “bad actors”» has much merit.
See also this:
http://www.newsbtc.com/2017/11/08/tether-issued-another-20-million-usdt-tokens-bitcoin-price-showed-signs-weakness/
So I wonder if this is just another pump and jump scheme.
Financial returns have been driven down to zero or negative territory due to quantitative easing in all major central bank issued currencies. At this price level expect an explosion of bit-mining operators running the latest computing kit. This will push up pricing for cloud computing as well as computing hardware. This will lead to a renaissance in old abandoned mining towns that still have idle electrical capacity, particularly in cold places. A new gold rush with fiber-optic cables is coming to Yakutia and beyond.
Expect various military forces wanting to expropriate and exploit datacenter infrastructure in case of conflict. Lowest marginal costs will be in places such as Siberia, with lower wages and electricity costs. Russia is about to become the computing powerhouse of the planet. The question is will Intel and AMD continue to dominate the market with their known back-doors or will a new Russian-Chinese processor displace them? Control will be determined at the internet nodes and who controls the routers. The NSA and other western intelligence agencies will see their technological lead quickly disappear and be surpassed. US electricity rates were subsidised for twenty years with Russian uranium from dismantled nuclear weapons. This has ended. Expect US average electricity rates to rise sharply over the coming years.
The explosion in crypto-currency prices is a reflection of excess liquidity. Central banks will be constrained to rein in their currencies to avoid utter embarrassment.
The tax authorities will be working overtime to figure out a way to get their share…
Bitcoin is a Ponzi scheme, it will go up till there are no more buyers left. Sure it might hit 100,000 but it’s all down hill from there.
last sentence from
https://southfront.org/seizure-russian-forex-reserves-us-mean-financial-war/
“If sanctions include the freezing of foreign accounts of the central bank, it would be equal to declaring financial war on Russia, Siluanov said. He added that he considers this unlikely to happen…………..
…………..As of September, Russia had $103.9 billion invested in US debt.”
eerrmmm…..should we be concerned?????
“The price of bitcoin has reached a new record high, trading at more than $10,000 USD per coin on Tuesday. Sven Wagenknecht, editor-in-chief at BTC-ECHO Bitcoin & Blockchain News, told Sputnik about the future of digital money.
Referring to the ever-increasing growth of Bitcoin, Sven Wagenknecht, chief editor of the website BTC-ECHO Bitcoin & Blockchain News, said that “what we can see now is the so-called mainstream [media] adoption.”
“All the big newspapers and TV channels are reporting about Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. So this media echo brings a lot of attention to the people and everybody talks about it, including those not only with financial or IT background,” he said.
Commenting on the risk surrounding the rapid rise of Bitcoin, Wagenknecht said that “every fast increase is connected to risks, especially the risk related to overheating and market bubbles.”
“And in addition to Bitcoin there is a risk to the blockchain ecosystem; the background doesn’t grow as fast as the userbase. So that means that Bitcoin transactions, for example, are getting more expensive and slower,” he added.
According to him, an array of big players will soon come to the market and see a lot of new money floating there.
Wagenknecht remained cautiously optimistic about bitcoin’s ability to potentially rival other currencies, such as the dollar, in the future.
“I don’t think bitcoin will fully substitute fiat currency but I think that bitcoin could be an alternative to it. […] A lot of people prefer an independent currency and they think that bitcoin is a great alternative to hatch the wealth or pay a check,” he concluded.”
https://sputniknews.com/analysis/201711291059534702-bitcoin-increase-risks-fiat-currency/
They say that 95% of the Bitcoins are held in 5% of the wallets.
If the fiat system can be threatened by crypto currencies, if crypto can end the ability to create money out of thin air, then we can probably be sure that those able to create money are going to repel the growth of crypto towards mainstream currency, with all the weapons in their arsenal.
Lets say that the “plunge protection team” that is endlessly buying the DOW and S&P dips, in fact, has purchased 40% of the bitcoins out there also, and then decides to unload, then in 12 hours, buy.
What happens to consumer confidence then?
***poof***
In the comments so far, There is Lots and Lots of the exact opposite of what is needed on this one of many, many flanks: All or Nothing, 100% Brittle, Rigidly Absolutist Thinking.
There is a change. Many fear change and impotently assume it MUST be for the worse. If that is where the prevailing consciousness stays, and people do nothing but remain rigidly sceptical, guess what?? They will probably be right.
Many attempts have already been made to kill or control the phenomenon. So far, they all failed. WHY? HOW?
Figure it out. Do some work.
What is its significance, its theoretical potential? What are its limits?
What will it NEVER do no matter how cool, how permanent?
On the other hand, if enough people WANT the phenomenon to be killed by the PTSB (Powers That Shouldn’t Be) because they love their current monetary chains and complaining priviliges all too much, it probably will be killed…..or turned into something worse than the current set-up Then you can have the satisfaction of having been right! LOL.
WAY too much spectatoritis and armchair quarterbacking of the absolutist “I’ve Got No Skin In This Game , Either Politically, OR Financially but I Do See Problems and Challenges, So I Am Most Happy Standing Pat Right Where I Am, Not Even Risking More of My Time To Find Out Anything More.
Again, I find Antonopolous answers most of the objections quite well and balances the reality of the matter between the fanatics and absolutists on both sides of the Bitcoin Divide:
https://youtu.be/Kw36bbj4EP0
He starts right out, in this talk, with the two extreme, fanatical positions……..and ends without any arrogant conclusion, either way.
It’s up for grabs, but if you can’t grasp even the basics of what might be at stake, for good or for ill….more flexibly, less absolutely, your chances of partaking in a positive outcome are non-existent from the get-go.
And clearly, the societal impact for better or for worse is a billion times more important than if you profit from playing with it, or play with it and lose some of your wealth.
What matters is the evolution of human thinking, creativity and freedom, not what you or I own while we have breath or end in death in Bitcoin, fiat, metals, land or anything else.
Ludwig Beethoven’s brother once wrote him a letter, and feeling very satisfied with himself, signed off ______ Von Beethoven, Land Owner.
Ludwig wrote back and signed off Ludwig Von Beethoven, BRAIN OWNER.
Use it or lose it.
The societal impact of ditching the fiat dollars (all models) cannot be underestimated. Bitcoin is hardly the only means for this.
If it came into vogue to stop being in debt, that alone would likely destroy the entire money system. No crypto required, and certainly not bitcoin itself.
I agree with Bro 100% on this. Our personal projections and btc’s price and longevity are irrelevant compared to the sea change that btc represents.
be careful with your bitcoins
“Most people toss out dated data storage devices without regrets, but one Welshman is still looking forward to retrieving his inadvertently binned Bitcoin fortune from a junk yard.
This heart-breaking story started back in 2010, when James Howells from Newport, Wales, spilled a drink on his Dell laptop and dismantled it for parts. For the next three years, he kept its hard disk drive somewhere in a drawer, but one day he decided to get rid of it, having completely forgotten about some 7,500 Bitcoins he had stored there.
Australian entrepreneur Craig Wright on May 2, 2016 identified himself as the creator of Bitcoin, following years of speculation about who invented the pioneering digital currency
© AFP 2017/ KAREN BLEIER
Risks-Prone Bitcoin Will Fail to Fully Replace Fiat Currency – Analyst
Even at that time, the value of one Bitcoin reached about 1,200 dollars, which means the whole amount was worth some $9 million. But over the years, its value had grown insanely, and now Howells’s “treasure,” buried several feet under piles of rubbish in the dump, is worth about $ 75 million.
In November 2013, realizing his mistake, Howell went to the landfill the size of a football field, where the disk has been lying ever since, but it turned out that he needs special permission from the local authorities to retrieve it, the man told TJournal, a Russian-based internet news outlet.
According to James, he can still see all the money at the bitcoin wallet address. However, the disk is encrypted, but he doesn’t have his private key to be able to access and spend the Bitcoins.”
https://sputniknews.com/europe/201711291059539419-wales-bitcoin-lost-landfill/
Ramin Mazaheri, I like your writing more and more each time I read a new article.
Thank you for making so much sense about socialism and showing how real things connect with philosophies (one of your strongest analytical strengths I would venture to say).
As for Bitcoin, some of us are contented to be able to earn new money every day, and are simply looking for a really good currency that will hold its strength as the USD declines. Some of us are looking for a currency that does NOT act like a commodity. For us, something like the crypto-Rouble may serve that need. That stability is actually what is typically meant by “store of value”, as you know. That’s all I’m looking for.
As a commodity that serves for the flight from fiat currency, BTC sure looks the part. I suspect more than anything what the BTC phenomenon is showing us is the worldwide LACK of respect for fiat currency, and just how much of it there is floating around that people are prepared to exchange for something, anything else. Because of this, there probably is going to be a lot of dollars flooding into BTC. These things are better called “investments” than “store of value”, I would argue.
Art is a similar “store of value”, as you say, but its customer base is very limited. BTC is accessible to billions of ordinary people. In other words, it’s a bubble that will outrun collapse because of the vast potential customer base still hungering for it. As you point out, the top is nowhere near yet.
I really, really like your point that if BTC takes just a small share of the various media of exchange, it will continue to increase in utility. Avoid zero-sum thinking, you advise, and don’t worry about something as disruptive as the blockchain being itself disrupted. Good advice.
Thanks for a great article.
Many thanks for the nice comment Grieved! Much appreciated!
As Bitcoin gains a foothold, I think we can expect that the powers-that-be will attempt full spectrum subversion and destruction of Bitcoin.
Last time I checked, which was a week or two back, each bitcoin transaction consumed 300kWh of electricity on the part of the miners. This consumption is directly proportional to the USD price of bitcoin. The bitcoin network can handle ~4 transactions per second maximum cf. Visa ~16,000. Being your own bank is not easy. Bitcoin is not an alternative to the existing fiat systems, it is an experiment in cryptographic currency that has, in my opinion, run out of control into the biggest speculative bubble of all times. Be aware.
The blockchain is an albatross around the neck of BTC, further making it into the opposite of what it is was intended as an alternative to banking.
Within the near future, the BTC blockchain will reach a Terabyte in size. Larger than portable devices can handle, and even the average desktop. In places with bandwidth caps, the cost of downloading would be prohibitive in cost.
The only realistic alternative here, is BTC ‘exxchanges’. In other words: Centralized banks – placing you under the same restrictions as regular banks. Then there are conversion costs, or arbitrage between buying aand selling, with transactions ultmately involving *both* – unless they are mined. And its miners and exchanges that set the rates – that are not cheap by any means. And can be eye watering at the ATM level.
Check out litecoin, and dash. These have none of the large block problems, as ethereum has seemingly figured too. There are many realistic alternatives for bitcoin beyond gov controlled exchanges.
Bitcoin is just the crypto flagship, and likely the first target of ire of all central bankers. It is hardly the only choice to fly from the USD. Remember gold and silver? They’re still pretty real, and currently beyond the control of .gov.
If everyone is buying bitcoin, I say bet the other way.
Who is willing to commit $10,000 fiat currency for 1 unit of cyber delusion/nothingness?
Who is willing to commit $10,000 fiat currency for 1 unit of cyber delusion/nothingness?
Fiat currency, in many cases, at least has some sort of government promise/guarantee underpinning it whereas, there is really nothing backing the cryptos other than an appeal for a scarce resource.
I suppose another ridiculous analogy that one could use is: who is willing to swap/commit 8 ounces of gold for one unit of cyber delusion/nothingness? From a utility theory perspective, it is a gross anomaly, more fittingly “insanity” to justify such a transaction/exchange! But we are living in world where subscribing to insanity is the “new normal”, so anything can be justified.
What really makes me want to tear the hair from my head is that many from the so-called Truth movement have thrown their support behind cryptos (including those who speak out against oppressive Zionist ideology), mainly on the basis of cryptos ostensibly representing freedom from government hegemony.
But the real reason why many have thrown their support for cryptos is because of moral bankruptcy – they have succumbed to greed and are overwhelmed by the seemingly easy opportunity to make a quick buck (rather a “bit”) – just look at the title of Ramin’s article – the loaded excitement by the fact that Bitcoin has hit the $10k mark. If cryptos had minimal “value” or prices were stable relative to fiat currencies and other instruments, rather than skyrocketing in quick time, most people wouldn’t have shown much interest.
The demonic/dajjalic forces know very well how to manipulate the masses, especially those lacking spiritual consciousness and application.
I think the concept of cryptos fits in perfectly with the path that the Zionist world order is seeking to lead humanity to: a path where unencumbered materialism and individual deification/self-worship is the order of the day, rather than serving the One God. For example, where people have access to so-called customised solutions (financial, material etc.) that meet their “unique” needs and provide them with some sense of self-worth. Needs which the demonic forces have framed in the sub-conscious and conscious mind as representing original thinking and individualized, i.e. the false concept of choice.
“As the value of Bitcoin drops by $2000 in a matter of hours, several leading voices in economics and finance have expressed skepticism about the cryptocurrency; Joseph Stiglitz says Bitcoin is a fad which “doesn’t serve any socially useful function,” while the CEO of Erste Bank thinks central banks could intervene.
The wildly popular yet volatile Bitcoin cryptocurrency, which has enjoyed a meteoric rise in recent weeks, “should be banned,” according to the former chief economist of the World Bank Joseph Stiglitz.
“Bitcoin is successful only because of its potential for circumvention, lack of oversight,” Stigliz, currently a professor at Columbia University, told a Bloomberg Television interview on Wednesday.”
https://sputniknews.com/business/201711301059574302-bitcoin-stiglitz-bubble-outlaw/
I condemned Stieglitz here for fake leftism, as well as selling out our former hometowns of steel-ruined Gary, Indiana.
‘The Euro’ by Stiglitz: Even fake leftists say ‘exit’
/the-euro-by-stiglitz-even-fake-leftists-say-exit/
In fairness, Stieglitz is up and down in his leftism…but he’s missing the point here.
For those interested in Bitcoin, here is an interesting talk on RT with Max Keiser and Steve Keen :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IuXhlIbTVE
Nothing better than objectifying info when getting a little too inebriated.
Rt cross talk covers bitcoin this week
I think this is the first time in human history that a financial change of such magnitude can be witnessed in real-time. It is not left-right, either. Things are not gonna be the same. Sure, btc is volatile and will remain that way. The point is the worth of fiat currencies in general, and stock markets based on companies buying back their own shares and rigging the prices of precious commodities, in fiat. It’s based on nothing, nothing other than a bloated worldwide mil enforcement system, and belief. Belief is perhaps the most important of the two. It’s literally nonsense, it makes no economic or business sense.
I was watching the comments on one of crypto sites. Watching how people trade various things for other things, etc. Someone said, “I never keep anything in fiat.” Somehow that said it all. Not just dollars, _all fiat_.
So, the real value of other alt-currencies is judged in btc, not $. I expect precious commodities to perhaps follow suit? Hmmmm.
I am not satisfied with Mazaheri’s «I believe that “store of value”, besides being the necessary and logical first step to solidity and going mainstream as a currency, does indeed have tremendous value and does not inherently make it a “bubble”.»
Inherently or not, «The value of cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, just like any other kind of money, comes fundamentally from what you can do with it.» (Peter St. Onge)
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-12-01/what-gives-cryptocurrencies-their-value
So I find it profoundly disturbing when Falkvinge claims:
«When I got into bitcoin in 2011, transactions were free, reliable, and instant. Not free as in “very cheap”, but actually free. […] Nobody I know shows off bitcoin (Bitcoin Legacy) to their friends anymore. It’s painfully embarrassing. Nobody I know uses bitcoin for anything anymore, for the reason that transactions take hours to complete, cost upward of $20 (my last two transactions cost $30 and $70, respectively), and have been made unreliable by design, through something called RBF.»
https://falkvinge.net/2017/11/17/new-google-management-decided-search-cost-20-take-eight-hours-deliberately-unreliable-bitcoin/
Given the crisis of the fraudulent fiat monetary system, millions and millions of people wants a safe refuge to avoid losing all their savings by the future downfall of the fiat currencies. But beware of wishful thinking. I think everybody here should read Falkvinge’s deeply disturbing post at his blog. If Falkvinge is right, it means that the value of Bitcoin should decrease, not increase.
I suspect that we are witnessing a pump and dump scheme that with its downfall may compromise the reputation of all crypto currencies and ultimately give the criminal banksters the upper hand again.
“transactions take hours to complete, cost upward of $20 (my last two transactions cost $30 and $70, respectively), and have been made unreliable by design, through something called RBF.”
Falkvinge is not being terribly honest. Transactions delay/fees cost are inversely proportional, those that take hours are those you pay minimal/zero fees for. So called RBF marked transactions are optional, I just learned. Only senders decide to opt-in or stay out by default into such type of “unreliable” transactions.
Observe that his stance fits into the recent scaling divide between Bitcoin “Core” (BTC) and “Bitcoin” Cash (BCH), reflecting two opposed views on how to tackle a technical problem. Arguably, the latter proposal can only constitute a short-term solution, only delaying the problem.
Definitely if not serving the purposes of store and transfer of value little remains to hope for. I remain optimistic despite all the speculative movement, if nothing else because the fiat alternatives promise and have proven to be much more unreliable on those regards, increasingly over time.
But here if there is a chance for crypto in general to be successful from the point of view of the masses is, imho, as a transfer of value precisely because risk is minimized in case of bubble pop. Ones stakes are limited in minor chunks of time where the speculative price oscillations are minimal between the time one earns and disposes of crypto, ie it’s irrelevant if the whales and sharks price it at 10 thousand units or 1 unit. If it pops its their problem, as long as one avoids the swing up or down. As soon as the common user begins storing value for longer periods of time he lets himself exposed.
Depending on the rate of adoption, its demographics and actual massification a state might be reached where the combined smaller stakes/risk discourage speculation making possible the use as store of value in crypto for extended time periods.
Lets not get carried away. The overwhelming majority of working people live on weekly/monthly salaries, their requirements of store of value have a minimum timeframe, currently it is absolutely irrational to be paid in crypto, at the risk of their livelihoods. Only a residual fraction, those selling their work a piece, could eventually rationally take such decisions.
If in the end we get to displace the banks and their irrational/risky decisions wrt the management of the accessible stores of value we trust them (2008 crisis) the better, but we are quite far from getting there, firstly we have to learn and take responsibility for the functions they claim on the economy. If this might be a desirable outcome, along the way one engages in their game at its own risk with the disadvantage of not wielding the power to misplace that responsibility, and rightly so.
Have you forgotten the ‘Darien Scheme’?
In 1693 after the Battle of the Boyne removed James 7th (2nd) from the Scottish/England throne the bank of England was established under the leadership of a Scottish pirate by the name of William Paterson. In 1695 Paterson was replaced by Sir Isaac Newton and Paterson returned to Scotland and instigated the ‘Darien Scheme’.
“The Darien scheme was an unsuccessful attempt by the Kingdom of Scotland to become a world trading nation by establishing a colony called “Caledonia” on the Isthmus of Panama on the Gulf of Darién in the late 1690s.” Wikipedia
As the Bible states, there is nothing new under the sun
Unfortunately, good will does not always bring good, ignorance is not bliss on the long term. Bitcoin is fundamentally ultra-rightist in economic terms. It is the dream of sound money crowds on the right who also see helping out poor as economically unsound.
Fortunately, bitcoin is bound to implode by definition, by the very virtue (or vice) of having an absolute upper limit of supply. This will mean any economy that depends on it will enter into a deflationary spiral eventually.
And, it is worse than gold which have an intrinsic value. The intrinsic value of bitcoin is zero. So, good people please stay away from it.
The latest wild movement in the market is also a sign of some big players who entered for a killing at the expense of everyone else.
while beads and shells are not that precious gold and silver coins are at least real valuable materials
unlike paper money digital money and crypto currency that have only a virtual value
as soon as cypto currency is criminalised on any objective / subjective reasonable ground it loses value for law abiding people.
crypto currency miners/managers loose all their real material investments time and energy.
or when governments take control of a given crypto currency they grab it for free and they take all your hard work and investment you made calculating the numbers.
this is only beneficial for people who are greedy and live for more than gaining income with a normal job and only beneficial if you step in and out in the right moment wich is all a big gamble and based on chance.
it might even be a frankenstein monster that will take money out of the hands of all people.
Bitcoin just had the largest one day gain ever. Now over $15k.
Nearly 4x more when I first reported on it. Listen to me once in a while, Sakerites!
https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-goes-parabolic-blows-past-14000-to-post-2500-single-day-gain
I hesitate in putting it so bluntly, but that is exacly the wrong reason to promote crypto or pay more attention. It clears the way for a behaviour spiral which might become uncontrollable not to mention devastating. Was one’s bet successful? Great. Did anyone extracted the bet’s value? Only if going back to the dreadful fiat, translating to mostly none in the last month (a reason itself for the increase in value – there was no capital flight from Bitcoinistan). One realizes there is no end to that “investment”. It is unbounded, it is immaterial, barely productive, at best incestuously* reproductive. *where did that come from?
This week miners in a Mining Pool were removed access of their processing labour, totaling ~4K Bitcoin ( ~= 62M USD). Just yesterday a mass retailer of digital products (Steam – gaming industry) has withdrawn support for Bitcoin, claiming too high a volatility, resulting in sales problems, increasing client support issues. One would imagine such events would bring some restraint, but as you happily report, _the opposite occurred_.
Can a fortunate one’s thin monthly savings ever be stored for a rainy day, or a useful expense without becoming Capital in the capitalist zero-sum context? If Bitcoin could ever afford us that escape it certainly wouldn’t by oscillating in value as it does against not only the fiat but specially against all merchandise one actually needs or may need in the un-granted future.
No, I will listen far more interested in what you have learned about the defiance of crypto and its challenges, not on short-sighted investment successes via Bitcoin. Sorry about the lecture, but in any case I am honestly happy for you if you made your day.