Posted on 12/18/2017 7:02:41 AM PST by Enlightened1
Would you rather own 100% of Wal-Mart or every Bitcoin in existence? At one point such a question would have been completely absurd, but now things have changed. As I write this article, Wal-Mart has a market cap of 287.68 billion dollars. Wal-Mart is the king of the retail industry in America, and nobody else is even close. Bitcoin, on the other hand, is an entirely digital creation that did not even exist until 2009. No government or central bank in the entire world recognizes it as a legitimate currency, and there are very, very few retail establishments that are willing to accept Bitcoin as a form of payment. And yet at this moment, Bitcoin has a market cap of 310 billion dollars.
When the year began, Bitcoin had just crossed the $1,000 threshold, and now it is selling for more than $18,000. Of course other cryptocurrencies have been rising at an even faster pace. We have never seen anything quite like this before, and some are warning that this is a giant bubble that is about to burst…
Axel Weber, the board chairman of big bank UBS, has warned of a possible Bitcoin currency crash. With increasing numbers of small investors jumping on the cryptocurrency bandwagon, it is time for regulators to intervene, he says.
Bitcoin has surged from $1,000 (CHF990) at the start of the year to above $16,000.
The risks are due to a design fault, which leads to huge currency swings in both directions, Weber said in an interview with the NZZ am Sonntagexternal link.
(Excerpt) Read more at theeconomiccollapseblog.com ...
Which goes to show exactly how ridiculous bit coin is.
If you live in Holland, I've got some tulips to sell you. Oh, and the prices of gold and silver are skyrocketing.
“A digital version of hot potato”
technically known as the “greater fool theory”.
“The problem with economic bubbles built on the greater fool theory..... is sooner or later, the greater fool doesn’t show up.”
which means that the last one holding the bag IS the greater fool!
“There is a thing called “Stop Loss” that prevents that type of loss.”
doesn’t work during a panic when the whole world is trying to squeeze through the emergency exit door at the same time. “Stop Loss” is false security for ventures that are nothing but pure speculation ...
“History does not repeat.”
history absolutely repeats when it comes to speculative bubbles, including the part where the speculators sing “This Time is Different”.
Clearly you don’t get it. There are no banks in the mix.
Here is the quote,
“history doesn’t repeat itself but it often rhymes”
There will be if its to become a means of exchange.
But, if you want to keep whistling past the graveyard insisting that everybody else just doesn’t get it, fine, go right ahead.
Trees don’t grow tall as the sky though, never have and never will.
Yes I do live in the north, but have lived in NC and MO, too. I don’t use public restrooms.
If it’s not just a vehicle for speculation why limit the amount of coins mined?
Of course there is speculation, it is a currency. An infant currency, you are simply putting the cart before the horse and calling it a tulip craze with understanding of how it works.
If I exchange an ounce of gold for ten cords of cut wood, where is the bank?
I am well aware of the things your write. I am not an investing rookie. I have been pulling out money every day since last June. I pay my taxes every quarter. I am well beyond the point of getting all of my money back.
There are a lot of people who cannot see a disruptive technology, and how it might benefit them. I am not a shill for anyone. I would recommend most people not put money into this because it is a very different asset.
If it goes to zero, I’ll be out long before that. And I will be grateful to have gotten in early and used the benefits to pay off everything but my house. And that is coming.
An economy based off of nothing but barter is a fantasy. It can exist out of dire necessity but lugging gold around, not to mention firewood, is impractical so more practical proxies arise, for instance silver notes, then comes a desire to secure it from theft and fire, then interest, then loans. That isn’t going away.
The value of bitcoin such as it is, is in future applications of the transaction. The individual transactions being speculated upon at present have no value to anyone other than speculative, though.
If it goes to zero, I’ll be out long before that. And I will be grateful to have gotten in early and used the benefits to pay off everything but my house. And that is coming.
Bitcoins may go down but the probability it “goes to zero” is infinitesimal because weird as it seems, it is after all based on tangible (the amount of electricity and processing power to mine coins). For shrewd investor, your hit-or-miss instead of probability-based reasonning is surprising.
The only reason bitcoins would “go to zero” is a theorical flaw in the blockchain or a new algorithm to mine coins for nothing. I doubt anybody can say something definitive about that.
“Simple, to prevent currency debasement, inflation from increasing the monetary supply.”
Money supplies should increase to match the economy they are used in. If that happens in the correct proportion it is not inflationary.
“it is a currency. An infant currency”
If a currency what percentage of the value being used as a currency, and what percentage of the value is speculation?
If a currency what percentage of the value being used as a currency, and what percentage of the value is speculation?
The way bitcoin operates, I do not think your question can be answered.
The currency is very private, and therefore difficult to quantify as to type of useage.
A similar question would be: What percent of gold is being used as currency, and what percent is being held for speculation. Very difficult question to answer.
Calling Captain Obvious.
Interesting that so many are missing the obvious, then. Blinded by dollar signs, odd as that sounds for all the negativity about fiat money. Go figure. I’d suggest not finding yourself among that number for too much longer.
Heck, i had 100 bitcoins back when it first came out. dont even remember what i spent them on. Still kicking myself over that one...
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