Bitcoin going Banana's
Bit of a change of pace here - as this is more "current" and extremely beneficial posting - as opposed to long term guides I intend to post here.
Bitcoin is going banana's.
Currently, the price is $3148 AUD per bitcoin. Not 4 weeks ago I purchased $50 AUD in bitcoin, and if I had kept it instead of spending it, it would currently be worth $170 AUD. Hesitant though I am to throw money into bitcoin, as it appears to be in a currently quasi-bubble state, I would heavily recommend looking at Ethereum. Right now.
I invested $10 in Ethereum only 4 weeks ago as well. It is currently $150 AUD and rising, fast.
A lot of pundits are calling it a 'bubble', caused by the sudden acceptance by the Chinese government and thus a sudden (and massive) rise of acceptance of business to validate BitCoin and other cryptocurrencies as legitimate. Whilst this sudden rise has no doubt got investment backers pushing the price up, and thus a crash is likely to come somewhat soon, this is not a 'worthless currency' as some technophobic accounts are calling it based on outdated economic models.
Cryptocurrency is real, and the more it is accepted as legitimate currency, the more value it will have. By it's very core foundation of design, it can never and will never be profiteered by a central authority. Thus, price is based purely on demand - as I've commented on before.
Bitcoin has almost tripled in May. Ethereum has almost Quadrupled. A 15-to-1 investment in Ethereum only has me wishing desperately that I invested $1000 instead of $10 and would be sitting on $15,000 instead of $150, but at least it's a start. Will I invest a few more dollars into BitCoin and Ethereum? Absolutely.
They are both going absolutely bonkers right now - how much longer that continues is anybodies guess. China is traditionally ahead of the bell-curve in adopting digital goods as paramount value, and they're only just beginning to adopt BitCoin in all its worth over there. If I had to bet, I would say it's due for a crash and then a steady unrelenting incline, with natural stabilising peaks and dips that serve as corrections.
Right now the world still doesn't know what BitCoin or Ethereum is. When the younger generations continue to adopt it moving forward (and mark my words, they will) it will become increasingly valuable for both long-term business and short term investment. This is called the Metcalf law.
There's also a very real possibility that the current generation of parent-aged business owners and wealth-seeking individualists will destroy and debase any current 'real' currency due to preservation of their own wealth at the expense of generations to follow. This is where bitcoin really shines - being completely insulated from such effects.
To quote Steven King from 'The End of Alchemy: Money, Banking and the Future of the Global Economy':
“The blunt truth, however, is that the implicit intergenerational cooperation that represents the best outcome is supported by trust, not money. If the younger generations decide not to support the elder, the existence of tokens (money) will make no difference. And if the older generation has invested in, say, housing, they too could renege on the implicit intergenerational transfer by ‘consuming’ the value of their housing capital by selling it to foreigners or a minority of the wealthy, leaving the young unable to afford to buy the housing stock. That is exactly the intergenerational bargin on which, David Willetts argues, the post-war baby-boomer generation has reneged. Trust obviates the need for money, and money without trust has no value. Perhaps it is trust that makes the world go round.”
This is where we stand right now - with the current state of politics and economics looking over the precipice of this social contract being obfuscated. Since the elder generations have betrayed the social contract to younger generations in terms of housing and wealth distribution, it serves as a mighty reminder that we now live in a world where the youthful generations hold more power, in truth, than any previous generation has before. Thus, a 'breaking' of contract in turn from the young by inventing a currency that denotes the previous generations traditional form of currency as utterly worthless.
Welcome to the very real, post baby-boomer world of crypto-currency.
Get on to it. Now. You'll be missing an opportunity if you don't.
-Tom