Bitcoin, will it ever be a legitimate currency?

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Kobus Niemand

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Bitcoin, by now we have all heard of it; the crypto currency that has stormed the world.

While most tout this 'currency' as a legitimate means to avoid transacting and storing wealth in fiat currencies, most users that I have spoken to punt it as the next revolution in free market money but they avoid talking about the negative aspects of it.

There are a few key reasons that I believe it will never catch on as a true form of 'money'

1. It is linked to technology and while there are a few physical means of storing bit 'coins', it is predominantly a purely virtual asset. This doesnt sit well with me as an asset should always be tangible to be considered money.

2. The market cap is really, really small... presently the entire market cap of all the bitcoin available is around $5 billion USD ... that means that their are billionaires that could buy the entire market. 5 billion, I mean, cmon man. A market cap like that is nothing and for those that cry about the value increasing when a currency reset happens, good luck with that.

3. The mining operations around it are often fraudulent and lead to huge investor losses. Take our man, Tony De Gouviea, owner and founder of the TUB system and touted as an entreprenuer that has has huge success in developing a pyramid scheme around bitcoin mining and small gold bars. He misled people into a mining operation that was a giant ponzi scheme and cost people hundreds of thousands, when it all went south, did he take any responsibility? no, he just walked away and started another one.

4. Its a chosen vehicle for criminal transactions... my final point... the silk road is notorious as the dark marketplace that first popularized bitcoin. While it has been adopted by retailers all across the globe, the reason for the sudden price fluctuations is not what people think it may be. The price is driven by demand and that demand has come from one core market - Chinese Money laundering Oligarchs that are trying to get their ill-gotten gains out of china... Dont believe me? Watch what happens when China re-instates bitcoin from commodity status to currency status and regulates capital controls on it. http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-11-03/china-prepares-impose-curbs-capital-controls-bitcoin

Whats your experience of bitcoin & do you value it as a legitimate form of currency & why? I'd like to know.
 
Kobus Niemand said:
Bitcoin, by now we have all heard of it; the crypto currency that has stormed the world.

While most tout this 'currency' as a legitimate means to avoid transacting and storing wealth in fiat currencies, most users that I have spoken to punt it as the next revolution in free market money but they avoid talking about the negative aspects of it.

There are a few key reasons that I believe it will never catch on as a true form of 'money'

1. It is linked to technology and while there are a few physical means of storing bit 'coins', it is predominantly a purely virtual asset. This doesnt sit well with me as an asset should always be tangible to be considered money.

2. The market cap is really, really small... presently the entire market cap of all the bitcoin available is around $5 billion USD ... that means that their are billionaires that could buy the entire market. 5 billion, I mean, cmon man. A market cap like that is nothing and for those that cry about the value increasing when a currency reset happens, good luck with that.

3. The mining operations around it are often fraudulent and lead to huge investor losses. Take our man, Tony De Gouviea, owner and founder of the TUB system and touted as an entreprenuer that has has huge success in developing a pyramid scheme around bitcoin mining and small gold bars. He misled people into a mining operation that was a giant ponzi scheme and cost people hundreds of thousands, when it all went south, did he take any responsibility? no, he just walked away and started another one.

4. Its a chosen vehicle for criminal transactions... my final point... the silk road is notorious as the dark marketplace that first popularized bitcoin. While it has been adopted by retailers all across the globe, the reason for the sudden price fluctuations is not what people think it may be. The price is driven by demand and that demand has come from one core market - Chinese Money laundering Oligarchs that are trying to get their ill-gotten gains out of china... Dont believe me? Watch what happens when China re-instates bitcoin from commodity status to currency status and regulates capital controls on it. http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-11-03/china-prepares-impose-curbs-capital-controls-bitcoin

Whats your experience of bitcoin & do you value it as a legitimate form of currency & why? I'd like to know.
Click to expand...

Yes I do...

However, it's probably more gambling than investing. So please don't put all your savings in bitcoins...
 
DA-LION-619 said:
Bitcoin legitimate? Nope, it's main use is because it's not.
Click to expand...

Then you don't understand the power of Bitcoin at all, and do not appreciate the strings attached to the normal banking industry and how easily it is just to "print more money" and devalue currency on a whim to help face/pay back debt incurred.

Bitcoin brings a peer to peer review and verification system of each transaction. Sure, it can be used for buying herion, but you can do that with cash too bro.

I'd rather have a 100% guarantee of transactions with 0 fraud happening on a banking level, than I would trust my money in a bank's hands. Some of their dealings are quite borderline criminal. That is why in 2009 that industry was hit so ****ing hard. Keep that in mind.
 
envo said:
Then you don't understand the power of Bitcoin at all, and do not appreciate the strings attached to the normal banking industry and how easily it is just to "print more money" and devalue currency on a whim to help face/pay back debt incurred.

Bitcoin brings a peer to peer review and verification system of each transaction. Sure, it can be used for buying herion, but you can do that with cash too bro.

I'd rather have a 100% guarantee of transactions with 0 fraud happening on a banking level, than I would trust my money in a bank's hands. Some of their dealings are quite borderline criminal. That is why in 2009 that industry was hit so ****ing hard. Keep that in mind.
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Are you talking about Bitcoin or block chain?
 
Just to quickly adress 1 & 2.

1) Something doesn't have to be tangible to be considered money. It just has to be durable, be relatively rare, divisible to some extent and perhaps most importantly, other people have to be willing to accept it in exchange for goods and services. If other people accept it as money, then it's money.

Normal fiat currency is exactly like this, it's not based on anything either. It's valuable because we say it is. If you printed the codes to bitcoin wallets on pieces of paper you'd have pretty much the same thing.

2) This would never happen because as you buy more and more coins, the price would rocket upwards exponentially. Remember all bitcoin transactions are easily monitored and most people buy and sell bitcoins on exchanges. People would immediately be able to see that a high volume of bitcoins are being bought and jack up their prices accordingly.
 
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I doubt I will see the day when gold and oil is quoted in bitcoin on Bloomberg.
 
I think perhaps a crypto-currency of some sort will be the norm one day. For me bitcoin is more like a pioneer and we're learning a lot about the pros and cons. Eventually the law will catch up and crypto-currencies will be regulated. Block chain technology will become the norm in other ways too, contracts, deeds, voting etc. Banks will become less necessary than they are now and will have far less control than they do now. Someone somewhere will start printing bitcoins on mass so it becomes a form of cash you can carry in your wallet, just for old times sake
 
C4Cat said:
Someone somewhere will start printing bitcoins on mass so it becomes a form of cash you can carry in your wallet, just for old times sake
Click to expand...

and history will repeat itself
 
C4Cat said:
Yes, because crypto-currencies make banks redundant
Click to expand...

Although, having said that, I suppose there will still be a place for loans, investment, processing transactions and that sort of thing.
 
i also thought it was pie in the sky until i actually paid for goods in bitcoin. i wonder if more retailers overseas are using it.
 
C4Cat said:
Yes, because crypto-currencies make banks redundant
Click to expand...

I don't think you understand the role of banks in an economy.

Banks buy and sell currency, and if bitcoin is a currency, they will be buying and selling it.
 
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