Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Bitcoin is dying and 'will be remembered like pogs'

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Bitcoin is dying and 'will be remembered like pogs'

    Bitcoin is dying and 'will be remembered like pogs'

    Anthony Cuthbertson
    By Anthony Cuthbertson
    February 10, 2015 12:10 GMT
    32 86

    Bitcoin is dying and 'will be remembered like pogs'
    Embed Feed

    Amid falling bitcoin prices and further scandal surrounding the world's most valuable cryptocurrency, author and financial commentator Jeffrey Robinson has told IBTimes UK that bitcoin is "dying" and will be remembered "much like Pogs and the Sinclair C5".

    Robinson, author of BitCon: The Naked Truth about Bitcoin, claims that the lack of intrinsic value behind the altcoin makes it neither a currency nor a commodity and that the entire system is held together by either people with a vested interest in seeing prices go up, or fools.

    "The whole thing is a pump and dump," Robinson said. "There is no reason for bitcoin to be worth $215 or $1,000, none whatsoever. Can the price fall lower? Of course it can. All commodities, even pretend commodities like bitcoin have a floor and a ceiling - except bitcoin doesn't. There is no floor, it's zero, and there is no ceiling, the sky's the limit.

    "You look at the bitcoin market of what, 13.5 million coins, right now fewer than 1,000 people own more than 50% of those coins. It is in their interest to move the price up, bring greater fools into it, get the price high enough and dump it on the greater fools to make a profit."
    Stability could make bitcoin 'the global digital currency of the internet'
    Bitcoin fallsThe value of Bitcoin tumbled rapidly in the second half of 2014 to hit lows beneath the US$200 mark(IBTimes UK/Investing.com)

    Many bitcoin advocates actually partially share Robinson's view, criticising speculators and traders for causing such severe price volatility and ultimately damaging bitcoin and its reputation. In contrast to Robinson's views, some believe that the recent price fall to $150 caused the majority of speculators to finally pull out of bitcoin altogether.

    Sonny Singh, chief commercial officer of bitcoin payments processor BitPay, believes that this will help bitcoin to stabilise and therefore bring in new users who actually have the most to benefit from the decentralised currency, such as those without access to bank accounts and thus are largely cut off from the current financial system.

    "Bitcoin seems to be stabilising around the $200 range," Singh told IBTimes UK. "I would say we've probably seen the worst of it and lets see where it goes from here.

    "12 months ago when the price was $1,000, it was mostly being used by speculators. In the last year we've seen the price drop 70% but yet we're seeing more transactions now than we ever did. Bitcoin was not made to be a speculative currency, it was made to be the global digital currency of the internet."
    Merchant adoption not enough to convince Robinson

    A recent report by BitPay revealed that more than 100,000 merchants worldwide now accept bitcoin, including multi-billion dollar firms like Microsoft, Dell and Expedia. Despite this, Robinson sees no future use for bitcoin as an alternative form of currency.

    "It's not a currency now, it's a pretend currency," Robinson said. "It does not qualify or satisfy the requirements for a modern currency. The problem with disruptive technologies is that the disrupted has something to say about it.

    "If a government wanted to kill bitcoin it would take them two minutes. That's all. In two minutes they could kill off the whole thing. They would just tax every bitcoin transaction and all bitcoin holdings at 500%. And bitcoin is dead."

    "I say 10 years from now we will all have digital currencies - fiat currencies - and bitcoin will be remembered probably much like Pogs and Sinclair's C5."
    Bitcoin is dying and 'will be remembered like pogs'
    To sit down with these men and deal with them as the representatives of an enlightened and civilized people is to deride ones own dignity and to invite the disaster of their treachery - General Matthew Ridgway

  • #2
    Bitcoin is a mode of payment, its not a unit of account or store of value.

    Until there is less volatility, buying anything with it isn't viable, better to hold and see if the price goes up then sell. But this means its hard to get hold of or unattractive to use for its intended purpose. Digital cash.

    Comment


    • #3
      Originally posted by Double Edge View Post
      Bitcoin is a mode of payment, its not a unit of account or store of value.

      Until there is less volatility, buying anything with it isn't viable, better to hold and see if the price goes up then sell. But this means its hard to get hold of or unattractive to use for its intended purpose. Digital cash.
      Currencies are legally enforced units of trade backed by the state. What is the legal covenant behind bitcoins? If there is none then it seems it must be treated as a commodity, like gold. Except the problem is that bitcoins are not shiny and you cannot wear them around your neck.

      Comment


      • #4
        They are a form of payment and are accepted by numerous vendors. They can be transacted over the net unlike gold. Their value is solely determined by demand. if it becomes bigger then govts will get involved but for now they have not moved against it. Some have but its still in operation.

        Comment


        • #5
          I don't disagree with the basic premise of the article (Bitcoins are a fad, which was pretty clear from the beginning), but the author sounds pretty ignorant for someone writing at IBT. It's a unit of currency, and its lack of intrinsic value and volatility makes it exactly the same as other units of currency - in fact, I'd say it's slightly less volatile than the 'real' fiat money used by most every country on the planet because there's at least a mechanism to limit supply. Nothing this guy wrote couldn't also be applied to, say, Zimbabwe dollars...
          "Nature abhors a moron." - H.L. Mencken

          Comment


          • #6
            Gents I disagree. The crucial nature of a currency of any worth is that it is legal tender backed by a sovereign government in control of a large and diverse market.

            Anything else that purports to be a currency is actually just a commodity, al Beit one that can be transmitted digitally.

            Comment


            • #7
              Originally posted by Genosaurer View Post
              I don't disagree with the basic premise of the article (Bitcoins are a fad, which was pretty clear from the beginning), but the author sounds pretty ignorant for someone writing at IBT. It's a unit of currency, and its lack of intrinsic value and volatility makes it exactly the same as other units of currency - in fact, I'd say it's slightly less volatile than the 'real' fiat money used by most every country on the planet because there's at least a mechanism to limit supply. Nothing this guy wrote couldn't also be applied to, say, Zimbabwe dollars...
              Bitcoin is not a unit of account.

              Comment


              • #8
                Originally posted by Double Edge View Post
                Bitcoin is not a unit of account.
                Why not?
                "Only Nixon can go to China." -- Old Vulcan proverb.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Apparently, bitcoin is a unit of account in Germany.

                  But not in the US.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    It's not a unit of account because people attach "dollar" value to it.

                    Oil could be used as a unit of account. It could be a store of value. It could be a medium of exchange. It could be a unit of account. Yet it is not, because people attach "dollar" value to oil so it fails the first criteria.

                    Gold was a unit of account. It had been for ages until people switched to paper.

                    Value is what people place in an object. If everyone trades everything in bitcoin, then dollars would be a commodity because the value of it in bitcoin keeps changing.

                    Bitcoin fails because the people who own it and believe in it don't control lots of firepower.
                    "Only Nixon can go to China." -- Old Vulcan proverb.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Originally posted by gunnut View Post
                      Bitcoin fails because the people who own it and believe in it don't control lots of firepower.
                      Lots of firepower that protect and control a big diverse market. If it was lots of firepower out in the desert, it still wouldn't count.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Pogs were cool. Especially Alf pogs.

                        sigpic

                        Win nervously lose tragically - Reds C C

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Originally posted by gunnut View Post
                          It's not a unit of account because people attach "dollar" value to it.
                          can't reduce it into a currency except in Germany.

                          Originally posted by gunnut View Post
                          Oil could be used as a unit of account. It could be a store of value. It could be a medium of exchange. It could be a unit of account. Yet it is not, because people attach "dollar" value to oil so it fails the first criteria.
                          too much fluctuation or volatility is not a good store of value.

                          Originally posted by gunnut View Post
                          Value is what people place in an object. If everyone trades everything in bitcoin, then dollars would be a commodity because the value of it in bitcoin keeps changing.
                          If govts permit then bitcoin can become a unit of account otherwise not. Since its value has not stabilised its not a reliable store of value.

                          Originally posted by gunnut View Post
                          Gold was a unit of account. It had been for ages until people switched to paper.
                          Right, Aug 15 1971 under Nixon. Shows that paper does not have to be tied to gold and this actually makes the point for bitcoin too.

                          Originally posted by gunnut View Post
                          Bitcoin fails because the people who own it and believe in it don't control lots of firepower.
                          Define fail. Could it withstand hostile action without adequate support ? no.

                          However it can still be used as a mode of payment as anonymous as cash without being cash.

                          I don't think this concept of digital payments is going away, this is just the beginning.
                          Last edited by Double Edge; 14 Feb 15,, 11:08.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            I really don't believe the Bitcoin is failing or will fail because of a simple fact: this currency is using among illegal drugs and arms dealers in the Deep Web for years already and is the safest way -
                            While still not perfectly safe - for this scum to do their underground business. Never underestimate the power of organized crime. That was what living for almost 20 years in a Third World country made me realize.

                            What happened with the Bitcoin was a classic market bubble, where the price of the Bitcoin exploded from $50 to almost $1,300 dollars only because of more people entering the market:
                            People started to hear about the Bitcoin and how could you simply "mine" them by yourself and how "increasingly more products and services are adopting it" and rushed to buy or mine this new virtual currency.
                            After the rush the price is stabilizing itself. We have to remember that before the bubble, a Bitcoin was on average worth $50 and three years ago, hardly more than a dollar.
                            And more than that, the currency was practically entirely restricted to the Deep Web and now it is accepted in a bunch of actual online stores.

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              The FBI regard it as a unit of account.
                              Silk Road agents charged with stealing seized Bitcoin - BBC News
                              In the realm of spirit, seek clarity; in the material world, seek utility.

                              Leibniz

                              Comment

                              Working...
                              X