Posted on 01/20/2014 2:25:38 PM PST by TsonicTsunami08
Just how big a financial opportunity is Bitcoin?
Recently, Wall Street has been starting to ask that very question, paying more and more attention to the upstart alternative currency.
The first analysis by a registered broker dealer which attempted to value bitcoin’s worth was published on 1 December by Wedbush Securities.
While Los Angeles-based Wedbush is a respected securities firm, it doesn’t count itself among the first-tier of investment banks, or the ‘bulge bracket’ as its known on Wall Street. The Wedbush research report contained some novel analysis and perspective, but it was also ‘light’ in that it weighed in at just one and a half pages.
(Excerpt) Read more at coindesk.com ...
What backs its value? Without that, its potential $38 billion value could literally disappear over night.
Okeedokee.
Sorry it’s potential $384 billion, not $38 billion.
But still, without some concrete backing, it’s nothing more than a virtual cat in the sack.
This technology will be here long after you and I are gone! This is worldwide and growing everyday.
When you ask your question, apply it to your favorite currency. Perhaps the US dollar?
Again you focus on the currency value and you miss the point. The encrypted blockchain hold tremendous value as we move forward. If you really care to know I suggest you do some of your own due diligence.
This technology has been looked at by the most accomplished computer scientist of our time and to a man they agree that Bitcoin the protocol is the greatest breakthrough in computer science history.
If the dollar collapses it will be because people no longer think that the US can continue to back it, e.g. because we are too far in debt, we are too corrupt, etc.
There is no backing at all to BitCoin. It is just an algorithm that determines how many BitCoin's will be available on such and such a date.
It may work out if enough people believe in it (e.g. emperor's new clothes.) It may especially work out if important folks have made huge bets on it and something happens to make unloading BitCoin's very difficult.
What's most likely going to happen is that around the time BitCoin reaches its peak government's around the world will accept BitCoins as payment. Those who have the BitCoins will sell them off slowly to governments and the last suckers who will end up holding worthless currency.
...like the equations that rated junk mortgage backed securities as AAA?
I have nothing against it, if it really is stable, but basic monetary theory teaches that for money to have intrinsic value, there most be something of value behind it.
Otherwise, it is $384 billion dollars of happy thoughts and unicorn droppings.
That’s how I look at it.
Just to add , this isn’t global warming science where it is driven by grant money and a bunch of hacks looking to publish BS papers. This has grown organically after the introduction of Shtoshi Nakamoto’s white paper was dropped on a forum in 2008.
Could Bitcoin Surpass Google’s $384 Billion Market Cap?”
I thought Bitcoin wasn’t a company.
The true winner is unknowable. Apparently, many crypto-currencies are possible. Which will win (which in my book means gaining wide-spread acceptance, stability, and avoiding outright government hostility? That remains to be seen, since the basic technology is in the public domain.
Yes, of course it is. It is a species of fiat currency -- but with limits on its inflation [and no apparent political connections]. It is backed solely by the confidence its owners have in its acceptance by others.
Fascinating phenomenon, really.
And therein lies the problem. In today's computer/information age, the "greatest breakthrough in computer science history" could be replaced by an alternative technology any day.
You’ve got a point there. BC’s anonimity is one of it’s attractive features to many, but that’s not absolute, nor in some eyes, desirable. If you’re going to put a dent in the Visa/MC behemoth, a higher level of customer experience is required to assure trust in a new system.
...or, you run the other way after Zerocoin, and don’t integrate; eliminate Visa/MC. Fun days ahead.
Any currency, USD or BTC, is backed by goods that are ready to be sold for it. The USD can buy anything that is manufactured or sold anywhere in the world. The BTC cannot do that, simply because only a few fans of the new digital currency offer anything for sale for BTC. Bitcoin can be purchased for USD, but the reverse process is much harder; people report delays up to 2 months after their private exchange deal goes through.
The BTC, as such, is not any better or worse than any other fiat currency. However its provenance is unclear; its security - unproven; its support by major players - nonexistent; its exchange rate - varies by 100s of percent by the minute. BTC depends on an advanced society to function, since each payment requires a computer and a connection to the Internet. There is no anonymous payments in Bitcoin, though you can make as many wallets as you want - they can be all tracked and linked to you, since all transactions are public by definition.
At this point the only purpose of those Bitcoin articles is to recruit more fools participants into the Bitcoin pyramid. There are some geeks who minted BTC in secrecy for first months and years, before they announced the Bitcoin to the world. Now those geeks are sitting on piles and piles of BTC - which is just numbers, unless a fool participant walks in, with USD in hand, and buys their BTC - which the geeks got for free. What we are seeing here is just an active recruitment of victims of yet another "get rich quick" scheme.
Even better, www.stockbubble.com
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.