Hello guys! I have used the forum search and was stunned that this community talking about investments and money among other topics has virtually nothing on bitcoin. Or is this topic banned for some reason? My question is: Is bitcoin the money of the future or yet another bubble to burst? Researching information online it appears to my narrow world view very likely to become the next generation gold standard, because technically it is better than gold... What do you think? If you are new to bitcoin, here are few links to start with: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitcoin http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptocurrency
Bitcoin has proven to be insecure. With several bitcoin exchanges reporting thefts and some of the exchanges reporting bankruptcies. So it is in no way better than gold, as the advantage of gold is the you can hold it physically. The big problem facing bitcoin is can they ever ensure that it is secure. So while it is being adopted, the price is no where near stable, so it is not currently a good store of value, some may argue that gold at it's current price is also not a good store of value, but that has traditionally be the role of gold.
Hello Wanderer, I thank you for your opinion, but there is a fundamental misunderstanding in your statement "Bitcoin has proven to be insecure". Nothing of that sort have been proven so far! However, the closed bitcoin exchange Mt.Gox has demonstrated that people behind such organizations might be corrupt, especially if the exchange becomes popular and many people confide their bitcoins to them. However, people being dishonest and abusive is a well known and not a newly discovered property of people, but surely not of bitcoin I do not see any advantages in holding gold physically, because of the extremely risky and expensive exchange process. To buy something of real value, like meal, you will have to exchange gold for money. For that, you will have to personally go to an exchange facility. There is a risk of being robbed on the way there, especially if you do it on a regular basis. And there is even a risk of being robbed by the exchange facility itself - haven't you heard about prominent and very trustworthy gold exchanger having sold manipulated gold bars filled with tungsten? Here is a video about it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XG6qbgxzgzc While I do not understand technical details of how and why bitcoin works, I do believe to understand how the bitcoin decentralized network is organized and why it cannot be shut down and what a wallet is. The main point of my understanding is that bitcoin is completely open source (which make it easy to create a new cryptocurrency) and there are experts who look inside the source code and understand the principles on a much deeper level. With this understanding one could manipulate the network to create personal gain. Considered the current value of 1 BTC, the motivation must be huge to do so! There are many geniuses around on our planet who could do it if there would be a flaw in the bitcoin system. So far the only result of this openness has been other people creating their own cryptocurrencies hoping that they gain popularity and thus value as bitcoin did. Just look how many cryptocurrencies there are already: https://coinmarketcap.com
Bitcoins are generated by bitcoin mining rigs that run mathematical calculations when they solve the calcutation they have created a bitcoin. This bitcoin is then used as a medium exchange and based on the value of the open market. Due too the extreme volatility in the bitcoin market, it does not serve as a good store of value. Which is was gold has traditionally been used for. As there is no Mt. Gov is not the only exchange to bit hit by theft, others was bitcoinia, flexcoin and poloniex. There have been several instances of bitcoins being stolen do to an issue in the bitcoin system. If I remember correct it was do to an authentication issue that basically allowed someone to redeem a bitcoin over and over again until the account was empty. There is also the issue of technical fault. If you are storing bitcoins offline, a single drive failure could result in substantial irretrievable losses. Also there is a terrible lack of liquidity. There are limited avenues to exchange bitcoins for assets or cash, most of which exist are digital. Which increases the difficulties in exchange especially in times of turmoil. All that is required to separate you from your money is a power outage, a drive crash, EMP, natural disaster, etc. As for gold, physical gold is actually quite easy to exchange and has been for the history of civilization. The very fact that it is tangible means that you can take a block of gold and exchange it for a home, a car, firearms, or food. Silver has also been used for this purpose. Whereas gold ETFs or mining stocks have the risk of market loss in addition to illiquidity should there be an issue with the exchanges. There is a definite reason why physical gold has always been used when there is a flight to safety. It is universally exchangeable. The biggest problem with physical gold is security and storage. Gold, silver and platinum are worth something at every pawnshop and jewelry store in the United states, but finding someone to give you cash locally for your bitcoin could prove nearly impossible.
Bitcoin is very expensive and most people can't afford to buy bitcoin so you can pay attention to other coins have the same great potential as Bitcoin, such as Ethereum. The cost of Ethereum is very small compared to Bitcoin but Ethereum can give a good profit and is very reliable coin. You can read an interesting articles https://www.hypeanalysis.com/blog/canadian-bank-opens-deposit-for-cryptocompanies/ and find answers to all your questions.
I read a lot about cryptocurrencies. I like the idea of cryptocurrency itself - it's created by people, in no way controls the state and the cryptocurrency allows you to remain anonymous when buying or selling something. For a long time I was afraid to buy cryptocurrency, because I read a lot of stories about how people got into scammers. I didn't dare to mine the cryptocurrency, because it requires a lot of money to buy equipment for this. I started buying cryptocurrency on the Internet and now I want to exchange it for dollars, I entered this online exchanger https://hiribi.com/ , I like that there are high rates and judging by the reviews on the Internet, I can withdraw my money to almost any payment system. It seems to me that it's very convenient.
