[LINK] Bitcoin is hitting new highs—here’s why it might not be a bubble

[Frank O'Connor]

Mmmmm …

I pretty much view Bitcoin as a bit of an ethereal digital fraud in the making 

1. It fails as a means of exchange for commercial/household transactions due to inbuilt effluxion of time (it’s not instantaneous like a credit card or cash transaction), transaction validation and lack of accountability.

2. It’s long gone past the stage where it could be considered viable for ‘micro-transactions’, if any micro-transaction facilitation will ever be needed in any e-commercial context. What’s wrong with conventional small running balances for God’s sake?

3. It’s not backed or administered by anybody I'd trust (and given the way some exchanges have gone down owing hundreds of millions/billions at today’s Bitcoin values, I’d be a fool to trust any of them), the value fluctuates wildly on a daily basis, and if any currency needed a unit split (when 1 Bitcoin currently equals 6 or 7 thousand dollars) it’s Bitcoin.

4. Currently the ONLY people seriously using it are the speculators … and we know where Booms and Bubbles like that usually end up.

It’s still ostensibly a solution in search of a problem, without any of the structures, processes and safeguards that protect and add value, predictability and stability to other more conventional currencies.

Just my 2 cents worth …
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> On 20 Nov 2017, at 11:32 am, David <dlochrin at key.net.au> wrote:
> 
> On Sun, 19 Nov 2017 15:30:02 Hamish Moffatt wrote:
> 
>> The only thing of value in that article is the comments, which are a lot more sceptical than the article itself.
> 
> One of those comments states:
> 
>> For bitcoin to be considered a currency it needs to achieve three key uses: store of value, unit of account and medium of exchange.
>> 
>> So far it's just the last one and even then primarily just criminals, including money laundering.
> 
> I think he's right about open crypto-currencies, which are really bartering tools.  If too much (and unknown) value is locked up in them outside the control of national governments, hard currencies will begin to suffer.  Bitcoin could become another significant tax-haven, though legal enforcement of contracts might be difficult.
> 
> A Wikipedia article reports two countries which have adopted the technology, presumably at a treasury level, not in the marketplace:
> -  e-Dinar, Tunisia's national currency, was the first state currency using blockchain technology.
> -  eCFA is Senegal's blockchain-based national digital currency.
> 
> It's interesting stuff, especially the mathematics...
> 
> David L.
> 
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