A comment by adamfromberlin
Contrary to the strange claim that Bitcoin is not a real currency, even those who have not dealt with cryptocurrency in advance should understand one thing as soon as possible: Bitcoin is THE currency of the hour. That our (centuries-old) financial system is dilapidated, that inevitably it will collapse sooner or later, that there are programmed factors that are still under-spoken - there is no doubt for more and more people. By far the largest part of the money creation (more than 80%) by lending is still in private hands, the interest problem is and remains systemic - the cartel-like entanglements of the financial system in 2008 have impressively shown where the path leads in the medium term.
Since then, nothing has happened, the casinos have reopened - their turnovers: bigger than ever. Nothing has happened? Wait a minute, but something happened. A touch of regulation? Not so much. But even if politics has failed on the whole theme of "banking in the barriers" - there has been an event that has already changed the world.
It was no coincidence that 2008, the year of the world economic crisis, was the year in which the project "Bitcoin" was invented by a group of anonymous mathematicians and the idea was made freely accessible on the net - the rest is history. Not only was the first truly global currency created; above all, it was the first purely democratic global currency ever to be baptized and is now preparing to drain the waters of the ruling conditions. A currency in which, since then, all over the world, especially small and micro investors and system critics have been voluntarily investing and whose idea is so fundamentally new that it gives everyone who deals with the cause more in-depth money a bright hope in the sky will shine powerfully. The basic idea: make banks obsolete! How it works? By smart money. Gigantic blocks of numbers (called blockchains) calculated and confirmed by a remote computer network make transactions secure in the sense of non-hackable, unmanageable, trustworthy. Banks - u.a. In order to guarantee the creditworthiness and secure payment transactions of market participants, they would probably have had their day, especially as they cause costs that are out of date.
Technically, Bitcoin is now so mature that the user can buy just about anything that our economy produces: Purse.io, a Californian startup, for example, makes it possible for Bitcoin to buy all goods from Amazon; whether the well-known Subway chain or Wholefoods, the flagship among American organic supermarkets; Steam, the world's leading games platform, etc. - Thousands of small and large companies are now accepting Bitcoin and it's getting more every day. The presence of smartphones makes the payment process child's play. Who comes now with the (taken out of context) fear of the abolition of cash, that said: also here is Bitcoin on your side. Because unlike Paypal, Safepay, credit cards or even money cards Bitcoin is what all the above are certainly not: anonymous. And if you prefer to have some cash in your pocket, there are now thousands of ATMs all over the world that spit out bares in exchange for bitcoin at the touch of a button.
The fact that the Bitcoin course continues to rise, is only logical - because it speaks around faster and faster that there is a (working!) Alternative to (possibly soon failing) ruling system. Imagine, the global trading market wants to get into the BTC when it comes to a crash of the current currencies. If it comes to such a scenario or similar, the Bitcoin is still undervalued.
Much of the nearly 17 million Bitcoin mined so far - in 2130 it will be 21 million, a fixed amount of money that is not expandable and whose price will stabilize by supply and demand - is likely to be largely in the hands of first-time investors, who understood the idea at an early stage and will keep their bitcoins for a long time. The fear that the financial elite could "take over" Bitcoin for a short time is therefore not justified. The huge boost of recent months is nothing more than an indicator that demand is increasing immensely. To speak of a "bubble" in this context does not reflect the essence of the novel situation and is an unjustified, too short a judgment. Even though the Bitcoin price will continue to show strong swings (in both directions), the bottom line is the idea that makes Bitcoin successful. Even though there will always be setbacks, such as the closure of the Mount Gox Stock Exchange in 2014: the success story is unstoppable. Most Bitcoin owners know that too, so they will not sell so fast. Each setback will be answered with two advances. Not for nothing Bitcoin has now been declared a legal tender in Japan.
And one more thing: anyone who claims that Bitcoin is not a real currency did not understand something fundamental. Currencies gain their value through trust and acceptance, as is the case with Bitcoin. What makes Bitcoin special is that it is a currency that came out of the people, from below. Be there and be free is the still unspoken, but ever more tangible credo of those who have recognized the potential of crypto.
We should now be thoughtful, because it is quite possible that by misinformation targeted the Bitcoin should be discredited among those who have not dealt with the technology behind it. Despite the fact that Bitcoin (and certainly not the cryptocurrency itself) will not be globally unstable - a concerted negative propaganda plus criminalization in Western countries is still conceivable. So let's be smart. Let's get to know each other and talk about money instead of just using it. It's about a lot, maybe even everything.
