Since 1997, for more than 20 years, the technology sector and so-called “analysts” have described Amazon, the $474 billion electronic commerce and cloud computing company, as a bubble. Analysts in the finance sector have treated Bitcoin in a similar way, since its launch in 2009.
— Brent Beshore (@BrentBeshore) October 18, 2017
As Adventur.es CEO Brent Beshore revealed, for more than two decades, analysts and investors in the finance and technology sectors have called Amazon a bubble and criticized the company’s business model. Today, Amazon is the largest electronic commerce conglomerate ahead of Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce giant, and has also been competing in the traditional retail sector against Walmart, through the acquisition of Whole Foods earlier this year.
Analysts have dismissed Amazon’s business model and the company’s expansion to the cloud computing industry for many years, referring to the company as Amazon.con, Amazon.bomb, “The Walmart of the Web,” and a “lousy business.”
Bitcoin Criticized a Similar Way
Since its launch in 2009, economists, analysts and investors in the finance and technology sectors have criticized Bitcoin for its lack of intrinsic value. Investors such as Mark Cuban and Peter Schiff have dismissed the financial network due to the inexistence of third party mediators and authorities, disregarding the structure of Bitcoin which was specifically designed to circumvent authorities through a peer-to-peer blockchain network.
More importantly, economists have consistently pushed the “Bitcoin has no intrinsic value” narrative for many years, but as Mark Cuban even stated in his recent interview with Bloomberg, the concept of intrinsic value simply does not exist. Traditional assets and currencies such as gold and fiat money do not have intrinsic value in the same way as Bitcoin because value is subjective and is wholly dependent on the market.
“It is interesting because there are a lot of assets which their value is just based on supply and demand. Most stocks, there is no intrinsic value because you have no true ownership rights and no voting rights. You just have the ability to buy and sell those stocks. Bitcoin is the same thing. Its value is based on supply demand. I have bought some through an ETN based on a Swedish exchange,” said Cuban.
It is important to acknowledge the statement of Cuban and his investment in Bitcoin through the Nordic Nasdaq and Bitcoin XBT, a Bitcoin exchange-traded note (ETN) provider in Sweden, because Cuban has described Bitcoin as a bubble since 2013, for more than four years. However, seeing the rapid increase in demand for Bitcoin and understanding the intricacies of Bitcoin as a technology, Cuban ultimately invested in Bitcoin, regardless of his past criticisms.
Schiff, who has been a vocal critic of Bitcoin since the early days, understandably because he runs a major gold brokerage firm, also recently revealed that GoldMoney, the parent company of SchiffGold, has integated Bitcoin and began to offer Bitcoin brokerage services. Indirectly, Schiff admitted to the exponential growth rate of Bitcoin and the increase in demand for the cryptocurrency from general consumers.
Peter Schiff, who continued to call #bitcoin a scam, is seeing that the demand toward bitcoin simply cannot be ignored. Offers BTC brokerage pic.twitter.com/eFKTHn5JOJ
— Joseph Young (
@iamjosephyoung) September 28, 2017
As it did with Amazon, even when the market cap of Bitcoin surpasses the trillion dollar mark and evolves into a major store of value, critics will continue to blindly call out Bitcoin as a bubble, disregarding its purpose, structure, and market.