The host of CNBC’s Mad Money, Jim Cramer, played himself in a courtroom scene and said he didn’t believe bitcoin was a true currency. “There’s no central bank to regulate it; it’s digital and functions completely peer to peer”.
In fact, this is a large part of what makes bitcoin so popular. By bypassing central banks, bitcoin also bypasses the price inflation inevitably caused by central banks. Additional bitcoin are generated by solving mathematical equations that give the solver a certain amount of bitcoin.
Central banks don’t control bitcoin, nor do they have control over the amount of bitcoin issued. By October 2012, 1,000 merchants or more were able to process bitcoin and welcomed their use. Services like OkCupid and Foodler also began to take bitcoin, which further added to the young currency’s credibility.
More recently the Cabinet of Japan has given bitcoin the status of real money (not that it matters). Bitcoin is used in Japan regardless. Steam took it as payment for video games and Uber switched over to it in Argentina.
China’s central bank has increased “oversight” (AKA criminal acts) of bitcoin but Chinese traders are using peer-to-peer marketplaces to buy and sell. As a result, Yuan volumes on the marketplace have gone up a lot – which can’t be pleasing to Chinese authorities. Good.
Peer to peer networks are informal. After making an initial contact, users can get in touch directly without using the platform. Bitcoin can be traded in chat rooms as well.
There are plenty of ways to trade bitcoin other than via formal exchanges. The total volume of bitcoin is surely a lot higher than its formal exchange volume. And hopefully a lot of it is used to avoid extortion (taxes).
All of this may spell much higher prices for bitcoin. How about $5,000 per bitcoin. There’s not much at the moment that can seem to slow it down.
Bitcoin hitting its all-time high just a few days before the TDV Internationalization and Investment Summit, Anarchapulco, and Cryptopulco starting this weekend is incredible timing. If you hurry you can still make it down to Acapulco for these great conferences.
If you can’t we’ll be recording all the presentations in professional, HD quality and you can watch them all from the comfort of your own home…and we are offering a discount if you pre-pay for the videos prior to the conference.
You can find out more here!
For those attending the conferences we’ll see many of you starting tonight in the lobby bar of the Mundo Imperial hotel at 7pm for a pre-conference cocktail party.
Given bitcoin’s all-time high today, it’s bound to be quite the party. And we are just getting started! |
