One
reason can be from distilled from lessons learned in our history of
decentralized networks versus other centralized networks. One can be
realized through the present day landscape, and one looks into the
future of money as we know it. So let’s begin with our ability to learn
from history.
Twenty years ago, when the Internet was just
starting to gain momentum, it was in a similar state of development as
Bitcoin is in today. “The Web” was replacing ancient communication
methods like typewriters and snail mail at a slow, but steadily
increasing rate. These wouldn’t be instantly replaced, but would be one
day irrelevant. As we moved along a few more years, and the 21st
century dawned upon us, mainstream news magnets like CNN and the
Washington Post joined “The Online Revolution.” This caused newspapers
to shrink in size, number and demand. As The Internet grew in scope, was
it ever compared directly, on a daily basis, to the New York Times or
Time Magazine in its relevance?
Just as people today are asking
“What is Bitcoin?,” people in 1994 were asking “What is e-Mail?,” and
“What is The Internet?” Bitcoin is following the Internet’s lead, in
essence, building its own blockchain technology on top of the Internet’s
existing virtual blockchain, if you will. Bitcoin’s growing influence
on monetary systems and global commerce are set to be similar in depth
to the Internet’s inherent ability to change the way we all communicate
worldwide. Bitcoin is not so much reinventing the wheel, although it may
in the currency markets as it is setting the established wheel of the
Internet in an exciting new direction. This potential will take another
few years to realize fully how far Bitcoin value can go, but it is
moving upward and onward, and the world is starting to take notice.
Bitcoin and Bitcoin value have scared some sovereign governments to the point that they have banned it outright, in practice, or through de facto capital controls.
China attacking banks and account holders helped crash the BTC market
at the beginning of this year. It has gone through the Mt.Gox fiasco,
where trading bots were alleged to pump up the price of BTC, amounting
to a market bubble. Also factor in Silk Road, the New York State
Licensing controversy, and Alibaba’s IPO,
the Bitcoin value is still up over 200% in USD value from this time
last year. That Bitcoin value has not only survived on a global basis
for more than five years, but thrived, and attracted some of the largest
merchants worldwide (PayPal, Dell Computers, Dish Network,
etc.). This is much more relevant than any comparison to a currency
that is in it’s final years of relevance itself. If that doesn’t prove
the inherent strength of Bitcoin value, nothing will. What else has
gained 200% or more in these market conditions?
Bitcoin Market Values, Feb_2014
Comparing Bitcoin value to the dollar’s is like comparing a written letter to an email.
They
may both transmit information or value, but that’s where the
comparisons should end. Today, merely out of desperation, Bitcoin value
is compared to the World’s Reserve Currency, the most liquid, most
distributed, and most established currency of all time, the U.S. Dollar.
We compare Bitcoin value to the dollar’s because they’re both seen as
currencies, but Bitcoin value is much more than that. Currency is just
Bitcoin’s first “app.” It appreciates in the range of 2-400% per annum,
and that’s in the “off year” like this one. You can send 1000 bits of
information within a Bitcoin. You can send millionths of a Bitcoin to
someone as payment. The amount of Bitcoins produced is market capped.
The distribution of Bitcoin is fully decentralized and is not bound by
any primitive territories.
The U.S. Dollar continues it’s path to its true inherent value
“The
Almighty U.S. Dollar”, on the other hand, is kind of like Jack
Nicholson, Bill Clinton, the late Joan Rivers, or any other superstar
from generations gone by. They’ve had their time in the sun, where they
once ruled their market domain, and now they are fading into our
history. The dollar’s value is found at this point solely in its
liquidity, it’s history, and the ability of the U.S. to coerce smaller
countries to use it at the business end of a gun. Just ask Muammar
Gaddafi.
The U.S. Dollar is poised for a collapse of epic
proportions, according to many experts. The “Great Recession” of
2008-2009 was just foreplay. A currency’s “Global Reserve Currency”
status lasts anywhere from 65-70 years, on average, and the U.S. Dollar
has been “in office” for over 70 years now. The sphere of influence of
the U.S. Military worldwide, with well over 100 nations occupied by
military bases, is the main thing keeping the dollar in business right
now. But times are changing.
The BRICS Development Bank is a
major regulatory step in advancing the demise of the dollar as an
internationally relevant currency. BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India,
China & South Africa) control 40% of the world’s currency reserves
and population. When they basically spit in the face of the U.S. Dollar
in July, and said they would work directly with each other, and without
the current Global Reserve Currency, the U.S. was strangely silent.
These countries have been dealing in “Bilateral trade agreements”
(International trade deals without exchanging their currency for US
Dollars) for many years now. So this new world bank of commerce was just
the next logical step.
They did this because the dollar is of
little intrinsic value, and the Fed can’t seem to stop the bleeding.
Federal Reserve officials have failed to get interest rates off of the
pavement out of fear of collapsing the economy. They’re on the monetary
version of life support. The U.S. Government can doctor the numbers, and
change the metrics, but countries worldwide are turning their back on
the depreciating asset known as the US Dollar, and they know it. Their
main job is to make sure you don’t know it. You know what they say –
ignorance is bliss. And that’s also why the mainstream media only
reports Bitcoin value drops, not the usual rise in Bitcoin value.
Many financial experts like Peter Schiff, Jeff Berwick, Mike Maloney, Ron Paul, and Robert Kiyosaki
(see links for more information) are predicting the mother of all
economic collapses when the dollar inevitably falls. In my former
dealings on Wall Street myself as an investment banker, I have to
concur. Even legendary super-investor George Soros says the dollar died in 2008.
Americans in particular are truly ignorant about economic collapses
because they have never experienced one first hand. What happened in
2008 was a small heart attack, that is a prelude to your coming demise,
if you don’t amend your ways. Has the U.S. done that, I ask you? Enough
said. It’s only a matter of time.
“Eventually, this
[dollar] will go to it’s true worth. Zero. So all of you savers [of
dollars] out there, you’re going to lose big time!” – Robert Kiyosaki,
author of Rich Dad Poor Dad
Does this mean we won’t use a dollar in the U.S.? No. We still use typewriters and snail mail. We still read newspapers.
Over 95% of these are moved digitally worldwide, not physically. So why not use a better digital currency instead?
Sort
of. Not really. But when, not if, the dollar eventually collapses, and
heads to it’s true intrinsic value, Bitcoin value will have an inverse
market relationship. It will then skyrocket to unimaginable heights, at
least against “The Dying Dollar.” As the dollar continues to slip and
slide, Bitcoin will continue its march into the future. The way I see
it, the only thing that can stop Bitcoin from outlasting the dollar on
the global stage is if Bitcoin defeats itself. Governments attacking
Bitcoin out of fear of it’s abilities will only cause the “Streisand Effect” to be enabled in their populace.
So
the Bitcoin value versus the dollar right now is irrelevant, since
Bitcoin is not going to replace the “World’s reserve currency”
regardless. Ask Bitcoin industry leaders like Andreas Antonopoulos and
Cameron Winklevoss, and they’ll tell you the price doesn’t matter. As
Andreas once said on a Joe Rogan Podcast, the Internet’s value is not
measured in its ability to replace a number of fax machines. So why
measure Bitcoin in dollars? They are totally different ecosystems. Like
comparing apples to oranges, literally.
Bitcoin has more than
held it’s own in the face of great adversity over the last five years.
Will the dollar, at the ripe old age of 70 years running in it’s global
position, stand up through the next five years? With the international
community turning on it, the Fed overproducing it, and Bitcoin beating
it through attrition and superior technology? Don’t bet on it. The
chances of the dollar going to zero in value in five years are at least
even versus Bitcoin value doing the same. You may end up betting your
bottom dollar on it, sooner than you think.
No comments :
Post a Comment