
Bitcoin Surpasses $4,000 Due to Strong Japanese Demand - wslh
https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-surpasses-4000-due-to-strong-japanese-demand-cnbc
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gigatexal
still kicking myself in hindsight for dismissing this in early 2011 as
something that would flop, oh well, hindsight and all that.

~~~
kypro
It's worth remembering it still could flop, although I think that's becoming
less likely.

Bitcoin and other cryptos really depend on government opinion of them. The
main reason cryptos have been reaching new highs over the last few months is
because some governments are making moves to legitimise them.

However, I think as cryptos become more popular governments will have to
question their use case. The problem is it's really hard to say what they're
actually useful for other than for some shady uses such as tax avoidance and
black market transactions. Of course - as many advocates are pointing out -
they could be used as a replacement for the US dollar and other state run
currencies, but then we must recognise they'll be a direct threat to our
worldwide central banking systems, and then we must question why governments
would tolerate that?

If the US and/or EU started pushing back against cryptos because of these
reasons they would likely crash.

I actually think too many companies accepting bitcoin could be a very bad
thing in the long run. No government is going want to see a significant
proportion of their economy's transactions being made in cryptos for obvious
reasons.

Bitcoin's only hope (in my opinion) is to be seen as a kind of Gold 2.0 - a
more convenient store of value, which would wouldn't risk dilution through
inflation and is also more secure from geopolitical risks.

But even then you have to question if it's really a better store of value than
gold. Sure, the Bitcoin network is pretty safe, but its value will always come
with far more risks than something as fundamental as gold.

I think people are really over hyping Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies right now.
I have a few friends who have poured thousands of pounds into bitcoin and
various alt-coins with zero research over the last few weeks. It all feels
very similar to the dotcom bubble to me. People keep saying this is the future
without much reasoning and are then validated by people who don't know any
better investing thousands purely from speculation which continue to raise the
price and continues to validate the incorrect assumptions of others.

If you don't believe me just go ask someone you know why they invested in
cryptocurrencies. I guarantee they'll say something like, "because it's the
future", or even worse, "because it has gone up by X in X amount of time".

But who knows. My fears could be completely wrong. Perhaps everyone is right
and bitcoin will be the currency to replace all currencies and the US, EU, and
China will just let that happen as the cost of all the tools centralised
banking provides. Or perhaps for some reasons it will just remain as a
significant competitor to worldwide currencies and governments won't mind that
despite the costs and risks. It's just my two cents.

