Diamonds have no intrinsic value, yet every woman out there is actively twisting the testicles of her significant other to get her a diamond ring. If something is an accepted store of value, it becomes a store of value - a tiny sketch by Picasso looks like doodles of a drunkard, yet...
However unlike cryptocoins you can't make diamond out of thin air , as it happens there are 1300 cryptocoins and counting . Bitcoin cash and Bitcoin gold added another 42 million coins in a heartbeat . It's worthless , people will move to other stuff and the perception in the eye of the beholder will change . Technology 101
At a total valuation of $300B for bitcoin, I don't see Wall Street bankers being in, yet (except a few early guys like Novogratz and Bill Miller). This is not just a US-based bubble as the Japanese and South Koreans as well as the Chinese have been pouring money in this. Once the institutional investors start pouring some serious capital (after the CME futures start trading), it can go to $50K very quickly (that's only 300% from current price). Just my biased opinion. The truth is, we have inflated assets worldwide due to excesses as the central bankers are printing money like it's going out of style. $450M for an Art painting? Real Estate everywhere? Stock Market all time highs? Crypto is just another place the money flowing into and it has just started...
First of all, people have been making diamonds out of coal and, apparently, it did not really effect the price of the stones. Pretty much anything that's perceived as a store of value can be amply replaced by something else yet these perceptions stick around. Copper is just as shiny as gold and there is plenty of it, but my wife wants gold for some reason. The reason for that stability is the network effect - once something has been adopted and there is a cost to moving to a new product, that product persists despite technological deficiencies. You can write a fully functional operating system for a few thousand dollars, yet Windows still rules supreme. You can probably write a replacement for the Facebook for a few hundred thousand too, yet the challenge is in attracting the users. Once one or two cryptos will become super-aggregators, the smaller ones will die no matter how superior is the technology.
You have been brain washed sir see you down stairs . BTW you can use the erricsson mobile as a door stop .
Who wants to use Windows 95 ? No one . What about using the first iPhone and first blackberry ? Technology evolves , anyone using a very outdated tech is a laughing stock and the same will happen to Bitcoin .
@sle to your regulation point. I hope the crypto fans are Republicans, Elizabeth W will regulate this out of any U.S. main stream it may have gotten a foothold in. @johnarb. When was the last time Novogratz or Miller got a macro call right ? maybe it is this one, but those 2 do not have a fantastic record as of late.
I am not sure what exactly is implied by "brain washed". I have educated myself enough about the technology to believe that there is a fair probability this will be the next big thing. Is it guaranteed? By no means. I am very sober about the risks of owning crypto (which is why my "allocation" is so tiny). As I said, I treat it (as well as some of my other investments) as cheap optionality. Bitcoin as a product evolves too (my limited understanding is that there have been technology upgrades and new ones are in the works), its the "network" that stays the same. Same goes for the operating systems or cell phones.