Bitcoin, Bitcoin everywhere.
The time has finally come where all we see and hear in the news is about this decentralized mysterious digital asset called Bitcoin, rising & rising by the second.At the time of writing this post, Bitcoin stands at $16,500, 20% increase in the past 24 hours.
What is Bitcoin, and where did it came from you may ask?
Bitcoin in a nutshell is a decentralized, peer to peer digital asset where its transactions are untraceable, and its protocol is cryptographically secured. The creator is a pseudonym named Satoshi Nakamoto whose identity is unknown to this day.Why is Bitcoin rising so much?
We can answer that demand, and inflation are making it rise tremendously. Integration of large companies, and nations starting to accept this digital asset, and the fact that the whole world is using it makes it the first time in history where humanity agrees on one thing: Bitcoin is real for the time being.You can argue it's a bubble, Bitcoin will eventually drop to 0, and the only reason why it keeps rising is because of speculation, but we have to agree that Bitcoin is living in the moment, and it's defying all predictions.
I want to talk about a country where the price of Bitcoin has been higher than on the average market, Zimbabwe. Back in September, Bitcoin was trading for an 85% premium . October it was trading at $10,000 while CoinMarketCap set the price at $5,000. In November, the biggest cryptocurrency exchange in Zimbabwe: Golix claimed that people were trading Bitcoin for $12,500 , and early December it was trading for $17,000 after the downfall of president Mugabe.
I am not suggesting because the price in Zimbabwe was so high, it pushed Bitcoin price to keep pace, but it is interesting to note that if there is demand for a higher price somewhere in the world, it means eventually people's willingness to buy will increase. Can you predict Bitcoin future price by looking at Zimbabwe's current price?
The central bank of Zimbabwe recently considered Bitcoin illegal, thus halting Bitcoin trade in the country. Golix claims, trading in Zimbabwe continues and sets the price at $22,000. Will the rest of the world join the African country in setting their price at $22,000 soon, or will we see the burst of the bubble soon?
Menajem Benchimol