Is Crypto Real Money?

in #bitcoin7 years ago (edited)

  People have struggled over the past few years with the idea of whether Bitcoin should really be considered fiat currency, or an asset of some sort, or something entirely new. Those who have followed the progress of Bitcoin and who claim to understand it tend to trumpet its potential as a centerless network of transactions – a payment system that defies banks and borders. 

A recent report authored by Gautam Chhugani and Gaurav Jangale of investment research and management company Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC, seeks to compare and contrast Bitcoin as a form of  fiat currency against all forms of transactional documentation that has gone before, from fiat currencies through to pre-literacy bartering systems, and even the huge Rai stones of Yap Island in Micronesia. All of these served in some way to record debts and transactions between people, and the authors go on to point out that banks once served simply as clearing houses for these IOUs. 

The report brings to light a much more existential question about the value of any form of fiat currency – one which strikes an interesting balance between the mysterious technological inner workings of Bitcoin and the surprisingly deep element of faith that supports the moneys supplied by individual countries’ own mints. 

For the time being, the authors assess Bitcoin as a “censorship resistant' asset class.” 

True to the culture of economics in general, the more people you ask, the more answers you will get when seeking to understand whether Bitcoin is real money (one can insert any other brand of cryptocurrency here with equal ease: Ethereum, Litecoin, Ripple, etc.). Perhaps the most telling question of all is, “do you accept Bitcoin?” If a seller accepts it and hands over the goods in return, then perhaps, in the most basic way, there is proof of its legitimacy as money. 

The authors of the Bernstein study are appropriately inconclusive regarding Bitcoin’s status and future. It is too early to tell, and any answer given today will easily be countered tomorrow. 

Why Bitcoin is not real money? 


The fundamental characteristics an asset must have to be considered money are: 

Uniformity: In other words, every “dollar” or bitcoin is the same as the next one. When you’re talking about using seashells or cows as currency, uniformity is hard to achieve. 

Divisibility: Dollars and Bitcoin need to be divisible, broken up into small increments to cover a wide range of value transactions. Cows? Not so much, unless you’re hosting a barbecue. 

Portability: Your currency must be easy to transfer and store. Durability: Older, agriculturally-based forms of money had a shelf life. Gold is the ultimate when it comes to durability. Paper notes deteriorate. 

Limited Supply: A currency is worthless if there’s no scarcity to it. In our office here in Hong Kong we have a 500 million dollar note issued by the Zimbabwean government – it’s a simple reminder of what ultimately happens when governments try to endlessly print their way to prosperity.


Image Sources / Pixabay

Acceptability: to be considered money, the asset has to be widely accepted. People all over the world will take U.S. dollars. They won’t however take Turkish lira. Bitcoin holds all of these characteristics with the exception of acceptability – although that is rapidly changing. Japan passed a law earlier this year that made Bitcoin acceptable as legal tender. And the digital element of Bitcoin?

Well,  more than 90% of all money that exists today around the world is not even physical… it’s purely digital, existing only on computer servers. But people get excited from big price movements and Wall Street accommodates. 

Bitcoin, the mother of all digital currencies, topped $7,000 on Monday, up more than 600% this year, showing all signs of a bubble. With a market cap now over $100 billion you can't value Bitcoin because it's not a value-producing asset. It`s a real bubble in that sort of thing. 

It is no secret that we have been skeptical about Bitcoin’s uptrend going forward for while now. We still are. 

Remember,

Bubbles happen around things that fundamentally change the way we live...

The railroad bubble. Railroads really fundamentally changed the way we lived. The internet bubble changed the way we live. When I look forward five, 10 years, the possibilities really get your animal spirits going.

So Bitcoin is set to become the biggest bubble of our time, and could reach $10,000 very soon due to fast-building interest. Maybe this rally could have been predicted even without the help of the Elliott Wave principle. After all, everyone seems to be extremely bullish on Bitcoin these days. Nevertheless, the Wave principle prepared us for the previous terrifying selloff from $4980 to $2980, as well. The next one might come sooner than you think and be the biggest so far…

Perhaps a more pragmatic approach would be to recognize the growing legitimacy of blockchain technology as the potential new central nervous system of transactional business, both globally and locally. Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin may pass into the historical record of trade alongside clay pots and doubloons, becoming irrelevant due to their permanent volatility. But they might also be laying the ground work for an entirely new economic base, capitalizing on a global, trustless commerce system that may invent its own near-perfect way of exchanging goods, services, and everything in between. 

Whether you love them or hate them, it looks as if Bitcoin and its cryptocurrency pals are here to stay.



P.S.

Follow, Resteem and VOTE UP @imib   

Sort:  

Source:

http://growthstocknetwork.com/2017/10/16/bitcoin-myths-debunked-china-ban/

http://xrpinvesting.com/fiat-currency-includes-crypto-bernstein-not-ready-to-declare/

https://etfdailynews.com/2017/10/12/bitcoin-explodes-to-new-record-highs/

Not indicating that the content you copy/paste is not your original work could be seen as plagiarism.

Some tips to share content and add value:

  • Use a few sentences from your source in “quotes.” Use HTML tags or Markdown.
  • Linking to your source
  • Include your own original thoughts and ideas on what you have shared.

Repeated plagiarized posts are considered spam. Spam is discouraged by the community, and may result in action from the cheetah bot.

Creative Commons: If you are posting content under a Creative Commons license, please attribute and link according to the specific license. If you are posting content under CC0 or Public Domain please consider noting that at the end of your post.

If you are actually the original author, please do reply to let us know!

Thank You!

More Info: Abuse Guide - 2017.

This post was determined to be plagiarized and our vote has been removed.

Please see our policy on plagiarism: https://steemit.com/buildawhale/@buildawhale/buildawhale-terms-of-use-notice

Ha-ha, it does not prove anything )
In fact @buildawhale is buggy service tool as its crooked founder @themarkymark who will do anything to avoid paying compensation to people who lost SBD for using his buggy service tool.

You are what's wrong with Steemit, in my opinion. You have plagiarized your post ( here's the real article ) and most of the comments on your thread are your own whining self righteous drivel. You are a plagiarist and a bully.

Another lawyer fraudster who attempts to justify his buggy service tool @buildawhale and who will do anything to avoid paying compensation to people who lost SBD just like me for using this buggy service tool.

You distort the truth. I'm tired of your hog-wash scam taking. Go play in your casino lady with your friend @nicnas.

are you denying that you are plagiarizing?

In my opinion, you have no idea what you're talking about. Lady.

@Imib was right. You are loud and outraged when you can't get transparency but you become awfully quiet when you're asked to provide it. Only an issue when your money is at stake. This is a typical fraud.

I'm sorry, how am I being loud? By stating the obvious? This person received a thoughtful response from the owner of one of the services he complained about and chose to react in a threatening and abusive manner. All of which was after he OBVIOUSLY plagiarized his post, which is disgusting. Also understand that I realize you are nothing but a sockpuppet, but people like you need to be stopped.

As I already said, you have no idea what you're talking about.

And you have an interest in that buggy service tool @buildawhale. So, let's stopped your fraudulent conversations. OK?

You copied an article and tried to sell it as your own.

Bad. Form.

Everything else is simply your attempt at misdirection.

Lame.

You're lying and dishonest lady. I did not copy anything.

Your buggy service tool @buildawhale steal real SBD from the steemits community and you're trying to justify it right now.

Very informative post. Resteemed and Upvoted.
@OriginalWorks

The @OriginalWorks bot has determined this post by @imib to be original material and upvoted(1.5%) it!

ezgif.com-resize.gif

To call @OriginalWorks, simply reply to any post with @originalworks or !originalworks in your message!

This post has received a 3.86 % upvote from thanks to: @imib.
For more information, click here!!!!

The Minnowhelper team is still looking for investors (Minimum 10 SP), if you are interested in this, read the conditions of how to invest click here!!!

Is paper with nothing backing it "real money"?

If you meant toilet paper... No

This post has received a 0.75 % upvote from @booster thanks to: @imib.


sneaky-ninja-two-swords-story-sneaky-ninja-thealliance-steem-steemitcomics small.jpg
Sneaky Ninja Attack!!
You have been defended with a 7.41 % upvote!
To help keep my Jōki (蒸気) power strong I rely on the townspeople of Sōsharumedia (ソーシャルメディア).
I was summoned by: @imib.
I have done their bidding and now I will vanish...

woosh

I was kinda disappointed. For 0.2 SBD, I received 0.16 SBD upvote, include 25% curation rewards. Bid Tracker calculated total vote value: 0.29 SBD.

This post has received a 0.81 % upvote from @buildawhale thanks to: @imib. Send at least 1 SBD to @buildawhale with a post link in the memo field for a portion of the next vote.

To support our daily curation initiative, please vote on my owner, @themarkymark, as a Steem Witness

I was kinda disappointed. For 1 SBD, I received 0.82 SBD upvote, include 25% curation rewards. Bid Tracker calculated total vote value: 4.11 SBD.

It was a busy window, this happens occasionally with bidding bots, you are competing with others for a portion of the upvote. Most of the time it will be profitable. We have added 1 million steem power since yesterday.

It does not seem to be true. Your upvote was the last and I used the Bid Tracker to find out if it is a busy window or not. Bid Tracker calculated total vote value: 4.11 SBD.

BTW you have not offered any compensation. So, I lost my SBD just like that?

The bid tracker is not my tool and it is not 100% accurate (especially in last minute).

If it calculated a 410% return you likely bid early in the window and by the time the window closed many more bids come in. 410% return is unheard of unless there was a huge refund or invalid url in the window.

I didn’t offer any compensation as we did nothing wrong. We provided and upvote and there were a large amount of bids in the current window.

Most windows bidders make out well, but there are cases people bid higher than the break even point and result in a small loss.

It is a promotion tool, unlike “promote your post” where you get $0 back we provide a profit in most cases.

These are just simple words that are not relevant to the case. If you're created or recommended use that tools and taken SBD (money) for that, you should be full responsible for that service.

I read the comments (on @buildawhale page) of people who lost SBD just like me. And what you do? Tell them the same story…?

Anywhere, if you will not compensate peoples lost SBD for using your buggy service tool, its just like bla, bla, bla scam taking...

If the tool said you had 410% return, you were bidding at the start of the window. Most bids come in at the last 5-10 minutes. Most windows are profitable, I'd say 8-9 out of the 10 windows a day.

You should either listen or do a little more investigating before you call something a scam. That web app is just a tool and not run by buildawhale.

There are also many aspects that are hard to track. Like the bids after yours. This all depends on when you bid in the window. Also how the tool tracks the windows will not be 100% accurate b/c of how it tracks when the window starts/ends.

If you were to go look at how much people are making off their bids you would see that the majority of people benefit greatly from the bids.

Did you read the responses to those comments about the losses? Compare how many people are extreme happy and satisfied by the number of disappointed. Its hard to please everyone.

Also please read around a bit. You will see that @themarkymark goes OUT OF HIS WAY to make everyone happy. He spends so much time helping and not getting mad.

Please keep this in mind when calling something a scam.

It's really a moot point at this stage, I removed the vote. I will go through your other bids and if I find any other plagiarised content they will also lose our vote.

We do not support plagiarism.

@themarkymark you are just a crook who makes money on steemits community. I think you are loud and outraged when you can't get transparency but you become awfully quiet when you're asked to provide it. At least I thought so till now.

Who is the crook? You tried to use other peoples work and make money off of it. That's is the problem here.

Ha-ha, it does not prove anything )
In fact @buildawhale is buggy service tool as its crooked founder @themarkymark who will do anything to avoid paying compensation to people who lost SBD just like me for using his buggy service tool.

And you're a "lawyer fraudster hog-wash taking" get out of my blog.

Congratulations @imib! You have completed some achievement on Steemit and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :

Award for the number of upvotes received

Click on any badge to view your own Board of Honor on SteemitBoard.
For more information about SteemitBoard, click here

If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word STOP

By upvoting this notification, you can help all Steemit users. Learn how here!

Congratulations @imib! You have received a personal award!

1 Year on Steemit
Click on the badge to view your Board of Honor.

Do you like SteemitBoard's project? Then Vote for its witness and get one more award!

Congratulations @imib! You received a personal award!

Happy Birthday! - You are on the Steem blockchain for 2 years!

You can view your badges on your Steem Board and compare to others on the Steem Ranking

Vote for @Steemitboard as a witness to get one more award and increased upvotes!