As confidently predicted by some on here and pooh poohed by others on here. The monetary equivalent of CB Radio seems to be in a terminal nosedive into obscurity and will surely become just a historical curiosity of a footnote. I feel a bit sorry for those who no doubt have/will lose their savings on that nonsense, but really they should have been a bit less gullible. "Bitcoin and other online currencies that have seen nearly £550billion wiped off their value since the start of the year are facing their worst week ever." "....the bottom appears to have fallen out of the market amid fears over a regulatory crackdown." "The value of the sector has tumbled since the craze surrounding online currencies reached its peak at the end of 2017, according to Bloomberg." "Bitcoin, which is the most valuable online currency, was trading around $4,240 last night and has lost almost a quarter of its value over the past week."
One of those investments that just look too good to be true - and that’s exactly what they are. If you get in at the bottom of the wave and bale out fast, money can be made. The trouble with this is it’s driven by greed and the average Joe only hears about it when the hype becomes froth and many get in at the froth stage as it is popping and major losses follow. I listened to a BBC programme on these currencies last year and to be honest I still didn’t fully understand it - that there is only a finite amount of bitcoin so if you own a bit (sic) the value in real currency can go up or down - huh?!!!? So it’s like trading in a foreign currency then? No. Someone (the Illuminati!) can make more Bitcoin then? No Gobbledegook to me and I’m sticking to my abacus and pounds sterling under my mattress.
It's a currency only people treat it like an investment, but an investment in nothing, as unlike a share in a business there is nothing tangible for your money. It feels like a 90s dot com bubble thing and I have to say I still don't really get it, and until I do I go nowhere near it.
So I suppose that means the confidently predicted redistribution of the planet's wealth into the gentle democratic hands of a multitude of altruistic furrowed-brow interweb keyboard ticklers is orrrrf, then?
Imagine the consternation of History A Level students in a couple of hundred years time when they have to try to understand that curiosity of the early 21st Century. I suppose it'll be like the South Sea Bubble or the Tulip Bulb Price Explosion/Collapse. You can't really understand how people were taken in, so you just learn it by rote. Names and dates only.
At least with the tulip bulb thing you could have at least planted the f*****r when the price bottomed out
Like house prices are now, it was simply overpriced, (being wise after the event here). There is definitely a use for the electronic currency so get used to it, but once the boom and bust is over, (I'm sure there are a few yet to happen), and it stabilises then it'll get used a lot more.
I would argue that these bubbles are fascinating insights into the human psyche. I’m not convinced our main drivers are always fear & greed. More often, I suspect it is laziness. Easy money. The bubbles, to some extent, are a safety valve for the market system. The only advice I would profer is buy cheap.
Oh yeah, I expect it'll drag on for a little longer. There'll be the diehards. The stalwarts. They'll keep the flame burning and the memory alive. They'll probably meet up from time to time in specialist pubs and wear leather jackets with 'Bitcoin Will Never Die!' written in studs on the back. Spend the evening telling each other excruciating and incomprehensible micro-details about how it works, exchanging stories about people who became millionaires overnight y'know, chuckling about chumps who are just not savvy enough to understand Full Node Blockchain BIPs and then out to the car park to admire each others Fiats.
