Thursday, April 12, 2018

Michael Lewis: The Idea that Bitcoin Will Replace Currency is ‘Insane’



The San Francisco Chronicle reports:
Lewis said people had been nagging him to write about bitcoin. So about two years ago, he agreed to drive down to a fancy rented house in Palo Alto that reeked of marijuana to possibly meet Satoshi Nakamoto, the cryptocurrency’s reputed inventor. Instead, he was greeted by a group of bitcoin entrepreneurs who tried to convince him bitcoin would replace currency.

He said they put $5 worth of bitcoin on his phone and took him to a nearby coffee shop to buy a latte. After about a half hour fumbling with the bitcoin, which the shop really didn’t want to accept because the price was moving so quickly, he took a $5 bill out of his wallet.

“The technology was spectacular,” he said, referring to the paper bill...

Lewis said he finally cashed in the bitcoin a few months ago for about $600. The idea that bitcoin will replace currency “is insane.”
For the record, anyone who has bought Bitcoin at a price above the red line in the chart above is losing money on their purchase. Some have lost more than 60%.



-Robert Wenzel  

3 comments:

  1. The idea that paper would replace gold and silver is insane.

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  2. Now if only it were possible to identify how many people are in a some. More than a gaggle but less than a flock?

    Perhaps it is time to go all in on Bolivarcoin?

    https://twitter.com/Bolivarcoin

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  3. Harold's comment is a non sequitur as gold and silver are not used as money. As a store of value, yes, in transactions, no, except perhaps rarely.

    The biggest question is not whether bitcoin will be digital money but whether it or another cryptocurrency might become 'digital gold', used as an easily portable store of value for more than just short periods of time. The trackability of bitcoin might rule it out, but perhaps not others that are not so trackable. Experience with it is measured in years, not millenia as with gold, maybe that kills it. It can't be counterfeited as gold can (gold-plated platinum bars, anyone?) so maybe that makes it better than gold. Only the market will tell us in the long run, and any predictions made by Wenzel or anyone else is subject to such market verification.

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