Bitcoin Obituaries

Like all other cryptocurrencies that have appeared in the wake of bitcoin, and like bitcoin itself, Ethereum is useless as a medium of exchange because the price fluctuates violently and unpredictably. But of course Ethereum is not a real currency, and neither is bitcoin; nor are Ripple, Monero, Litecoin, Dogecoin, or any of the other thousands of..

Unlike my tech-loving friends, who are fervently convinced that a cryptocurrency revolution is upon us, I waver between unease and unconcern. Unease because of a random fear that hackers may descend on my laptop, kidnap it, and demand I pay them in bitcoin that I have not the first idea how to buy or deliver. Unconcern, because..

In a letter to investors Wednesday, Jeremy Grantham of investment management firm GMO shares a chart illustrating how large and how rapid the bitcoin price surge has been in the last two years compared with other historical bubbles. “Historical analogy suggests this junior bubble, by size, may well crash and burn even before the broad..

…But essentially, its creation is fundamentally flawed, with an artificially imposed cap, the supply of Bitcoins is permanently fixed at 21 million which itself is a design devoid of economic sense. An economy needs as much money as transactions and activities occur within it. So if a lot of people want to start paying over..

It is hard to see bitcoin’s price surge as anything other than a bubble that will ultimately collapse. Bitcoin’s ostensible social function as an anonymous, nongovernmental means of payment carries big risks of its demise. And while blockchain, the platform that records bitcoin transactions, may well have staying power, there is no reason to believe..

It is evident that as of now Bitcoin is not commonly used for transactions (except for illegal activity) and it is very unlikely this will change in the foreseeable future. What we are left with is a store-of-value mechanism, which, some would argue, is similar to gold, but not better in any way, in the..

Bitcoin and the blockchain are interesting ideas that escaped the laboratory without proper engineering—and it shows. So what went wrong? What happened to a system designed as an alternative to, e.g.., credit cards where the “cost of mediation increases transaction costs, limiting the minimum practical transaction size and cutting off the possibility for small casual..

Bitcoin and the growing number of copycat blockchain-based fidgets are guilty of false advertising when called “cryptocurrencies”. They’re more like “cryptostamps”. Bitcoin and its many sprogs have none of institutional backing of actual currencies or even the physical presence and alternative uses of gold. They represent a pure mania – the price rising in the..

The story that Bitcoin victims are being sold is that, because we cannot trust government-issued currencies. This is complete nonsense. Yes, the price of Bitcoin may yet double or even quadruple — because its price is based on pure speculation, and these stories are feeding such speculation. But Bitcoin’s market price is almost certain at..

What you need to know about Bitcoin is that distilled to its technological essence, each Bitcoin is simply a number. That’s it: A number. It is simply a series of digits, with each number being assigned to each Bitcoin. The only difference between Bitcoin No. ABC123 and $1 Bill No. L88793293J is that at the..

Bitcoin has real advantages over gold if you are, say, attempting to get your money out of a country with strict limits on shipping currency abroad. It’s a lot easier to hide a USB drive than a truck full of gold bullion, or even a foreign bank account stuffed with smuggled cash. But bitcoin has..

Morgan Stanley analyst James Faucette and his team sent a research note to clients a few days ago suggesting that the real value of bitcoin might be … $0. • Can Bitcoin be valued like a currency? No. There is no interest rate associated with Bitcoin. • Like digital gold? Maybe. Does not have any..