Bitcoin isn’t in a bubble. You are living in a bubble.
You are living in the bubble of the legacy financial system as the internet frees money from centralized banking and morphs global finance into something better. Here are some quotes about Bitcoin from current prominent financial experts and fun facts about the legacy financial system.
“It’s a fraud”
-Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan, 2017
Interesting words coming from the CEO of a company that was recently fined $13 billion for committing… fraud. It looks like they may have used fraudulent activities to repay their fraud fines too. Why, then, is JP Morgan helping their clients commit “fraud” by buying Bitcoin? I usually see this level of Bitcoin negativity coming from someone trying to sell me on their altcoin or ICO, which just so happens to also be the case with JP Morgan. No seriously, they’re routing payments using a centralized blockchain (DimonCoin?) Calling Bitcoin a fraud would be a good way to suppress prices while they stock up on Bitcoin before it makes its way to Wall Street. Gotta get in before mom and pop investors!
I’m being too harsh on US banks. Luckily we have Wells Fargo who never commits fraud. No wait, they fraudulently opened millions of accounts. I must be thinking about Goldman Sachs? No, shit, they defrauded investors in 2008 too. At least Citibank hasn’t been fined for fraud though, right? nope.
If you hold your own Bitcoin private keys, you do not need to place trust in a third party organization to manage your wealth.
“In my view, digital currencies are nothing but an unfounded fad (or perhaps even a pyramid scheme)”
Howard Marks, Oaktree Capital, 2017
The legacy financial system is riddled with pyramid schemes. Let’s look at the partnership between Amway, the largest MLM company in the world, and our friends over at Bank of America. They’ve created a great credit card that allows you to double down on your Amway business for extra Amway points. MLM stands for Multi-level marketing, which are generally recognized as pyramid schemes. The card gives extra magic points to Amway “independent business owners” when the IBOs are buying products from Amway that they are then are unable to sell to others. A handful of people at the top of the Amway pyramid make out like banditos.
Bitcoin is not a pyramid scheme because there is nobody “at the top” and Bitcoin isn’t a company. It’s a digital asset that the global community has collectively decided to value. Is gold or oil a pyramid scheme? Is the USD? There are only voluntary participants in Bitcoin, and every participant abides by the same rules. Amway makes its money from selling to its IBOs and signing up new IBOs, not from external customers. Their entire strategy is to make money for a few at the expense of many. Bitcoin has the power to generate wealth for every user, no matter how much or little Fiat currency they exchange for it. Bitcoin is already being used to avoid poverty in places like Venezuela and Zimbabwe, where poor fiscal and monetary policy has led to hyperinflation.
“There ought to be a hard look at the policy of anonymous currencies, because the ability to track information of money flowing is one we use seriously against terrorism and as [a tool] against improper, illegal behavior.”
Brian Moynihan, CEO, Bank of America
The current financial system doesn’t prevent bad guys from being bad, but it does prevent the 99% of honest people in the world from having true financial freedom. Bitcoin brings financial freedom to every person on the planet if they want it. Some bad guys use Bitcoin (they also use cell phones, USD, and cars), but Bitcoin benefits good, honest people much more than it does criminals. 2 billion people are unbanked. Bitcoin will allow these people to participate in the global economy without a bank account.
“I think it’s in a bubble.”
Mark Cuban, June 2017, Price per BTC $2,900
4 months later, at a price of ~$7,200 per BTC, Mark is recommending putting 10% of your net worth into Bitcoin. I wonder what changed his mind? Maybe it’s because it is not a bubble, and because he now knows how it works. It is a scarce resource with a maximum of 21 million full units. Coinbase, one of many exchanges around the world, signed up over 2 million new users in the last 2 months. Since there will only ever be 21 million Bitcoin, that means that the most possible Bitcoins that only the new users from one exchange in the past 2 months could ever own is 10.5. What we’re seeing is not a bubble. What we’re seeing is adoption.
The Takeaways
- People are talking a lot about Bitcoin. There are many different agendas out there (big surprise, I own Bitcoin and want it to succeed). Take a critical look at Bitcoin and legacy finance. What sounds better? Which one works better? Which system has a better track record?
- Take some action about Bitcoin. Get a small amount, watch an Andreas Antonopoulos video or two, and see how it works before proclaiming it a fraud, bubble, tulip, beanie babies, or pyramid. If you truly believe it’s a [insert flippant remark here], short sell it. Teach the Bitcoin market a lesson about bubbles. This would be one of the riskiest bets of the last decade, but it’s good to put your money where your mouth is.
Additional Resources:
My guide to getting started: https://medium.com/@philgeiger/a-gentle-introduction-to-bitcoin-c8f6e55855c1
Find a Bitcoin ATM near you to try it out: CoinATMradar
USD Exchanges/Bitcoin banks: Coinbase, Gemini
Euro Exchanges: Bitonic, Bitstamp
Be your own bank on your phone or computer with a BTC wallet: Android — Mycelium, iOS- Breadwallet, from a computer — Electrum