I’ve been working in Bitcoin industry for 4 years and here’s why you should NOT own Bitcoin

I got involved in Bitcoin in early 2013, owned a bitcoin mining farm, successfully designed and manufactured a bitcoin mining hardware, then founded a Bitcoin startup in 2014 and in 2016, I was the Country Head for BitX Indonesia, an international Bitcoin provider with operations in five countries and with more than $4M in VC funding.

I live and breathe Bitcoin. It’s fast, it is secure, it’s global, it is the future, but it is NOT for everyone!

Here’s a list of who should NOT own Bitcoin.

• If you are going to die soon, you should definitely not own bitcoin. Because bitcoin is the currency of the future.

• If you are a drug dealer, criminal, or a corrupt official, you should not use Bitcoin. All Bitcoin transactions are recorded in the Blockchain ledger and open for everyone to see.

• If you like paying fees then you definitely will not like Bitcoin. The fees to make Bitcoin payments range between “no fees” and “low fees”, unlike credit card payments or cross-border bank transfers.

• If you enjoy carrying cash, then Bitcoin is not for you. You can carry a billion dollars worth of Bitcoin on a memory stick in your pocket. Imagine doing that with cash or even gold?

• If you enjoy seeing your currency depreciate in value over time then don’t use Bitcoin. Most emerging market currencies have been losing value against stronger currencies for the past few years. Stronger currencies are also losing a little bit more of their purchasing power each year; mainly because governments just keep printing more money. With Bitcoin you don’t have this problem, because the system is designed to make Bitcoin finite. Only about 21 million Bitcoin will ever be in circulation and no person or entity will be able to print more.

• If you enjoy filling out paperwork then Bitcoin is not for you. Anyone, from any country, of any age can accept Bitcoins within minutes. All you need to do to start sending and receiving Bitcoin is a Bitcoin address, which you can get in seconds.

• If you enjoy waiting, then Bitcoin is not for you. Sending and receiving bitcoin — locally or internationally — happens within minutes. No more waiting for a week for your international bank payments to clear.

• If you want to risk all of your investments in one basket, then Bitcoin isn’t for you. Bitcoin is a very unique type of investment, a new and uncorrelated asset class. The key to long term investing is diversification and owning a range of different quality assets. I believe everyone’s investment portfolio should include a little bit of Bitcoin.

• If you are a merchant and enjoy dealing with chargebacks and fraud. The problem with traditional online transactions, from the perspective of the seller, is that credit cards and other online payment systems allow card holders to claim their money back. Bitcoin payments can’t be reversed. Once you have the money, you have it and that’s that. Buyers can not in any way take the money back and the seller can safely ship the product or perform the service that the buyer purchased, without the risk of chargeback.

• If you are keeping and using cash for purposes of money laundering, you should definitely not use Bitcoin. Bitcoin has been found as one of the worst mechanisms for laundering money.

If you are not the kind of people I mentioned above, congrats! You are fit to own Bitcoin.