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Bitcoin, the Big Daddy of cryptocurrencies, which today celebrates its tenth birthday, rarely inspires a tempered or informed debate.
For its detractors – mostly elderly bankers and economists – it is tulip-mania, moonlight, hi-tech smoke and mirrors. For its most fanatical followers – techies and hippies of the last days – bitcoin is not only a valid currency, but salvation: a universal panacea, not only to combat ineptitude or government malice and poverty, but to put an end to it. Alleluia and kumbaya.
The scoffers mention the rampant crime in the ranks of the cryptosphere. It's true, in the 10 years since bitcoin was born on a couple of desktop computers – becoming an entity that is worth more than Argentina's M1 money – its sequel hosted an incredible gallery of thieves . There have been antiquated hunters, saltimbancos, and gurgling who have run the runner with the money of others in the consecrated manner, but also drug dealers, murderers and bomb-makers – not to mention the lethal dreamers and false prophets.
But as the supporters of the crypt will note with joy, the desperados and the infestations encountered in these new forms are nothing but a mirror of the most tailored dishonesty found in the City of London or in any of the financial centers of the world. There is almost no bank that has not been caught by money laundering, market manipulation, misseling or involved in various misdeeds.
Cryptocurrencies are diabolically complex: only a basic understanding requires a mathematical and computer background. And, like lawyers, even those developers who know something rarely agree on anything. If you know something about technology, it does not help much, because it's all new and unprecedented. When technology leaves the white paper and hits the road, nobody knows what the result will be. There is a long trail of individuals and companies that have been "rekt" as the language of the industry due to events: for example, the Bitcoin Cash Civil War last November.
The most impressive feature of the bitcoin is that it is still there. He survived accidents after clashes and state hostilities. It was really tested in battle in the most difficult conditions. The creator of bitcoin's hidden identity, Satoshi Nakamoto, wanted it to be a currency. It seems unlikely. In the near future, you will not buy a pint of milk with it at the corner store.
Of course, if you are willing to surf the Internet, and without rushing to get things, you can buy all kinds of products – but for everyday life, compared to a contactless Visa card, bitcoin is almost useless.
One of the strengths of bitcoin (and other cryptos like Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin and Dash) is that you can "be your bank". This has its attractions and its advantages, but it also has a disadvantage: it means having a certain understanding of technology and a willingness to take full responsibility when bank robbers arrive.
If something goes wrong, you're alone. Once again, compared to a credit card, bitcoin seems risky and hard work, unless you are really interested in buying drugs or tax evasion. On the other hand, bitcoin can be sent anonymously and fairly quickly to the other end of the world with low rates.
2017 was the year when you could not lose in the crypt, but 2018 was the year you could not win. If you have invested at the historic peak for bitcoin in December 2017, you will have lost about three quarters of your investment (if you had to choose to cash out).
But if a bitcoin is worth £ 2,000 or £ 20,000 it is not that important. The rapidly enriching speculators probably left the world of cryptography. What matters now is the adoption. Most of the action in the first 10 years was in the United States (targeting both the extreme left and the far right) and Eastern Asia (China, Japan, Korea, Singapore) ).
While I find the claims that cryptography can enrich the clumsy and the ridiculous, it is likely that bitcoin's future growth will occur in countries with sick, corrupt or authoritarian governments and extravagant currencies. Latin America, Africa and the Middle East will be places where citizens will appreciate something that authorities will have difficulty getting their hands on. The Venezuelans have recently had an intensive course in the crypt.
Is there need bitcoin? Probably not. The currencies supported by the government work, regardless of their shortcomings. However, bitcoin could be successful as digital gold: a store of value, a savings account rather than a daily currency. And there's certainly room for a global cryptocurrency, whether it's bitcoin or one of its spin-offs or successors.
The frenzy of the crypt in recent years has meant that the creation of a coin was almost a dairy industry, although some were clearly intended as a joke – for example ponzicoin – though others, such as dentacoin (for dentists) , they were not. Most of the hundreds of current altcoin (ie not bitcoin) will go broke, probably soon enough.
But they keep coming. In two weeks a new coin will be launched using the Mimble Wimble protocol (the technological spectrum of the technological world does not seem to extend far beyond Game of Thrones or Harry Potter), a turbo-bitcoin competitor who aims to return "Power for the people" "keeping the great cryptocurrency companies. It's called Grin – which, if nothing else, certainly has the best name for a currency in the history of money.
