The Wall Street Journal this week published an article declaring Bitcoin’s value to be “probably zero.” Last week finance and tech outlets discussed JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon’s assertion that Bitcoin was “a fraud.” If you’re keeping score, these are two big names in the financial world declaring the world’s most popular crytpocurrency worthless. Is it?
Spoiler alert: It’s not. Bitcoin has seen some choppy seas of late. Fluctuations related to China’s market-shaking bans on ICOs and the closing of exchanges sent ripples through the community causing the price of a coin to shudder and drop below $3,000 for the first time in months. Over the last week its value has rocked back and forth between three and four thousand dollars (as of writing it’s at $3,616).
The Wall Street Journal article, like many others, points out that Bitcoin is a great currency for drug dealers. The author doesn’t point out that it’s also a great currency for CEOs or janitors. And let’s not kid anyone, the US dollar is still the currency of choice for drug dealers around the world.
Bitcoin makes it easier to deal drugs in the same way that Tesla makes it easier to rob banks. Someone with a deep understanding of finance might find Bitcoin to be unsustainable; many will point out that there’s a 21 million coin limit and at some point speculation will cease. There’s also a limit on how much money we should print, but the US is overdrawn by trillions of dollars on that account.
You could also point to the cryptocurrency developers who insist that Bitcoin doesn’t play by the same rules as fiat currency. The fluctuations in value don’t bother them because they’re playing with house money and betting blockchain.
Don’t be fooled by sheep in wolves’ clothing though. When JP Morgan’s CEO declares Bitcoin a fraud it’s important to remember that the company has a blockchain department. If you’re investing a dollar in Bitcoin, it represents more than $1.00 lost business to JP Morgan; the implications of any future transactions you perform further cut out middle-men, like JP Morgan.
Bitcoin, in theory, makes any transaction easier — not just the ones that evade taxes or purchase drugs. It’s easy for banks and traders to whip the average person into a frenzy – farmers don’t know why they need Bitcoin yet, but most decent people are pretty sure they don’t want to support darkweb drug markets.
Read more about this here...Right now, Bitcoin has been under attack from many sides of the fence. Although the most important attack comes from the continuing deluge of bad news emanating from China, there are others who got lucky in getting the media attention they need by riding into the crest of bad publicity for cryptocurrency.
However, all of these things can be gone months from now...maybe after the November hard fork. Maybe if there is one thing that all of these attacks are helping Bitcoin it is the fact that we almost buried what can be happening in November.
Yes, Bitcoin will still be here because it is resilient and strong enough to withstand all of these unnecessary explosions aimed at making it weak and worthless. We can prove them wrong soon.
