[2017-10-26] People are 'underestimating' the 'great potential' of bitcoin

[Beef Coin]

People are 'underestimating' the 'great potential' of bitcoin, billionaire Peter Thiel says

• Billionaire Peter Thiel said people are "underestimating" bitcoin and it has "great potential left"
• Thiel said he is "skeptical" of most cryptocurrencies except bitcoin
• He compared bitcoin to gold

People are "underestimating" bitcoin and it has "great potential left," billionaire investor Peter Thiel said on Thursday.

Speaking at the Future Investment Initiative in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Thiel compared the cryptocurrency bitcoin to gold.

"I'm skeptical of most of them (cryptocurrencies), I do think people are a little bit … underestimating bitcoin especially because ... it's like a reserve form of money, it's like gold, and it's just a store of value. You don't need to use it to make payments," Thiel said.

"If bitcoin ends up being the cyber equivalent of gold it has a great potential left."

There has been rising interest in bitcoin this year. The cryptocurrency recently hit a new record high above $6,100 and has rallied over 500 percent this year.

Thiel said that bitcoin is based on the "security of the math" which means it can't be hacked and it's secure. The PayPal founder and venture capitalist compared some of bitcoin's features to gold.

"Bitcoin is mineable like gold, it's hard to mine, it's actually harder to mine than gold. And so in that sense it's more constrained," Thiel said.

The cryptocurrency has a limited supply and only 21 million bitcoin will be mined.

Major figures in the business world have weighed into the debate over the sustainability of cryptocurrencies. JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon called bitcoin a "fraud" and said people who buy it are "stupid". Saudi billionaire investor Prince Alwaleed bin Talal said Monday that bitcoin will "implode" one day.

On the other hand, former hedge fund manager Michael Novogratz said bitcoin would head to $10,000, mirroring the bullishness of some CNBC readers. Forty-nine percent of the 23,118 people who voted in an unscientific survey last week about the direction of the bitcoin price, said it was heading above $10,000.

Source: m/2017/10/26/bitcoin-underestimated-peter-thiel-says.html]https://www.c[Suspicious link removed]m/2017/10/26/bitcoin-underestimated-peter-thiel-says.html

[peter0425]

They can say all they want, but I don't think we are under estimating bitcoin. Not today, specially the price is soaring and picking at great numbers. IF people would still have doubts about this market and the  power it can bring to different people, then they will be very much late when the prices really goes to the moon next year. No matter what kind of negatives you say about bitcoin, people are still buying it because they believed that the price can go higher, making it a good investments for all of us. Gold has its own place, and we don't need to compare the two. Michael Novogratz claimed that bitcoin is headed to $10000 is not far fetched, we have reached $6000 already. Next year will be a big year for us.

[richardsNY]

Those who underestimate Bitcoin don't know how it works, and thus don't know what it's capable of. In most cases the skeptics nicely fit in the afore mentioned category, or they have the feeling that they are too late to join the party, and for that reason just write it off. Overall, I think that it's safe to say that people are slowly but surely getting to understand Bitcoin much better than was the case some years ago. Good example is that people nowadays are more willing to hold their coins, and that for longer periods of time. Think about it, would we back in the days get to enjoy seeing the price more or less stable in the higher ranges? Nope. It always came back down to where it started. It has all to do with a better form of understanding.

[jjacob]

They can say all they want, but I don't think we are under estimating bitcoin. Not today, specially the price is soaring and picking at great numbers. IF people would still have doubts about this market and the  power it can bring to different people, then they will be very much late when the prices really goes to the moon next year. No matter what kind of negatives you say about bitcoin, people are still buying it because they believed that the price can go higher, making it a good investments for all of us. Gold has its own place, and we don't need to compare the two. Michael Novogratz claimed that bitcoin is headed to $10000 is not far fetched, we have reached $6000 already. Next year will be a big year for us.

Why shouldn't we compare gold with Bitcoin. Agree that gold has been around for thousands of years, but Bitcoin has features like minute divisibility and ease of transfer, which gold doesn't have. So it isn't too much of a stretch to say that Bitcoin could be digital gold.

[hatshepsut93]

They can say all they want, but I don't think we are under estimating bitcoin. Not today, specially the price is soaring and picking at great numbers. IF people would still have doubts about this market and the  power it can bring to different people, then they will be very much late when the prices really goes to the moon next year. No matter what kind of negatives you say about bitcoin, people are still buying it because they believed that the price can go higher, making it a good investments for all of us. Gold has its own place, and we don't need to compare the two. Michael Novogratz claimed that bitcoin is headed to $10000 is not far fetched, we have reached $6000 already. Next year will be a big year for us.

I think in that context he meant that people think that altcoins are or can be better than Bitcoin or that Bitcoin has to be a widely adopted currency to succeed. So, people underestimate Bitcoin by ignoring that it's one of the first and the best digital stores of value, "digital gold" if you like. Altcoins don't have this property because they are highly experimental at best, or have only promises for some future developments, while Bitcoin has proven itself to be very stable, secure and reliable. With this property Bitcoin is suitable to be a base layer for systems like Lightning Network, used as national reserve currency as well as used for saving by population.