[2017-12-29] Roger McNamee thinks 2018 will be a decisive year for Bitcoin

[moriskarlov]

- Elevation Partners co-founder and early Facebook investor Roger McNamee thinks 2018 will be a decisive year for bitcoin.
- If the cryptocurrency lasts that long and continues to gain value, even a crash couldn't stop it from becoming a legitimate business, according to McNamee.

Bitcoin might be all hype, but it could withstand a crash and become legitimate, particularly if it sees enough gains in 2018, according to tech investor Roger McNamee.

Bitcoin is "still a very small market in the context of the larger financial world, but it has had a huge year. We've done it around a speculative mania," the co-founder of venture capital firm Elevation Partners said Thursday on CNBC's "Fast Money." "If a mania goes on long enough, it becomes self-fulfilling. Even after a crash, what follows is a legitimate industry."

But in order for Bitcoin to earn its legitimacy, it needs to stick around long enough – and continue to keep investors on their toes, said McNamee, who was an early investor in Facebook.

"With the amount of activity going on around it, there are people willing to invest the kind of dollars it takes to make a thing like bitcoin into a long-term part of the financial market," McNamee said, comparing it to the dotcom bubble that sent America into recession before rebounding as a major industry.

Making it through 2018 is important for another reason, too. McNamee thinks bitcoin is still too new for investors to know just what role it could play in the future of the financial markets. But the volatility of 2018 just might make that more apparent.

"You'll have these big swings, up and presumably down, as well. And, you know, wherever that settles out I think will tell us a lot about the role of bitcoin long-term," he said.

"I don't think it will be the end of the story either way," McNamee added.

Bitcoin was recently down 8.4 percent at $14,087.93 on Luxembourg's Bitstamp exchange. The cryptocurrency has rocked back and forth after hitting a high near $20,000 in November.

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/12/28/roger-mcnamee-bitcoin-will-be-legitimate-if-it-makes-it-past-2018.html

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[BitHodler]

So much text, but nothing that holds much value at all. It's the standard no-coiner speech that we have seen pop up a dozen times already. It's kinda funny how the general opinion on Bitcoin has changed this year.

I remember how skeptics kept talking trash about Bitcoin last year, where it could tank badly at any moment, and all that with the price far below the $1000 mark. That's what I consider to be a change in opinions.

I however believe that it's just hype riding behavior, because all their previous predictions didn't turn out to be come reality, so the best and safest thing to do for them is to ride it out and go with the bullish sentiment of the mass.

[darkangel11]

So much text, but nothing that holds much value at all. It's the standard no-coiner speech that we have seen pop up a dozen times already. It's kinda funny how the general opinion on Bitcoin has changed this year.

He's confirming what others have said many times: If a mania goes on long enough, it becomes self-fulfilling. Even after a crash, what follows is a legitimate industry.

It's 100% correct. Those who are negative about it or only afraid to go in will be watching it waiting for the crash to happen, but if it doesn't come for months they will eventually have to acknowledge the fact that the prices are there to stay. This will make it start rolling again. New investors will move the price up, making the news hit the media and luring in new people and businesses ready to promote themselves with bitcoin acceptance. That's what it has become now a promotional asset. If you're accepting it you're going to the headlines, forums, you're getting free advertising.

[Wekkel]

First time that I hear the term ‘no-coiner’ 

But I think the comments are true: a lot of words but what is the actual message? Is surviving for 9 years already and doing billions of transactions daily not enough? Does it need to exist for another 10 years before no-coiner becomes 0.0000001 coiner?

It would be more helpful if commentators start to acknowledge that cryptocurrencies exist and won’t go away soon, bubble or no bubble. So the best thing to reflect on is what place cryptocurrencies could take in the financial world and what the long term effects will be, also politically.

In time, I expect those kinds of commentaries to increase in lieu of doom and gloom or no-coiner stories.