Originally wrote this for Bitcoin Press, responding to the ad on the coinbox faucets, but the admin suddenly went silent after I sent him my first article. Sent to
bitcoinpress@gmail.com but he neither paid me for the article nor responded. It's been two weeks now and I've heard nothing.
"Financing A Future on the Digital Dime"
By: jjdub7
December 3, 2013
The deluge of liquidity flowing from the vaults of the world's central banks has been helpful in some ways. The American Federal Reserve touts quantitative easing (also known as 'printing money to buy mortgage-backed securities that nobody in their right mind wants to buy') as the slow-but-steady savior of the US economy, citing decreases in the unemployment rate over previous years as definitive proof of the practice's merits. Other central banks, like the Bank of Japan, have used QE to produce less-than-satisfactory results as the flood of excess cash sent the Japanese stock markets on a roller coaster ride for the first half of 2013 - causing panic in the markets rather than inspiring confidence as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had hoped.
The American supply of cash in dollars, referred to in economic circles as the M0 money supply, was estimated to be around $278.6 billion back in 1990, a time right before many current college students were born. Today, this number is estimated to be around $3,630.6 billion, representing a whopping 1200% increase in the number of dollars in circulation. And though the pro-Fed arguments range from "don't worry, they'll take the cash back out of the economy" (which, remember, hinges on the Fed being able to finally sell the mortgage-backed securities they've been buying - you know, the ones that caused the economic meltdown back in 2007) to "in order for an economy to sustain healthy growth, its money supply must grow as well," many believe that there isn't much economic basis for money-printing of that magnitude in that short of a time period. Period.
If those numbers don't speak volumes, perhaps this graph will.
Enter the 20-something young adult. The one who grew up in suburban America, urban Europe, or maybe even in rapidly-developing urban China. The one who remembers growing up in an ever-more-connected world alongside a young, blossoming World Wide Web. The one who, especially in America, has been driven toward a college education and a lifetime of debt.
Unlike his (or her) parents, he grew up using instant messenger, email, and when the time finally came, Facebook and other social networking sites. He understood the concept of a virtual persona and the type of social currency it could buy. And if he was from a middle-class American family, there was a good chance that he went to college on a Stafford Loan with a 5% interest rate.
Discussion of Bitcoin on college campuses began in the quirkiest of circles. Stoners, techies, and finance jocks alike had all heard of the secret online marketplace where anyone could buy illicit drugs in exchange for something called 'Bitcoin' - though in the beginning, hardly anyone knew what this 'online currency' was, where it came from, or how it worked.
Many who tried to research or even mine BTC would give up soon after they started, shaking their heads in frustration from the seeming technical complexity of Nakamoto's white paper. Others shied away from the discussion completely, citing concerns about the currency's nefarious reputation as a black market commodity and tool for fiat currency manipulation.
However, if one were to fast-forward a few years, they would find that the conversation had changed entirely from one of muffled whispers to one which buzzed with excitement and intellectual vigor. Many of these formerly-naive students now dealt with the daunting task of repaying their school loans - loans which were due in fiat money. For those without a sought-after degree, this task was not only daunting per the monetary sums involved - defaulting on one's student loans spells certain credit death for anyone unfortunate enough to caught in a post-college cash crunch.
The University of Nicosia, a private school in the debt-ridden euro-zone nation of Cyprus, recently began accepting Bitcoin for tuition payments (see the full story here via Wired). Unsurprisingly, the "University of Bitcoin", as its been dubbed, also now offers a Master of Science Degree in Digital Currency. The geography and timing both fit: Bitcoin's first meteoric rise in price coincided with the nation's debt crisis earlier in the year, which sent markets into a panic over the stability of the euro as a world currency.
And yet European students aren't the only ones focused on the potential of digital currencies. Much of the conversation in the States has been steered by cross-references to Bitcoin in popular culture, perhaps most notably the heavy involvement of the Winklevoss twins (Harvard-educated investors of The Social Network fame) in the currency's development, both in economic and lobbying circles.
Pouring out seemingly endless news references, the American media has helped drive a significant amount of attention in Bitcoin with both positive and negative publicity alike. One particular story accompanying the December 1 edition of ESPN's College Gameday coverage of the Alabama-Auburn game, emphasized the youth focus on digital currencies - a student in the crowd, later identifying himself on Reddit as BitcoinPitcher2, held up a sign displaying the words "Hi mom send" along with a QR code and the BTC logo. Within hours, a re-digitalized screenshot of the sign had been posted, and the donations came rolling in - around 23 BTC, worth over $24,000 at the current exchange rate.
Clever joke or brilliant solicitation? Does it really matter? See for yourself: 1HiMoMgBaAikFHgAt3M4YJtetp4HrnsiXu.
Bitcoin has endured a unique ride through American popular culture, from being the choice currency of Silk Road to a medium for college tuition loan listings on peer-to-peer lending sites like BTCjam (coincidentally, a borrower with good credit on BTCjam could finance their tuition for much less than the standard federal 5%).
Though detractors still point to gold as the world's currency reserve, the spot price of the once-precious metal has begun to crash below its production cost, meaning that it literally costs more to mine than it sells for on the market. Perhaps like all bubbles, the speculative time for gold (and maybe even eventually the fiat currencies of the world) has come to an end. While the future of asset markets is uncertain (really, only speculative at best), it will not be any government that determines the demand for these and digital currencies, but rather the young generation - after all, they know about the internet and its assets better than anyone.
