Bitcoin Bubble or Best Crypto Ever?
When a strangely reclusive individual (or group of individuals), Satoshi Nakamoto, came up with a peer review paper on the establishment of a digital currency in 2009, a lot of folks around the world thumbed their noses at the concept. Less than a decade later, Nakatomo’s brainchild, bitcoin, is surging. In fact, it’s more than surging; it is blowing its critics out of the water. Some are saying it’s a Bitcoin bubble but is it?
Bitcoin leading a charmed existence
March 3, 2017 was a watershed moment for bitcoin. For the very first time, the digital currency managed to surpass an ounce of gold in terms of value, closing for the day at around $1,268 while an ounce of gold clocked out at $1,233.
Since then, the entire cryptocurrency community in general and bitcoin in particular has been muddled in a war with conventional currency enthusiasts, who see the coin as a bubble. In fact, JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon recently labeled bitcoin a fraud’ and issued threats against employees of the institution found speculating on it.
Seemingly, this has not ruffled any feathers in the BTC community, because the currency has been flying all year long. According to Coinmarketcap.com, the currency reached an all time high of over $6000 and is still hovering in the high $5700 zone. And while there have been bumps along the road, it always seems to ride things out, thought the sudden upswing is cause for bitcoin bubble fear in for some investors.
The digital currency is no stranger to controversy
Bitcoin has come a long way. It has weathered plenty of storms over the years. While early adopters have always held on dearly to their position in the marketplace, skeptics have used the storms suffered over the years to push the narrative that cryptocurrencies are not feasible in the conventional world.
Part of the problem is that big business (banks and other financial institutions) see this space as a threat to their very existence.
The use of bitcoin to perpetuate crime has been one of the supposed failures of its anonymous construction. When Silk Road was seized by the US government and its owner arrested, BTC prices dipped. When one of the biggest exchanges in the world, Mt. Gox, was hacked, the rallying cries for the abandonment of bitcoin could be heard across the Atlantic.
A few years ago, India banned (then unbanned) bitcoin. A few months ago, China announced a crackdown on ICOs and exchanges. Yet, despite everything, the cryptocurrency marketplace has stayed bullish.
The single biggest challenge to bitcoin yet came at the beginning of August, 2017. For a long time, there had been massive flame wars in the community about how to get rid of bitcoin’s scaling problems and quicken the rate of transaction execution.
This controversy come to ahead on August 1st, where the bitcoin protocol executed a User Activated Hard Fork (UAHF), which led to the birth of an alternative token, hence known as Bitcoin Cash. This was expected to hit the older currency hard but surprisingly didn’t. In fact, BTC kept marching, and even dragged its younger sister along.
Bitcoin rough times ahead?
Things have not been a smooth sailing when it comes to bitcoin. There’s a buzz about yet another imminent fork, and this one is expected to test the waters in a far more consequential way than Bitcoin Cash did. However, even as bitcoin is headed down the fork road, speculators are looking strong.
Traders are still making money off this currency, and there is confidence about the future of Bitcoin. Some members of the cryptocurrency community have cautioned against complacency, but the general consensus is that this is yet another small blip in bitcoin’s unstoppable journey to the top.
Bitcoin will be around for a long time
Forget the naysayers; the die has been irrevocably cast. The technology on which BTC is built, the blockchain, has been gaining mass adoption across the board, with governments and financial institutions using it to verify and authorize transactions.
In addition, many other digital currencies, known as altcoins, have come into play. These new digital currencies come in without replicating the weaknesses of bitcoin, and others go above and beyond when it comes to use cases.
Ethereum, for example, is a platform with its own currency, Ether. At the same time, it allows people to build applications based on the blockchain. The altcoin carries a belief that the technology behind them is time-tested.
There are many who liken Bitcoin to Netscape and the internet laying the groundwork for innovation that now exists as a must have. Only time will tell but there are plenty betting Bitcoin is here to stay.