Tuesday, December 20, 2016

Experts have no idea what to do with Bitcoin

Owen Roberts Staff Writer “Bitcoin could rise to $2,000 under President Trump”; “Venture Capitalist Tim Draper predicts bitcoin could reach $10,000 by 2018”; “Bitcoin Startup owner Chandler Guo predicts each bitcoin will reach 1 million USD.” Headlines like these are everywhere. With so many insane predictions it’s hard to tell who is telling the truth, and who is delusional or uninformed. Anything is definitely possible (Bitcoin was ten cents in 2009 and is now approaching $800), but the truth is most experts have no idea what to do with it. Even extreme cases like Guo’s make sense. If Bitcoin captured 1% of the global market cap, it could easily reach prices in the $100,000s. But it has a long way to go to reach that. Bitcoin’s $12 Billion market cap may seem like a lot, but that’s less than .04% of the global market. But a $2,000 price is not so unrealistic. With the current price, that’s only a 165% raise. Much of it depends on Trump’s presidency. Many are hoping that the U.S or other large countries will accept Bitcoin as an official alternative currency, considering that many countries are pushing to regulate it. “Bitcoin will become regulated whether anybody likes it or not,” says Chris Skinner, an expert in financial technology. A more heavily regulated market may entice nervous consumers to invest in it because of promises of financial stability, which is one of the main reasons it doesn’t have more adopters (Bitcoin prices were anywhere in the range of $128 to $1000 in 2013, and have risen 200% in a year) At the end of the day, nobody really knows what will happen to bitcoin. If you like the idea of a digital currency and want to go the extra mile, buy some. In ten years it could be worth $1 or $100000.