THE NEWE-MAIL
This intrigued me because true Ponzi schemes have zero value when they crash. The fact that bitcoin was still attracting buyers even after the onslaught of negative news... an 85% price crash... and universal scorn... said something to me. It said that maybe this asset had real value. At the very least, it told me that more investigation was needed. I’ve seen skepticism like this before... Back in May 1997, Amazon went public at the split equivalent of $1.30. Amazon shot up to $113 during the dot- com bubble of the 1990s. When the bubble popped, Amazon crashed 94%, to the split equivalent of $5.97. But again, something interesting happened... In the depths of the dot-com hatred, Amazon started quietly climbing in price. Back then, I made the mistake of dismissing this action. My error was buying into the prevailing belief that dot-com stocks were dumb and worthless. I listened to the narrative instead of digging deeper into the Amazon story. That was a mistake of lazy thinking. So when I saw the same thing happen with bitcoin, I decided to do something different. Instead of listening to the skeptics, I asked myself: “Why are people still buying this supposedly worthless asset?” LESSONS FROM THE DOT-COM BUBBLE
That’s when I did a deep dive into bitcoin. I traveled all over the world interviewing experts, development teams, and venture capitalists. I wanted to understand why bitcoin had value. EVEN GOVERNMENTS ARE EMBRACING BITCOIN Just as important, I wanted to know what would stop the U.S. government from banning it. How would the currency outgrow its widespread reputation as a form of “black money” used by criminals? What I found out was this: At its core, bitcoin is just a way to send and receive value without the need for a trusted middleman. Bitcoin has no central location. That means no government (including the U.S. government) can ever shut it down. In fact, several countries have already tried to ban bitcoin and found that it was impossible. At least two of them (Russia and India) have decided to recognize bitcoin as money. Governments are realizing that it’s better to have a hand in how bitcoin is shaped and
Bitcoin was still attracting buyers even after the onslaught of negative news... an 85% price crash... and universal scorn...
48 | July 2017
Made with FlippingBook HTML5