BitCoin, the crypto currency that is essentially just a lot of blockchain code generated by an abuse of the internet, has started soaring, shooting past the $17,000 mark.
This is just like previous surges in the value of the crypto currency, which is not backed by any government, like fiat currency, or commodity, like the Bretton Woods dollar (1944-1971), but at a much higher level.
A crash is inevitable at some point, as Bitcoin is the financial equivalent of the Emperor's New Clothes. But clearly the market is also telling us that there is a real need for a non-elastic, non-fiat currency that people can use to store value in without governments constantly devaluing it through massive quantitative easing.
 |
| Typical bitcoin investor. |
But what makes bitcoin even stronger is that it is a virtual currency for people -- fat geeks mainly -- who are quite happy to be virtually rich, that is they don't feel the need to translate their virtual gains into 3D signifiers of wealth, or at least not much. This means they are happy to hold on to the currency even when it burns down to the ground, ensuring it soon recovers.
As bitcoin surges, there are a couple of things to keep an eye on. How does it impact on the interests of the state and the power elites? If it undermines these, you can be sure that they will find some way of bursting the bubble and burning investors as an examples.
But there is also the possibility that the establishment benefits from bitcoin -- especially as an additional "sponge" to soak up and fix excess liquidity (rather like the soaring stock market). But in that case, the establishment will still want to burst the bubble so that they can get into bitcoin at the ground floor, rather than where it is now.
