But right now, that's pretty much what it is... feel free to dispute the quoted statement, rather than making an empty counterpoint such as "high horse of financial education".
feel free to discredit Bitcoin the currency as much as you want. the fact is, Bitcoin the protocol is so much more than a "speculative investment". That is a very shortsighted way to look at it. I'm asking you to separate the currency from the technology. A technology that cannot be uninvented and is there to stay.
I mean... how silly do you sound? You basically give credence to anyone who sides with what you want to believe is true.
1) You don't know my friend.
2) He's not a banker.
3) It is not just his opinion. It seems to be shared among his colleagues.
You're telling me how there's corporate money into Bitcoin and we've mentioned how Wall Street is trying to get involved with ETFs, but then you dismiss Morgan Stanley as a whole for presuming there's no due diligence on the subject, while praising someone at Goldman because they agreed with you.
I am confident that the higher ups at Morgan Stanley are VERY MUCH aware of the Bitcoin threat and have done their due diligence. I don't care if your friend's opinion is shared by his colleague unless they can demonstrate their understanding and prove that they have done their due dilligence on the subject. I never praised Goldman, I only pointed out that they know what they're dealing with and know this is not "fad".
From the mouth of Ben Lawsky, New York's Superintendent of Financial Services, someone who gets criticized a lot for wanting to put regulations around Bitcoin, but ultimately has done his homeworks on the matter : "Hard to put the genie back in the bottle."
What comments? Stop speaking in generalizations. Simply because I don't have a Bitcoin avatar and don't cheerlead the concept in every possible way doesn't mean I don't get or don't support the idea. You dapped numerous posts of mine in this thread, but now I try to give you an alternative viewpoint and you don't know if I'm truly informed?
Comments that you repeated in this very post.
What don't you get about the bubble comment? Look at the typical life cycle of a bubble chart. Bitcoin has followed that trajectory. Have you seen any sort of sustained uptrend in awhile? It's plummeting and Gox demonstrated what a bubble bursting freefall can look like. From 900 some to under 100 in a matter of weeks?
Look at the Bitcoin 3 year chart. That looks like sustained uptrend to me. And this is where I can point out your lack of understanding about the whole thing. The Gox situation is an isolated event that in NO WAY reflects a "bubble bursting freefall". The Gox price is entirely screwed by the fact that people are unable to get fiat or BTC out. Because of that, and because people believe they are insolvent. They are massively liquidating their BTC assets and causing the price to go down. A bubble bursts because people realize what they're holding has no value. Not the case here.
I don't know if Bitcoin will go down in flames, but I believe the currently propped up market will eventually crumble back down to the initial cheap prices (look at Gox). If Bitcoin rebounds from that will be telling for the future of cryptocurrency.
Your reasoning here is again flawed by your misunderstanding of the Gox situation. This has been arguably the worst historical month for Bitcoin in terms of bad news are negative media coverage. Meanwhile the price at the other most respected exchanges has mostly stayed above 600$. I think this is already very telling.
When do you expect the average Joe to start using? Why would the average Joe put money into something that is backed by nothing with the possibility a hacker could steal your Bitcoins?
You do not seem to realise that Bitcoin is very much still in infancy. The "backed by nothing" comment is another sign of ignorant drivel. Bitcoin is backed by the network, the biggest in the world at that. Bitcoin is backed by an evergrowing pool of users who trust it as a mean of exchanging value, much like other traditional currencies. There is a possibility that a hacker could steal your USD as well. That doesn't stop people from using it. Trusted and reputable exchanges will come, secure and trusted cold storage or online wallets will come. Give it time
Comparing this to the advent of the Internet is silly. The Internet was a gigantic leap forward for mankind. Bitcoin is an improvement on a way to complete transactions and right now, it's not even being used that much for that.
Bitcoin is a GIGANTIC leap forward. For the first time in history we have the possibility to send value internationally to another person without the use of a trusted 3rd party. It is a totally disruptive technology that has the potential to change the banking system model as we know it. The technology that supports Bitcoin has an unlimited scope of applications that are not limited to transmission of value, much like the Internet is not limited to transmission of messages (email). DECENTRALIZATION of operations is what I'm talking about here, for the first time ever this is possible. Programmable money, smart contracts, micro-transactions. I appreciate your enthusiasm for cryptocurrencies but I feel your view is shortsighted and I encourage you to furthermore educate yourself on the matter.
VC money doesn't always work and millions in VC money is pennies to us. Coinbase has received something like $30 million in VC money and they can't even respond to a customer email within a month.
