Content adapted from this Zerohedge.com article : Source
Outspoken billionaire investor Peter Thiel told attendees at the Future Investment Initiative in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, that people are "underestimating" bitcoin and that it has "great potential left," comparing the cryptocurrency bitcoin to gold.
In his remarks, Thiel said that while he is "skeptical of most [cryptocurrencies]," he believes bitcoin has a promising future depending on the trajectory it takes...
"I'm skeptical of most of them (cryptocurrencies), I do think people who criticize are a little bit... underestimating bitcoin especially because... it's like a reserve form of money, it's like gold, and it's just a store of value. You don't need to use it to make payments," Thiel said.
The PayPal founder and venture capitalist compared some of bitcoin's features to gold.
"If bitcoin ends up being the cyber equivalent of gold and it has a great potential left and it's a very different kind of thing from what people in Silicon Valley focus on - companies, not algorithms not protocols, but this might be maybe one exception that is very underestimated," the Silicon Valley elite said.
Even so, in Thiel's opinion, like gold, it's difficult to mine, making it more worthwhile...
"You can ask the same questions about gold. What is gold based on? Why is gold valuable?...
It's a tangible asset but it's also hard to mine. So if it was easy to mine then it wouldn't be that valuable and we would just have way more gold.
So bitcoin is also, it's mineable, like gold it's hard to mine, it's actually harder to mine than gold and so in that sense it's more constrained," he said.
In September, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon famously called bitcoin a "fraud" and said it will eventually blow up.
"The currency isn't going to work. You can't have a business where people can invent a currency out of thin air and think that people who are buying it are really smart," Dimon said while speaking at an investor conference.
However, Thiel proposed a different take:
"The argument it's based on is the security of the math which tells you it can never be diluted by government… it can't be hacked and it's a form of money that's… secure in an absolute way."
I laugh when people say that Bitcoin has no intrinsic value. If that is the case, try doing it yourself and see how much it costs. There is a cost to bring it to market which means there is some value there. Is it $6000? No. But according to McAfee, it costs him over $1000 to mine a coin...which he pointed out is a lot more than it takes to create Dimon's fiat currnecy.
Thiel is right, bitcoin has great potential. Many of the cryptocurrencies out there are trash and will end up in the toilet. But BTC will keep getting the publicity, the developers, and the speculators. It is in for a great run.
Bitcoin is much better than gold, because even if it's hard to be mined (which could be an advantage by the way) it is very EASY to transport! And it is also used as a currency, which makes it even better
It is also a set amount of 21 million coins. Gold the total supply expands (I believe about 1.5% yearly).
Plus we are moving more and more towards a digital, non-physical world. Digital assets are going to be more valuable than physical ones.
Except it can't actually function as a currency with its minuscule transaction capacity, even though its being valued as if it could be the sole settlement network for an entire country's economy.
Difficulty of mining does not make the obtained item more valuable. Value is determined by the utility it provides. Bitcoin's extreme difficultly is the result of poor design, creating a counterproductive collective action problem.
I agree with the statement of Thiel "skeptical of most [cryptocurrencies]," he believes bitcoin has a promising future depending on the trajectory it takes.
The value of Bitcoin will jump, it is a paradigm of all other currencies, who most believe in it. It has only 21 million, which is very small. Gold tends to be made from Bitcoin. Whether other currencies have high power for grows such as Ethereum, Litecoin, Ripple, Monero, etc.
Bitcoin is better than money, because faster transfer, do not need the magic to save, it does a lot of savings. The only question is to provide protection against possible hacker attacks and warranties in the event that something like this occurs in the form of insurance or a new software protection solution. Exellent news @zer0hedge
Gold would be a lot harder to mine if we could only dig for it with spoons, would that make it worth more? Maybe, but only because there would be less of it.
Bitcoin is being minted at roughly same rate regardless of difficulty, which has been ballooned up ridiculously high due to its counterproductive collective action problem.
Ultimately, how do you value something? By the difficulty of obtaining it, or by the utility it provides? Pretending it was difficult to obtain does not make the obtained item more valuable. If I spent $1 million mining the most difficult ounce of gold in the world, could I demand $2 million for it? No. People would think I was idiot for mining it.
what a great anecdote lol "bitcoins harder to mine then gold"
I am sure a gold miner 4km underground would disagree : )
Over the long term, crypto oil (Ethereum) will have greater tangible, transferrable value than crypto gold (Bitcoin). It's the added layer of abstraction for more traditional units of value, backed by math instead of faith in governments, that offers the real promise.
But we've just started on the growth curve for all crypto, despite the many currencies that will fail. Most startups fail. Most businesses, nations, and human relationships fail in countless ways daily. The market as a whole will continue forward, as long as we keep innovating.
Bitcoin is as much crypto oil as is ETH is, You use it to pay your transaction fees.
Sure, bitcoin can be used to pay transaction fees, but it's mostly failed as a functional digital currency. It's soaring as a store of value (like digital gold).
ETH on the other hand is backed by everything that can be developed on the Ethereum platform. It mimics how the usefulness of oil extends far beyond how it's traded or used as a store of value.
The power of oil is found in the nearly endless number of ways we depend on its use. From plastics to fuel, and everything in between.
ETH / Ethereum has a much better claim to the idea of "digital oil" than bitcoin does.
Absolutely right bitcoin is the future currency
Hey stemians I need help with a mining machine
Called Jalapeño 5 gh/s
Can I mine other alternatives coins with this with Asics machine?
My question is here
https://steemit.com/bitcoin/@ricancoin/i-need-help-jalapeno-miner-5-gh-s
responded to your question
Good ole' bitcoin blacklung lol
If ya'll want a strong investment plan visit https://bitpetite.com/?aff=kipparinga (bitpetite) Its a bittumbler that privatizes btc transactions using other currencies. You as an investor get paid dividends from fees they charge people to use their service.
You can invest your BTC, ETH, LTC and or XMR into bitpetite for either;
6 weeks - 4.5% daily and 1 % on weekends. Total return - 147% (47%, 100% being your original investment)
9 weeks - 3.6% daily 1% on weekends. Total return - 180% (80%, 100% being your original investment)
They recently updated their server to allow almost instantaneous withdrawals - you get paid hourly through dividends and can withdraw on demand. (within the minimum amount which is less than 5 dollars)
I would deem it low - medium risk as of now -
Good luck and happy investing :)