Cryptocurrencies: Believe the banksters or trust the trends

Cryptocurrencies are a Ponzi Scheme, a dying fad, a fool’s folly, backed by nothing, living in a cyber world and floating on a digital cloud. Top bank officials and business-media mouthpieces across the continents won’t stop bad-mouthing cryptos, calling them Ponzi schemes and ridiculing the millions of believers around the world who have invested in them, use them and profit from them:

• Asian banking giant DBS calls Bitcoin a ‘Ponzi scheme’ — CNBC

• Howard Marks says Bitcoin Is a pyramid scheme — Fortune

• “It’s not an effective storehold of wealth… bitcoin is a bubble” — Ray Dalio, Bridgewater Associates

• “It’s worse than tulip bulbs… Bitcoin is a ‘fraud” — Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan Chase CEO

• Bitcoin bubble dwarfs tulip mania — Elliott Wave

• UBS chief economist compares Bitcoin to tulip mania — CoinDesk

Comparing Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies to the Dutch tulip craze of the 17th century is more simplistic and moronic than comparing apples to oranges.

How can any self-respecting “expert” compare tulips — which bubbled up nearly 400 years ago as a short-lived, one-dimensional hyper craze of a flower that was nice to look at but couldn’t even be eaten, used as a garnish and has no healing qualities or any practical purposes — to cryptocurrencies that are used to buy, sell and invest in products and services worldwide. Tulips have no intrinsic value while digital currencies facilitate transactions and act as stores of value.

CAN GOVERNMENTS KILL CRYPTOS?

Before the Chinese government forced the closure of digital-currency exchanges in late September, Bitcoin sales comprised 5 percent of the global marketplace. After the ban, China sales rose to more than 20 percent!

And despite China and South Korea’s restricting initial coin offerings, Asian companies have raised $3.2 billion in such offerings this year vs. $300 million last year.

These are prime examples that government restrictions will not stop savvy crypto-crazed investors who circumvent regulations by using privacy-centric messaging apps, such as Telegram, to trade and speculate on various cryptocurrencies.

Finally, buying, storing and selling cryptocurrencies is an arduous, cumbersome task. It requires layers of identification, waiting periods to verify personal data, complex processes in setting up electronic wallets to store the currency and lengthy transaction periods.

But advances in technology, such as those that support Bitcoin Cash, will increasingly simplify and accelerate the buy-and-sell process of cyrtopcurrencies. And that will make investment more pervasive and immediate. TJ