Fifteen years ago, programmer Laszlo Hanyecz made the first documented purchase of goods using Bitcoin, paying 10,000 BTC for two Papa John’s pizzas.
Hopefully, Laszlo got Hawaiian Thick Crust, at least, and not run of the mill pepperoni.
“What was once considered a highly speculative risk has evolved into a serious asset class,” said Ulli Spankowski, chief digital officer at Boerse Stuttgart Group.
As CoinDesk reports, Hanyecz has long shrugged off the missed fortune” tag, telling CBS in 2019 that the transaction made bitcoin “real” to him.
He mined the coins back when BTC was under a penny, and few could have predicted the multi-trillion-dollar asset it would become.
And as the world celebrates, bitcoin rallied up near $112,000 overnight - a new record high.
Analysts say bitcoin’s latest upward momentum is primarily driven by institutional factors, such as large capital inflows into spot ETFs and continued fundraising by publicly traded firms like Strategy to invest in bitcoin.
Doubters should remember that the dollar bills in your wallet are but paper, and gold is a rock. At least silver has some serious industrial uses. These things, unlike food and ammo, have value because we believe they do. Invest wisely, and recall that the American dollar remains our world's cleanest dirty shirt.
Bitcoin: Bernie Madoff squared.
ReplyDeleteI have sometimes thought that, if there is a state religion, it is that of money, for money only has value because we all believe it does.
ReplyDeleteI have also thought that money should now be denominated in pixels, rather than dollars, because that is what money has become: a series of pixels moved about from one place to another, in realtime but not in realspace, the origin and destination both without anything like a physical location.
Amazingly, stores and such will still accept these imaginary things in exchange for real assets, like food, and precious metals, like brass & copper & lead... For now, there is a real opportunity to exploit this acceptance.
It will not last.
Mike in Canada
Mike, why are metals precious? With gold in particular, is it because we think they are? Other than a store of value (because we think it is and accept it as such) and for jewelry, gold is valuable because...why?
DeleteGold is far more than about jewellery. Just look around your house, car, office and count up all the items that use even a very small amount of gold for electrical connections, finishes etc. Gold is an excellent conductor, it does not tarnish easily yet is easily worked or moulded into a variety of shapes. Those features make it well-suited to crafting any number of things that we find pleasing to the eye and touch and that last for millennia. Steve_in_Ottawa
DeletePeople have trouble understanding how a simple light switch works.
ReplyDeleteGold is valuable because of the tools, equipment, machinery, fuel, manpower, refining, time and prospecting.
ReplyDeleteGold is valuable because it's rare AND useful. The total amount mined has always only kept pace with about one troy ounce per person on Earth. About eight billion today. That's rare. Got your ounce?
ReplyDeleteGood news! If you are an American tax payer then you are also in the crypto currency business whether you like i or not.
ReplyDeleteTrump signed an executive order mandating the creation of a "Crypto Currency Strategic Reserve". Not sure yet why we need a crypto currency strategic reserve or what is the strategic value of crypto currencies but we now will have a reserve just in case we run out...
And that goes a long way to explaining why crypto currency is gaining the interest that it is.
DeleteBut yet the gov't is 36tril in debt.
DeleteWhen we don't have enough, we'll just create some more...just like the Drumpt meme coin. Potemkin coin. Release the clowns!
Delete@Ghostsniper: you're leaving out the unfunded liabilities, which bring the debt up to well over $100T (maybe closer to $200T by now). I don't blame you though, the Feds always pretend that the money they say they're obligated to pay out (though no one has any contractual right to SS or Medicare) somehow isn't part of the national debt.
DeleteStock up on ammo and canned goods.
good,,, till the electricity goes off.
ReplyDeleteonce the internet goes down, and the Russians and Chinese and Iranians and NorthKoreans are working hard every day to take down our internet and electric grid, the only money you will own is whats physically in your possession.
ReplyDelete