Looks like all the bitcoiners and Blockchainers have left PP

I probably wouldn't get in now. It's gotten irrational with FOMO. I'm selling into this rally and waiting for a massive correction once the bit shorts come in with the futures trading about to begin. I plan to take SALT loans against my cheap bitcoin and let the loan pay for itself when the bitcoin price returns to the mean. And my loans against the crypto which I still own are tax-free. - No taxes on loans.  I'll have my cake and eat it too.

Salt tokens are a great arbitrage right now. Open market $7.50 - credit on the SALT platform = $25 each with no plans to lower the price. Expect open market to match the platform floor.

SALT Lending program goes live at end of December.  How's that for an easy 3x gain?

Thatchmo - You can spend you bitcoin on Gold and have it send to you.  Then I suppose there are places in Hawaii to sell your gold back for cash.

Here's one place, but I know there are others:

https://www.jmbullion.com/investing-guide/buying-physical-metals/bitcoin/

Also there are other online places to buy and sell like:

https://www.glidera.io/

Good luck, see you on the upside :-)

I’ve been watching and studying the crypto world for almost five years and I can tell you that other than when it was just an academic study, the most it has dropped in value is about 70% from it’s high (daily high, not hourly). If we call $18,000 the high, a 70% drop worst-case scenario would put it at $5,400 eventually.  That would likely be very short lived if it makes it that low because 70% drops where when there was a handful of exchanges and almost no liquidity. More realistic would be bottom at 50% or about 9k.

I think there is still a WALL of money chomping at the bit to chase these highs and the best investment of the last decade (probably last century). A lot of people are envious or missed the boat (those not taking my advice here for the last four years).

I still think we’ll be at $40k by this time next year. $9,000 entry point is still a pretty nice return. I still have a lot of other tricks up my sleeve that I won’t just give away. Review my posts to check my accuracy.

Follow me on the Facebook private group for 'watchmywallets' for more insights.

You think bitcoin and crypto-currencies have no intrinsic value?  Think again.

This is an updated view of an article I wrote for Bitcoin Magazine in 2014 found here:

Since then, it has been read hundreds of thousands of times and translated in many language.

https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/you-say-bitcoin-has-no-intrinsic-value-twenty-two-reasons-to-think-again-1399454061/

Since then, it has been read hundreds of thousands of times and translated in many languages.

So we can agree on the same terms with regard to the meaning of Intrinsic Value I will refer to Wikipedia’s reference:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intrinsic_theory_of_value

An intrinsic theory of value (also called theory of objective value) is any theory of value in economics which holds that the value of an object, good or service, is intrinsic or contained in the item itself. Most such theories look to the process of producing an item, and the costs involved in that process, as a measure of the item’s intrinsic value. .. all values are ultimately subjective, a range of reasonable or sustainable fair values for an asset or good may be estimated using objective measures.

^1 Merriam Webster defines Intrinsic: : belonging to the essential nature or constitution of a thing. Example: the intrinsic brightness of a star

So the takeaways:  All values are subjective. Intrinsic just means the properties comes from within.

How can one thing be priced so differently by two people?  A glass of water probably isn’t worth very much to a guy standing in a river. But how much gold would be given for that same glass of water to somebody near death in the desert?  This is why the value of all things is subjective.

My point is the value of something is the highest price somebody will give you at that moment. Now the crypto currency is an asset class onto its own – we must evaluate all coins that are a derivative of the original bitcoin, which is essentially the first app. Nobody would be talking about blockchain technology if the first app was a world-wide central bank for the earth that spit out magic internet money now valued at over 260 billion. (Higher than Goldman Sachs).

Again, a pivot point came from bitcoin hearings In November 2013. http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-24986264

This was the point that they decided to not try to squelch bitcoin because of the promise of the technology. If it was a tulip bulb with no value – why would the just not try to kill it?  Yet they had over 200,000 bitcoin that they sold back to the public – slowly as to not disrupt the market. Did they treat bitcoin with the utmost respect? These were the highest members of our country, treating bitcoin with kid gloves to see it grow.  Tulips?

If they had not, would have massive innovation that is taking place in the blockchain space now? With that out of the way, here’s many reasons bitcoin\crypto currency \ digital assets have intrinsic value.

1.        It transcends Nations, Politics, religions, cultures, and regulations. Laws and borders are man-made. They are always shifting and based on opinion, family heritage and traditions going back thousands of years. A new world on the internet does not recognize borders. Public blockchains are permissionless to build layers of innovation like the internet itself. People call cryptocurrency the internet of money. As money and banking were the least affected by the revolution of the internet – web3 (based on blockchain) will now disrupt that segment.

2.       It requires no middleman, no trusted third party. Third parties can be corruptible with the power to hide, erase, refuse and censor transactions. Even gold and silver require a middleman when you transact anything further than your arm’s length. In history, this has proven disastrous. You can now use crypto currencies like long distance cash anywhere in the world in seconds. Nobody can censor it, stop it, hide, erase or anything else. This cannot happen with other electronic forms of payment where you really are paying for a corporation to follow through with their own 3% tax. They have final say in what is allowed to purchase and can reverse or lock one out of their own accounts.  How is this like a tulip?

3.       It is transparent. Every transaction on bitcoin and other blockchains can be used to hold people in power responsible by insisting they use public addresses everybody in the world can follow. This could effectively end corruption – or severally limit it. This aspect was used to jail two federal agents that busted the infamous “Silk Road’ Dark web marketplace. When the agents themselves tried to steal millions in funds – the transparent blockchain that can’t be erased – lead authorities right to them. They now sit in jail. How much corruption goes on in banking and government because authority figures keep records private and in silos? Can a tulip to that?

4.       We can now have programmable money. Introducing the ‘if – then’ statement for setting times\rules for which value can be transferred to the appropriate parties through smart contracts. These tokens must have intrinsic value to be recognized as payment in full rather than a debt fiat created through more debt. Etherum and others have entire eco-systems being built around these features. Tens of thousands of companies are now using this as the base layer of rebuilding their businesses, Including Microsoft, Cisco, HP and hundreds more. This has gone far beyond just speculation being the source of value. This is intrinsic qualities of these tokens based on the networks that create and transport them.

5.       This can unbank the banked.  As we see how corruptible banks are and have become one with a government, we can give people an option to skip the banks entirely. Person to person loans, crowdfunding, for loans, instant cash payments, and loans based on the equity of your crypto are now possible without the need for traditional banks. We can also bank the unbanked by using hard wallets and smartphones for people to be their own bank. Funds can be unable to confiscate. In corrupt countries that hyperinflate or ruin their own economies-  this gives a common person equal rights. It’s the common man’s bazooka.

6.        It doesn’t require bank accounts with proper identification, credit reports, and permissions. Banks can restrict and stop anybody from using their services essentially giving themselves power over the people. Governments are working on their own digital currencies which will still remain fiat but with additional surveillance. Neutral open currencies will still prevail. Particularly those with additional privacy features (i.e. Monero) that make it impossible for corrupt officials and governments to stop them. It is of the people and for the people. Tulips did not provide privacy \ instant world transferable ownership.

7.       As it is a payment in full rather than a promise to pay – it doesn’t require one to give up their identity which is often hacked and used later for identity theft. How often do we hear of another security breach. A terrorist can purchase these lists to target ones they don’t like. Governments also use these for tracking and surveillance. It’s just a matter of time before they are used against us – if history is any guide.

8.       Cryptocurrencies are just numbers. Even when lawmakers make rules that you can’t carry undeclared funds across borders when the funds live in the cloud in a public blockchain – you technically are not. If you’ve emailed yourself numbers, or put them in a locked file on a cloud drive like Google drive, there is nothing preventing you from using those to create a new spendable wallet anywhere in the world. Not even a current internet connection is required as you can relay payment information through the phone, email, Morse code – smoke signals to somebody that does have a connection.  It actually can be unstoppable as it adjusts and grows like water, it follows the path of least resistance and adapts. If the people want it, they will find a way to make it happen despite what authorities would like.

9.       Streaming money.  Machine to machine payments is a new paradigm. Digital currencies can be measure in micro-cents. Units of electricity can be assigned value. Bandwidth \ radio waves, data packets can all be assigned a value and machines can negotiate themselves for competition and fair pricing. Millions of transactions per second are next door. Everything will be tokenized and given value on the blockchains. This is just one more intrinsic utility that people place value. The utility is the value. How is this like a tulip?

10.   It has an entire eco-system worldwide with hundreds of thousands of programmers and is the next wave of computer science. And is an exploding field in hundreds of categories from healthcare to identity and reputation. Could this have been possible when the Senate met in 2013 and tried to stop bitcoin?

11.   It is not just money – because it has many uses – it can be tokenized and traded – anything can be a currency. Civic coin provides for worldwide identity. Tokenized and used in cross-platforms to protect against human trade. Because people can swap those for bitcoin or other currencies – will the government try to stop it?  How about the BAT token that upends traditional fraud in online advertisement and pays people for their attention rather than shady middlemen?  Because people trade them for value, they also become a currency. SALT Membership tokens can be traded on the open market and purchase for dollars. They are not a currency, but traded and valued as if they were. Who is going to outlaw membership tokens? There are thousands of crypto tokens with dozens more created each week. Most will likely fail on the simple aspect of supply and demand. Anybody that thinks every token that has multiple uses will be banned because it is tradable, like collectible cards, hasn’t even begun to research this new paradigm.

One may find value in one or more of these qualities. The value is the highest price one places on the future possibilities as many of these functions are still being built. There is a lot of speculation and price discovery going on as we continue to weigh the possibilities. If we compare these possibilities with that of gold\silver and fiat, which one will have the brightest future based on intrinsic qualities?  Only those with poor understanding continue to their silly reference to Tulips. Understanding the value of these units is complex and requires effort. But speak to anybody who understands the technology and possibilities – and sees how many of the knowledgeable would call them tulips.  If you find one – run the other way. They are trying to sell you something.

This list could be another 50 items but hopefully, you get the idea. If you didn’t know these things, it’s time for you to do your own research. It might prove to be very profitable. Or are you still going to hang on to your outdated thinking and rear view mirrors?