What Is Bitcoin

Bitcoin is a digital decentralized currency or cryptocurrency. The concept of Bitcoin aims to make it a legalized tender for public transactions without the control and surveillance of the government. Making it a purely peer-to-peer system for transfer of value. The idea is to make financial transactions anonymous and quicker but also more transparent and trustworthy. These were the intended values and the future of Bitcoin.

A Brief History Of Bitcoin

In 2008 someone submitted a 9-page long whitepaper under MIT public license by Satoshi Nakamoto. Satoshi Nakamoto was not a real name but a pseudonym. In 2009, the alias Satoshi Nakamoto mined the first Bitcoin block, which is now known as the Genesis Block. In 2010 the first purchase via Bitcoin accrued, which was two large pizzas.

Fast Forward to 2017, Bitcoin looked like the best investment. For a brief period, 1 Bitcoin equals USD 20,000. Alas, the bull market came down so hard that at the end of 2018, Bitcoin was down to USD 2000. After that, it took this recent recession for people to consider Bitcoin a possible safe investment, and this year 1 Bitcoin has reached a worth of $64,000. Alas, this bull market has come down as well. Now Bitcoin is valued at almost half of this year's peak, around USD 35,000. With all these ups and downs, the future of Bitcoin looks uncertain and volatile.

Technology Behind Bitcoin

As Jack Maa once said. I am paraphrasing, but this is what he said: "I am not a very big fan of Bitcoin, but the blockchain technology behind it is very powerful." Blockchain technology is revolutionizing. Blockchain is the technology of decentralization. A system where everyone is in control and everyone must contribute. When a Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency transaction takes place on the blockchain, it is recorded on a public ledger. Every computer attached to that blockchain system simultaneously verifies that transaction. You can join this blockchain system just by downloading the blockchain software. The future of Bitcoin depends upon how effectively and efficiently blockchain technology is used.

Bitcoin Being Legalized

In 2016 Japan passed a law to legalize Bitcoin as a medium of exchange. Now in Japan, you can pay with bitcoin to get certain things from certain places using your smartphone or hardware cryptocurrency wallet. Once Japan passed this law, cryptocurrency was legal in Japan as a mode of payment. Also, this law helped to bring cryptocurrencies under monetary regulations. Meaning, that now The Japanese government knows every transaction that you make, your cryptocurrency will be taxed in its equity to the Japanese Yen. You have to declare your cryptocurrency as your financial asset. These are clear pictures of the future of Bitcoin.

You Are Not Anonymous

You may think that you are free from surveillance by using Bitcoin, and nobody knows what you are buying or how you are spending your Bitcoin. But that is simply not true. Yes, the promoters of Bitcoin claim that Bitcoin is the decentralized and anonymous medium of exchange, but that is practically impossible. That is because, unlike cash payment, where you can simply give your cash away. You can not merely give your Bitcoin to someone. You have to use a third-party channel to transfer Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency. As countries legalize cryptocurrency, you will be using their payment methods to transfer your Bitcoin, giving them all the data they need on you and how you spend your cryptocurrency. The future of Bitcoin is not anonymous. It is well regulated.

Worth Of Bitcoin

Bitcoin around the world is being celebrated as digital gold, as the production of Bitcoin is capped at 21 million Bitcoins. Meaning the Bitcoin blockchain is programmed to produce precisely 21 million Bitcoin and no more. As of today, only around 2 million bitcoins are left to be mined.

There is around USD 10 Trillion worth of gold, and as of today, the total value of all the mined Bitcoin is around USD 700 Million. The mining process started as very simple in the beginning. In 2010 you could have mined Bitcoin easily on your computer, but now the process is so tricky that extremely powerful computers are used to mine Bitcoins in substantial mining farms. The future of Bitcoin looks very expensive.

Who Is In Control

Another promise made by cryptocurrency activists is that everyone is in control. Everyone who is part of the Bitcoin blockchain is in control, and any single person can not manipulate the value of Bitcoin, but it is not. Early adaptors and big investors highly influence the value of Bitcoin. Who owns vast amounts of Bitcoins. One of these people or a group of people is undoubtedly operating under the pseudonym of Satoshi Nakamoto.

These people can quickly raise the stock price of Bitcoin via investing in it. As the Bitcoin stock price rises and the general public starts to invest in it out of FOMO. Once the general public invests in the stock market, the price of Bitcoin becomes bullish. When the manipulators think the price has reached a particular profitable value, they take their initial investment out of the market. We witnessed this first hand recently in April 2021. As the bullish market of Bitcoin started to bear and now the Bitcoin stock has fallen from USD 64,000 to USD 34,000. The future of Bitcoin looks like it is in the wrong hands.

The Future Of Bitcoin

Bitcoin, in words, looks pretty optimistic but is not very realistic. Many analysts, researchers, and investors claim that Bitcoin is a colossal bubble, and every bubble has its day. You must have seen this with the .com bubble in the year 2000 or the real estate bubble in the year 2008. Bitcoin has shown how volatile it is, and you may not know who is manipulating the Bitcoin stock price, but someone is doing it, hence the volatility. Many people have lost their life savings in Bitcoin. Modern technology has made it easy to get into bitcoins, and you can view and invest in bitcoins via mobile apps. Many Bloggers and YouTubers are reviewing smartphone apps that help you get into investing in crypto, and new platforms are released every day, so be careful.

Once the richest man in the world and the most successful stock market investor today, Warren Buffet says, "Never invest in something you do not understand." Mr. Buffet also said about Bitcoin, "Bitcoin is a delusion and does not possess any value." Mr. Buffet vowed never to own any cryptocurrency. Note: Mr. Buffet doesn't own any tech stocks as well. If you intend to use an app to invest in bitcoin, please do your complete research and educate yourself about the mobile applications. Do the research and read many mobile app reviews to find the best choice for yourself.

My Opinion and Conclusion

My research only further proves my point about how easily manipulative and controllable these cryptocurrencies are. Suppose you look at Fiat currencies like Dollars, Yens, and others. You will observe that thrust is the only thing that backs up fiat currencies. Every Government keeps their people in faith that the fiat currency they hold is valuable. Other than that faith, their fiat currencies don't have any value at all. Hence the reason, you must go to a currency exchange to exchange your native currency with the native currency of the country you are visiting. The current pandemic and permanent work from home situations have also given people ample time to look into the mist of Bitcoin. Still, even the people who claim that they have enough knowledge of Bitcoin have no idea of Bitcoin. They don't know how to produce it, they can't reverse engineer the code, and they don't even have the face and real name of the person who invented Bitcoin in the first place.