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Bitcoin Was 2016's Best-Performing Currency (newsweek.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the stable-currencies dept.

The co-founder of Blockchain published an opinion piece in Newsweek today mocking predictions about the death of bitcoin, saying "each is more wrong than the last... Bitcoin was again declared the world's best performing currency in 2016 by Bloomberg. In fact, it's held that title every year since 2010, with the notable exception of 2014, when it was the worst." An anonymous reader writes: Bitcoin president Nicolas Cary writes that bitcoin has become more stable than many of the world's top currencies, while the British pound "has dropped by more than 17% in a colossal collapse of confidence... In Africa, the Egyptian pound dropped 59% and the Nigerian naira fell 37%. In South America, the Argentine peso plummeted over 17% and the Venezuelan bolivar tumbled so far off a cliff it's difficult to measure -- even bricks of cash are worthless for everyday purchases there. Perhaps most dramatically of all, India, the world's second most populated country, introduced a stunning policy of demonetization declaring banknotes illegal overnight...

"During this time period, and partially in response to it, the price of bitcoin surged... Bitcoin also trounced the stock market from a performance perspective. Brand names like McDonald's, Home Depot and Disney grew at a paltry 1.6% or less; bitcoin outpaced them by over 70 times."
In 2009 one man in Norway bought $27 worth of bitcoin while writing a thesis on encryption, then forgot about them. Six years later, he discovered they were worth nearly $500,000.

8 of 104 comments (clear)

  1. Um no... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    " has become more stable than many of the world's top currencies" and "the price of bitcoin surged" contradict each other.

    If it's surged then it wasn't stable...

    1. Re:Um no... by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 3, Insightful

      If it lost 28% in two days like it did in 2 days in the first week of 2017, it's far from stable.

      --
      "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
  2. What do you want to be ? by Fly+Swatter · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Brand names like McDonald's, Home Depot and Disney grew at a paltry 1.6% or less; bitcoin outpaced them by over 70 times.

    Is bitcoin trying to be a currency, or an investment scheme ?

    1. Re:What do you want to be ? by JasonVergo · · Score: 3, Informative

      It wasn't designed to do any of those things. The problem that Bitcoin was designed to solve was how to transfer value without needing to rely on a central authority. The most common central authority for transferring of value is a bank.

    2. Re:What do you want to be ? by JasonVergo · · Score: 3, Informative

      An example of when that was a problem was when banks imposed a bank deposit levy in Cyrpus in 2012.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012%E2%80%9313_Cypriot_financial_crisis

      Another example is when you sell something online and ship the item and the buyer used a stolen credit card or the buyer called their credit card company and asks for a chargeback.

  3. Wow by kamapuaa · · Score: 3, Funny

    It's a stable currency, and it went from $27 to $500,0000 in 8 years! Everybody, buy, buy, buy! We're all going to get rich!

    --
    Slashdot: providing anti-social weirdos a soapbox, since 1997.
  4. How can a currency be an investment"? by Billly+Gates · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I listen to Dave Ramsey who is very anti gold and find the whole concept bizaare.

    Gold and bitcoins don't actually produce anything. Investing in a property give you rent as you supply a service. Investing in a company provides you income as that company provides and product or service that other people pay money for

    If a few people got rich from either than it is not an investment anymore than casino chips are. Like casino chips they are for betting and speculating. The whole concept of Gold is the government can not do something stupid and it will always retain value .... well people only get rich if it fluctuates. Therefore it is a TERRIBLE currency and negates the whole purpose of bitcoin or gold over a dollar which is stable.

    What a dollar doesn't do anything? No shit. It is a currency, not an investment tool.

    --
    http://saveie6.com/
  5. No, it wasn't by Sycraft-fu · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Not just because it doesn't work as a currency, but because for currencies big swings in valuation, up or down, are no "good performance". Ideally a currency would be completely stable. What $1 buys now would be what $1 buys tomorrow, and what it buys in a thousand years. Of course in reality none of them are totally stable, but the good ones are pretty stable. They move a very small amount, and do so very gradually. They function as a good store of wealth for that reason, and more importantly make for a useful medium of exchange. Since their value is pretty constant, people have a good feeling for how much they are "worth" and can mentally price things.

    Bitcoin did well as a speculative bet. If you want to play financial speculation, Bitcoin is a good target as it moves like a very thinly traded stock. That means it can swing bit and make you a lot of money. Also means it can swing big the other way and lose you a lot. So like any sort of speculation, you need to know what you are getting in to and understand the risks.

    You BTC promoters can't have it both ways: If Bitcoin is a good currency then it needs to be stable. If Bitcoin is a good investment, then it isn't a currency.