44 - bitcoin

I have been aware of BitCoin for over 2 years (at a time, when mining with a 8 core CPU still yielded a nice number of coins). I have seen the rise, fall and rise again of the exchange rate between USD/EUR and BTC and I have been able to buy a couple of “real” things with my Bitcoins (no, not on Silkroad. I have bought a projector, Art and mining hardware)

The last few months, two dedicated Bitcoin miners have been churning away in my basement, yielding around 1BTC per week. At the current exchange rate of 60 EUR to the Bitcoin that is actually quite nice.

Here’s a presentation I gave on BitCoin a the 1st Swiss New Finance Conference in Bern (in german) - probably the most popular thing I ever said (counting the number of views on Youtube)

So do I think that BTC is a valid new currency? Yes indeed, I think it is. With the Euro crisis (and the attack on private money that we see right now in Cyprus) I see the need for a new currency that is not under the control by the banks (and the governments) but one that is independent and based on trust.

Trust is the thing that makes Bitcoin work in the first place (and incredibly has kept BTC alive through a number of scandals and growing pains last year. More and more “real” business have started to accept BTC and every new merchant that accepts BTC strengthens the whole eco system. Presumably, most of the BTC trade right now is speculation or gambling, but I don’t think that either of these can explain the incredibly rise in value  over the last couple of months.

It will be interesting to see, how the BTC eco system thrives over the next few years and if indeed, the price of one BTC will rise to 1000 or 100'000 USD as some predict.

What do you think?