After the cryptocurrency’s meteoric rise to becoming one of the most valuable things in the world at the moment, everyone has their mind on Bitcoin. Even if many don’t know or understand how to get it or invest in it. Stories are coming out of people putting their life savings into buying what Bitcoin they can, or beefy computer “mining” rigs to scoop up whatever coins possible through its esoteric gathering process. It’s a digital gold rush. But some are calling it fool’s gold.
The problem is an impending bubble, and that most of Bitcoin are held by one man, the cryptocurrency’s creator Satoshi Nakamoto. As Mashable has recently pointed out — if he decided to drop his massive stash, he might become a trillionaire, but the market would plunge and a lot of people would lose loads of money as the bubble bursts. Now the ‘Wolf of Wall Street’ himself, Jordan Belfort a man who knows something about markets and people losing money.
So Satoshi Nakamoto owns ~1/21 of all #bitcoin. I’m sure he/she/they will *never* use that market power in unseemly ways.
— Kevin Schawinski (@kevinschawinski) December 10, 2017
Speaking with the Financial Times, Belfort believes Bitcoin is going to bring a lot of doom and gloom to investors.
“It’s the biggest scam ever, such a huge, gigantic scam that’s going to blow up in so many people’s faces. It’s far worse than anything I was ever doing.
Promoters are perpetuating a massive scam of the highest order on everyone. Probably 85% of people out there don’t have bad intentions but the problem is, if 5 or 10% are trying to scam you it’s a f**king disaster. … Everyone and their grandmother wants to jump in right now. I’m not saying there’s something with the idea of cryptocurrencies, or even tulip bulbs. It’s the people who will then get involved and bastardize the idea.”
Unlike a bank that has its money insured by the government, Bitcoin is unregulated and potentially vulnerable to hackers. Not everyone is savvy enough to get the coin, but some who do, as it grows mainstream, are even less competent at keeping it safe. Meanwhile, hackers are getting increasingly clever in how to steal from someone, and there’s that whole, looming, bubble-bursting possibility. There are examples of Bitcoin’s volatility as far back as 2013.
Maybe Belfort has a point?
(Via BroBible/FinancialTimes)