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<\/a><\/p>\nby Mike Adams<\/p>\n
(Natural News) As there are so many noobs buying into the \u201cBitcoin casino\u201d right now, especially in Asia, the crypto-currency is now attracting a lot of people who think it\u2019s just like a corporate stock. In other words, they assume it\u2019s regulated by somebody, that its promoters are subject to laws of some kind, and that the \u201cBitcoin company\u201d must have all kinds of assets, earnings and profits. Otherwise, why would its value keep rising, right?<\/p>\n
These assumptions are, of course, completely false. Bitcoin is an entirely different beast\u2026 which is what some of us really liked about the Bitcoin structure in the first place (decentralized, peer-to-peer, NOT regulated, etc.) But when people are jumping into Bitcoin without an understanding of what it is, they are placing \u201cbets\u201d in a very risky casino system that they don\u2019t really understand. This is where the danger lies for noobs.<\/p>\n
Thus, in the interest of public education, I\u2019m listing ten simple things that most people don\u2019t know about the \u201cBitcoin casino.\u201d<\/p>\n
#1) Bitcoin isn\u2019t a company. It has no corporate entity.<\/strong><\/p>\n You can\u2019t sue \u201cBitcoin, Inc.\u201d if the promises you were made about Bitcoin price valuations don\u2019t pan out. There is no Bitcoin, Inc.<\/p>\n #2) Bitcoin doesn\u2019t have any earnings, revenues, profits or P\/E ratios<\/strong><\/p>\n Stock prices of companies like Apple and Amazon, although inflated, at least have some basis in reality: These companies make products, own fulfillment centers, have hard assets, earn real profits, etc. Bitcoin has none of these things: No earnings, no hard assets, no earnings reports, nothing. In fact, Bitcoin has dozens of competitors (other crypto-currencies), and some of them are technically quite superior to Bitcoin. There\u2019s nothing unique about Bitcoin, in other words, that would grant it a long-term monopoly over crypt-currencies.<\/p>\n #3) Bitcoin trading isn\u2019t really regulated by anyone<\/strong><\/p>\n Although a few lame attempts have been made to criminalize Bitcoin in certain jurisdictions, the crypto-currency really isn\u2019t subject to any meaningful regulations. This is both good and bad. On the good side, governments can\u2019t mess with it. On the bad side, unscrupulous promoters can\u2019t be stopped because there are virtually no regulations that govern their claims.<\/p>\n #4) If the internet goes down, Bitcoin ceases to exist<\/strong><\/p>\n In the Bitcoin vs. Gold argument, remember that gold still exists when the power grid goes down, the internet comes to grinding halt, or a global nuclear war unfolds. Bitcoin, unfortunately, vanishes if the \u2018net goes down. Hence the entire reasoning behind why Bitcoin is not a legitimate \u201cstore of value.\u201d (Neither is the dollar, for that matter.)<\/p>\n #5) Very few merchants accept Bitcoin as a form of payment (although this could grow)<\/strong><\/p>\n More than 99.9% of all merchants do NOT accept Bitcoin as a form of payment. This is largely due to the extreme volatility of Bitcoin price fluctuations, which can see a 50% fall in just 24 hours. Roughly 100,000 merchants do accept Bitcoin at the moment, and that number could grow, but merchants don\u2019t want to take the volatility risk that comes with holding Bitcoin, so until Bitcoin matures and settles into a more reliable pattern of valuations, merchants are likely to shun it for all the obvious reasons.<\/p>\n #6) Bitcoin transactions aren\u2019t \u201cfree\u201d \u2013 they\u2019re currently running $23.66 per transaction<\/strong><\/p>\n Remember when Bitcoin was promoted as a way to send money anywhere in the world almost instantly, for virtually no cost? Now, the average Bitcoin transaction fee is running over $23<\/a>, and many confirmations are taking DAYS to complete. This is only going to worsen as transactional volume increases.<\/p>\n #7) Because Bitcoin isn\u2019t regulated by the SEC, Bitcoin promoters can claim any forward-looking estimates for future value<\/strong><\/p>\n Have you noticed Bitcoin promoters now claiming Bitcoin could rise to millions of dollars per Bitcoin? If they were promoting corporate stocks, they would be in jail for \u201csecurities fraud.\u201d But because Bitcoin isn\u2019t subject to any SEC regulations (both a good and bad thing, depending on the context), Bitcoin promoters can make any claims they want, without being subject to any regulations at all. Many of the claims are outlandish, pie-in-the-sky bunk.<\/p>\n #8) You can\u2019t sue anyone if you lose money in Bitcoin<\/strong><\/p>\n When Bitcoin crashes and you realize you were lied to about the $1 million valuation estimate being pushed by dishonest Bitcoin promoters, you can\u2019t sue anyone<\/strong> because there is no Bitcoin, Inc. The entire Bitcoin system is effectively unregulated. There\u2019s not even any jurisdiction under which Bitcoin can be sued, since it exists as a computational hologram on the global \u2018net.<\/p>\n #9) Nearly all Bitcoin promoters have a conflict of interest in attracting more buyers into Bitcoin<\/strong><\/p>\n Nearly all the people who are rabidly promoting Bitcoin have a conflict of interest: They own Bitcoins. And they realize the value of their Bitcoins will only rise if they find more people to buy into Bitcoin. Thus, their promotion of Bitcoin is largely rooted in self-interest rather than rational analysis. That\u2019s why some of the unscrupulous sales tactics now being witnessed would put a used car salesman to shame.<\/p>\n #10) Bitcoin isn\u2019t a very \u201cliquid\u201d market compared to the stock market. Transactions can take DAYS to clear<\/strong><\/p>\n Most of the new buyers into Bitcoin have never sold Bitcoin. They\u2019ve only bought it. So they assume that Bitcoin is easy to sell, sort of like selling stocks into the stock market. Yet Bitcoin isn\u2019t a stock market at all, and selling Bitcoin can be extremely difficult compared to buying Bitcoin, especially in a market downfall. In a panic, Bitcoin sellers will find themselves trapped in Bitcoin<\/strong>, practically unable to sell on any sort of timely basis, even as the value plummets by the minute.<\/p>\n At this point, Bitcoin is a casino. It didn\u2019t start that way, but thanks to unscrupulous promoters, it has become a kind of Ponzi scheme where a never-ending supply of new buyers is required to keep propping up the price\u2026 mostly by convincing technically-ignorant noobs that Bitcoin is a magical source of endless wealth creation that has somehow been brought to Earth from an alternate universe.<\/p>\nConclusion: If you\u2019re going to play in the Bitcoin casino, know the risks<\/h2>\n