The WordPress/JetPack writing prompt for today is:
What are your thoughts about cryptocurrency?
What a timely question!
Back in 2004, I started mining a bitcoin. But it needed a dedicated machine, and frankly, I was moving from Canada to South Korea. The value of bitcoin back then was negligible; it would take a couple of years to mine. single bitcoin, and would be worth— I don’t remember — maybe $50? It wasn’t worth the hassle of moving the setup across the Pacific Ocean.
Had I stayed with it, and had I stuck to my philosophy of ‘get in early, get out early,’ I might have made a few thousand dollars. Oh well. No regrets.
Like most pyramid schemes, cryptocurrencies work best for those early adaptors who sell just as the scheme peaks. Has cryptocurrency peaked? Well, if Trump announcing a cryptocurrency wasn’t a full-on indicator that it had peaked, then this week’s news was.
What news? Seriously? North Korea stole $6.3 billion worth of cryptocurrency from Binance.
As cryptocurrency is unregulated by design, there’s no deposit insurance. Binance claims they’ll cover the loss, but how many times can they do that? Would any of the other cryptocurrency ‘banks’ be able to cover an equal or even lessor loss?
Why would anyone keep their wealth tied to cryptocurrency? It was always gambling, but now that you’re not just gambling with the value, but with even being able to keep possession, why play?
There is a line of dialogue in (I think season 2 of) The Wire where Cedric Daniels’ wife says, “you can’t lose if you don’t play.” That pretty much sums up cryptocurrency for me.