So Far Bitcoin fiat price down on the year: Fidelity Digital Assets said bitcoin is fundamentally different from any other digital asset,” superior form of money” – February 2, 2022,
I was shocked to find out some of my family members who know NOTHING about investing, bought into the Bitcoin, Etherum craze, I’m the financial guy in the family and it was only via conversation that the topic of Bitcoin came up. They’re working, they’re in debt, but they bought some bitcoin looking to get rich quickly, because they heard everyone else was getting rich quickly.
I don’t have a complicated investment strategy, I buy cash flow producing assets, which could be businesses, real estate, Reits, Energy stocks, yes I even own GIC’s, pay me cash flow and I’ll consider it. I own Gold and Silver the physical kind as my insurance. When it comes to Bitcoin, it’s something I don’t touch, I bought in on the early days, and truth be told I could have bought it on the ground floor, which I didn’t because at the time I didn’t understand it.
My relationship with crypto if I’m, to be honest, is “meh”. It’s why I bought so little. Zero Interest Rate Policy(ZIRP) and Quantitative Easing(QE) along with governments now considering Universal Basic Income(UBI) is why I personally believe the price of Bitcoin shot up. Bitcoin has presented itself as an alternative to the U.S dollar and central banking and quite frankly it should be considered an alternative to the current fiat monetary system, but is Bitcoin “a superior form of money”? no.
It’s relief from all the junk created by central planners. It’s a rebellion against our current monetary system, and quite frankly I’m coming along for the ride. Bitcoin is very much like a stock, which you can split into satoshis, recently I purchased several U.S stocks using the NEO Exchange, which is basically a Canadian financial product that allows you to purchase U.S stocks without getting dinged by currency conversions.
Personally, I don’t like to change U.S dollars into Canadian dollars anyway, playing the forex markets is often pointless, somethings are cheaper in Canadian dollars and it’s to say that I find things cheaper in U.S dollars, it’s just that the U.S is a much larger marketplace, that has fewer tariffs than Canada, which equates to more selections for consumers.
My problem with purchasing Bitcoin is the conversion back to fiat money because if the price of Bitcoin isn’t going up, you’re getting hammered exchanging bitcoin back to fiat money. One of the reasons I think regulators are sluggish with regulating Bitcoin revolves around point of sale purchases, with Bitcoin you can stay out of the fiat money marketplaces, but the bitcoin marketplace, to purchase physical goods and services, is still rather small, because of the obvious challenges it faces, it fails as money.
I can sell stocks and receive my fiat money faster than the equivalent sale of bitcoin? How this makes Bitcoin a superior form of money is beyond me. Scarcity is nice, but scarcity doesn’t always equate to value, there has to be genuine ONGOING demand for the scarcity argument to be valid. Now, one of the family members who told me they bought bitcoin is considering consolidating all their loans, because they’re that deep in debt.
Although most of the people I know in Bitcoin are broke, there are people who made a killing in Bitcoin, but is that the majority? or the minority and the longer Bitcoin remains down, will these Bitcoin hoarders wait it out or start selling as soon as they can pay off their debts or get in the green? Most of the people who I know who own Gold and Silver are cash flow positive.
The Gold and Silver crowd is just different. I’d argue Peter Schiff gives the Gold and Silver a bad name at times, because he doesn’t speak for all of us, he’s a very talented individual that is spreading financial education worldwide and we appreciate him for it, but the bitcoin hype-train is educational for people like me.
If Bitcoin does survive the test of time, I’d like to be able to tell my children and grandchildren about it, because if Bitcoin is successful, it’s because Fiat money is successful. I buy Gold and Silver because I think fiat money will fail, I purchased Bitcoin because I think there’s a chance fiat money could be successful. I don’t buy into the Fidelity argument that Bitcoin is a superior form of money, but I’m wrong sometimes, so when I buy Bitcoin, I’m betting against myself.
I buy Gold and Silver and Bitcoin for the same reasons, I hope I never have to use them because if I have to use them, there’s a good chance something has gone terribly wrong with the financial system.
Interesting times ahead!