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Bitcoin’s days are numbered – literally. Ex-Federal Reserve Bank examiner, Mark T.Williams even goes so far as to
predict that Bitcoin will trade for under $10 by June 30, 2014. That’s a bold prediction, no doubt, but the point is clear – Bitcoin doesn’t stand a chance at ever gaining widespread adoption.
So says Louis Basenese (wallstreetdaily.com) in edited excerpts from his original article* entitled The Exact Date for Bitcoin’s Final Crash to $0.00.
[The following is presented by Lorimer Wilson, editor of www.munKNEE.com and may have been edited ([ ]), abridged (…) and/or reformatted (some sub-titles and bold/italics emphases) for the sake of clarity and brevity to ensure a fast and easy read. This paragraph must be included in any article re-posting to avoid copyright infringement.]
Basenese goes on to say in further edited excerpts:
Like a Thief In the Night
One of the most prominent Bitcoin exchanges, Mt. Gox, disappeared last week. Like a thief in the night, it moved offices, shuttered its Twitter account and closed down its website – without any explanation – and just like that, every sucker who owned any Bitcoins on the exchange lost everything. As a result, ex-Federal Reserve Bank examiner, Mark T. Williams, says that the “high-profile collapse could trigger a Lehman Brothers-type chain reaction throughout the Bitcoin market.”
Trouble has been brewing at Mt. Gox, which once handled 80% of all Bitcoin trading, ever since it halted customer withdrawals on February 7. That was supposed to be a temporary move, whereas this one appears permanent because, in the aftermath of the sudden closure this week, documents surfaced revealing that Mt. Gox held just 2,000 Bitcoins, while customer deposits totaled almost 625,000 Bitcoins.
The reason for the discrepancy? Theft! As a result of a technological vulnerability, hundreds of thousands of Bitcoins, worth more than $300 million, were stolen. The size of the heist represents about 6% of all the Bitcoins in circulation. which means:
- Mt. Gox has been operating as a sham this whole time
- the masses will ever put any trust in Bitcoins. How can they after a development like this?
So Much For Self-regulation
Ultimately, the failure of Mt. Gox proves that self-regulation doesn’t work. Even diehard Bitcoin believers realize this. Last month, Jeremy Liew, a leading Bitcoin investor at Lightspeed Venture Partners, vigorously opposed regulation. Now he thinks it’s an absolute must for mainstream adoption.
[Isn’t]…freedom from regulation [supposed to be] the whole point of the Bitcoin experiment? That’s how all the early adopters pitched it, at least, but we can go ahead and flush that pipedream down the toilet.Like good opportunists, the two largest remaining exchanges, BTC-e and Bitstamp, are trying to fill the void left by Mt. Gox but, as the saying goes, when there’s one cockroach, there are many more or, as ex-Federal Reserve Bank examiner Williams asserts, “The problems at Mt. Gox are not isolated; they are systemic to the Bitcoin industry.” Indeed. What happened at Mt. Gox could happen anywhere else. Hackers are that good and, with Bitcoin prices still above $500, more than enough incentive exists.
Bitcoin On Its Way to $10.00?
The downward trend in average Bitcoin prices, excluding the Mt. Gox exchange, continues to this day.
Bitcoin’s days are numbered – literally. Williams predicts that Bitcoin “will trade for under $10″ by June 30, 2014. That’s a bold prediction, no doubt, but the point is clear – Bitcoin doesn’t stand a chance at ever gaining widespread adoption.
Dennis Gartman says bluntly, Bitcoin is “nothing more than a scam of the first order.” My advice? The same as Gartman’s: Utter and complete avoidance of all things Bitcoin related.
Conclusion
If you’re absolutely dead set on throwing away some money, consider technology blogger extraordinaire John Gruber’s approach:
“In lieu of Bitcoin, I’ve stuck to flushing $100 bills down a toilet. I’m deep in the red, but at least I understand exactly what’s going on.”
[Editor’s Note: The author’s views and conclusions in the above article are unaltered and no personal comments have been included to maintain the integrity of the original post. Furthermore, the views, conclusions and any recommendations offered in this article are not to be construed as an endorsement of such by the editor.]
*http://www.wallstreetdaily.com/2014/02/27/bitcoin-2/ (© 2014 Wall Street Daily, LLC. All rights reserved.)
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