“The swarm is headed towards us” – Satoshi Nakamoto, when WikiLeaks started accepting Bitcoin donations
By Catherine Austin Fitts
This week on the Solari Report, join me for a fascinating conversation with Sarah Wiesner of Bitcoin Embassy TLV.
Interest in bitcoin is growing. One reason is the price. Bitcoin prices are rising, with market capitalization approaching approximately $25 billion – almost five times greater than the market cap of the next largest cryptocurrency.
Another reason is government policy. With central banks and governments engaged in liberal monetary and fiscal policies, involving both debasement of sovereign currencies and encouraging the creation of paper gold and silver investment vehicles, a stateless currency that limits its issue appeals to investors weary of inflation and market intervention.
The bitcoin market is tiny by financial market standards – we are still at the early stages of the development of it and other cryptocurrencies. At a market capitalization of approximately $35 billion, the entire cryptocurrency market is approximately one-third of the market capitalization of Starbucks.
The market is growing fast – it grew from $30 to $35 billion in the five day since Sarah and I recorded this interview. If the SEC approves the first Bitcoin ETF capital flow will accelerate. We could also face the same paper problem we have experienced in precious metals.
Whatever happens next, digital currency volumes are likely to grow supported by communities passionate about decentralization and financial privacy. According to research produced in 2017 by Cambridge University, there are between 2.9 million and 5.8 million unique users actively using a cryptocurrency wallet, most of them using bitcoin.
The $64,000 question is whether or not a trustworthy digital currency with encryption can operate on a digital infrastructure and platforms that lack integrity, controlled ultimately by the leadership promoting a global war on cash and eager to be relieved of liabilities for sovereign deposit insurance. No less than the The Economist declared on its cover this month “Why computers will never be safe.”
In Money & Markets this week I will discuss the latest in financial and geopolitical news. Please post or e-mail your questions for Ask Catherine.
For Let’s Go to the Movies, take a look at “Introduction to Bitcoin and Blockchain Technology” by Ofir Beigel of 99bitcoins.com or 99bitcoins’s “Bitcoin Video Crash Course“.
Talk to you Thursday!
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From Sarah:
Mycelium is great for a smartphone wallet, for the computer Electrum, for higher security a Trezor hardware wallet.
here’s a guide for paper wallets but it’s good to be more paranoid than the article says, if you’re already trying for the best security
http://www.coindesk.com/information/paper-wallet-tutorial/
thought hardware wallets, assuming they’re built as advertised, should be the best.
For more information on Bitcoin, here is a link to Bitcoin’s founder, Satoshi Nakomoto’s, White Paper
https://bitcoin.org/en/bitcoin-paper
Also, as Sarah mentioned, http://www.99bitcoins.com has an excellent 8 part video series.
Finally was able to finish the interview, it was a great introduction to Bitcoin.
I have high hopes for Bitcoin and the blockchain, there really is something here that is very extraordinary. The biggest threat I see is government regulation/taxation (of course). I fear that they may try to tax Bitcoin and other cryptos like a partnership rather than a capital gain, any profits (price appreciation) will be taxed regardless if you take a withdrawal/distribution via a sale. The irony about this technology is that the biggest threats, governments and big banks, will have to adopt blockchain technologies, at a minimum, for security of their networks and information, because it is such a wonderfully secure decentralized system.
Catherine. Interesting in that The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is funding a private firm, Factum, Inc to use Blockchain technology to build borderless global medical records system (http://coinjournal.net/blockchain-startup-receives-grant-gates-foundation-medical-records-project/). “The Gates Foundation can use this technology to improve delivery of vaccines, HIV relief efforts, and other diseases by having a tool that is border-less and can follow the patient throughout their life regardless of where they end up in the world,” a spokesperson for Factom told CoinJournal.
The referenced article also highlights another area of growth where blockchain start ups are aggressively getting into the health care sector. “Another blockchain startup that has recently set sights on the healthcare industry is Gem, which announced in July Gem Health, a network for developing applications and shared infrastructure for healthcare powered by the Ethereum blockchain. The Philips Blockchain Lab, a research and development center of healthcare giant Philips, was the first major provider to join the Gem Health network.
Naturally what follows on this same platform, viola, a ready made borderless currency system in place to fund health care transactions that can, it appears skirt around established banking systems, regulatory systems and political borders.
Count on the Gates foundation to turbocharge central control and injecting more heavy metals into the air and people’s veins.
Excited about this discussion! I have recently been doing a lot of research into crypto-currencies and have picked up some bitcoin, ethereum and litecoin along the way. I think cyptos and the blockchain technology are going to be a force to be reckoned with and will help people of their world diversify their porfolio’s outside of the big banks and governments. Since I bought into Bitcoin I have seen a 30% increase in my investment. I have listened to a lot of presentations by Andreas M. Antonopoulos to help my understanding of this area (https://www.youtube.com/user/aantonop/videos)
Dipesh:
Any thoughts on ethereum vs bitcoin? I agree entirely. Blockchain technology is a force to be reckoned with. Start learning and keep on learning!
Catherine
I think they are both important. Bitcoin is the digital equivalent of gold, it’s money and a wealth preservation vehicle. Litcoin has been called “silver” in relation to Bitcoin. Ethereum is the technology of Bitcoin that can also be used to develop other applications that are not a digital currency. It looks like the technology behind Ethereum will be used to develop “smart contracts” that could revolutionize business. Currently Microsoft are using Ethereum and the Germans recently implemented this technology also.
http://www.trustnodes.com/2017/04/29/germanys-energy-giant-launches-100s-ethereum-based-electric-cars-charging-stations
http://fortune.com/2017/02/28/ethereum-jpmorgan-microsoft-alliance/
Big banks like JP Morgan want to get in also, but they won’t like it, because they cannot control it. The beauty of the blockchain is that it is decentralized and transparent.
Another interesting recent development, JPMorgan Chase & Co leaves blockchain consortium R3 : http://www.reuters.com/article/us-jpmorgan-r-idUSKBN17T2T4
Very interesting. I assume they join to learn the lay of the land – always moving on to do better where they can control. Will post.