Digital currency Bitcoin hits new high before losing S$200 in value in one day

[specuvestor]

Mr. Buffett expressed his view on Bitcoin...

Buffett says bitcoin 'not a currency'
04 Mar 2014 08:22
[NEW YORK] The Oracle of Omaha is not a believer in bitcoin.

Warren Buffett, chief executive of investment conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway and one of the world's most respected investors, told CNBC television Monday that bitcoin "does not meet the test of a currency." "I wouldn't be surprised if it's not around in 10 or 20 years," said the 83-year-old billionaire, whose nickname stems from his investment savvy and his home city of Omaha, in the US state of Nebraska.

Mr Buffett called the virtual currency, which has no central bank backing and is generated by an automated computer programme, "very speculative, a Buck Rogers kind of thing" like the Dutch tulip mania in 1637.
...
Ref: Business Times Breaking News

Time will tell if we are just old fashioned folks that can't keep up with the times...

Bit coin is a mockery on the fiat system where it is based on faith. Buts that's where the similarity ends.

A country produces something that the sovereign taxing power and money creation instills certain rational faith

Faith in bitcoin is misguided faith. Bitcoin is tulip. Every rational person knows it's going to burst but everyone don't think they will be holding the ball when the music stops. Nothing new under the sun, from Bre-X to Madoff to the recent Blumont.

Just that no one knows when, which is the fuel of speculation

I have stated my unreserved opinion in this rational forum on bitcoin because in my experience this is too obvious a duck.

Demand has to be based on fundamental demand which many MLM lacks. Why insurance is a valid MLM is because there is a fundamental demand for the consumption of insurance. Similarly bitcoin lack a fundamental demand except it is restrictive in supply. This is not a rare art piece but one generated by generic one and zeros. You can try to sell gaming items but the day of reckoning will come when these virtual items are worthless.

Gold has certain industrial uses as electrical interconnects and also storage of value from a historical antiquity and Bretton Woods legacy perspective. Even so Buffett's view on non productive gold is very clear. And I don't think bitcoin is productive or can be used for other purposes.

IMHO bitcoin is a product of virtual goods commerce and the misguided idea about fiat currency. History will repeat itself