www射-国产免费一级-欧美福利-亚洲成人福利-成人一区在线观看-亚州成人

USEUROPEAFRICAASIA 中文雙語Fran?ais
China
Home / China / View

Beware of the baneful Bitcoin bug

By John Coulter | China Daily | Updated: 2013-11-29 07:02

Some people have been bitten by the Bitcoin bug, bidding up its value to above $1,000 for just one invisible "coin". Others have been bitten by scams, losing real money they paid only to be "hacked".

The digital currency seems mysterious to a newcomer and yet most impressive when a serious business dinner ends with payment to the waiter with a casual brush of a smart phone. The former tradition of a comical pretense of who pays the bill, with grabbing of wrists and fumbling for cash or card, has given way to an aura of awe as a new avant-garde era makes being generous look cool.

China now transacts half of the global Bitcoin volume and is a leader in pushing up the exchange rate. A schoolteacher cum computer geek named Li Xiao who signed up at the outset five years ago now has Bitcoins worth millions of US dollars. It's time for those not in the know to understand this new phenomenon.

Barter trading began with cavemen. "Money" allows flexibility, tokens, metals and paper. The global financial crisis of 2008 is said to have been "resolved" not with the physical printing of more currency notes, as depicted in news stories, but simply through computer clicks, now ratcheting up $85 billion a month out of the US Federal Reserve.

It is no coincidence that small groups of computer geeks found 2008 the right time to introduce a virtual currency. Bitcoins are not backed by any asset and exist only in the networks of computers. They are dependent on "believers" prepared to pay conventional currency so that they can transact across borders and without any government regulation.

Like the rise of the stock market in Europe centuries ago, the first traders knew and respected each other. The camaraderie was not, as in Britain, from an "Old Boy" network of elite schools, but through exchange and development of cipher-technology, evolving into software language that was meant to guarantee security.

Ironically, but perhaps not surprisingly, though, individuals were proud of their independence and freedom. "Cyphering" was standardized through involvement and imprimatur of the US National Security Agency. The concept of secure exchange had been around for 20 years but the global financial crisis and the exposure of the weakness and further weakening of the dollar encouraged the launch of Bitcoin among cypher experts. Like the British Old Boys of the past, "shares" were traded only among those known, trusted and respected. Despite being strung around the world and possibly never meeting, their interaction on their core interests verified commitment.

Bitcoin is no joke. Baidu now supports the market. There are ATM dispensers of real cash in exchange for Bitcoins transferred from your cyber "wallet". What drives the seriousness of the mechanism is that an increased number of "believers" can "mint" new Bitcoins. Those with the will and ability to maintain the mechanism are said to "mine" new wealth and this is clearly addictive to certain kinds of people. It is an interest that pays.

Over the past week or so, a person could earn about 0.0001 Bitcoins (maybe 1 yuan at the current exchange rate) in one hour of expert "mining". But given that addicts spend their waking hours at this and that speculation is driving value up, it beats unemployment.

The individual launching Bitcoin is unknown, except through the thorough planning of the venture and a pseudonym, "Satoshi Nakamoto". The prime guess is that the individual is an expert cyber geek in Finland or an American infatuated with Japanese culture. The individual made a fortune cashing in Bitcoins for dollars in 2010 and left a cryptic note about "moving on".

That single fact spells out in large fonts that Bitcoin is a Ponzi scheme in which the first wave of players makes money and leaves the base of the pyramid to collapse. Clinton Dines, one of China's expatriate community's respected business leaders who has been in China for 34 years, merely mutters the previous testimonies to human greed and folly: the Dutch "tulip mania" of four centuries ago when a single tulip bulb from Turkey promised wealth such that it was equal to years of income, and the English "South Sea Bubble" of three centuries ago, pretending England would colonize South America.

John Gruetzner, principal and founder of Intercedent Limited, believes that Bitcoin is potentially a device, which, if not regulated, will ultimately become a tool for the Tea Party to circumvent government and create a currency for the 1 percent class, and that it will collapse eventually.

The father of economics, Adam Smith, in his Wealth of Nations explained the value of money representing hunters, acknowledging that one beaver was worth two deer. Primitive hunters would trade based on reality. Bitcoin has no physical equivalent. It depends on people pretending the emperor has clothes. Individual perception or group deception. Just take an "i" out of Bitcoin. Bitcon.

The author is an Australian researcher collaborating with Chinese academic and commercial institutions.

Beware of the baneful Bitcoin bug

Editor's picks
Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site.
License for publishing multimedia online 0108263

Registration Number: 130349
FOLLOW US
主站蜘蛛池模板: 草草影院第一页yycccom | 免费观看国产精品 | 亚洲欧美在线观看播放 | 午夜三级理论在线观看视频 | 国产乱子伦真实china | 99久久国产综合精品1尤物 | 久久久久一| 成人污网站 | 在线观看免费黄色网址 | 萌白酱福利视频在线网站 | 久久精品国内偷自一区 | 久久99国产精品 | 国产成人精品日本亚洲网站 | 日本三级香港三级网站 | 日本乱理伦片在线观看网址 | 精品a视频 | 中文字幕一区二区在线播放 | 久久久精品在线观看 | 日韩欧美亚洲 | 最近中文在线中文 | 欧美精品在欧美一区二区 | 欧美三级色| 国产在线一区二区 | 大陆高清自拍 | 中国美女黄色一级片 | 国产激爽大片在线播放 | 国产精品尹人在线观看免费 | 亚洲午夜精品一区二区 | 奇米5555| 成人男女网18免费91 | 一级片网址 | 日韩a毛片| 久草 在线| 又www又黄又爽啪啪网站 | 免费一级a毛片在线播 | 美国免费一级片 | 欧美成人精品手机在线观看 | 在线视频久久 | 国产成人亚洲精品影院 | 亚洲欧美高清视频 | 成人免费真人毛片视频 |