Category Archives: Cryptocurrency

It’s Bitcoin’s Time to Shine

One of the first purchases ever made with bitcoin was pizza.

In 2009, an early user sent 10,000 coins to a friend who in exchange ordered him two Papa John’s pizzas.

Those same coins used to order pizza would be worth $27 million today.

Back then, the cryptocurrency community was tiny. There were no exchanges.

Today, around $2 billion worth of bitcoin is traded daily. That’s a higher volume than that of the SPDR Gold Trust (the most popular gold ETF), as recently noted by Bank of America.

You can spend bitcoin at an increasing number of places. But as I’ve mentioned before, that’s not the real purpose.

Bitcoin is digital gold. You hold it, and it appreciates in value over time as it spreads to more users.

Having Its Moment

The cards are lined up perfectly for bitcoin. Its primary competitors are all vulnerable to disruption.

For example:

  • Trust in the government is at an all-time low.
  • Stocks are expensive.
  • The government is printing fiat money like never before.
  • Precious metals have been flat.
  • Bond and CD yields are tiny.

Then there’s bitcoin, the best-performing asset ever, up 45,000X or so. It’s the only asset that can be easily sent around the world, safely stored on a USB stick in your pocket, and turned into cash almost anywhere.

Bitcoin is “mined” by very powerful specialized computers. It takes a lot of energy to do this cryptographic work (which helps secure the network). Bitcoin mining has become an industry, with hundreds of millions of dollars being spent on equipment and energy.

Bitcoin is also decentralized. It runs on hundreds of thousands of computers all over the world. That means you can’t shut it down. The network cannot be seized or easily blocked.

Bitcoin evolves over time. Changes to the software can be proposed by anyone and are voted on by bitcoin holders. Miners have significant influence as well.

Scaling

Bitcoin’s biggest problem is that it can’t handle today’s transaction volume. The network’s jammed, so transactions can be slow, often taking hours to confirm.

Multiple fixes are in the works and are being fiercely debated by miners and owners.

But I’m not too worried about this. It’s in everyone’s best interest to fix the issues, and some of the smartest people in the world are working on these problems.

That’s another thing about bitcoin – it attracts math geeks, techies, libertarians and alternative investors. This is a good (and large) demographic for an asset to have.

Broadening the Base

Bitcoin’s base is expanding. It used to be hard to buy bitcoin, which restricted growth. Not today. It takes just a few minutes, and you can pay with a credit card or a debit from your bank.

In the coming days, we’ll have a detailed 10-page cryptocurrency report coming out. It has four specific coins I’m bullish on (one of which was up 25% yesterday).

All members of First Stage Investor will get access to it. My latest presentation, which includes the aforementioned cryptocurrency report AND four coin plays, will hit your inbox in the next week or so.

Click here to learn more…

What Happens if Bitcoin Goes Mainstream?

Over the last few years, two new investment opportunities of note have come online.

Both have the potential to rise in value more than anything else available to the general public… in history.

The first is private startup equity (equity crowdfunding). This gives everyone the chance to invest very early in companies that are small enough to grow 100 times – or more.

The second is digital currencies (bitcoin and others). And that’s what we’re going to talk about today.

Specifically, we’re going to explore what would happen if bitcoin went mainstream.

As is the case with most new disruptive technologies, the world’s never seen anything quite like crypto. There’s still quite a bit of skepticism to overcome.

Bitcoin is still in the very early adopter phase, which means it still has quite a ways to go, assuming we’re headed for mainstream adoption.

To get an idea of what “going mainstream” looks like, here’s a chart showing the rate at which consumers adopted various new technologies.

You’ll notice that each curve is roughly S-shaped, and that over time, adoption grows faster. For example, it took around 35 years for the refrigerator to reach complete adoption, while it only took around 15 years for the cellphone.

With bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, we’re in the first inning. Perhaps 1% of Americans own any at all. Crypto adoption today is where cellphone adoption was in 1992.

Cryptocurrencies are high-risk, high-reward assets. As such, they should make up only a small percentage of your overall portfolio.

It’s not a sure thing it’ll hit mainstream adoption. But it’s looking more likely every day.

Because as more people make money off bitcoin, more of their friends hear about it. More people get interested and eventually become comfortable enough to invest.

This is bitcoin’s secret to viral organic adoption. And unless a black swan event happens, it will continue doing its thing.

What’s the Price?

Let’s say 1% of Americans own bitcoin today – roughly 3 million people. How will the price look as the other 318 million buy?

And let’s not forget that bitcoin is huge in Asia, Europe and South America. And it’s getting more popular in Africa too.

There are only 21 million bitcoins that can exist. Fifteen million already exist today, and the rest will be mined over the coming decades.

It’s not a lot of coins to go around, is it?

Each coin costs around $2,600 today. If bitcoin goes mainstream, the price will go orders of magnitude higher.

The volatility will be extreme at times. But progress marches on. Every day it gets easier and safer to buy bitcoin, and consumers have more options to choose from.

So if you think you’ve missed out on bitcoin, look a little further into the future.