“Stop being such a wuss and invest already”, said Sanket as he eased his buddy into buying his first bitcoin investment. Sights like these have pretty much become common place, with everyone’s neighbor’s cousin’s grandfather’s pet goldfish trying to get a nice big slice of ‘easy money’. After all, buying an imaginary string of zero’s and one’s and then selling said strings for a hefty profit tomorrow is a pretty full proof plan. Or is it?

Well, amidst all this ruckus lies a grand scheme – a scheme so overlooked, even Jordan Belfort would stop thumping his chest.

If only he knew

Courtesy: Paramount Pictures

The Sins of 2000’s have followed us home

If you were a 45 something year old guy back in 1998 who was looking to make a quick buck then you would most certainly remember the ‘dot com bubble’. Yes, the one where investments were being tossed around like booze at an all expenses paid bachelors party. That ‘dot com bubble’.

Anyone say investment?

Courtesy : Giphy

For the unenlightened (or the PowerPuff Girls and Cheetos obsessed 90’s kids like myself), the dot com bubble was essentially a real life Monopoly game where people would straight up invest in stocks in startups (mostly websites) with little or no research. 95% of the new startups flushed the investors money down the drain and when all hell broke loose, investors started trying to sell their stocks like crazy. The net result? Most of the startups failed silently.

But not without stealing the money off hundreds of thousands of people. Bitcoin is no different.

The Mother of all Ponzi Schemes

Bitcoin WILL crash and FAIL. That’s right. No ‘might’ or ‘maybe’ here. It WILL crash and fade into nothing but a distant memory. However it will do so while making a few people ridiculously rich while ripping off most (Read You).

This is too real

Courtesy : Giphy

A bubble always pops. Period.

Bitcoin is what experts call a high velocity bubble. In fact, its the first Ponzi Scheme in which the entire planet can participate in.

It will be HUGE

But it will end in Tears.

And like every Ponzi scheme and bubble out there, it will end. Badly. The very nature of these sort of schemes is to rise unexpectedly, hit a tipping point and then drop almost instantaneously, with prices free falling faster than the coyote when he looks down and realizes there isn’t any ground beneath him anymore.

But WHY?

Well for starters it has nothing to do with Bitcoin being digital. I’m perfectly cool with digital.

“But Eeshan !!! Paper currency is nothing more than paper printed by governments”.

Yes I get that. Cryptocurrencies are really useful and are definitely the future of money. However, Bitcoin is not the cryptocurrency that will revolutionize how you pay your Brazzers subscription. Suppose I started a paper currency, the Eeshan Dollar, and stated that I legally cannot print more than 1,000,000 Eeshan Dollars, exactly like the cap on Bitcoin.

Bask In its Glory yo

If I was the first person to think of this, in among a group of cavemen, I might get some traction but once everyone sees others making new paper currencies, the Eeshan Dollar will collapse. That applies to Bitcoin too. Bitcoin is open source so it’s damn easy to copy, and those copies can be improved on, which is what we’re seeing happening. The new copies of Bitcoin address some of the weaknesses of Bitcoin, in particular speed of transaction and the blockchain file size.

The Aftermath

Any cryptocurrency’s biggest strength is also its biggest weakness. Almost poetic if I say so myself. The problem? They’re decentralised. So who will you run off to if Bitcoin disappears overnight? Uncle Sam? Nah he won’t bat an eye.

No one. Thats who.

Bitcoin’s questionable stability (or lack thereof) makes it a terrible currency.

*Cries in Bitcoin*

To Sum up

The only currencies that have maintained value are ones that are backed by something like gold or ones that are backed by legislation and a government.

Bitcoin is neither.

Bitcoin is a scam. No doubt blockchain is very reliable, but it’s massively overhyped all thanks to Bitcoin.

Can’t wait to say “I told you so”

The above is an article written by Eeshan Keni for Techie Scoops. For all the latest trends, tech news, & reviews follow us on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook.