BRUCE WHITFIELD: If it looks like a bubble and acts like a bubble ...
Bitcoin is not a currency, and it's not an investment either. At best it's an invisible, intangible commodity
The old saying, "Better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt," is the ever-present curse of the columnist. But what the heck: Bitcoin's a bubble. There, I've said it. And while I'm at it, it's not a currency. It's not an investment, either. At best it's an invisible, intangible commodity. Yet everyone from parents at the school gate to hairdressers are talking about the phenomenal growth of a digital creation whose origin cannot be tracked, whose mastermind is unknown and about which we understand less than the origins of life itself. The blockchain technology that underpins it is brilliant and will likely make future financial transactions faster, more secure and cheaper to execute. There are more than 1320 crypto-currencies in the world - of which bitcoin is but one. Bitcoin is emitting the classic signals that suggest it's a bubble: it took nearly five years for it to move from zero to $1000 (R13600), another three and a half to get to $2000 ...
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