Have you ever noticed who puts the "absurd" values on Bitcoin versus those who talk about a Bitcoin "bubble"? Do you realize the sectors that those people come from? Those who put the $500K-$1M projections come from the technology world. At the same time, those who are talking bubble are from the financial arena. So what does this mean? Basically the financial people need to STFU since they have no clue what they are talking about. Guys like Bill Gates and John McAfee know a lot more about this stuff than those supposed Wall Street gurus or a crook like Jamie Dimon.
Before going any further, do you know what Bitcoin is? People call it a currency; a store of value; money; etc. While those are roles that Bitcoin can play, it is not what Bitcoin is. When you get down to the bare essence of it, Bitcoin is a key that unlocks the bitcoin blockchain to people. It is no different than the key one has to buy when looking at using an API on Amazon's or Microsoft's cloud system. The difference is in the closed systems those companies set the price whereas with Bitcoin, the price is set by the market.
Answer me this: have you ever seen those "bubble" people on CNBC talking about this fundamental point?
Another important aspect of this is to understand the difference between thin and fat protocols versus applications. I wrote an article the other day mentioning how Bitcoin is more like real estate than a commodity (gold).
The basic premise is that the bitcoin blockchain is a protocol. This is no different than TCP/IP. What is different is the fat versus thin part of the equation and this is what the financial people have no clue about. On the Internet, you have a number of different protocols that are used: TCP/IP,HTML, SMTP, etc... They serve different purposes and are the core of the Internet yet have no monetary value. The value on the present Internet is in the apps. Facebook, Google, Amazon, and others have the marketcaps of note. These companies did a sensational job creating "silos" (more on this in a bit) which enriched those companies greatly.
When looking at the blockchain, it is exact opposite. The protocol has the major value not the apps built on top of it. Since everything is on the blockchain while being de-centralized and open, people are free to move about without restriction. Try to do this in the "siloed" world of the Internet today by jumping from Apple to Google to Amazon seamlessly. It isnt going to happen.
To give you an example, I will use the steem blockchain. We are on Steemit.com which is an app built upon the steem blockchain. People on here amass STEEM as they post and comment. However, there are other apps that we can use without any changeover. Someone can go to Busy.org and see the same information on there. Or, we can jump to DTube and operate exactly like we are on Steemit carrying the same STEEM. The reason we can do this is all activity including your wallet is on the blockchain. Entering through a different interface still accesses the same information.
The final piece to this puzzle is the cycle that a blockchain/tokens go through and the marriage between the two. When a token is created with an underlying blockchain, this gets the attention of speculators and entrepreneurs alike. At the beginnings, it is the early adopters who enter the picture. After a while, the developers create enough applications on the blockchain to garner some attention which draws in more speculators. Of course, these individuals start to bid the price of the token up which attracts more publicity. This publicity only serves to draw in more speculators AND developers. As you can see this cycle keeps repeating itself pushing the entire ecosystem upward.
This is exactly what happened with Bitcoin and the reason why many see the absurd values as realistic. Bitcoin was the first blockchain to attract the attention of the developers. Naturally, the speculators showed up a short time later and we were off and running. Fast forward to the present and we are seeing an incredible amount of publicity for Bitcoin. Many seem to feel it is not warranted and that Bitcoin is in a "bubble". These individuals miss that fact that the bitcoin blockchain has more developers working on it than any other blockchain (probably combined) AND the publicity only serves to draw in more developers. We already see developers working on browsers, search engines, social media, and banking services.
So as you can see, the feeding frenzy that takes place as a token gets more valuable only serves to make it bigger. This repetitive process means that Bitcoin will continue to increase in value over the next decade. Simply put, it is technologically impossible not to do so. The reason for this is because when more developers are draw in, they are working on the blockchain itself. Hence any limitations that exist will be overcome in due time with the help of hundreds, if not thousands, of developers around the world banging away at code.
Does this mean that Bitcoin will be the only blockchain? Of course not. There are many blockchains out there that will serve a purpose. Just like TCP/IP shares space with HTML and SMTP, bitcoin will also share space with ethereum and a host of others. What is does mean is that Bitcoin is already well into the feeding frenzy and the publicity is only growing. Each time BTC hits a new all time high, the financial people see "bubble". However, what really takes place with each new high is more developers being brought into the fold who end up creating more apps which makes the blockchain more valuable.
Consider this point the next time some financial talking head on T.V. mentions the Bitcoin 'bubble" and how absurd it is to think that it will ever get to $10K let alone $100K.
If you found this article informative, please upvote it and resteem it...there are far too many people who really do not understand the basics of what is going on with this technology.
Pictures swiped off Google Images