Sometimes referred to as the 'honey badger of money' (after a famous viral video), bitcoin enthusiasts may find this comparison particularly apt of late. Since the beginning of the year, the network's value has nearly doubled – even while the community continues to be mired in debate.
Market observers so far have offered a wide range of reasons for this uptick, though not all of them are good, with increasing prices causing concerns that the industry as a whole is entering a speculative bubble.
Supply and demand
Still, not everyone believes the boost is due to speculation.
Redwood City Ventures founder Sean Walsh, for example, sent CoinDesk a bullet-pointed email summarizing the various global developments that could be contributing to the bitcoin price surge. He believes developments in South Korea, Japan, Russia and China have all contributed.
The price surge, according to Walsh, is simply supply and demand.
"Bitcoin is dramatically more scarce than most people realize, especially in the context of its total addressable market of nearly 3 billion internet-connected adults," he continued.
Walsh framed the situation simply as one where the cryptocurrency is seeing increased demand, which looks to only increase in the future:
"Once the global race to own bitcoin commences, the tiny supply of new bitcoins (just 54,000 new coins per month) will be completely overrun by demand"