Bitcoin, the world’s first cryptocurrency, is a far cry from being perfect. Although it is currently the most popular one, with no other altcoin coming near it when popularity and price are considered, its future is definitely uncertain.In fact, there are hundreds of factors that affect its stability and nobody can actually predict how things will turn out. However, there are people whose opinions are highly regarded, and we will examine their statements in this article.But before that - let’s take a look at a brief history of the Bitcoin price and see whether you can draw some conclusions yourself.
A Short History of Bitcoin
- 2009 - Satoshi Nakamoto creates Bitcoin;
- 2010 - The first product bought for $50 in Bitcoin (approximately 10,000 Bitcoins then);
- 2011 - The price steadily increases up to $35 but crashes back to $0.01 due to the Mt. Gox raid;
- 2012 - Cyprus banking crisis boosts Bitcoin’s value up to $200;
- 2013 - 2016 - The price steadily rises, breaching $1,000 at one point;
- 2017 - Bitcoin reaches its peak on 17th of December - $19,783;
- 2018 - A decline in value, but not going below ≈$6,500.
Things to Know If You Plan to Invest
Invest and hold principle
Bitcoin investment works in the “invest and hold” principle. It’s simple - buy when it is low, hold until the highest point, and sell it (works both for a short and a long term).
Bitcoin trading
If you constantly buy and sell Bitcoin, you basically engage in Bitcoin trading, and it is an activity that requires devotion and knowledge not only about cryptocurrencies but investment in general.
Bitcoin mining
One more way to invest in Bitcoin is to invest in the equipment and engage in mining activity. Currently, this is only profitable if you buy huge systems and cannot rely on one computer, graphics card, or processor to do all the work.
What Are the Experts Saying?
First of all - who is courageous enough to give advice when it comes to Bitcoin? We dug through some of the “top 10” lists and extracted pieces of advice which seems interesting.
“As an asset class, you’re not producing anything, and so you shouldn’t expect it to go up. It’s kind of a pure ‘greater fool theory’ type of investment.”
Bill Gates, one of the most famous people in tech, is actually against not only Bitcoin but all cryptocurrencies. He makes comparisons with the paper money, calling back the collective beliefs theory, claiming that the cryptocurrencies are highly dependent on the opinion of all traders, which are most of the time unreliable, causing big fluctuation.
“I’m thinking that along the way we are going to see Bitcoin at $250,000 by 2022.”
Tim Draper is a huge Bitcoin advocate and a visionary when it comes to it, predicting that it can only go up from here . Although seems a bit unreasonable, he did predict several years ago that Bitcoin will break $10,000 in 2017. Tim claims that it is possible for the Bitcoin to completely replace fiat currencies in the future and become #1 currency in the world.
“...we think that there's a potential appreciation of 30 to 40 times...”
The Winklevoss twins, first Bitcoin billionaires explained on CNBC that there is still a huge room for Bitcoin to grow and they compared it to gold, claiming that unlike gold, which has now a $7 trillion market, Bitcoin is more fungible and durable. 40x prediction of Cameron Winklevoss means that the market cap of Bitcoin is likely to reach $5 trillion at some point in the future.
“The deeper I go, the more I realize how important Bitcoin is.”
This utterance is actually a quote from Spencer Bogart’s Twitter which was a typical response of the people who invested in altcoins . In other words, Spencer is a big Bitcoin advocate and he sees bright future in this cryptocurrency, claiming that it is still the best crypto out there.
“In my opinion Bitcoin is and will be both: digital gold and digital cash.”
Tuur Demeester has been one of the most respected people in the cryptocurrency field as he made some really great charts which proved out to be true. Although he did not give any kind of direct investment advice , he made this chart , which so far looks like a roadmap for Bitcoin. If this path persists, Mr. Demeester will receive many kudos.
“I don’t even think BTC will necessarily win. I think we are in the age of dialup and there will be an age of fiber (i.e scalability solved) and an age of wireless (APIs and interaction solved) and then we will have tech to meaningfully impact the world.”
Willy Woo is one of the greatest chart makers for CoinDesk and a huge crypto enthusiast. He never gives direct advice but likes to make predictions that are more philosophical in nature. If you want to see cool charts regarding Bitcoin, you should consider following him on Twitter - you are not going to regret it.
Conclusion
As you can see - the opinions differ. Bitcoin is definitely here to stay, but no living expert can make an accurate analysis of it. Due to the fact that the industry is still new and patterns cannot be drawn, every investment in cryptocurrency is a gamble.However, there are people who follow the trends and write down all the changes that happen in the market. If we are lucky enough, maybe there will be some explicit pieces of advice when it comes to Bitcoin. Until then, all you can do is try to educate yourself as much as possible about this new technology.