Thursday 7 December 2017

What is Bitcoin?


NJ Bridgewater
Crossing the Bridge
7 December 2017

“It [Bitcoin] will be everywhere and the world will have to readjust.  World governments will have to readjust.”[1]
- John McAfee, Bloomberg interview

What is Bitcoin? This is a question that is stirring in the minds of millions who have started to hear about its meteoric rise in value in relation to the U.S. dollar. Every day, there are fresh reports of new Bitcoin ‘all-time highs’ (or ATHs for short). As of today, Bitcoin is worth more than $14,000 USD—for one Bitcoin! Bitcoin is a phenomenon that has taken the world by storm, and it has left many people scratching their heads, wondering what it is, why it is so valuable, and how it can be used. The reason for this is simple. We are facing a massive paradigm shift. Imagine, if you will, living thousands of years ago, when the first caveman or cavewoman walked on the beaches of ancient East Africa and began to collect beautiful shells. Later on, he or she bored holes in the shells and passed a leather thread through them, making the first necklace. These shells, which could be used for beautification, created value. How was that? Because everyone agreed that the shells were beautiful, and it took time and effort to collect them. If you lived further inland, you could not obtain shells easily. Only by physically going to the beach and collecting them, choosing only the best and most beautiful shells, could you first obtain this newfound source of wealth. A man or woman who wore shells was more beautiful or handsome, and, as such, was a more desirable mate. Shells could also, perhaps, have been used in ancient religious rituals, and might have adorned the bodies of ancient chieftains and shamans. They could be used in headdresses, necklaces, bracelets, anklets and other decorations, as well as being sewn into leather clothing and furs. With shells being universally recognized as a source of value/wealth, they could also be exchanged for other goods, e.g. meat, fruits, nuts, stone tools, clothing, furs, etc. perhaps even in the exchange of women as mates (e.g. in some ancient form of dowry or bride price).

[2]                                 



Why am I writing about shells? Because shells are one of the earliest forms of money. In a Twitter post, cryptographer Nick Szabo writes that “successful money is far from arbitrary. The most common collectibles were the two most durable and suitably scarce kinds of objects available: biologically crystallized calcium carbonate and later the monetary metals (copper, gold, and silver).”[4] In fact, cowry shells [the ‘calcium carbonate’ Szabo is referring to] continued to be in use as legal tender in western Africa up till the 19th century. Shells were fastened together in strings of 40 – 100 each, with 50 or 20 strings representing one dollar. Three thousand years ago, in China, cowries were also used as currency, while, in India, cowries continued in use as legal tender until 1805 CE.[5] How does this relate to Bitcoin? Because Bitcoin, and cryptocurrency in general, is the new form of money. It is the latest evolution in the development of money. Cowry shells were eventually superseded by precious metal coins in much of the world, using electrum, silver and gold. These, in turn, were replaced by paper money backed by gold and silver. And paper money, in turn, was replaced by fiat currency, which is the currency that currently predominates in most of the world. Fiat means ‘decree’. In other words, they are currencies that are created out of thin air, at the whim of national governments. While the U.S. dollar used to be backed by and redeemable for a certain amount of gold in the past ($20.79 could buy you an ounce of gold in 1879), since 1971, the U.S. dollar has no longer been backed by gold.[6] Rather, it is backed by nothing other than blind faith. Nixon implemented this separation from the gold standard in order to stop foreign dollar holders from sapping U.S. gold reserves.[7] Now, we have reached the next stage in the evolution of money: cryptocurrencies and the blockchain.










Bitcoin paper wallet

Bitcoin is the most popular and well-known cryptocurrency. It is also the pioneer of all cryptocurrencies, being the first one to gain traction and widespread usage. A cryptocurrency is a currency that is designed to be both secure and, most of the time, anonymous.[9] The system is based on cryptography – the same technology which allows your WhatsApp messages to be encrypted, and your online banking details to remain secure. If you trust the internet with your credit card or debit card details, then you are trusting in cryptographic technology. The main purpose of cryptography is anonymity. When it comes to currencies, anonymity and encryption is incredibly important. Do you want people knowing how much money you hold, how you spend it, or where you store it? Cryptography is a key part of securing your financial resources. Bitcoin is an evolution of this technology – allowing money itself to be held and spent without the intervention of banks or financial institutions. Using the technology of the blockchain, Bitcoin circumvents government controls over currency, allowing you to spend, buy and receive currency to/from an anonymous wallet. Does this mean that U.S. dollars, GBP, euros, etc. are no longer relevant? Basically, yes. All the major currencies in the world are already fully digital. Most dollars in circulation are actually 1s and 0s recorded within an internet ledger; but these 1s and 0s are backed by nothing, other than the good faith and credit of the national government which issued them. Paper money barely scratches the surface in terms of the actual number of U.S. dollars in circulation. Since most transactions are now digital, paper money serves only one real function in the modern world: a means of maintaining the illusion that fiat money is real money. National currencies are an illusion—they are created out of nothing, and they are supported by nothing at all. They have no intrinsic value.













Cowry shells being used by Arab traders (1845)

Money is, essentially, a meme. The term ‘meme’, coined by Richard Dawkins in The Selfish Gene (1976), derives from the Greek word mimeme, meaning something ‘imitated’. He sometimes refers to these as ‘mind viruses’.[11] A meme is a viral idea, which spreads from one person to the next, rather like the habit of collecting and trading cowry shells, which we referred to earlier. This ‘mind virus’ does not physically exist. Rather, it exists in the collective consciousness of those who believe it. If we believe that money exists, it exists. If we believe that the U.S. dollar has value, it has value. If we believe potato chips with the face of Elvis on them have value, they have value. U.S. dollars, like all national currencies, exist as part of this collective belief-system or ‘mind virus’. There is no such thing as money, really, except to the extent that people maintain this collective belief.

“’Economists and journalists often get caught up in this question: Why does bitcoin have value?’ Shapeshift founder Erik Voorhees once detailed. ‘And the answer is very easy. Because it is useful and scarce.’”[12]
- Erik Voorhees, quoted by Jamie Redman

Those who cannot understand the value of Bitcoin are generally unaware of the value of money itself, or what money is. Money is a form of value. If I can sell you a packet of potato chips for $1, then $1 has the value of a packet of potato chips. If you refuse to sell me that packet, because you believe that the dollar isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on, then you are refusing to be a part of the collective belief-system of U.S. dollars. You are refusing to accept that the dollar has value. It will only have value for those who believe it has value. As Adam Smith Writes in The Wealth of Nations: “The market price of every particular commodity is regulated by the proportion between the quantity which is actually brought to market, and the demand of those who are willing to pay the natural price of the commodity.”[13] This raises the question: what is the intrinsic value of Bitcoin? To understand that, we need to also understand how Bitcoin differs from fiat currencies. What exactly is a Bitcoin?









Bitcoin price history: 2011 - 2017

Bitcoin was created in 2009 by a person under the pseudonym of Satoshi Nakamoto.[15] He first described Bitcoin in a white paper published online in 2008 before eventually disappearing from the scene, taking the mystery of his identity with him into the murky depths of the cyber-world.[16] Bitcoin was intended to exist as a purely peer-to-peer “electronic cash,” allowing “payments to be sent from one party to another without going through a financial system.”[17] This means that you can send Bitcoins from one person to another directly, without using the intermediary of a financial institution, such as a bank. As long as both parties have Bitcoin wallets, with access to a certain amount of Bitcoin, then they can carry out a transaction on the Bitcoin network. So, how does Bitcoin exist? It exists on the blockchain. The blockchain is the revolutionary technology that allows cryptocurrencies to exist. It prevents the so-called ‘double spend’ problem. The problem with digital currencies is that they could potentially lead to individuals spending the same amount of money twice, which would cause confusion and chaos.

The blockchain is a way of verifying transactions and making sure that there is no double spending. How does it work? The blockchain is a shared database which records transactions and encrypts them.[19] It’s basically a distributed digital ledger that is encrypted and maintained by a network of miners located in various locations across the face of the earth. In the past, accountants and businessmen used ledgers to record transactions on paper. The blockchain records these transactions across an entire network, ensuring that there is no falsification or errors. As new transactions emerge, they are bundled together into blocks. These blocks are then processed by Bitcoin miners, who use an advanced cryptographic code to unlock new Bitcoins. As a reward for their vital role in the maintenance of the blockchain network, miners receive Bitcoins as a reward. This reward is halved every so many years, making mining progressively more difficult as Bitcoin reaches its upper limit of 21,000,000 Bitcoins. There can never be any more than 21 million Bitcoins in existence, so Bitcoin is essentially deflationary, unlike the U.S. dollar, which is inflationary. Since no one person controls Bitcoin, it is thoroughly decentralized. No one ‘owns’ the blockchain. Individual mining operations can be owned, but no one person controls all the Bitcoin mines across the face of the planet. Since Bitcoin is distributed, it cannot be banned, prohibited, or annihilated. Even if one country bans Bitcoin or attempts to regulate it, all such attempts will fail to curtail the system, which functions organically and grows naturally.

[20]                            

















Jiaozi, the world’s earliest paper money


[21]                    
David Ricardo, economist

What is the intrinsic value, then, of Bitcoin? Well, what is value, and how can it be intrinsic? The famous economist, David Ricardo (1772 – 1823), writes:

“The value of a commodity, or the quantity of any other commodity for which it will exchange, depends on the relative quantity of labour which is necessary for its production, and not on the greater or less compensation which is paid for that labour.”
- David Ricardo (1817), Principles of Political Economy and Taxation

The cowry shells we referred to earlier are valuable because people want them. They can be used to make jewellery and can be traded as a currency. They are collected on beaches, far away from the African or Chinese interior. There is thus limited access to cowries. The people who collect them expend time and effort in doing so. And it takes time and effort to bore holes in the cowry shells and attach them together with wires or thread. The value of cowry shells thus depends on two factors: time/effort + scarcity = value. Intrinsic means inherent or essential. Does a shell have any inherent or essential value? Probably not. When we say intrinsic value, what we are really referring to, then, is its utility to human beings. Can we use shells in jewellery or for trade? If yes, then we would generally argue that they have intrinsic value. In common parlance, therefore, intrinsic value means the essential utility of something for society. Do U.S. dollars have intrinsic value, then? Dollars are created by the Federal Reserve by adding 1s and 0s to a ledger, or through massive printing of paper notes with the denominations written on them. These notes are not redeemable for gold, and they are not backed by any kind of cryptography or precious metals. In fact, the more notes that are printed, and the more currency generated digitally by the Federal Reserve, the less value U.S. dollars have, as they have reduced purchasing power. This is called ‘inflation’. The value of your U.S. dollars today is less than the value of the same denomination 10 years, or 100 years ago. If you put $100 in the bank today, it will be worth less in 1 years’ time. The value of your money will practically evaporate into thin air. Why is that? Because the more currency is pumped out by the system, the less value it has. It becomes less scarce, and scarcity is essential to our notion of value.

“Gold and silver, like other commodities, have an intrinsic value, which is not arbitrary, but is dependent on their scarcity, the quantity of labour bestowed in procuring them, and the value of the capital employed in the mines which produce them.”[22]
- David Ricardo, The Works of David Ricardo

Bitcoin, in contrast to U.S. dollars, is essentially scarce. There can only ever be 21,000,000 Bitcoins, whereas there are trillions of U.S. dollars in circulation, with more and more being pumped out every day. In this sense, Bitcoin is rather like gold, which is also scarce and limited in supply. When people want to hedge against inflation, they often buy or invest in gold and other precious metals. The total amount of mined gold in the world is around 171,300 metric tonnes, with a total value of $8.2 trillion USD.[23] In the same manner, Bitcoin is a hedge against inflation, as the total number of Bitcoins is permanently capped. What about the time and effort it takes to create Bitcoins? How does that compare with U.S. dollars? There are several ways of measuring the total money supply. M1 is a metric used to refer to all the paper money and coins of a currency, as well as all the checking accounts, demand deposits and negotiable order of withdrawal (NOW) accounts.[24] M2 is a wider metric used to include everything in M1 plus savings account deposits and money market account deposits.[25] In February 2015, the total M1 money supply in the United States was $2.9882 trillion USD.[26] That’s 2,988,200,000,000 U.S. dollars! In late 2016, the supply of U.S. dollars increased dramatically, at a 46-month high of 11.2%.[27] As of October 2017, the total M1 money supply in the United States had reached 3.5947 trillion U.S. dollars![28] What do you think that does to the value of your savings? It is decimating to them! How much does it cost to create these trillions of dollars? Surprisingly little. Paper money costs hardly anything. $1 and $2 notes cost 4.9 cents to make, $5 notes cost 10.9 cents, $10 notes cost 10.3 cents, $20 and $50 notes cost 10.5 cents and $100 notes cost 12.3 cents.[29] However, this includes only the printed/minted money supply. As of 2017, that amounts to $1.59 trillion USD, of which $1.55 trillion USD is Federal Reserve notes, i.e. paper money.[30] Wait a minute! That’s $1.59 trillion out of $3.5947 trillion USD. That’s a huge discrepancy! Here’s the rub: most U.S. dollars are 100% digital. How much does it cost to produce them? Nothing. U.S. dollars are, for the most part, created out of thin air and exist as nothing other than debt. Fiat currency = debt.

“Like an ant colony, the bitcoin network is a resilient network of simple nodes following simple rules that together can do amazing things without any central coordination.”[31]
- Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Mastering Bitcoin: Unlocking Digital Cryptocurrencies

In contrast with fiat currencies, which cost almost nothing to create and come into existence instantaneously—out of thin air—Bitcoins take actual time and effort to produce. In fact, they even take a measurable amount of electricity and computing power, called the ‘hash rate’, to produce. As we learnt earlier, Bitcoin exists on a network called the blockchain. This is how it works: a block of Bitcoin transactions is chosen from the list of all currently-pending transactions, called the ‘mempool’. These are recorded into the distributed ledger, consisting of an ever-growing number of blocks, collectively called the ‘blockchain’, with a new block being created roughly every 10 minutes.[32] The integrity of this system is maintained via Proof of Work (PoW) hashing. Bitcoin miners must unlock a cryptographic puzzle called a ‘hash’, with each new correctly-hashed block releasing a pre-determined number of newly-created Bitcoins.[33] The ‘hash rate’ is thus the measure of a miner’s computational power, measured as hash per second (H/s), with greater measures termed Kilohash, Megahash, Gigahash, Terahash and Petahash.[34] As of September 2017, the hashrate was 9,214,860,125 GH/s.[35] In addition to computing power, or the hash rate, we have to factor in the cost of electricity used to produce one Bitcoin. In the U.S., a kilowatt hour (kWh) costs about $0.12 on average. According to Trubetskoy’s calculations (2017) with Bitcoin blocks being solved at 6 per hour, one block costs about $19,598.50 to solve and, at $0.12 per kWh, it costs $1,567.88 to mine one Bitcoin, not counting the costs of equipment, labour, premises, etc. If you can lower the electricity costs, the cost to mine one Bitcoin can go down quite a bit; hence why most of the mining takes place in cooler parts of the world & where electricity is cheaper.[36] Let us make a comparison. Most U.S. dollars are completely digital and cost almost nothing to produce, with the remaining costing about 4.9 cents per dollar. They can thus be churned out an incredible rate, without any regard for cost. One Bitcoin costs over $1,500 in electricity alone to produce. In addition, it requires a hashrate of more than 9 billion GH/s, which is a huge amount of computing power, and the difficulty increases every 2,016 blocks, or about every two weeks.[37] The time, effort and expense that goes into creating 1 Bitcoin is huge in comparison to the U.S. dollar, which can be created, in the billions, at the flip of a switch. When you take into consideration the limited supply of Bitcoins, which of the two (Bitcoin and U.S. dollars) do you think has actual intrinsic value? If there is such a thing as intrinsic value for currencies, Bitcoin has intrinsic value, whereas the U.S. dollar and all other fiat currencies are essentially worthless. They exist as ideas, and nothing more. Bitcoin is real and has actual value!











The number of Bitcoin transactions per month (2009 – 2017)










The one hundred trillion Zimbabwe dollar note

Now, is it still worthwhile to buy Bitcoin, even when it’s up at an all-time-high (ATH) of $14,000 (or more)? Yes, of course it is. You can buy a fraction of a Bitcoin. According to Bitcoin Wiki, the smallest division of a Bitcoin is a satoshi, named after the pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto, creator of Bitcoin, and it is equivalent to one hundred millionth of a single Bitcoin, or 0.00000001 BTC. To get to grips with the value, as of October 2017, 1 U.S. cent ($0.01) is worth 171 satoshi.[40] That’s manageable to buy. In other words, if you have even 1 U.S. penny, you can still buy 171 satoshi, which is 171 hundred millionths of a Bitcoin. If you have $10 or $100, you can buy a larger part of a Bitcoin. There is no real barrier to entry, as long as you have access to a free Bitcoin wallet and a Bitcoin exchange, though it is also possible to buy Bitcoins from individuals through direct peer-to-peer transfers. Most people, nowadays, at least in the U.S. and UK, initially buy Bitcoin through a Bitcoin exchange, which is a platform where you can buy and sell Bitcoin, as well as store Bitcoin. Be warned, however, as Bitcoin exchanges have been hacked in the past. If you are very security-conscious, you’ll probably want to buy a TREZOR or other hardware wallet where you can store your Bitcoins securely and offline. If you want to open an account on Coinbase, which is one of the largest exchanges, you can use THIS LINK. You can also set up an account on CEX.io HERE; on Paxful HERE; or on many other exchanges. In addition, you should keep reading as much as you can about Bitcoin, keeping abreast of all the latest news, so that you know the current price of Bitcoin and any other macroeconomic events which will shape the future of Bitcoin—or how Bitcoin will shape the future of money. At the end of the day, Bitcoin is more than a currency—it is a revolution!
















For more beginners’ information on Bitcoin investing, I’d suggest that you read my short and concise information guide: Bitcoin: 10 Ways to Make Money Using Bitcoin, which is available HERE, as well as on Amazon.com and on Gumroad. Amongst other things, this e-book which teach you: the meaning of HODL, future estimates for the value of Bitcoin, the buy-and-hold strategy, how to become a Bitcoin miner, how to lend Bitcoin, investing in Bitcoin-based companies, how to set up a Bitcoin bank account, how to become a Bitcoin broker, short-term Bitcoin investing, how to become a Bitcoin blogger, how to become a Bitcoin e-book author, setting up your own Bitcoin exchange, and some tips for investing in initial coin offerings (ICOs). Everyone needs their own strategy. Consider this my attempt to provide you with the basic knowledge that will allow you to come up with your own strategy. If you’re interested in investing in Bitcoin, and believe, as I do, that Bitcoin could be the new digital gold, then do purchase and download this e-book. The future potential for Bitcoin is huge, and there is still time to invest. If you want to be a part of history as it unfolds; if you want to own a tangible asset that will retain and increase in value over time, then you should consider investing in Bitcoin. Finally, if you found this blog post helpful in any way, and feel that it is beneficial, then I would kindly request that you provide a donation so that I can keep producing high-quality and informative content for my audience. You can donate to me directly via PayPal, through Bitcoin (get in touch via Twitter @Nicholas19), or via PATREON here. If you want to keep in touch and get informed about any upcoming books, blog posts, videos, etc. then make sure to follow me on Twitter @Nicholas19, like my Facebook page HERE, and subscribe to my YouTube channel HERE.

Oh, and before you go, I’d like to share a gift with you. It’s completely FREE and I hope you will enjoy it. If you find it valuable or useful in anyway, please let me know. I’ve compiled a short information guide entitled 151 Amazing Money Secrets: What the Rich Know About Money and Their Secrets to Success & Prosperity, which contains 151 quotations from thinkers, philosophers, economists and businessmen, who have cracked the code of money, wealth and abundance. If you’d like to learn more, then check it out. It’s completely FREE. Click on the link below to find out more:





















Best wishes and keep on learning!

NJ Bridgewater
7 December 2017


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REFERENCES:

[1] John McAfee (2015) Bloomberg interview, 25 April 2015. URL: http://www.bloomberg.com/video/paypal-sees-20-billion-in-mobile-transactions-WlokACTBRterdjHAJGNB6w.html (accessed 03/10/2017).
[2] Image source: Cowrie shells used as dice, showing a roll of 3. Uploaded by Sodabottle (own work), 21 December 2011. CC BY-SA 3.0. URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cowry#/media/File:Cowrie_shells_-_sozhi_roll_of_3.jpg (accessed 07/12/2017). For more information on the license, see: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0 (accessed 07/12/2017).
[3] Image source: Photos shows pile of 1BTC-denominated brass coins, with the bitcoin logo, production year, the text "Vires In Numeris", with the tamper-evident holographic sticker on the reverse. Image in the public domain. Uploaded by Mike Cauldwell, 12 November 2012. URL: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/36/Physical_Bitcoin_by_Mike_Cauldwell_%28Casascius%29.jpg (accessed 07/12/2017).
[4] See: Nick Szabo, Twitter post (@NickSzabo4), December 5, 2017. URL: https://twitter.com/NickSzabo4 (accessed 07/12/2017).
[5] See: Shell money (Wikipedia article). URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell_money (accessed 07/12/2017).
[6] See: Why Did the U.S. Abandon the Gold Standard? Mental Floss, October 5, 2012. URL: http://mentalfloss.com/article/12715/why-did-us-abandon-gold-standard (accessed 07/12/2017).
[7] See: Mental Floss (2012).
[8] Image source: Mockup of a bitcoin paper wallet. Invalid public key intentionally used to prevent accidental deposits to this address. Uploaded by Canton at English Wikipedia on 18 April 2013. CC BY-SA 3.0.URL: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ab/Sample_Bitcoin_paper_wallet.png (accessed 07/12/2017).
[9] See: Cara McGoogan, Matthew Field (2017) What is cryptocurrency, how does it work and why do we use it? The Telegraph, 6 December 2017 10:38 AM. URL: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/0/cryptocurrency/ (accessed 07/12/2017).
[10] Image source: A print from 1845 shows cowry shells being used as money by an Arab trader, by Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins. Image is in the public domain. URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cowry#/media/File:A_print_from_1845_shows_cowry_shells_being_used_as_money_by_an_Arab_trader.jpg (accessed 07/12/2017).
[11] See: Mark A. Jordan (2014) What’s in a Meme? Richard Dawkins Foundation. URL: https://www.richarddawkins.net/2014/02/whats-in-a-meme/ (accessed 07/12/2017).
[12] Jamie Redman (2016) Is the Blockchain Rush a Search for Fool’s Gold, Bitcoin,com, December 26, 2016. URL: https://news.bitcoin.com/is-the-blockchain-rush-a-search-for-fools-gold/ (accessed 03/10/2017).
[13] Adam Smith (1776) An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Book 1, Ch. 7, par. 7 – 8. Available online at: http://geolib.com/smith.adam/won1-07.html (accessed 07/08/2017).
[14] Image source: Bitcoin price[f] history chart, linear scale, uploaded by Wikideas1 (own work) on 4 December 2017, CC0. URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitcoin#/media/File:Bitcoin_Price_History.png (accessed 07/12/2017).
[15] See: McGoogan & Field (2017).
[16] See: Robert Reed (2017) Column: Baffled by bitcoin: One man's quest to comprehend cryptocurrency, Chicago Tribune, December 5, 2017, 5:00 AM. URL: http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/columnists/reed/ct-biz-bitcoin-journey-robert-reed-125-story.html (accessed 07/12/2017).
[17] Satoshi Nakamoto (2008) Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System, Bitcoin.org, October 31, 2008. URL: https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf (accessed 07/12/2017).
[18] Image source: Bitcoin network data, uploaded by Mattäus Wander (own work) on 22 June 2013. CC BY-SA 3.0. URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockchain#/media/File:Bitcoin_Block_Data.svg (accessed 07/12/2017).
[19] See: Andrew Meola (2017) Understanding blockchain technology, bitcoins and the rise of cryptocurrency, Business Insider, Aug. 25, 2017, 4:36 PM. URL: http://www.businessinsider.com/blockchain-technology-cryptocurrency-explained-2017-8 (accessed 07/12/2017).
[20] Image source: Song Dynasty Jiaozi, the world's earliest paper money, uploaded 6 June 2005. Public domain. URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Money#/media/File:Jiao_zi.jpg (accessed 07/12/2017).
[21] Image source: Portrait of David Ricardo by Thomas Phillips, 1821. Image in the public domain. URL: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dc/Portrait_of_David_Ricardo_by_Thomas_Phillips.jpg (accessed 07/12/2017).
[22] David Ricardo (author), J.R. MucCulloch (editor) (1846) The Works of David Ricardo, with a Notice of the Life and Writings of the Author (London: John Murray), p. 263.
[23] See: Raul (2017) Here's a comparison of bitcoin and all of the world's money, Business Insider, Jun. 25, 2017, 3:03 PM. URL: http://www.businessinsider.com/bitcoin-compared-to-all-of-the-worlds-money-2017-6 (accessed 07/12/2017).
[24] See: Investopedia (2017) M1, Investopedia.com. URL: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/m1.asp (accessed 07/12/2017).
[25] Ibid.
[26] See: Investopedia (2015) How much of the United States' money supply is M1? Investopedia.com. URL: https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/041415/how-much-united-states-money-supply-m1.asp (accessed 07/12/2017).
[27] See: Ryan McMaken (2017) Money-Supply Growth Accelerates in Late 2016, Mises Wire, 01/06/2017. URL: https://mises.org/blog/money-supply-growth-accelerates-late-2016 (accessed 07/12/2017).
[28] See: Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (BGFRS) (2017) Money Stock and Debt Measures - H.6 Release, FederalReserve.org, November 30, 2017. URL: https://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/h6/current/default.htm (accessed 07/12/2017).
[29] See: Caitlin Schneider (2015) How Much Does it Cost to Manufacture U.S. Paper, Mental Floss, October 9, 2015. URL: http://mentalfloss.com/article/68650/how-much-does-it-cost-manufacture-us-paper-money (accessed 07/12/2017).
[30] See: BGFRS (2017) How much U.S. currency is in circulation? ederalReserve.org, November 15, 2017. URL: https://www.federalreserve.gov/faqs/currency_12773.htm (accessed 07/12/2017).
[31] Andreas M. Antonopoulos (2014) Mastering Bitcoin: Unlocking Digital Cryptocurrencies (Sebastopol, CA: O’Reilly Media, Inc.). This quotation is used under fair use.
[32] See: Jordan Tuwiner (2017) Is Bitcoin Mining Profitable or Worth it in 2017 & 2018? BuyBitcoinWorldwide.com, last updated June 13, 2017. URL: https://www.buybitcoinworldwide.com/mining/profitability/ (accessed 07/12/2017).
[33] See: Tuwiner (2017).
[34] See: Tuwiner (2017).
[35] See: Gregory Trubetskoy (2017) Electricity Cost of 1 Bitcoin (Sep 2017), Grisha.org, September 28th, 2017. URL: https://grisha.org/blog/2017/09/28/electricity-cost-of-1-bitcoin/ (accessed 07/12/2017).
[36] See: Trebetskoy (2017).
[37] See: Trebetskoy (2017).
[38] Image source: Number of bitcoin transactions per month (logarithmic scale), by Zhitelew (own work), created 31 May 2015, CC0. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_bitcoin#/media/File:BTC_number_of_transactions_per_month.png (accessed 07/12/2017).
[39] Image source: The 100 trillion Zimbabwean dollar banknote (1014 dollars), equal to 1027 (1 octillion) pre-2006 dollars. Uploaded 1 January 2009. Image is in the public domain. URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperinflation#/media/File:Zimbabwe_$100_trillion_2009_Obverse.jpg (accessed 07/12/2017).
[40] Satoshi (unit) (BitcoinWiki article). URL: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Satoshi_(unit) (accessed 07/12/2017).

3 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. You clearly haven't actually read/understood the article if you think that.

      Delete
  2. I really appreciate this post. Well described. Thank you so much...

    ReplyDelete