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Quote from: jaDEB on January 22, 2018, 10:27:48 am

Are you refereeing to "Is this bitcoin’s crash-and-burn moment?" or other one ?

No there is a letter to the editor "Bitcoin's fall no surprise" - which I found interesting

Despite reassurances from the bitcoin faithful, we may well be seeing the beginning of the end of the bitcoin bubble (Bitcoin plunges on investor jitters, January 18). This should not come as a surprise to anyone who has bothered to seriously interrogate the nature of the phenomenon.

This unregulated digital unit, created (or "mined") at great computational effort and cost and limited to 21-million units in issue (if the anonymous creators are to be believed), was touted to become a worldwide payment mechanism. This was never going to happen, simply because bitcoin in its current guise and the numerous copycats it spawned do not meet any of the criteria of an acceptable currency.

Apart from matters such as having to be a store of at least some value, a generally accepted means of payment and a unit of account, the fundamental question of who controls the volume in circulation remains unanswered. In a sense, bitcoin units are not unlike the cereal box cards of baseball heroes or Ben 10. The euphoria of "mining" these cards evaporated as soon as the supply dried up, and you can’t even show your collection of bitcoins to your grandchildren.

That the blockchain technology underlying cryptocurrencies may well find useful application in many other areas is fairly certain. Unfortunately, the mystique surrounding the technology blinded many to the risk of investing in cryptocurrencies.

Unlike the retailers and other vendors who jumped on the bandwagon and accepted cryptocurrencies, the small guys who have already or are still to lose their investments may well receive some sympathy.

Blignault Gouws
Waterkloof Ridge