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<\/a>The simple Bitcoin<\/p><\/div>\n
There was clearly a lack of enthusiasm from our readers on my Earth Day<\/strong> blog (it was our lowest weekly readership statistics since we officially changed the format from \u2018Morning News in Verse\u2019 <\/strong>to \u2018From a Bird\u2019s Eye View\u2019<\/strong> back in March 2012!).\u00a0 On a bar graph, that week\u2019s readership statistics looked like \u2018Death Valley\u2019<\/strong> next to the \u2018Mt. Whitney\u2019 <\/strong>of previous blogs.\u00a0 And while May is, in fact, the month with the most random ‘Days’ in it, National Take a Baby to Lunch Day<\/strong> and National Poem on Your Pillow Day<\/strong>, to name just a couple of the \u2018biggies\u2019, it has become abundantly clear to me that our audience is much more sophisticated than recognizing such random days.<\/p>\n So, this week\u2019s blog subject is something much more arcane than those aforementioned meaningless milestones; this week I will attempt to clear up a subject that I\u2019m sure is \u2018top of mind\u2019<\/strong> for most of you . . . Bitcoin<\/strong>. Actually, I\u2019ll be discussing cryptocurrency<\/strong> in general, but Bitcoin is to cryptocurrency what Kleenex<\/strong> is to bathroom tissue – the latter is just easier to flush down the toilet.<\/p>\n Unless you\u2019ve been under a rock for the last decade, you\u2019ve probably heard about Bitcoin.\u00a0 But like me, you also probably quickly filed it wherever Deferred Variable Annuities<\/strong> are filed.\u00a0 But, rest assured, your kid\u2019s kids will use nothing but cryptocurrency, even though they still won\u2019t understand deferred variable annuities.<\/p>\n “Hey, I’ve got an idea!”<\/p><\/div>\n Forget about explaining what Bitcoin is, you\u2019ll never really understand that, let\u2019s start with its advantages over today\u2019s currency.\u00a0 Today the U.S. dollar is the world\u2019s reserve currency<\/strong>, so a collapse of the U.S. dollar would create global economic turmoil<\/strong>.\u00a0 Investors would rush to other currencies (Monopoly money?), interest rates would rise and U.S. import prices would skyrocket, causing significant inflation.\u00a0 So, the value of the U.S. dollar is significant, not just to us, but to the rest of the world.\u00a0 Suffice it to say, the rest of the world isn\u2019t too excited about their dependence on our currency.\u00a0 Is this starting to remind you of the Earth Day blog?\u00a0 Oh, that\u2019s right, you didn\u2019t read it.<\/p>\n Thus, the Bitcoin was born – by some Japanese financial geniuses, probably after a few carafes of Saki.\u00a0 In a typical financial transaction today, there is a \u2018middle man\u2019<\/strong> \u2013 usually a bank (You\u2019re asking, is he really<\/em> going to tell us about Bitcoin?!!).\u00a0 Bitcoins eliminate the middle man and provides a currency that can\u2019t be counterfeited, nor can an account be hacked, and is globally accepted, if in fact it\u2019s accepted!\u00a0 Let\u2019s say you finally get enough money together to buy that Swiss chalet at the base of Mt. Blanc<\/strong>, that you\u2019ve always wanted.\u00a0 With Bitcoin, if the seller accepted it, you wouldn\u2019t need a bank, nor would you need to figure out an exchange rate between the U.S. Dollar<\/strong> and the Swiss Francs<\/strong> \u2013 you\u2019d just electronically send him some Bitcoin – it may only take two coins!<\/p>\n This is the part that I slept through while writing it, so feel free to skip down.\u00a0 When you hold Bitcoin, you control it through a private key\u2014a string of randomized numbers and letters that unlocks a virtual vault containing your purchase. \u00a0Thus cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin, are powered by a technology called the blockchain<\/strong>. OK, that’s it!! Blockchain, Schlockchain, just forget it, I\u2019m filing this one right alongside that Earth Day blog<\/p>\n Blockchain theory<\/p><\/div>\n OK, one final word before you doze off, just in case you were ready to go and buy some Bitcoin after reading this.\u00a0 Bitcoin, like azidoazide azide, which as I\u2019m sure you\u2019re aware, is the world\u2019s most explosive chemical, is extremely volatile.\u00a0 When Bitcoin began in 2009 a coin was worth about $0.009<\/strong>.\u00a0 Last month a coin was worth $63,503.<\/strong> \u00a0In the four months of this year alone, it has ranged from a low of around $8,000<\/strong> to a high of around $64,000<\/strong>.\u00a0 As of this writing the value is $49,077<\/strong>, so caveat emptor,<\/em> which translates to blockchain, schlockchain!<\/p>\n I\u2019ll bet you\u2019re saying to yourself that you wished you\u2019d read that Earth Day<\/strong> blog so as not to have inspired me to write about something even less interesting.\u00a0 Fear not, next week: Deferred Variable Annuities<\/strong>.\u00a0 Not!\u00a0 I\u2019m actually on my first road trip in a year and a half this week, so perhaps my next blog about my travels will be more in my wheelhouse and more interesting . . . or not!<\/p>\n My apologizes, I know that these were several minutes that you\u2019ll never get back!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Bob Sparrow There was clearly a lack of enthusiasm from our readers on my Earth Day blog (it was our lowest weekly readership statistics since we officially changed the format from \u2018Morning News in Verse\u2019 to \u2018From a Bird\u2019s … read more![\"\"](\"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Sake-300x260.jpg\")
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