Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies set out to upend the financial order and replace conventional money. Bitcoin has certainly disrupted the global financial system, but can it ever live up to the hype?

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Find The Economist’s latest finance and economics coverage:

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The competitive business of crypto mining:

Why is mining bitcoin bad for the environment?:

Read more about the environmental cost of bitcoin mining:

How does finance view bitcoin?:

Will banks survive the transition to digital money?:
Read more about the rise of e-money:

The value of scarcity in bitcoin:

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32 thoughts on “Crypto: will the bitcoin dream succeed? | Onlyinvesting.info”
  1. Given that a bitcoin currently cost $36,597, there are only enough bitcoins for every person to have $88.72 worth. If bitcoins were distributed using the current global distribution of wealth, 99.9% of people would have $16.87 worth of bitcoins, and people in the top .001% would have 0.73 bitcoins each. WITH THAT BEING SAID ITS TOO RISKY NOT TO OWN ANY AND EVERYONE SHOULD HAVE AT LEAST 1% OF THERE

  2. bitcoin is not money. And it never wanted to be. Bitcoin is asset, a replacement of gold. Because it’s absolutely scarce.

  3. The volatility of Bitcoin is just temporary. Once the world accepts it and understand it, the volatility will be gone, just like gold.

  4. Wasnt bitcoin made to make anonymous transactions for illegal trade? Also what happened to the child abuse imagery found within bitcoins blockchain that the gaurdian reported on in the past?

  5. The Economist, you have failed to give Bitcoin a fair shake.

    You ignored the lightning network, which is designed for instant transaction speeds, and is what is primarily used in El Salvador.
    The same regurgitated "it's a bubble narrative". 12 years later and Bitcoin is still growing at an exponential rate. Maybe there's something here?
    You really think central banks don't cause big problems in the world?
    Maybe those could problems could be considered here. Inflation? No?
    It gives the ability for the unbanked to have access to a new financial system, which central banks have failed to do for so much of humanity.
    It is shameful that such a "reputable" news source could not do proper research or present a fair argument. It would take a few minutes of google to find that information.
    I could go on, but you probably won't read this comment or consider it anyways.
    Dislike from me.

  6. Just another pump and dump and then pump and dump the next bitcoin coin. It's just a piece of code that can be hacked, cracked or thrashed. USDC and others will crash bitcoin hard so look out for one hell of a crash. Would you rather have a decentralized digital currency that does not provide any interest or insurance if lost,stolen or destroyed or a Central bank Digital currency that does? But it has a limited amount of coins at 21 million, so what the next coin has a limit to and then the next and then the next to infinity. Some say but they have a special network, so what last time I checked anyone can make yet another owe so special network anytime they want. A digital scam for the digital age!

  7. The financial system we have now is the one creating very few winners and lots of losers. We need something new, something decentralised. I opt in for Bitcoin. The amount of misinformation in this video is a bit sad. Someone should lose their job.

  8. If you live in a stable democracy with a stable financial system, Bitcoin might seem foolish and unnecessary. But for the billions of people who live under authoritarian regimes or don’t have access to global financial markets, it will be life changing.

  9. Understand it before you make a documentary about it. Grouping together a string of contraversial media narratives is not conducive to education. Very disappointing from a media outlet calling itself The "Economist".

  10. We should trust the central banks that print money out of thin air and depreciate the value of the US Dollar by almost 100% since it's creation.

  11. “Digital casino, too volatile to be trusted” eh. “Volatility” because it’s a nascent asset class. “Trusted” – the whole stinking can of worms that is the existing monetary system is our alternative. Bitcoin network, based on blockchain, is a “trustless” system. Good luck getting anything like this out of fiat and the coming CBDCs

  12. Don't trust any trashtube channel that has over about 100k Subscribers. 99.99% of them are sell out channels to form an agenda. Bowing down to Trashtube and giving misinformation in every subject out there and silencing those that speak the truth about ANYTHING.

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