Recently, the price of Bitcoin has been rising like a rocket. China News Network IT Channel found from the Bitcoin China website that as of yesterday, the transaction price of 1 Bitcoin had reached 3,490 yuan. A month ago, the price was only about 1,000 yuan. This means that in the past month, Bitcoin has increased by about 249%.
Making money by “mining” is unreliable
It is understood that there are currently two ways to obtain Bitcoin: trading and "mining" (obtaining Bitcoin through complex calculations on the Internet). Faced with the rising price of Bitcoin, many people have begun to consider "mining." But the "mining" blue ocean has long since disappeared. According to a Taobao store owner who sells "mining machines", "mining" requires a mining machine. The higher the performance of the mining machine, the greater the probability of obtaining Bitcoin. However, in the future, the computing power of the entire network will become higher and higher, and the income from mining will also plummet. At the same time, the price of advanced mining machines is getting higher and higher, which has set a big "threshold" for "mining".
In addition, according to the design principle of Bitcoin, the output of mining will decrease as the number of Bitcoins increases. Last year, you could get 50 Bitcoins at a time, but this year it dropped to 25, and the output will be less and less. It is understood that Bitcoin is limited to 21 million, and in April this year, there were already 10.8 million on the market.
However, this has not stopped the "crazy" performance of Bitcoin, the momentum of "mining" has not diminished, and "speculating on Bitcoin" has become increasingly popular in China. A research report recently published by the technology website Business Insider shows: "The largest Bitcoin trading platform is now in China, replacing demand from Japan, the United States and Europe."
Although the price of Bitcoin continues to rise, there are still risks in "speculating on Bitcoin". Wang Yinping, chief analyst of Guolian Futures, said that Bitcoin itself is a virtual currency on the Internet. Only a few countries recognize the legal status of Bitcoin. Generally speaking, it does not have any guarantee, including guarantees from industry and government regulatory agencies.
Bitcoin moves towards payments
The continued rise in the price of Bitcoin has also aroused heated discussions. Netizen @Roy Li believes that Bitcoin is electronic gold (1270.30, -2.00, -0.16%) and plays the role of gold rather than banknotes. @李tiejun believes that Bitcoin is a collectible and has no monetary value. This collection is actually worthless, and the person who takes over in the end will lose it all. However, Beijing Garage, Guoke Electronics, and Baidu Accelerator have successively announced that they support Bitcoin payment, and some developers have even launched physical properties that support Bitcoin purchases. It seems that Bitcoin is moving in the direction of payments.
If Bitcoin performs well for payments, will its value still rise? At a recent trading seminar in New York, the American Winklevoss brothers said that the total market value of Bitcoin will exceed US$400 billion in the near future. If this prediction holds true, based on the number of 10.8 million Bitcoins on the market in April this year, this means that each Bitcoin will rise to about $40,000 in the future.
In June this year, when the Winklevoss brothers disclosed their Bitcoin ETF fund plan, they were ridiculed by some American media. They believed that Bitcoin was unreliable and also doubted the IQ of the brothers.
Regulatory policies may be introduced
While Bitcoin is developing in the direction of payment, it has also caused concerns from relevant departments. It is understood that Bitcoin transactions are not under the supervision system of banks. Some people question this and Bitcoin will be used to engage in illegal activities, such as money laundering and drug purchase.
In view of this consideration, last Friday, the New York State Department of Financial Services announced that it would hold a public hearing to discuss legislative issues regarding this virtual currency. At the meeting, it will be discussed whether to introduce a "BitLicense" license to manage the trading market of online currencies such as Bitcoin. This has caused heated discussions, and many people are worried that the introduction of these regulations may reduce the attractiveness of Bitcoin and lead to its devaluation.
However, Bitcoin circulates around the world, and monitoring may not be easy. Some media analysts believe that traders will use the method of "squeezing toothpaste" to make multiple transactions in small amounts to avoid monitoring, which further increases the difficulty of monitoring. What's more, Bitcoin uses anonymous transactions, and users can open multiple accounts, and the pseudonym has no connection with his real identity in real life.
Australia's "Daily Calculation" reported on the 16th that Bitcoin is exchanged between people and does not involve a third party, so it is more resistant. In addition, it uses passwords to ensure the integrity of transactions, which makes it almost impossible for outsiders to obtain the identity details behind the transactions. In addition, the authorities can close countless Bitcoin trading accounts, but as long as one account remains, Bitcoin can be resurrected.
