Warren Buffett talks about bitcoin, but not Bitcoin

ONE THING IS THE TOKEN AND ANOTHER THE PROJECT

By Alex Vallenilla / @alexvallenilla

The considerations of the tycoon Warren Buffett over bitcoin, have their foundation, from the point of view as an investor, which fails to explain one of the richest men in the world is about Bitcoin.

The difference is big, talk about Bitcoin or Bitcoin. In written language this has to do with the uppercase letter and that is when we speak of bitcoin in lowercase, in the system refers to the "token", that is, to the bits that the user uses as "coins", or that others use it as a digital asset.

Only in the previous thing the great confusions arise and it is that in the case of the economists, these try to explain the basics of bitcoin, using concepts that are proper of the economy that derives from the way in which the central banks operate, and there are enormous differences in the way a fiduciary money bill is produced with the production of a "token", that a user assigns value to the market and also uses it as a means of payment. While they may seem the same, they are not, therefore, on the concepts of the economy that exist today, you can not issue criteria on cryptocurrencies. If it has been difficult for those who know clearly of bitcoin, when they go into Bitcoin, it becomes much more complex.

When talking about Bitcoin, it is no longer about the currency, or the encrypted bits that are transferred between one user and another, but the project that allows this technology and there then the big difference arises. It is one thing to think that Bitcoin is only a means of payment and that it only serves to speculate with the value of the underlying asset and another thing is to detect the whole complex of investments, new projects, developments, updates and others that are being implemented after the irruption of Bitcoin in the world.

It is correctly true what Mr. Buffett says about bitcoin, that when used as a financial instrument to speculate with this, a person who buys it, would have to wait for someone else willing to pay a higher amount. But until then, everything that has arisen around Bitcoin does not take it into account, the mining companies that have emerged, the more than 10 thousand exchanges around the world, the thousands of cryptocurrencies, each with different uses and with projects very particular, the development of any number of applications for cell phones, for desktops, the number of solutions for users and micro-payments transfers, new investment models similar to fixed income with master nodes, an entire industry advertising on the web has been born, which uses cryptocurrencies, lotteries, online gambling houses, loan sites, digital media, exchanges that pay interest, a system that not only generates employment, but also that is creating new companies in the technology sector.

It is not the same to talk about bitcoin, than about Bitcoin. 05/12/2018