Bitcoin: an investment or a coin-toss?
Crypto currencies have made headlines from time to time and supporters offer a variety of reasons as to why they are important. Investment is just one of them. But is it valid? Bitcoin was among the first (if not the first) cryptocurrency and is by far the most famous version. A cryptocurrency is a "digital asset". It exists only in cyberspace. The coins are "mined" using extremely powerful computers, and ownership is recorded on a database known as a blockchain. Incidentally the energy consumption involved in the mining process is huge: equivalent to the electricity consumed annually by Switzerland ( article )! So what are the benefits of Bitcoin? Purchasing power One of the main benefits of the currency is that there is a finite number of coins. A total of 21 million coins can be mined. That is all. (the good news for the environment is that we are almost there, with around 90% now in circulation , and once all are extracted, the energy consumed by the sector