Opinion: Despite Price Drop, Bitcoin’s Long-Term Outlook Still Strong
Many believers in the Bitcoin movement have undoubtedly been shaken by the recent price action in the cryptocurrency market. Since peaking at $14,000, the cryptocurrency has tumbled by over 50%, falling as low as $6,600 on Sunday night.
This is decisively bearish price action, especially considering the fact that the Bitcoin block reward halving is approaching, all while the macroeconomic backdrop has seemingly begun to favor alternative assets like BTC and gold.
Despite this drop, there is a confluence of fundamental reasons why I believe that Bitcoin’s long-term growth trend of adoption remains intact.
Reasons why I remain long-term bullish on #Bitcoin:
– Entrance of Square, ICE, Fidelity, others into cryptocurrency
– Bank wires are slow and expensive
– Financial censorship and deplatforming across the globe
– "The world has gone mad and the system is broken" – Ray Dalio— Nick Chong (@_Nick_Chong) November 25, 2019
Bank Wires are Slow… And Expensive
Being a serial freelancer in the international cryptocurrency community, I’ve been required to work with companies from all over the world. Of course, this has meant that I’ve had to receive payment by international bank wire. And most of the time, it hasn’t been all too pretty.
Case in point, a company I was working with that is based in Asia sent me a bank wire that took over one week to send, then cost me $25. What’s crazy is that a week settlement and $25 for a wire isn’t even the worse case I’ve heard of; Bitcoin educator and programmer Andreas Antonopoulos often tells stories about how some of his wires get stuck in the ether for months, while others online claim that sending money overseas can cost them upwards of 5% per transaction.
Bitcoin fixes this. The below Bitcoin transaction of 44,000 coins, worth some $300 million, was sent for under $1 worth of transaction fees and settled in under an hour.
— Whale Alert (@whale_alert) November 24, 2019
Financial Censorship is Taking Place
While it seems as though more people have access to a bank account than ever before, it isn’t all sunshine and rainbows. Per previous reports from Blockonomi, the Hong Kong Economic Journal revealed that the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) has just canceled a “business account that has been used during crowdfunding for protest activities, because the use of the account does not conform with the stated purpose when the account was opened.” This came shortly after PayPal revealed that it would not be processing payments for PornHub’s adult performers.
Bitcoin is a solution in these cases because no central authority, as long as you’re using the right cryptocurrency wallet, can close your account or crypto addresses. In fact, anyone, anywhere, with a connection to the internet and a smart device, can download a Bitcoin wallet, and start transacting from there.
Mainstream Companies Investing in Bitcoin
This all comes as mainstream corporations have invested actual capital, both human and economic, in the Bitcoin space. Just last week, for instance, financial services giant Fidelity Investments was granted a trust license by the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS).
In layman’s terms, this new license will give Fidelity’s cryptocurrency branch the permission to launch a cryptocurrency custody and trade execution platform for institutions and individual investors for New York residents — which is notable as this is where much of American wealth is managed, traded, and such.
Also, Square — the massive fintech company — has its own cryptocurrency division that is staffed by a handful of members. Of course, five or so full-time staffers working on Bitcoin isn’t the epitome of adoption, though Square’s ambitions tell a broader story about Bitcoin adoption in Silicon Valley and on Wall Street.
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OhNoCryptocurrency via https://ift.tt/2PblI7a @Nick Chong, @Khareem Sudlow
