Bitcoin has been the buzz word in the market for at least a year now as the digital currency continues to make waves (both large and small). There are some pessimistic or hesitant opinions out there about whether or not the currency has what it takes to become a fully functioning and practical alternative to conventional hard currency. However, with the increasingly fast rate at which large public companies are starting to accept payments in the form of Bitcoin, it is beginning to seem like the digital currency is here to stay.
Apple has changed its stringent policy against Bitcoin and other crypto currencies by finally allowing apps which perform transactions using them to be downloaded onto iPhones and iPads. The move from this technology giant is perhaps one of the biggest signals of Bitcoin's rising success as a viable currency.
Many big names in retail-such as Lord & Taylor, Overstock, and TigerDirect-have begun accepting Bitcoin for payments showing that both awareness and confidence in the currency. The increasing trend toward accepting Bitcoin has helped to spur resurgence in the currency's value. The increase in value is leading to a willingness to accept the currency. Ideally, this will become a continuous, self-propelled cycle allowing Bitcoin to experience its full growth potential and become a practical alternative currency which can be used for everyday purchases as well as for asset storage and investment.
Bitcoin Mining, Payment and Exchange Startups
The increasing number of companies accepting Bitcoin has sparked a flood of investments from venture capitalists amounting to more than $200 Million for startups getting involved in the cryptocurrency.
$5 million of that went to the highly secretive 21E6, a mining company operating out of San Francisco. This company is taking a long position in Bitcoin as it invests heavily into Bitcoin mining technology in order to mine as many as possible with the belief that the future value of the currency will far outweigh the mining costs.
A host of startups are appearing all over the place which plan to make payments using Bitcoin much easier both online and in brick and mortar stores. Young companies like BitPay and SnapCard are developing products and services which will make Bitcoin a practical currency for consumers to use in their everyday shopping. SnapCard, for example, has even claimed that users will be able to pay their taxes using the cryptocurrency.
Newnote Financial Corp (FRA: DE: 1W4), another young startup and pioneer in cryptocurrency and Bitcoin software has seen a lot of success with its cloud hashing services. In the past month alone, the company has earned an estimated $78,000 in gross sales. The company has made a number of strategic new partnerships in order to secure its success in the burgeoning Bitcoin market on the consumer end.
The Problem of Instability
One threat which continues to loom over any company or investor getting involved in Bitcoin is the dramatic fluctuations in value. As the digital currency struggles to establish itself as a viable currency, its value continues to skyrocket upward and then plummet downward in a wildly unpredictable trend.
This makes Bitcoin an extremely high risk currency for investors getting in before the currency has been fully adopted. Although Bitcoin use is higher than it has ever been, this does not guarantee that it will endure and become a mainstream currency. This is largely due to the many concerns both consumers, merchants, and governments have regarding the new cryptocurrency.
Some companies have come up with effective strategies to deal with this uncertainty. For example, Dish Network immediately exchanges the bitcoins for cash. On the production end we have mining companies like DNA Precious Metals Inc which has secured itself against such instability by diversifying its assets.
The independently operating subsidiary, DNA Crypto Corp, will expand aggressively into Bitcoin mining while the parent company continues to secure mining claims for precious metals. In this way, it makes itself a particularly attractive investment as it offers the rapid growth potential appealing to that aggressive investor in all of us. At the same time, it offers the security and consistency long associated with gold so that even value investors may become interested in adding DNA Precious Metals Inc to their portfolio.
Future Outlook
It is difficult to make a prediction one way or the other when it comes to Bitcoin. It is notoriously volatile and famous for its overnight hikes and drops. However, one could tentatively stay that, despite the wild fluctuations, the digital currency has moved steadily in the direction of increased acceptance and broader awareness meaning that it is on the path toward becoming a viable currency even if it is at the beginning of this path. In any case, it is no longer something Wall Street can afford to ignore
Oil producing countries, particularly in the GCC, could benefit if they would use bitcoin in oil trading, instead of dollars, Markaz’ research department argues.
By Arno M. Gulf Times Correspondent
There have been a number of proposals in the past to trade oil and gas in another currency than the US dollar, for political as well as for monetary reasons. Some OPEC member states not particularly friendly to the US, whenever there was a crisis of some sort, have been making repeated noise about denominating their price for hydrocarbons in another than the US currency, but have never quite managed to agree on an alternative.
The most active countries today that pursue a no-dollars-for-oil policy are Iran, which encourages all trading partners to pay for oil in a currency other than the US dollar, and Russia, whose flagship company Gazprom, the largest extractor of natural gas in the world, recently told oil importers from China and Japan that they should pay their bills not with greenbacks, but preferably with yen, yuan or even ruble.
But a new report (Disruptive Technology: Bitcoins, Currency Reinvented?) recently issued by Kuwait-based investment banking and asset management firm Kuwait Financial Centre, also known as Markaz, even goes a step further: Oil producing countries, particularly in the GCC, could benefit if they would use bitcoin in oil trading, Markaz’ research department argues.
This comes a bit as a surprise, since bitcoin as an unregulated and — as of now — highly volatile cryptocurrency, has no manifestation other than bits and bytes stored somewhere in the virtual space and seems not to be the most reliable means of trade for the world’s most sought-after commodity. The idea is not new, though: There has been an Internet debate about one year ago on what would happen if the Opec would adopt bitcoin as transaction currency. The outcome: Firstly, the US would certainly not sit and watch the dollar losing its petrocurrency status and would do whatever needs to be done to defend the greenback; secondly, China wouldn’t allow it as it wants the yuan to be a petrocurrency as well; thirdly, in the moment oil and gas gets priced in bitcoins, it would be exposed to the cryptocurrency’s extreme volatility with massive consequences and fiscal uncertainties for petroleum-exporting countries. Speculators had a wide and anonymous field to play.
So what did Markaz actually mean? They basically said that using bitcoins would save payment transaction costs for oil exporting countries, because sending and receiving bitcoins of any denomination is just a matter of seconds and costs next to nothing. For the clearance of oil payments through conventional banks, exporting countries currently have to wait one to three days and pay the usual banking fees.
But just for saving some transaction time and costs, would the GCC, where the oil industry currently accounts for 90% of exports and 75% of government revenue, as per Markaz’ own research, really be wise to channel these massive money flows through bitcoin clearing houses, which are, as per their nature, unregulated, work with open source codes and can get — at recent history shows — easily hacked and digitally robbed? This is open for debate.
Before any barrel will ever be paid for in bitcoins, it will be the Chinese yuan that has taken on the role as the dollar’s challenger. China already pays Russia’s and Iran’s oil in yuan and is busy setting up yuan clearing houses in major financial centres all over the world to facilitate the global money flow of its currency. This is, for now, probably a much better solution until the world knows what will rally happen to bitcoin.
Mad money Fund hasa buy rating now and Target Price.35 a share by 12/1/2014
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