The Mr Robot Buy

For cyberpunk fans the tv show Mr Robot is great, if you haven't seen it, get on it. Bitcoin and the concept of competing corporate crypto-currencies even feature in the plot. Despite this technical depth and alternative theme, it seems to have heaps of fans. It averaged 1.4 million views every week in America last year.

It makes you think about the growing level of awareness in society for bitcoin, and of current cultural preferences. With bitcoin still in its infancy as far as market capitalisation what is the real level of enthusiasts investment? Is there a whole lot of people who are currently into bitcoin theoretically, but not yet invested? With a market cap of around 10 billion USD what does this equate to per person? How many people are into bitcoin? Are we still early adopters?

Estimates I've read of how many people are using bitcoin range from a 1 or 2 million to 100 million people something more accurate would be useful. So it could be anything from $10,000 to $100 USD held per person on average. From my initial perspective, the higher number of users feels like it makes sense, considering the number of people I know with bitcoin. However taking the pessimistic stance might be a better choice.

In this case, what if every Mr Robot fan decided to buy one bitcoin?  This would equate to an increase in investment of over 840 million USD, a pretty big number. This could make the price rise by a minimum of 8%. Not nothing, but if you take into account current daily exchange volumes, with a mean around 25 million USD. That day would theoretically make the "Mr Robot buy" put the price up, worst case scenario to...  $20,760 USD. Crazy moon!!

These back of the envelope calculations are baffling. 1.4 million Mr Robot fans each buying new bitcoins in a day would certainly not be an insignificant event. Yet we haven't seen anything like this recently, why doesn't the social change convert to bitcoin price? It brings to mind a few ideas. Is bitcoin trading volume becoming a less significant part of its overall volume? Are bitcoin fans just not that into money?

With 1 million holders the average bitcoiner would have more than $10,000 USD worth of bitcoin. A number that seems quite high for a young computer punk. The value of bitcoin is supposed to be dispersed. It could be more like 2 or 3 million holders and It may even be that MR Robot fans already own bitcoin. The exact numbers must be in the block chain.

With further research on bitcoin wallet numbers we can find that there are currently 4,233,000 bitcoin wallets with a decently spendable amount of money in them. With around 3 million of those containing less than one bitcoin leaving about 1.2 million wallets with more than one coin. You can start to see why the 1 million holders assumption used above is reasonable and why "the Mr Robot buy" throughs up such big numbers. We can safely say that there are between 1 and 3 million bitcoin holders.

The math shows that we do in fact have a simple solution for toppling debt and "Evil Corp" issues we see on TV and in real life. Yet, for many old school crypto holders this is eye role material, Images of bear whales haunt our minds. We know most value held in bitcoin sits in wallets holding between 10-100 coins and we have been trying this for years. It seems that many of us are already in bitcoin to a high level and have become critical and pessimistic. We have taken a few hits and in a way we'd rather watch a show and dream about change than drop any more cash. A typical state for a bitcoiner, an atheist like distaste for self-promoting sermons. The truth is though that the corporate investors have not yet got to bitcoin and it is still accessible to masses of early adopters. If we just picked up our nerd sized investments and bought that one more coin, it might make all the difference.

So what will future episodes bring? It seems likely that the majority of people who would say they are "into bitcoin" don't actually own a significant amount. Are people afraid because of past criminal associations?  Is the show an elaborate hoax distracting us from this truth? At what point do people reach maximum conspiracy theory saturation?

So let's get excited, if we do this will then lead to more interest and become a catalyst for change. We've got to understand that the 100 million odd potential bitcoin curious might actually just get angry at Evil Corp and buy bitcoins too. All of the sudden "Evil corp" would be left out of the picture. Hopefully we can read this and understand, that though it's confusing it doesn't have to be, and that popular culture is on board. If everyone stands by their morals and gets behind the concept, no elaborate hack is necessary. If you don't have bitcoin then why not vote against the establishment with your money and buy bitcoins. We can change the world. But we have to snap out of our stupor.The money will flip to those who participate in the new popular culture. Is real or is it a hallucination? Just like Elliot, underground bitcoiners are no longer so sure.

Cryptonopoly

WW3 and Bitcoin

This is the internet, drama and conspiracy theories are rife. the best of us hold a healthy scepticism of all the things we read here. Votes by click power, however has got to have some merit when thinking about public opinion.

A common YouTube military theme is World War Three. Brazen comparisons between the US and the Chinese or Russian militaries and secret technologies are at the top of the list. On that theme I want to explore what might happen to Bitcoin, should these ideas have any truth to them.

Financial engineering is a major factor in large scale conflicts. Where the militaries of the USA and its proposed enemies might be similar in terms of soldiers and power the United States spends a lot more on maintaining its dominance than others spend. $597 billion as compared with China's $145 billion. This is currently sustained by the US in the face of large trade deficits (484b), government indebtedness(17trillion) and a lack of foreign reserves (125b). China for one is in almost the opposite situation with a trade surplus (293b) and huge reserves (3trillion). The USA is able to do this in essence, because of worldwide support, but the numbers are huge and baffling. When did we sanction all of this spending? You have to ask why we don't feed hungry people with this money instead and how long the USA will be able to use credit from the rest of the world, so called enemies included, to continue its military dominance?

It's a strange situation which there is no one clear answer, however should it all fall apart, or should a situation like world war three come to bet, the financial engineering will surely become a problem for the USA. What is an advantage now can certainly turn around in the future under very different and very stress WW3 conditions.

There is one solution however, drop the dollar completely! A radical solution to radical paranoid conspiracies, but a solution nonetheless. With technology like bitcoin, creating an impartial world currency, there is a quick way to make the debt problem go away. The USA could inflate away its financial issues, and when it comes to payback, simply switch to bitcoin. This would erase any imbalances. I'm not saying it will happen, nor would I want to endorse such crazy violence, but to all you war mongers conspirators out there, there might be a back up plan at the pentagon. Cryptocurrency could be the latest weapon in the futures dirty financial warfare. 

Bitcoin; The FUN Investment

I get the feeling when I watch the financial new these days, and when I see my friends talk to other people in the restaurant about there new experiences with bitcoin. One of the best things about bitcoin, is how it is an investment, yes it might be high risk, and YES it is exciting!

When you money doubles in 6 months it is great feeling', quality fun. It's hard to find an investment like this that is accessible to the masses, Bitcoin is. The price can go down too, you've got to be prepared for maybe 20% in a day, it can be shock, it makes you feel compelled to check on it regularly, it is all part of the intriguing drama. It is in this way that Bitcoin fills a serious savings niche.

Its become apparent that this niche is not so small. It's the a gap between straight up gambling in a casino, conservative savings accounts and putting gold in a safe. Its the middle class cash and what is becoming clear is that this is where most people are these days.

You might have money in some super fund doing nothing and boring you to death. If your in New Zealand, you might be unhappy to hear about how these funds have been investing in al sorts of unsavoury things and illegal thing. Nevertheless the money sits there in a kind of unhappy de-facto relationship. Most people don't have enough money to have shares or become angle investors in some highly lucrative exciting business like what Uber once was. Smaller online share services tend to have high fees and predatory tactics. Traditional brokers don't want to talk to you unless you have $25K to blow.

So when your saving for a house, a new car or a holiday, you just put your money in the bank and its even more totally boring (that is unless your bank goes bust). Instead you could put it in Bitcoin? If you had done that in the last six months you could have doubled your money! Beats zero interest. Not only that, but when you go on the holiday, you won't have to pay as many currency conversion charges!

If you have some spare money and you feel the need to make it big, if your one of the many unfortunate gabling addicts, instead of going to the casino why not just buy some bitcoin. Then you get a little bit of a fix, everyday! Even when the price of Bitcoin goes down it is a little fun to own, because you know that tomorrow you could hit the jackpot. It's like holding your hand for the next deal.

So as over the year bitcoiners, myself included, have been expelling energy convincing people of the soundness of the investment and of how volatility wasn't so intense and that it will recede with time. We come to the realisation that all the excitement is actually a good thing. Who wants a boring immoral elitist investment when you can have a wild one from accessible yet underground counterculture. Something more personalised to your way of thinking and your sense of life.