The current mania surrounding digital currencies is a perfect fit for this particular stage of terminal capitalism.
It very clearly isn’t: nearly every major economic catastrophe of the neo-liberal age — including the Great Recession — has been caused by deregulation and speculation.
Unlike cryptocurrencies, the Canadian dollar has never lost 10 per cent of its value in a day, or 30 per cent of its value in four months.
Second, the failure of business journalists to notice potentially debilitating trends and fads is so well known it is now a matter of academic study.
The problem is now much greater than mainstream media’s lack of aggressive investigation, but rather of its own ideologically driven support for that which deserves scrutiny.
Since the start of the pandemic, house prices in Canada are up 50 per cent, most essential construction materials are up a staggering 20 to 50 per cent, and gas is at an all-time high.
The Bitcoin Network supports a global, rules-based monetary system, and houses its native asset BTC on a distributed ledger.
Its supply is hard-capped at 21 million, which means that no matter how high demand gets, the supply can’t be altered.
But for those of us who are being paid in the financial equivalent of a melting ice cube, the value of an inflation-proof asset is clear.
In 2018, he called Bitcoin “rat poison squared.” Well, two of his top three holdings are financial service companies that stand to lose lucrative transaction fees if Bitcoin gains acceptance.
When Ether , the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap that lives on the Ethereum Network, launched in 2014 at $0.33 per coin, it was open to anyone.
After all, Bitcoin doesn’t produce any revenue so every dollar earned has come from someone else buying in at a more expensive price.
What I’m arguing for is our right to decide what we invest our money in.