Should You Buy BTC?

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As the world’s current front runner in the Crypto Currency market, BTC have been making some serious headlines, and some serious fluctuations in the last 6 months. Almost everyone has heard of them, and almost everyone has an opinion. Some can’t fathom the idea that a currency with any value can be created from nothing, whilst some love the idea that something without Government control can be traded as a valuable entity in its own right.

Where you sit on the “Should I Buy BTC?” fence probably ultimately boils down to one question: Can I Make Money from BTC?

Can You Make Money from BTC?

In just the last 6 months, we have seen the price go from $20 a coin in February, up to $260 a coin in April, back down to $60 in March, and back up to $130 in May. The price has now settled to around $100 a BTC, but what happens next is anyone’s guess.

BTC’s future ultimately rests on two major variables: its adoption as a currency by a wide audience, and the absence of prohibitive Government intervention.

The BTC community is growing rapidly, interest in the Crypto currency has spread dramatically online, and new services are accepting BTC payments increasingly. Blogging giant, WordPress, accepts BTC payments, and African based mobile application provider, Kipochi, have developed a BTC wallet that will allow BTC payments on mobile phones in developing nations.

We have already seen people make millions on the currency. We are seeing increasing numbers of people experimenting with living only on BTC for months on end, whilst recording the experience for documentary viewing.

You can buy a takeaway in Boston, coffee in London, and even a few cars on Craigslist using BTC. Searches for BTC have rocketed in 2013, with April’s hike and subsequent fall in the BTC price. Last week the first large acquisition of a BTC company was made for SatoshiDice, an online gambling site, for 126,315 BTC (about $11.47 million), by an undisclosed buyer.

This rapid growth in awareness and uptake looks set to continue, if trust in the currency remains strong. Which leads to the second dependency. Government regulation.

Although specifically designed to work independently from Government control, BTC will inevitably be affected by Governments in some way. This must be the case for two reasons.

Firstly, to achieve high levels of adoption, BTC will have to be accessible to large numbers of people, and that means spreading beyond the realms of hidden transactions to normal everyday transactions for individuals and businesses. Secondly, these BTC transactions could become a trackable part of people’s taxable wealth, to be declared and regulated alongside any other kind of wealth.

The European Union has already declared that BTC is not classed as a Fiat currency, or as money, and as such, will not be regulated in its own right. In the US, the 50 state system and number of bureaucratic bodies involved has inevitably made decisions more difficult, with no consensus reached thus far. BTC is not considered to be money as such, but it is considered to act like money.

A thriving BTC market in the US has a more uncertain future for now, and any conclusive legislation in the US could either have a very positive, or a very negative effect on the future of BTC.

So, Should You Buy BTC?

The answer depends mostly on how risk averse you are. BTC certainly isn’t going to be a smooth investment, but the potential of this currency is huge.

Paddy Estridge