I love the idea that someone could actually believe Bitcoin will reach $100,000. Let’s take a look at the reality: first of all, the compute power required is absurd. Secondly, the currency is too volatile for anyone to use in real-life transactions. “Guess what, dear? We can’t eat this month because I’ve been paid in Bitcoins. My company thinks they’re worth $10,000 because that was the price when they ran payroll but today they’re only worth $2,000 and we have to pay the mortgage and the auto loan…”

Thirdly, blockchain is really a solution still looking for a problem, and crypto-currency isn’t it. Even if some of the compute intensity was removed (e.g. no more mining), imagine trying to use a currency that you have to divide into fractions. “Here’s your coffee. That will be 0.0007 of a Bitcoin please. Oh, and sorry about all the computers around the world burning electricity to store and process all those constantly-updated distributed ledgers. Not very green, not very efficient, but hey, it’s a fad so who cares?”

Fourthly, while all money is illusory, the real part is that governments usually stand behind their currencies to some degree. No one stands behind Bitcoin. Hence the volatility, and hence a fundamental uncertainty. If you put $200,000 into a savings account with a US bank and the bank goes under, the FDIC will refund your loss. If you put $200,000 into a Bitcoin account and it goes under, you’re screwed. Onecoin is an excellent example of how terribly easy this is.

While Bitcoin may play the role of a gambler’s videogame (“Quick! What’s the price of a Bitcoin now? And now? And now?”) it has zero real-world utility except as a classic short-term speculative bubble.

But don’t let that stop you! I have some Bitcoins for sale at the bargain-basement knock-down price of only $25,000 each which is a steal when you realize they are absolutely certainly without doubt guaranteed to reach $100,000 sometime soon……Or maybe even a hundred trillion!