Today we’re joined by Christian Keroles, Bitcoin fanatic and editor of multimedia content for the internationally renowned Bitcoin Magazine.  Christian gives us a blockchain and bitcoin 101 for the uninitiated, we then talk about crypto as part of an investment portfolio, the Lindy Effect, and discuss Bitcoin’s boom or bust potential.

Christian first got into crypto currency in 2017 when many people, including myself,  were piling on. If you were there at the time, you’ll remember it as a period of pure euphoric derision. There were coins for everything and Bitcoin was on its way to landing on mars — as Christian put it “anything with a ticker was going to the moon.”

As we all know, this didn’t last forever and the all time highs set back then haven’t [yet] been revisited since. Plenty of people walked off with their tails between their legs, while other more evangelical owners like Christian and myself decided to stick it out.

I remember a conversation a couple of years ago with another guest — an intelligent guy — who lamented that ‘it’s a ponzi scheme and it’s going to zero – get your money out now’. Smart fella, sure, but I’m glad I’m glad I didn’t heed his advice. How often do we conflate intelligence with wisdom right?

We’re a few years removed from these discussions now and there’s a general consensus that Bitcoin is very far from, as my friend put it, a ponzi scheme.

At the core, Bitcoin is uncensorable and incorruptible items of digital value. Many people are put off by the stories about hacks, but fail to understand that these are taking place on exchanges or through digital wallets, quite separate from the bitcoin blockchain itself. Yes, we are right to be sceptical about some of the actors working on the peripheries of Bitcoin, but there’s pretty compelling proof in the legitimacy of the technology itself.

Of all of the cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin is the original. It arrived with its founder “Satoshi Nakamoto” (a pseudonym that I successfully butcher on the podcast – Natoshi Saka what?) Nearly 12 years ago the whitepaper was delivered to us, which, Christian posits, is a relatively good reason to assume it will still be around 12 years from now, too. He credits the Lindy effect; a theory that the future life expectancy of a technology is proportional to its current age, so that every additional period of survival implies a longer remaining life expectancy.

This brings us to the question of whether Bitcoin will be boom or bust in the long term. Should Christian be right and Bitcoin is still front and centre 12 years from now, it would make sense that it has either been deemed absolutely worthless and the value dropped down to zero, or perhaps that it’s been elevated to becoming a cornerstone value, not tied to any particular country.

My guess on which one of these two futures will come about is exactly that — a guess. Christian and I are biased owners of Bitcoin who are both excited in its long term promise so please don’t use this as investment advice on a highly speculative asset.

If you’re considering dipping your toes into crypto, do your own due diligence thoroughly and independently.

So on that – check out episode 94 here with Easy Crypto for a bit of background as to why I recommend them for any first time Crypto buyer to be. If you’re ready to get into Bitcoin, make a start here by setting up an account with Easy Crypto.

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