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Ryan Whitwam, writing for Forbes.com, says the anonymous cyber currency Bitcoin popular with online gamblers is bigger than ever and the ramifications are as well.
What is bitcoin?
Bitcoin is what's known as a cryptocurrency, a digital asset that exists only as data. You probably have money in the bank that is digital, but those digits equal physical currency. Not so with Bitcoin. Bitcoin also has no centralized regulation nor innate legal framework. As such, the value of Bitcoin is dictated entirely by the market, and the market is hot right now.
And that hot market is making people rich.
If you'd bought $1,000 of Bitcoin in 2010, you'd be worth $35 million right now, Whitwam points out.
That being said, Bitcoin is also highly volatile.
Imagine being paid in Bitcoin, and then finding your money was only worth half as much a few days later. Economies with that kind of inflation are not stable, but Bitcoin has the advantage of operating alongside regular government-backed money. Almost no one has all their assets in Bitcoin.
The good news, Whitwam says: “Bitcoin isn’t going anywhere”.
