The spike (and volatility) in the Bitcoin price has attracted renewed interest from many individuals, investors and businesses in recent weeks.
Today, I’ll take a bit of a deeper dive into the numbers and look at the reason why more people are considering Bitcoin as an alternative asset class.
The price of Bitcoin is measured in a currency like US Dollar (USD) or South African rand (ZAR) . Here’s a quick Bitcoin to rand price calculator and graph.
This price is set on Bitcoin exchanges all over the world by consumers buying and selling it. Since each Bitcoin exchange operates independently, the market force of buyers and sellers will set the price independently on that exchange.
For the first time ever, the price of one bitcoin has surpassed the price of used 1990 Honda Ballade sedans. While today’s swap can be attributed to a good day for bitcoin (up ~3%) and a bad day aging Japanese car owners, the big picture is that bitcoin has more than doubled in the last year (up ~185% from a year ago) while Hondas are essentially trading exactly at the price you would expect them...
Update: I once wrote about eToro as an investing platform, available to South Africans. This is no longer the case, nor my recommendation and I have updated this article. If this is the start of your investing journey, you’d be wise to spend a few hours to brush up on the basics. It’s not difficult (what some in the industry will want you to believe) and you can absolutely do it by...
We don’t like to talk about how much money we earn (this is the case in the West, at least; when I was living in Taiwan, I believe my neighbours on both sides knew my age, weight and salary). We hide our salary from our friends, peers, colleagues and in some cases even partners. Now, there are reasons aplenty to keep things private and there is always a requirement for some degree of...
I’ve been asked the question a lot: Is Craig Wright really the Bitcoin creator, known by the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto?
TL;DR: Who cares?
We should first question the relevance of knowing the real identity of Satoshi Nakamoto.
I’m currently working in Indonesia (and I’ll be here for a few more weeks) enjoying the hustle and bustle from sleepy, beautiful Cape Town.
A lot of apps and websites I use are now (and understandably) showing me their content in Bahasa Indonesia. Despite finding the language interesting and easy to study, I still prefer to see these sites in English.
Kudos to Carel van Wyk, for helping out with this one. I’m releasing it into the wild here to help other people who might have the same problem. The problem There are bots trying to gain access to websites, email and social media accounts, all the time. Don’t take it personally; they’re simply looking for (usually known) weaknesses to exploit and then once they’re in, they use your account to...
Preface: I “drank the cool-aid” early on when it comes to Bitcoin. I bought my first few bits in 2013, made some money and then lost it all again. I’m a firm believer in the technology and I get to work with some of the brightest minds on some of the most intellectually stimulating work, something I believe is the future of finance. I just don’t think it’s the future of remittances in...
Formerly Business Development and Marketing at Luno (from eight nerds in a drafty office to hundreds spread over three continents) and before that Marketing at PayFast. Currently a full-time nomad, learning, running and doing research, mostly in Latin America.