Bitcoin

The following graphic was put together by the folks at Promontory Financial and is extremely telling. It looks at three ways in which a U.S. citizen might choose to go about sending a $1,000 downpayment to Europe for the purpose of renting a vacation home. They put Bitcoin side by with with a traditional bank wire as well as a credit card transaction. The results might surprise you...

And yet gold still seems to be stuck in a downtrend. This week's sell off may have been due to trading shenanigans on the COMEX and many, including the UK Financial Regulator are asking questions as to whether gold price rigging is taking place.

Want to spend your #bitcoins? How about a ticket to space! Will discuss today live on @SquawkCNBC @virgingalactic

— Richard Branson (@richardbranson) November 22, 2013

Peter Schiff is sympathetic "with what [bitcoin] is trying to achieve," but as he explains in this brief clip he believes, "they are using the wrong vehicle." After rising from less than $20 to more than $600 in one year, many investors are wondering if bitcoin might be worth the risk, Schiff adds, nothing that early adopters pitch bitcoin as "gold 2.0" – a digital currency that cannot be manipulated like fiat money. Bitcoins are even "mined," similar to physical gold and silver (and are scarce and divisble); but as Schiff explains, bitcoins still fail as a substitute for gold and strongly urges investors to avoid this risky new currency. Bitcoin could very well have already hit its top, but Peter is confident gold is still well below its future record highs.

France’s General de Gaulle once said that the only thing that would unite Europe would be China. At the time he was probably visionary in the knowledge that the Europeans would never unite.

With gold once again getting the slamdown treatment this morning (even as stocks shrug off any taper tantrum fears) the following article from Venezuelan newspaper El Nacional seems quite prescient. As Liberty Blitzkrieg's Mike Krieger notes, it appears to imply that the struggling South American nation has agreed to sell or swap the gold it still holds overseas at the Bank of England to Goldman Sachs. Perhaps that helps explain where Maduro got the money for the Samsung deal...

While the last few days' hearings have focused on the nefarious aspects of the crypto-currency, it would appear that the adoption of Bitcoin is growing in the broad market place. While drugs, assassinations, and money-laundering are the headline-grabbing reasons why this unregulated asset is under the US (and European) government's eye, from ATMs, Subway (sandwich shops), and online retailers, the appeal is growing... and now, as AP reports, Cyprus' largest university will start accepting the digital currency Bitcoin as an alternative way to pay tuition fees.

A dispassionate analysis of Bitcoins, their function and implications.

When the US shutdown sent shivers and ripples through the financial markets in October with the fear that the federal government would end up defaulting on the repayment of its debts, the banks decided to set up contingency plans.

Crowdfunding now going mainstream in SouthEast Asia

Five years ago it was worth $0. Then, a month and a half ago it went to $150 a piece. On Monday it shot to over $600.

The height of absurdity in yesterday’s hearing probably came during the testimony from the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), in which the agency’s chief cited the 'benefits' of digital currencies, including anonymity, simple, easy to navigate, lower fees than the conventional financial system, globally accessible, can be used as both a store of value and medium of exchange, security, etc. Yet in listing all of these benefits, FinCEN’s chief was actually trying to make a case 'against' Bitcoin! In her mind, only criminal terrorists want low-fee, secure, globally accessible money. So we can expect more hearings, more regulation, more disclosures. At least, in the Land of the Free. However, on the other side of the world, though, they’re not afraid of Bitcoin.

Following yesterday's good-cop-bad-cop Bitcoin discussion, it is the turn of the Senate's Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs committee to comprehend the benefits of the unregulated cryoto-currwncy and why the fiat-defiers should be crushed (for their own good of course). Law Professors, FinCEN Directors, and Bank commissioners in on corner, and the CEO of BitPay in the other... ding ding, Round 2."The Present and Future Impact Of Virtual Currencies - security and international trade and finance" We can only imagine the vol about to hit BTC prices following yesterday's fun and games...

Yesterday the US Senate held hearings on "virtual currencies" (meaning Bitcoin).  Meanwhile the "virtual currency" ran up above $800/USD and it was reported it got above $900.  It pulled back but as of now, is hovering above $700.

Depending on the time of day, Bitcoin is up 100% (or 200% or 300%) or down 50% as the crypto-currency swings violently around in what appears a death spasm only to transform into a Tesla-like phoenician rise. But there is another crypto-related bubble that is exploding - and showing no signs of stopping. As Russia Today notes, the so-called "Snowden Effect" has seen Freedom of Information Act requests filed with the National Security Agency increase 888% this fiscal year.