It's Official: Bitcoin Was The Top Performing Currency Of 2015
For most investors, the major story of 2015 was the expectation and eventual fulfillment of a rate hike, signalling the start of tightening monetary policy in the United States. This policy is divergent to those of other major central banks, and this has translated into considerable strength and momentum for the U.S. dollar.
Using the benchmark of the U.S. Dollar Index, a comparison against a basket of major currencies, the dollar gained 8.3% throughout the year.
Despite this strength, the best performing currency in 2015 was not the dollar. In fact, the top currency of 2015 is likely to be considered the furthest thing from the greenback.
Bitcoin, a digital and decentralized cryptocurrency, staged a late comeback in 2015 to overtake the dollar by a whopping 35% by the end of the year.
Bitcoin is no stranger to extremes. During the year it came into the mainstream in 2013, Bitcoin gained 5,429% to easily surpass all other currencies in gains. However, the following year it would become a dog, losing -56% of its value to become the world’s worst performing currency in 2014.
The second best performing major currency, relative to the USD, was the Israeli shekel. It gained 0.3% throughout the year, and the Japanese yen (0%) and Swiss franc (0%) were close behind, finishing on par with how they started the year.
The world’s worst performing currencies are from countries that were battered by commodities or geopolitical strife.
Ukraine’s hryvnia fell -33.8% in the aftermath of Crimea. Brazil’s real (-30.5%), the Canadian dollar (-15.9%), Russian ruble (-20.8%), and South African rand (-26.7%) all lost significant value in the purging of global commodities. Gold finished the year down -10%, and silver at -11%.
And as China devaluation accelerates, Bitcoin has been surging since the start of the year...
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imagine that! BTCUSD up 5% just today ..
SEC To Approve #Bitcoin #Blockchain For Stock IssuanceBe prepared for "yabbut, it was $1,400 once, der, derp, duh!"
I love it! Hook my Ants to a solar array and watch that GHASH balance climb.
Almost 0.5 oz of gold per bitcoin...
Please tell me: Where do you store Bitcoins? You know, without being stolen, confiscated, and taxed.
MEFOBILLS: Sovereign money would be anchored to goods/services/labor. Bancor would be anchored to goods/services in foreign exchange. Bitcoins would then be anchored in exchange relative to the sovereign wealth currency.
Today Bitcoins are simply bought as a hedge against private credit, and banker private credit relates only to its debt instruments (hence it is unstable and usurious). Bitcoins come into existence as mined from computing horsepower, and hence have no relation to labor’s goods/services. So, this type of crypto currency does not meet the test of good money (doesn’t flex to an economies cyclical needs). Bitcoins can be a good store of wealth though (scarcity), so go for it and buy some. But, don’t use it to run an economy.
Marc Faber said yesterday in his Bloomberg interview on January 6, 2016 that Bitcoin was the best performing asset in 2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Oq_Ze8LG-Q
So now we know why Jamie Diamond has taken a big position with his friend Blythe.
BitCoin is NOT a fucking "asset".
Do you even know what an asset is?
Apparently it's an entry on a computer screen. Isn't that what EVERYONE calls "assets"? We're all part of the casino my friend. I just happen to trust Bitcoin a bit more than the Bankster controlled "assets".
As long as there is a US "shadow gov't" that can do anything it wants illegally on the Internet, I will not trust any digital currency. Period.
If the "US shadow gov't" was ABLE to "do anything it wants illegally on the Internet", you would not have been able to post your comment. The truth is that they CAN'T DO "anything". There are limits to what they can do and if they COULD "break" Bitcoin, they would have already done it!
but the numbers in my brokerage account
and the paper in my pocket
are assets?
Bitcoins are backed by wasted computing power.
So is Rockstar Games, but they've made what, a billion bucks off it.
And some day in the near future it'll be a billion satoshi.
The new currency will be carbon credits.......
>> Bitcoins are backed by wasted computing power.
USDs are backed by wasted human lives.
You win the reply of the day there! ;-D
beat me to it. but i would have added a big IF..THEN
brings to mind "death control systems" comments by Radical Marijuana
Naw uhhh, it's Gaaareeen! ;-)
Keep them with your tulip bulbs.
I've said this from DAY ONE. Of course TBTB are going for this, they are going to use bitcoin or something like it for global currency. They at first, pretended to not like it, to get people to think it's good. This is the reason I hate it. I will not go to electronic satanic mark of the beast.
The issuance of bitcoin is tied to 1) computational power 2) electrical power. Therefore it is the only currency that employs the two most important commodities of the 21st century. Other commodities such as gold or oil only employee electrical/chemical power, hence they have value but that value is not as encompassing as that of bitcoin. I own both, BTW. Different tools for different jobs
You got me thinking.
Bitcoin is just another financial instrument that assists/extend financial engineering/fraud.
Bitcoin has no value/needs. Oil, and most commodities have value and are needed for human survival. Bitcoin is just a fraud by different perpetrators. Or, maybe by the same perpetrators.
In any event, obviously that Bitcoin gambling/investment will go up during the financial meltdown because there isn’t any more economic growth for all the counterfeited currencies to go too. Still, Bitcoin will have no value post-collapse because Bitcoin is a worthless algorithm.
That's odd. The Market seems to think otherwise.
really, no value?
- no value in fast and secure transactions, when compared to banks?
- no value in transactions which are fully secured and verified?
- no value in decentralized trust? (see, trust is the MAIN asset of banks, do you trust something thats corrupted, in the hands of psychopaths, so called "elite" when history has proven time and time again how they bankrupt entire societies over and over?)
- no value in something thats out of the hands of governments and challenges their out-of-thin-air money-minting monopoly and debt fraud?
- no value in very low transaction fees for all this?
why are you using internet, when your kind has been spouting same flatearther nonsense since its invention.
bitcoin is the internet of fintech
Where to store your Bitcoins? I store mine in a vault at coinbase.
Open your own account in minutes. I have my account linked to my checking account, I can now do instant buys and tranfer money between accounts. Granted my limit is $3000 per day, but I can live with that and it does take awhile to get to that level.
https://www.coinbase.com/join/55fade0681d9245e3300006f
And they guarantee they can't be stolen or hacked.
What's the problem? It's called DIVERSIFICATION. For I also own the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Generation Casascius Physical Bitcoins along with Titan Physical Bitcoins. They are great to have for Divorces and Bankruptcies. Nice to know I have options if and when I am forced to leave this wonderful Country. It's my Hitlery Clinton Put.
Where's Fonestar, with " buh teh fucking Bitcoins " ?
Still more volatile than a balloon fulla acetylene gas next to a match.
Like a currency stock market heading for a blow off top.
Useful only to move money, and cash in asap on something of lasting value.
fonestar was a program built to pump BTC and provide liquidity during the resultant dump.
ZH was its venue.
;)
used to be great back in the day when you could attach 'em to helium balloons with a nice long wick and send 'em high up in the sky for some special fireworks
The title should say: Its official bitcoin its the most volatile crap of all times
Bitcoin - volatile on the upside. Crap.
and it's so sparkly
With all the world governments in financial trouble. Does anyone think bitcoin and the rest on the breed are going to be allowed to circumvent paying taxes?
When the axe falls....it's going to be bloody.
"If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it." –Gipper
People pay taxes on bitcoin gains right now. If some people choose not to, how is that any different than someone choosing not to pay capital gains tax? Whether or not you decide to pay taxes has nothing to do with Bitcoin.
https://www.irs.gov/uac/Newsroom/IRS-Virtual-Currency-Guidance
I agree with what you are saying.
Different jurisdictions have different rules regarding tax on bitcoins, and there are various work-arounds.
For instance, profits from trading BTC CFDs on IG in Australia do not attract GST (similar to VAT and sales tax). Meanwhile, buying normal BTC does attract GST.
https://www.ig.com/au/bitcoin-btc
They will tax property. First they will change the talk: "houses are for living, not for speculation". There will be lots of income for politicians when they control real estate.
Bitcoin is very different and very powerful. Very difficult to control or to prove who owns what. Who owns what when you have a M of N private key (only M of N people are necessary to spend the funds). How can anybody prove that the private key has not been lost? When was the transfer of ownership performed?
As I said, controlling Bitcoin is very difficult. Making the State the de-facto owner of real estate is very easy.
Imagine that, one of the few currencies that can't be printed infinitely is outpacing all the others that can!
I'm sure the financial engineers are working overtime trying to figure out a way to paper-trade BTC into oblivion the same way they've done it to gold, but that pesky blockchain keeps getting in the way.
A blockchain protected by a wall of computational entropy that even a cluster of supercomputers can't come close to penetrating - it's a beautiful thing.
Yes they also said that when computers where vacuum tubes to my friend.
The funny thing about technology is that it is the newest and best thing, til its not. Just a point that most people are forgetting. Seems like blinders are about to get put on again by most.
On a different note, EVERYTHING man makes can/has been forged. I do not think this will break that constant through history.
EDIT: I am indifferent to BC. I just don't believe it is safe, and being hoodwinked into safety simply does not allow me to move forward. I have used it, got bitstamped out of some as well. It still seems very slow and cumbersome to be used for immediate shor-term transactions.
Change is a constant, but you'll notice that after computers were built using vacuum tubes, people stopped building them using telephone relays. Why? Because tubes were more efficient. Then we started building them using transistors, and no one ever used tubes again, etc. etc.
Bitcoin may not be the end-all, be-all as far as the future of currency goes, but one thing I'd bet everything on, is that whatever comes next will look more like an advanced version of Bitcoin than it will like legacy money.
We started mining bitcoings using a laptop CPU..
- difficulty increases and people went to GPU's
- difficulty increased are people used arrays of GPU'S
- Difficulty increased and the first ASIC was introduced and *that* is important.. it's a whole paradigm shift as 'application specific circuits' are developed to do one thing and one thing only.. you can't get a more efficient peice of hardware to do a particular task than an ASIC because it's purpose is that task alone.
We now have hundreds of millions of these little buggers hashing and as was stated early a cluster of the words fastest supercomputers couldn't come close.
Someone reading this now is thinking "but but but.. quantum computers... they'll be able to out do it". I'm not even going there heh
Yep. QC will be useful for a lot of things, but there are also QC-resistant proof of work algo's, so I'm not too worried about that. And at some point, there might even be QC-based mining.
I admit to being surprised.
Surprised on ZH in regards to BTC and raw hate applied thereto.
Who cares what BTC "WILL be" in the future.
I do not hear or see any guarantees... anywhere, from anyone, for anything.
Currently, opportunity is available, to profit upon belief.
Profit in forms which may be anonymous.
Profit which may morph by design into proven assets.
What is the difference from staulks, bonds, currency etc, beyond anonymity.
Additionally 35% increase is.. 35%. Enron or BTC.
GoProProfit not fraidochangetarded.
Such rigidity only breaks.
Dear BC lovers,
Good luck.
~Sincerely,
Not Optimistic
P.S. I cannot fucking wait to be at a bar in 20 years and listen to some dickhead near me whining about how all his money was Mt. Gox'd.
Mt. Gox was a third party to bitcoin and the users that lost money. It was a company and exchange that cheated customers out of their bitcoin.
Had the users actually just stored their bitcoin in an actual bitcoin wallet they would have lost nothing. The blockchain is secure and so is bitcoin. The scam was with the company Mt. Gox. It'd be like your bank not being FDIC insured going out of business, you just lost all your cash deposits at that bank. But it wasn't because the dollar system was bad.
Gox'd, Corzined, what difference does it make lol..
MtGox was a 3rd party vendor. MF Global stole people's gold and silver bars as well you know, so do you now hate gold and silver? You going to post moronic statements about how becasue of that you are looking forward in 20 years at laughing at people who were MFGlobald out of gold and silver? Of course not, that would be stupid. Well, it's just as stupid and the same exact thing when it comes to BTC and MtGox.
In 20 years BTC will either be zero or it will be a major currency, which would mean a trillion dollar + valuation in today's terms, or on the order of $50,000 to $200,000 per BTC. So in 20 years I'm either out a few hundred bucks, or I make a massive ROI. I won't be crying or care if it goes to zero, and if it goes the other way it will be you crying in your beer because you could have been rich for a small investment.
But I thought zerohedge... eh, maybe it's just the commenters... hate bitcoin?