Comparing the market capitalization of Bitcoin to GS or MS is pretty useless. Only interesting info here is the basic fact that today's price hike is bringing BTC close to a $100 million market cap.<p>Pretty crazy to think about for a thing I passed on buying for $20 a pop.
I think this could pose a problem in the future for Bitcoin. Bitcoin was meant to be a decentralized vehicle of value that you could use to trade or buy things.<p>However recently its being treated more as a stock and being stockpiled so I no longer see people as willing to pay for different services etc with Bitcoin as they used to because they can gain more value by waiting which goes against Bitcoin's intent as an independent vehicle of value.<p>Even though one could argue that Bitcoin has the status of gold but gold is not something one commonly trades or uses to buy food etc in a normal non-disaster scenario.<p>EDIT: Because this comment is bringing a lot of attention, I would like to reiterate my stance on Bitcoin. I'm supportive of Bitcoin, I would like a decentralized currency that is not tied to the importance of any country or government and as well can be used to foster trade between countries simply because it is much easier to just buy foreign goods than in the current state due to import duties, etc.<p>Moreover, I see the world moving towards more coming together as a whole than fighting over lands and other issues that don't directly benefit humanity from using Bitcoin.<p>However my problem is the fast-increasing price of bitcoin is increasingly headed towards the playground of high net-worth individuals or organizations/investment banks such as Goldman Sachs and no longer being able to be traded between normal people who don't have their deep pockets or are scared away by the pricing which prevents Bitcoin from becoming a worldwide vehicle of value to be used for common transactions and sort of deviates from the original intent.<p>I also know one can trade decimal value Bitcoin for food and it could the volatile nature at play but it defeats the purpose if one needs to first check the Bitcoin markets before deciding on an eventual decimal value amount for the food paid.
Would you rather own all of Bitcoin (current market cap: $100B) or all of a company with $10B in annual operating income? If it's the former, why?
Wouldn't it make more sense to compare the value of all of the bitcoins to the total assets under management of the large banks? Many of them manage over a trillion in assets. Bitcoin is designed to be a replacement for bank accounts and credit cards in a sense, just without all of the centralized authority and meat powered overhead to keep everyone trusting it. Its kind of crazy that it has worked out so well. While there have been significant investments on hardware to power the network, I'd have to assume the cost of maintaining the network is pennies compared to what a bank spends to manage assets. That is the real disruptive power of bitcoin.
You can buy a fraction of a bitcoin!<p>People don't seem to get this. Unlike Berkeshire Hathaway or any other stock, you don't have to buy a whole unit. BRKA shares at 6 figures are out of range for most people because you have to buy at least one whole share.<p>Bitcoin is divisible down to the satoshi-- 100,000,000th of a bitcoin. That's too small to transact in currently, but there's nothing stopping you from buying 0.1 or 0.01 bitcoin.
When "the bitcoin" starting gaining momentum, i thought that "bitcoin" and the public distributed ledger was an exercise to see if the psychology of people has evolved to reduce the dependence on institutions and find out if inequality is because of these institutions or the 1%. However as we are finding out, the same problems are arising but with new technology. The ones with money to risk are playing the game and the public distributed ledger and bitcoin is yet to show us anything different other than the status quo. Who gives a shit if it's decentralized and "transparent" if the problems that a lot of people touted bitcoin/blockchain would "solve" are just replicated. Kinda like who cares if there are many choices, if you don't have the capital to exercise those choices. I am beginning to think that bitcoin is just another channel to speculate on that promises anonymity but fails badly at it. Maybe it's pre-packaging as an antidote to pre-bitcoin financial structure was empty. I don't see how the average world citizen is able to invest with these prices, therefore aiding mobility. I thought wrong... but sure wish i bought it when it was $20 :)