The bitcoin, between the pitch and the blowout

The bitcoin, between the pitch and the blowout  

The runaway revaluation of the digital currency feeds the fear of a bubble burst. At the same time, more and more companies invest in ' blockchain ' to lighten processes

Long Island Iced Tea, a little profitable American beverage company, decided in mid-December to be renamed Long Blockchain. He would still be making iced tea, but, as he announced that day, he was going to focus his strength on exploring the opportunities of the blockchain — or block chain — the technology that serves as the basis for the Bitcoin digital currency. The effect was immediate. His actions were valued at 500%. The ascent was not explained either by the entry of a new and powerful investor nor by a relevant change in the product: There was only a change of name that provided a patina of modernity.

This is just the penultimate example of the phenomenon of the year in the markets: The folly of the Bitcoin, which turns gold into what it touches. Despite the alerts of economists and regulators that everything that goes up tends to go down, 2017 has been the year of the best known Criptomoneda, which at 1 January was worth less than 1,000 dollars and yesterday was around 14,000. Miners, blockchain or ICO are some terms that in these 365 days have gone from being handled only by a few geeks to become popular.

How long is the boom? It seems obvious that an asset that has revalued more than 1,400% in one year, and has experienced days of heart attack — with soaring and dizzying falls — is subject to strong speculative movements not attributable to its intrinsic value. So the relevant question is not whether there is a bubble, but when it will explode. Here are answers for all tastes. Those in love with the Bitcoin believe that there is still room for growth, and that the fact that it was born with a limit of 21 million of coins — a cap not yet reached — will encourage its growth. Others are more pessimistic. "We observed classic bubble symptoms. A trigger of his prick could be a government performance. From a public point of view, it is better to end the bubbles soon than late, "warned Citi last week in a devastating report with everything surrounding the bitcoin. "It has a great deal of bubble. But there is another part that we do not understand, because we have no historical parameters or experience to analyze decentralized currencies, "says Carlos Kuchkovsky of BBVA.

The chain of blocks.

It's the origin of everything. The bitcoin would not exist without the technology created in 2008 by Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonym of one or more people of which nothing is known. But at the same time, the blockchain is much more than the bitcoin. A growing number of companies study the possibilities of this decentralized accounting book that is updated to its millions of users. So no one can fake it unilaterally and all actions are recorded. Sectors such as banking, insurance, telephony operators or even public administrations analyze their possibilities to lighten processes.

"Stupid fraud." "It's worse than the tulips ' fraud. It's not going to end well. Somebody's going to be dead. " Whoever said these words in September was no ordinary man. Jamie Dimon, president of JP Morgan and the most powerful banker of Wall Street, was dispatched to taste against the bitcoin, which branded of "fraud", of "stupid"; And he said he would dismiss every employee who invest in the digital currency a minute. His comments caused a small earthquake that temporarily lowered the quote from the Bitcoin. But since that day, its value has multiplied by three.

Three letters are worth millions.

Much less well known than the bitcoin, the Initial coin offering (ICO) is perhaps an even more relevant phenomenon than the digital currency. These operations launched by companies to obtain financing in exchange for tokens — units of a digital currency created for that purpose — have achieved more than 5.7 billion of dollars in the year (about 4.8 billion euros). The firm HDAC, backed by the multinational South Hyundai, has just obtained 258 million dollars. These offers, halfway through a crowd-funding operation and an out-of-pocket, have awakened the regulators ' alarm by their high speculative degree. China banned them in September, and countries like Russia are studying to impose limits, especially unskilled investors. In most of Europe they float in the limbo of the Statut. In the CNMV they admit to paying "great attention" to some operations that are occurring, of which they alert of their "complexity and high level of risk". Sources of the organism remember that they urge investors to act "with the utmost caution".

The miners of the 21st century. Fortune hunters today are no longer looking for gold nuggets like in mid-nineteenth-century California. Now they do it with powerful computers. The bitcoins, unlike traditional coins, are not emitted, but are discovered. These newly minted miners obtain digital coins in exchange for solving mathematical problems that require machines capable of making fast accounts by testing random numbers. The growing number of miners seeking reward has increased competition; A competition that requires ever more complex and expensive equipment. To gain power, mined farms have been born, most of them in China, consuming huge energy capacities. Viruses have also been developed that deal with mining in other computers.

20,000 or 14,000 dollars? 2017 has clearly shown the huge volatility of the bitcoin. It's not just that its value has multiplied by 14 since the beginning of the year. Is that by observing only the last 15 days, the price has fallen by 30%. The descent of yesterday itself, which came to lower than 14,000 dollars, is explained by the plans of the South Korean government against speculation and fraud around the criptodivisas through measures such as the prohibition of anonymous operations or the closure of some houses of digital currency exchange. Seoul authorities have long tried to lower the Bitcoin fever in a country where, according to a recent survey, one in three employees invests in Criptomonedas. It is impossible to predict whether the bitcoin will recover — or surpass — the 20,000-dollar roof that reached mid-December; But it does seem obvious that the Criptomonedas revolution is not a passing storm, and has come to stay.