The Crypto War breaks out

In 2008-10 it was a baby elephant. Frowned upon by the establishment, it was seen as a passing fad. Something abnormal and unnatural. It would either pass away or stay small. Indeed it did crash at the beginning of the Covid era in early 2020 and some thought that they had seen the end of it.

But it rose like a phoenix after that and it now seems here to stay. But the expert attacks have only increased. Bitcoin and cryptocurrency are no longer at the fringes. They are knocking at the door to become just like any other currency, like the Rupee, pound or dollar.

People were initially shocked when Bitcoin crossed the $10K mark for the first time but it would fail to go way beyond that milestone for a long time. But in the Covid Era, it touched a high of 60K and has been safely above 40K for most of the time. At its highest, Bitcoin crossed a valuation of $1 trillion, the GDP of a top country. Bitcoin is now the big daddy elephant in the room.

Maverick billionaire Elon Musk embraced Bitcoin and said you could buy Teslas with it. Other billionaires and financial companies are also seriously looking at it. In fact, Musk also promoted Dogecoin calling himself the Dogefather. From May 2020 to May 2021, it is up 11,000% and could seriously touch a marcap of $100 billion. Ethereum saw a spike this year and at this rate, it could also become a half-a-trillion currency this year itself. It’s not just Bitcoin.

The world is clearly in two camps now. When asked which was crazier, “Bitcoin hitting $50,000 or Tesla getting a $1 trillion fully diluted enterprise value”, Berkshire Hathaway Vice Chairman Charlie Munger exclaimed: I can’t decide the order of precedence between a flea and a louse! He added: “Bitcoin reminds me of what Oscar Wilde said about fox hunting. He said it was the pursuit of the uneatable by the unspeakable.” He even called it disgusting.

Said American talk show host Bill Maher “It’s just Easter Bunny cartoon cash. I’ve read articles about cryptocurrency. I’ve had it explained to me and I still don’t get it, and neither did you or anyone else.” He added, “It’s like Tinker Bell’s light. Its power source is based solely on enough children believing in it.”

Maher ranted about how environmentally destructive it was, though he is not the first. Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger regularly blasts Bitcoin calling it “climate intolerant” and “bad for humanity”. Nobody has attacked it more than investment genius Warren Buffett who has called it a delusion, “rat poison squared”, a mirage, a joke, “not a currency” and predicts it will have a bad end.

Others point to the fact that it is used by the Dark Web and criminals. Even India is heading towards a complete ban on these cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin even as the Reserve Bank of India may come out with a digital currency of its own.

However as cryptocurrencies keep adding their billions steadily (they are already worth trillions now), keep getting more and more companies and people on the bandwagon, and start integrating into the global economy, it will be tougher and tougher to do away with them.

How much Bitcoin will rise from here is anyone’s guess, but it is definitely here to stay.