Since this time last year, the number of wallets holding bitcoin has grown by a whopping 8 million, with this growth accounting for over 20% of all 38 million bitcoin wallets in existence.
Getting into Bitcoin is one thing, but staying around long-term is a whole other ball game.
Not only was the illustrious metal a symbol of wealth and status, it also served as the basis for entire monetary systems. Even the end of the gold standard couldn’t stop gold from growing.
Although the fiat-based economy tends to be constrained by physical borders and a complex web of intermediaries, it is still a functional option for sending and receiving money.
Fiat currency loses purchasing power by the minute, and the cash held in a checking or savings account cannot accrue interest at pace with today’s inflation rates.
Just ask the customers of Laiki Bank, the second-largest bank in Cyprus at the time, who saw their account balances slashed during the 2013 Eurozone crisis.
Not only was bitcoin the best-performing asset of the past decade, demonstrating an unmatched ability to preserve wealth through time, but it is also gaining traction as a payment system.
The rise of Bitcoin has fuelled a boom in assets that are deceptively similar to the real thing but fall short in granting the financial freedom inherent in Bitcoin.
Although CFDs might be suitable for short-term traders, those who wish to accumulate and hold bitcoin will be left disappointed to discover that they don’t own any real bitcoin.
Aside from the fact that it exists outside of government-controlled monetary systems, one of the biggest differences between bitcoin and everything else in the world of money is that it is both an asset and a monetary transaction log.
Becoming a first-class Bitcoin citizen requires running your own wallet that contains your own private keys and keeping that wallet safe.
In fact, the biggest banks and most prominent voices in the industry recognize that their disintermediation by the self-banked is well underway.
You can’t hold your bitcoin in your hand, but since we left behind gold doubloons in the 1600s, the only thing we’ve ever been able to hold is a government-issued promissory note of value.