Hello everyone. Over the past week are so, people have been getting excited that we are at the start of a new crypto bull run. With Bitcoin having bounced back to over $9000 for a few hours, people are saying this is the start of it. Bitcoin is up around $1500 in the past month and most ALT coins have increased within the same time. STEEM alone is around 50% in dollar value from this time last month so these are all good signs that we could possibly be entering a bull market and 2020 could be the year. January is BTC's worst-performing month but this year it is plus 20% with around a week to finish. With the much talked about BTC halving happening in a few months, all signs point to a bull run. Is it just me are does it feel too soon? Maybe I'm just sour that i did not buy more, i hit my personal targets but when is any amount enough? It's around 2 years from the 2017 bubble popped in January 2018 and i feel 2021 is the year when we see a new all-time high. Just my gut feeling and it feels too soon, the 2017 crypto run is still fresh in a lot of minds.

Anyways, my plan was not to talk about the BTC market price and the possibility of a bull run, that's just a bite-size paragraph what's been happening the past month how things are looking in crypto land.
What i would really like to talk about is, is Bitcoin a Ponzi scheme? I mean has it turned into a Ponzi scheme?

It is easy and understandable to see why some people think and call Bitcoin and the cryptocurrency markets scams from an outsider POV. Of course, every big project crypto are non-crypto that does well for itself will be hated on and sometimes the hater's arguments have some ground. I like BTC, i hold BTC, i have no plans to sell any BTC until it hits $50k but I'm fully aware Bitcoin is the first of it's kind and rarely the first of its kind ends up being the best are most used. I see BTC as top dog for a few more years before something with a huge utility takes over. Something like a crypto dollar are crypto euro would have a marketcap that will make BTC's look like pocket change. I personally see BTC as a store of value, but that can be misinterpreted to an outsider as a Ponzi scam. A Ponzi scheme generates returns for early investors that buy low by acquiring new investors that buy high.

Is there any truth in it? Has Bitcoin turned into the world's biggest Ponzi scam, almost 10 million bitcoins have not been moved in over a year. That means that all of Bitcoins daily $20-30 billion volume for the past year has been done with the use of around 8 million bitcoin. People are not using it. I am not BSing when i say this but i have never spoken with someone about BTC and had them tell me they buy it to use it, 100% of the people i know are buying to HODL and wait for the moon. Of course, the money to fund the trip to the moon will be paid for with new investors money that buys when it hits its peak and then they have to experience the pain of a bubble pop before they panic and sell for 20-40% loss and then the 3-4 year cycle restarts over again. Its sort of sounds like a Ponzi but in theory of you bought at the last bubble of $20,000, you just HODL until you come good which is every likely to happen during the next bull run. Ponzi schemes don't tend to run in cycles, they boom and bust but Bitcoin has cycles like traditional legit investments. Looking at bitcoins history to outdo itself for the past 11 years is the information in gonna use so i guess it can't be called a Ponzi as it's ongoing and runs in cycles that reward investors that buy during the doom and gloom and punish FOMO investors when it's all over the news and there facechat and shitter feeds. Bitcoin actually sounds like any other investment when you think about it. We all investment with the hope that it will go up in value and everything runs in cycles, the whole world runs on cycles from the weather, financial markets, baby booms, time, everything down to when to brush your teeth in the morning.

Oh, there is one other thing, its called mining electricity costs. I'm not sure where you are from in the world but I'm from Northern Ireland in the UK and it costs around $11,500 in electric to mine 1 full bitcoin, on what hardware i have no idea but it mens that Bitcoins have a cost to produce and that adds value. Here is a screenshot of the world map's bitcoin electricity costs. This chart is a few months old so I'm sure this might have changed but it gives a rough idea.

This is dependent on where you're live more than the cost to mine a bitcoin and i can't seem to find an up to date global average cost. There are countries where you mine a full bitcoin for under $4000. And these electricity costs are only running costs, you'll need hardware as well that you'll need to replace and update every now and then.

If bitcoin is a Ponzi scheme, it's sure duped a lot of smart people but how can it be? On the most part, bitcoin owners don't use it, they HODL it and stack but there are a few that do use it for buying goods are services and not drugs and hookers before someone says. You can pay for holidays on Expedia with bitcoin, buy items from overstock are pay for purchases within the Xbox store. There are plenty of big companies testing BTC as a form of payment right now, the likes of Starbucks, wholefoods, burger king, subway and talks of McDonald's, Walmart and even rumours of Amazon having an interest. All good things, people will buy it for the novelty of buying a burger with BTC and some will get a taste for it and convert to the crypto head brother and sisterhood. The more people that see BTC, the faster and more it'll be used and the quicker the haters have nothing to say.

So.., could Bitcoin be a Ponzi Scheme?

Yep, it sure could be but i think it's highly unlikely. The price might someday drop back down to $500 and rope sells would skyrocket but i think that unlikely as well based on the fact that Governments around the world are pumping money into the world like there's no tomorrow. It all filters down and remember that Bitcoin and everything are priced in dollars which is a deflationary currency so bitcoin should go up by default because there can only be 16-17 million of them factoring in 4-5 million of the 21 million max supply is either lost are out of circulation.

Posted via Steemleo