|
China News Service, Beijing, November 29 (Reporter Chen Kangliang) The price of Bitcoin is still rising. Data from Mt.Gox, the world's largest Bitcoin exchange (trading volume accounts for about 80% of the global total), shows that after breaking the $1,000 mark for the first time on the 27th, the price of Bitcoin hit a new high on the 28th, reaching a historical high of $1,170; at the same time, the closing price of international spot gold on the same day was $1,243. Related company stock trends Yuan.
The so-called Bitcoin is a P2P virtual currency that is not supplied by a central bank, but is obtained by people using computer programs to run specific algorithms, commonly known as "mining." It is regarded by many supporters as electronic gold.
It is worth noting that in early November, the trading price of Bitcoin against the US dollar was only around US$200; compared with US$13.51 at the end of last year, Bitcoin has appreciated nearly 100 times this year.
The price of Bitcoin in the Chinese market also performed well. On the 28th, the price of one Bitcoin was 6,498 yuan, more than the price of an iPhone 5S, and the price increased by nearly 80 times compared with the beginning of the year; on November 19th, it hit a new high of 6,989 yuan during the intraday trading.
The surge in prices has also greatly increased the wealth of Bitcoin holders. According to media reports, the richest individual Bitcoin holder in China is Li Xiaolai, a former New Oriental teacher, with a net worth of 600 million yuan.
Another thing worth noting is the expansion of the scope of Bitcoin payments. When the reporter logged into Taobao, the largest online shopping platform in China, and entered the three keywords "Bitcoin", he found that nearly 1,000 merchants were selling Bitcoin or using it for settlement, including mobile phones, phone recharge cards, shoes and clothing, cosmetics, red wine, etc.
Some offline merchants in China have also sensed the business opportunities and announced that they will support Bitcoin payments. Beijing Garage, Guokr Electronics, and Baidu Accelerator have successively announced that they will support Bitcoin payments. Shenglv Real Estate, a real estate developer under Shanda Network, has even launched a physical property in Shanghai that supports Bitcoin purchases.
"Although the surge in Bitcoin prices is related to the enhancement of its payment function, the current price is more a reflection of concept speculation and investors need to be vigilant," said Guo Tianyong, director of the China Banking Research Center of the Central University of Finance and Economics, in an interview with China News Service.
Lv Peng, the operations director and senior gold and foreign exchange strategy analyst at Hongtai Investment, also reminded that everyone wants to get a piece of the pie in the appreciation of Bitcoin. However, the biggest benefits have already been taken away by the pioneering geeks, leaving the general public with the risk of losing everything at any time.
As Bitcoin develops rapidly, it also brings up a series of questions: Is this virtual digital currency without traditional government credit guarantee reliable? Is investors' pursuit of Bitcoin a value investment or a Ponzi scheme?
Luo Mingxiong, executive director of the Beijing Internet Finance Laboratory, pointed out to a reporter from China News Service that the greatness of Bitcoin lies in its concept rather than itself. The existence of decentralized virtual currency can at least put pressure on, or even impact, national central banks in the real world.
Cao Darong, managing director of Lightspeed Venture Partners, said that Bitcoin's technology and ideas may be the biggest innovation in the Internet industry in the past decade. Although it is still in the early stages of Bitcoin's development, as Bitcoin-related applications continue to emerge, its acceptance and use by the public will develop rapidly.
Most economists are very cautious. Guo Tianyong believes that the background of Bitcoin's popularity is people's doubts about sovereign currencies, especially the hegemony of the US dollar; but as a kind of currency, Bitcoin has the same fatal flaw as gold, namely the deflationary trend.
Guo Tianyong explained that Bitcoin's "money supply" is strictly limited, and the limiting mechanism is that cryptographic calculations are becoming increasingly difficult. In economic terms, Bitcoin's marginal productivity is getting lower and lower, and the total amount does not exceed 21 million Bitcoins. "Its issuance volume and issuance mechanism cannot meet the needs of economic growth."
Zhao Qingming, a domestic financial expert, is more pessimistic. He told China News Service that Bitcoin is only a flash in the pan. Currency should have certain material assets to resist it and its value should be relatively stable, both of which Bitcoin cannot do. "Bitcoin itself has no value, and the current market speculation on it is similar to the famous tulip bubble in history."
Yan Lixin, Secretary General of the China Anti-Money Laundering Research Center of Fudan University, spoke frankly about the regulatory risks faced by Bitcoin. Yan Lixin believes that due to the anonymous transactions of Bitcoin, the lack of a central monitoring system, and the lack of data records, the existing regulatory norms cannot be effectively implemented. The operation of virtual currencies such as "Bitcoin" should be regulated in accordance with the actual financial management rules.
Yi Gang, deputy governor of the People's Bank of China, has previously made it clear that it is impossible to recognize the legality of Bitcoin in the near future, but he also believes that Bitcoin is "very distinctive" and "inspiring."
|
