Cryptocurrencies, particularly Bitcoin, have been in the spotlight recently, to the extent that many people have developed misconceptions about them.
Many still believe in some myths, often fueled by misinformation, which can prevent them from fully understanding the potential and benefits that these innovations can offer.
Bitcoin’s biggest myths
In this article, we will try to debunk the most common myths about Bitcoin, distinguishing facts from fantasy without omitting the risks and limitations of this technology: we’ll show why investing in the world’s most popular cryptocurrency can be the right choice for you.
- Investing in Bitcoin is Too Risky
- Bitcoin has no real value
- Bitcoin is not secure
- Bitcoin consumes too much energy
Investing in Bitcoin is Too Risky
The first myth concerns the level of risk involved in investing in Bitcoin.
It is often thought that Bitcoin is too risky to own or a “speculative” investment option for gamblers. But in reality, just like with any other form of investment, the decision to include this cryptocurrency in your investment portfolio should be based on your own circumstances, risk tolerance, and time horizon.
In reality, Bitcoin has shown to have a surprisingly stable long-term rate of return and has outperformed many other traditional investments. For more than twelve years, its price has gone through several cycles, and each time it has recovered, reaching new records.
Like any new technology, it is indeed possible to predict a fluctuating trend with phases of strong expansion and contraction, and many of the major bitcoin investors believe that its oscillations propose a typical model of young markets.
According to them, bitcoin will go through phases of rise and fall with smaller oscillations and longer intervals until it reaches relative stability in the future.
Only time will tell if these predictions are correct. Only time will tell if these predictions are correct. In the meantime, there are still many opportunities for profit from buying, mining, and trading activities.
Bitcoin has no real value
Another attack on cryptocurrencies is that they fundamentally have no value.
This would be determined exclusively by market manipulation, being financial assets that are not recognized or regulated by any Central Bank.
Indeed, bitcoin is not backed by a physical resource like gold, nor by the US dollar or any other modern fiat currency, but it is designed specifically to be scarce, which also makes it resistant to inflation.
For this reason, in recent years, bitcoin has become increasingly popular as a store of value and has been repeatedly referred to as “digital gold“.
The maximum amount of Bitcoin that can be issued is 21 million. This number is also called “max supply” or maximum availability. This limit was introduced since the creation of cryptocurrency to contain inflation and make digital currency scarce and valuable.
If the availability of Bitcoin were unlimited and BTC were extracted infinitely, they would eventually be worth nothing. Another mechanism of Bitcoin that serves to reduce cryptocurrencies in circulation, to maintain scarcity, is halving. This regulates the progressive decrease in rewards given to miners who validate blocks, which are halved approximately every four years.
Apart from this, bitcoin has a unique advantage over gold: its portability and ease of access. With Bitcoin, you don’t have to worry about buying and storing heavy gold bars. Instead, you can easily purchase and store them digitally, wherever you are in the world. In addition, Bitcoin is a store of value open to everyone, not just financial elites.
This makes it an attractive option for those who want to protect their savings from national currency devaluation. This makes it an attractive option for those who want to protect their savings from national currency devaluation.
Bitcoin is not secure
The third myth concerns the security of Bitcoin. Many believe that Bitcoin is vulnerable to hacker attacks and fraud, but this misconception derives from news of attacks on companies and third-party services that use the Bitcoin network, rather than the Bitcoin network itself.
High-profile hacker attacks on early companies operating on the Bitcoin platform with suboptimal security procedures, such as the attack on the Japanese exchange Mt. Gox, and occasional data breaches, such as in the case of users of the wallet provider Ledger, have led many users to doubt the security of Bitcoin. However, the truth is very different: the Bitcoin network has never been hacked.
Its open-source code has been reviewed by countless security experts and computer scientists. Bitcoin was the first digital currency to solve the problem of malicious attacks such as double-spending, making peer-to-peer, trustless-based currencies a reality.
In a trustless network, the security and validity of transactions do not depend on trust between parties, but rather on the cryptography and automatic verification of transactions by a network of distributed computers. This means that the blockchain network records and verifies all transactions in a transparent and immutable manner so that no party can manipulate or counterfeit transactions.
In addition, all transactions made through the Bitcoin network are irreversible.
Bitcoin consumes too much energy
Bitcoin mining does require a high amount of energy, but assessing its environmental impact is a challenging task. It should be considered that the digital economy as a whole requires a significant amount of energy. Think about the global banking system and the energy required to process transactions, power offices, ATMs, local branches, and other related activities. It doesn’t seem that much different from Bitcoin mining.
A recent study by New York’s Ark Investment Management concludes that “Bitcoin is much more efficient compared to traditional banking activities and global gold mining.”
Moreover, according to the Cambridge Bitcoin Electric Consumption Index, a significant portion of the so-called Bitcoin mining is powered by renewable energy sources (including wind, water, and solar energy), ranging from 20% to over 70%.
One could even argue that the economic incentives associated with Bitcoin mining promote sustainable energy resource management.
Miners constantly try to increase profits by reducing electricity costs, in a world where renewable energy has become the cheapest option.
Some mining farms have adopted renewable energy sources and technologies to power their activities, thereby reducing their environmental impact. For example, in 2019, a mining farm entirely powered by hydroelectricity was inaugurated in Sweden. In Iceland, some mining farms utilize geothermal energy to power their activities.
However, there are still challenges to be addressed to further reduce the environmental impact of cryptocurrency mining.
Conclusions
We hope to have helped debunk some of the myths around Bitcoin and to have demonstrated that this cryptocurrency represents an interesting investment opportunity for anyone looking for an alternative to traditional financial instruments.
While there are risks associated with investing in Bitcoin, like any other financial instrument, its prospects are promising. Its decentralized nature and supply limit make it an increasingly desirable asset for long-term investors.
Furthermore, the growing interest from large financial institutions and global leading companies is confirming the legitimacy of Bitcoin as an investment asset and as a means of global payment.
One of the most profitable methods of investing in Bitcoin is undoubtedly mining.
Bitcoin mining, however, requires a large number of resources, such as energy and specialized hardware, and it is not a practice that can be improvised alone.
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