Bitcoin has been showing a steady price increase for several days now. Most discussions as to the reason focus on the MMM Ponzi scheme scandal and the Chinese economy.
The MMM Ponzi scheme has to do with a fake business that is now growing in the Philipines. The scheme is a fake business that may look like it is making ridiculous payouts, but is, in fact, in the process or fipping people off. The Bitcoin theory is that MMM is motivating so many people to trade Bitcoin that the price of Bitcoin is going up.
I just do not accept this reason, as it makes no sense to me. The argument is that trading volume, in the absense of any other reason, can result in a significant increase in price. I believe that trading volume is helpful and necessary for a price increase, but not sufficient, and cannot properly explain the phenomena we now see.
The China theory is a stronger contender. The theory goes that China needs to cash in 22 trillion dollars worth of American Treasury securities, and if it processes even the smallest fraction of that through Bitcoin, the Bitcoin price will go up.
The problem with that theory is that the Chinese government controls U.S. Treasury Securities. The Chinese government has gone out of its way (and has the United States), not to unwind U.S. Treasury Securities except in a very measured methodical way through traditional channels. Although certain sectors of the Chinese economy appear heavily involved in bitcoin, and some governmental agency appear to be involved in its development, China could not be conceivably be viewed as process U.S. Treasury cash ins through the means then.
What then?
It seems like everyone is silent about how the group Anonymous spent months encouraging everyone to boycott traditional banking channels. It is difficult to ignore that the steady price increase occurs just as the Anonymous boycott is taking affect. The boycott is to avoid using traditional price gouging cash transfers... to stop using Visa, Mastercard, American Express, PayPal, etc... whose high commissions keep the world in the patterns of poverty which continue... and to either use free crypotocurrency, or to construct local barter economies.
I can't prove that the Anonymous boycott is causing the increase in the price of bitcoin, but it is not possible to disprove it either.
What if that is true... what does that mean for the price of Bitcoin? The boycott presumably will end. Will the price of Bitcoin go down? There is an argument that this is true. However, it is also true that doing the boycott will cause a certain number of people to learn how permanently to change their behavior so as to stop playing the victim to the Visa and PayPal money thugs. Moreover, a temporary increase in price can theoretically lead to a permanent one, if it results in an improved appetite which means that more people want to hold bitcoin.
So, what of it... should you sell your bitcoin holdings now that the price is high. Aside from the issue that the price might go up more... and you might lose potential profit, a more important issue is at stake. The development of Bitcoin has much to do with the liberation of the free peoples of the world from the yolk of selfish slaving governments. If you do not show faith in this process, why should anyone else?
I, for one, will hold my meager holdings, come high price or low... but if others think the same way.... there might not be a low to worry about.
