Quote from: r0ach on July 04, 2016, 10:48:34 PM

Not really. I think I read 50% of gold is owned by central banks and 50% private. No idea if that number was right, but I don't think Chinese miners own very many coins and most of it is in individual's hands. Central banks and the JP Morg naked shorts are probably more dangerous than any Bitcoin whales.

Ya think?

Ya know what I think? I think that China is a pretty corrupt place, where if u don't belong to a certain syndicate of families, then you are fodder for getting pissed over. To do anything in China. you have to be from the right background, and I put it to you, the Chinese Bitcoin whales that operate through the big Chinese exchanges, probably have connections with government officials, who would be well capable of having the PBOC cast a frown on Bitcoin, thus putting the shitters up the market, but without actually clamping down on it. I wouldn't be surprised if the 'China Bitcoin Ban' (that wasn't really a ban) of 2013, and again in 2014, was part of an orchestrated attempt to take over Bitcoin. All throughout the bear market (and indeed up to this very day), the market was/is generally lead by the big Chinese exchanges. Throughout 2014, Bitcoin was repeatedly hammered into the floor, until it bottomed at $150 in 2015, where it fluctuated throughout 2015 somewhere in the $200 range, well below the cost of production for any miners, who weren't in China, taking advantage of ultra cheap electricity. Not only have the Chinese Bitcoin Cowboys emerged with lots of Bitcoins, bought by Westerners at higher prices, and dumped into Chinese wallets by Westerners at lower prices, but currently, around 80% of the BTC mining capacity is in China. This just isn't the decentralised p2p magic internet money of freedom that Bitcoin originally set out to be.

I really don't know how it could be any clearer.

The Chinese have taken over Bitcoin and both totally control the market, utterly dominate the network, and are also the ultimate arbiters of Bitcoin's fate.....and yeah...if the PBOC should happen to really want to clamp down on Bitcoin, and were to order the miners to switch off their farms (and in China, shit like this can and does happen), then Bitcoin is toast. Finished.

For this reason, unlike owning gold, Bitcoin is not, and never will be a safe haven asset. Sure, Bitcoin may one day pump well into the 4 figures, as gold is practically assured to, but unlike Bitcoin, gold cannot simply be 'switched off'. Gold will always have value, regardless of any bankster shenanigans, or government interference. Bitcoin will always be a very high risk asset, with returns going forward, that quite frankly do not match the risk. I can think of loads and loads of stocks that offer similar volatility to Bitcoin, that are also way safer places to have money invested.