Data Security Is Becoming the Sparkle in BitcoinAlthough companies focused on financial applications for the block chain far outnumber those experimenting with other uses, the gap is narrowing. For example, a start-up called BlockSign verifies signed documents on the block chain. Another company, Filecoin, is aiming to build a marketplace for storing data on the block chain. PeerNova — which said it was planning to announce financing that would bring its total to about $20 million — is developing a technology that will use the block chain to prove the authenticity of a document, like a patent. The company is also toying with registry applications for other records, including title deeds and financial data. “Our entire system of contracts is based on a trusted third party,” said Naveed Sherwani, the chief executive of PeerNova. But with the block chain, he added, “there is no third party anymore.”
Bitcoin is volatile for two basic reasons: it's currently difficult to purchase Bitcoins with dollars, and there's a lot of uncertainty about the Bitcoin network's long-term prospects. These are both issues that should get resolved in the coming years, making the cryptocurrency much less volatile. Liquid markets help to prevent price volatility. When the price of gold or pork bellies or shares of Microsoft stock starts to fall, bargain-hunting buyers jump into the market and push the price back up.
“It has to have intrinsic value,” Greenspan said in a Bloomberg Television interview in Washington on Dec. 4. “You have to really stretch your imagination to infer what the intrinsic value of Bitcoin is. I haven’t been able to do it. Maybe somebody else can.”
In the first camp are the folks attracted to ‘quick money’, they are excited for Bitcoin and hope to time the market, making a quick 5-10x. These are the folks that you see selling right now. You can’t blame them, these folks are making (in many cases) life changing money, paying down/off cars, houses, etc. The second camp are what I consider to be the true believers. Those of us that understand that Bitcoin has the potential to change money forever. If you believe that a decentralized digital currency, free from government corruption and controlled by the masses is the future – then you’re in this camp. This is no easy road, there are going to be sell-offs, attempted regulation, and major unforeseen disasters. It’s not for the faint of heart. We could and probably will lose everything, but IF we pull this off, the results will be unlike anything we’ve ever seen.