In 2011, I went all-in into bitcoin. As I described in a blog post at the time, I took all my savings and my entire credit line and put it into the fledgling currency, once I had realized its disruptiveness, and I did so at about $3 valuation (to simplify events a bit). People mocked me relentlessly.
I tend to be good at predicting events five years out that the large majority considers unforeseeable black swans. I’ve done so twice now for particular high-profile events: once when founding the Pirate Party – which was a “career ending decision” according to some colleagues, until I had succeeded wildly in what I had set out to do, sending people to the European Parliament on basically no budget using a novel set of leadership techniques. The other time was when I predicted the massive breakthrough of cryptocurrency in 2011, and said I predicted bitcoin to increase in value hundredfold-to-thousandfold over the next three to four years. (Do note that the actual breakthrough has not happened yet.)
In both these cases, people basically said I was mad, even though I made no secret of going all-in into bitcoin — I’m not the “haha, I got rich five years ago with my secret method” type of person. Rather, I announced to the entire world that I was going all in, and being very specific about my reasons, giving anybody who wanted the ability to copy my actions. (A lot of people did; I get people coming up to me today saying I got them into bitcoin with these posts. Good for us, good for all of us.)
A key to these kinds of high-risk decisions, of course, is to trust your own intelligence and judgment when you know you’re going against the grain and against common wisdom. If you try to do something halfway, it’s the equivalent of taking the average between two sidewalks and walking in the middle of the road. I quickly lost count of how many times various well-meaning people told me to “sell and collect profits and come out ahead” – but that simply wasn’t the analysis I had made. Most people didn’t even try to be well-meaning, but instead had fun at and mocked my decision to go all-in outright.
To illustrate this, this is the highest-voted comment — not a random comment, but the highest-voted comment — from the Reddit thread six years ago when I announced I was going all in. Particularly note that this is a comment made by, and voted to the top, by bitcoin enthusiasts.
It’s quite funny in hindsight, actually, that even the people who were most devoted to the technology expressed themselves like this at the time.
In any case, as a followup to the original post, I just wanted to highlight that it reached the target I predicted. I was, as people say, right on the money.
Or maybe I should say that bitcoin reached the first target I predicted. Today, I refrain from making predictions for bitcoin until scaling is properly resolved with good engineering, and the obstructing company Blockstream has been kicked out of the community; the currency really has no future until this event has taken place as Blockstream has negated all the utility I originally pointed out through insanely tone-deaf non-business, but cryptocurrency as a whole remains extremely disruptive, be it the first-mover variant (bitcoin) or a second-mover variant.
If you love Blockstream and/or Bitcoin Core, but started doing so after I went all-in, I would urge you to consider the rational possibility that my analysis holds water this time too.
(Oh, and the market cap total for cryptocurrency just hit a hundred billion US dollars. And it’s still just the beginning. When cryptocurrency is ready, it won’t make sense to measure it in US Dollars any longer.)
I sold most of mine @$750 thinking it was going too high too fast now i hate myself.
i dont get where you say ” the breakthrough hasnt’ happenened yet. it has gone up 1000X
More people is getting access to the internet by the day. More people is understanding digital systems, using apps, understanding apps, by the day too. This enlarges the potential population exposed to BTC and cryptos. More people will join.
Love the “Your name, maybe, Mail totally optional” hahaha.
He means if bitcoin were to reach its full potential it would be closer to $1,000,000 or more per coin. Unfortunately until the scaling is resolved, it won’t happen. I am hoping that somehow the good will win, and bitcoin will fork away from blockstream. I hope they find a way, there’s got to be one.
Thank you Rick for the insight, thank you greatly. Your interviews are fascinating and are what got me into bitcoin, especially the video you did for “The Bitcoin Report” in 2016 (“Rick Falkvinge – bitcoin to the moon or down the drain”). I still think it is one of the best videos on bitcoin out there. My instincts and judgement screamed the second I saw it that you were on to something. I went all in and have since made enough money to buy a house, and I’m only a few years out of high school. But this core leadership is disgusting to watch. I think guys like Roger Ver would be _perfect_ leading it. For now, I have diversified in order to protect myself. And no, don’t worry, I wouldn’t blame you or anyone else for any losses I incurred as a result of my investing. But your insight is always at the top of my list when trying to discern the truth. If scaling is resolved successfully, I look forward to much more of your thoughts. And don’t change, just keep doing what you’re doing.
And just to reaffirm, I don’t consider your articles “investment advice”, nor do I blindly follow anyone. I always make my own decisions using my own judgement. But, your insight is always some of the most interesting to me.
This comment makes me insanely happy. So glad you’re doing well, based on your own judgment of the insights of others!
Cheers,
Rick
It really hasn’t happened yet. Most still trade their bitcoins for fiat. When it happens, we will trade them for groceries and pay are utility bills with them.
what if the scaling issue is never resolved. would it matter?. wouldn’t bitcoin be like a gold standard?
I think you are right with this. Bitcoin moves from a payment solution to a trading solution.
There is no store-of-value that isn’t first a transactional currency. This includes gold (which was the transactional currency of the world, abstracted by the US Dollar, up until August 15, 1971).
The scaling will be resolved, but not by the current bitcoin team (“Core”, “Blockstream”), and maybe not on the bitcoin blockchain, but it will be resolved.
Who is second-mover in about 5 years do you think besides Bitcoin?
/Thanks
Ethereum, Monero, and Dash are all looking good right now, in my opinion, in roughly that order. They all have some hurdles as well, but of different kinds. I would also not be surprised to see Dogecoin still hanging around in about the same role it does today.
Is Dash quite a scam with instamine etc…? I know Tone Vays talks a lot about it and it makes sence (not like hes VERY PRO CORE stance (which doesnt make that much sense for me) and his quite stupid views on etherum, which costed me money already since i wanted to buy etherum when it way down but then listening to him made me lazy to go through with the actual buying of etherum 🙂 ). But his info on dash seems legit…
Dont you think that dash is a “scam” or that there is something quite wrong with it? I dont see problem with etherum or monero but dash…? wasnt there an instamine, the dark nodes (ow hows it called ) etc.?
What do you think about Litecoin? I had already implemented segwit and it seems to be scaling well and doesn’t have the politics problem.
Ivan
*it has
After reading “Originals” I am convinced that the first-mover never will become the biggest party. Bitcoin has been the solution that inspires all the developers to create the next “better” solution, with a bigger thinking at the start of the development.
You say 3k is just a first station. Where can we read the other stations you are predicting?
Now pay attention to Ethereum because it’s Bitcoin^2, not right now suffering from scaling (actually political) problems as Bitcoin is. What’s gonna happen? Bitcoin will function as store-of-wealth at the best, I think it’s too late already for it to be used as currency. Also, anonimity is very important so right there’s only one logical answer – Monero. Other ones in the field are fishy and scammy.
Congrats! Wonder if the trend will be upwards!
You started at something good and now you ended as a capitalist writing about your profits. 🙁
Article can be summed into “Told you so”. But I guess you’ve earned the right to say that
“Dash is not even remotely competitive. It is simply and purely a scam to steal money from the foolish and ignorant. The market cap of dash is an illusion created by temporarily removing most of the supply into masternodes which monitor all the transactions and insure that 90% of the network traffic goes through NSA controlled routers. When the scam bubble pops all of those masternodes will get liquidated in a huge rush to the exits, crushing all the innocent holders. The only reason why a masternode holder (other than a “national security” unit) is willing to take that risk is the illusion of yield. Let me give you a hint: Hard money has no yield. If it has a yield, it is a scam, and eventually that illusion will blow away. It took 46 years for the soveriegn fiat illusion of yield to disappear. I can assure you with confidence that it won’t take that long for the dash masternode rentiers to get their come-uppance. They lack armies and nuclear missiles, for one thing.
Another example of a moral crime against humanity is zcash, which taxes it’s foolish users 20% for the priviledge of being subjected to infinite surprise dilution, and using gee whiz math that 99.999% of the buyers don’t understand. I would not want to face that Nuremburg justice when it comes.
Ignorant and foolish people think they are clever because they are making money. Well, a rising tide lifts all boats. It is only when the tide goes out that we discover who was swimming naked. I will be covering my private parts with Monero when that happens, simply because I think it provides the best cover * liquidity value in known space.
You can call me arrongant or insensitive, trollish, or book talking, or whatever you like, but if one person is saved from embezzlement and poverty by my warnings, I will consider the reputation burn well spent.
That said, yes, there will always be the possibility of some future deanonymizing innovation as long as we rely on computational asymmetries. That is why defense in depth is so crucial. Your contributions to Kovri now may be late to the party, but will nonetheless be welcomed (after thorough peer review). Eventually we may incorporate a decoherence layer into peer communications to prevent information leakage, but the technology is not yet widely available. Eventually q.c. will destroy even zksnarks, but by then we will have new quantum-ready tech in place, at least if I have anything to say about it.
And I would not be alone, I am sure, in being willing to cowboy-fork if necessary, when that time comes. Although, I do not believe it will be necessary, given the prudential responsibility demonstrated by the core team to date. (Also, I do think any new quantum ready PRs would be very premature at this point. We won’t want them until we expect to actually need them. Until then they would just be valueless added risk.)
Anyhow, cheap coins, yo. When the facts change, so do my opinions: I am buying anything under $52 these days. I think in the very worst case they might be under water until August, but I still say the June/July scenario ranks are skewed positive, so I am willing to take that much duration risk. All it takes to prove me wrong is one large persistent seller in size, but so far all the evidence has been that transactions in size are overwhelmingly biased towards long term holds. Hence, the intermittent level-up jumps, each time the float supply gets drained off into reserve demand. Even a growing economy can’t prevent some profit taking by speculators, after a big jump, so you have to expect some dips to follow the jumps. That, my friends, is our great opportunity, as patient and prudent buyers. The FUD storms help us, as much as I hate to admit it. I much, much prefer gains by honest value-add and legitimate, well-reasoned and soundly founded “risk-taking”.”
That was written by “aminorex.”
Didn’t you post previously that you’d lost your entire saving in Mt. Gox?
I’m literally writing a book on Bitcoin and blockchains. I state that you CAN make money in cryptos, but it’s vastly more likely you’ll be the person the first guys make their money from. I see no reason to change this view here in the second great bubble.
No, I’ve never written that as it isn’t true. I have stated on the record that I lost – I believe the scientific unit is “a metric fuckton” of money in the Empty Gox collapse. But I had significant amounts out of there before that happened.
But because of Gox, I don’t have 1000x my original capital (as I also write in the comments above).
I did a similar prediction for Gridcoin when it started late in 2013.
Compared to Bitcoin it does not need PoW to run, chain moves by PoS. But you can earn GRC by doing scientific work on the established platform BOINC – not by using especially made ASICs but with your everyday CPU (and GPU).
It is the only coin that rewards a multitude of science projects. Because of the greater block speed it can handle 3 times the transactions of Bitcoin without any change to the code (which could be easily made).
Thanks to the last crypto boom GRC is now up to 100 times its worth in 2014 and still vastly undervaluated if you ask me.
btw there is a bounty out for a program change (unfortunately not many programmers in the coin) that should be several thousand $ now. Earn money by helping science!
well explanation Rick. Love to read your analysis back in 2011. What do you think about dogecoin for the future?
Hi Rickard. I texted you yesterday but haven’t heard back from you, so I thought I would ask here instead.
I was watching your interview on youtube regarding how you think that BTC will hit 1-5mUSD. That would make the marketcap of bitcoin more than 21tUSD. That’s 25% of the total stock capitalization. Why is it that you believe that BTC can amass such a huge marketcap with competing coins like ETH, LTC Dash taking up an increasing number of the total crypto market cap? Also, do you still believe that BTC will conquer and that the scaling will be resolved, or do you have more faith in coins like ETH and Monero?
Well, I believe cryptocurrency will take up a significant market cap. There will be two or three major ones, at most, for slightly different purposes.
Bitcoin may be among them. It will not if scaling isn’t resolved this year. Scaling and governance.
I appreciate the reply, but can you give me the calculation for why you think 1 BTC could be worth 1mUSD? 21tUSD seem like an unrealistic market cap for one crypto to achieve.
• I’ve read your entire information that you stocks in your article and I must say I love it. Many thanks for writing this post. I appreciate it.
What do you think about GameCredits and Factom? Two of the more interesting Altcoins. I think there is room for much more than 2-3 major cryptocurrencies.
what do you think of this article Rick written on zero hedge a couple of days ago?. has india stack usurped bitcoin?
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-06-13/raoul-pal-warns-bitcoin-mania-not-store-value-i-sold-out-last-week
thank you,
b
will india stack stop inflation?
Bitcoin, solution for global crisis. Maybe on the 2 years later, bitcoin will be real money :3 maybe
what’s the best , simplest, most honest money (ie/ non inflationary) and most readily usable by the masses that can be implemented? ( i guess computing code may be complicated, but when its done, its done). ie/ can an 8 year old use it?. can an 80 year old use it?. can a poor person use it?,
thanks
b
Rick,
Your announcement of going all in in Bitcoin is what got me involved with Bitcoin and I thank you for that. As it was for you, it was obvious to me as well, that this is going to be huge. It is indeed important to be able trust your own intelligence and judgement. We share that quality.
However, that very quality leads me to be extremely puzzled about your attitude towards the Core Dev team and especially Blockstream. I’m a programmer and the prevailing thinking in the Core Dev team about scaling makes complete sense to me. I can’t think of any other way to approach the scaling issue that would be feasible in the long run.
From my perspective, the Core Dev line of thinking makes perfect sense while your position is very puzzling. I have no idea what kind of reasoning (and assumptions) leads to the conclusions you make. In the past my own thinking about issues has been very much in line with yours so ending up with a polar opposite viewpoint, when compared to yours, is rather unusual.
It’s not merely that we disagree that troubles me. The most troubling part is that I have no idea how a rational person could come to the conclusion you’ve ended up with in this situation. However, since, for the most part, I tend to agree with your thinking, I’m hoping that perhaps you might be able help me (and others who disagree) to at least understand why you believe as you do.
RE: Joel Kaartinen
1.) Read the Bitcoin White Paper.
2.) Read about lead core developer Greg Maxwell’s history at wikipedia, the censorship on r/bitcoin, etc. etc.
3.) Watch the debate between Roger Ver and Tone Vays on youtube.
Bitcoin was designed to be a cheap, fast, safe, decentralized payment system. Core’s vision permanently changes that to something completely different. They have little experience with economics, do not use bitcoin on a regular basis, and are funded by traditional banks. Adam Beck (CEO of blockstream) didn’t even get involved with bitcoin until it was over $1000 per coin, while lead developer Greg Maxwell predicted it would fail. Meanwhile, people like Roger Ver and Rick Falkvinge have been with it from the very beginning, because they saw bitcoin’s potential to disrupt and change the world. The fact they invested early in it, while people like Maxwell and Beck didn’t, to me reflects the primary difference between the two groups. One represents the future; a vision based off Satoshi Nakmoto’s original vision of a liberated, freer, payment network that severs ties with the traditional ways. While the other represents more of the past, more of the censorship, power, control, etc.
-Bitcoin observer
will india stack stop inflation?
will bitcoin ever be as fast as india stack?. i can see a problem with india stack and that’s the lack of privacy. i can see multiple financial networks operating in india: india stack, barter and maybe crypto, the latter 2 enabling the private interactions that people want to have with each other, not for nefarious reasons but just because we all want this. often our private interactions are tied with the exchange of goods and we dont want to broadcast this to the world as this devalues our relationships
Why not enter North Korean webspace without VPN? Does USA have survillance on all traffic entering and leaving NK? I guess that that is likely, but is that what you mean?
THE IRONY of North Korea, one of the hardest dictatorships in the world, helping TPB with the free spreading of information!
Anyone who knows Korean, please translate the following and post in this comment field if possible: “Thank you, everyone who directly and indirectly are keeping the Pirate Bay up!”
I realize that i might actually be thanking amongst others Kim Jong Un, but I thank them for keeping TPB up, not nuclear tests or other things. I hope the USA or Sweden doesn’t have any laws against thanking “criminals”, “terrorists” or similar.
Oh, and by the way, do you think Swedish media is gonna bring this piece of news up? I don’t.
bitcoin 7 transactions/second. visa/mastercard 20000transactions/second. doesnt this matter?i cant see bitcoin becoming an everyday currency whilst its transaction speeds are so slow. i think people will willingly sacrifice privacy for convenience and stay with the status quo whilst it works faster, unless bitcoin acts like a clearing currency (i’m rambling) and there are fast satelillite cryptos that orbit around it, that are used for every day purposes
ty
It’s quite funny in hindsight, actually, that even the people who were most devoted to the technology expressed themselves like this at the time..
how do you hang onto your positive visions Rick?
Rick, with your statement:
“If you love Blockstream and/or Bitcoin Core, but started doing so after I went all-in, I would urge you to consider the rational possibility that my analysis holds water this time too”
with this statement are you referring to your present analysis or past analysis ?. and are you talking about bitcoins future in a negative light or a positive light?
why would the creator/s of bitcoin want anonymity?
if crypto currency becomes mainstream how will governments be able to collect taxes and be able to function and look after infrastructure?, couldnt crypto bring about the collapse of government and society?
ty
Are you still answering a phone with a twine at house or is your mobile your main indicates of communications? We live in the age of the digital phone. You can live anyplace in the country and have any region code for your telephone number with just a couple of clicks of the mouse. In our office we have a mix of every thing, my house nearly as much.
Fax Tones Cause Discomfort- In the year 2007 you ought to no lengthier have a fax machine that shares your telephone line. If you have to say, “Okay give me a few minutes to turn my fax device on before you deliver the fax,” and then give anyone else that phone calls during that time a piercing scream to the ear, it is time to upgrade. There are internet fax choices as nicely as get virtual sms number that allow you to still have the one number for telephone and fax, but will also permit each kinds of calls to arrive in at the exact same time with out getting to flip any switches.
With VoIP, customers spend one reduced monthly charge for telephone services. And, the beautiful thing is that all the features are included in the fees; with some attributes not even being provided by the phone companies like voicemail to email and call forwarding to name a few. Now right here is the thoughts blower: included in the reduced monthly charge is unlimited calling to the US and Canada! The industry standard for VoIP services is anywhere from $15 to $25 for each month; not bad cost conserving at all.
The subsequent piece to spluge on for your workplace or home is the camera. There are several great cameras for $99 to $499. The Apple(tm) digital camera for the mac appears surprisingly like the pro quality pc camera from Polycom(tm). I use the Logitech(tm) pro series and they work fantastic. Each pc in our workplaces has one.
Never, at any time, allow anybody place you on silent hold. If your VoIP service doesn’t hear something on that line for a number of minutes (how numerous appears to differ), it may simply disconnect you, evidently on the theory your phone is actually off the hook.
From that stage duplicate the file more than to your Kindle via USB, use ES File Explorer to start the installer (I formerly knew how to use ES File Explorer in YouWave, but I apologize, I completely forgot where it was saved).
http://www.associazioneargenis.org/?option=com_k2&view=itemlist&task=user&id=405298
is there a way in which gold can be purchased with bitcoin directly?. ie/ if the banks collude to attempt to close down the exchange of cybercurrency for fiat when the next gfc hit, there could be a big market for cyber to gold conversion
I can recommend Bitgild.com for this. There are at least a dozen other reputable gold dealers accepting Bitcoin for gold, if you google for it. But beware that there are also some scams out there.
Bitcoin is probably the best payment method gold dealers can get right now: No charge-back possible, like with cards, which is why they generally do not accept cards. And payment is almost immediate, unlike bank wire tranfers. The latter is also important for most gold dealers, as they like to get assurance of payment as soon as possible because they need to hedge the order to avoid risks of gold and currency price fluctuations.
Most gold dealers accepting Bitcoin use a payment processor like Bitpay to avoid the volatility of Bitcoin, but that may change in the future, if the volatility of Bitcoin goes gown.
This is fascinating, and despite all the trash talking I’m ready elsewhere (Reddit), you were correct in your predictions. Your old blogpost where you outline your reasons for investing back in 2011 struck a note when I read it, only recently. I’m most definitely intrigued by cryptocurrencies. But the bitcoin cash and scaling question is confusing me a lot, would you have any advice (with an accompany rational justification of course)?
Hi Richard,
Thank you for posting your idea. I bought some BTC in 2014. Still hold it now. Very glad to see BTC has past the forking process. Btc is now above $3400.
5 years ago, your action was bold! Your action proved to people, ” knowledge is money” No one can deny it.
What do you think the next 5 years BTC will do? Is BTC still on the right track?
Thank you!
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What is blockstream doing that is obstructing? Is this still an inssue as of today.
ALSO
Segwit was activated, I cannot see anywhere if bitcoin is now faster or cheaper (fees to send) do you know?
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Epic read man all the best to you! Bravo really!
What a journey.
Wrote a blogpost in Swedish about it.
Enjoy!
Link: http://sv.coinville.co/blogg/rick-falkvinge-miljonar
As a rider myself i firstly love your description second of all this story, and im not surprised that you saw this vision as the leader of PP. You had the insight.
What are your thoughts on XBT Provider?
If you were to invest today, would you go for Ethereum or BTC?
Thanks beforehand.
Kan du skänka mig en Bitcoin? Ber dig innerligt från mitt hjärta. Sitter totalt i träsket ekonomiskt med spelskulder på över en halv miljon. Bitcoin är min ända räddning, annars är mitt liv “fucked” dvs över. Är en 24 årig IT/EL kille som är uppvuxen på nätet “internets own boy”. <3
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I remember the debates running around bitcoin. Although I never invested, I have followed the development with some interest – and I still stand by my conclusion at the time: If Bitcoin is inherently unsound, so is EVERY other currency currently in circulation. The economy is faith-based as a whole, after all.
Well, at least you can afford serving Nejtillpirater and his cadre of non-entities a rich serving of crow…
The question was never whether crypto was going to rise in value, it was whether it was going to rise in *utility*. And it did, vastly, for scammers, thieves, criminals and fools. And self-congratulatory idealogues, I suppose.
“And it did, vastly, for scammers, thieves, criminals and fools. And self-congratulatory idealogues, I suppose.”
Also for a growing proportion of reputable online and offline services now accepting bitcoin. But, I suppose, they don’t count in your eyes, since they accept the currency as part of fiscal reality rather than as part of their “ideology”?