Bitcoin!

AspirinCount Rating, Feb 2nd 2020 : Watch for troughs  for long term Buy

It's the Buzzword for the next generation of monetary exchange. With plenty of technical jargon available on the web, defining Bitcoin and it's variants, what determines the price of Bitcoin. Lets look at a couple of interesting factors that come into Bitcoin Valuation.

First and Foremost : Demand and Supply

The supply for Bitcoins and other digital currencies is limited. Unlike Paper Currency, there can be a maximum of 21 Million Bitcoins that can ever be mined. Another Digital Currency, Litecoin, is capped at 84 Million. 

What creates the demand for these digital currencies? 

It has been tough to find real use of Digital Currencies so far but looking at both sides of the coin, the favorable factors outweigh the negatives. 

-- Limited Supply of Digital Currencies limits it's usage as world currency reserve replacing Gold.  However, allowing more than one kind of digital currency can solve this problem, at the same time creating a standard for international currency acceptable to all & at par. With nearly 2500 Cryptocurrencies  in play today and rising, limited supply may not be a huge problem. 

-- Settlement of transactions can become very slow when volume of transactions is high. 

Second but nonetheless important : Regulation and Trust

As of 2017, FTC has already approved cryptocurrency trading platform LedgerX as the first federally regulated digital currency options exchange and clearinghouse in the U.S; this points to a positive future of cryptocurrencies in the United States. 

Interestingly, within US, Commodities futures trading commission classifies Bitcoins as commodities while IRS treats them as property. 

With Government regulation and Community trust kicking in, cryptocurrency seems to be on a trajectory of gaining ground. 

Corroboration by influential names, including Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Jamie Dimon stakes it  firmer in the ground.