Individuals and businesses around the globe are either buying Bitcoin, handling some of their payments in it, or simply treating it as an investment.
But despite all this, what Bitcoin is most of all, is an unknown. No one really knows where Bitcoin is going, but there are still some interesting points of view we can share on the matter.
Bitcoin and Affiliates
The question that affiliates need to answer for themselves is whether they want to be doing business in Bitcoin. In other words, are you willing to accept Bitcoin as a viable currency when receiving your commissions?
A good way to look at it is to think about the bigger picture, the picture of money in general.
As we all know, money is essentially fictional.
The closest we’ve ever gotten to a reliable currency was gold. Due to its limited supply and, quite frankly, very limited use in the real world, its value has been quite predictable for years.
Paper money, on the other hand, isn’t worth anything in itself. In essence, U.S. dollars (or Federal Reserve Notes – their official name) aren’t worth more than the paper they’ve been printed on.
Their purchasing power exists only because of the U.S. government. In plain English, we trust the currencies we’re using today because we trust the system that stands behind them. So the question we should be asking ourselves is, do we trust the Bitcoin “institution” any more or any less than we trust the governments providing other currencies?
This is a question each of us needs to answer on our own. However, we can still trick ourselves a bit when coming up with this answer just to make it slightly easier.
Think of it this way. Would you be willing to accept any payments in Norwegian krone? In all likelihood, you’re not from Norway (and if you are then please replace the krone with something else). You have no relationship with the Norwegian government. You don’t have any trust or any distrust in them, and so on.
If the above doesn’t scare you, and you’d still be willing to give the krone a go, then there’s not much reason why you wouldn’t want to give Bitcoin a go as well.
(Disclaimer. This is not legal advice. This article is for entertainment purposes only, and you should treat it as such.)
Is Bitcoin Here to Stay?
Sadly, this isn’t something we can tell you, nor anyone can.
There is, however, an interesting point of view expressed by Chris Larsen, the co-founder and chief executive of Ripple Labs (another new currency).
“Is Bitcoin Friendster, and we’re MySpace? I hope not. Are we still waiting for our Facebook? Possibly.”