Will the downfall of Russia be the beginning of Bitcoin (first written in Dec. 2014).

I sometimes like to go back into my archive of article and see if I was right or wrong in my prognostications. I ran across this prior missive and found it interesting.

The following article was written in December of 2014, some time after Russia had moved into Crimea and the Ukraine. It was about Bitcoin and whether or not the value would go up or not. Bitcoin had been trading around $700, but had dropped to around $300.

In some cases, and this is one of those, I wish I would have following my own reasoning. Bitcoin is now trading near $3,000. Oh well.

Below is the Article as written in 2014:

Will the downfall of Russia, be the beginning of Bitcoin?

With all of the actions, sanctions, machinations and movements around the situation with Ukraine and Russia, it’s hard to ascertain what may happen in the future.

Financial sanctions are sure to come, bank accounts will be frozen, assets may be seized.

There are Billions of dollars at risk for the Russian Oligarchs as well as bankers, politicians and business men.

Considering almost all of the pressure will come through the control and seizure of financial assets (money) that is stored, moved and transferred through the banking system, that is where the choke point will occur.

Ok, so the title may be a bit of hyperbole. You can argue that Russia will not have a collapse, but you can’t argue that there will be efforts to hide, shield or protect the money that exists in the global banks.

Therein lies Bitcoin. For those of you not familiar, BitCoin (http://bit.ly/BC2014SBC) this is a type of crypto currency, in that it is not stored in a bank or regulated by a government.

If you knew your money was going to be taken or frozen, would you take a chance to putting money into an electronic wallet?

The answer may well be yes. There is a massive movement in the Silicon Beach area alone led by virtual currency pioneers like Brock Pierce (http://bit.ly/1jn3PMe) and Steve Beauregard, CEO of GoCoin.com. 

There is even a Bitropolis, a 7,000 square foot facility in the heart of Santa Monica, dedicated to businesses and technologies around Bitcoin.

While the technology had existed mostly in the shadows, it started to gain national prominence in the last few months.

Even Cameron and Tyler Winkelvoss (the twins of Facebook Fame), have been heavily involved in the bitcoin space.

Most recently however, there was a massive theft and bankruptcy of one of the major trading systems for the Bitcoin. This was supposed to be something that could never happen- the theft of loss of a distributed currency.

This has only further roiled the already fragile interest and ecosystem that had existed.

However, as Russia continues to push further into Ukraine, and as the US and the rest of the world debate their options, I can surmise there is going to be a rise in the use of Bitcoin- mostly flowing in from Russian money.

So, if you start to see another rise in the value of a Bitcoin, and can’t quite figure out why, just remember the phrase; Follow the Money.