International journalist and media defender of Bitcoin Max Keiser gave a presentation at Labitconf in Montevideo, Uruguay, in which he explained the impact that cryptocurrencies generate in the global scenario and particularly in the Latin American region.

With a talk entitled "Why Bitcoin Matters in Emerging Markets," Keiser took the stage in his casual style, with a sports jacket and shorts, but mainly with a very critical tone towards trust money and the traditional economic and financial system.

Keiser stressed that Bitcoin's first function is to clean up the mess left in the world by fiat money. One of the points he highlighted during the presentation was: "The inherent violence of fiat money must be replaced by the peaceful nature of Bitcoin."

On the other hand, he noted that politicians in the United States are beginning to take into account what cryptocurrencies are all about, and quoted Representative Brad Sherman, who had acknowledged that Bitcoin's purpose is to take their power away.

For Keiser, "Bitcoin is the currency of a global revolution and the nightmare of trust money," as he put it during Labitconf, it's resistance money."

On the other hand, he said that when we talk about regulations and regulators, we have to bear in mind that these regulators are paid in fiat money.

Keiser also took the opportunity to talk about Argentina, saying that Argentina is a good place to adopt Bitcoin as the country has lived through recurrent times of economic and social crisis in recent decades.

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Max Keiser: Bitcoin's First Function Is to Clean Up the Mess Left by Fiat - Cointelegraph

(Disclosure: Author holds an investment in bitcoin.)

There have been a lot of analogies over the years to bitcoin being a sort of digital gold. But how does bitcoin actually compare to gold as a storage unit of value? Can it protect against the risk of inflation the way gold does? Lets compare bitcoin and gold and see how they stack up as wealth preservation tools.

Trust In Bitcoin Vs. Gold

An asset cannot be used as a way to store wealth if the majority of people dont agree it is valuable and believe it will remain valuable in the future. This is one area where gold has a clear advantage. Whether it takes the form of coins, jewelry, art or something else, someone in 2019 B.C. would be just as likely to agree that gold is valuable as someone in A.D. 2019.

Bitcoin, because it is so new, doesnt have this advantage. Its only been around a decade. Its going to take more time for bitcoin to prove itself as a long-term tool for storing wealth.

Portability

Here is one area where bitcoin is the clear winner. Bitcoin is a nonphysical asset, and can be sent and received from anywhere with an internet connection. It also operates entirely outside the banking system, so it is easy and fast to send and receive payments across borders.

Gold must be physically stored somewhere, whether in a personal safe or with a company in its vaults. If you dont hold the gold yourself, you cant access it at will, and if you do, it doesnt necessarily mean you can move it around easily. Try bringing several pounds of gold onto an airplane without attracting attention and suspicion at the airport.

Furthermore, some governments throughout history have attempted to ban or confiscate privately owned gold (it was actually illegalfor private citizens to own and hold gold for 41 years in the United States).

It is much less likely a government could successfully block access to bitcoin, as doing so would require blocking access to the internet as a whole. China has attempted to block access to bitcoin several times over the past decade, and even with its great internet firewall, it has been unable to make a meaningful impact.

Barrier To Entry

Gold stands at about $1,500 per ounce at the time of this writing. So if you want to buy a 1oz coin, thats the minimum youd pay. You can buy bars in smaller sizes, but you can only shrink a physical asset so much.

One bitcoin is around $8,100 but remember, you do not need to buy a whole bitcoin to get exposure. Bitcoin is divisible by 100 million into the smallest possible unit, the Satoshi, or sat. If you wanted to get started with only a couple dollars investing in bitcoin, you could do that. Bitcoin (and cryptocurrencies in general) have a much lower barrier to entry for people who dont have a lot of money to throw around.

Protection Against Inflation

One of the most popular reasons for buying gold is to hedge against inflation. Some people fear the dollar, or whatever fiat currency they are holding, will experience a decline in value in the future. So, they convert it to gold to help protect their wealth against inflationary changes.

Both bitcoin and gold can be used for this purpose, though bitcoins price volatility can make people uncomfortable. No matter which you prefer, there is no denying the price of gold does not fluctuate nearly as much as any non-stablecoin digital currency.

Growth Potential

Over the past 20 years, gold has risen from around $430 per ounce at the end of 1999 to about $1,500 today. If you bought it then, you basically tripled your money. Thats certainly nothing to complain about.

Bitcoin has experienced unbelievable growth. When it first appeared in 2009, it was worth fractions of a penny, but steadily increased in value relative to the U.S. dollar over time. With each halving (when the algorithmically determined supply of new bitcoins being generated is cut in half), the price of bitcoin exploded a year or so afterward. Between 2015 and 2017, for instance, bitcoin experienced nearly 9,000% growth when it reached its all-time high of nearly $20,000. While there was a sharp correction after each all-time high, the new low was always significantly higher than before. If this pattern holds with the next halving, the short- to medium-term growth potential of bitcoin could be much higher than gold.

Functionality

One of the core arguments in favor of gold is that it is a physical commodity and you can actually do things with it. Gold is used for jewelry, electronics, dentistry, aerospace equipment and more. It has real, tangible utility besides money. There is a certain base level functional demand that contributes to the value of gold, but the majority of the demand for gold is based on the speculative value.

Bitcoin, of course, is a purely digital creation and really cant serve any purpose besides being a digital, nonphysical storage unit of value and medium of exchange. Bitcoin has a certain base level functional demand for people and businesses using it as a payments network, but the majority of the demand for bitcoin is also speculative.

Risk Vs. Mobility

This is a polarizing topic among financial experts. Some passionately argue in favor of gold and dismiss cryptocurrency as not real, while crypto proponents call the naysayers goldbugs who refuse to have an open mind.

Im not here to give financial advice, but I will say this: Gold has proven itself over the millennia, and I believe bitcoin is about the closest thing to a frictionless, portable, nonphysical form of gold that currently exists. Ultimately, what matters is your own tolerance for risk and how mobile you need your wealth to be.

The information provided here is not investment, tax or financial advice. You should consult with a licensed professional for advice concerning your specific situation.

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Is Bitcoin A Better Store Of Value Than Gold? - Forbes

In Argentina these days, road travel is far from easy. Protests, or piqueteas they are called, are a daily occurrence.

Demonstratorsrailing against governmental policies, unfair local bosses and other ills that beset inflation-struck Argentinablock the roads with burning tyres and barricades, leaving traffic at a standstill for hours.

But even thats not a wasted opportunity for an interchangeable crew of cryptocurrency enthusiasts, travelling through Latin America on a customized bus called La Bitcoineta.

To date, theyve covered 22,000 miles, spreading the word about cryptocurrencies and blockchain in over 150 towns and cities across Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay and Bolivia. Their enthusiasm is boundless, and the economic difficulties in Argentina and Chile only add to La Bicoinetas draw.

Casual encounters are the most interesting thing, La Bitcoinetas coordinator, Sebastin Chevy Contreras, told Decrypt on a call from Argentina.

You start talking Bitcoin when youre on the road, or you do it at the hotel where youre staying, or you do it at the gas station. Its not [about] convincing people to buy or use bitcoin, just telling them why we think that this is a solution, or a tool that can help them in a future thats not so very far away, he said.

Contreras is one of a core team of 20. La Bitcoineta is now two years old, and is funded by LaBITConf, Latin America's primary Bitcoin event, which kicked off today in Uruguay.

Rodolfo Andragnes (far right) and Sebastin Contreras (in black) with crypto investor Tim Draper (second from right) and members of his team. Image: La Bitcoineta

Rodolfo Andragnes, co-founder of not-for-profit Bitcoin Argentina,is one of the key figures behind La Bitcoineta, and many of the social initiatives related to blockchain in the region as well.

The aim, he said, is to reach people in the farthest flung corners of the content; those living in remote regions, with no Internet, and not even a mobile phone signal. More than 50% of Argentinas population is unbanked, he said.

Andragnes interest in Bitcoin goes back to 1997, when he registered the bitcoins.com domain for an e-cash project. One that was far inferior to Bitcoin, he emphasized.

He later sold the domain to the now defunct cryptocurrency exchange, Mt. Gox. Buoyed by his good fortune, he started Bitcoin Argentina in 2013.

La Bitcoineta has an annual budget of $30,000 to $50,000 to travel as far as its enthusiasts can, and to reach as many different people as possible, he said. Its about getting people motivated about Bitcoin and blockchain, and helping them to start their own, local meetups; to spark an idea,

People care about this project. We are happy with that. I wouldn't say it's economically successful, but it's not really expected to be.

Rodolfo Andragnes

La Bitcoineta recently visited Ushuaiaa town nicknamed the End of the World, thanks to its remote position on the Tierra del Fuego archipelago, the southernmost tip of South America. People had never heard of Bitcoin, says Contreras. And thats despite living next to Argentinas biggest mining farm.

The van is now in its second reincarnation. The first Bitcoineta was destroyed in a crash. Fortunately no one was hurt, and a new minivan was soon found.

Another close shave was when La Bitcoineta made a short foray into Bolivia, where cryptocurrency is illegal. Bolivia has a very difficult situation at this very moment, said Contreras. The team stayed only two days. And for good reason: the minivan is branded with an unmistakable Bitcoin logo.

Inside, La Bitcoineta is equipped with amenities for long periods of travelplus a projector used to screen educational films out the back of the bus, a Wi-Fi hotspot and a table on which is embedded a full node. The table also converts into a bed.

Theres always a pilot and a co-pilot, but up to five people can travel in the bus at one time. People join La Bitcoineta on a hop on, hop off basis, by arrangement, said Andragnes. Theres a waiting list for some trips.

We try to live by the principles of Bitcointhe need for don't trust, verify; the need for peer-to-peer transactions, talking to people, because you have all this information on the Internet, but you don't even have an Internet connection in some places that we go. We all think that Bitcoin is something bigger than just money or blockchain, said Contreras.

La Bitcoineta's table is equipped with a full node. Image: Juan Pablo Canepa

They organise talks and workshops in university auditoriums, at cultural events, in town squares and even local residents living rooms. Theyre carefully tailored to their audience, which can range from school kids to grannies, and local officials to cattle farmers.

They talk about fundamentals: the uses of bitcoin; its qualities, such as resistance to censorship, but also the challenges facing the cryptocurrencyprivacy, prohibitive or restrictive regulation, and scalability.

No one talks about the price. No one cares if bitcoin goes up or down, said Contreras.

Last week, La Bitcoineta was in Chile. The situation there is critical, said Contreras. A brutal crackdown on protesters against economic upheaval has resulted in a 6pm curfew, and has restricted La Bitcoinetas activities.

People are very worried about whats happening, because Chile was a very wealthy country, it was not prepared, said Contreras. Supermarkets have barricades, as if theyre preparing for a raid. Its very, very sad what is happening in Chile. He added that they had discovered a very emerging bitcoin community.

Before that, La Bitcoineta visited San Carlos de Bariloche, a laid-back mountain town in northern Patagonia which has the biggest ski resort in South America.

Juan Pablo Canepa, who runs a non-profit crypto communications project called Criptoposta, joined the team there. As well as educational outreach, he also helps local businesses to start accepting payment in cryptocurrencies. And has established a cryptonet in Barilochea network of shops that accept cryptocurrencies as a means of payment.

He spent 20 days travelling on La Bitcoineta, taking in Patagonia and the south of Argentina.

Juan Pablo Canepa (left) and La Bitcoineta volunteer Fernando Secchi in Patagonia. Image: Juan Pablo Canepa

Every place we went, people were open and eager to learn, he told Decrypt.

Bitcoin and Litecoin are both popular cryptocurrencies, he said. And some people are interested in the broader technology of blockchain, how it works, and projects like IOTA.

In Argentina, prices are rising everyday, so people are looking for alternative solutions for their savings, said Canepa.

The government has introduced strict controls over the movement of funds, to stem a rapidly worsening financial crisis.

Since 2015, the value of the peso has fallen by over 85% against the dollar. No wonder, then, that Argentinians favor the greenbackor bitcoin.

People are now reaching for different options, for anythingpretty muchthat can be an alternative, said Canepa. Anything they can find that works. Theres a lot of uncertainty; a new President. Everyone is speculating a lot.

Andragnes agreed. He believes that cryptocurrencies are seeing traction again, just as they did during the last government economic crackdown in 2017.

Strict new rules mean wire transfers need explicit authorization, and the government has set a limit for buying US dollars at $200 a month. Cryptocurrencies cant be bought with a credit card or bank account, so people employ workarounds to get around the restrictions.

But despite its hardline policies, Andragnes said that Argentinas government is reasonably open to cryptocurrencies, and is looking to enact some form of legislation and standards for trading them.

Contreras said that, while people were keen to learn about workarounds, the La Bitcoineta team encourages localsfrom blacksmiths and graphic designers to lawyers and farmers, to accept bitcoin as a means of payment.

Right now, La Bitcoineta is at LaBITConf in Montevideo, Uruguay. Outside the capital, people arent so interested in cryptocurrencies, said Contreras. Banks always seem to work, lots of people are employees for the state and they don't seem to need it. But he added that, in the capital, Montevideo, interest in crypto is growing among a professional community of lawyers and programmers.

La Bitcoineta arrives in Montevideo. Grabriel Kurman, cofounder of smart contract platform RSK and La Bitcoineta, gives a thumbs up. Image: Grabriel Kurman

Contreras is also a film-maker, and is putting together a movie about Bitcoinetas travels thats screening at LaBitconf. A feature length version will be released early next year.

After Uruguay, he thinks La Bitcoineta might make for the Atlantic coast of Argentina for the summer season. Beaches and barbecues beckon.

But what really drives these volunteers is their passion for Bitcoin, and other cryptocurrencies.

People care about this project. Its something nice to do. We are happy with that. I wouldn't say it's economically successful, but it's not really expected to be, said Andragnes.

Contreras concurs: When you get to a very small town and find a community of twenty bitcoiners, its unbelievable. Its a job, but its more like a conviction.

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These three man are trying to change South Americas mind about Bitcoin - Decrypt

The Bitcoin price has been on a wild ride this year. The cryptocurrency entered 2019 at a price of around $3,800 beforesurging above $12,000 in June.Unfortunately, after hitting this peak, the value of the asset has declined over the past few months. It currently sits below $8,000.

This kind of price volatility has come to define Bitcoin over the past few years.Investors who bought the asset at its peak in December 2017 have seen the value of their investments decline by around two-thirds, and it doesnt look as if this volatility is going to go away any time soon.

Bitcoin has no underlying cash flows, unlike stocks and shares, which means its intrinsic value is difficult to determine. The crypto asset is only worth as much as other investors are willing to pay.

And with this being the case, I think if you want to get rich, it might be best to abandon Bitcoin and buy stocks and shares instead.

Instead of Bitcoin, Id buy investment trusts and passive tracker funds to make a million. The great thing about these investment vehicles is that they own a range of different shares, spreading risk and reducing the chances that youll suffer a significant loss.

For example, a FTSE 100 index tracker fund owns all 100 stocks in the index, so you dont have to worry about picking individual equities, or the fortunes of any one single company. As long as the global economy continues to grow, the earnings of FTSE 100 constituents should continue to expand as well, driving up the value of the index.

On top of this growth, the index also currently supports a dividend yield of 4.5%. Bitcoin doesnt offer any income at all. You usually have to pay to keep it secure.

According to my calculations, its relatively straightforward to make a million using a simple FTSE 100 tracker fund. All you need is patience and a regular savings plan.

Over the past decade, the leading index has produced an average annual total return for investors in the region of 7%. Thats a combination of both income and capital growth.

At this rate of return, I calculatean ISA investment of 20,000 will grow to be worth 326,000 after 40 years. Add in additional monthly contributions of 250, and the balance will be 1m after 40 years of saving,assuming an average annual rate of return of 7%.

I think its highly likely the FTSE 100 will continue to produce this sort of annual return over the next four decades. Indeed, over the past 100 years, UK stocks have produced an average annual real return in the region of 5%. And it isnt too much of a stretch to think that, going forward, stocks could earn 7% per annum.

If youre willing to take on a bit more risk, over the past decade the FTSE 250 has produced an average annual return for investors in a region of 9%. At this rate of return, I calculate it would take an investor just 33 years to make a million, assuming a monthly deposit of 250 and starting pot of 20,000.

Thats why Id rather buy a passive market tracker fund over Bitcoin to make a million any day.

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Rupert Hargreaves owns no share mentioned. The Motley Fool UK has no position in any of the shares mentioned. Views expressed on the companies mentioned in this article are those of the writer and therefore may differ from the official recommendations we make in our subscription services such as Share Advisor, Hidden Winners and Pro. Here at The Motley Fool we believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors.

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Forget the Bitcoin price! Here's how I'd invest to make 1m today - Yahoo Finance UK