During an election year in Argentina, it can be difficult to concentrate on anything other than economics. The severe financial prognosis has once again dominated this year's presidential campaign, with an annual inflation rate that has surpassed 138 percent and a currency that has experienced a sharp decline in value.

Argentina Presidential Polls: Economic situation dire

Inflation in Argentina has jumped to its highest level in three decades, just a week before the country elects its new president. Compared to a year ago, inflation has accelerated to 138.3%. That's the highest level since the early 1990s when Argentina was exiting hyperinflation.

Record high inflation in Argentina

As hyperinflation continues to plague Venezuela, the country has said that it will make a million-to-1 change in its currency soon, eliminating six zeros from prices in the local currency.

Venezuela to make a million-to-1 change in its currency soon

Venezuelan opposition leader <a href="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.wionews.com/world/juan-guaido-nicolas-maduro-rallies-set-as-venezuela-struggles-with-blackout-202146&amp;sa=U&amp;ved=0ahUKEwiLzNeI6t3hAhUMinAKHUJ2AJEQFggFMAA&amp;client=internal-uds-cse&amp;cx=006054055338965708568:09spwrlibei&amp;usg=AOvVaw16PYQz61BliBWay1xIaTVu">Juan Guaido</a> on Friday called on supporters to take to the streets on May 1 for what he called "the largest march in the history" of the South American country to keep the pressure on President <a href="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.wionews.com/world/venezuelas-guaido-tells-nicolas-maduro-pressure-just-beginning-calls-for-civic-strike-201425&amp;sa=U&amp;ved=0ahUKEwiLzNeI6t3hAhUMinAKHUJ2AJEQFggLMAI&amp;client=internal-uds-cse&amp;cx=006054055338965708568:09spwrlibei&amp;usg=AOvVaw0Ak9mHVKs2pflzw8xVlWEP">Nicolas Maduro</a> to leave power.

Guaido, the head of the opposition-controlled National Assembly who in January invoked the constitution to assume an interim presidency on the basis that Maduro's 2018 re-election was illegitimate, reiterated his call for the country's armed forces to take his side in the three-month power struggle.

"They will need to listen to the people saying: enough," Guaido told a crowd gathered at a plaza in eastern Caracas, setting the date for the march for May 1, International Workers' Day.

"We call on all the people to join in the largest march in the history of Venezuela to demand the end to the usurpation so this tragedy can end."

Guaido has been recognized by the United States and most Western nations as the South American country's rightful leader. The oil-rich country is in the sixth year of recession, marked by hyperinflation and shortages of basic goods that have prompted more than three million to emigrate.

Maduro calls Guaido a US puppet seeking to oust him in a coup and blames the country's economic woes on a US-led "economic war." His ruling socialist party has frequently responded to Guaido's calls for protests over the past few months with simultaneous marches of their own.

Guaido did not specify the final destination of the May 1 demonstration. But some in attendance on Friday called out suggestions that they march on the Miraflores presidential palace.

"He is not alone," said Aleida Vargas, a 58-year-old retired teacher who attended the opposition rally on Friday. "Each day we are moving forward, and there is no turning back. It might not happen tomorrow, but it will be soon."

Despite Guaido's offers of amnesty to members of the military who facilitate a transition, Maduro remains in control of the armed forces and the day-to-day functions of government.

Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido on Friday called on supporters to take to the streets on May 1 for what he called "the largest march in the history" of the South American country to keep the pressure on President Nicolas Maduro to leave power.

Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido on Friday called on supporters to take to the streets on May 1 for what he called "the largest march in the history" of the South American country to keep the pressure on President Nicolas Maduro to leave power. Guaido, the head of the opposition-controlled National Assembly who in January invoked the constitution to assume an interim presidency on the basis that Maduro's 2018 re-election was illegitimate, reiterated his call for the country's armed forces to take his side in the three-month power struggle. "They will need to listen to the people saying: enough," Guaido told a crowd gathered at a plaza in eastern Caracas, setting the date for the march for May 1, International Workers' Day. "We call on all the people to join in the largest march in the history of Venezuela to demand the end to the usurpation so this tragedy can end." Guaido has been recognized by the United States and most Western nations as the South American country's rightful leader. The oil-rich country is in the sixth year of recession, marked by hyperinflation and shortages of basic goods that have prompted more than three million to emigrate. Maduro calls Guaido a US puppet seeking to oust him in a coup and blames the country's economic woes on a US-led "economic war." His ruling socialist party has frequently responded to Guaido's calls for protests over the past few months with simultaneous marches of their own. Guaido did not specify the final destination of the May 1 demonstration. But some in attendance on Friday called out suggestions that they march on the Miraflores presidential palace. "He is not alone," said Aleida Vargas, a 58-year-old retired teacher who attended the opposition rally on Friday. "Each day we are moving forward, and there is no turning back. It might not happen tomorrow, but it will be soon." Despite Guaido's offers of amnesty to members of the military who facilitate a transition, Maduro remains in control of the armed forces and the day-to-day functions of government.

Venezuela's opposition leader Guaido calls for 'largest march in history' to oust Maduro

Is there someone who still have not heard about Bitcoin? Or is there someone whose heartbeat hasn&rsquo;t skipped when they heard about the jump in prices of the Bitcoin?

I was reading an article about Mr Kristoffer Koch who invested around $27 in 2009 to buy 5000 bitcoins and in 2017 those bitcoins would be worth $86899725, that&rsquo;s a return of around of more than 4,000,000 per cent in less than 8 years.

If you search back in history, you won&rsquo;t find lot many investments which would have given such yields in such a short span of time. Courtesy his $27 investment,&nbsp;Mr Krishoffer now doesn&rsquo;t need to work ever, and he says that he invested while he was writing a paper on the topic without putting too much thought into it.

So, how many of you are planning to invest? In this article, I want to talk about why I believe Bitcoin is interesting and it&rsquo;s going to stay and, yet, I would stay away from investing in it.

What is Bitcoin: Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency invented in year 2008/2009 by a guy named Satoshi Nakamoto (no one has met him till date). The whole infrastructure of Bitcoin is based on the algorithm, miners, exchanges and the wallets.

So, in short &ndash; Bitcoin is just another currency system but it is not like any other system working currently. I will be talking in detail about cryptocurrency, the role each of these players plays and how to really understand cryptocurrency in the coming weeks.

&nbsp;

<div class="ui-state-default" contenteditable="false"><img alt="" draggable="false" src="http://s.wionews.com/photos/3-20171220083306.png" />
<div class="media-description">
Benefits of Bitcoin. (Others)
</div>
<a class="close-mark close-div" href="javascript:void(0)" id="jqclosemark">&times;</a></div>

Problem with our current payment system:

Our current payment system is based on Fiat Currency, i.e. it is based on a system where we trust some central authority and because it says so, we accept that the value of money.&nbsp;

Now, while Fiat Currency is just 100 years old, the world is changing rapidly and somehow our Fiat Currency is not able to keep pace with the current requirements and Bitcoin is able to exploit these shortcomings.

For example, over the years, more and more transactions have started happening digital and because these deals are happening virtually, we need a 3rd party to authenticate it. However, with more and more transactions happening over the internet, the banks become the main authority to authenticate these transactions through maintaining a track or ledger.

Moreover, every time you transact, you are passing your information to the bank which it can use to formulate a complete map of your financial health and a lot of people don&rsquo;t want the bank to have all their financial information.

Secondly, Fiat Currency gave enormous power to the governments to print the money at their will which leads to another problem of hyperinflation.

In fact, in the short of history of 100 years, there have been 55 instances of hyperinflation. The most recent example is in 2008 when it was losing half its value in 25 hours. One of the worst was the hyperinflation in Zimbabwe where the value of currency went below a toilet paper itself.

Nationalistic in nature: If you are travelling from one country to another, you need to purchase the currency of the country you are visiting. According to 2015 figures, 6 trillion dollars of ForEx transactions happens every year. If we put a fees of half a percent over 15 per cent&nbsp;(varies based on banks and corporations), then a lot of money just goes only for&nbsp;transacting your money. Moreover, because of transaction charges, it gets very cumbersome to transact small amount of money.

So, if you see there are three main issues with the current set of payment systems:

<ul>
	<li>Hyperinflation</li>
	<li>Nationalistic in nature while the society is becoming globalised.</li>
	<li>Loss of identity in every transaction.</li>
</ul>

Moreover, if you look closely you will understand that all three are serious issues and we do require some better currency and &lsquo;Bitcoin&rsquo; came at the right time to solve all these issues.

Bitcoin is a global currency, thus, you can transact from any country to another country without any currency conversion. It is limited in number, therefore, while its price will increase, there won&rsquo;t ever be hyperinflation as no one can print it infinitely.&nbsp;

Lastly, Satoshi has built a powerful infrastructure at the backend and an incentive mechanism for the miners, due to which, we don&rsquo;t need any 3rd party to keep a record of our transactions.

Isn&rsquo;t Bitcoin just great? If I am so much optimistic about Bitcoin, then why I won&rsquo;t invest?

<div class="ui-state-default" contenteditable="false"><img alt="" draggable="false" src="http://s.wionews.com/photos/2-20171220083131.jpg" />
<div class="media-description">
Examining Bitcoin for Ponzi scheme signs. (Others)
</div>
<a class="close-mark close-div" href="javascript:void(0)" id="jqclosemark">&times;</a></div>

Few of the reasons for not investing:

Too much optimistic: Whenever I invest in a company&rsquo;s stock, I always ask myself &lsquo;how much price is due to optimistic nature of people&rsquo;. While people have already compared it to next big development after the Internet, I believe they have valued it way too higher. I say so because the inherent benefits of Bitcoin are also the biggest concerns, which stops it from becoming a mainstream currency.

For example: If no one has the information of the transactions i.e. where the money is moving then it creates a lot of issues. For example, A big usage of Bitcoin currently happens on the Deep Web where people do want to hide their credentials.

Moreover, governments do like to have some control over the finances of the people to stop them from doing something illegal i.e. funding child pornography or terrorism.

Multiple cryptocurrencies: While there are still a lot of questions to be answered, one of the big questions is whether we will all work on a single cryptocurrency or multiple cryptocurrencies and if we decide to work with single cryptocurrency, then which one to choose and who is going to decide that currency. Will it be some Central Government? And if we leave it to the public, then every time a price of a cryptocurrency goes beyond the roof, we will jump to the other one with less value and which will eventually again pop up the problem of conversion of cryptocurrencies.

4,000,000 per cent :&nbsp;People are still saying that Bitcoin can go higher because of its limited number. There is only 21 million bitcoin that can be mined, however, it is more becoming more like Ponzi schemes.

<div class="ui-state-default" contenteditable="false"><img alt="" draggable="false" src="http://s.wionews.com/photos/1-20171220083034.png" />
<div class="media-description">
Bitcoin market price fluctuations (Others)
</div>
<a class="close-mark close-div" href="javascript:void(0)" id="jqclosemark">&times;</a></div>

In a similar fashion to a Ponzi Scheme, the people who invested in the initial days would surely benefit as the value has risen through time. The people at the bottom (or who will enter last) will get hurt the most as they will buy at a premium and the value will drop drastically when it comes to its real value.

Therefore, my suggestion would be it&rsquo;s good to be informed about Bitcoin and cryptocurrency as they are making the noise for the right reason, however, it&rsquo;s also important to understand the true value of any product and not to invest just because everyone else is talking about it or investing into it.

(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL).

Investors need to understand the true value of any product and not to invest just because everyone else is talking/investing in it

Is there someone who still have not heard about Bitcoin? Or is there someone whose heartbeat hasn’t skipped when they heard about the jump in prices of the Bitcoin? I was reading an article about Mr Kristoffer Koch who invested around $27 in 2009 to buy 5000 bitcoins and in 2017 those bitcoins would be worth $86899725, that’s a return of around of more than 4,000,000 per cent in less than 8 years. If you search back in history, you won’t find lot many investments which would have given such yields in such a short span of time. Courtesy his $27 investment, Mr Krishoffer now doesn’t need to work ever, and he says that he invested while he was writing a paper on the topic without putting too much thought into it. So, how many of you are planning to invest? In this article, I want to talk about why I believe Bitcoin is interesting and it’s going to stay and, yet, I would stay away from investing in it. What is Bitcoin: Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency invented in year 2008/2009 by a guy named Satoshi Nakamoto (no one has met him till date). The whole infrastructure of Bitcoin is based on the algorithm, miners, exchanges and the wallets. So, in short – Bitcoin is just another currency system but it is not like any other system working currently. I will be talking in detail about cryptocurrency, the role each of these players plays and how to really understand cryptocurrency in the coming weeks. Benefits of Bitcoin. (Others) × Problem with our current payment system: Our current payment system is based on Fiat Currency, i.e. it is based on a system where we trust some central authority and because it says so, we accept that the value of money. Now, while Fiat Currency is just 100 years old, the world is changing rapidly and somehow our Fiat Currency is not able to keep pace with the current requirements and Bitcoin is able to exploit these shortcomings. For example, over the years, more and more transactions have started happening digital and because these deals are happening virtually, we need a 3rd party to authenticate it. However, with more and more transactions happening over the internet, the banks become the main authority to authenticate these transactions through maintaining a track or ledger. Moreover, every time you transact, you are passing your information to the bank which it can use to formulate a complete map of your financial health and a lot of people don’t want the bank to have all their financial information. Secondly, Fiat Currency gave enormous power to the governments to print the money at their will which leads to another problem of hyperinflation. In fact, in the short of history of 100 years, there have been 55 instances of hyperinflation. The most recent example is in 2008 when it was losing half its value in 25 hours. One of the worst was the hyperinflation in Zimbabwe where the value of currency went below a toilet paper itself. Nationalistic in nature: If you are travelling from one country to another, you need to purchase the currency of the country you are visiting. According to 2015 figures, 6 trillion dollars of ForEx transactions happens every year. If we put a fees of half a percent over 15 per cent (varies based on banks and corporations), then a lot of money just goes only for transacting your money. Moreover, because of transaction charges, it gets very cumbersome to transact small amount of money. So, if you see there are three main issues with the current set of payment systems: Hyperinflation Nationalistic in nature while the society is becoming globalised. Loss of identity in every transaction. Moreover, if you look closely you will understand that all three are serious issues and we do require some better currency and ‘Bitcoin’ came at the right time to solve all these issues. Bitcoin is a global currency, thus, you can transact from any country to another country without any currency conversion. It is limited in number, therefore, while its price will increase, there won’t ever be hyperinflation as no one can print it infinitely. Lastly, Satoshi has built a powerful infrastructure at the backend and an incentive mechanism for the miners, due to which, we don’t need any 3rd party to keep a record of our transactions. Isn’t Bitcoin just great? If I am so much optimistic about Bitcoin, then why I won’t invest? Examining Bitcoin for Ponzi scheme signs. (Others) × Few of the reasons for not investing: Too much optimistic: Whenever I invest in a company’s stock, I always ask myself ‘how much price is due to optimistic nature of people’. While people have already compared it to next big development after the Internet, I believe they have valued it way too higher. I say so because the inherent benefits of Bitcoin are also the biggest concerns, which stops it from becoming a mainstream currency. For example: If no one has the information of the transactions i.e. where the money is moving then it creates a lot of issues. For example, A big usage of Bitcoin currently happens on the Deep Web where people do want to hide their credentials. Moreover, governments do like to have some control over the finances of the people to stop them from doing something illegal i.e. funding child pornography or terrorism. Multiple cryptocurrencies: While there are still a lot of questions to be answered, one of the big questions is whether we will all work on a single cryptocurrency or multiple cryptocurrencies and if we decide to work with single cryptocurrency, then which one to choose and who is going to decide that currency. Will it be some Central Government? And if we leave it to the public, then every time a price of a cryptocurrency goes beyond the roof, we will jump to the other one with less value and which will eventually again pop up the problem of conversion of cryptocurrencies. 4,000,000 per cent : People are still saying that Bitcoin can go higher because of its limited number. There is only 21 million bitcoin that can be mined, however, it is more becoming more like Ponzi schemes. Bitcoin market price fluctuations (Others) × In a similar fashion to a Ponzi Scheme, the people who invested in the initial days would surely benefit as the value has risen through time. The people at the bottom (or who will enter last) will get hurt the most as they will buy at a premium and the value will drop drastically when it comes to its real value. Therefore, my suggestion would be it’s good to be informed about Bitcoin and cryptocurrency as they are making the noise for the right reason, however, it’s also important to understand the true value of any product and not to invest just because everyone else is talking about it or investing into it. (Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL).

Opinion: Bitcoin is interesting but not worth investing

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