Gonçalo Moreira about bitcoins on TV3

As we already explained in an earlier post, the public Catalan television channel, TV3, was in our office in Barcelona last week to interview our Analyst Gonçalo Moreira, about Bitcoins and the recent heavy fluctuation episodes the digital currency has experienced. The news report was broadcast in the news last Friday and we have the video, with English subtitles (click on “Captions” on the player and choose “English”), so you understand what was said.

In the news report, it is explained that bitcoins are not backed by any official instiutions and can be created by anyone who has a bit of luck and computing and mathematical skills. Gonçalo Moreira compares this process to gold mining, though “instead of a hard work machinery, this is a sort of cryptographic lottery.”  Bitcoins are convertible into traditional currencies therefore can be bought. A lot of speculation has provoked prices hikes and drops in the digital currency lately, in part due to the increasing mistrust in the banking system. Investors are looking for alternative ways to make money or simply keep it safe, such as luxury goods, as Gonçalo explains, and bitcoins are just a new way to escape traditional bank deposits.

Some sees the “devil’s hand” behind bitcoins, as a professor from ESADE, a Barcelona business school, who believes the creators of bitcoins and those who possess some have much interest in publicizing bitcoins to sell them at a higher price. Jesús Palau sees no future to the bitcoin currency, that he sees as a “pyramid scheme“, though defendors of the new currency think it’s a possibility to unseat the traditional banking system.

 
And here is a couple of pictures of our team in the office last week, watching live the TV news!