allergy to the ingredients, or pregnant. may cause nausea, constipation, headache, and vomiting. reduce hunger, help control cravings with contrave. now you an talk to a doctor online and get free shipping at getcontravenow.com. the value of bitcoin is making some people giddy, but it s a virtual commodity, an electronic surrogate for actual money created and transferred by network computers. the boom of the so-called cryptocurrency has mirrored other famous market frenzies, the dutch tulip bulb mania of the 1630s, the u.s. stock market booms of the 1920s and 1990s. as word spread about bitcoin, its value kept going up, up, and up. closing above 16,000 on friday after a volatile end of year, and the boom in virtual currency is reshaping forbes list of the
pointing out the fact i wanted to get into that issue and neglected to ask my guests about it. i m fascinated by the fact the base seems to be holding firm. and the idea that a, you know, liberal writer publishes a tell-all book about the administration, i don t think it s going to resinate with folks in the red states, but i want to know. next, is a pot war looming between the feds and pot-loving states? going to ask the governor of colorado and then, is the bitcoin craze digital gold or a ponzi scheme that s going to crash and burn? two major players in the industry are coming up. there are two types of people in the world. those who fear the future. and those who embrace it. the future is for the unafraid. all because of you
cross-border money movements are very expensive and very slow, and with bitcoin you can send any amount of money to anyone, anywhere on earth, basically instantaneously and herbalessen free. vivek, you think the party is about to end? make your case. i think it s the greatest scam of modern times. talk about transferring money, cost you about $30 right now to send $5 across. it s not digital currency, it died as digit caal currency. now it s people like this saying, hey, hold on to it, trust us, it s a magical thing to increase in value, and it does because everyone is believing these people. and the trouble is that the poor, the average, you know, mom and pop, the truck driver and barbers put their life savings into this are going to lose their money and told to keep holding on, trust us, value will go up, and they ll go bankrupt, while the rich here in silicon valley and those hyping it cash
is sin onynonymous with an underground economy. that s a silly thing to say. bitcoin has a paper trail for every transfer done. it s unknown the silk road guy was using bitcoin, not as well known there were two federal agents that were extorting money from him and other people in the dark web and it was a bitcoin company, bit stamp, that reported them to the authorities and they are both in prison, because every single crime they committed was a permanent paper trail. if the government had the choice today to approve either cash or bitcoin, no way they d approve cash. cash is great for crimes. bitcoin is terrible. hey, vivek, i know you made reference, dan made reference to the technological control. technology worries you. in other words, you see the technological side of bitcoin as being problematic. quickly tell me why. mike, would you put your life savings into digital currency,
richest people. the cofounder of ripple, another cryptocurrency, chris larson, was worth $59 billion on thursday, pushing him briefly above facebook s mark zuckerberg. so, is this a happy boom, or have we reached the point where, as with most of these alleged sure-thing money speculations, it will inevitably go bust? joining me now, people with two opposing views, dan morehead. he founded the first bitcoin-focused hedge fund after he began his career at goldman sachs. he got in early. he is way up. as the new york times headlined, 25,000%. that wasn t a typo. in fact, it s higher today. 27,000%. vivek is a distinguished fellow and director of research at the center for entrepreneurship and research at duke. he wrote a piece at the washington post two years ago,