Is Bitcoin a bubble? We don’t even know how to value it properly

By Alicia (Lucy) Cameron and Kelly Trinh, CSIRO Bitcoin is a “speculative mania” according to the governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia. But it’s not so easy to say that Bitcoin is a bubble — we don’t know how to value it. Recent price rises (close to A$18,000 in the past three months) may be […]

The Conversation 21 December, 2017

Bitcoin bubble — Source: Marco Verch/flickr, CC BY-SA

By Alicia (Lucy) Cameron and Kelly Trinh, CSIRO

Bitcoin is a “speculative mania” according to the governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia. But it’s not so easy to say that Bitcoin is a bubble — we don’t know how to value it.

Recent price rises (close to A$18,000 in the past three months) may be too great and can’t continue. But the Bitcoin market is only just maturing as an investment and as a currency, and so it may still have room to grow.