Amidst election night last night, I noted that the rise of bitcoin was rising. It appears to have gone back down to the $718 or so, compared to $740ish or so when I checked last night. Some analysts predicted a Trump win would cause a price increase for bitcoin. The financial markets were not anticipating a Trump victory, which caused a bit of volatility in stock prices. It seems reasonable to assume that the bitcoin community was also unaware that Donald Trump would win the Presidential election. Thus, the news of Trump’s victory should cause the price to alter, which it did. However, the price may not be staying. Coindesk offers an analysis on the topic here.
In other parts of the world, traditional currency are experiencing interesting effects.
In Zimbabwe, people are lining up at the bank to withdraw their funds. The government is proposing a new currency pegged to the U.S. dollar. The citizens of Zimbabwe are not giving this currency a vote of confidence. I think it's in these situations that bitcoin has the potential of thriving (with the exception of its scalability issues, but that is a topic for another day).
