If you ever want an example of how the news dictates our thinking, Hurricane Irma and Harvey are your touch stones.
Think of the biggest weather disaster in the last 14 days and most would think of the two hurricanes hitting the US but both pale into insignificance to the recent Moonson floods in South Asia, death toll now over 1,200, 1.5 million buildings destroyed, 10s thousands of schools and hospitals have gone and 40 million people affected. It hardly gets a mention on the mainstream news in Europe or US.

This is because the news editors dictate the narrative of what should be scaring us, what should we be caring about, whats hot and whats not, whats right and whats wrong.

A major example of how the news has warped our thinking is pre credit-crunch, global warming was the news editors’ number 1 issue, a great narrative for inducing fear into the masses.
But now we suddenly don’t care about global warming and started to hate all them eco taxes and green energy subsidies, which are being quietly dropped by most governments (because it doesn’t fit today’s narrative). Now today the main press narrative is we all should be very scared of Terrorism and any news that fits that narrative gets shouted out from the front pages and global warming hardly gets a mention.

Whats that got to do with Domaining and BitCoins. BitCoins is the Press favourite narrative at the moment that dominates all my news feeds, they are telling me I should care about them, I should be invested in them, it’s going to change the world….. It’s every where I look now, even all the domaining blogs, twitter feeds, it is the new Press narrative which dominates every other investment type. What it means is we are now in the middle of a major hype phase and bubble created by the press.

Some fundamental questions still remain regarding crypto currency being investment grade.
There is no doubt that the block chain technology has its place and will be ubiquitous as a ledger which authenticates the provenance of something valuable such as land, real estates, paintings etc. or to speed up transactions by not having a central hub. But let’s be clear the speculation around Bit Coin is not about the blockchain technology but as a fiat currency.

BitCoin as a currency is backed by nothing – unlike national currencies who’s governments are hugely invested in making sure their currencies continue to hold value, being linked to the GDP of its country. When bit coin takes a hit no one is going to be there to put the stabilisers on.
BitCoin is not anonymous – its a ledger, it will have patterns of your interactions and patterns give clues, human frailties and forgetfulness will leave traces. Cash is far more anonymous.
BitCoin has no policing – you get screwed, your wallet gets hacked – you lost your hard drive storage, your exchange goes under – tough no one cares.
BitCoin is not going mainstream – no way is the general publics appetite for risk going to be able to stomach bit coin.
BitCoins transaction fees are huge – between bitcoin to bitcoin the transaction fees are very low but so is my dollar to dollar account. Transaction fees are HUGE when its dollars to bit coins and bit coins to dollars a 10% charge each way is not unusual, it means you need a 20% increase in the value of  bit coins just to pay the transcation charges.

Be careful when the media you consume are getting excited about something that fits their current narrative. Its the biggest issue with our news that doesn’t get reported, just how BIASED they are. A little reality check is needed at this moment I feel.