Bitcoin is a massive breakthrough for

the human race that will cure half the

problems in the world and generate

hundreds of trillions of dollars of

economic value to the civilization.

[music]

>> It's a Ponzi scheme.

>> It's just ridiculous that anybody would

buy this stuff.

>> It's very hard to make an argument that

Bitcoin is not going much higher.

>> It has proven itself. I think we're

entering an era where there's going to

be a competition [music] of moneys.

>> There's never been anything in finance

as hotly debated as cryptocurrency.

Since Bitcoin first burst onto the

scene, even the experts can't agree on

where it's all heading. I decided to dig

into it properly. I examined exactly how

crypto actually works, what keeps the

whole system running, and how it really

compares to traditional money and

investing.

This completely changed how I'm thinking

about investing in the future.

Let's get into it. Warren Buffett has a

famous quote,

"Never invest in a business you cannot

understand."

If you actually want to figure out

whether crypto is worth investing in,

the first step is understanding how it

actually works. And to do that properly,

you need to start with something

simpler, how regular money works.

This is money being printed.

It's done by a country's central bank.

The central bank runs the money system.

It creates base money and sets interest

rates to control how easy or expensive

money is to borrow.

You can think of the central bank as a

bank for banks. Most of the money people

use is created by commercial banks.

They're the ones who lend out money into

your bank accounts. So, the central bank

steers the system and commercial banks

create everyday money that citizens use.

Banks have been controlling the

financial system for thousands of years.

In ancient Mesopotamia, temples would

store grain, make loans, and keep

records. Early forms of banking.

But, the problem with banks is that they

interfere with money. If the government

needs a short-term boost of cash, the

central bank might print a lot of extra

money. This might help short-term, but

long-term it devalues the currency and

makes everyone poorer.

Crypto was created as a system for

sending money online without needing a

bank. The idea started with Bitcoin,

created in 2008 by a person called

Satoshi Nakamoto. No one knows who

Satoshi really is, if it's just one

person or a group. Satoshi published a

document called the Bitcoin white paper,

which explained his idea for Bitcoin.

The key problem Satoshi wanted to solve

was trust. How can two people send

digital money to each other without

someone cheating,

like spending the same money twice?

The solution was a shared public record

called the blockchain.

The blockchain is key to understanding

why cryptocurrencies are so powerful.

The blockchain is like a giant digital

notebook [music] that everyone in the

network can see.

Every transaction is written into it,

and once something's added, it can't be

changed.

Instead of one company controlling the

notebook, thousands of computers around

the world all keep a copy and constantly

check that it matches.

It makes it very hard to cheat the

system because to do so, you would have

to trick the entire network at the same

time. In other words, it makes the

system resilient to interference.

What you're seeing now is called crypto

mining. Just like how gold mining is the

only way to find new gold, crypto mining

is the only way to create new crypto.

Mining is the process where powerful

computers compete to solve difficult

mathematical puzzles.

Whichever computer solves the puzzle

first gets to add a new page or block of

transactions to the blockchain.

As a reward, the The receives newly

created cryptocurrency plus transaction

fees from users.

This is how new Bitcoin is created and

how the system stays secure.

But hang on.

Gold and silver are used in all sorts of

ways. Jewelry, industry, medicine,

engineering, and the list goes on.

Why would these digital crypto tokens

have any inherent value?

And how can I be sure they wouldn't one

day crash to zero?

Well,

I can't be 100% sure, but I can tell you

this. Bitcoin has a fixed supply.

There will only ever be 21 million

Bitcoins.

Once that number is reached, no more can

be created.

This is what makes them scarce like

gold. This scarcity is what gives them

their value.

As inflation worsens, currencies lose

value and the financial system grows

more uncertain.

>> [music]

>> The idea of storing wealth in something

decentralized with a fixed supply that

can't be inflated away is becoming

increasingly appealing to investors. But

did you know that some cryptocurrencies

have more applications than simply

storing and transferring value? Bitcoin

was the first cryptocurrency,

but nowadays there are more than 10,000.

Bitcoin is by far the biggest, but

Ethereum is probably the most prominent

alternative.

Bitcoin and Ethereum are actually quite

different.

Bitcoin is mainly used as a store of

value and for transferring value.

Ethereum on the other hand is more like

a programmable platform.

It lets people build apps onto its

blockchain such as games or financial

tools.

It runs on smart contracts which are

like a kind of self-running code that

means internet applications can run

automatically by themselves

without needing to be controlled by

company.

In simple terms, Bitcoin is mostly about

money, while Ethereum is about running

applications as well as money.

The potential is enormous for smart

contracts to reshape how the entire

economy functions.

Smart contracts could handle something

like buying a house.

Once the payment is sent, the contract

automatically transfers ownership to the

buyer without needing a lawyer or a

middleman.

The value of cryptocurrency has been

notoriously volatile since its

inception. Because there's no central

bank to regulate them, the price has

been driven mostly by speculation and

hype. This has led to cycles of immense

growth and huge crashes, particularly in

the smaller cryptocurrencies, which are

known as altcoins. Millions gained,

millions lost.

But nowadays, that's all changing.

Bitcoin and Ethereum are increasingly

being discussed within more mainstream

financial conversations alongside

traditional asset classes. The broader

digital asset market has evolved

significantly over the last decade

[music]

with growing institutional interest and

more structured ways of thinking about

crypto exposure. CoinShares are

pioneering this space, and they're who

we've partnered with for this video

today.

Firms like CoinShares have been part of

the evolution, contributing research and

insights on how digital assets are

viewed within modern portfolios.

One example is CoinShares Beginner's

Guide to Digital Assets,

which helps explain the fundamentals of

crypto investing in a clear and

accessible way. For anyone new to the

space, it provides an introduction to

key concepts, helping investors better

understand how digital assets fit into

the broader financial landscape.

Resources like this reflect how the

conversation around crypto has evolved.

What was once seen as a highly technical

and fragmented space is becoming more

accessible [music] with a growing focus

on education and informed

decision-making,

as interest in digital assets continues

to grow, having access to reliable,

easy-to-understand information can be an

important first step for investors

exploring the space. And for many

investors, [music]

that shift in perception is just as

important as anything else.

You can find more information on

CoinShares research in the description.

So,

why has all my research made me so

bullish on crypto?

Have a look at this chart comparing

Bitcoin with gold and currency. It shows

how, if we put them against each other

objectively, Bitcoin actually comes out

as the winner, by far.

As we can see,

traditional fiat currency scores low in

nearly every category.

Whereas Bitcoin, [music]

is it verifiable?

Extremely.

Fungible? Extremely.

Portable? Extremely. Durable?

Moderately.

There's always a risk the entire system

could go down, but if that happened,

we'd probably have more to worry about

than losing a percentage of our

portfolio. Divisible? Extremely. Scarce?

Extremely.

Established history?

Not yet.

Is it programmable? Yes.

And is it decentralized? Yes, it is

100%.

This chart shows why people are so

excited about Bitcoin and

cryptocurrencies,

and why so many people are betting on it

being the future of the financial

system.

No one truly knows what the future holds

for crypto,

or for the financial system as a whole,

but crypto's trajectory seems to be that

it's becoming more and more widely

accepted. Many professional hedge funds

are holding crypto as part of their

portfolios, and after all my research,

I'm personally holding some Bitcoin as

well. You should always invest according

to your own goals and risk tolerance,

[music]

and never invest more than what you can

afford to lose.

But, if you did want to get into the

crypto space, the easiest, safest way is

through a crypto ETP.

Or you can buy Bitcoin or Ethereum

directly using crypto exchanges like

Coinbase, Binance, or Kraken. Or there

are more to choose from, too. Just make

sure you're using a proper exchange

that's widely trusted. Thanks for

watching. See you on the next one.