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| Cryptocurrency enthusiasts, mechanicla engineer Nkosinathi Mtetwa and mechanic Lunga Sibaya |
THE fast growing world of cryptocurrencies last week got its latest
digital coin, called Bitcoin Cash, and despite initial doubts the newbie quickly
became the third most valuable “coin” among the 1 026 cryptocurrencies currently
being traded.
There are already over 1 000 different types of this modern money.
The big two, Bitcoin and Ethereum, have heavy daily trade, with a Bitcoin
yesterday valued at over $2 760 (over R36 700) and Ethereum just over half of
that.
The Witness spoke to
three cryptocurrency traders in town to hear their views on Bitcoin Cash as well
as the future of cryptocurrencies in general.
“After the last hard fork [Ethereum], the value went down a little
bit and then shot up.
“I’ll be watching both Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash for any slow down
and then buy a bit, for it will just go up again,” said Sibaya, a
mechanic at a large local dealership in town.
Nkosinathi Mtetwa and Lunga Sibaya, two young cryptocurrency
enthusiasts from Pietermaritzburg, think now is the time to watch Bitcoin and
Bitcoin Cash very carefully.
“After the last hard fork [Ethereum], the value went down a little
bit and then shot up.
“I’ll be watching both Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash for any slow down
and then buy a bit, for it will just go up again,” said Sibaya, a mechanic at a
large local dealership in town.
He points to Ethereum Classic, which hard forked off
Ethereum.
“Classic dropped to about $1, but in a few months shot up to about
$15,” he said.
He explained a “hard fork” becomes necessary to stop congestion in
the complex calculations the “miners” do to verify transactions and find
coins.
Mtetwa, a mechanical engineer in the city, agrees Bitcoin will be
worth a lot more by 2020, in the region of half-a-million U.S. dollars.
He explained that all types of cryptocurrencies are created finite
in number and there can be more, which is why these currencies are often
compared to gold.
Cryptocurrencies are not like fiat money, they explained, which is
basically a government-backed Ponzi scheme that devalues whenever a mint prints
more money. Instead, cryptocurrencies are the fastest, cheapest way to send
money, with no fees or middlemen, and millions of computers are monitoring each
transaction.
“That is why we plan to begin a cryptocurrency for Africa with a
few friends, not like brokers, but like brothers,” said Sibaya.
Duane Palm of Wildu IT solutions in Pietermaritzburg is a
cryptocurrency trader and miner.
He has five “rigs”, which are computers stuffed with graphics cards
to give them more computing power.
Like most miners, he looks for “old coins” other than Bitcoin, for
which he said one these days needed hundreds of computers and solar power to
make the mining of a block worthwhile.
He is confident Bitcoin Cash is going to grow in value.
He stressed it is a token currency, which is supplied, not
mined.
Another such token currency is Dentacoin, designed for the global
dentist market, but there is also CBD Crystals for cannabis traders or
Tattoocoin for the tattoo industry.
All three Maritzburgers assure The Witness the chained blocks of data that store the
cryptocurrency transactions are much harder to hack than the central server of
any bank.
“The collective power of Bitcoin miners is huge, and you have a
minute to hack and retrieve data. Not even Nasa has that computing power,” said
Palm.
Mtetwa warned the same is not true for smaller cryptocurrencies,
and said “let the buyer beware for these”.
• All three people quoted say they are willing
to give introductory talks and demonstrations of cryptocurrency trading and
mining per prior arrangement, at negotiated fees.
Contact Lunga Sibaya at 081 796 8015 and Duane
Palm at 084 559 4538.
