Bitcoin Proposition Betting Odds

Written by Jim Murphy

–Bitcoin’s price hit an all time high of $1,200 early this morning.

– Bitcoin is completely digital money with no central authority or middlemen.

– Bitcoin takes politics out of money allowing for completely free exchange of value.

Bitcoin is a game changer. It’s potential impact has been compared to things like the discovery of petroleum products or to the development of the Internet itself. The status quo power monoliths hate it. Governments hate it. Legacy banks and financial institutions hate it. And this contempt from the entrenched ‘gatekeepers’ of our society is one of the reasons that it’s so powerful.

I’ll give you a brief explanation of Bitcoin but if you want to learn more here’s a few links:

BITCOIN.COM

GETTING STARTED WITH BITCOIN AT WEUSECOINS.COM

INTRO TO BITCOIN AT BITCOIN.ORG

I won’t delve too deeply into the history of Bitcoin or the technology it employs but here’s a ‘broad strokes’ explanation: Bitcoin is a technology that allows instant payments to anyone in the world. Here’s where the fun begins–it was designed to operate without any central authority meaning that it circumvents both government regulation and the banking system. This is why it has the potential to be so revolutionary and why it completely terrifies any number of people, governments, corporations and other entities. Since Bitcoin uses cryptography to control its creation and transfer it means that the usual regulatory framework that seeks to restrict how and where people spend their money can’t intervene. They provide a relative (though not absolute) degree of anonymity and are impossible for a ‘gatekeeper’ like a bank, corporation or government to block them.

There is a robust and growing economic ecosystem developing around Bitcoin offering places to buy them, spend them, save them and exchange them. There are online sportsbooks and casinos that operate exclusively in Bitcoin and many more ‘legacy’ gambling business that now accept them as a payment option. There is a peer to peer marketplace called Open Bazaar built entirely around Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

THE MAINSTREAM IS FINALLY COMING AROUND

For much of the past few years the coverage of Bitcoin in the mainstream media in the US and abroad has been downright hysterical.They’re quick to denigrate it as a ‘hacker currency’, prattle on about ‘volatility’ and underscore the fact that Bitcoin is a popular payment option for any number of ‘illicit activities’. They seldom mention the fact that Bitcoin isn’t the most popular method of payment in the ‘underworld’–the payment instrument of choice in that milieu is green and has Benjamin Franklin’s picture on the front. Most importantly, the mainstream media doesn’t have a stellar track record when it comes to understanding potentially transformational and disruptive technologies. In fact, they’re downright technophobic and scared of the future of technology. Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman once opined that the Internet’s economic impact “would be no greater than the fax machine’s”. It didn’t exactly work out that way.

There are a lot of very intelligent people committed to not only Bitcoin but its underlying concepts–a truly borderless virtual currency free from the control and regulation of governments and their proxies in banking and finance. Bitcoin itself is already starting to revolutionize the frictionless flow of money around the world, including within the gambling industry. The philosophy behind it isn’t going anywhere and the tightly controlled world financial system is starting to experience significant disruption that will only increase in the years to come. The mainstream is also starting to come around. There’s still plenty of sneering and misinformed ‘hit pieces’ designed to prop up the status quo but there’s a growing number of people in ‘legacy’ industries awakening to its potential. A big run up in the price of Bitcoin such as we’ve experienced in the past year only brings more interested people on board. Best advise–start with the links I posted above and learn about it for yourself, not through the mainstream media.

And we wouldn’t be doing our job if we didn’t have some Bitcoin prop bet odds. Some of these address the price of Bitcoin, some address other technical components of the cryptocurrency while others are just for fun:

BITCOIN PRICE PROPOSITIONS

Price of Bitcoin at Coinbase at 12:01 AM Eastern on March 1, 2017?

Over $1300: +250
Under $1300: -300

Price of Bitcoin at Coinbase at 12:01 AM Eastern on March 1, 2017?

Over $1250: -130
Under $1250: +110

Price of Bitcoin at Coinbase at 12:01 AM Eastern on March 1, 2017?

Over $1200: -150
Under $1200: +130

Price of Bitcoin at Coinbase at 12:01 AM Eastern on March 1, 2017?

Over $1150: -190
Under $1150: +160

Price of Bitcoin at Coinbase at 12:01 AM Eastern on March 1, 2017?

Over $1100: -250
Under $1100: +210

Price of Bitcoin at Coinbase at 12:01 AM Eastern on March 1, 2017?

Over $1000: -450
Under $1000: +370

Will the price of Bitcoin at Coinbase hit $2017 at any point during 2017?

Yes: +450
No: -500

Will the price of Bitcoin at Coinbase hit $3000 at any point during 2017?

Yes: +750
No: -900

Will the price of Bitcoin at Coinbase be higher than the price of Gold at Kitco at 12:01 AM Eastern on March 1, 2017?

Yes: +310
No: -300

Will the price of Bitcoin at Coinbase be higher than the price of Gold at Kitco at 12:01 AM Eastern on April 1, 2017?

Yes: -130
No: +110

Will the price of Bitcoin at Coinbase be higher than the price of Gold at Kitco at any point during 2017?

Yes: -750
No: +675

BITCOIN FUNCTIONAL PROPOSITIONS

Will the Bitcoin ETF be approved by the SEC?

Yes: +130
No: -150

Number of unique Bitcoin transactions on February 28, 2017 per Coindesk?

Over 275,000: +120
Under 275,000: -140

Estimated USD Transaction value on February 28, 2017 per Blockchain?
Over $250 million: -130
Under $250 million: +110

Bitcoin market capitalization on February 28, 2017 per Blockchain?

Over $18 billion: -175
Under $18 billion: +155

Bitcoin average block size on February 28, 2017 per Blockchain?

Over .975 MB: +110
Under .975 MB: -130

Will a 1 MB Block be mined before July 1 per Blockchain?

Yes: +250
No: -300

Bitcoin average transactions per block on February 28, 2017 per Blockchain?

Over 2000: -130
Under 2000: +110

Number of Blockchain wallet users on February 28, 2017 per Blockchain?

Over 12,250,000: -150
Under 12,250,000: +130

Will there be any day with 300,000 unique Bitcoin transactions between now and March 15, 2017 per Coindesk?

Yes: +130
No: -150

Will there be a Bitcoin hard fork in 2017?

Yes: +225
No: -300