Bitcoin itself may, of course, be a speculative bubble; its price is up more than 750% in the past year, and such moves should give anyone pause. That is not the same as it being a “fraud.” In fact, the way that the guardians of the financial world are dismissing these phenomena says more about them than it does about Bitcoin, and what it says isn’t pretty. Rather than grappling with the ways in which the software and information-technology revolutions have yet to deeply disrupt finance, the defenders of the status quo are seizing upon the price action of Bitcoin as proof that it is all a fever and a mirage. Even if Bitcoin is in a price bubble, that doesn’t make it a tulip._____________________.

Bitcoin itself may, of course, be a speculative bubble; its price is up more than 750% in the past year, and such moves should give anyone pause. That is not the same as it being a “fraud.” In fact, the way that the guardians of the financial world are dismissing these phenomena says more about them than it does about Bitcoin, and what it says isn’t pretty. Rather than grappling with the ways in which the software and information-technology revolutions have yet to deeply disrupt finance, the defenders of the status quo are seizing upon the price action of Bitcoin as proof that it is all a fever and a mirage. Even if Bitcoin is in a price bubble, that doesn’t make it a tulip. The same is true for other new and untested digital currencies.