To a bright Bitcoin Future

---

I started my crypto adventure only this year in July.
Of course I had heard about Bitcoin before and watched its incredible advance on charts but I could never bring myself to invest in any.
In July I saw a video by Sergio from @goodbyematrix about steemit and Steem.
Soon I suggested steemit to @blueperegrina so she joined and she introduced me to @eco-alex and his @ecotrain project. Alex invited me to become an investor in the ecotrain, or a VIP (ecotrain lingo). The minimum investment was about one Bitcoin at the July rate, so I started the dance necessary to get some Steem.

First I opened an account with bitstamp.net to send my Euro there to buy one Bitcoin, then I opened another account at bittrex.com to which I send the Bitcoin and changed it into Steem which I then sent to my newly opened steemit account.

One of my biggest surprises was the time involved for those transactions to go through. I forgot how long it actually took but I remember it was annoyingly long. Since I had never done any crypto transactions before I sent only a small amount initially to see if I can manage and don´t fuck up the adresses and stuff and once this worked after some nerve wrecking wait I sent the real thing.

The reason I was so annoyed about the transaction speed in the crypto world was because I am used to the split second execution of the electronic future exchanges like CME where I trade emini S&P and emini Nasdaq.
All I wanted back in July was to get some Steem for my steemit account, so I was not interested in trading crypto anyway and once I saw the execution speed, that was enough to not develop even the slightest interest in it whatsoever.

But on October 31, 2017 the CME announced the launch of Bitcoin Futures in the 4th quarter of 2017 provided everything works well with regulatory procedures.

Contract specifications can be seen here.

Provided there will be some serious liquidity in Bitcoin Futures they could become the perfect trading instrument because of execution speed allowing for daytrading on small time frames, transparency and for the first time you can really go short Bitcoin. Up to now you could only sell your Bitcoin into the peaks (like last weekend), hope for Bitcoin to come down significantly to get in cheaper again, so long only.

Fundamentally I would think that, like in stocks, there is a long bias for Bitcoin because you usually need it to get into other cryptocurrency so there is always a demand for Bitcoin against fiat currency, it´s got this door opener and first mover advantage, so unless the miners don´t do something stupid or the market really goes for another crypto, Bitcoin is like the gold of crypto, therefore the long bias. But that doesn´t mean that you cannot get sharp crash-like corrections, like in the last few days and with futures you could really take advantage of that.

Some people say that the futures are an attempt by the banksters to create an instrument which can be used to manipulate the bitcoin price, same like gold futures are used to manipulate the gold price, because they all want in now but not at the current price.
So the attempts by Jamie Dison, CEO of JP Morgan, to give Bitcoin a bad name, might be part of that game. Since we all know how well the war on terror and the war on drugs work, let´s have a war on Bitcoin then (and one on farmers´ markets please). 😉

Well, nobody knows the future, free markets go up and down, and we will see if and how the futures will be used for manipulation, but if they are used to bring the Bitcoin price down, then serious hodlers will just buy more at a cheaper price and traders can make money following the footprints of the smart money going short or whatever their charts, systems and indicators tell them to do.

So I am really looking forward to the Bitcoin future, can´t wait to see how it will trade, at which volume, if liquidity is high enough to have a low spread and a clean chart picture etc.
Don´t know yet if I will trade it, but I will defintely check it out.

---

The top picture is called "Soldier and Sailor"- Memorial to Heroic Defenders of Sevastopol into which I manipulated the bitcoin with my very limited designer and computer skills. 😘