Disclaimer: we don't want to generally insinuate bad intentions of people talking Bitcoin FUD. Often enough, they simply just have only a superficial understanding of how Bitcoin really works.
The Bitcoin spectrum is extremely broad, and one has to have at least a basic comprehension of many disciplines like history, monetary theory, computer science, cryptography, networks, global macroeconomics, distributed systems, psychology, game theory, today's financial system and others to really wrap his mind around it. One can't just come into this space and expect to understand Bitcoin tomorrow: he/she has to go down into all of these rabbitholes that are in fact just little slices of the big pie ... all of this takes a lot of time and is challenging!
This page intends to shed some light on the most frequent misconceptions and to lead you to further sources that should help you in this process.

Energy FUD

The 'high use of energy' for Bitcoin mining is one of the most popular arguments used by Bitcoin sceptics, as many people are very concerned about the environment today. Bitcoin mining - securing trillions of dollars of money transactions - seems to be so irrelevant compared to other energy consuming human activities like driving cars, using the air condition all day or fighting wars.
The good news is that since the bear market of 2018, Bitcoin mining has gradually shifted to use ~74-78% renewable energy. Also, mining is most economically done during times when generated energy would otherwise go wasted without being used (nighttime-produced electricity).

(References: [1], [2], [3])

Bitcoin FUD energy use

Speed FUD

Particularly altcoin proponents enjoy to ridicule Bitcoin's "slowliness" compared to their favored but economically underperforming coin or tokens. What they like to forget mentioning is that speed usually comes at a price: the ~10 minutes it takes a Bitcoin transaction to be confirmed involves much higher transaction security than by far most altcoins'. The highest transaction speeds can be achieved by 100% centralised systems, followed by partially centralised systems like DLT/validator based systems. Bitcoin's very high degree of decentralisation makes it super-secure, but also requires some time to settle transactions accross the network.

(References: [1], [2], [3])

Bitcoin FUD slow speed

Fees FUD

Another aspect altcoin proponents like to fingerpoint at are Bitcoin's "high fees". Bitcoin fees are depending on network load - if there's lots of demand to transact on Bitcoin's valuable blockchain, fees are higher. Plus, if the BTC price is high, the USD fee equivalent will 'sound' high as well of course. Keep in mind that Bitcoin's base layer (the immutable blockchain) was never meant to buy coffee [3], but to secure major parts of one's personal wealth in an unconfiscatable, immutable and highly secure manner. To enjoy these advantages, one has to pay a fee just as it would be required for any other security solution like a high-security vault. A solution Bitcoin provides if slightly less security is required, is the Lightning Network, where transactions are super fast and usally only cost fractions of a cent - perfect for coffee purchases (and wining hands down against credit card payments)!

(References: [1], [2], [3])

Bitcoin FUD high fees

China FUD

While about 60% of Bitcoin mining seem to take place in China (as per 04/2019), this doesn't mean that China as a country has control over Bitcoin. Mining is a competitive business where 'mining farms' (4 relevant farms in China constitute these ~60%) usually try to outcompete each other in their effort to find the respective next Bitcoin blocks. Also, miners don't 'control' the Bitcoin network, but only confirm transactions by writing them into blocks. The latest move of the Chinese government to try to 'ban' Bitcoin mining will most likely result in an improvement of worldwide mining decentralisation and thus actually work in Bitcoin's favor.

(References: [1], [2], [3])

Bitcoin mining FUD centralization China

More Bitcoin FUD:

  • "No intrinsic value" FUD

    Bitcoins contain the value of all the energy that was 'melted' into them during the mining process - this could actually be considered as 'intrinsic value' if we consider energy as something precious.
    If one doesn't accept this narrative as valid, it's fine: many proponents say that it's an advantage if Bitcoin has 'no' intrinsic value but is 'only' money.
    (References: [1], [2], [3])

  • "Old tech / slow dev" FUD

    This argument only illustrates a gross ignorance about what's actually going on in terms of innovation in Bitcoin. What Bitcoin development is not however, is putting user's money at risk by jumping at every 'innovative' idea that comes up in the space. Being the safest store of value also means: sensible evaluation of new concepts, super-intense testing and preferring a conservative over a 'market(ing) oriented' approach.

  • "Centralised development" FUD

    Bitcoin's development is actually the most inclusive and open open-source project in the world. Everyone can contribute, anonymously or not, and all changes and proposals undergo an extremely broad, critical and in-depth process of discussion and evaluation on websites, in forums and on social media. There is a transparent process on how changes to the protocol are to be proposed and, ultimately, implemented.
    (References: [1], [2], [3])

Where to buy Bitcoin ('BTC')

Bitcoin Wallets

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