Between 1 January 2017 and 1 January 2018 Bitcoin rose by % 1,500, Litecoin (another form of crypto currency) by % 5,000 and Ethereum by % 15,000.  In the same period the price of gold rose by a solid, if unspectacular % 11.75.  Prices of all cryptocurrencies then fell throughout 2018 but still offered staggering returns for those investors wise enough to purchase their coins prior to 2017.  By contrast, for those who invested in 2018, many will have made significant losses and will be hoping that the price of the asset rises so they can recoup the losses they incurred.

The strengths of Bitcoin, highlighted in the first video, can be summarised as follows:

1. Firstly, the technology itself is probably groundbreaking and others the potential for faster and cheaper payment systems than those currently operated by credit card companies or banks.
2. The system is also entirely anonymous which appeals to a number of individuals, for instance philanthropic individuals wishing to make anonymous donations to charitable causes, or more cynically perhaps criminal organisations wishing to move their money around without detection.
3. Unlike banks and credit card companies Bitcoin is a not for profit organisation which may provide customers with a cheaper way of making payments and money transfers.
4. Using the coin is free and can be used without restrictions or regulations.  The first video describes Bitcoin as allowing 'permissionless innovation'.  The video compares the impact with the early versions of the internet which were primitive but eventually gave rise to companies such as Google and Facebook.

However as Professor Ross Anderson from the University of Cambridge explains, the coin also has weaknesses, e.g:

1. Firstly the scale required for the currency to be used on a massive scale is considerable.  For instance the second video highlights that already the processing power and internet speed required to make payments already makes it inaccessible in remote areas.  One of the claims made by Bitcoin advocates is that it could open up access to payments in remote areas of the Developing world.
2. Bitcon currently lacks the scale required to replace credit card or existing banking systems.  For instance the current system processes transactions at a rate of approximately 1 per second.  To replace existing payment systems would require speeds thousands times faster than this.  This may become possible but then this would present the problems identified above (a problem of scale).
3. Security, currently payment systems operate fraud recovery and customer service departments which are not available in Bitcoin.  For instance if you lose or have your Bitcoin wallet stolen then the money is gone for ever and cannot be retrieved.
4. Challenges recently highlighted in the media involving the risks of regulation by governments in China, South Korea and to a less extent the EU.

This is very difficult to say.  For example, Nobel-winning economist Robert Shiller calls bitcoin a fad, comparing it to bimetallism in the 19th century.  Similarly Warren Buffitt stated that he would not be investing in the crypto currency and warned anyone investing to be prepared to lose all of their investment.

By contrast, James Gorman, CEO of Morgan Stanley claimed that the currency had the potential to replace interbank transfers in the future.  Similarly Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, famously known for suing Mark Zuckerberg after claiming he stole their idea for Facebook invested $11 million of their payout into Bitcoin in 2013.