Rod Thomas – Views of a Financial Expert

Rod Thomas is a finance expert with more than thirty years of experience in the investment and real estate sectors handling everything from property investments to long term retirement planning. As a  financial manager with decades of award winning client service in many areas of traditional investment, we sought out his views on Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrency for BitcoinsTutorial.com readers:

What is your overall impression of Cryptocurrency?

In my view Cryptocurrency is something that was largely born out of the failings of some existing areas of traditional banking and monetary policy. For too long large banks and governments have mismanaged basic policy, resulting in everything from economic meltdowns to investment uncertainty in areas like pension management where reliability is of paramount importance. While I do not hold any Bitcoins of my own, I can understand why others may have felt an urge to go in that direction. My hope and expectation is that the real value of Bitcoins will be that they eventually cause traditional currency policy makers to reevaluate some of their decisions and to bolster the Dollars, Euros, Yen and other forms of money in an effort to further differentiate so-called ‘real money’ from cryptocurrencies.

 

Do you favor one form of Cryptocurrency over all others?

As I mentioned I do not own any cryptocurrency personally, so I would not recommend one over any other. I am also noticing a large increase in the number of currency types recently, which suggests apart from dealing with the issue of Bitcoin competing with traditional money, now the cryptocurrencies will also be competing among themselves as well for market share. That’s a lot of downward pressure on a payment method that has not yet had the opportunity to reach any semblance of stability. I also expect that many more new coins will be released in the coming  months, so the eventual ‘winner’ may not even be a coin on the market yet. Right now the entire system is far too speculative for a disciplined investor to engage in any serious involvement. Most respected investment strategists are taking a ‘wait and see approach’ and I am one in that lot.

 

What would cause you to be more in favor or less in favor of Cryptocurrency holdings?

Some obvious things that would strengthen the market are backing by traditional banks and governments, though I do understand that to some degree would also defeat their intended purpose. It would also be interesting if prices were pegged to an external valuation, much the way money was once pegged to the Gold Standard in the past. The thing that would make me less in favor of holdings would be any continued news of illicit usage (like the silk road fiasco) or any blatant mismanagement by middlemen like the MtGox meltdown.

 

Is there a particular news outlet or financial organization you trust most for Cryptocurrency information?

That also gets to the heart of the problem. Respected financial organizations with proven track records seem loathe to report anything about these new currency forms. That makes finding reliable and impartial information especially difficult. BitcoinsTutorial.com seems to be doing a service to the consumer community by fleshing out many of the questions and concerns that anyone considering Bitcoin should take to heart before parting with their own money. That obvious intention to serve the greater good is what drew my attention and caused me to accept your request for an interview about these matters.

 

We thank Mr. Rod Thomas for graciously accepting our interview request and sharing some of his valuable time to help put Cryptocurrency in its proper perspective, when viewed through the eyes of a seasoned property investment expert. Hopefully as our site continues to grow in size and stature we can continue to bring in high quality participants with a similar level of past success to help us discuss the future of money in an astute and useful way.