Share Sounds related to International Money - Bitcoin

A year ago bitcoin could do no wrong – now it has slumped to 79 per cent below its peak. So what went wrong for the much vaunted cryptocurrency? The mania of a year ago gave way to a bust after Christmas and apart from a few short-lived rallies bitcoin has been mainly on the slide since. That’s not to say it has no use - the cryptocurrency and underlying technology are fascinating - but just because something has some value does not mean it can’t end up in a bubble. On this week’s podcast, Simon Lambert, Georgie Frost and Myron Jobson look at what went wrong for bitcoin and the other cryptocurrencies and what we can learn from the boom and bust. Also on this week’s show, they look at some more durable investments, companies that have paid a rising dividend for a decade or longer – and how some have seen big rises in their share price. And finally, Simon talks us through the 2,100 road trip he took with his family to test out VW’s California campervan – and whether swapping your family car for a van that’s ready for adventure could ever be a smart move?

Whatever happened to bitcoin? After the mania at the end of last year when the price spiked to almost $20,000, the cryptocurrency took a tumble but more noticeably attention has drained away. You need no greater sign of that than figures showing bitcoin Google searches are down 90 per cent. That adds weight to the argument that much of the late 2017 big leg-up was driven by mainstream punters jumping on the cryptocurrency bandwagon. On this week’s podcast we take a look at who’s buying, who’s holding and who might be waiting for the price to rise again and greater fool theory to deliver someone who will take their bitcoin off their hands. Simon Lambert, Lee Boyce and Georgie Frost also take a look at gold – and why people aren’t buying this traditional form of investment portfolio insurance – and the most consistent investment trusts of the past decade.

Technology is transforming the world of money. Or at least that’s what the Bitcoin junkies would have you believe. They say digital currencies have arrived and are about to revolutionise the way we buy things. But recent downturns in their prices have led some to wonder whether digital currencies have fuelled a dangerous speculative bubble that needs to be curbed by regulators. Is the Bitcoin boom over? Or was it just the start for digital currencies? This week, Ayeisha Thomas-Smith is joined by Carl Miller from Demos, Fran Boait from Positive Money, and Duncan McCann from NEF.

In the latest Money Makers podcast, host Jonathan Davis is joined by technology specialist Ben Rogoff, the lead manager of the Polar Capital Technology investment trust, which has given shareholders a total return of more than 200% over the last five years. With the likes of Amazon, Facebook, Apple and Netflix leading the markets higher, how much more is there still to come from these global IT stocks? Is there a danger of another TMT-style market crash or a regulatory kickback? And where are the most exciting prospects in other technology fields, such as gaming, robotics and artificial intelligence?

It's This is Money, your essential week's round-up of the biggest money stories in the UK and abroad. This week, guest-host Sue Dougan teamed up with Editor Simon Lambert and Personal Finance Editor Rachel Rickard Straus from the Financial Website of the Year, This Is Money. On the agenda today; A further rate cut looks unlikely for now, but that's not stopped the banks from taking full advantage of the chance to punish savers and borrowers alike. Meanwhile, a Pensions Roadblock is what we're calling people scared off from trying to get their nest egg in order. Is it just a bit complicated, or totally hopeless? And we'll also be taking a look at a new book on the hidden threat of Big Data: it's Weapons of Maths Destruction. This is Money is presented in partnership with NS&I.

David Emm, Principal Security Researcher at Kaspersky Lab, joins Share Radio to talk about the increasing number of companies being attacked by Ransomware. Ransomware, one of the fastest-growing types of cyber threats, encrypts data on infected machines, then typically asks users to pay ransoms in hard-to-trace digital currencies to get an electronic key so they can retrieve their data.