Our dinner today was an educative event, kids were teaching parents and grandparents about bitcoin, an interesting phenomena of the internet era. Things went pretty bad for us, older ones, it almost looked like we were complete idiots not understanding basic new concepts of virtual world. I said almost, for then I’ve remembered tulip mania.Some concepts were known already far ago, it would be shame to forget them, just in case…….which of course does not mean I do not believe in bitcoin…or tulips!
At the peak of tulip mania, in February 1637, some single tulip bulbs sold for more than 10 times the annual income of a skilled craftsman. It is generally considered the first recorded speculative bubble (or economic bubble),[3] although some researchers have noted that theKipper- und Wipperzeit episode in 1619–22, a Europe-wide chain of debasement of the metal content of coins to fund warfare, featured mania-like similarities to a bubble.[4] The term “tulip mania” is now often used metaphorically to refer to any large economic bubble (when asset prices deviate from intrinsic values).[5]
A tulip, known as “the Viceroy”, displayed in a 1637 Dutch catalog. Its bulb cost between 3,000 and 4,200 guilders (florins) depending on size. A skilled craftsman at the time earned about 300 guilders a year.[1] from:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulip_mania
My Botanical Garden 