Here at HPM we’ve taken a bit of a pause in recent weeks, as our fascination has been temporarily diverted by the all-singing and all-dancing circus that has been the world of cryptocurrency over that same time period. For those who don’t know what cryptocurrency is, and “Bitcoin” in particular, we’re not going to go into the mechanics of it here in great detail, as there is a world of information to be found on the topic elsewhere. But for those who have never heard of it, essentially, it’s a digital, decentralised, monetary system, that has been gaining a huge amount of exposure in recent times, and with it, huge growth. With the value of the leading cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, having risen by insane amounts over the last few years, and particularly so, over the past few weeks.
And so with that in mind, we decided to revisit a post we published back in 2014 - when U.S. based Handpan producers, Tzevaot, announced that they would be accepting Bitcoin, as a means of payment for one of their instruments. Before announcing again shortly afterwards in January, 2014, that they had completed their first ever cryptocurrency sale:
'We have successfully completed our first Bitcoin/Litecoin sale! No paypal fees, no wire-transfer fees and from anywhere in the world at that. The future is amazing, and the future is now.'
'We have successfully completed our first Bitcoin/Litecoin sale! No paypal fees, no wire-transfer fees and from anywhere in the world at that. The future is amazing, and the future is now.'
At the time of that posting, the advertised price of a Tzevaot Handpan was around $1800. With the average value of a Bitcoin at the time being around $860. Meaning that the Handpan purchased from Tzevaot in cryptocurrency (presumably) cost somewhere around two Bitcoin.
Meaning that at it’s highest point so far (before a brief pullback), when the value of those Bitcoin had risen to around $2,700 each, just last week. The value of those two Bitcoin that were paid to Tzevaot, held a value of around $5400. Which obviously represents (in purely financial terms) a very smart move on the side of Tzevaot to be the first Handpan maker to publicly accept Bitcoin as a payment method.
However, while those figures represent some really nice growth, and profits, some of the predictions floating around out there for the potential increases in the value of Bitcoin in future days, place those figures firmly in the shade.
Back in 2014 (around the same time) a Halo, made by Pantheon Steel sold for $15,000.00 at eBay. Making it the most expensive Handpan ever sold (to our knowledge). But if folks like, PayPal director, Wences Casares, are correct in their predictions that in just five to ten years, the monetary value of a single Bitcoin could rise to the heady heights of one million dollars a piece - retrospectively speaking, January, 2014, may have seen the sale of the first (and possibly only ever) MILLION DOLLAR Handpan...
Of course, this is all speculative, and only time will tell on that front. But as a crossover between two of our fascinations here at HPM, you can be sure that it will be a story that we’ll revisit again, should that ever come to pass...
>> Want to get into Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies but don't know where to begin, follow this link to give Coinbase, the leading online Bitcoin wallet a try.
