This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
BitCoin Drama Continues After Hours
Think the great BitCoin drama is over? After plunging by over 60% intraday, touching $100 from an all time high of $265 earlier, BitCoin was just getting started, posting a just as epic rebound to $200 in mere hours... before tumbling once more to $125... before rebounding again to $180... before sliding to $140... and so on. As the vomit-inducing sequence above hints, merely following every twist and turn of the real time tragicomedy that is the minute chart of BTC is a full-time job. And with the bulk of assorted BTC price charts DDoSed into oblivion, or merely down due to record traffic, the only remaining real-time chart may be the following from Clark Moody: we suggest using 1 Minute resolution. Perhaps what is most fascinating, is that unlike regular stock, FX or commodity charts which are largely dominated by robots, algos and other electronic traders, the trading in BTC is purely carbon-form based. So for those who enjoy some seriously hypnotic after hours undulations, this chart's for you.
»
- 45991 reads
- Printer-friendly version
- Send to friend
- advertisements -
Bubble, bubble toil and trouble -- I'll second (double) that.
Those who love PM's for the right reasons (freedom from debt-money slavery) should embrace any number of alternatives to the evil status quo, no matter how imperfect they will necessarily be. Nobody is asking you (let alone forcing you with the threat of violence) to save or transact in Bitcoin - which is something that can't be said for the FRNs in your pocket. Most Bitcoin supporters are as sick of Bernanke and the Troika as you are. Live and let live . . . . and maybe a mass market alternative will evolve to the point where even the self-assured naysayers can get on board.
If you are into sound money for the right reasons, the last thing that you want to get involved in is another nothing-backed confidence bubble.
Well, I hear ya...let a billion conveyance flowers bloom!
But most people understand (or should by now) that bitcoin is not money by virtue of its reliance on something apart from itself. Its encumbered automatically by its reliance on power, internet, electronic devices.
A check is not money. A debit/credit card is not money etc...they are access or vehicles to credit and/or money. Not money itself.
To be a hard ass about it...I've always had a problem with "coin" being a part of its name...a term of marketing strategy meant to lend it credibility...its deceptive at the start.
A better, more honest approach would have been Bitx, the X standing for exchange...IMO.
Gold is money... All the rest is credit
~JP Morgan
This is FYI re. shorting BitCoin (from an earlier post):
http://helpthesheeple.com/2013/04/09/the-bitcoin-bubble-and-how-to-short...
excerpt:
--------------------------
"But for those looking to short bitcoins right now, there are two notable ways to do it:
Bitfinex: A Hong Kong-based bitcoin exchange based in Hong Kong, Bitfinex allows ordinary bitcoin holders to act like brokers and lend bitcoins to people who want to trade them. The exchange does a lot of this automatically.
ICBIT: ICBIT allows traders to make bets using futures—financial contracts in which a buyer agrees to buy a security, in this case a bitcoin, at a future date at a predetermined price. Futures contracts can be bought and sold, so you can make money without buying the actual bitcoins themselves. This platform will also let you trade commodities, such as oil, in bitcoins."
Interesting day though you have to admit Francis. I guess that was BTC's IPO?
most bittoken investors i've read seem to full of themselves and have all the answers. that is, until today's swings.
Most Bitcoin supporters are as sick of Bernanke and the Troika as you are.
- Ultraticum
As today's action demonstrated, most Bitcoin Buyers / Holders were likely nothing more than speculators that bought into the Ponzi bubble just a tad too late. They couldn't give two flips about Bernanke, Troika, etc.
This shit is getting awesome, go coiners, do your worst. Real Market the fuck out of this. Wish i had the balls to play this thing.
Good to see more evidence of the chaos.
May all ye bitcoiners grow up just enough to see that an attempted backdoor approach to resolving the real problem is evidence of...
not understanding the real problem.
It's those damned eTrade babies having a tantrum. Now imagine what they could do to the S&P500.
I'm a little confused. How is bitcoin and the tulip mania the same thing?
It's pretty simple, really. When tulip bulbs went parabolic in price and then finally crashed, they almost immediately rebounded to within about 65% of the peak price, just like bitcoins. No, wait... that's not right.
Well, then bitcoins must be like tulip bulbs because they certainly aren't like silver, which is what everyone should use as their standard for real money. Silver obviously can't exhibit behavior like that, since that would mean a recent high of, say, $50 or so could crash all the way down to below $32.90 or something, and that's just crazy talk.
I'm sure it's in there somewhere... just keep turning it round and round, and once you get the right perspective, you'll see that bitcoin prices behave a lot more like tulip bulb prices than they do like silver prices.
Oh, and if anyone mentions the fractal nature of commodity trading curves, be sure to ignore them. Only black-helicopter types believe in fractals.
Bitcoins rely on a network of computers where majority rules authorizes or denies a transaction.
If you released a virus to become part of the network which then denied transactions that should be authorized, or authorized transactions that should be denied you'd create havoc, and you'd only need to have more computers infected with the virus than computers that have bitcoin installed on them.
It's not like tulips. It's far worse, because a single individual with some time on his hands can wreck the system at any moment. It goes without saying a group of people who had a desire to wreck the system, can easily wreck the system.
But until that time, if it ever comes, enjoy the rollercoaster. Hope you do well.
now..in a normal "tranparent" market we could see whta the volume was that ramped the price to 260, and the volume that was "dumped" to cause the price to drop back to 150..then bounce, then drop etcetc
great to trade if you want white knuckle riding and/or you are able to ramp and dump
btc pricing will only get "efficient" when you can put in a "choice price/any volume" market action and because that will never happen..it is just a game.
the house (original designer, still holding the odd 10 million in bitcoins?) always wins..
its a better game than poker and you can play for chips..which you can cash in..just like poker..trouble is..some bastage might not be bluffing!
take me to the river!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ar2VHW1i2w
Ace on the river, just one time let me suck out.
Is it me or is Bitcoin just another faith-based form of currency?
I wrote this Irish Poem on the long Bitcoin thread, but I am such an Attention Whore that I can't help but put it here, too. Plus, I think it was pretty good!
CODE BLUE!
There once was some Internet Money
Whose future was thought to be sunny.
'Til an NSA hack
Discovered a crack,
He's a billionaire now, ain't that funny?
Squeeky Fromm, Girl Reporter and Vain Attention Whore
This Bitcoin action today was orchestrated by our resident PPT's, new hacker division. Easier to manipulate thru keystrokes than legislation and fines.
And what dastardly fiends they were, too! I mean, think about it... the value that it's trading at right now is equal to the record high as of early in the morning two days ago. How can anyone possibly recover from that much wealth being wiped out?
Think of all of the progress lost over those sixty hours... I mean, the cost of living is so much higher today than it was on Monday, so after inflation, it'll take just that much LONGER to recover. OH, THE HUMANITY!
The new standard for "tulip bulbs" is now anything that can lose a third of its value from its all-time parabolic high.
It's tulip bulbs all the way down.
I love the idea behind BitCoin but, in the end, it's just another Tulip. I am not selling my PMs - and I'm not speculating in BC to buy any either. For those who think they can win against the house, go for it. I'm just an old fuddy-duddy. clink clink.
Not even a tulip. That has some intrinsic value.
I am G*D after all
I was telling anyone that would listen, which includes but is not limited to the wino down the street, and the local cat, that this would behave exactly like a Pink Sheet Penny Scam.
Cause thats what it is.
Interesting charts. All of them.
Ok, seriously: You need to up the snark levels:
"You, and whose army"
They've always been a pile of /fail, but what happens when the Real Lions, Tigers and Bears hit them?
/sad panda, almost as bad as a "major" online magazine tearing apart a 15 year old?
After years of disappointment with get rich quick schemes, I know I'm going to get rich with this scheme...and quick!
— Homer Simpson
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QuSuKcrAeU
"D'oh!"
For more: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DdeLUA0Fms
you could tell the jews were pumping the top if youve been around since 1998
with such "flair" and "elan" might I add
other than nation-wrecking, their whole game is trading worthless paper and now binary digits for real savings and labor.
what a horror show race of scoundrels and sociopaths masquerading as a religion
Did the moil cut it too close?
wow
how rare
a "jewish" dick joke
next is the references to incest, scatology, homosexuality, mothers, etc etc
like free admission to an adam sandler movie, itz!!!
you lying pieces of shit really are the scourge of the earth
My work is done.
You got the joke , and were the victim of it, all in one swell foop.
OH TeeHee, here is another Irish Poem I just wrote for WBanzai7 in his thread:
A Welch, Rare Bit
There once a Coin called a "Bit"
Speculators in which, took a hit.
As a group and a class
They got "bit" in the ass,
Apropos, for investing in shit.
Squeeky Fromm, Girl Reporter
I find it silly you think this is a modern invention?
Proof.
(Nah, but hit that bitch up for the core invention).
A Haiku:
Bitcoins are failing,
to represent real money.
Buy gold. Buy silver.
OH, I am smoking hot tonight! Good Haiku! Here is a poem (not an Irish Poem) loosely based on Antigonish by Hughes Mearns, which I just wrote on WB7's thread:
Bitacoinish
Yesterday, out of thin air,
There was a coin that wasn't there.
It wasn't there again today,
But Fools invested anyway.
And much to many folks' chagrin,
They find it isn't there again.
But something else is gone today. . .
It seems their Money's flown away.
Squeeky Fromm, Girl Reporter
Always up for a challenge...
There once was a hooker from Phoenix,
her income based only on Linux.
But when the crash came,
(As her Johns did the same) -
She had to stop working the Felix.
Naughty! LOL. Here is a "Hooker" Irish Poem you just inspired me to do:
Pals For Pay
There once was a Goldman Sachs banker,
Who offered some BitCoins to spank her.
The Hooker said, "Lame!"
"But . . . pretend you just came"
"And give me the code, Stupid Wanker!"
Squeeky Fromm, Girl Reporter
Plus, here is another Irish Poem I just wrote:
A Code in My Knows
There once was a coin based on code.
Portrayed as a REAL Mother Lode.
CRASH BANG! and KERPLOP!
Teraflop! Terror Flop!
And Investors cry, "Whocoodaknowed???"
Squeeky Fromm, Girl Reporter
Let's just called it a Limerick and stop insulting irish poets.
There wasn't anything at all about getting drunk in here.
Off topic but some more drama....
Kitco has a news article saying Cyprus Central bank board says banks sales were never discussed or are not planned to be discussed....
Check it out.
To sellers, just put the limit order real high then go a little higher. Now sit back and watch that shit get tagged,,
Then after you sell, put a stop limit order in at about 55,, and buy all you can. Then just wait for the hacks to do there thing again and sell into strength,
I'm not sure if you could do this the same day, they might try to bust your trade, and put your ass back on restriction,
with all these buyers this shit is going to be fun...
you really are a transparent idiot
This is what will happen to Bitcoin.
http://www.naturalnews.com/039850_bitcoin_bubble_crash_globalists.html
Here comes the crash.........
Welcome to the "Tulip Mania" of the 21st Century. Some uber-rich Globalist Bankster swine probably bought up an enormous sum of bitcoins; kept buying on the way up once enough lemmings jumped on board; then they all dumped at the same time. Totally predictable; and it will happen over and over again, just like they brutally suppress Gold and Silver prices with their phony fuckin' paper. Explain how a digital piece of fiat garbage can cross the $200 mark, when Silver, which has been money for centuries can't break through $50 an oz (or $28 as of lately)... Fuck you JP Morgan, HSBC, IMF, COMEX, CME Group, the Fed, Rothschild, Rockefeller, Bernanke...
I junked you, just because if you are so sure about this. why don't you just make money of it. then you can by more PMs and guns and wait for the street gangs or the GOV to come and take it from you..
how can you look at that chart and not draw that conclusion..?
By looking at the same chart (on the same site) on a different scale... say D1? Suddenly the chart isn't quite so scary-looking, is it?
the counterfeiting "jews" know their paper game is up
expect more ridiculous stunts in the future
keep stacking physical gold and silver
keep it ouf of the "jews" filthy hands
Will Tyler admit it' is the new Pet Rock of commerce?
There are several people who run this site. You could probably get the Tyler who does the reporting on the Mitt Romney's financial accumen to agree to anything. I miss the days where I could afford cable T.V. with Erin Burnet level reporting.
seems like a non-manipulated, stable investment to me.
what's the problem?
I have not bought BC but have been watching it out of interest in the aledged code underlying it. The code description may be bullshit and it is just a scam: The source code is available for review but I don't have the time. If code descriptions are accurate then it is highly susceptable to manipulation. The HFT programmers could easily twist it with big money. Analgous to a friendly game of max $20 bid poker being taken over by big wallet betting max at every betting interval. Unlike the poker game it would not end. There would always be some residual value surviving. It can' t be delisted. Powergrid failure not germane to topic. SW maintenance is minimal and the hobbyist nature will supply volunteers. It is like a zombie: You can beat on it but it won't die. It is like a geyser or volcano that lies dormant then explodes occasionally. It apears to be an emulated business cycle generator that mimics the boombust phenomena with unranged amplitude and frequency. BC sbould stand for Blackops Currency (internet interactive). Play to survve or dominate if you dare.
remember that poker game "montana red dog"? the pot just keeps getting bigger cos you can only win what you bet?
Me to Wife, out of curiousity: "Have you ever heard of BitCoins?"
Wife: "Is it that Internet money? Don't you DARE buy any of that f***ing s**t!!"
Me: "Easy! I just wanted to know if you have ever heard of it."
Wife: "Yeah. Someone's trying to sell their house in Minnesota for 700,000 BitCoins."
I'll give them 2 million in monopoly money.
Did you bitchslap your wife for raising her voice at you afterward?
Cause that's the only good ending to that story.
The pattern is the same with all low float investments that are in high demand. What makes it a little worse is Mt Gox. But the pattern is finally building a little overhead resistance to smooth things out. Although it really shouldn't smooth out that much until the volume picks up in the partial bitcoin purchases. It should be offered in Satoshi instead of complete bitcoins. In other words it needs a much larger number of participants before it will quit acting like a penny stock.
It seems to me that you could adapt some of the basic ideas of Bitcoin to create a digital gold-based currency. You could use Bitcoin-style wallets for privacy, but you replace the Bitcoin network with a central server that keeps track of the contents of the wallets. This would greatly decrease the transaction time. The 10 minute Bitcoin verification time would make it impractical for purchases in an ordinary store or restaurant. But with a central server, verifying purchases could be virtually instantaneous. With Goldcoin, you would create units of digital currency (representing a fixed amount of gold) by sending fiat to the company operating the server along with a wallet address (just like a Bitcoin wallet address). The company would then buy that amount of gold and credit your wallet with digital Goldcoin units representing the gold. You could then transfer Goldcoins from wallet to wallet (just like Bitcoins) by sending requests to the central server. But with Goldcoin, you would also have the option of selling your Goldcoins and receiving a check for the value of the gold (or actual gold if the amount is large enough).
This system would have all the advantages of Bitcoin, but it would be backed by gold and transaction processing would be much faster. The system would be funded by small transaction fees (similar to Bitcoin).
"It seems to me that you could adapt some of the basic ideas of Bitcoin to create a digital gold-based currency"
Where would you store this gold which is safe from government confiscation? Nowhere on this planet, that is for sure. If such a currency got popular, the State would notice and put an end to it.
You be the judge.
http://www.boatingaccidentnews.com/btc-tulip-mania/
That huge leg down was triggered by a single trade of 69,471 BTC. it just pummeled the market.
http://blockchain.info/address/1HQ3Go3ggs8pFnXuHVHRytPCq5fGG8Hbhx
That is some serious shit.
Not sure if that was one of the early adopters or the hackers that have been DDoSing everyday. Either way, freaked some people out.
"That huge leg down was triggered by a single trade of 69,471 BTC. it just pummeled the market."
Do the math, 69,471 * 265.00 = $$18,409,815.00
It took $18.5 million dollars to crash the price 60%. That is fucking CHUMP CHANGE for any billionare f/x trader or hedge fund. You guys are fucking toast if $18 mill crashes you.
Kim Kardashian & her 'FAT ASS FINGER' crashes whole BITCOIN market [for the LULZ ~ on a bet with her sister}... News at 11... Retards...
Funny looking addresses in play.
1BADznNF3W1gi47R65MQs754KB7zTaGuYZ -> 1HQ3Go3ggs8pFnXuHVHRytPCq5fGG8Hbhx
They couldnt resist bragging about it.
It's all the Crypus money fleeing BitCoin back into the Euro.
Where there is money and tradign involved, you can expect the pros from Wall street are already in on it... biding their time and using their big money to make moves.
Where there is money and tradign involved, you can expect the pros from Wall street are already in on it... biding their time and using their big money to make moves.
you seen the volumes? be pocket change for "shit and giggles" for fat banksters
Funny I just posted the same thing above. $18.5 million dollars was all it took to crash it 60% today.
I think it is all but over. from 260 to a settled 170.
Yeah you're right i'm sure another sell order for $18.5m won't appear ever again, even though that is chump change for most billionares.
cab bid
1/64th of a tulip petal
another post on bitcoin? Must be a slow news week...
Right, because of course your anarchy project falling by 60% isn't newsworthy at all. DERP.
you need a supercomputer to mine bit-coins and those who got in late (after 2010) are probably
being out-played by Goldman Sachs HFT Robots....(me thinks)
from der Spiegel:
http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/boom-of-digital-currency-bi...
Gatis Eglitis, who established the first bitcoin hedge fund with the Exante investment firm in Malta, sees growing demand from major investors. He also insists that all investors are made fully aware of the risks. "We've told our customers: Either you'll get rich, or you'll lose everything."
Bitcoins are not simply available at cash machines. To enter the bitcoin market, you have to download free software and create an anonymous account. Users can use dollars or euros to buy their first bitcoins for this account, or digital wallet, in markets like Mt. Gox, or they can "mine" the currency themselves with special computers called "mining rigs."
These computers, which have especially fast graphics cards, compete in a global computing competition for a single possible solution, and the winners of each round receive a set of fresh bitcoins. The system is designed to make it more and more difficult to mine bitcoins, with the global supply set to peak at just under 21 million -- a principle of "controlled supply" similar to the idea that there's a limited amount of gold in the world, whereas paper currency can be printed in unlimited amounts. In the early days, beginners with home computers still stood a chance at mining, but now professionals dominate the field.
Vulnerability to Hackers and Crashes
Because the current boom began during the Cyprus crisis, there was much speculation that it was primarily anxious Cypriots and Spaniards who were using bitcoin as an inflation-proof, safe-haven currency. Jon Matonis of the Bitcoin Foundation, which sees itself as an advocacy group for fans of the alternative currency, disagrees. "Most transactions are still coming from affluent regions, like the United States and Northern Europe," he says. "What we are seeing is not a Cyprus bubble."
Gatis Eglitis, who established the first bitcoin hedge fund with the Exante investment firm in Malta, sees growing demand from major investors. He also insists that all investors are made fully aware of the risks. "We've told our customers: Either you'll get rich, or you'll lose everything."
Just how unstable the bitcoin system is became clear, ironically enough, in its most successful week to date. At the high point of the rally, the most important exchanges and bitcoin account providers, like Mt. Gox and Instawallet, were suddenly targeted by Web attacks. The value had already dropped precipitously in 2011, after hackers looted digital wallets.
A person's own computer poses another risk. "I once lost 7,000 bitcoins, because I had forgotten to make a backup copy," says programmer Stefan Thomas. The virtual money was irretrievably gone. If he hadn't lost the bitcoins, Thomas could almost have become a real millionaire last week.
Translated from the German by Christopher Sultan
http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/boom-of-digital-currency-bi...
"I once lost 7,000 bitcoins, because I had forgotten to make a backup copy," says programmer Stefan Thomas.
LOLOLOLOLOLOL...that's great. Straight out of the Onion...
Real men don't buy bitcoins...
Most of those 'real men' will die of starvation once the system collapses. Stop admiring yourself in the mirror. Your steroid inflated biceps are freakish. Get a life.
Those 'real men' not heavily invested in bitcoin are mostly invested in tangible items that will barter and thrive during a collapse such as Water, Food, Seeds, Guns/Ammo, Precious Metals, Farm Land, Good awake friends with great working skills, An awake and supportive family & items of trade such as cigarettes and liqour. Look at some of the first hand accounts of the crashes in Serbia in the 1990's and what was great for bartering. Cash will be good for firewood kindling and heat but bitcoins aren't even worth that. Get a life.
So if your family is not supportive, does that mean you are not real?
"We were not foolish enough to try to make a currency coverage of gold of which we had none, but for every (new reich´s) mark that was issued interest free [non usury system], we required the equivalent of a mark's worth of work done or goods produced. . . .we laugh at the time our national financiers held the view that the value of a currency is regulated by the gold and securities lying in the vaults of a state bank." -Adolf Hitler, 1937 (CC Veith, Citadels of Chaos, Meador, 1949.)
"And it proved sound. It worked. In less than ten years Germany became easily the most powerful state in Europe. It worked so magically and magnificently that it sounded the death knell of the entire (Zionist) Jewish money system. World Jewry knew that they had to destroy Hitler's system, by whatever means might prove necessary, or their own [system of usury] would necessarily die. And if it died, with it must die their dream and their hope of making themselves masters of the world. The primary issue over which World War II was fought was to determine which money system was to survive. At bottom it was not a war between Germany and the so-called allies. Primarily it was war to the death between Germany and the International Money Power." - Which Way Western Man William G Simpson
Bitcoin owners take a haircut.
http://tinyurl.com/bvxvh4r
You know with a stock that has a low float...it will rise up and announce a split which is seen as a positive in most cases. It opens its ownership base to ETFs and mutual funds. The larger the base the less volatility as long as external conditions such as earnings and revenue remain in tack.
But with a currency like Bitcoin that isn't going to happen. That is why I suggest to the exchanges for BitCoin that they begin selling bitcoin in something like 10,000 satoshi. The bitcoin project should recognize this problem and create a name such as bitcsha or whatever and the exchanges should popularize that quantity as the standard unit of trade.
This is about perception because in reality what happens is you go to an exchange (MtGox) and you divide however much money you are going to use and divide it by the current price of a BitCoin and then enter that value in the field. What you get is so many BitCoins and a partial bitcoin. If you choose to you can put in a partial bitcoin such that you in effect make a purchase for so many Satoshi.
By changing the impression that BitCoins are the main unit of purchase to a smaller denomination the exchanges will effectively lessen their problems and increase their profits.
FWIW
I called the crash yesterday.
Price up 100% on 30% of volume week over week.
Mt.Gox was hacked during the previous week as well.
Bitsies gettin' bitch slapped.
For fuck's sake. Just buy PHYSICAL gold and silver, daily or weekly or monthly ... I don't care, but if you have any fucking money left after your daily bread and shack is paid .. buy the real MC COY! Folks, this isn't rocket science. By 2020 we will have had a full system RESET. It's crashing everywhere as we speak.
So you called the crash...and made how much money from your prescience? Another prophet who made zero?
It's not about making...it's about keeping....
I saw many people calling bitcoin a bubble, some such articles go back to 2011 when it 2€ or so a BTC. So to claim prescient wisdom when it bursts is nonsense. Keep predicting the same every day, till you get it right, and ignore the times you get it wrong.
If your prediction would have meant something you would have made money out of it, that is how we judge economists.
I take so much pleasure in watching bitcoin go down the toilet.
@dolph9
Would it be as pleasurable if we saw it coming? A good number of us did.
It's okay - I'm sure your 85 billion-a-month markets are going to be just FINE.
So given that you saw it coming, how much did you make from your prescience?
Would you like some eggs with that 5970 of yours ?
I just had a look back at the bitcoin chart from last year. Seems these massive selloffs are buying opportunities.So I am afraid it is just another example of BTFD!
Carl Jung spoke of how the mass is swayed by "participation mystique", which is nothing other than an unconscious identity. "masses are always breeding grounds of psychic epidemics, the events in Nazi Germany being a classic example of this."
Bitcoin is the new mass projection; virtual alchemy, for the zerohedge age.
Jung swayed a whole generation of naive Jungians. We need no lessons from that fraud.
You call Carl Jung a fraud? Are one of Freud's inbreds?
Neither a Jungian, nor Freudian. Psychobabbologists have nothing to say that Shakespeare has not already said, in fewer words, and more poetically.
Arrest someone already. Le'ts get this latest absurdity over with.
Next up: Goldman Sachs is offering futures on money trees...
Ha ha, The comments on Zerohedge have gone from intelligent to pure Governmental propaganda. You should read your own posts and then ask yourself, how many of you are renumerated by taxpayers money?
Most of you sound like old media propaganda, nothing else. -- Perhaps you are?
That is one mother of a head and shoulders for a day chart.
Yes this is a "currency" lol... what a fucking joke. I understand how it works and what it does, and in concept its techno-geeky cool, but in the real world its not worth shit... why??? because it is not backed by shit. sure desperate people that are in a failing economy and desperate to buy anything with cash before its worth nothing will resort to buying bitcoin, or super paranoid geeks, but anyone with half a brain buys gold, silver, copper, platinum, aluminum, canned goods, dollars, euros, even yen before they buy bitcoins.
So no matter how loud you bitcoin owners yell, and how many negatives you give us that have not bought the coolaid because we logic'ed through the "Crypto-currency"
For all you bitcoiners out there remember the golden rule in any con/scam/pyramid/speculative bubble first one out wins, last one out losses all... dont be the latter
A lot of people made A LOT of money on .com bubble, they were the ones that got out first... and it was at least backed by something halfway real, (and was trillion dollar market.
Who cares? When it reaches parity, it will be a useful 'alternate currancy'. Until then.....
Caveat Emptor
Did somebody say electronic tulip bulbs?
Bitbulbs?
Follow the Money
Where is all the fiat cash that bought bitcoin go? It went to the bitcoin depositories, mainly Mt Gox.
Where did it come from? It came from people who don't want to hold fiat cash.
Fair trade - everybody got what they wanted. There is no moral judgement to make. Bitcoin is neither "good" nor "bad".
Same can be said for PMs - the sellers get fiat cash and the buyers get PMs. Neither good nor bad, just a matter of personal preference.
It is popular on ZH to bad-mouth fiat cash as trash but it is what meets the payroll, keeps the shelves stocked and pays the electric bill. On a personal level fiat cash trash is what is required to pay for the necessities of life. Again, there is no moral judgement to make, it is just a fact.
Put that all together and it becomes obvious that anyone who wants to get rid of fiat cash trash must consider the cost of conversion back into it at some point. Bitcoin volatility gives some idea of what that conversion back to fiat cash trash might cost. That is a good thing, I think.
This is an insightful comment.
Fiat cash and the US$ as the global currency in principle was a great idea. The problem was/is the idiots that have recklessly used it, debasing its value 90% in 40 years. Taking the US$ off of the gold standard in principle unfettered the currency from strict discipline, and replaced it with a flexible discipline (productivity, trade balances and the recent phenomena of Ctrl-P), which as we are finding out, can be easily manipulated. So today, people bash the dollar out of frustration (and rightly so).
Fiat currency has allowed society to function and I could not imagine a world without it. I have invested in physical PMs to deal with the wall of inflation that's coming, and the likely demise of the US$ at some point in time. My timeline is years (decades), not months, so I couldn't give a #uck if it silver is manipulated down to $4/oz. I also would not want to live in a world where PMs are used as the medium of exchange. That's Mad Max thinking.
What ever happened to the days when the world was much more simpler...?
The fact that this thread is getting so many comments might be a good indicator of what a bubble bitcoins is.
If you timed this right, you could have had a 20 bagger. That is impressive.
Most will time it wrong and get fleeced.
The "players" who won decided "the timing".