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Bitcoin Soars Above $600: Rises 20% In One Day Ahead Of Senate Hearing
While the relentless multiple expansion (if not so much earnings growth and certainly not revenue contraction) looks set to push all three main stock indices over the key psychological levels of 16000, 1800 and 4000, with the all time bubble high on the Nasdaq increasingly looking like the next big target, the stock market mania has nothing on Bitcoin, which only yesterday crossed $500 for the first time ever, and as of this morning is already 20% higher, having just crossed $600 minutes ago. Which means that anything prices in Bitcoin has entered bear market in just the past day. How high BTC goes, is nobody's guess (Raoul Pal had a truly stunning price target): once the buying frenzy kicks in, step aside, especially since China is increasingly looking like it may be jumping on board the latest mania.
So is there any catalyst that has driven a more than 100% increase in the USD value of the currency in November alone? As previously noted, one event that may be promoting much broader acceptance in China is that the currency is now accepted for payment for real estate:
Bitcoin acceptance in China has now extended into real estate with a residential developer in Zhangjiang Hi-Tech park in Shanghai finding a new way to promote sales through the acceptance of Bitcoin virtual currency.
Shanda Group, one of the large IT giants in China, through its real estate development arm, opened sales of its first real estate investment project on October 25th, 2013. 300 apartments in the soon to be built buildings ranging from 42-81sqm were available for sale and sold out in a few minutes as demand far outstripped supply.
As part of the promotion, Shanda accepted Bitcoins for payment. Although the exchange rate was ‘fixed’ at 1,000 Chinese Yuan (CNY) to one Bitcoin and the developer reserved the right to adjust the rate, the deal represents one of the first times that Bitcoin could be used for such a large scale 'public' purchase. The exchange rate was about 1,200 CNY : 1 Bitcoin on BTCChina that day, so the developer was obviously trying to hedge a bit in case Bitcoin fell through, but considering the rate is rapidly reaching nearly 2,000 CNY : 1 Bitcoin, it would have been a great deal for the developer – Bitcoin is one of the few investments in China that has been increasing faster than real estate in 2013.
The rate now is much higher. However, as reported over a week ago, that may change depending on what comes out of the Senatorial hearing on Bitcoin sheculed for later today:
The Department of Justice and Securities and Exchange Commission are telling a U.S. Senate committee that Bitcoins are legitimate financial instruments, boosting prospects for wider acceptance of the virtual currency.
Representatives from the agencies told the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs ahead of a hearing today that the digital money offers benefits and carries risks, like any other online-payment system, according to letters they released before the meeting.
The committee scheduled the hearing “to explore potential promises and risks related to virtual currency for the federal government and society at large” after the Silk Road Hidden Website was shut down in October. The closing of the marketplace, where people could obtain drugs, guns and other illicit goods using Bitcoins, is helping fuel a rally in the virtual currency as speculators bet that the digital money will gain more mainstream acceptance.
“The FBI’s approach to virtual currencies is guided by a recognition that online payment systems, both centralized and decentralized, offer legitimate financial services,” Peter Kadzik, principal deputy assistant attorney general, wrote in a letter yesterday. “Like any financial service, virtual currency system of either type can be exploited by malicious actors, but centralized and decentralized online payment systems can vary significantly in the types and degrees of illicit financial risk they pose.”
Tune in at 3pm when we will carry the Bitcoin hearing live.
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Long BTC short Gold ;)
Please keep doing that.....I hate high gold prices when I'm buying.
I and a billion Chinese thank you. India and Russia also sends their regards.
Curious... bitcoin seems to be mirroring what gold did in late 1979.
Even worse than Beanie Babies, bitcoin has become a modern day tulip bulb.
Is there a rumor that the Hunt Bros. are taking delivery?
The good news with bitcoin is, everyone is taking delivery; you cannot just sell 100 bitcoins for every one you own, and settle in dollars. At least, not yet. Hopefully, the taxes and regulations for American financialization of bitcoin is too onerous to allow a derivatives market to grow.
The big difference is most people still have no idea Bitcoin exists. I think Bitcoin still has a long, long leg.
Nor do they realize bitcoin has competitors.
Even in 1979-80, you could not use gold to buy a pizza.
But yeah, if the Fed ever does actually raise interest rates, you might eventually see a significant effect on BTCUSD.
In other news, the CME group will start selling futures contracts on bitcoins they don't have as to crash the price, hhhmm, no to provide hedging opportunities and manage risk
21 million bitcoins. 360 million Americans. Not every American will get to own a whole bitcoin.
0.003 per human being on earth, currently valued at $1.8
Coinbase.com just lowered their minumum purchase amount to $0.10. The previous minimum was causing some sticker shock.
I HAVE 2 BIG TOES!!
THAT's 2,857142857142857e-10 PER HUMAN BEING ON EARTH!!!!, CURRENTLY VALUED AT 2,1 MILLION DOLLARS EACH!! 4,2 FOR BOTH TOES!!!
AND YOU CAN ONLY BUY THE CLIPPINGS!!
THERE'S ONLY A CERTAIN AMOUNT OF CLIPPINGS AVAILABLE AND THE OLDER I GET THE SLOWER THE NAILS GROW SO THE LESS CAN BE SOLD!!!
1 TOENALE CLIPPING IS NOW FOR SALE FOR ONLY 20.000 DOLLAR!!!
HURRY!!!
BECAUSE TOMORROW IT MIGHT BE WORTH 30.000 DOLLAR!!!
I'll give you 10 bucks right now...........going.........going...
10 BUCKS? THAT'S IT??!!
DUDE!!!
WHEN THIS ENTIRE DOLLAR PONZI COMES DOWN, MY TOENALE CLIPPINGS WILL BE THE ONLY CURRENCY ACCEPTED!!!
for you bucks you can only lick the once... no longer than 5 seconds....
Andy Warhol paintings - never thought too much of them, pretty overrated in my opinion. Yet, amazingly, people (quite a few, in fact) will pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for them. Why? They are rare (Warhol's not painting anymore) and a large group of people with money value them.
Here's your failure - you're not marketing those tootsies enough. Maybe some SoHo art studio will give you some space for you to go on display. If you keep your yap shut while you're there maybe people will invite you to their exclusive shindigs and soirées for 10,000$ a pop!
Anyways. Anyone with half a brain knows what a store of value is. Looks like you keep yours in your feet.
> 0.003 per human being on earth, currently valued at $1.8
Everyone should own some (at least 0.003, I guess), becusause unlike with say gold, we might actually run out of that shit.
Do you realize how stupid that sounds?
Better get your ideal share of every single virtual currency out there before it's all sold out!
but they promised to not add any digital extra currency...
you just have to believe it... you know... the guy who made it... but nobody knows his name...
who you can't sue... because it was never meanth the be a currency out of the world of games...
And that's the key point about bitcoin. It represents nothing real. It's a mathematical algorithm that bitcoiners would have you believe is unique.
It's like bidding up Atari stock to the moon, because they had this currency called a "video game" that was based on a bunch of 0's and 1's. No one else had a "video game" so Atari must be worth a bazillion dollars because every man, woman, and child is going to want one. Until a million other video game companies sprung up with their own collections of 0's and 1's.
Bitcoin enthusiasts will be the first to tell you that strong alternatives and spin-offs to bitcoin are not only expected, but desired.
Competition in money will save it, in the long run.
not really.. perhaps LTC only to swim into easily from dips in BTC temporarily..most just dive back into the cash of their preference
if LTC would show up on the other exchanges then atleast the wild arbitrages would tighten
How you care to use your money is up to you. I do own some other crypto-currencies, they also went up 20% today. But Bitcoin is the clear leader at this point.
Smallest increment worth $.10 would make a total of 210 trillion worth of bit coins. Ought to cover quite a bit more than present amount of currency in fiat and, of course, many governments will not give up their fiat scams.
Given a choice between USD and BTC, which would you prefer to hold and spend?
Hookers don't accept bitcoins yet and the liquir store doesn't do that eather so I'll stick to dollars :)
Fiat is for transactions
Gold is for savings
Bitcoins is for playing games
didn't you hear?
British Escort Service Now Accepting Bitcoins
http://www.dailydot.com/business/british-escort-service-accepting-bitcoins/
and I'm sure they serve liquor there too...liquor in the front and poker in the back! LOL
"Given a choice..." you'd still suck up to Bernanke?
#Winning
I take you don't like Bitcoins but don't care how others choose to handle their own money?
no, I support anything that is sound money.
The fiats are not one of them. And bitcoin is a lower fiat scam.
Gold, Silver. And all the rest is for suckers :)
But I've seen bitcoin supporters in the eye and it's like goldfever :)
It's impossible to reason with them :)
They own 2000 bucks in bitcoins and think they're already millionaires :)
And when the dream doesn't fly, they'll blame guys like me :)
SD, with great respect, you better hope no major merchant worldwide ever starts accepting bitcoin.
When that happens things will get a lot more clear.
I work for the 3rd biggest E-commerce company in the world, soon the second.
Believe me :) We'll never do it :)
We don't even talk about it :)
And I'm the guy to talk to about it in Europe.
*Job security* you might want to take another look at your severance package.
So duplicitous, if you are so freaking important, why are you trying to troll ZH?
Hookers accept Bitcoin in the UK, so you have a hope of getting laid.
Bitcoin: HIgh was 618 low 492
very volatile at moment
realtime quotes & news:
http://btcpost.net/index.php
The US and Federal Reserve need to take this as a warning. The world is looking for a better reserve currency.
Bitcoin serves as that warning.
Soon trust in the US dollar will disappear. Maybe faster than the 12 members in the Fed realize.
The volatility simply illustrates how illiquid it is.
The reason the USD enjoys reserve currency status is because it and US Treasuries are so incredibly liquid.
How can an asset that fluctuates 20% in a day, be the reserve of the global financial system? I couldn't think of a worse asset.
It is to be expected for a thinly traded asset that started at literally zero, without state/corporate backing, less than 5 years ago. In the future, with much wider adoption, deeper order books are to be expected.
When the market is saturated, a BTC will be around $1-$2 million USD - do you really think it will fluctuate 20% a day at that price? It won't fkn move, it will sit there like the anchor of the fkn world, and the honey badger of money still won't give a shit.
Bitcoin is exciting, but ultimately I think holding a big slice of your worth in BTC is extremely dangerous.
If BTC becomes a viable currency then why not Litecoins and NameCoins and any other digital currency?
What is there to stop the US Government launching BitDollars?
Bitcoin is not inflatable within bitcoin but as a digital currency it is inflatable as alternative digital currencies can be created at little or no cost.
The value of digital currency is just as intangible and transitory as fiat. It's down to the collective acceptance of the users. The only reason government fiat enjoys currency monopoly is because it is the only accepted way to pay taxes and taxes are mandated by law under the threat of your liberty.
I think it makes for a compelling story, but extrapolating it years into the future is madness. If I was fortunate enough to be sitting on 10 fold gains I would be running for the hills.
People looking for a short cut to become billionaires will never sell and will ultimately be left holding a broken dream, as is always the case with such investments.
It does make for a great talking point though about currencies and FX in general. It highlights how illusionary money actually is, when a non-entity can bestow such value on an intangible asset.
Like with ALL assets and most thing in life: (a) The early bird... and (b) He who monetizes early (their IPOs) or JIT (their stocks or stock_options), monetizes best.
I'll bet you ANYTHING that the "greater fool theory" of stock and real estate did not not stop you from buying either at some point in your life -- while the Fed kept increasing its fiat and "credit" (Debt!).
Moral: (a) Diversify by holding small/tolerable amounts in new opportunities. (b) Buy low, sell high. Rinse & repeat.
You're right,
If you're playing it as a momentum trade then you already have an exit strategy.
If you own a lot of BTC and your exit strategy is to basically wait until you die, then I think you might end up disappointed.
You want to exit at peak demand not wait until the thing is fully integrated into wider society.
When BTC is on Bloomberg, Reuters and CNBC then it’s probably getting toppy.
The problem at the moment is that it’s illiquid so big funds can’t get into it and also there is significant counterparty risk because there is no obligation for anyone in the world to accept BTC. Also there is no yield. It is basically the perfect speculative asset which at a time of ZIRP is bound to fly. However it is speculative and will always be because it is forever intangible.
And that's what is eventually going to kill bitcoin. A currency has to be perceived as a store of value. With bitcoin going parabolic, a crash is inevitable. So the early owners of bitcoin are happy as kittens, but those who lose half their worth or more when it crashes are not going to accept or trade in bitcoin after that.
Advocates of bitcoin should not be happy about its parabolic rise. If they are, then they are just greater-fool-seeking speculators. If they really wanted bitcoin to be viable over the long term, then they would want a slow, steady rise in value that was equal to the real inflation rate.
It would be nice if was slower, but you can't kill an idea. Google and Facebook went through a period of very rapid user expansion before any realistic valuation was placed on them. It's called an S-Curve. This is similar.
" but those who lose half their worth or more when it crashes are not going to accept or trade in bitcoin after that."
Bitcoin has crashed several times already, around 90% each time. Why would any one crash cause people to stop using it? Unless people are buying with leverage via borrowed money, there is no pressure to sell at a loss, just hold until it regains value.
Personally, I prefer to think of bitcoin as a Peer-to-peer Ledger, the Napster to the RIAA of Western Union, MasterCard, et al. It is a means of creating a trusted list of transactions, quickly, efficiently, securely.
The Bitcoins themselves are simply units of account. I think Bitcoin will die the day people are free to move captial throughout the world, with no capital controls, transfer fees, or risk of confiscation.
"The value of digital currency is just as intangible and transitory as fiat. It's down to the collective acceptance of the users."
The value of any currency is down to collective acceptance, digital or not. I certainly am not using any of my silver in manufacturing. I hold them because I expect other people will want them in the future. If no one does, they are pretty much dead weight to me.
Many of us are sitting on multiple hundred fold gains - considering the cost of our investement - where is the inspiration to leave?
They cut peoples heads off in revolutionary France for not using assignats - they can try and legislate away BTC, but the honey badger of money doesn't give a fk.
“Subscribers here by thousands float,
And jostle one another down,
Each paddling in his leaky boat,
And here they fish for gold and drown.
Now buried in the depths below,
Now mounted up to heaven again,
They reel and stagger to and fro,
At their wit’s end, like drunken men.
Meantime, secure on Garraway cliffs,
A savage race, by shipwrecks fed,
Lie waiting for the foundered skiffs,
And strip the bodies of the dead.”
Jonathan Swift
it is too good to be legal, at least in the US of A
Gubbermint will never shut it down ; they are , or will be, the biggest buyer.
The federal reserve’s monthly QE of $85 billion could take all of the BTCs in existence many times over while 1 BTC is $600.
Only if current holder's are willing to sell. I admit I might sell one if the price is right.
In a mania, the price is never right and you'll end up with a bitcoin worth 5 cents.
I have some limited BTC to USD conversions planned at various price points to pay off remaining debt in USD, but my real goal is to spend BTC in trade directly.
We're mostly there as far as online stores go. What we need is more brick-and-mortars to jump on board.
When I can pay for a good steak dinner, I'll know BTC has made it into prime time. :)
The federal reserve’s monthly QE of $85 billion could take all of the BTCs that will ever exist, many times over while 1 BTC is $600.
ftfy
GS and JPM algos now run the bitcoin exchange.
Listen up folks. BTFATH!!!!!!!
People getting in, just to get out later. I mean who uses this as a currency when one day something goes from $10 to $100 in value.
It's Dutch tulips without the tulips.
Who cares - It's never going to be a currency anyways.
Ride the wave until you see the shore.
well... you can buy footlong sandwiches with them :)
I love those meatball sandwiches. They're the best!
batterydischarged, using your logic... Stop using dollars, since the Fed keep printing $100B/mo. /sarc
Wake me when it's at $5.000
Reminds me of people who boast that their average cost of their gold is $300 (1/4 of current price). I wonder how many BTC holders there are whose average price is > $125.
Truth is indeed stranger than fiction.
You can look at the volume chart and get a general idea. But most all of the BitCoins were purchased at less than 125.
Volume has been dropping as the price has climbed. Even with China coming on line.
Yo Cracker !
I bought 5 Physical Bits on ebay between $100-$120 EACH when they were selling for $40-$60 online.
Now they are selling for OVER $1000 Each on ebay and I still have all 5.....
But when it breaks $100,000 I will let you have 1...........
For some of us - who know money when we see it, then we bought at <$5, more at $30 - and added some more at $100. I'm tapped, BTC has risks I have enough - Ive invested fk all in BTC, and now have a potential payout if I want it.
As far as Im concerned - the ride has barely started.
Thats the facts Jack.
Truthfully - these guys screaming bubble are making me laugh. They are religious, they believe in gold - but have no idea what makes it valuable. They cry hard money - but abuse the best hard money around as a 'fad','tulip mania'.
They say they are free market advocates, yet when the free market is screaming for BTC - they whine and say the market is broken or delusional.
Wake me when BTC >=$500k. When BTC is over $3mil per - then I might accede that there is a bubble - until that time, I call it price discovery, and market penetration.
Other than the so called "smart"kids there are few people out there that want to deal with this kind of thing I'd say. Normals and plebes will stay away from this. http://i.imgur.com/ebKyWmt.jpg
You have been targeted for regulation.
maybe the Chinese are buying all their new Government Motors cars (you know, the ones the American tax payers were held hostage over to the tune of many billions which facilitated moving the factories over to China) with Bitcoins. I'm sure the auto-workers union members will love having their pension plans filled with Bitcoins, LOL.
What do you get for change when you buy a lunch for 10 dollars with a 600 "dollar" Bitcoin?
You buy that lunch with 0.00166667 of a bitcoin.
So a retailer or restaraunt, etc. uses a website as a point of sale type system to extract or deduct the amount of whatever they're selling from your Bitcoin account? I'm just trying to figure it out...is there anyone on here who has or are using Bitcoins for small retail purchases either online or in an actual brick and mortar store?
What are the fractional Bitcoin amounts being used? Are they called something? Are there dimecoins, quartercoins, halfcoins, etc? Or something like that?
Is this a kind of Weimar-type inflation of Bitcoin values? Do the retailers constantaly have to adjust their prices higher (or lower) in terms of Bitcoins? Doesn't this kind of make items being sold for Bitcoins go up in price or would there be no correlation?
I have a bitcoin address on my website www.jimmysavilemurders.com. Anyone who wants to donate just starts their wallet software, pastes the number into the recipient address, selects the bitcoin value and clicks send. I dont need an account with them, nor they with me. The whole point is that it is not centralized, there is no authority, the accounts/ledger of bitcoin is globally distributed.
The way a payment system would work is by pricing things in local currencies, such as Euro, here in Germany, and then giving some time window for payment. If you wanted to buy something with bitcoin in Euro, then we agree that you have to pay so many euros worth of bitcoins within the hour or so of the quote. Not rocket science.
NOBODY USES BITCOINS BECAUSE THEY'RE A "INVESTMENT"
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA
BITCOIN IS THE DEFLATION TEST!!!
WHY SPEND YOUR MONEY NOW WHEN IT GIVES YOU 20% MORE TOMORROW!!
so they don't spend untill it goes to zero :)
And if you don't believe it, you're on the wrong website blog.
Because it is my own money to do as I wish and I enjoy it. It is trivial for me to acquire BTC so I just stock up before or after I spend it, my stock of BTC stays the same and I just pass a little along to somebody else who has already indicated they accept it. It's like having my own private gold assayer follow me around to measure out precisely, to the microgram, real money to be spent on a good or service. None of that fiat for me if I don't have to.
I often eat at a nice little Mexican restaurant in Tokyo called The Pink Cow. They ring up my order in Yen, their payment system computes the BTC amount at the current exchange rate and displays a QR code. A quick photo snap with my phone and the address and amount is ready to go, I just click send.
So aren't you still a slave to forex exchange rates? Where's the value in using BTC like this. And how is that any different than the current fiat abortions.
One little step at a time. BTC started from nothing without corporate/state support. If the merchant saved any of her profit in BTC, she would have became more wealthy, but that's up to her. My stock of BTC does not change under this scenario if I replenish beforehand. If I bought the BTC sooner rather than later, my meal is at a great discount in fiat terms. Holding BTC is risky but the general trend has been that it becomes more valuable over time.
You use a piece of software on your laptop or smartphone to transfer bitcoins from your wallet (a file called wallet.dat on my system) to the store's bitcoin wallet. The transfer becomes effective when it receives the required number of confirmations from the bitcoin miners' network. This seems to take 10-15 minutes, but that might be my slow Internet connection. (The confirmation requirement prevents someone from spending the same bitcoin twice.)
Yes, online.
Just bitcoins to 8 decimal places. Although your idea is interesting. As fiat continues to inflate and bitcoin continues to deflate in comparison, somebody will probably come up with a term for a partial bitcoin. Or maybe someone has - I haven't seen it, though.
More like a Weimar inflation in fiat. The quantity of bitcoins in circulation is limited by the algorithm to increase 10% per year, and government seizures are reducing the quantity in circulation also. Hence bitcoin will tend to deflate over time.
Yes. Prices are still stated in terms of fiat (dollars, euros, what have you) and converted automatically to bitcoin. As bitcoin goes up, the price of an item in bitcoins goes down. Conversely, if bitcoin went down, the price of the item in bitcoins would go up.
Theoretically, if something were priced in constant bitcoins, then a rise in the value of a bitcoin would cause the price to go up, but nobody seems to be doing it that way as far as I have seen. Maybe after the fiat money system collapses completely, things will be priced in gold/silver/bitcoins (and fiat would be worthless). I can see things being priced in gold or silver and bitcoins being used for long-range transfers.
Satoshi...that is the fractional bitcoin pieces
Interesting, thanks (satoshi = 0.00000001 bitcoin).
And what happens if the miner's network is tainted with more bad guys than good guys. Even Satoshi says this is a soft belly point. Others have suggested truncated chains and Master level miner tiers. Hmmm, sounds like a central bank to me.
But but but, I thought the cryto-anarchists said Bitcoins couldn't be seized by the gubmint.
Wasn't that one of the original points of Bitcoin, constant value so there would be no inflation/deflation to destroy the little guy and remove Central Banker hegemony. Labor/Goods/Services would be basically bartered in BTC. No need for the gubmint to intrude and tax. And if I knew something was 1 bitcoin and I had a bitcoin, I could buy it no matter what.
Bottom line, this is a trade. Any of the flowery rhetoric to try and rationalize the anarchists becoming plain ole' capitalists is delusional.
More millenial generation solipsism. This shit was bandied about in 1998 when the Asian currency/Ruble crisis hit. Go back and look at WTO/IMF memos from that time period. They needed to have a digital currency to obliterate the harmful black market cash only economies of those and all nations(cough,cough).
If it ain't convertible by reasonable means, it's all unicorns and fairy farts.
Satoshi is a Rothschild. And the VinkleVoss ETF is coming sooner than later. Long live BTC.
Eleven separate questions in one comment.
You Sir are one inquisitive individual.
+1 for your curiosity.
A lot less headache than trying to buy that same lunch with a $1400 gold eagle coin.
The people that are leaving debt-based public currencies, do they ever need to come back ?
If only gold moves like that.
The government is always jealous of public prosperity.
In due time, In the mean time I hold just 5 physical Bits.
And I am amazed that the physicals are ALL selling for OVER $1000 now on ebay.
I may let one go when it reaches $100,000 and load up on Physical SILVER!
This is FUN, no Guberment in the way!
High:$618.94000
The entire world hates the Washington D.C. Senate
Who Cares about them.
I bet that Norwegian fella who bought 5,000 for $24 and sold them a month ago and bought a nice Oslo apartment with the profits is kicking himself!
He sold less than half of the BTC he recovered.
He sold at $140 making 700,000k - now would be just over 3 million
I think at the time he sold only 20% of his holdings..
The video was done at Bitcoin level of 100 dollars. Story about the Pizza sold for 10,000 Bitcoins is particularly amazing with Bitcoin crossing today 500 dollars. This parabolic rise actually is the highest risk for Bitcoin believers to overcome. Will they stay after the run to $2000 and collapse to $50 or just switch to "the new and better" cryptocurrency? Just look what has happened to Gold after its run to $1900 - it is almost a dirty word now, but it is Gold and China is buying record amounts of it at this levels. Who will support Bitcoin after its bust?
http://sufiy.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/bitcoin-rises-over-500-its-collapse....
I wont even consider parting w a bitcoin til 100k...and that's today...when they get to 100k, I may be of the mind to hold til 10x that.
pfffff is my only comment on that, but hey, Im right there with You (not being sarcastic)... got popcorn?
I bit the bullet and bought another btc last night at $470 and I woke up this morning to $615.............
Put that in you tulip and smoke it.
"If you don't hold it, you don't own it."
Print out your private keys. Then wipe your hard drive.
I have a backup wallet on an encrypted ironkey thumbdrive with me at all times. Paper wallet backups in several locations thousands of miles apart.
You at work now? You got those PMs with ya? No? Then you don't own it. You and your family go on vacation? You don't own it until you make it safely back home.
The beauty of Bitcoin is that a tornado could rip through my primary residence right this very moment and I still "own" it. You? Not so much. The "you don't hold it, you don't own it" mantra actually works more in favor of crypto-currency than PMs.
Tulips are pretty plants that can´t be eaten or smoked (I think).
Crypto-currencies are automated, non-judgmental financial ledgers, with zero application process or barriers.
Spot the difference.
which doesn't mean the general population is smart enough to recognize its atributes... what You see now is lots of hoarders piling on after they cashed out of online casinos, and maybe some bigger player hoping to do a nice pum'n'dump (which if the price gets butchered by 90% will make everyone- except a few cyber punks- abandon bitcoin foreva)... a nice pump'n'dump with the blessing of the FED...
still verry interesting to be on this crazy ride...
It provided so much entertainment over the last onth I dont care I'll loose the money :P
I'm down loading a Litecoin wallet from their site as we speak(originally tried an failed at $.11, alas, was too sceptical to proceed 3 hrs to do it) , any advice? Im finally willing to experiment, figure better now than later. Once done would anybody kick me some freebie fraction so I can see the results(say .10 Litecom which I suppose is $0.55 or so, right?) Does some site do that? Prophets seeking converts t othis idea? For the record, I'm not a miner, just want to play with the idea.
For the Record, Peter Schiff got me thinking on re trying this, as his comment on fractions of Bitcoins being a (negative)game changer was so fuckin' dumb for such a bright guy. I do respect him generally, but the idea that $100 bills are gonna be worthless because of the penny, would be the same concept. Just silly. Still awaiting and appreciate any advice on how this stuff works, once my wallet's in place(38 weeks to go! whopee!). Thanks in advance
If you have a decent video card, mining Litecoin or other scrypt-based alt coins can be fairly profitable. As far as using the litecoins, IDK who takes them, I recommend just exchanging them into bitcoins. That is the thing with alternate coins; the market demand for more cryptocurrencies is not so large that someone is going to accept 200 different coins, when they can just accept bitcoin.
Some good sites for exchanging:
BTC-e: https://btc-e.com/
If you want to get into alternate coins:
https://coinex.pw/
OK, Thanks Matt for some leads. My logic with Litecoin is that it should survive with Bitcoin, IMO and would be a cheaper loss if the Senate regulates to hell. JMO. Litecoins a close second as I understand, so cryptocurrencies catch on, generally, it gains some merchants, or I lose less on the experiment, if it all goes to zero, right?
You are thinking in terms of whole numbers. Just pick the amount you want to risk in your native currency, and convert it into BTC or LTC. You can buy 0.001 bitcoins if you want, which is like $0.50 USD. You do not have to buy a fixed denomination or anything.
The first thing you should do is research, you need a good wallet and you need to password protect it before you start piling money into it.
I actually have never bought bitcoins, only mined them, and traded them for alts, so I can't really say the best way to buy. The two exchanges I listed, simply because they support the alternate currencies if you really have your heart set on something other than bitcoins.
If you just want to see and learn and have some fun, I recommend going on coinex.pw and mining some of the really low value alternate coins with your CPU or GPU. That way, you can see an income every 5 minutes, even if it is $0.000 000 001 worth.
Thanks again Matt. Got my (encrypted it right away) Litecoin wallet from their site, pouring through the tabs now. Guess I'll get a thumb drive for back up of just the passphrase or the "coins" too?? Best!
btc-e requires or uses a Dwolla account, is tha tcorrect?? Have one unfunded from first experiment.
I visited the Fed recently. The new idiot bitch boss, Yellen, had a sign on her $175,000 door.
It had a picture of Buzz Lightyear saying "To infinity and beyond!"
Get ready to break out your BTC $700 hat, Taylor!
I waiting for 1 bit to = the DOW, then X10....
Or maybe even Tyler!
Couple hours later: High:$649.00000
Hallelujah to the BitCoin Jesus
Well I sold one of my 2 bitcoins a couple of days ago, exchanging it into Litecoin, and I just discovered that it's almost doubled in 2 days. It's the next biggest of the cryptocurrencies, the main difference I think is that the blockchain register of transactions updates every few minutes, rather than few hours, so it's a faster payment solution.
Sorry,
but I have the feeling that pretty soon a lot of folks will be holding the bag.
I sold my last BTC a couple of days ago - taking a profit and to buy some parts for my MC, after having burnt my fingers in April.
Yeah - should have held - but this is where greed sets in and spoils it all.
How can BTC be accepted for any commerical transaction if the 'value' fluctuates like crazy ?
There is always some latency in the transactions, as currently the only practical way is to exchange to some fiat currency.
And that takes time.
Besides: no computer, no internet access - no use of BTC.
That worries me a bit.
BTC requires the full scale internet infrastructure in order to work.
Cash & PM does not.
my few cents.
I am out - and watch the show.
"How can BTC be accepted for any commerical transaction if the 'value' fluctuates like crazy ?"
Wild fluctuations are part of a small market. The wider used BTC is, the smaller the fluctuations.
"There is always some latency in the transactions"
In practice, this is not a big deal. Transactions are nearly instantaneous, it's verification to prevent double-spending that takes time. For small transactions (e.g. buying a soda), verification isn't really required, since double-spending would be tough to do before the next block was generated. For big purchases, well, I can wait an hour to buy a house.
Cash is being phased out. TPTB plan for all money to be electronic anyway - in accounts that they control - that way, if they don't like you they can just cancel your accounts and let you starve and freeze in the dark. They need the Internet to exist for their own evil plans to work.
We will soon be able to pay off the national debt. with the Bitcoins confiscated from the Silk Road!