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Bitcoin Surges Past $400

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Re: Bitcoin Surges Past $400

#71

Post by [deleted] »

kristofferR wrote: post #58
amelius wrote: post #52

Could somebody comment on how "future proof" the bitcoin technology really is? How large can the trading volumes become, and is there a limit? What advances have been made in crypto-currencies that will replace bitcoin?

Bitcoin is in constant development, so it's a hard question to answer. If Bitcoin core development suddenly stopped right now it wouldn't be very future proof. Trading volumes are irrelevant from a scaling perspective, what matters is number of transactions per second (tps). Right now Bitcoin has a really low capacity, just 7tps, way below VISA for example. However, progress is underway on creating the Lightning Netw…

[deleted]

Re: Bitcoin Surges Past $400

#72

Post by bby »

TomGullen wrote: post #70

I find it ironic that if MMM is having an impact on the price, that irrational actors (people buying into MMM) are inflating the price of Bitcoin (mainly promoted by libertarians). Anyway, the up swing is impressive now and can't be dismissed as normal volatilty: https://bitcoinwisdom.com/markets/bitfinex/btcusd There will be a big drop at some point, no one really wants to sell when it's rising like this. This sort…

what is MMM?

Re: Bitcoin Surges Past $400

#73

Post by donkeyd »

kenesom1 wrote: post #39
est wrote: post #11

The China factor behind this "surge" is because this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MMM_(Ponzi_scheme_company) started doing business in China. It's growing very huge.

A film (PiraMMMida) came out in 2011 depicting the rise and fall of MMM in early-90s Russia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-JgGV8cH1I http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1606652/

I did not expect this to be published on the official MMM Worldwide channel

Re: Bitcoin Surges Past $400

#74

Post by e12e »

LoSboccacc wrote: post #4

I keep biting my finger off, trading bitcoins seems so nice but to enter you need to give RID access to shady merchant, which is a bummer. Anyone know an exchange where btc can be bought simply with paypal?

[ed: bitcoin.de does require direct bank transfer, I'm not sure if I'd consider them shady though. So not sure if that helps or not (was it the shady part or the RID part that was a problem?)]

I have good experience with bitcoin.de -- although I'm currently stuck in a loop needing to verify my account (again), after they got a bit more strict with account verification.

At any rate, since I was "smart" and sold my experimental 5 btc test purchase and made thousands of percent (and 100s of USD...) - I don't really have any bitcoin to sell any more. It's kind of funny when you make back lots more than you put in, and still feel regret because the bubble kept going up (I forget when I sold, suffice to say it was way below 200 USD per coin - I think I bought at an overwhelming ~2 USD/bitcoin or something. And then forgot about it for a year or two.).

Re: Bitcoin Surges Past $400

#75

Post by TomGullen »

Natanael_L wrote: post #53
peteretep wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I made an absolute killing on them last time, why not again?

Trading just for profits is no different from other kinds of gambling. Even though I like Bitcoin myself, I'm not the most risk-taking kind of person. The market price depends on the collective sentiment of every single trader, and no matter what I believe, I can't force them all to agree with me.

> Trading just for profits is no different from other kinds of gambling

I'd say this is absolutely false. Roulette is pure chance (and -EV at that). Trading currency/commodities is a bad idea for most people, however you can gain +EV edges with domain knowledge.

Re: Bitcoin Surges Past $400

#77

Post by corv »

corv wrote: post #16
est wrote: post #11

The China factor behind this "surge" is because this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MMM_(Ponzi_scheme_company) started doing business in China. It's growing very huge.

Very unlikely the cause considering the amount of hits their website is getting.

Believe what you want but MMM isn't even getting 1/10 the hits of a single bitcoin exchange.

Re: Bitcoin Surges Past $400

#78

Post by aianus »

pille wrote: post #31
sonium wrote: post #6

It is however less likely to be due to exchange manipulations this time because the exchanges are more diversified.

No, not really. If you can manipulate the price on one exchange, it will drag the prices in the other exchanges along with it. MtGox's high BTC rates were too close to arbitrage until it was clear you wouldn't get your money out.

I was arbitraging MtGox vs US/Canadian exchanges up until 6 months before they blew up. The spread was easily 3% even then. Thankfully they took 28 days to wire me $10k and I saw the writing on the wall and stopped in time.

Re: Bitcoin Surges Past $400

#79

Post by hellofunk »

Retric wrote: post #69
hellofunk wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Price fluctuation in tradeable products of any kind is never "natural", it is supply/demand-driven. And supply and demand are complex forces with much turbulence from a vast number of influences.

Speculation is a thing. BC is still infinitesimal in terms of the global economy and even relatively tiny movements of money can underline or pop a bubble.

Yes, and speculation is one of the forces affecting demand.

There is no such thing as a "natural" price move in any tradeable product. The term has no meaning; all trading is based on some form of speculation or other forces.

Re: Bitcoin Surges Past $400

#80

Post by nickysielicki »

amelius wrote: post #52

Could somebody comment on how "future proof" the bitcoin technology really is? How large can the trading volumes become, and is there a limit? What advances have been made in crypto-currencies that will replace bitcoin?

Bitcoin is still actively changed, and they've been trying to push up the volume because, well, they have to at some point.

What they choose to set as the minimum amount of throughput for each node is ultimately dependent on the lowest common denominator in terms of bandwidth for every node on the network. With a truly distributed network like this, you need everyone on the same page.

This is a valid criticism of bitcoin IMO. For example, there was talk about forking the network in August because of disagreements about what was reasonable to expect for the network-- Internet in China is expensive.

http://www.economist.com/news/business-and-finance/21661404-...

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