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Bitcoin Surges Past $400

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Re: Bitcoin Surges Past $400

#101

Post by pmorici »

eterm wrote: post #43
csomar wrote: post #35

There is nothing that can guarantee that this ride is real, but here are a few things: 1. However big is MMM, it's probably too small for the size of the bitcoin economy right now. Remember that if you are transacting in bitcoin, there is one party buying and the other one selling. So you are not rising the price to the moon. 2. The number of transactions has been growing again as of late. It's heating at the blockch…

Don't discount how much nefarious actions can drive bitcoin prices. Much of the $1000 bubble is discussed in terms of mtgox and "willie", but the initial peak was triggered by another driver which was the first large wave of cryptolocker infections. It goes without saying I'd stay well clear of bitcoin still though.

You are working with a limited view of Bitcoin price history if you think there have only been two prior bubbles or peaks. There have been something like 6 Bitcoin 'bubbles' and busts since 2011. The very first major bubble is attributed to Senator Chuck Schumer in June 2011 advertising to the world that you could buy drugs with Bitcoin on silk road. That took the price from $1 to $32 before crashing.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/08/us-financial-bitco...

http://www.forbes.com/sites/timothylee/2013/04/11/an-illustr...

Re: Bitcoin Surges Past $400

#105

Post by jegutman »

mrb wrote: post #63
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.

Yes, the MMM Global ponzi scheme now requires participants to fund their account in bitcoins. This is likely what nudged the price of Bitcoin upward. Even the CEO of BTCC (China's 3rd largest Bitcoin exchange) admits it: http://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-price-breaks-260-to-hit-two-... However, at this point the Bitcoin price surge alone almost certainly ignited a Bitcoin speculative bubble that is self-sustaining and…

It's only kind of an arbitrage. There's also a huge onshore / offshore spread for Renminbi, but you can only move currency onshore for very specific purposes.

Re: Bitcoin Surges Past $400

#106

Post by DennisP »

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…

Most of the things you can do with smart contracts in Ethereum involve some kind of currency...crowdfunding, smart locks, prediction markets, etc. It's possible to implement subcurrencies with Ethereum contracts, but native ether is more efficient, a little easier to work with, and is the one currency you can be sure everyone on the network has.

Re: Bitcoin Surges Past $400

#107

Post by csomar »

VMG wrote: post #87
csomar wrote: post #35

There is nothing that can guarantee that this ride is real, but here are a few things: 1. However big is MMM, it's probably too small for the size of the bitcoin economy right now. Remember that if you are transacting in bitcoin, there is one party buying and the other one selling. So you are not rising the price to the moon. 2. The number of transactions has been growing again as of late. It's heating at the blockch…

> 4. I have a localbitcoins post. I usually get 1-2 requests per week. In the last few days, well, I really lost count. Did you see a change in the type of customer?

Yes. People were usually asking in the $500-1000 range. Now, it's mostly $100. (it's my limit though).

Re: Bitcoin Surges Past $400

#108

Post by bennyg »

usmannk wrote: post #96
kxr wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting point. I have some BTC at Coinbase. Not sure how I proceed to own the keys?

Get another wallet (such as hive) and send the BTC from Coinbase to that.

I recommend https://electrum.org, even though the website doesn't look super awesome. You'll get a "seed" that generates your keys that is 12 words long. It looks something like this:

"help staple correct horse ..."

From there, just store that seed somewhere secure and you can use that to generate your keys whenever you want, on any machine you want. Personally I keep my seed in two different safe-deposit boxes and one on (shameless plug) my own encrypted text app I made called Onions - http://onionsapp.github.io.

Re: Bitcoin Surges Past $400

#109

Post by pimlottc »

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.

I'm a bit confused, the Wikipedia link says it was shut down in 1997 and makes no mention of bitcoin. Is it the same company or is MMM now being used as a generic term?

Re: Bitcoin Surges Past $400

#110

Post by tgflynn »

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?

I'm not sure what you consider shady but several US exchanges are licensed under NY state banking regulations, which seem to be very strict (ItBit and Gemini, I believe, among others that are undergoing the separate bitlicense process).
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