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Bitcoin Surges Past $400

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111–120 of 260 posts

Re: Bitcoin Surges Past $400

#111
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…

11. The "halving" that is anticipated to take place sometime in 2016 is suddenly not so far off in the future.

Re: Bitcoin Surges Past $400

#112
For anyone that has been around BTC for long enough, this is expected, but also expect more rallies and more crashes.

Quick plug: If you are looking for a secure wallet with good privacy for your fresh Bitcoin, Try [Coinkite Multisig](https://coinkite.com/multisig), up to m-of-15, any/all keys can be generated offline, option to escrow backup, notifications, multi-user-multisig, support, notifications, works well with Ledgers, and the list goes on!

Re: Bitcoin Surges Past $400

#113
post #108
post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Electrum is great, but not very easy to use (since it's desktop). Get Electrum, Mycelium or Breadwallet, depending on your platform. I've heard good things about GreenAddress, and I recommend a ledger hardware wallet. You can use the ledger with Electrum and Mycelium, so you can spend coins from desktop or mobile. I've also imported my Mycelium wallet onto my second ledger, just so I can move coins from the desktop.

Re: Bitcoin Surges Past $400

#114

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?

Ranked in order of my preference. https://www.coinbase.com/global - Initial setup can be slow, as with identity verification, but once you're set up buying is relatively painless. Withdrawing can sometimes be slow, expect to wait 2 to 5 business days after purchasing before you can withdraw. Shadiness Level - Just shady enough it might work. 4.5 stars would cupcake again. (They're a YC company too, so you'd be helpin…

http://www.coinjar.com/ For Australians, take a look at Coinjar. They accept BPay for deposits & you can withdraw to an Australian bank account once verified. They also offer an EFTPOS card so you can use Bitcoin at most Australian stores. VC funding from Angelcube & Blackbird Ventures.

Re: Bitcoin Surges Past $400

#115
post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

People use "natural" or "baseline" to refer to the price a commodity returns to after a bubble burst. Though, price movements are more chaotic than that and you can have short term spikes, swings from external effects ex: natural disasters, short term 'bubbles', and demand from things like tax policy changes so "natural" is somewhat vague. So, the implication is it's what happens when you remove short term and artifi…

In practice I've never heard anyone use the word "natural" in regards to price movement in a tradeable product, not in the five years I've been working in the financial industry. Sounds like more of a layman's term, perhaps. But the line between short-term and long-term movements is nearly non-existent since one typically affects the other, and the idea that there is any sense of normal price movement that lies behind all that turbulence is fairly naive.

Re: Bitcoin Surges Past $400

#116
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.

Wow, so this is THE "MMM" that people are talking about. They took Russians for a ride in the 90s, I didn't think I'd hear this name again.

Re: Bitcoin Surges Past $400

#117
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…

Chatter in BTC trading forums puts a $3000 price target as "doable" ;)

A couple other points: mining is exploding as well with the global GHash rate / Difficulty accelerating. I have not calculated an exact correlation between price and compute but it could be an indicator of "real" moves in the currency.

The truest indicator is of course price-action. During last summer and into the fall, before Beijing implemented capital controls, when you observed the depth of book on orders on BW, you'd notice that the vast majority of orders were for even lots of ~0.0100BTC. This was indicative of algorithmic market making. Very few orders were above 100BTC. Now it's the exact opposite. Large orders with fast fills are common. I wish I had some real data and actual stats on the order book during the run-up ;( as I believe it would make a good indicator as to whether the current move is sustainable...

Re: Bitcoin Surges Past $400

#118

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?

Ranked in order of my preference. https://www.coinbase.com/global - Initial setup can be slow, as with identity verification, but once you're set up buying is relatively painless. Withdrawing can sometimes be slow, expect to wait 2 to 5 business days after purchasing before you can withdraw. Shadiness Level - Just shady enough it might work. 4.5 stars would cupcake again. (They're a YC company too, so you'd be helpin…

At least in the UK and France, localbitcoins.com let's sellers/buyers use alternatives to meeting with cash, for example direct bank transfer, or some apps we have (like Barclays PingIt in the UK) - the coins go into the site's escrow and the seller releases them once money comes in - which is usually instantly, unlike in America I guess. Not sure how prices or UI compares to other options, but certainly no shadiness if using it that way.

Re: Bitcoin Surges Past $400

#119
post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People use "natural" or "baseline" to refer to the price a commodity returns to after a bubble burst. Though, price movements are more chaotic than that and you can have short term spikes, swings from external effects ex: natural disasters, short term 'bubbles', and demand from things like tax policy changes so "natural" is somewhat vague. So, the implication is it's what happens when you remove short term and artifi…

In practice I've never heard anyone use the word "natural" in regards to price movement in a tradeable product, not in the five years I've been working in the financial industry. Sounds like more of a layman's term, perhaps. But the line between short-term and long-term movements is nearly non-existent since one typically affects the other, and the idea that there is any sense of normal price movement that lies behin…

It is a defined term, but I think trymas is referring to the layman's usage.

"natural price" https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/natural_price

A price for a good or service that is equal to the cost of production.

Re: Bitcoin Surges Past $400

#120
post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 9. If you don't own the keys, you don't own the bitcoins. Always the most important point. You need to hold your keys, and be the only person to do so (unencrypted). As for the rest, they can be summarized into this simple advice: If you're getting in, DO NOT spend more than you can afford to lose. You'll regret going into debt more than you'll regret not making a twice as big profit.

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

I do as well. What's wrong with leaving it there?
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