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Bitcoin Gets Close to $5,000

bloomberg.com

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Re: Bitcoin Gets Close to $5,000

#41

Post by aresant »

The graph in the article (1), showing a much steeper slope than other bubbles is fascinating for a couple of reasons:

1) The total SCALE of the bubble is much much smaller than say the tech bubble - the 280 stocks representative of the tech bubble fell almost $1.7 TRILLION in 52 weeks (2) vs the total crypto market cap @ the moment of ~180 billion.

2) The total scale of the Crypto bubble has MORE potential than stocks - why? The opportunity for casual global participation and almost complete lack of regulation / sophistication.

If the single use case for Crypto is nothing more than the world's greatest tulip mania / pyramid scheme it has the potential to be a multi trillion dollar asset class / wealth transfer.

(1) https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DIaa9KcVoAAcs3m.jpg:large

(2) http://cnnfn.cnn.com/2000/11/09/technology/overview/

Re: Bitcoin Gets Close to $5,000

#42

Post by MBCook »

matthewmacleod wrote: post #35
cabaalis wrote: post #22

Would it be correct to say that there is a threshold where the value of a bitcoin makes it reasonable for retailers/small business/etc to invest in using them as an actual currency at the register? If that's the case, then it would make good business sense for someone nefarious to pump up the price as much as possible to reach that threshold, wait for the use to become common, then cash out. Effectively manipulating…

I don’t see why this would be the case. The utility in currency is not value, but stability; there’s little incentive to use Bitcoin if the value is not stable.

Also in how liquid it is. If a very large retailer decided to do this with the block chain be able to keep up? I know the block size was recently raised but would it be enough?

Re: Bitcoin Gets Close to $5,000

#43

Post by CamelCaseName »

fish_fan wrote: post #38
theklub wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And now fewer and fewer can afford a whole coin.

Sure, but thankfully you don't need a whole coin for most transactions. It's not an inherently meaningful thing.

But it is a psychologically important thing, and Bitcoin price has always been psychologically driven.

Re: Bitcoin Gets Close to $5,000

#44

Post by joelrunyon »

I'm curious what the naming conventions are going to be to transact bitcoin on a regular (offline) basis.

Are you going to say 1/10 bitcoin or will that have a name?

One thing I haven't seen anyone talk about is the language to make bitcoin more accessible.

No other currency (that I know of) has 1 unit as the MAX unit to transact (at such a high value) with no smaller denominations.

If Bitcoin really DOES end up at 100k/coin - and you want to buy something that's $10, are you really going to say .0001 bitcoin? There has to be a cleaner way. Even that, you could easily screw up decimal spots very easily.

Re: Bitcoin Gets Close to $5,000

#46

Post by ericflo »

theklub wrote: post #11

What will stop bitcoin's price from going up? I just keep thinking that other than new laws or something getting hacked there is no reason for the price to not just keep creeping up.

Bitcoin's main product is trust, so if trust in the system decreases, the price will drop. If someone demonstrated a security flaw and began to exploit it, that would likely do it.

Re: Bitcoin Gets Close to $5,000

#48

Post by dwaltrip »

theklub wrote: post #27
rampage101 wrote: post #21

People have been saying since it was valued at $1 that it was overvalued, or nobody should pay $1 for a virtual coin. Same people are still arguing the same thing 5 years later...

And now fewer and fewer can afford a whole coin.

Each bitcoin can be divided into 100 million atomic units called "satoshis". 1 BTC is just a particular denomination, in the same way that $20 and $100 bills are denominations in use for USD.

1 BTC is a historically common denomination that will likely receive less usage if the price continues to rise.

Re: Bitcoin Gets Close to $5,000

#49

Post by programmarchy »

xutopia wrote: post #36

I see so many people dissing the technology and rehashing old arguments. You shouldn't consider Bitcoin as a currency but as a better form of Gold. Like gold it has a limited amount available: ~180k tons of gold and eventually 21 million bitcoins. Like gold it is a good store of value (especially as more people are dropping their gold to purchase BTC). Unlike Gold you can send it to someone else online and that means…

It's also harder to confiscate than gold, given one takes reasonable security measures.

Re: Bitcoin Gets Close to $5,000

#50

Post by solotronics »

MBCook wrote: post #37
rampage101 wrote: post #21

People have been saying since it was valued at $1 that it was overvalued, or nobody should pay $1 for a virtual coin. Same people are still arguing the same thing 5 years later...

Doesn't make them wrong. I find the idea of crypto currency, especially bitcoin, very interesting. I just have a very hard time seeing how it's actually useful. It can't handle very many transactions per minute. And the thing that supposed to make it so great is that no one controls it. But if bitcoin becomes really important then people will want to control a lot of the mining power. Pretty soon you end up with a gr…

why is it useful? you can store and instantly send any arbitrary amount of money anywhere on the planet and it is the hardest (impossible?) for a government to steal it from you
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