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Bitcoin hits $10,000

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Re: Bitcoin hits $10,000

#61

Post by fullshark »

wintom wrote: post #17

“Rosenstreich at online trading firm Swissquote said bitcoin’s surge harks to the surprises of the U.K. referendum on European Union membership and President Trump’s election. “We have underestimated the populist movements,” he said. “There is growing unease on how central banks and governments are managing fiat currencies. Ordinary people globally understand why a decentralized asset is the ultimate safe haven.”” Th…

This is nonsense. This is being driven by speculation / minuscule interest rates / greed. Very little of the demand for btc in the past year is due to lack of faith in institutions.

Re: Bitcoin hits $10,000

#62

Post by SomeStupidPoint »

narrator wrote: post #4

7 years ago: The first bitcoin article on HN with comments! https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1532670 One of the posters says the feds will shut it down. I also thought this too. This remains one of the most enduring mysteries of Bitcoin to me. Why has the government taken such a hands off approach?

> Why has the government taken such a hands off approach?

Because it's something like win-win-win for them?

1. They don't stifle a new technology for no reason.

2. They can always regulate it later, with the added bonus that they'll be able to stick a bunch of people they want to investigate with non-compliance charges for failing to register at the appropriate time. Similarly, how many people do you think are doing their taxes right on BTC? Easy arbitrary audit material if you can ever link their accounts.

3. I'm not sure the government is opposed to digital money that leaves an immutable, public record of cryptographic witnesses to transactions. The pseudo-anonymity isn't worth much against a pervasive global adversary watching all the pipes. They link the BTC to your actions, the keys to your machine, and you may as well have signed a confession.

So there's little incentive to act quickly and lots of incentive to give the radicals into BTC a chance to slip up on OPSEC.

Re: Bitcoin hits $10,000

#63

Post by sillysaurus3 »

wallace_f wrote: post #50
Shank wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only problem is that Satoshi's coins are watched like a hawk. Satoshi can't liquidate any of them, or even really move them without causing an immediate reaction in the community. Exchanges might halt trading, whilst it would immediately give away his or her identity. If the price of bitcoin doesn't crash following a coin movement, Satoshi's life is most certainly at risk. If it does, then the coins are worth not…

Why would Satoshi's life be at risk?

https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1lfobc/i_am_a_time...

Re: Bitcoin hits $10,000

#64

Post by dingo_bat »

sillysaurus3 wrote: post #30

The most remarkable aspect of bitcoin is that if Satoshi is a single person, it's the first time in history someone has become a billionaire by themselves. It's not quite that clear cut, but it's not too far off.

I don't follow. By themselves means? If he wants a billion dollars he still needs someone to trade it from somebody willing to trade with Bitcoin. How is that different from Bill Gates?

Re: Bitcoin hits $10,000

#65

Post by zenlikethat »

bringtheaction wrote: post #53
narrator wrote: post #4

7 years ago: The first bitcoin article on HN with comments! https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1532670 One of the posters says the feds will shut it down. I also thought this too. This remains one of the most enduring mysteries of Bitcoin to me. Why has the government taken such a hands off approach?

I could imagine a number of reasons including 1. Crypto currency has potential that outweighs it's threat. Being able to transfer funds to people in other parts of the world is of interest to several government agencies. Perhaps crypto currency could help them do this better / more efficiently / whatever than today. 2. They will have to be extremely on top of the situation in order to be able to bring down a crypto c…

As another poster noted, you forgot (4) Bitcoin in its current form has a ton of potential for surveillance and supervision.

Re: Bitcoin hits $10,000

#66

Post by wallace_f »

chii wrote: post #43
narrator wrote: post #4

7 years ago: The first bitcoin article on HN with comments! https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1532670 One of the posters says the feds will shut it down. I also thought this too. This remains one of the most enduring mysteries of Bitcoin to me. Why has the government taken such a hands off approach?

Because there's no reason for a democratic govt to shut it down. The only reason they would is to prevent capital flight (not to mention it's very hard to shut down in any case)

Our government is closer to a plutocracy than a democracy, and look at what happened to other people that kicked out central banks (Gadaffi, Sadam, Hitler).

The Fed swelled their balance sheet to 4.5trillion to bail out the banks. They can just electronically create money out of thin air. Everyone has a price, and when you have ultimate power you're in denial of 95%++ of people's human nature if you don't believe that power does not corrupt.

Re: Bitcoin hits $10,000

#67

Post by cbau »

wintom wrote: post #17

“Rosenstreich at online trading firm Swissquote said bitcoin’s surge harks to the surprises of the U.K. referendum on European Union membership and President Trump’s election. “We have underestimated the populist movements,” he said. “There is growing unease on how central banks and governments are managing fiat currencies. Ordinary people globally understand why a decentralized asset is the ultimate safe haven.”” Th…

Is that the right way to value Bitcoin? What explains the difference in price between Bitcoin and other coins?

Re: Bitcoin hits $10,000

#68

Post by modeless »

quickthrower2 wrote: post #40
narrator wrote: post #4

7 years ago: The first bitcoin article on HN with comments! https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1532670 One of the posters says the feds will shut it down. I also thought this too. This remains one of the most enduring mysteries of Bitcoin to me. Why has the government taken such a hands off approach?

How does a government stop it? And if they could, could they also stop illegal file sharing in a similar way?

They ban exchanging Bitcoin for fiat currencies, which completely disconnects Bitcoin from the traditional financial system. Underground and in-person exchanges would continue but at much lower volumes with higher friction and fees, and the value of Bitcoin would crash.

This is diffrerent from file sharing because file sharing does not need a connection to the traditional financial system to be useful for most people.

Re: Bitcoin hits $10,000

#69

Post by seanmcdirmid »

bobcallme wrote: post #58
pishpash wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gold is used in electronics. It's actually a good conductor. Bitcoin is not even good for transactions, its supposed primary purpose, right now.

> Bitcoin is not even good for transactions, its supposed primary purpose, right now. How so? I buy lunch with Bitcoin and a few weeks ago I paid for a car repair with it. If I need more, I just go to a bitcoin vending machine near by.

Where did you do this? None of the local businesses (Bellevue WA) take bitcoin that I can tell, and it is populated by lots of techies.

Re: Bitcoin hits $10,000

#70

Post by Torn »

wallace_f wrote: post #50
Shank wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only problem is that Satoshi's coins are watched like a hawk. Satoshi can't liquidate any of them, or even really move them without causing an immediate reaction in the community. Exchanges might halt trading, whilst it would immediately give away his or her identity. If the price of bitcoin doesn't crash following a coin movement, Satoshi's life is most certainly at risk. If it does, then the coins are worth not…

Why would Satoshi's life be at risk?

It's theorised they have ~1m bitcoins, at 10k each that's a 10 billion net-worth.

Presumably that's enough for people to want to hunt them down and coerce them into giving up private keys

https://bitslog.wordpress.com/2013/04/17/the-well-deserved-f...

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