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Bitcoin value falls from above $33 to below $3

betabeat.com

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Re: Bitcoin value falls from above $33 to below $3

#71

Post by spiceapps »

tptacek wrote: post #68
powertower wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

http://gawker.com/5805928/the-underground-website-where-you-...

How real is that? Like, I know the site exists, but how many people here know people who have successfully conducted commerce on it? How are they keeping themselves from being exposed?

As the article states, the site is only accessible through the TOR network, which is completely anonymized. All transactions are completed through Bitcoins, which is also pretty anonymous. When shipping the drugs, users are urged to get creative, such a vacuum sealing to avoid smell detection.

Re: Bitcoin value falls from above $33 to below $3

#72

Post by gnu6 »

raganwald wrote: post #39
daimyoyo wrote: post #32

Anyone know what the conversion rate between bitcoins and Dutch tulips is right now?

Today the joke-explainer duty falls upon me: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulip_mania Even if you are familiar with the expression, the full article is well worth reading.

Indeed, those who deal with web 2.0 startups would be well advised to read that article.

Re: Bitcoin value falls from above $33 to below $3

#73

Post by joejohnson »

Murkin wrote: post #63

Can someone give a concrete example of themselves using Bitcoins for something other than speculative trade ?

Silkroad. It has consistant business and I know people who have used this website.

However, it fails to use bitcoin as a currency in the sense that other stores use dollars as a currency. The prices on Silkroad are adjusted to mirror the USD->BTC exchange rate dialy. And, I would suspect that the majority of the users are buying bitcoins to buy goods on Silkroad, and that venders on Silkroad turn their BTC back into USD often. These two use cases don't support BTC as a viable currency. It is being used exactly as detractors presumed: merely a way to launder money.

Re: Bitcoin value falls from above $33 to below $3

#74

Post by hippich »

Murkin wrote: post #63

Can someone give a concrete example of themselves using Bitcoins for something other than speculative trade ?

I sold my motorcycle for coins.

I was buying a lot of article writing service (0% payment fees is nice!)

I shipped several orders from international customers in my http://store.gifti.us and accepted payments in bitcoins (0% foreign transaction fees is nice too!).

I bough steam codes.

I built somewhat profitable for short period of time site - http://betco.in and used some profit in bitcoins to pay for development work on open source project.

EDIT:

Bought, just like few other visitors, articles in PDF at http://ubitio.us. This is also project of mine and I am going to contribute it to open source soon, so just another bit into bitconomy.

And I am working on two other projects involving products/services and bitcoin :)

This is just what came in to my head right away...

Re: Bitcoin value falls from above $33 to below $3

#75

Post by joejohnson »

tptacek wrote: post #68
powertower wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

http://gawker.com/5805928/the-underground-website-where-you-...

How real is that? Like, I know the site exists, but how many people here know people who have successfully conducted commerce on it? How are they keeping themselves from being exposed?

I know people who have "conducted commerce" on that site. It's real.

Re: Bitcoin value falls from above $33 to below $3

#77

Post by Kenan »

Murkin wrote: post #63

Can someone give a concrete example of themselves using Bitcoins for something other than speculative trade ?

Amongst MANY other examples:

You can buy web hosting at http://cinfu.com, https://bitcoinwebhost.com, or https://kalyhost.com/?Currency=BTC

Purchase domain names at http://privacyshark.com, http://exoware.net, or http://bitdomain.biz

Use them at a variety of travel locations: http://bitcoin.travel/

Buy NewEgg stuff through http://bitcoinredemption.com or http://bitspend.com

Charity: http://bitcharity.org, http://bitcoin-charity.com, http://bitcoinsforcharity.org

Re: Bitcoin value falls from above $33 to below $3

#78

Post by noduerme »

Murkin wrote: post #63

Can someone give a concrete example of themselves using Bitcoins for something other than speculative trade ?

Seconding hippich -- gambling, for one thing. All gambling sites require you to ship currency on and offline. Normally the site swallows a 5-7% fee for that each way, which is why it takes so long -- to prevent you from doing it too often. With Bitcoin you can deposit, win, withdraw in an hour and you'll get better odds because the casino's got 10% more money to throw at the games.

Sorry to hear betco.in's going down -- StrikeSapphire.com will stick around no matter what the price goes to, because it's just a good, efficient way to take bets, process payments, and pay people out.

Re: Bitcoin value falls from above $33 to below $3

#79

Post by runn1ng »

Every bitcoin opposer repeats, that the money will artificially start going up and that is why it will crash.

Right now, it is going down, for a long time. So that is not why it will fail.

It will fail because noone actually needs it. It has no real value over other means of electronically exchanging money - paypal, for example, is much faster, easier to use and, dwhile it is not free, thanks to the wild exchange rate of bitcoin, one will probably still have more money from paypal than bitcoin money exchange.

There is no place to spend bitcoin, because most of the people don't CARE that it's centralized and someone can watch it, because it is infinitely easier to use paypal to just PAY STUFF, instead of going through the pains to exchange bitcoins through shady sites, wait DAYS to get it on your wallet, then wait hours until the blockchain is downloaded, then wait another hours since the block is 6 times confirmed.

Maybe it will work in the end, it's nicely designed and all. But I don't see anyone using it right now. There is no real reason to do so.

Re: Bitcoin value falls from above $33 to below $3

#80

Post by william42 »

Eyght wrote: post #45
powertower wrote: post #25

> It now appears the $3 to $33 prices for Bitcoin were due to speculation. Come on. Was it ever attributed to anything but speculation.

If it ever was, I would love to see that article.

http://falkvinge.net/2011/05/29/why-im-putting-all-my-saving...

"the currency has increased in value one-thousandfold against the US dollar in fourteen months. Yes. Read that again: one-thousandfold, fourteen months. There is currently no indication it would stop or has saturated; quite the opposite."

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