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Bitcoin value falls from above $33 to below $3

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

#111

Post by mehwoot »

jbri wrote: post #103
icebraining wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, that's what I said. But on the other hand, the BTC market is still very poor. Besides domains and hosting, what other virtual goods are there to buy?

Real money. Sell bitcoins to people who are buying them in order to purchase drugs. There's nothing inherently linking the two transactions of "X bitcoins transferred from wallet #1 to wallet #2" and "Y USD transferred from Bob to Joe" - with sufficient care and redirection, you can make it very difficult to track down exactly where the bitcoins are being traded for real money.

Well yes but you are assuming you can find a buyer who is willing to do a straight bank transfer rather than using an exchange. And most people much prefer to use the exchanges. Especially if they are buying drugs with the bitcoins; if they did a bank transfer to a person selling drugs, they could have just used that payment method in the first place.

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

#113

Post by notahacker »

corysama wrote: post #98
lurch00 wrote: post #19

Bitcoin is essentially a giant pyramid scam. The early adopters have cashed out long ago. As mining gets more and more difficult, less people will cling to the liquid currency. Why trade with a deprecating currency, anonymous or not? The fact that the exchange rate is below the cost of mining should be alarming for many reasons. I'd assume the creator/first adopters do not care, either way.

It is my understanding that Pyramid Scheme was an explicit, stated design feature of Bitcoin. Because the only value of the coins are in the network effects, there would otherwise be very little motivation for early adoption and the idea would have died on the vine. By giving a huge advantage to early movers, the whole system was kick-started. I expect that the creator already considers the system a success. The goal…

Of course it matters. If you "exchanged value" with someone in return for bitcoins three months ago, then approximately 90% of the value of your transaction has disappeared (whether lost by you, or someone else you passed the coins onto). Unlike hyperinflation of currencies backed by governments and banks offering interest, the only way for you to have retained value received in bitcoins was to dispose of the bitcoins in favour of something else. So after getting burnt by a lot more than Paypal exchange fees, you probably end up converting to a government/bank backed medium of exchange anyway. That's not dysfunctional?

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

#114

Post by Mizza »

hippich wrote: post #74
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 wo…

What Open Source project?

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

#115

Post by gwern »

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?

Silk Road has worked well for me. Seems real enough.

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

#116

Post by gwern »

lurch00 wrote: post #19

Bitcoin is essentially a giant pyramid scam. The early adopters have cashed out long ago. As mining gets more and more difficult, less people will cling to the liquid currency. Why trade with a deprecating currency, anonymous or not? The fact that the exchange rate is below the cost of mining should be alarming for many reasons. I'd assume the creator/first adopters do not care, either way.

> Bitcoin is essentially a giant pyramid scam. The early adopters have cashed out long ago.

This may not be relevant, but not all of them have. Something like 800,000 of the early bitcoins have never moved in the blockchain since they were minted (leading to speculation that they have been held onto by Satoshi).

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

#117

Post by dennisgorelik »

krobertson wrote: post #88
william42 wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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."

Wow. I'd hate to be him. :)

Somehow Jim Cramer with his infamous Bear Sterns prediction comes to mind:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUkbdjetlY8

Note that Jim Cramer is still running his show.

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

#119

Post by hugh3 »

daimyoyo wrote: post #32

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

Well, tulips.com will sell you 300 tulips for $347, though I'm sure you could get them a lot cheaper if you pick 'em up from the farm yourself. Roughly three to one, though, would appear to be the going rate.

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

#120

Post by hugh3 »

lurch00 wrote: post #19

Bitcoin is essentially a giant pyramid scam. The early adopters have cashed out long ago. As mining gets more and more difficult, less people will cling to the liquid currency. Why trade with a deprecating currency, anonymous or not? The fact that the exchange rate is below the cost of mining should be alarming for many reasons. I'd assume the creator/first adopters do not care, either way.

"Pump and dump" scam is, I believe, the correct term.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pump_and_dump

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