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Bitcoin reaches an all-time trading high of over $33

arstechnica.com

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Re: Bitcoin reaches an all-time trading high of over $33

#141

Post by ChuckMcM »

eliasmacpherson wrote: post #85
ChuckMcM wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, you should not invest. I say that because investing has different skill levels and different risk/reward profiles. The lowest level is perhaps savings accounts and CDs and at the most extreme end are derivative financial instruments. Long before you get to currency speculation you go through equity value investing, bond investing, and equity option investing. After going through those things you get to commodit…

A voice of reason in a world gone mad! He would have to clarify the amount of risk he wants to take and how much time he wants to spend on it. A friend has very successfully invested in bitcoin (1000%+ return), but I am very sure he has the price up on his smartphone 24/7 and can sell very quickly. I don't know how much downside it has, as a long term gamble, because there's an upper limit on the amount of currency.…

Well the downside is that that loses all value. That can occur for a number of reasons but the two most widely speculated on are a global response (something like the G8 deciding that they won't allow trading it) or a technical defect (which invalidates some part of either the transaction train or the currency itself).

But that said, its also very volatile as a currency and that makes for a lot of speculation and rapid market changes. Not for the faint of heart and certainly not a place for any money you might actually need a year from now.

Re: Bitcoin reaches an all-time trading high of over $33

#142

Post by nym »

bayesianhorse wrote: post #107
eof wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well your logic is obviously flawed, because people do use bitcoins for transactions and they have changed by hundreds of percentage points. "No one" is patently false. Besides, illicit transactions are still transactions. And.. you are just plain wrong. Bitcoin is also useful for buying many completely legal things. Including a VPN that can't be linked to your identity. (Illicit you say? What about a journalist in a…

Bitcoins are almost useless for legal and non-illicit transactions. Paypal is cheaper than bitcoins in these situations, if you account for the astronomical currency risk and thus the premium bitcoin-traders and shops accepting btc have to charge in order to not go out of bussiness in an eyeblink.

False. I pay my coworker back for lunch with bitcoin.

Re: Bitcoin reaches an all-time trading high of over $33

#143

Post by nacker »

netcan wrote: post #135
nacker wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The increased demand seems to be largely from current users rather than new users, as this chart shows: http://blockchain.info/charts/n-unique-addresses

That doesn't sound like a bad thing.

Not saying it's good or bad, but when people hear that demand for BTC is increasing, the natural assumption is that it is attracting lots of new participants. What seems to be happening instead is that the people who have already surmounted the hurdles involved in becoming users are responding to the positive press recently by doubling and tripling down on their bets. The stats don't indicate a large wave of new users - yet.

Re: Bitcoin reaches an all-time trading high of over $33

#144

Post by bakerchan »

The value of BTC is not just based on speculation. It has a use and thats transferring wealth from one to another in the same way paypal/western union does but much cheaper. Consider that paypal alone transacted $451million per day in the 4th Qtr 2012 and another $20 Billion via western union in the same financial qtr. Now just imagine whats going to happen to the value of BTC when just 1% of the people using Paypal/WU start using Bitcoin to transfer or store their wealth. Now add in the people turning to BTC from other money transfer systems too. I think this is what is pushing up the value of BTC along with the speculators that are jumping on the gravy train too

Re: Bitcoin reaches an all-time trading high of over $33

#145

Post by jacoblyles »

DanBlake wrote: post #12
dangrossman wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just make a free Coinbase (YC S12) account and click the buy button. Couldn't be easier. http://i.imgur.com/Yym66Gv.png

Coinbase was a giant waste of time for me. I signed up a week ago and its been a mostly crap experience. Would not recommend. Im using mtgox now and its a much more streamlined experience. . Here was my coinbase timeline- Keep in mind I verified my account, did 2 step auth, everything. About as normal a user as possible. They make buying bitcoins near impossible. 1: Create a account and link it with a US bank. I am l…

Confirmed. Coinbase was great about a month ago, but now they appear to be dying under load.

There's nothing like waiting 6 days for your order to complete, only to find it's been canceled.

Re: Bitcoin reaches an all-time trading high of over $33

#146

Post by wglb »

nacker wrote: post #128
tocomment wrote: post #124

Question I've been wondering. What happens to lost bitcoins? Say your hard drive dies and you didn't have a backup. Are those coins out of circulation forever? Will this gradually decrease the supply of bitcoins?

Yes. Gone forever. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=109117.0

Or, in technical terms, Clementine.

Re: Bitcoin reaches an all-time trading high of over $33

#147

Post by illuminate »

shredfvz wrote: post #127
bayesianhorse wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bitcoins are almost useless for legal and non-illicit transactions. Paypal is cheaper than bitcoins in these situations, if you account for the astronomical currency risk and thus the premium bitcoin-traders and shops accepting btc have to charge in order to not go out of bussiness in an eyeblink.

There's 0% chargeback risk with Bitcoin, and 0% risk of fraud. Counterfeit is impossible. These factors substantially reduce the cost of selling goods and services with Bitcoin.

"There's 0% chargeback risk with Bitcoin" That is problematic for much of what currency is used for.

"and 0% risk of fraud" This is completely untrue, because it assumes the motives of both sides of a transaction.

Re: Bitcoin reaches an all-time trading high of over $33

#148

Post by oleganza »

AlexMax wrote: post #112
acchow wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody is saying Bitcoin is currently awesome and better than standard currencies. However, what is clear is its long-term viability. You should ask yourself from where currency originates. What is its predecessor and was its acceptance ubiquitous. And take note that there was a period not long ago where saffron was used as "currency". Also, though you may be intelligent, it would good to take a note from Socrates an…

> Nobody is saying Bitcoin is currently awesome and better than standard currencies. However, what is clear is its long-term viability. This isn't clear to me at all. There are a finite number of possible bitcoins, and once the last one is mined no new ones can be created. While it might be true that putting more USD into circulation causes the value of each individual dollar to go down, that's actually an incentive…

Define "hoarding". Who exactly suffers from it? Especially in case of Bitcoin where nobody forces you to even care about it (unlike gov-issued legal tender).

Re: Bitcoin reaches an all-time trading high of over $33

#149

Post by guruz »

ryanbrunner wrote: post #136
pyvpx wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find your reply humorously telling -- wallet app means just that: a bitcoin wallet application. Google and it's associated services/applications are not the end-all be-all ;)

To be fair, capitalizing "Wallet" makes it pretty confusing. If someone said "You need a Mac + Mail app", I would assume they meant the OSX mail app and not just a general e-mail client.

Sorry, I'm German -> used to capitalize nouns.

Yes, I meant https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.schildbach....

Re: Bitcoin reaches an all-time trading high of over $33

#150

Post by dangrossman »

morsch wrote: post #117
gdeglin wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My experience with Coinbase has been amazing. I tried to buy Bitcoins around a year ago and it seemed nearly impossible to do with USD. Here's how buying them through Coinbase went... 1. Signed up and linked my bank account 2. Bought bitcoins the same day (at their price on that day) 3. 5 days later they were available for me to use I've bought more coins 3 additional times. Each time they were available in under 5 d…

How is it amazing when you had to wait multiple days for them to available? That seems completely backwards to me. Why aren't they available immediately once the block is confirmed, ie. within less than half an hour?

Fraud. If the transaction is too fast for new users, there's no time to identify and stop fraud before the money's left their control. Once you have the BC and can transfer it out, if you used stolen funds to pay for it, CoinBase loses twice the value transferred.
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