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Bitcoin hits $200

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Re: Bitcoin hits $200

#101

Post by impostervt »

graeham wrote: post #7

Does anyone have a link or justification in anyway for the rise in the conversion rate? I like the idea of an independent (non-government), secure currency - but I can't see this as anything other than a speculation driven investment vehicle. Seems like tulip mania to me [1]. Also, is there any management of Bitcoin to prevent excessive currency fluctuations? Not having this would seem to be a flaw to me - you can't…

More and more sites are accepting bitcoins, making it more useful as an actual currency. I detail some of the sites in a book I wrote for Bitcoin Beginners.

http://www.bitcoinbeginner.com

If you (or anyone else) would like a free copy, just email me: john@bitcoinbeginner.com

Re: Bitcoin hits $200

#102

Post by aneth4 »

dragontamer wrote: post #97
aneth4 wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The price is relevant to merchants though. It's much more appetizing looking at $2B in bitcoins than $200M. Price increases drive adoption, which drives it's value, which drives price increases. That's what we are seeing now, though not in rational proportions. Price stability is likely to affect consumer behavior, though unclear how much.

No. Speculators like looking at that value. Merchants want the opposite. Merchants right now are pissed off because they just finished setting their prices at 1BTC per widget four months ago, but today they're only getting 0.1BTC per transaction. Merchants are receiving less and less bitcoins everytime the price goes up. Merchants want BTC to go down, so that they can sell the same stock for more BTC. Its like the wh…

That depends on how the transactions are structured. Most merchants new to bitcoin will not hold on to bitcoin, and only use it as a transaction currency.

I can certainly tell you from a business perspective, $2B of money supply is A LOT more attractive than $200M.

Re: Bitcoin hits $200

#103

Post by aneth4 »

dragontamer wrote: post #78
aneth4 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's hard to say. There are many who justify prices far higher based on future adoption. Adoption is picking up at a remarkable rate. The USD money supply is around $3T or $10T, depending on whether you are counting money multiplied by leverage. The US GDP is $15T. If we presume that a currency then should be on the same order of magnitude of money supply as the GDP or transaction volume, it's not hard to project a $…

http://blockchain.info/charts/n-transactions The number of bitcoin transactions per day has remained roughly constant since February. The price of Bitcoins however, has risen by 1000%. Do you have any evidence to suggest that people are actually using Bitcoins? Because the hard evidence I've got seems makes it seem like Bitcoins are getting traded like crazy, but not necessarily used.

For one example, BitPay is doing quite well:

http://www.dailydot.com/news/bitcoin-legal-sales-higher-ille...

Re: Bitcoin hits $200

#104

Post by illuminate »

DanBlake wrote: post #5

The problem with bitcoin is 1 or 2 events that give the public a 'scare' have the potential to nearly floor the usd value. All it takes is one headline on CNN like "Joe Blow selling Anthrax and Cyanide on Silkroad/Craigslist for Bitcoins" for the general public go to fucking apeshit and cause some real 3 letter organizations to shutter most bitcoin exchanges with secret subpoenas and such. Realistically, there is so…

"All it takes is one headline on CNN like "Joe Blow selling Anthrax and Cyanide on Silkroad/Craigslist for Bitcoins" for the general public go to fucking apeshit and cause some real 3 letter organizations to shutter most bitcoin exchanges with secret subpoenas and such."

Why would any TLA need a headline to get engaged? They tend to create their own.

Re: Bitcoin hits $200

#105

Post by dicletian »

cs702 wrote: post #80
graeham wrote: post #7

Does anyone have a link or justification in anyway for the rise in the conversion rate? I like the idea of an independent (non-government), secure currency - but I can't see this as anything other than a speculation driven investment vehicle. Seems like tulip mania to me [1]. Also, is there any management of Bitcoin to prevent excessive currency fluctuations? Not having this would seem to be a flaw to me - you can't…

Does anyone have a link or justification in any way for the rise in the conversion rate? Yes. Nearly two years ago I wrote an essay with my thoughts on Bitcoin's potential for long-term appreciation at http://cs702.wordpress.com/2011/05/29/on-the-potential-adopt... and the essay is holding up pretty well so far, particularly given the recent reported spike in adoption by people in Spain[1] and Cyprus[2]. The TL;DR su…

Thanks -- this is one of the best essays on Bitcoin I've read.

Re: Bitcoin hits $200

#106

Post by dragontamer »

aneth4 wrote: post #103
dragontamer wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

http://blockchain.info/charts/n-transactions The number of bitcoin transactions per day has remained roughly constant since February. The price of Bitcoins however, has risen by 1000%. Do you have any evidence to suggest that people are actually using Bitcoins? Because the hard evidence I've got seems makes it seem like Bitcoins are getting traded like crazy, but not necessarily used.

For one example, BitPay is doing quite well: http://www.dailydot.com/news/bitcoin-legal-sales-higher-ille...

And my statistics include all of BitPay's transactions, since every bitcoin transaction has already been included in my graph.

Bitpay may be growing, but Bitcoins in general are not.

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