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Bitcoin breaks $200

coinbase.com

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Re: Bitcoin breaks $200

#141

Post by gweinberg »

wmf wrote: post #86
saalweachter wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can most certainly up your price. The only question is how the market responds. Miners have zero incentive to sell their bitcoins for less than the cost of producing them. Left to themselves, the price should approach the minimum cost of producing bitcoins (since they do have incentive to undercut each other as much as possible). Speculators could respond to a price increase by miners by dumping their inventory o…

Miners have zero incentive to sell their bitcoins for less than the cost of producing them. Unless bills are due and the credit card is already maxed out.

I think the parent meant that miners have zero incentive to produce bitcoins if they can't sell them for at least the production costs. Even if they sunk a big pile of money into their mining rigs, if they can't sell the coins for the marginal cost of producing them, continuing to mine is just throwing good money after bad.

Re: Bitcoin breaks $200

#142

Post by mrb »

mrb wrote: post #130
Datsundere wrote: post #94

I tried to buy bitcoins when they were $60. I look for sites that would sell me bitcoins for USD. It was so hard and the ways to buy them were so damn complicated. I had to sign up for a 3rd party site to import bitcoin to mtgox. The 3rd party site needed me to upload my personal identity information to verify my bank account. I was ready to do that as well, except they said it'd take 10+ days to verify. Also someone…

Sell something on craigslist for bitcoins, and let the buyer pay you in bitcoins in person. Couldn't be simpler.

Why was I voted down? My suggestion is an often overlooked, very simple way to acquire bitcoins. No signing up. No proving your identity. No linking bank accounts. Just sell stuff for bitcoins.

Re: Bitcoin breaks $200

#143

Post by gweinberg »

simplemath wrote: post #13

See you again at $1000 to talk about the bubble.

Looking forward to it. Bitcoin almost certainly will crash sooner or later, and the pricks who have been insisting that bitcoin is JUST a bubble will all be patting themselves on the back for being "right all along", even if t never falls to what they were saying were vastly inflated values, and even if it recovers again soon after. Which it likely will.

There are two things that can kill bitcoin: a dteermined attack by a major world government, and something clearly better (from the point of view of its users). I'm betting on the second.

Re: Bitcoin breaks $200

#144

Post by simplemath »

gweinberg wrote: post #143
simplemath wrote: post #13

See you again at $1000 to talk about the bubble.

Looking forward to it. Bitcoin almost certainly will crash sooner or later, and the pricks who have been insisting that bitcoin is JUST a bubble will all be patting themselves on the back for being "right all along", even if t never falls to what they were saying were vastly inflated values, and even if it recovers again soon after. Which it likely will. There are two things that can kill bitcoin: a dteermined attack…

i agree that there is likely something better down the pipe, but at this point almost 5 years on, BTC is finally gaining traction and awareness from even non tech savvy people. The entire ecosystem is not going to be easy to duplicate.

Re: Bitcoin breaks $200

#145

Post by XorNot »

mrb wrote: post #102
jaggederest wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It doesn't matter if it is 1 coin changing hands 12 million times, or 12 million coins changing hands one time each. Volume is volume. Correct > And it proves that not that many coins are being hoarded. False. There's nothing in what you said to give any logical or empirical evidence that coins aren't being hoarded. You'd be better off making the argument that it doesn't matter that they're being hoarded because th…

Strictly speaking, you are right. It is theoretically possible that 11,999,999 coins are hoarded, and only 1 coins is being exchanged many time. I should have said simply that because the market is very liquid, it does not seem to suffer from hoarding and/or hoarding does not matter.

What you haven't shown is that the market is liquid when it comes to cashing out. Not too long ago someone dumped a bunch of coins at once and the market cratered in a matter of hours.

That's the only statistic that matters: how much USD-equivalent is being injected into/out of system. That tells you whether they're being hoarded.

Re: Bitcoin breaks $200

#146

Post by gweinberg »

oscargrouch wrote: post #43
gesman wrote: post #27

US default now-or-later squabble certainly fueled bitcoin. It is becoming de-facto plan B for big players.

wow! that will have big implications.. but i wonder what would do vey rich people invest in bitcoins instead of gold wich is probably safer right now? Thats not my area, but i would like to know if BC could get more attractive than gold in a fallout economy scenario?

It's not a question of one or the other. If you're a billionaire, it might make lots of sense to have a whole bunch of accounts in different countries with "just" a couple million, since that will still allow you to live reasonably comfortably for the rest of your life and yet is an insignificant fraction of your total wealth.

Re: Bitcoin breaks $200

#147

Post by HalfPriceDigi »

Datsundere wrote: post #94

I tried to buy bitcoins when they were $60. I look for sites that would sell me bitcoins for USD. It was so hard and the ways to buy them were so damn complicated. I had to sign up for a 3rd party site to import bitcoin to mtgox. The 3rd party site needed me to upload my personal identity information to verify my bank account. I was ready to do that as well, except they said it'd take 10+ days to verify. Also someone…

If you have some used video games you can sell them for Bitcoin on my site halfpricedigital.com It's an easy way to get BTC fast. You just need a free Coinbase account.

Re: Bitcoin breaks $200

#148

Post by saalweachter »

gweinberg wrote: post #141
wmf wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Miners have zero incentive to sell their bitcoins for less than the cost of producing them. Unless bills are due and the credit card is already maxed out.

I think the parent meant that miners have zero incentive to produce bitcoins if they can't sell them for at least the production costs. Even if they sunk a big pile of money into their mining rigs, if they can't sell the coins for the marginal cost of producing them, continuing to mine is just throwing good money after bad.

Yeah, the word for businessmen who sell goods at less than the cost to produce them is "bankrupt". I don't doubt more than a few miners have lost quite a bit of money selling below cost -- probably most without realizing it -- but I have to assume they have all been weeded out by now, given the notorious fierceness of the mining world. Selling BTC below cost might help stave off bankruptcy for one billing cycle, but on the next you'll be deeper in the hole than you were before.

Re: Bitcoin breaks $200

#149

Post by mrb »

XorNot wrote: post #145
mrb wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Strictly speaking, you are right. It is theoretically possible that 11,999,999 coins are hoarded, and only 1 coins is being exchanged many time. I should have said simply that because the market is very liquid, it does not seem to suffer from hoarding and/or hoarding does not matter.

What you haven't shown is that the market is liquid when it comes to cashing out. Not too long ago someone dumped a bunch of coins at once and the market cratered in a matter of hours. That's the only statistic that matters: how much USD-equivalent is being injected into/out of system. That tells you whether they're being hoarded.

"What you haven't shown is that the market is liquid when it comes to cashing out".

I showed it. When 2 million coins are changing hands per month, it means 2 millions coins are sold/"cashed out" (and 2 millions bought).

"That's the only statistic that matters: how much USD-equivalent is being injected into/out of system. That tells you whether they're being hoarded."

No. If the rate of transactions per user remains constant, and if the user base grows, you would see exactly that: more USD being injected in the system, than being taken out of it. This would not mean there is hoarding, but simply that the economy is growing (which is exactly what is happening). Again when you see a single Bitcoin payment processor like Bitpay reaching the "10 thousand vendors signed up" milestone, it is hard to reject the claim that the Bitcoin economy is growing...

Re: Bitcoin breaks $200

#150

Post by Guest978120 »

Datsundere wrote: post #94

I tried to buy bitcoins when they were $60. I look for sites that would sell me bitcoins for USD. It was so hard and the ways to buy them were so damn complicated. I had to sign up for a 3rd party site to import bitcoin to mtgox. The 3rd party site needed me to upload my personal identity information to verify my bank account. I was ready to do that as well, except they said it'd take 10+ days to verify. Also someone…

Same here, I've been watching bitcoin for a while, and thought about tossing a few hundred dollars at it to play around with the technology, and to leave a couple of coins in case it catches on over time. However, the process looks like a nightmare.

I expect things to be instant. Why can't I buy a few bitcoins with my credit card and have them in my account within the next few minutes? Why do I need to go through this lengthy verification process? Why are there countless complaints about people having difficulties converting bitcoins back into dollars? I understand a lot of this is outside of bitcoin's control, but with these kind of hoops to jump through, I can't see it ever catching on. I expected more, and the entire thing feels unpolished and amateur. When people recommend using craigslist or ebay, dealing with random strangers and paying a 25% premium just to get a simple coin, it's a failure.

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