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You Asked When To Buy Bitcoin...Well Now's Your Chance

cryptojunky.com

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Re: You Asked When To Buy Bitcoin...Well Now's Your Chance

#41

Post by pron »

josefwasinski wrote: post #30
pron wrote: post #12

I have a question that may sound stupid to Bitcoin aficionados, and yet is the first question that comes to my mind whenever I read something like this, and I'm asking it in all seriousness: why would I want to buy Bitcoin (given that I don't wish to profit from Bitcoin speculation)? I get that there is some novelty to using an online crypto-currency. But other than the possible fun factor (which I don't expect to ex…

1. A hidden asset that can't be taxed, a digital swiss bank account 2. Total control of movement with no fees, instant free wire transfers. 3. Purchasing of goods anonymously 4. Secure from external sources - avoiding bank of cyprus events In my opinion its all about its widespread acceptance. It's like a telephone the more people who use bitcoin the more value there is.

1. Yeah, well, that's illegal. Besides, I don't have a swiss bank account either, and not because of the fees... Also, the chances of me converting a large portion of my small wealth to Bitcoin are slim to none.

2. I'm not sure about the "no fees" bit. The volatility could hurt much more than the fees. But this could be a valid reason, though not today, at least for me.

3. How? They would still need to send me the goods. The only way to buy something anonymously is with a cash transfer wearing a mask and making sure you're not followed.

4. I think it's quite the opposite. A larger percentage of Bitcoin users are hurt by Bitcoin bank robberies than that of people hurt by "bank of Cyprus" events.

Re: You Asked When To Buy Bitcoin...Well Now's Your Chance

#43

Post by vkou »

guard-of-terra wrote: post #16
DannoHung wrote: post #5

When can I actually use Bitcoin as a currency rather than a speculative investment asset? That's when I want to buy Bitcoin.

What is "currency" for you? People refer to "currency" all the time as if it was one thing. Cash is one kind of currency, plastic is another, bank account - yet another, savings - yet another. Converting between those is not instant and not free. Bitcoin works OK as a bank account. That is "currency".

Something meaningful assets are priced in.

I can go to Europe, and buy things that have fixed Euro prices, with Euros. It's possible because the entire Eurozone economy backs the Euro. No such thing exists for BTC.

And no, buying something priced in USD, but having the option to pay for it in BTC doesn't count. At that point, I'm just speculating.

Re: You Asked When To Buy Bitcoin...Well Now's Your Chance

#44

Post by pron »

corford wrote: post #34
pron wrote: post #12

I have a question that may sound stupid to Bitcoin aficionados, and yet is the first question that comes to my mind whenever I read something like this, and I'm asking it in all seriousness: why would I want to buy Bitcoin (given that I don't wish to profit from Bitcoin speculation)? I get that there is some novelty to using an online crypto-currency. But other than the possible fun factor (which I don't expect to ex…

Buying domains (namecheap.com), vpn services (privateinternetaccess.com), hosting (bitvps.com), donating to the EFF, buying a ticket on Virgin Galactic, sending money to someone else where doing an international bank transfer would be too expensive for the amount involved, receiving micro donations from other people (maybe you run a popular blog or forum). Admittedly, that's not an enormous list of things but it's a…

But other than the international money transfer (which I don't do very often), you can do all of these with money, and it would be much easier, plus you have the option of chargebacks etc.

Re: You Asked When To Buy Bitcoin...Well Now's Your Chance

#45

Post by vkou »

moocowduckquack wrote: post #9
arbuge wrote: post #2

Who can say whether this is a good price for Bitcoin, even after the recent drop? The author says this is the time to buy but goes on to say: "I have no crystal ball, and can’t say that Bitcoin is at the lowest price it will be at over the next several days/weeks/months. It may very well be that Bitcoin goes lower" If you want to speculate, try the stock market. It's been around since forever, and you might actually…

Given the difficulties in buying and selling quickly, at least with bitcoin the game is not currently dominated by HFT algorithms. I'd say that understanding the fundamentals driving the pricing of the modern stock market is at least as difficult as making good bets on bitcoin.

HFT competition is only relevant for day traders. If the author is that financially insightful, he should be stock-picking, and ignore the HFT noise.

Re: You Asked When To Buy Bitcoin...Well Now's Your Chance

#46

Post by pron »

belorn wrote: post #29
pron wrote: post #12

I have a question that may sound stupid to Bitcoin aficionados, and yet is the first question that comes to my mind whenever I read something like this, and I'm asking it in all seriousness: why would I want to buy Bitcoin (given that I don't wish to profit from Bitcoin speculation)? I get that there is some novelty to using an online crypto-currency. But other than the possible fun factor (which I don't expect to ex…

The biggest I can think of is having the ability to give anonymous support. Maybe one day you want to send support a movement for government transparency, but do not want to take the risk of being labeled as a terrorist? Maybe one day you want to send support to a friend in need without having it on the permanent record? Maybe you want to donate money to a security tool like tor, but do not want to risk being put on…

This is actually a good answer, although sending cash (through Western Union) is also an option in those circumstances - very expensive, but less volatile.

Re: You Asked When To Buy Bitcoin...Well Now's Your Chance

#47

Post by belluchan »

What a terrible post. It doesn't justify buying bitcoins at all, it's basically squiggly lines go up and down, it just went down, so buy it before it goes back up again because that's what squiggly lines do.

At some point he equates the price of bitcoin with bitcoin's long term viability which is also not a convincing argument. bitcoin may have a viable future, but there's no convincing reason why that viable future can't be at $1 per bitcoin.

Re: You Asked When To Buy Bitcoin...Well Now's Your Chance

#48

Post by vkou »

danoprey wrote: post #36
macspoofing wrote: post #22

You can't have 20-40% weekly swings in an asset and still expect to use it as currency. Neither merchants, nor consumer can trust it, and speculators just sit on it and distort the entire market. I hate that Bitcoin as a currency is almost worthless.

Every new currency has to go through that. That's unavoidable for a small, relatively new currency. With every boom and smaller bust it grows larger and more stable.

New currencies aren't born in a vaccum. When the US switched off the gold standard, the price of a bag of rice at the grocery wasn't changing by 10% every other day.

Re: You Asked When To Buy Bitcoin...Well Now's Your Chance

#49

Post by guard-of-terra »

vkou wrote: post #43
guard-of-terra wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is "currency" for you? People refer to "currency" all the time as if it was one thing. Cash is one kind of currency, plastic is another, bank account - yet another, savings - yet another. Converting between those is not instant and not free. Bitcoin works OK as a bank account. That is "currency".

Something meaningful assets are priced in. I can go to Europe, and buy things that have fixed Euro prices, with Euros. It's possible because the entire Eurozone economy backs the Euro. No such thing exists for BTC. And no, buying something priced in USD, but having the option to pay for it in BTC doesn't count. At that point, I'm just speculating.

You are talking about day-to-day spendings. I don't understand why fixate on them. They are a very tiny blip in most people's finances. I manage to live most ordinary days of my life without spending any currency.

What I care about is raking together money for realty, and otherwise preserving money for the day when I need them. This is where bitcoin is a viable addition.

Re: You Asked When To Buy Bitcoin...Well Now's Your Chance

#50

Post by jusben1369 »

CryptoJunky wrote: post #21
jusben1369 wrote: post #17

The only problem here is that part of the run up was based on the sense that China was allowing Bitcoin to flourish. That's pretty powerful in the world's second largest economy with a suspect currency of it's own (highly manipulated for political purposes) If that market opportunity is now closing then that makes Bitcoin much less valuable (at least over the short term) Less demand = smaller price.

You make a good point. If China shuts off entirely then the potential size of Bitcoin's network could decrease significantly. That's not to say however that Bitcoin doesn't still have a significant and increasing network of users. There have been significant gains outside of China as well recently. A large contributor to the high was resultant from the US Senate Hearings which seemed to somewhat validate Bitcoin's le…

Agreed. I added "Short term" to reflect this is more of a (significant) set back than a downward march. I worry that some might deduce from the article that this is a short term buying opportunity and it'll return to it's previous highs soon. If China is in fact closed it could take a very long time to return to those levels.
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