Bitcoin Price Touches $1,000 Again as Overstock Sales Hit $130,000 • Hacker News Board

Re: Bitcoin Price Touches $1,000 Again as Overstock Sales Hit $130,000

#31

Post by azernik » Sat, Jan 11, 2014, 11:30 PM UTC

AngrySkillzz wrote: post #27

I wonder if anyone will ever write an article about Bitcoin that doesn't quote some crackpot who thinks the Federal Reserve is destroying our money.

Well, in this case the crackpot in question is the CEO of Overstock, so it's kind of relevant.

I think the real issue is that in a disproportionate number of the big cases of Bitcoin being used in actual transactions, one or the other of the participants is a crackpot who thinks the Federal Reserve is destroying our money, despite the dollar's impressive record of price stability.

Re: Bitcoin Price Touches $1,000 Again as Overstock Sales Hit $130,000

#32

Post by 1qaz2wsx3edc » Sat, Jan 11, 2014, 11:34 PM UTC

jval wrote: post #13

This is just ridiculous. If Overstock is the biggest retailer in the world accepting Bitcoin, and on their opening day they only manage $130,000 in sales (130 BTC), what does that tell you about the volume of Bitcoin actually being used in trade and commerce rather than speculation? There are 12.5 Million BTC in circulation. I don't doubt that Bitcoin will become a revolutionary system of payments and money storage d…

On the value of bitcoins:

There was another discussion on hacker news, where I commented on the fact that bitcoins should have a higher value due to lost coins: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6859991

In that thread, @nl provides the most interesting look at bitcoins from the perspective of bitcoins as a part of GDP: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6860024

Anywho, the value is largely speculative, but most indications seem to point to a long term growth.

Re: Bitcoin Price Touches $1,000 Again as Overstock Sales Hit $130,000

#33

Post by kudu » Sat, Jan 11, 2014, 11:35 PM UTC

> The price of bitcoin reached $1,000 again today on Japan-based bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox

The headline is misleading. I would expect CoinDesk to use their own Bitcoin Price Index or at least a regular exchange like Bitstamp as a reference rather than an exchange from which no one can withdraw money in a reasonable time.

Re: Bitcoin Price Touches $1,000 Again as Overstock Sales Hit $130,000

#34

Post by coin » Sat, Jan 11, 2014, 11:36 PM UTC

MtGox is a poor indicator for going rate of Bitcoin. Because it's so difficult to withdrawal USD from MtGox, their exchange rate is always higher than the going rate. Example, MtGox is currently $992/btc, where as both bitpay and bitstamp are $887/btc.

Re: Bitcoin Price Touches $1,000 Again as Overstock Sales Hit $130,000

#35

Post by judk » Sat, Jan 11, 2014, 11:42 PM UTC

olalonde wrote: post #28

jval wrote: post #13

This is just ridiculous. If Overstock is the biggest retailer in the world accepting Bitcoin, and on their opening day they only manage $130,000 in sales (130 BTC), what does that tell you about the volume of Bitcoin actually being used in trade and commerce rather than speculation? There are 12.5 Million BTC in circulation. I don't doubt that Bitcoin will become a revolutionary system of payments and money storage d…

It's not as small as you think. This is what Overstock's CEO had to say about it on Twitter: "#Bitcoin's first full day on @overstock.com was a huge success: 840 orders, $130,000 in sales. Almost all new customers. #stunned". https://twitter.com/OverstockCEO/statuses/421754592427139072 130 BTC is 0.001% (130/12.5M) of all Bitcoin spent in one day at Overstock. Does Overstock typically receive 0.001% of all the USD mo…

Alternatively, Overstock marketing department could spend $130k of BTC on itself (keeping most of the value due to self-dealing) and make the transaction costs back in PR advertising value.

Re: Bitcoin Price Touches $1,000 Again as Overstock Sales Hit $130,000

#36

Post by nofi3939 » Sat, Jan 11, 2014, 11:43 PM UTC

minimax wrote: post #30

How is adoption of bitcoin as a payment technology a bullish indicator for bitcoin as an investment? The prices on Overstock are still in dollars and bitcoin as a payment technology works equally well whether bitcoin is priced at $1,000,000 or $0.01.

If you believe that overstock will lead to increased demand for BTC (perhaps not due solely to overstock but a wave of merchants who follow suit) and that the demand outpaces BTC's inflation (i.e. the ~3600BTC mined into existence each day), then BTC's value will rise as a consequence.

Re: Bitcoin Price Touches $1,000 Again as Overstock Sales Hit $130,000

#37

Post by bwilliams18 » Sat, Jan 11, 2014, 11:45 PM UTC

kysol wrote: post #24

ye wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It tells you bitcoin is at the adoption stage. People are just finding out about it. Plus Overstock isn't exactly a hot retailer. If Amazon does this, it will be HUGE.

Even bigger would be for Paypal to add BTC as a payment method . Stores wouldn't have to "accept BTC", Paypal would do the dirty work and send on the amount in fiat to the store. What would be better (from a branding point of view), Paypal to use PPC as "Paypal Coin". The masses wouldn't have a clue that it was actually named something else.

Thats effectively whats going on here though–Coinbase is handling the bitcoin and sending USD to Overstock. So on the retailer side of things the only difference is Coinbase doesn't have the cache that PayPal does(or the baggage). They are backed by some solid VC though–so a worry about them disappearing is probably unwarranted.

Re: Bitcoin Price Touches $1,000 Again as Overstock Sales Hit $130,000

#38

Post by maxerickson » Sat, Jan 11, 2014, 11:45 PM UTC

olalonde wrote: post #28

jval wrote: post #13

This is just ridiculous. If Overstock is the biggest retailer in the world accepting Bitcoin, and on their opening day they only manage $130,000 in sales (130 BTC), what does that tell you about the volume of Bitcoin actually being used in trade and commerce rather than speculation? There are 12.5 Million BTC in circulation. I don't doubt that Bitcoin will become a revolutionary system of payments and money storage d…

It's not as small as you think. This is what Overstock's CEO had to say about it on Twitter: "#Bitcoin's first full day on @overstock.com was a huge success: 840 orders, $130,000 in sales. Almost all new customers. #stunned". https://twitter.com/OverstockCEO/statuses/421754592427139072 130 BTC is 0.001% (130/12.5M) of all Bitcoin spent in one day at Overstock. Does Overstock typically receive 0.001% of all the USD mo…

From a comment below, they do about $3 million in a day.

But there has never been a day where excited dollar enthusiasts spent easy money on Overstock to help the dollar look better.

Yes, I'm insinuating that at least some of that volume is bitcoin millionaires having a laugh.

Re: Bitcoin Price Touches $1,000 Again as Overstock Sales Hit $130,000

#39

Post by kaa2102 » Sat, Jan 11, 2014, 11:51 PM UTC

There was a lot of volatility in a short span of time from the China announcement to Overstock adoption.

Re: Bitcoin Price Touches $1,000 Again as Overstock Sales Hit $130,000

#40

Post by notdang » Sat, Jan 11, 2014, 11:52 PM UTC

jval wrote: post #13

This is just ridiculous. If Overstock is the biggest retailer in the world accepting Bitcoin, and on their opening day they only manage $130,000 in sales (130 BTC), what does that tell you about the volume of Bitcoin actually being used in trade and commerce rather than speculation? There are 12.5 Million BTC in circulation. I don't doubt that Bitcoin will become a revolutionary system of payments and money storage d…

It makes sense to buy from Overstock if you are in US, otherwise the shipping prices are ridiculously high. I assume that the majority of orders came from US, but Bitcoin is used all over the world.