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Bitcoin falls below $300, lowest in 11 months

bitcoinwisdom.com

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Re: Bitcoin falls below $300, lowest in 11 months

#11

Post by TillE »

gatsby wrote: post #6

What are the major reasons to be bullish on bitcoin right now? Not sarcasm, totally serious. I've owned a small amount of bitcoin for a while and have followed the market from a far. This observation is highly anecdotal, but I just haven't seen many signs of serious traction over the last six or nine months (i.e. post a ton of the initial retailers partnering to accept bitcoin, Coinbase raising their monster round, e…

There are lots of reasons to be interested in and somewhat optimistic about cryptocurrency in general. But I think there are enough arguable flaws in Bitcoin's specific implementation that its first mover advantage ultimately won't count for much.

Re: Bitcoin falls below $300, lowest in 11 months

#12

Post by hawkice »

The exchange rates of normal currencies are primarily interesting as tools to look at trade deficits &c. I can't think of an analogy with Bitcoin.

I think the only reason this is interesting is because so many people treated as an investment. Using it as a store of wealth is clearly silly -- much too volatile. But Bitcoin as investment seems very common.

It's hard to emphasize how bizarre that choice is, but suffice it to say, there are people who make a living speculating on currency, and (almost certainly) you aren't one of them.

Re: Bitcoin falls below $300, lowest in 11 months

#13

Post by gatsby »

TillE wrote: post #11
gatsby wrote: post #6

What are the major reasons to be bullish on bitcoin right now? Not sarcasm, totally serious. I've owned a small amount of bitcoin for a while and have followed the market from a far. This observation is highly anecdotal, but I just haven't seen many signs of serious traction over the last six or nine months (i.e. post a ton of the initial retailers partnering to accept bitcoin, Coinbase raising their monster round, e…

There are lots of reasons to be interested in and somewhat optimistic about cryptocurrency in general. But I think there are enough arguable flaws in Bitcoin's specific implementation that its first mover advantage ultimately won't count for much.

Well said. My thoughts exactly regarding bitcoin vs. the overall crypto market 10 years from now.

Re: Bitcoin falls below $300, lowest in 11 months

#14

Post by iowai »

I once was an intern in a venture capital funded startup where the CEO decided to hold most of the companies cash in Bitcoin. I think it was in early 2014 or so, when the price fell like mad and he was in deep shit. Im not sure if anybody up to that date knew about the Bitcoin investment. He was a nervous wreck. Close to suicide. For about a week, he brought a stuffed animal into the office every day. And carried it around wherever he went. He said it calms him down.

During that time, he crashed his $80,000 Mercedes SLK badly and broke up with his girlfriend.

When the price rose again, he sold it all. And made a profit! The company survived to this day. Last I heard is that he is invested in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies again.

Re: Bitcoin falls below $300, lowest in 11 months

#15

Post by mrestko »

iowai wrote: post #14

I once was an intern in a venture capital funded startup where the CEO decided to hold most of the companies cash in Bitcoin. I think it was in early 2014 or so, when the price fell like mad and he was in deep shit. Im not sure if anybody up to that date knew about the Bitcoin investment. He was a nervous wreck. Close to suicide. For about a week, he brought a stuffed animal into the office every day. And carried it…

Well that was an insane thing for him to do.

Re: Bitcoin falls below $300, lowest in 11 months

#16

Post by Chronic29 »

kiba wrote: post #3
chatmasta wrote: post #2

Last time Bitcoin fell significantly, BitPay announced three days later they were partnering with PayPal. BitPay has a lot of Bitcoins floating in their accounts (since they need to exchange USD BitCoin). They also could predict that announcing a partnership with PayPal would spike the price of BitCoin. It makes me wonder if some of these price drops could be market manipulation by insiders who have a big announcemen…

There's always insider manipulation, but people cannot prove it either way. It's like saying that there is insider manipulation behind every price dip and price rise on wallstreet. Maybe it's true. Maybe it's not. You cannot prove either way. So it's just noise.

And what if you can prove it?

Re: Bitcoin falls below $300, lowest in 11 months

#17

Post by ericb »

hawkice wrote: post #12

The exchange rates of normal currencies are primarily interesting as tools to look at trade deficits &c. I can't think of an analogy with Bitcoin. I think the only reason this is interesting is because so many people treated as an investment. Using it as a store of wealth is clearly silly -- much too volatile. But Bitcoin as investment seems very common. It's hard to emphasize how bizarre that choice is, but suffice…

Why is it bizarre to use it as an investment choice? If you have a sense for what makes a technology prevail and think that bitcoin will, it isn't a big leap to look at the value that can be transferred through bitcoin and say "in the success scenarios, it will have to grow to be many times larger." Like any investment, you have to be prepared to be wrong, though.

Re: Bitcoin falls below $300, lowest in 11 months

#18

Post by jaequery »

Nursie wrote: post #8

Maybe as the last big wave of people flocking to BTC figured out there's not a lot to do with it and lose interest? Because we've got to have moved past the point where it's all currency enthusiasts, and if you're not enthusiastic about alt. currency in general, is there any reason yet to prefer it?

bitcoin will be on your mind the next time you want to send/receive money oversees, i guarantee you that.

Re: Bitcoin falls below $300, lowest in 11 months

#19

Post by ericb »

TillE wrote: post #11
gatsby wrote: post #6

What are the major reasons to be bullish on bitcoin right now? Not sarcasm, totally serious. I've owned a small amount of bitcoin for a while and have followed the market from a far. This observation is highly anecdotal, but I just haven't seen many signs of serious traction over the last six or nine months (i.e. post a ton of the initial retailers partnering to accept bitcoin, Coinbase raising their monster round, e…

There are lots of reasons to be interested in and somewhat optimistic about cryptocurrency in general. But I think there are enough arguable flaws in Bitcoin's specific implementation that its first mover advantage ultimately won't count for much.

I'm interested to hear what those flaws are and how they will prevent the success of bitcoin.
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