Bitcoin plummets 32% in two days, threatens mainstream adoption • Hacker News Board

Re: Bitcoin plummets 32% in two days, threatens mainstream adoption

#21

Post by Scoundreller » Thu, Jan 15, 2015, 5:16 AM UTC

shittyanalogy wrote: post #16

Scoundreller wrote: post #13

I've always thought of it like this: Bitcoin:Cryptocurrency::Yahoo:InternetSearchEngines Cryptocurrencies have a strong future, but I don't think Bitcoin has much of one. Yahoo had its early glory, but it declined as other search engines solved its problems.

Yahoo is doing just fine

As of early/mid-2014, their share of the search market hit its lowest ever of 10% of the market. My stats for my web properties paint an even worse picture.

As a company they're doing fine because the market size is growing and they're getting aggressive about paid search, not by being technically superior.

Re: Bitcoin plummets 32% in two days, threatens mainstream adoption

#22

Post by jarfil » Thu, Jan 15, 2015, 5:19 AM UTC

shittyanalogy wrote: post #15

hellbanner wrote: post #14

I don't think cryptocurrencies long term value is in their USD amount. It's in their other features like being able to send money across the world with minimal transaction fees and certianity the transaction will not be interrupted.

If the value of bitcoin is so low that you can't buy enough of them to pay for your purchase without drastically changing the value of the currency then they're not particularly useful as a method of payment.

At the moment of this writing, there are 13725450 Bitcoins in existence [1], with a value of $195.30 each [2]. That makes a grand total of $2,680,580,385 (2.6 billion).

How low would they have to fall for there not being enough of them to perform a transaction?

[1] https://blockexplorer.com/q/totalbc [2] https://www.coinbase.com/charts

Re: Bitcoin plummets 32% in two days, threatens mainstream adoption

#23

Post by shittyanalogy » Thu, Jan 15, 2015, 8:01 AM UTC

jarfil wrote: post #22

shittyanalogy wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the value of bitcoin is so low that you can't buy enough of them to pay for your purchase without drastically changing the value of the currency then they're not particularly useful as a method of payment.

At the moment of this writing, there are 13725450 Bitcoins in existence [1], with a value of $195.30 each [2]. That makes a grand total of $2,680,580,385 (2.6 billion). How low would they have to fall for there not being enough of them to perform a transaction? [1] https://blockexplorer.com/q/totalbc [2] https://www.coinbase.com/charts

2.7 billion market cap, not available to you. Say you needed to make a $10,000+ purchase. If you can't buy or sell that much bitcoin without considerably altering it's price it becomes a hassle of a currency.

Re: Bitcoin plummets 32% in two days, threatens mainstream adoption

#24

Post by CoderOnWelfare » Thu, Jan 15, 2015, 1:32 PM UTC

satellitecat wrote: post #3

I wonder if Bitcoin's recent adoption by some big sites is actually what is bringing the price down as people with stored up BTC are sending them to merchants, who are instantly converting them to their preferred currency?

THat's an interesting thought, - I vector toward thinking that there was a chokehold on new money coming into the system. It was really hard to acquire bitcoins by a wide base of people.

It got tons of press - but at the end of the day Joe Schmoe who has a desire for it has no idea how to purchase it.

Re: Bitcoin plummets 32% in two days, threatens mainstream adoption

#25

Post by quonn » Thu, Jan 15, 2015, 7:51 PM UTC

hellbanner wrote: post #14

I don't think cryptocurrencies long term value is in their USD amount. It's in their other features like being able to send money across the world with minimal transaction fees and certianity the transaction will not be interrupted.

Well, it's good enough already.

First, international transactions just don't matter that much for most people.

Second, for small amounts of money use a Credit Card. The extra cost is negligible. Or if this is not possible, something like Western Union. This will cost 5%, but it doesn't really matter for amounts $10.000), you can send a cheque or for > $100.000 do a stock trade on two markets.

Note that the existing systems have fraud protection and convenience as features which are worth something. If bitcoin would threaten any of the existing systems, banks will simply lower the fees. At that point Bitcoin would be only slightly cheaper but less convenient and secure.