I don't understand bitcoin (any links for newbies?). Why can't they just make it equal to the US or a Euro but use the bitcoins for the actual transaction which would still grant you the anonymity you want and not have this bubble behavior?
Bitcoin drops 10USD in less than 4 hours
11–20 of 52 posts
Re: Bitcoin drops 10USD in less than 4 hours
#12You can more detailed charts for the past few hours here:
Re: Bitcoin drops 10USD in less than 4 hours
#13I don't understand bitcoin (any links for newbies?). Why can't they just make it equal to the US or a Euro but use the bitcoins for the actual transaction which would still grant you the anonymity you want and not have this bubble behavior?
The issue is the price is not set by anything. Someone could set up an exchange where they sell bitcoins at 1 US dollar but then everyone would buy all their bitcoins and sell them at other exchanges. Right now the only thing saying that bitcoins are worth $40 each is that someone is willing to pay $40 for them.
edit: link for video http://www.weusecoins.com/
Re: Bitcoin drops 10USD in less than 4 hours
#14For a 'currency' that has gone up from $4 to $45+ in the last 10 months and the last 50% in a month, a 20% drop isn't really that unexpected.
Re: Bitcoin drops 10USD in less than 4 hours
#15Anyone knows a real time trading platform for doing some BTC/USD forex?
Re: Bitcoin drops 10USD in less than 4 hours
#16If you look at the 6 month chart it's fairly obvious there's something unsustainable going on.
Bitcoin can't stay cheap forever, either more people use it and it has to gain value (because its so small at the moment) or people stop using it and the value ends at 0.
Those are your two options. Grow until the Bitcoin economy is worth some 10 Billion at least, or it'll be evidently dead and close to 0.
Its much more unlikely Bitcoins will stay around $20 - $60 for the next 5 years. (Although still possible)
Re: Bitcoin drops 10USD in less than 4 hours
#17If you look at the 6 month chart it's fairly obvious there's something unsustainable going on.
More people are using it. Economics 101.
I prob wouldn't mix the term 'Economics 101' with a early adopter currency that has fluctuated between $0.001 and $50 in less than 5 years and between $5 and $50 in the last 10 months.
Re: Bitcoin drops 10USD in less than 4 hours
#18At this stage who is buying BTC? Who is the marginal buyer?
It is my impression that BTC are mostly used by people who either a) want to stock up for the future "just in case" or b) want to minimize their digital paper trail for online purchases.
Think of it as "cash" but for the online world. Some people pay cash for everything possible just to eliminate the paper trail. Not because they have anything to hide, but just to reduce their digital footprint. A noble goal, I think, and one that I'm glad to see is starting to become a realistic goal online.
Re: Bitcoin drops 10USD in less than 4 hours
#19My guess is that a LOT of the Bitcoin owners today are early adopters that own very little BTC as a novelty and/or with the idea that "Hey, who knows. Maybe my 4 BTC will be worth $1000s in a few years".
This makes for a super volatile market. Especially coupled with the new Mining ASIC rigs coming to market, small volume trading etc.
I would suspect that it will take a LONG time before we see if/how the 'currency' will actually stabilize.
One must remember, less than 5 years ago, BTC were selling for $0.001! Today it topped out at around $50.
Re: Bitcoin drops 10USD in less than 4 hours
#20For a 'currency' that has gone up from $4 to $45+ in the last 10 months and the last 50% in a month, a 20% drop isn't really that unexpected.
Yeup.
Volatile thing continues to be volatile hardly seems to be news.