I can't believe it's taken the HN community 3 years to take Bitcoin seriously. Makes me wonder about you guys.
its all fun and games until people really start cashing out.
Bitcoin Now Worth $1B
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Re: Bitcoin Now Worth $1B
#12I can't believe it's taken the HN community 3 years to take Bitcoin seriously. Makes me wonder about you guys.
This comment[1] from two weeks ago is insightful:
I am very intrigued by Bitcoin. It has all the signs.
Paradigm shift, hackers love it, yet it's derided as
a toy. Just like microcomputers.
Re: Bitcoin Now Worth $1B
#13Bitcoin definitely has potential. I doubt if it's in a bubble. Its a right mix of need and want for the global economy. It is also getting a lot of traction. As more enterprises adopt, the more its potential for disruption. [Disclaimer: I have bitcoins in my wallet]
The exchange rate in USD has quintupled since mid January. I can't see how this is not a bubble.
Bubbles will pop and tend to revert to mean. The question for Bitcoin is, what's the mean? $1B is small potatoes in today's global economy. If the total market value for BTC is closer to $100B or more, then this is only the beginning of the upslope.
Re: Bitcoin Now Worth $1B
#14There's an interesting spike in bitcoin value everyday when Europe wakes up. This does look like a bubble but at the end of the day, as long as the rest of the world currencies keep people nervous, bitcoin will gain wider adoption.
Re: Bitcoin Now Worth $1B
#15Anyone know if there is a good bitcoin futures/options market with good liquidity?
The vol on this asset class is out of this world and given that it's so new, pricing on these things must be so out of wack that it'll be good to exploit.
Only if there's a good futures exchange like Mt.Gox that's very very authoritative.
And also important for the bitcoin infrastructure, that way merchants will take bitcoins for less risk since they can hedge it against dollar or euro's. A big money potential out there. Some one please take the idea and build one so everyone can profit.
Re: Bitcoin Now Worth $1B
#16Holy cow. It was worth $60 last time I checked (last time a story was discussed on HN). I'm not one usually to play Chicken Little, but doesn't a 50% rise in a matter of a week or two seem a bit unsettling? Unless adoption has risen similarly, which I doubt -- it's not like Amazon just announced they'll be accepting BTC. Enjoy the run, speculators. But don't get greedy -- remember the tulips...
Cyprus just announced they would be taxing peoples bank accounts, the EU said that was a fair resolution for the banking crisis and other nations (greece, ireland, spain and italy) could see similar action to cope with the bank problems. Adoption as a currency has been ocurring for a while, reddit, mega, bitmit etc, adoption for investment has been ongoing, adoption out of fear of state controlled banks is another viable reasonf or adoption but harder to quantify. So there is a reason behind the price surge we are currently seeing but it is difficult to label because it is about individuals adopting it for use and not big corporations.
Re: Bitcoin Now Worth $1B
#17Bitcoin definitely has potential. I doubt if it's in a bubble. Its a right mix of need and want for the global economy. It is also getting a lot of traction. As more enterprises adopt, the more its potential for disruption. [Disclaimer: I have bitcoins in my wallet]
The thing that makes me apprehensive about Bitcoin is that the majority of people that are buying in are buying in as speculators (edit: the people I've seen discuss Bitcoin), they're buying in because they think in a year or so the coins will be worth $1,000 each and they'll get to cash out, reddit is full of people labelling themselves Bitcoin millionaires. There's a disincentive to spend Bitcoins at the moment while the price is rising so much, if I spent 1 Bitcoin today buying something that costs $90 and in a week Bitcoins are worth $150 each, haven't I just wasted earning potential?
I haven't seen a single discussion of Bitcoin as a currency, it's always an investment. I asked someone a few days ago about how much is actually being spent and they linked me to a list of transactions but they all seemed to be either SatoshiDice or really low amounts, are there any statistics on who is actually spending Bitcoins on products and/or services unrelated to Bitcoins? I saw reddit mentioned that the volume of Bitcoin transactions they have (on reddit gold) is so low they're losing money and that's a site that has a big community of Bitcoin users / supporters.
Re: Bitcoin Now Worth $1B
#18Come on Bitcoin-Central (or whoever) - hurry up and implement IBAN numbers so I can buy some in Europe!
Re: Bitcoin Now Worth $1B
#19Bitcoin definitely has potential. I doubt if it's in a bubble. Its a right mix of need and want for the global economy. It is also getting a lot of traction. As more enterprises adopt, the more its potential for disruption. [Disclaimer: I have bitcoins in my wallet]
The exchange rate in USD has quintupled since mid January. I can't see how this is not a bubble.
At the same time I am seeing a lot of adoption. Especially in international markets.
Re: Bitcoin Now Worth $1B
#20That's a lot of money. What is this $1 billion being used for? Is this money just circulating for the sake of making more money, or is it being used to buy goods and services?