11–20 of 213 posts
Even if it just becomes the primary mechanism for moving money around, that's a multi-billion dollar industry. Think Western Union, ACH, Paypal, etc. To me, that seems like a safe(ish) bet. Being able to buy bubble gum, well, we'll see :)
Why distinguish between legal and illegal transactions? I guess the assumption is that value grounded in illegal transactions is inherently volatile due to the risk of it getting shut down?
Even if millions of people use Bitcoin for that use case, it doesn't mean Bitcoin will ever have staying power for the "reserve currency" use case.
I've been trading and investing stocks for about 7 years now, and I think I've learned a thing or two in that time, but one of the most important things I've learned is that if holding onto something is making me uncomfortable, it's time to sell. Holding my bitcoin was making me uncomfortable as of a couple of days ago, so I sold. On the other hand, I've also learned that if everyone is expecting something to do one thing, it usually does the opposite, and it seems that pretty much everyone agrees that bitcoin is in a bubble. If it does crash, I'll get back in, but if it doesn't, I won't regret selling. I've been on the emotional rollercoaster of watching relatively large sums of money invested in a volatile asset fluctuate wildly, and I'd rather not go through that again. Just my two cents.
If a receiver of bitcoins sells them for dollars right away, that isn't necessarily money laundering or tax avoidance. I don't know if you've tried to transfer money overseas lately, but banks tend to make it difficult and expensive. An international wire transfer is not a trivial thing to set up; in many cases it still involves faxes . If bitcoin succeeds only as a payment network, where users convert from and to do…
The post assumes that Bitcoins will fail if they are not suitable as a store of value. It overlooks the fact that a currency can succeed as a medium of exchange, even if it is not suitable as a store of value.
Bitcoins are inherently deflationary in nature, making them theoretically a superior store of value over longer term (e.g. retirement) than any fiat currency.
If a receiver of bitcoins sells them for dollars right away, that isn't necessarily money laundering or tax avoidance. I don't know if you've tried to transfer money overseas lately, but banks tend to make it difficult and expensive. An international wire transfer is not a trivial thing to set up; in many cases it still involves faxes . If bitcoin succeeds only as a payment network, where users convert from and to do…
https://blockchain.info/charts/estimated-transaction-volume?...
You see immediately from the graph that the growth in number of transactions is relatively slow, considering all the media attention, and certainly far, far slower than the increase in the exchange rate.
Note that this graph is not the same as the number of "legitimate transactions" mentioned in the OP. But it's at least consistent with the point of view suggested in the post.
I'm going to buy a bitcoin after the bubble has passed. What do we think the real price is. Like $10 or $100? What's the projected bottom? I'm hoping for less than $10, because cheaper is better. The thought that I would never be able to afford an entire bitcoin has a negative psychological effect, which may be silly. What I like about alt-coins is how one can use that for games. Imagine making a game where a custom…
To be honest I think the bottom is going to be around $500. Pretty much everyone I know who is even the slightest bit interested in bitcoin is waiting for this crash to happen so they can jump in. Just a guess though.
The following graph shows the estimated volume of transactions: https://blockchain.info/charts/estimated-transaction-volume?... You see immediately from the graph that the growth in number of transactions is relatively slow, considering all the media attention, and certainly far, far slower than the increase in the exchange rate. Note that this graph is not the same as the number of "legitimate transactions" mentione…
It's definitely not a 5x or 10x increase though.