Bitcoin Now Worth $1B • Hacker News Board

Re: Bitcoin Now Worth $1B

#21

Post by jamespitts » Thu, Mar 28, 2013, 4:20 PM UTC

By design, the supply of new bitcoins is slowing down. If there continues to be utility for people to use bitcoins, and this usage is increasing, the value of an individual bitcoin vs. other currencies will increase (averaging out speculative action).

This pattern will very likely continue until an alternative is found. Perhaps the alternative will simply be for holders to return to national currencies, perhaps it will be to adopt a new bitcoin rival for transactions and value storage.

In the short-run, there may be speculation, bubbles, and pops. That gets the attention. But look beyond that. In the long-run, the bitcoin economy may indeed "grow" to many times its current "size".

Re: Bitcoin Now Worth $1B

#22

Post by oleganza » Thu, Mar 28, 2013, 4:20 PM UTC

niggler wrote: post #11

ionwake wrote: post #3

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.

Or until people realise that many around them already have BTC or ready to accept it as payment. Then who needs dollars?

Re: Bitcoin Now Worth $1B

#23

Post by mtgx » Thu, Mar 28, 2013, 4:20 PM UTC

whackedspinach wrote: post #9

porter wrote: post #5

This will be a fun ride until governments ban it.

That worked out so well when they banned copyright infringement.

Still awful for people getting caught, though, just like with copyright infringement. So I'd much rather they didn't do that.

Re: Bitcoin Now Worth $1B

#24

Post by JumpCrisscross » Thu, Mar 28, 2013, 4:21 PM UTC

noname123 wrote: post #15

Anyone 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…

Pre-requisite to derivatives is a functioning rates market, i.e. a forum for borrowing bitcoins.

Re: Bitcoin Now Worth $1B

#25

Post by jessriedel » Thu, Mar 28, 2013, 4:22 PM UTC

undershirt wrote: post #20

That'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?

Does anyone know if there's a good way to determine the fraction of bitcoin transaction that are food good and services rather than just other money?

Re: Bitcoin Now Worth $1B

#26

Post by guard-of-terra » Thu, Mar 28, 2013, 4:22 PM UTC

nlh wrote: post #6

Holy 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...

If bitcoin price is to crash, I'll be the first one buying.

Which probably means that the price is not speculative. Speculative like "I hoard" but not like "Ponzi".

Re: Bitcoin Now Worth $1B

#27

Post by tomp » Thu, Mar 28, 2013, 4:22 PM UTC

mtgx wrote: post #18

Come on Bitcoin-Central (or whoever) - hurry up and implement IBAN numbers so I can buy some in Europe!

Use Bitstamp.

Re: Bitcoin Now Worth $1B

#28

Post by tatsuke95 » Thu, Mar 28, 2013, 4:23 PM UTC

jamespitts wrote: post #21

By design, the supply of new bitcoins is slowing down. If there continues to be utility for people to use bitcoins, and this usage is increasing, the value of an individual bitcoin vs. other currencies will increase (averaging out speculative action). This pattern will very likely continue until an alternative is found. Perhaps the alternative will simply be for holders to return to national currencies, perhaps it wi…

Increasing value of currency promotes hoarding, when in fact, bit coin should be promoting spending. If everyone's intention is to buy and hold bit coins,they are useless as currency and become a speculative asset.

Re: Bitcoin Now Worth $1B

#29

Post by celticninja » Thu, Mar 28, 2013, 4:23 PM UTC

illegalsmile wrote: post #7

After a few weeks ago reading that BTC was at $45/btc and thinking this has to drop drastically soon enough only to see it now at $90... Not saying this growth isn't possible but it's not sustainable this early on, unless I'm wrong?

this chart shows the historic gold price over 36 years:

http://goldprice.org/gold-price-history.html#36_year_gold_pr...

A similar thing is ocurring with bitcoin now however it is much easier to buy and store btc for the layman than it is for them to buy and store gold.

Adoption due to technology is also faster, essentially gold has been $1600 an ounce for a while now, BTC has a way to go before it stabilises but after $200 a coin we will see less daily fluctuations because a $10 change in price is actually only 5% of the overall value

Re: Bitcoin Now Worth $1B

#30

Post by dmix » Thu, Mar 28, 2013, 4:24 PM UTC

celticninja wrote: post #16

nlh wrote: post #6

Holy 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 vi…

That's the narrative of todays article on bitcoin on CNN:

http://money.cnn.com/2013/03/28/investing/bitcoin-cyprus/ind...

BTC is definitely finding a spectator audience outside of the tech world. The amount of PR it's been getting due to the price rise has to be playing a huge part in the recent wide-scale investment in it.