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Bitcoin Price Touches $1,000 Again as Overstock Sales Hit $130,000

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Re: Bitcoin Price Touches $1,000 Again as Overstock Sales Hit $130,000

#21

Post by higherpurpose »

lukeqsee wrote: post #5
t0 wrote: post #2

The press must know by now Mtgox is an inflated price, but they still continue to reference it as the price of bitcoin .

Perhaps it's moderately inflated, but it is still the most well-known exchange among the populace; therefore, they're going to go with it. It's sort of like real currencies. Yes, on the spot market they're worth X, but when you're on the street trying to exchange it, it'll be worth X * 0.9.

It used to be where 80 percent of the transactions happened. Now it's more like 25 percent, and Bitstamp seems to have surpassed it recently, at least for BTC/USD:

http://bitcoincharts.com/markets/

Re: Bitcoin Price Touches $1,000 Again as Overstock Sales Hit $130,000

#22

Post by CamperBob2 »

jval wrote: post #13

This is just ridiculous. If Overstock is the biggest retailer in the world accepting Bitcoin, and on their opening day they only manage $130,000 in sales (130 BTC), what does that tell you about the volume of Bitcoin actually being used in trade and commerce rather than speculation? There are 12.5 Million BTC in circulation. I don't doubt that Bitcoin will become a revolutionary system of payments and money storage d…

Why would I want to spend Bitcoins that are increasing in value? I'll spend them on the way down, not up.

Re: Bitcoin Price Touches $1,000 Again as Overstock Sales Hit $130,000

#23

Post by notdrunkatall »

jval wrote: post #13

This is just ridiculous. If Overstock is the biggest retailer in the world accepting Bitcoin, and on their opening day they only manage $130,000 in sales (130 BTC), what does that tell you about the volume of Bitcoin actually being used in trade and commerce rather than speculation? There are 12.5 Million BTC in circulation. I don't doubt that Bitcoin will become a revolutionary system of payments and money storage d…

It's the first day.

Re: Bitcoin Price Touches $1,000 Again as Overstock Sales Hit $130,000

#24

Post by kysol »

ye wrote: post #17
jval wrote: post #13

This is just ridiculous. If Overstock is the biggest retailer in the world accepting Bitcoin, and on their opening day they only manage $130,000 in sales (130 BTC), what does that tell you about the volume of Bitcoin actually being used in trade and commerce rather than speculation? There are 12.5 Million BTC in circulation. I don't doubt that Bitcoin will become a revolutionary system of payments and money storage d…

It tells you bitcoin is at the adoption stage. People are just finding out about it. Plus Overstock isn't exactly a hot retailer. If Amazon does this, it will be HUGE.

Even bigger would be for Paypal to add BTC as a payment method . Stores wouldn't have to "accept BTC", Paypal would do the dirty work and send on the amount in fiat to the store.

What would be better (from a branding point of view), Paypal to use PPC as "Paypal Coin". The masses wouldn't have a clue that it was actually named something else.

Re: Bitcoin Price Touches $1,000 Again as Overstock Sales Hit $130,000

#25

Post by ok_craig »

CamperBob2 wrote: post #22
jval wrote: post #13

This is just ridiculous. If Overstock is the biggest retailer in the world accepting Bitcoin, and on their opening day they only manage $130,000 in sales (130 BTC), what does that tell you about the volume of Bitcoin actually being used in trade and commerce rather than speculation? There are 12.5 Million BTC in circulation. I don't doubt that Bitcoin will become a revolutionary system of payments and money storage d…

Why would I want to spend Bitcoins that are increasing in value? I'll spend them on the way down, not up.

1. They are not guaranteed to increase in value

2. Spending bitcoin helps the ecosystem, thereby increasing the value of your other coins in the long run.

3. Having things now is often more desirable than slightly more later.

(You can't eat bitcoin. If bitcoin is all you have to spend, you will spend it on food, because food now is worth more than more valuable bitcoin later. If you also have dollars, then you'd just spend the dollars. If you have dollars and bitcoin, you can spend the bitcoin to help support the system, and replenish it immediately with your dollars.)

Re: Bitcoin Price Touches $1,000 Again as Overstock Sales Hit $130,000

#26

Post by fragsworth »

jval wrote: post #13

This is just ridiculous. If Overstock is the biggest retailer in the world accepting Bitcoin, and on their opening day they only manage $130,000 in sales (130 BTC), what does that tell you about the volume of Bitcoin actually being used in trade and commerce rather than speculation? There are 12.5 Million BTC in circulation. I don't doubt that Bitcoin will become a revolutionary system of payments and money storage d…

Your implied assumption that Overstock is the only thing influencing the price isn't right.

Re: Bitcoin Price Touches $1,000 Again as Overstock Sales Hit $130,000

#28

Post by olalonde »

jval wrote: post #13

This is just ridiculous. If Overstock is the biggest retailer in the world accepting Bitcoin, and on their opening day they only manage $130,000 in sales (130 BTC), what does that tell you about the volume of Bitcoin actually being used in trade and commerce rather than speculation? There are 12.5 Million BTC in circulation. I don't doubt that Bitcoin will become a revolutionary system of payments and money storage d…

It's not as small as you think. This is what Overstock's CEO had to say about it on Twitter: "#Bitcoin's first full day on @overstock.com was a huge success: 840 orders, $130,000 in sales. Almost all new customers. #stunned". https://twitter.com/OverstockCEO/statuses/421754592427139072

130 BTC is 0.001% (130/12.5M) of all Bitcoin spent in one day at Overstock. Does Overstock typically receive 0.001% of all the USD money supply in one day (~30M$)? My math is probably a bit off but my point is that before calling 130 BTC ridiculous, you have to put it in perspective with regards to other currencies.

Re: Bitcoin Price Touches $1,000 Again as Overstock Sales Hit $130,000

#29

Post by nofi3939 »

ok_craig wrote: post #25
CamperBob2 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would I want to spend Bitcoins that are increasing in value? I'll spend them on the way down, not up.

1. They are not guaranteed to increase in value 2. Spending bitcoin helps the ecosystem, thereby increasing the value of your other coins in the long run. 3. Having things now is often more desirable than slightly more later. (You can't eat bitcoin. If bitcoin is all you have to spend, you will spend it on food, because food now is worth more than more valuable bitcoin later. If you also have dollars, then you'd just…

I would describe #3 more generally by saying that holding BTC creates an opportunity cost, unique to each person's circumstances.

Some more reasons:

4. Lower transaction cost (especially for international transactions)

5. If you want to help out the merchant, he may get a lower transaction cost out of it too (if the alternative is credit card, for instance).

Edit: Oh, and let's not forget the spend-and-replenish BTC strategy to keep your BTC holdings fixed.

Re: Bitcoin Price Touches $1,000 Again as Overstock Sales Hit $130,000

#30

Post by minimax »

How is adoption of bitcoin as a payment technology a bullish indicator for bitcoin as an investment? The prices on Overstock are still in dollars and bitcoin as a payment technology works equally well whether bitcoin is priced at $1,000,000 or $0.01.
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