Bitcoin Surges Past $400 • Hacker News Board

Re: Bitcoin Surges Past $400

#231

Post by vectorpush » Wed, Nov 04, 2015, 10:06 PM UTC

aianus wrote: post #204

vectorpush wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I bought VPSs with it Wow! A VPS! Something that 99% of the population has no use for. How about paying rent, medical bills, utilities, phone bill, groceries, tuition, gas, car payment, car insurance, car maintenance, tolls, daycare, taxes... you know, the kind of things that real people actually care about. > just like I have bought them by unsafer payment methods in the past Bitcoin is by far the most unsafe meth…

> Credit cards offer comprehensive fraud protection; bitcoin offers zero protection and zero recourse if your money is stolen or lost None of that shit helps me when I can't buy what I want because the merchant is in the U.S., my credit card is issued in Canada, and my shipping address is in Thailand. I don't care about other people, I should be able to buy things online in 2015 and accept the risk of fraud my own da…

Nothing you said conflicts with my post. Your situation is extremely unusual and pretty much defines "high risk" from a fraud prevention perspective. For 99% of the population this is a non-issue.

Re: Bitcoin Surges Past $400

#232

Post by jdc » Wed, Nov 04, 2015, 10:18 PM UTC

Coincidentally, the Economist published two articles on Bitcoin two days ago, one of which was featured on the front page print edition (which I just got in the mail today).

http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21677198-technology-be...

http://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21677228-technology-b...

Re: Bitcoin Surges Past $400

#233

Post by xixi77 » Wed, Nov 04, 2015, 10:37 PM UTC

chrisbennet wrote: post #205

Bitcoin seems more like a speculative commodity than a currency. As long as Bitcoin is experiencing such instability, how can it be useful as a currency?

yeah, it's definitely a commodity. but same can be said about other speculative commodities such as gold or silver, and they've been used as currencies (ok, not quite, but close enough) for thousands of years :) not to mention that instability in actual currencies happens all the time, if you look outside of the post-ww2 first world.

Re: Bitcoin Surges Past $400

#234

Post by jdc » Thu, Nov 05, 2015, 12:37 AM UTC

jdc wrote: post #232

Coincidentally, the Economist published two articles on Bitcoin two days ago, one of which was featured on the front page print edition (which I just got in the mail today). http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21677198-technology-be... http://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21677228-technology-b...

Too late to edit now, but it turns out the articles were actually published four days ago.

Re: Bitcoin Surges Past $400

#235

Post by kristianp » Thu, Nov 05, 2015, 1:45 AM UTC

jcfrei wrote: post #38

csomar wrote: post #35

There is nothing that can guarantee that this ride is real, but here are a few things: 1. However big is MMM, it's probably too small for the size of the bitcoin economy right now. Remember that if you are transacting in bitcoin, there is one party buying and the other one selling. So you are not rising the price to the moon. 2. The number of transactions has been growing again as of late. It's heating at the blockch…

> However big is MMM, it's probably too small for the size of the bitcoin economy right now [...] That's very hard to quantify, but there might well be a feedback loop involving the media which leads to a price increase caused by MMM Global. The following Google Trends data for South Africa and the Philippines shows a nice correlation between searches for bitcoin and MMM Global: http://www.google.com/trends/explore?h…

Someone should find out the bitcoin addresses the MMM victims are sending their funds to, it may help to give an indication of the size of the problem. I'm tempted to sign up to MMM to get one of the addresses they use. Of course it depends whether they are smart enough to use a different address for each user.

Re: Bitcoin Surges Past $400

#236

Post by mrb » Thu, Nov 05, 2015, 2:12 AM UTC

berns wrote: post #142

mrb wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What people like you who raise this argument forget is that the success of a blockchain is intertwined with the success of whatever currency/reward is granted to the miners who make the blockchain work. So if Bitcoin's blockchain is adopted by banks, then Bitcoin the currency will succeed. And if banks adopt another blockchain, then the currency of that blockchain will succeed. It is literally impossible to have a fu…

The only "bitcoin" that can succeed is the one that is originated from a sovereign state. For then it has the monopoly and can enforce its taxing power that is what ultimately gives value to fiat currency.

A currency has value because it is accepted, no matter who accepts it (sovereign state or merchants, doesn't matter).

Re: Bitcoin Surges Past $400

#237

Post by aianus » Thu, Nov 05, 2015, 3:39 AM UTC

vectorpush wrote: post #231

aianus wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Credit cards offer comprehensive fraud protection; bitcoin offers zero protection and zero recourse if your money is stolen or lost None of that shit helps me when I can't buy what I want because the merchant is in the U.S., my credit card is issued in Canada, and my shipping address is in Thailand. I don't care about other people, I should be able to buy things online in 2015 and accept the risk of fraud my own da…

Nothing you said conflicts with my post. Your situation is extremely unusual and pretty much defines "high risk" from a fraud prevention perspective. For 99% of the population this is a non-issue.

My point is that with Bitcoin I can opt-out of the overpriced fraud protection racket that is my credit card. This allows transactions to take place that could not take place otherwise. It's a feature, not a bug.

If you think my situation is too crazy, then consider someone who wants to buy a $15,000 Rolex or gold bar online or place a $5,000 bet on a football game starting in 3 minutes. There are many applications for digital cash that are not being served by existing electronic payment methods.

Re: Bitcoin Surges Past $400

#238

Post by berns » Thu, Nov 05, 2015, 3:46 AM UTC

mrb wrote: post #236

berns wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only "bitcoin" that can succeed is the one that is originated from a sovereign state. For then it has the monopoly and can enforce its taxing power that is what ultimately gives value to fiat currency.

A currency has value because it is accepted, no matter who accepts it (sovereign state or merchants, doesn't matter).

It is accepted because it is needed. Everybody needs it to pay taxes, other than that it has no value.

Re: Bitcoin Surges Past $400

#239

Post by barmstrong » Thu, Nov 05, 2015, 6:07 AM UTC

usmannk wrote: post #96

kxr wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting point. I have some BTC at Coinbase. Not sure how I proceed to own the keys?

Get another wallet (such as hive) and send the BTC from Coinbase to that.

Coinbase lets you control your own private keys: https://www.coinbase.com/multisig

Re: Bitcoin Surges Past $400

#240

Post by Atheros » Thu, Nov 05, 2015, 6:47 AM UTC

bduerst wrote: post #140

dkns wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why was this expected? Care to explain to someone who isn't around BTC?

There's a lot of pump and dumps [1] with bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. [1] https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/P...

There is no evidence of a pump currently happening. This is not a pump and dump.