It's amazing how well the historical bitcoin pricing curve[1] matches the Gartner hype cycle conceptual curve[2]. One of the criticisms of the Gartner curve is how unscientific it is but at least in this case the behavior matches pretty well.<p>[1] <a href="http://bitcoincharts.com/charts/bitstampUSD#tgSzm1g10zm2g25zv" rel="nofollow">http://bitcoincharts.com/charts/bitstampUSD#tgSzm1g10zm2g25z...</a><p>[2] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Hype-Cycle-General.png" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Hype-Cycle-General.png</a>
What I find most interesting about the rise in the last months, is that it seems organic. No huge bubbles, no temporary rises in volume. Just growth. I'm not saying it's not speculative by any means, but it does have a healthier and more solid feel, which I personally welcome.
I thought long-term steady increases in BTC value would be because of long-term steady increases in volume, but volume looks like it's fallen off a cliff. What is going on here?
Just a reminder, no one on hackernews took Bitcoin as anything more than just an uninteresting scam, and this was as little as 3 years ago. It was a just a big joke.<p>It was invented in 2008 and it was appearing in conferences around 2011.<p>But by summer 2013 , there still had not been one article on the front page about bitcoin. I seem to remember comments on here mostly just deriding it if it was ever mentioned. (Please correct me if I am wrong).<p>I just feel this is important to share, not even HN knows what a hot technology is, even if it has been in the same room for years. It is interesting and sometimes I wonder what other emergent tech is on the scene which many know little about.
Are there any good articles/resources that address the challenges of Bitcoin becoming anything more than a security vs a currency given it's similarity to being a restrictive Gold Standard like currency?<p>Recently I've seen some older talks by Yanis Varoufakis saying bitcoin can't work as a currency, and I'm curious if there's a response from the Bitcoin community?<p><a href="https://yanisvaroufakis.eu/2013/04/22/bitcoin-and-the-dangerous-fantasy-of-apolitical-money/" rel="nofollow">https://yanisvaroufakis.eu/2013/04/22/bitcoin-and-the-danger...</a>