I think bitcoin is an extremely interesting concept, and the economics around it are equally interesting. I bought a tiny amount when the prices were around the $11 mark, and its insane to think of the price-shift. I made a couple bucks off the price shift, but now I'm honestly thinking that the price will fall back down. Despite serving the needs of many SR/SatoshiDice people, I dont think they're quite at the point of being honestly valued at $21 each.<p>I think the fact that the price jump happened in (basically) a 12 hour period, coupled with the fact that bitcoin is traded as an investment very often makes me believe this is an artificial price jump. I'm no economics guru, but it just seems like common sense to me. Tons of people see a short burst and panic buy, this allows the sellers to ask consistently higher prices as many people panic buy (Lets face it, many, maybe the majority, including myself, in the bitcoin game, are amateurs when it comes to currency trading).<p>Anyway, it'll be interesting to see where this goes, and I'll almost definetly be buying when/if the price falls to ~$12/$15, which really seems much more appropriate in my opinion.
For everyone out there who wants to pay bitcoins using PayPal I found a hack that worked (be aware: this might take sevwral hours the first time.)<p>Buy Linden Dollars - Take them out in bitcoins. Simple but takes hours of waiting the first time to get verified etc the first time.
I think it would be better to call bitcoin for what it is: entertainment for grown ups.<p>Whether you use it get drugs, gamble, bet or speculate on some other place doesn't matter. It has become a game on its own right just like UO, WoW or EVE ... You can view it as game of a currency instead of currency of a game. It has intrinsic entertainment value, thus a commodity that can be priced in real currency.<p>Nobody bats an eye when a mmorpg makes millions in revenues, nobody bats an eye when a gamer builds a four grands rig. Why should we care about bitcoin replacing real money now or ever? It is not like governments will readily hand over monetary control to its citizens anyway.
So I just bought 2 bitcoins on Coinbase (my first purchase congrats to me!) but it's been pending for 5 days and says it will clear today.<p>My question, is how can they lock in the price 5 days ago for me. Are they selling me the coins 5 days ago and buying it on the market today? It seems like there would be a lot of risk in doing that.
Any word on when they'll support purchasing from a UK bank account? Most of the other options are a bit more convoluted than the straight-forward system Coinbase seems to use.
But not to me :(<p><i>"Unfortunately, we have decided to cancel this order because it appears to be high risk. We do not send out any bitcoins on high risk transactions, and your bank account will not be charged."</i><p>I have no idea why I was flagged as "high risk", I'd be interested to know.
In 2012 the bitcoin supply increased 33%
In 2013 the supply will increase roughly 13%<p>In another 4 years when the reward halves again it will decrease to 4% inflation. At this point it will be harder than most government currencies.<p>(Gold inflates about 1.5% per year)
If you have used coinbase, please write a review of it for us!<p><a href="http://howdoyoubuybitcoins.com/from/coinbase/" rel="nofollow">http://howdoyoubuybitcoins.com/from/coinbase/</a><p>If you want to deposit cash at a Chase ATM, you can do so with BitMe:<p><a href="http://howdoyoubuybitcoins.com/from/bitme/" rel="nofollow">http://howdoyoubuybitcoins.com/from/bitme/</a><p>..and if you don't live in the united states, we have guides for you too: <a href="http://howdoyoubuybitcoins.com/in/" rel="nofollow">http://howdoyoubuybitcoins.com/in/</a>
Be careful with coinbase
When they were trying to raise money as part of the founders club, they broke a few regulations: they originally were supposed to raise their set limit within 8 weeks and when they missed it they extended the time by 2 weeks and when they missed THAT they extended the timeline by 4 more weeks. At the end they only made their target by a last minute injection from may have been an insider. On top of that, they have NO policy on refunds for acts of god, hacking, or the government .