Hopefully someone can clear this up for me: With the price rising so quickly what incentive is there to actually use BTC as intended, as a currency?<p>Because the maximum number of coins is fixed it's pretty easy to project where the valuation is headed, and so anyone in their right mind should just hoard their BTC instead of spending it, which in turn should drive the price down, no?
Can people <i>please</i> stop reporting MtGox prices? The real[1] price is closer to $950<p><pre><code> [1] The price on exchanges where you can actually withdraw USD, e.g. bitstamp</code></pre>
I think bitcoin is extremely interesting, but price reports like this are not intellectually stimulating. 1,000 is an arbitrary number. Let's talk about bitcoin, but for a volatile currency, let's not fire off news articles every time it crossed another arbitrary threshold?
Wow -- $1030 per BTC as I write this. This is happening <i>way faster</i> than anyone ever expected.[1]<p>All else being equal, the more people who decide to use or hold Bitcoin, the higher its price will be, because the maximum number of bitcoins that can ever exist is permanently fixed. It's a scarce commodity by design.<p>So, greater adoption = higher price.<p>--<p>[1] In early 2011, I speculated it could take <i>a decade</i> for price to reach the thousands of US dollars per Bitcoin: <a href="http://cs702.wordpress.com/2011/05/29/on-the-potential-adoption-and-price-appreciation-of-bitcoin-in-the-long-run/" rel="nofollow">http://cs702.wordpress.com/2011/05/29/on-the-potential-adopt...</a>
Back in 2010 I did mine 160 BTC in 3 days just with my average CPU, however at some point I stopped caring, because 3 years ago there weren't much blabling about bitcoin and everyone that I told at that time did't care. Months later I had to format hard disk because ArchLinux did a great job breaking the whole system in a update, in the moment I just didn't remember that there were a BitCoin wallet in my system. Now about 2 years later I am hopping to recovery the wallet using a recovery program, but I already know that there is almost no chance. Today I just can't stop thinking about what happened.<p>Damn ArchLinux, I really hope you die in hell. At the moment around USD160000 lost. Anyway I am still sticking with you, in sickness and in health, in poverty or in wealth. Because you know, despite what you have done, you will be always by my side.
Remember kids, it's only real once you sell. Until then it's paper money. With a price rise, either there's more demand from speculators or more people holding.
Anyone know what is driving the price?<p>My supply-side model, which I felt pretty smug about for the last couple of months, only calls for a price of $450-500, so it clearly can't account for the current price. So much for that.<p>Seems likely then that this is coming from an increase in demand. Does anyone have any good guesses about where that increase in demand is coming from?
man, this has been fascinating to watch (and not just because i have a little skin in the game).<p>the tech and theory underlying the currency; its mysterious founder; the idea of massive "mining" operations where people are essentially printing their own money; the fact that one of the major exchanges was orginally a MTG exchange; the senate hearings; the tor black markets and FBI "seizures"; the absurdly juvenile chatter in the "troll box" on BTC-E, a major exchange; and of course, the goldrush-like nature of the skyrocketing prices.<p>i'm looking forward to hearing what people have to say about all this a few years down the line
My thesis is simple.<p>The value of any currency to someoneis how much real stuff they need that they can exchange it for.<p>Any cryptocurrency that is effectively limited in volume and viable to be used will grow. Because of the growing number users of the currency, some are developers who will make it easier for sellers to accept it.<p>What bitcoin had going for it is that it DIDNT have mass adoption - it had a long way to go. Now the same is true of peercoin and litecoin - they are where bitcoin was a year ago. There's no reason they can't go to 1000 also.<p>In short there are a few factors determining the price of a currency:<p>Short term fads:<p>1. being newly listed on an exchange as exchangeable for the local currency of the country<p>2. news stories about the currency<p>Long term fundamentals:<p>3. The increase in acceptance by merchants and metcalfe's law (I think n log n is more realistic than n^2 though)<p>4. Limit on new currency being produced.<p>In this respect I feel litecoin beats peercoin in #4 and peercoin beats litecoin in #3, it has a longer way to go but it is more sustainable and is further behind so it has a longer way to grow from now.
Has Bitcoin been subjected to serious academic research? Quickly scanning this bibliography [1], at least, I don't see many top ACM conferences.<p>[1] <a href="http://users.encs.concordia.ca/~clark/biblio.html" rel="nofollow">http://users.encs.concordia.ca/~clark/biblio.html</a>
Could someone explain how is the blockchain going to maintain integrity and the transfer lag is taken into account "when" bitcoin is globally used everywhere and thousands if not millions of transactions are happening every single second?
holy cr!9 - I was thinking of trying to mine some to get a handle on the whole thing - last week when it was 800 bucks.What the hell?<p>If I understand it, there is a upper limit to number of bitcoins available ever - what is that number and when will it be equal to the total asset value of the planet? I mean is it feasible that bitcoins could really work?<p>Edit: ok there is a limit of 21million bitcoins by 2030, and a world assignable wealth of ~210 trillion USD. So, <i>if</i> bitcoin works and can be the repository for all worlds currency, it would have to be worth 10,000 USD per bitcoin.<p>Then any growth in value.<p>So ... this might just work folks. And if not it still makes for a great DHT
What makes bitcoin special? It's not like we've seen widespread adoption of this particular cryptocurrency. Do litecoin, feathercoin, et al. use the same algorithm with different seeds? I dont't understand why bitcoin is gaining so much value. It seems that an identical cryptocurrency could be created with or without the coins already mined. It seems to me that $1000 per bc can only be speculation by the wealthy at this point. It is surely a bubble waiting to implode.
Bitcoin is not a traditional currency.<p>It's more like gold or another scarce commodity.<p>Bitcoin is an electronic commodity with <i>no intrinsic value</i> that has been rigged to be perfect for speculation.<p>What would a national bank do if the value of its currency exploded like this?<p>It would print more money, regulate interest rate or take other actions to keep the currency value more stable compared to other currencies.<p>There is no "bank" supporting Bitcoin.<p>Comparing Bitcoin to traditional currencies make people think about Bitcoin the wrong way.
I was following BTC when it had hit $200-300 and was in the news quite often. I considered buying some but after reading lots of opinion pieces, decided against it. Many people were showing graphs comparing the dot com bubble and the bitcoin bubble and warning others that BTC would settle nicely into a lower price. Those people were obviously wrong, wish I hadn't listened to them.
I'm afraid of Bitcoin becoming the world's only currency. Someone with enough computing power can massively game the system. I'm not saying that that can't happen with today's government driven currencies, but that there are at least other options right now. Maybe we shouldn't <i>all</i> switch to Bitcoin.
There are so many uneducated comments that I'll link to the bitcoin FAQ: <a href="https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/FAQ" rel="nofollow">https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/FAQ</a>.<p>Really, anybody trying to argue for or against BTC should at least have read that.
In other news, tulip bulbs can be had for $9.99 for a dozen,[1] a decline (for some varieties) from the historic high price.[2] The history of commodity prices provides some interesting insights into human behavior.[3]<p>[1] <a href="http://www.brecks.com/category/Tulip_Flower_Bulbs" rel="nofollow">http://www.brecks.com/category/Tulip_Flower_Bulbs</a><p>[2] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulip_mania" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulip_mania</a><p>[3] <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Extraordinary-Popular-Delusions-Charles-Mackay/dp/0486432238" rel="nofollow">http://www.amazon.com/Extraordinary-Popular-Delusions-Charle...</a>
Is the success of cryptolocker raising the value of this currency? Essentially, we have quite a bit of proof now that it is truly an untraceable currency and previously shy buyers might feel emboldened by this. More demand == higher value.
Are there any decent estimates for how much one bitcoin will be worth if it ends up being a generally used currency for international transfers?<p>i.e. if it becomes the new Paypal, how much would one bitcoin need to be worth?
When it will be as easy to buy a bitcoin as it is to buy, say, an ebook, it will go up significantly.<p>For example, I tried to buy some last monday and realized that I had to justify my address, my bank account, my identity and so on. I still can't figure out why it's so complicated to buy a bitcoin. I've been waiting for my bitcoin-central account since then, and received confirmation for my account on bitstamp last saturday. I still have to transfer some money there.<p>My question is: why is it so complicated to buy bitcoins?
If bitcoin concept gets popular, why would the next set of adopters buy into btc instead of trying to be early adopters in a different technically equivalent cryptocurrency?
I was surprised that there wasn't a dip when it hit 1000, I'm sure that there must have been quite a few people will sell orders at this round, but arbitrary point. If this was the case there would have been some dip, is it just being overly inflated by some rich backers who are slowly taking the cash out, but backing it up when it dips ?
I'm afraid <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulip_mania" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulip_mania</a> will again happen, wikipedia should already prepare an entry for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitcoin_mania" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitcoin_mania</a>
And meanwhile altcoins (alternative cryptocurrencies) are booming like never seen before - even more so than bitcoin.<p>Litecoin just hit 30usd, Peercoin nearly at 4usd.<p><a href="http://coinmarketcap.com/" rel="nofollow">http://coinmarketcap.com/</a>
The price should be based on what people are able to _cash out_. Is this the case? Are people getting $1000 money in the hand for 1BTC or is it just the "valuation" we're talking about here?
The price is in EURO if you want the USD try <a href="https://www.mtgox.com/?Currency=USD" rel="nofollow">https://www.mtgox.com/?Currency=USD</a>