Slashdot Mirror
Bitcoin Tops $1,000 For the First Time
An anonymous reader writes with this bit from The Next Web "Bitcoin hit a new milestone today, passing the $1,000 mark for the first time. The virtual currency is currently trading above the four-digit figure, with its highest at $1,030 on Mt. Gox, one of the largest exchanges. Last week, Bitcoin's high for the day was $632. That means its trading value has surged 62.83 percent in a week, assuming we're looking at just its high points. That figure could of course rise even further if Bitcoin continues to push further up throughout the day."
The price may go up a little more, but all indications are sell now before the crash.
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
why didn't I buy 1,000 bitcoins when they were $50 a few years ago!!!
It'll keep climbing forever. Trust me.
I'm a bitcoin miner and I do agree they are overpriced at the moment. It should be $200-300 IMHO.
... then Bitcoin is like rat poison.
Seriously, its your protection against money printing.
Are you using a dedicated ASIC machine?
Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
Man, when this cash cow comes crashing to the ground its going to make a huge ass hole. Yes, it will come crashing down and I think it will be soon.
Bitcoins are a nice idea but people are not treating them like money. They are treating them like stocks and commodities. They are not commodities, they are coins and coins are supposed to be spent.
So when the fall does happen, and it will, then maybe we can start using them for what they are supposed to be used for. An not hording them like bunch of fucking dragons.
Supporting World Peace Through Nuclear Pacification
Nope, he's old school, pickax and wheelbarrow. The black lung is a bitch though.
Yes.. ASIC blades mostly.
Really, the spike is good news because I'm making so much more money than usual (per USD), but this isn't going to last. It's not going to deflate to $0 though...
This is just a hyper-volatile investment which can be bartered against goods from people who are either gamblers or clueless.
All currencies are volatile to some extent, but this thing has no fundamentals to back it up.
Presumably, people want Bitcoins for some reason, otherwise the price wouldn't go up. I can think of 2 reasons that could be driving it...
1. Pure speculation in a rising market and wanting to make money by investing.
2. BTC actively being used for something so they have actual value.
I've seen some minor gambling sites. And a handful of sites that accept them for services/products. There was silk road, but that's gone. With the bust, I have to imagine that people are skittish about the new silk road, so I have to believe those volumes are way down. But all that just doesn't seem to be keeping up with the extreme increase in value. Make me really think #1 is the more likely scenario.
What am I missing? How are these being used?
Side note... I've got 0.34 BTC from when I played around with it a year ago. Wasn't worth cashing in then and forgot about them. Glad I didn't lose the keys.
With the high profile shutdown of Silk Road the number of things you can buy with Bitcoin would be considerably less. While it's true that there are other services available, it seems strange to me that so much money is being dumped into the system now. Maybe someone is trying to buy up enough coins for a trip to space? Or maybe someone is laundering a crapload of money and is having trouble on the outbound side (converting the money back into real life currency) and is creating a backlog?
Or it's an attack on the system itself, maybe someone figure out a way to race the market and make money?
I read the internet for the articles.
Oh, so he plays Minecraft too?
Dedicated Cthulhu Cultist since 4523 BC.
.Seems like March 1637 all over again.
SELL, SELL, SELL!!!
Take these rubes for all they are worth.
Does anyone think that the rise in price might be a result of the new demand for Bitcoins due to Cryptolocker outbreak?
Sometimes being able to buy stuff without being fucking tracked is not only perfectly reasonable, it's a damn good idea.
Like elections.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
based on valueless commodities: tulip bulbs and diamonds are the first ones that come to mind. Good luck to all holding bitcoins- you're going to need it.
I recently had a discussion about whether or not the spike in BTC is a bubble or not and came to some interesting conclusions.
From what I can tell, essentially a bubble burst occurs when prices have become so inflated that people are priced out of buying in. This creates a lack of buyers, causing the sellers to dramatically drop their prices. For example, if I buy a house for $100,000, and then sell it for $150,000, then they sell it at $250,000, etc, etc. Eventually the price gets so high that people just won't buy the house. Leaving the last buyer to take the hit and sell at a loss (if he chooses to sell).
BTC is somewhat different though. It is divisible to 8 decimal places (infinitely divisible in theory, just need to update the clients). So people can never be "priced out" of the market, they can just buy a smaller slice of the pie if they desire. This is unlike a house where I (typically) can't buy just a fraction of it.
So the only thing I can say for sure, is that we cannot be sure whether or not the rapid rise in BTC value is a bubble which will burst or not.
I know who the Winklevoss twins are, and that they are referred to in the plural as the Winklevi, a funny play on Latin male second declension (alumnus, alumni). The GP used Winklevii (with two i's at the end for some reason) in the singular. That's the fucked up Latin part.
Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
I wish I had mod points ^_^ but yeah, that is an element that differs from classic bubble mechanics.
We might encounter other problems though such as traders making BTC unproductive for people using it for goods and services. It could also crash if some large (or simply enough) players cash out and deplete various exchange's ability to convert BTC into other currencies, which could cause exchanges to close shop and thus reduce the utility.
Though historically there are plenty of examples of bubbles of easily subdivided items, even including things like gold. So you can not get a housing-style bubble with BTC, but that does not make it immune from the general pattern.
The arguments that bitcoin mining is wasteful are without merit. Ripping apart the earth's crust to get gold or minting coins and notes of physical currency is wasteful. A little perspective please.
I remember a lot of argument on old bitcoin posts about whether bitcoins were a deflationary currency or not. It is certainly looking that they are right now. The value of them is increasing with time allowing one bitcoin to buy more and more with each passing day. So with the current market, why would someone spend bitcoins? They can wait a day and spend less coins for the same goods, or wait two days and possibly spend even less. This will kill it as a currency. Bitcoin will be solely used as an investment for speculation soon.
Sometimes being able to buy stuff without being fucking tracked is not only perfectly reasonable, it's a damn good idea.
Like elections.
Except that several websites keep a running tally of who has donated to whom, and how much.
Sadly, the people buying elections have so much money and power that fear of discovery doesn't even cross their minds; hell, some of them are proud to be subverting the democratic process.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
Buy Price $968.80 Sell Price $963.76 (Coinbase).
Coinbase prices are real, because if you sell there, you get the money. Mt. Gox prices are higher, but you can't get US dollars out.
If you buy a commodity, or any item with a static underlying value, with the expectation that you will profit from appreciation, you are a speculator. Having a years-long time horizon, or a moral commitment to the commodity, does not significantly change your status.
Don't blame me, I voted for Baltar.
If you use a HSBC bank account, you can freely transfer between your own multi-national accounts for free and then do a transfer at the cost of a 'local country' transfer (in some countries, a local bank transfer doesn't cost anything). If you are a smart person, you would use these accounts for transferring money to relatives.
This is probably less expensive than the conversion fees and cuts that Bitcoin exchanges would take and any additional payment provider system to get that money to the person would (since it appears most Bitcoin exchanges don't handle currency themselves, but instead use payment services).
Bitcoin needs to undercut decent banks like HSBC, I don't see that happening unless people are paying everything through Bitcoin.
I suspect by then, many of the international banks would have duplicated HSBC's offerings which would compete well against this. I also suspect Western Union will take different business approaches to counter this as well.
Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
It costs me $0 to transfer dollars to relatives electronically, bank-to-bank. No fees at all.
Also, perhaps you are unaware, but Western Union has been losing business for two decades now. Many immigrants now send money home by opening a bank account and mailing a physical ATM card to their relatives, which can cost as little as $0 if the relatives withdrawal the cash in $ (which many can), and can be as little as 1% if a currency conversion is involved.
Even using a non-network ATM typically has a fixed charge, e.g. $3/$300 = 1% charge to get a hard currency in one's pocket.
Bitcoin cannot do better (people who think they can transfer BTC for free are ignoring both the exchange spreads and the time/volatility factor).
-Matt