Bitcoin Smashes Past $7,000 For the First Time (cnbc.com)

A reader shares a report: Bitcoin hit another all-time high Thursday morning, surpassing $7,000 for the first time. The cryptocurrency has had a bullish streak throughout the week following the CME's announcement that it will introduce bitcoin futures contracts. According to data from CoinDesk, the virtual currency reached an all-time high of $7,242.69 at about 7:08 a.m. ET. The jump in price saw the virtual coin rise by more than 7 percent on the day. A surge in the digital coin's value saw the total market value of all cryptocurrencies top $189 billion for the first time Thursday. The market cap of bitcoin alone is currently more than $121 billion, according to data from industry website Coinmarketcap.

Comments

Cue in Bitcoin deniers

[Anonymous Coward]

They're convinced there's $121 billion worth of illegal transactions happening with Bitcoin because that's all it's good for even though every single transaction is right there in the blockchain.

Re:Cue in Bitcoin deniers

[Khyber]

"They're convinced there's $121 billion worth of illegal transactions happening with Bitcoin"

If you'd read some law in countries other than your own, say China, you'd see that this kind of financial activity (which has been what's driving Bitcoin's prices up for a good while, wealthy Chinese moving/hiding their money out of the country in HUGE quantities) is actually illegal.

But hey, you keep your narrow education and world viewpoint. Those of us with broader global mindsets and experience and education will simply laugh at your stupidity.

Re: Cue in Bitcoin deniers

[Khyber]

All of the places around me that accept Bitcoin are places I wouldn't go to. Brothel, gambling hall, hole-in-wall pizzeria, Taxi service.

Fucking useless.

Re:Cue in Bitcoin deniers

[Cro Magnon]

HODL!

Am I the only one who thinks of the guy on GoT when I see that word?

Re: Cue in Bitcoin deniers

[Rhacman]

That heatmap is deceptively bright considering how sparse it is when you actually zoom in to even a large city. Basically if you are in a big city you might be able to drive 20-30 minutes to buy a coffee, have your carpet cleaned, or some other novelty. Even if I could buy every-day staples nearby with it it's far too volatile to hold on to for any duration of time for anything other than speculation.

Re: Cue in Bitcoin deniers

[Ash-Fox]

I tried using Coinmap recently, the 6 places near me it said that accepted Bitcoin, didn't accept it. Could you provide an accurate map instead?

Re: Cue in Bitcoin deniers

[religionofpeas]

Good. It's not a bubble until you can pay the shoeshine boy in bitcoin.

Re: Cue in Bitcoin deniers

[grnbrg]

Steam?

Re:Cue in Bitcoin deniers

[Citizen of Earth]

I'm sure there are also lots of speculators who think that tulip bulbs are actually worth $7000.

Re: Cue in Bitcoin deniers

[UrbanMonk]

To be fair, when was the last time you bought a Big Mac with silver and gold.

Re: Cue in Bitcoin deniers

[AvitarX]

Oh wow, 3 places in my county of 500,000.

Pretty nice looking gloves (online retailer, with local factory), an asphalt place, and an African travel agency.

I'm willing to bet more drugs are purchased with it than those three things combined (quite possibly even factory in global sales of the glove company that are BTC related).

Re: Cue in Bitcoin deniers

[Khyber]

If I want a game, dozens of people I know will simply gift it to me so I can play with them. The entirety of my Steam library was paid for by other people.

Re: Cue in Bitcoin deniers

[Khyber]

Just the other day, actually. The Mexican grocer near me has a jewelers and in-store McDonald's. You can no joke get a voucher from the jeweler for the gold you bring in and spend it in-store at the McDonald's or on groceries.

Re: Cue in Bitcoin deniers

[Khyber]

Newegg's prices are too high. Just built a new Ryzen system for $200 less on Pricewatch.

"Attention Kmart Roulette Shoppers!"

[PolygamousRanchKid]

Faites vos jeux! Faites vos jeux, s'il vous plait!

Re:"Attention Kmart Roulette Shoppers!"

[PolygamousRanchKid]

If you want mine your own bitcoin

Most folks don't want to mine their own bitcoins. The Facebook-Intertubes news has educated them to know that they only need to speculate with bitcoin to become as rich as the next President of the United States of America, Mark Zuckerberg. He earned so much money with bitcoins . . . that he can pay all Russians to vote for him in the next election!

Re:"Attention Kmart Roulette Shoppers!"

[religionofpeas]

If you want mine your own bitcoin, you need a motherboard with 19 PCIe 1X slots

No, the only way to make money mining bitcoin is to use a state of the art ASIC, specifically designed for it.

Depends on which country you live in

[DontBeAMoran]

1 Bitcoin equals 9171.40 Canadian dollars
1 Bitcoin equals 9272.12 Australian dollars

It's also fun to see how much one Bitcoin is worth in other crypto-currencies:
85 Monero
135 Litecoins
1799 Vertcoin
6250000 Dogecoins

Re:Depends on which country you live in

[Anonymous Coward]

Check on Venezuelan Bolivars...

There are a bunch of people mining bitcoin to stay alive in Venezuela. They use subsidized electricity costs, spread their operations between a bunch of individual homes to keep from being caught and then trade their Coin for stuff they cannot buy using Bolivars, anywhere.

Oh the joys of socialism, where the leader is recommending the trapping and eating of rabbits to keep from starving, in a country with rich Oil reserves.

Soo... when is the correction coming?

[leonbev]

Anyone who's ever studied basic Economics knows that Bitcoin is in a price bubble right now. They real question is... when is that bubble going to pop?

I sure as hell wouldn't want to be the one buying Bitcoin today, though.

Re:Soo... when is the correction coming?

[neonv]

I agree. The price seems to be going up because people are speculating that it will continue to go up and more, causing the price to further rise. Few people are buying it as a tool for exchanging goods and services. As a result, there's not much backing the current value other than rarity, which probably isn't enough. It will drop drastically in value eventually once the speculating stops.

Re:Soo... when is the correction coming?

[SirMasterboy]

People said it was in a bubble when bitcoin was $1000 and then they said it again when it was $2000. They said it would be foolish to buy bitcoin for $1000 or $2000

I don't know about you but id kill to buy bitcoins for $1000 or even $2000 now...

How do you know $7000 is anywhere near the top?

Re:Soo... when is the correction coming?

[religionofpeas]

As a result, there's not much backing the current value other than rarity

Rarity is good enough for a bunch of different assets, like precious metals or gemstones.

But in addition to being rare, bitcoin is also secure, easy to transact, and easy to divide/recombine.

Re:Soo... when is the correction coming?

[WrongMonkey]

What fundamentals? What is the underlying utility that gives an individual Bitcoin any value?

Re:Soo... when is the correction coming?

[Oswald McWeany]

People said it was in a bubble when bitcoin was $1000 and then they said it again when it was $2000. They said it would be foolish to buy bitcoin for $1000 or $2000

I don't know about you but id kill to buy bitcoins for $1000 or even $2000 now...

How do you know $7000 is anywhere near the top?

If I owned Bitcoin I'd set mine to auto-sell once it hits $9,750. Psychologically, when it hits $10k, some people are going to panic and it will hit a correction. How high bitcoin can go is anyone's guess, but just like $1,000 was a big psychological barrier and we had a correction after hitting it, $10,000 is going to be an even bigger deal. Once the correction hits the basement, might be worth buying again, to see how high it will go next time.

Re:Soo... when is the correction coming?

[religionofpeas]

Transaction costs are through the roof if you can't wait forever for a transaction to be processed.

What are the transaction costs of sending a 25 pound bullion bar of gold across the world ? And how does that compare with sending the equivalent amount in bitcoin ?

By your logic, fundamentals for gold should be laughable.

Re:Soo... when is the correction coming?

[SirMasterboy]

Well me personally I am not interested in trading constantly like that.

I bought some back when they were $100 each and my plan was to hold onto them for like 30 years and just see what they end up like. They could end up worth nothing which in that case I didn't lose much at all. Or they could be worth a ton, like 50,000 per coin or something, especially once all the coins are mined and there is no supply of new coins.

Re:Soo... when is the correction coming?

[george14215]

While not an actual utility, bitcoin provides immutable scarcity.

Re:Soo... when is the correction coming?

[Billly Gates]

Bitcoin is a little different as it has several things going for it.

1. It is very very liquid. Which outside of accounting means you can buy or sell and convert to cash INSTANTLY!
2. Not regulated by the government
3. Anybody with a computer and buy or sell without a middle man
4. You can do transactions tax free!
5. It is cheaper and easier to transfer to different country currencies
6. We have a hot bull market with stocks right now. In a bull market where do you think Wall Street will put there money in?

My guess is Wall Street will pick a tax free non regulated place where they can move the money in seconds. Gee what could that be??

For these reasons Bitcoin is here to stay. Get used to it and stop blaming others who beat you getting rich.

$7000 a coin is cheap as when the stock market crashes the price could easily go to $50,000 a coin or more?

Will it crash? Yes. But I think 7,000 is low as for the reasons I highlight above

Bitcoin == San Francisco real estate prices. If you bought in 1970 you are rich as low prices WILL NEVER return. Yes fluctuations will happen. But all the 6 things stated above will make it a reality unlike gold. I just wish I got in earlier.

Re:Soo... when is the correction coming?

[religionofpeas]

It's a secure store of value that can be easily transferred across the globe. You can put some of your wealth in a bitcoin wallet, memorize 12 words, walk across the border empty handed, buy a laptop, download some software, enter the 12 words, and restore your bitcoin wallet with all the coins intact.

Re:Soo... when is the correction coming?

[Billly Gates]

Correction I meant in 6. In a bear market where do you think Wall Street will put there money? In a bear lots of money will need somewhere to go? ... Not bull ( stupid Android autocorrect)

Re:Soo... when is the correction coming?

[religionofpeas]

Well me personally I am not interested in trading constantly like that

I know several people who tried trading. They ended up selling most of their coins for a few hundred $$, making a decent profit, and are still waiting for the price to drop so they can buy back.

Re:Soo... when is the correction coming?

[Interfacer]

Rhodium once experienced a bubble like this. It corrected all the way down.
I do believe in bitcoin as an asset. But the current price explosion looks unsustainable and backed by nothing other than fear of missing out.

Re:Soo... when is the correction coming?

[SirMasterboy]

Yep, that's what I assumed I would fall into myself so my decision was just hold the coins in cold storage and check on them again in several years.

Re:Soo... when is the correction coming?

[WrongMonkey]

So you freely admit that the only use is a money laundering scheme. Even your scheme isn't very good, since you still depend on local currency to pull it off. How do you buy that laptop? How do you buy pay for the internet connection?

Re:Soo... when is the correction coming?

[religionofpeas]

So you freely admit that the only use is a money laundering scheme

It's just a single example. It's not the only use. And if I've already paid taxes on the money, I'm not laundering anything. I'm just transferring my legally acquired assets.

you still depend on local currency to pull it off. How do you buy that laptop? How do you buy pay for the internet connection?

Of course you depend on local currency. I'm not sure why you think that's a flaw.

Re:Soo... when is the correction coming?

[Cro Magnon]

1. It is very very liquid. Which outside of accounting means you can buy or sell and convert to cash INSTANTLY!

3. Anybody with a computer and buy or sell without a middle man

Aren't those dependent on the exchanges? IIRC, MtGox quit allowing its victims, er I mean customers, to sell their bitcoins, and they were SOL when it imploded.

Re:Soo... when is the correction coming?

[millertym]

I personally would set a "price goal" to run along with your time goal. Whichever comes first type strategy. That way if it sky rockets to an amount of value you feel meets your value goal quickly, you don't risk it dropping and never returning to that price point.

Re:Soo... when is the correction coming?

[Cro Magnon]

Yeah, that's a question. I remember when bitcoin was around the $1000 range, and people were saying it was too high. But if I'd bought then, I'd have 7X that. If 7K is the high, I'd be a nidiot to buy at that price. But if it goes to 15K, I'd be kicking myself for not buying.

Re:Soo... when is the correction coming?

[Ash-Fox]

Traditional methods for valuing crypto currency are not applicable. Donâ(TM)t try.

I'm not, that's why I don't accept Bitcoin payments.

Re:Soo... when is the correction coming?

[Moof123]

Gold is valuable beyond being rare. Not only is it pretty to look at (blockchains not so much), but it is used in a lot of electronics and industrial applications where its amazing corrosion resistant properties have no equal.

Gemstones like diamonds similarly have both fashion and industrial applications.

As for secure, it is only as secure as your wallet and many exchanges have been hacked or turned out to be outright frauds. I'd rather a thief have to physically enter my house to rob me, or to store my money in an FDIC backed account, thank you very much.

Re:Soo... when is the correction coming?

[religionofpeas]

Industrial use of gold only uses up 10% of the amount that's mined. The other 90% has been stockpiled for many years, so we have a huge surplus. Yet, the price is still very high.

There are many cheap materials that are just as pretty to look at, including gold plated jewelry, but people still prefer the solid kind. Not because it's pretty, but because it's valuable. The idea that you can always sell your gold ring in times of need is very powerful.

As for secure, it is only as secure as your wallet

Which can be as secure as you want it. You can keep your private keys off-line, for instance.

FDIC backed account

Only good for $100k or so, and only if there aren't too many problems. Ask the people in Cyprus how it went.

Re:Soo... when is the correction coming?

[religionofpeas]

It costs the same to send 25 lbs of gold as 25 lbs of bricks, so long as you don't care about security

Who sends 25 lbs of gold without caring about security ?

And US currency has the added advantage that it can actually be used to buy things

I agree. Fiat money is an excellent way to buy things, but a rather poor way to save your wealth. I don't think Bitcoin will ever replace regular money, but it can provide a very useful parallel system with some unique and useful properties.

Re:Soo... when is the correction coming?

[Jeremi]

How do you know $7000 is anywhere near the top?

I absolutely don't.

On the other hand, I don't know it's not near the top, either.

And since at this point the Bitcoin's valuation seems to be driven entirely by investors' bandwagon psychology, which I don't claim to understand, that makes Bitcoins way to risky for me to invest in, even if I could potentially make a lot of money by timing the market -- I could equally well lose a lot of money, and I have no way to predict which outcome I would get.

Re:Soo... when is the correction coming?

[Jeremi]

Bitcoin == San Francisco real estate prices. If you bought in 1970 you are rich as low prices WILL NEVER return. Yes fluctuations will happen. But all the 6 things stated above will make it a reality unlike gold. I just wish I got in earlier.

That's a pretty good analogy, perhaps even better than you realized.

Bitcoin is like San Francisco real estate prices, in a scenario where many investors have not yet realized that there are other viable cities out there to invest in besides San Francisco.

Currently a lot of people are pouring money into Bitcoin because it's the one virtual-currency "brand name" they are most familiar with, but what happens once it becomes widespread knowledge that other virtual currencies (Ethereum, Monero, etc etc etc) are also perfectly valid and useful investments, and in many cases perform better than Bitcoin (which you would expect since they all had the benefit of watching Bitcoin evolve, and don't have the backwards-compatibility constraints the Bitcoin does)?

My prediction (and I'm usually wrong, so you take this with a grain of salt) is that sooner or later people will realize that Bitcoin is just one of many blockchain technologies, and not necessarily the best one, either. At that point they will start to diversify their investments more, and the value of Bitcoins will necessarily drop as the investor pool gets diluted.

Re:Soo... when is the correction coming?

[schweini]

I also think this is a pure speculation-based bubble, especially because there is so much vested interest in keeping the price high (all those computing farms are a significant hardware investment)

Does anyone know if someone has tried to analyze the bitcoin blockchain in order to calculate a rough estimate how much bitcoin are actually used for non-purely speculative transactions?
Would this be possible?

Re:Soo... when is the correction coming?

[Anonymous Coward]

Bitcoin is liquid like diarrhea.

Re:Soo... when is the correction coming?

[leonbev]

One of the signs of a bubble is that you start getting people who think that the "rules are different now" and that the "old fundamentals don't matter anymore".

Look at the sentiment around .com stocks around 1998, and speculative real estate around 2006. People were convinced that they couldn't lose and that the value of their grossly inflated assets could only go up... until they didn't. Then the panic selling began, and the rest is history.

Nobody seems to know what the magic tipping point is for Bitcoin and it's clones... but keep in mind that it exists.

Re:Soo... when is the correction coming?

[rev0lt]

And if I've already paid taxes on the money,

For most of the civilized world, and if you're transferring reasonable amounts, taxes do apply. Its called currency export for some reason...

Completely volatile

[aepervius]

If you look at the history of price in BTC/USD, the bitcoins are (relatively...) stable until end 2016/start 2017, then it went completely volatile with rising in spike, and having dropds which were higher than the full price it was end of 2016 (e.g. drop higher than 1000$). Yet the number of Tx per month did not rise in parallel to values. So what you have here is an extremly volatile speculative commodity and that's it. Anybody would be insane to use it as a currency.

Re:Completely volatile

[Zocalo]

I think we've actually got two quite distinct groups of BTC users at this point (with some members of both groups); those that are using it as a currency, split between those who maintain a float of BTC in a wallet and those that just buy BTC on demand for a specific purchase, and those that are using it as a high-risk speculative investment. Depending on the size of the wallet and the timing of the (probably inevitable) price correction, the former group shouldn't be two badly burnt by it, especially if the BTC in the wallet were acquired before, or fairly early on, in the recent spike in value. If/when the correction comes, then the bag holders are (as usual) going to be the latecomers to the latter group with larger holdings than the level of risk they can bear - if you bought in for your investment at $2,000 (say) and it crashes to $3,000, you're still good, albeit probably a little put out that you didn't bail a little sooner. If you were late to the party and bought in at $5,000, $6,000, or even $7,000 though... Note also that being gung-ho about blockchain and related technologies - as is the case for much of corporate interest - does not in many instances actually entail that they hold any significant holdings of the currency themselves; all the real financial risk is elsewhere.

Re:Completely volatile

[religionofpeas]

Anybody would be insane to use it as a currency

Nobody's using gold bullion bars as currency either, but I hear people are people good money for them.

Re:Completely volatile

[WrongMonkey]

Gold has value, but the value doesn't wildly fluctuate from month-to-month. The problem with Bitcoin isn't the value itself, its the change in value that's inexplicable. BitCoin, as transfer mechanism, would have the same utility regardless of the price on an individual BitCoin.

Re:Completely volatile

[Anonymous Coward]

One of the more plausible theories for why the price became so volatile is that the current pop in BTC price coincides exactly with the Chinese government restricting the flow of yuan out of China.

I've heard that something like 85 to 90% of all the bitcoins in existence are currently being used for illegally smuggling capital out of China.

So therefore, that means that whatever is left is the current free float on the market, which is an astoundingly small amount. Hence why the price has become so volatile.

Re:Completely volatile

[religionofpeas]

Gold has value, but the value doesn't wildly fluctuate from month-to-month

For a fair comparison, you should look at the price of gold in the first 9 years of its existence, not the price after it had a chance to settle down after 6000 years of mining and trading.

BitCoin, as transfer mechanism, would have the same utility regardless of the price on an individual BitCoin.

No, because there's only 16 million coins in existence, the utility is related to price.

Satoshi Nakamoto owns about a million BTC

[ark1]

Worth 7B USD at the moment. Can I have some?

Re:Satoshi Nakamoto owns about a million BTC

[Joce640k]

Now would be a good time for him to sell.

It'd bring the whole thing crashing down overnight, of course, but he'd be set for several lifetimes.

Re:Satoshi Nakamoto owns about a million BTC

[JcMorin]

Those coins haven't moved since their own creation. Satoshi may have them, may have lost them, may have destroyed them or may even be dead. Who knows. For the best of Bitcoin, those coins should not resurface... or at least not all at once!

The jig is simple.

[Anonymous Coward]

BTC is going to $10k and it's that simple. Then it will crash to $1 where you can buy it back and ride it to $100k and repeat.

Re:The jig is simple.

[Oswald McWeany]

BTC is going to $10k and it's that simple. Then it will crash to $1 where you can buy it back and ride it to $100k and repeat.

I agree it will hit $10k and then drop- but it won't go all the way back down to $1. Maybe $7k or $8k and then start rebounding again. BTC is too widely used in illegal transactions to completely collapse. It's more like gold than tulip bulbs. As in, it is both a currency with a certain worth, AND an investment medium rather than just a pure useless investment medium.

If citizen Joe panics and starts to sell, warlord Bob won't because it's not about investment to him.

$10k is a very solid psychological barrier though- first time it hits $10k some people will panic and sell; but not everyone.

Re: The jig is simple.

[denis.goddard]

Bitcoin's use for illicit transactions is rapidly declining, and being replaced by secure encrypted blockchains like Monero http://getmonero.org/

Re: The jig is simple.

[Oswald McWeany]

Bitcoin's use for illicit transactions is rapidly declining, and being replaced by secure encrypted blockchains like Monero
http://getmonero.org/

I didn't know that. A better crypto-currency has always been more of a threat to bitcoin than any market "burst bubble" from citizen investor.

Slashbitcoin

[gatfirls]

News for bag holders.....

It's the Fork

[EmagGeek]

The segwit2x fork is in a couple of weeks, and so everyone's trying to buy it up to get the free coins. The price will come back down afterwards, and I imagine most people that are trying to run this get-rich-quick scheme are going to lose out as the new coin won't be worth what they lose on selling the BTC they bought to get it for free.

Re:It's the Fork

[Cro Magnon]

Are you saying the people buying now will get forked?

History repeating itself

[JoeyRox]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulip_mania

Re:History repeating itself

[grnbrg]

"Tulip mania" was all about speculation in futures prices, not about actual tulips, and has more in common with the sub-prime market crash in 2008 than with Bitcoin.

Re:History repeating itself

[JoeyRox]

Interesting distinction considering how bitcoin is a virtual construct whose value is conveyed by a collection of numbers with no inherent value or full-credit backing by any nation or organization.

Funny

[segedunum]

Bitcoin is supposed to be money and the basis of a payment system.......but people measure it in the fiat currency they want it to replace and the frenzy over its price and exchange means it can never be the basis of a stable payments system. Weird.

Re:Funny

[religionofpeas]

In order to replace just some of the uses of fiat currency, it needs to gain a lot more value. You can't take over the world with a measly $100B market cap.

Re:Funny

[grnbrg]

Gold and Euros also tend to be measured in terms of fiat currency. It's a pretty common way of talking about value.

And the price will stabilize, eventually. If Bitcoin is successful, and becomes an easy means of electronic exchange of value, as well as a store of value, that price will be ridiculously high, compared to the current value. If it's not successful, that price will be near zero.

Is the current price a bubble based on FOMO? Possible. Bitcoin has had 4 or 5 bubble events, but the post-bubble price has always stabilized at somewhat higher than the pre-bubble runup, and surpassed the bubble peak after a period of time. Bitcoin works. It does what it says on the label. The question now is whether the big banks and governments can kill it, and I suspect they have been trying hard to do so for some time.

In 5 years, the price of Bitcoin will be in excess of US$100,000. Or less than US0.01. But not anywhere in between. And if it's worth something in 5 years, FSM knows what it will be worth in 20.....

As Molly says,

[PopeRatzo]

Fuck your block chain
Fuck your crypto currency
Fuck your imaginary techno utopia built out of my burning world

https://motherboard.vice.com/e...

"An index from cryptocurrency analyst Alex de Vries, aka Digiconomist, estimates that with prices the way they are now, it would be profitable for Bitcoin miners to burn through over 24 terawatt-hours of electricity annually as they compete to solve increasingly difficult cryptographic puzzles to "mine" more Bitcoins. That's about as much as Nigeria, a country of 186 million people, uses in a year.

This averages out to a shocking 215 kilowatt-hours (KWh) of juice used by miners for each Bitcoin transaction (there are currently about 300,000 transactions per day). Since the average American household consumes 901 KWh per month, each Bitcoin transfer represents enough energy to run a comfortable house, and everything in it, for nearly a week. On a larger scale, De Vries' index shows that bitcoin miners worldwide could be using enough electricity to at any given time to power about 2.26 million American homes."

Re:As Molly says,

[green is the enemy]

Given the numbers above, the average transaction cost is about $22 at $0.10/kWh. And it's only increasing with time. With costs like that, Bitcoin no longer makes sense for normal, everyday purchases. Why does Bitcoin have this amazing staying power? Why can't another cryptocurrency with cheaper transactions supplant it?

Re:As Molly says,

[Troed]

A blockchain only has value if it's immutable. Proof of work, the thing that consumes all that energy, is how the Bitcoin blockchain is made immutable.

Many have tried, and none have succeeded, in a better method with the same security. A blockchain isn't immutable (solving the byzantine generals' problem) just because it is - but because of the computing power thrown at securing it.

Re:As Molly says,

[xtal]

How much energy is spent by nation states on military spending backing up fiat currencies? ...just sayin'

Now much more than that

[aepervius]

https://bitinfocharts.com/comp...

The fee are ALSO utterly volatile making it impracticable for small amount as the GP said. A week ago or so it was 8+$. Now it is in average 5+$. Again volatility at work, and making it utterly improper as currency use.

"worth". | Also: Goldman Sachs == criminal, to me.

[Anonymous Coward]

PROTIP 1: Your delusions of worth mean nothing to me. Bitcoins pose no value whatsoever, because there is no work behind them. The are only considered “worth” something, because there are morons, so stupid, that they will pay $7000 to get one. Any why do they do this? Because they heard there are morons, so stupid, that they will pay $7000 to get one. You realize the fallacy of this, right? The circular logic. Like building the 7000th floor of a skyscraper, not on 6999 floors below, but onto itself. And then acting like that's not gonna come down. --.--
And yes, it's the same thing with dollars and euros and so on. Actually, two guys got the Nobel price in economics, for mathematically proving, that any speculative stock market MUST come down every ~30 years. Because that is when the speculative worth has distanced itself so far from the real worth, that it stops being believable, and people wake up. So sot only that it will happen, but that it should happen, in a controlled way, if you want to prevent an economic disaster. Like a safe volcano is one that regularly has lava coming out. Not one that’s corked and about to explode unexpectedly. ... Yeah, well... the US just put a cork into that volcano / car exhaust, and declared it solved. Until it went BIIIG BADA-BOOM. Now they installed an even stronger... cork! ... So guess what fun we will have pretty soon. :P

PROTIP 2: Just because there's no law against it, doesn't mean it's not a crime. You can't be this passive-thinking to believe that. It’s the USA! Barely anything affecting corporations has any laws against it! Because the government IS a corporate oligarchy. The laws that take away freedoms, are mostly just affecting the average person. ... All this "making money without doing actual work for it", that is the foundation of banking, stock markets, imaginary property and profit itself, is criminal. Because it is equivalent to stealing. Even if I do work in return, earn money for it, and then some profit on top of that; then the earned money is not criminal, but said profit is. But I'm sure this is an incomprehensible concept to somebody born right into that culture. "Fairness. Eww. Can't have that! Dog-eat-dog psycohpathy is much better! Such American. Much dream. Wow.". Actually, I'd call it the opposite of democracy and of the American dream and of a free market. And I've heard you say you cherish these things. ... So Goldman Sachs, who are now a major Bitcoin player, and is probably the most criminal non-illegal organization in the world today. ... And I don't even think Bitcoin is bad, just because somebody uses it for bad transactions. Just that... well... the above.

Its the dollar plumeting

[aod7br7932]

That's one way to see it. The other is seeing that Quantitative easing (QE) of Western Central Banks is about to end and all will crash in 2018

Bitcoin are invisible Beanie Babies

[Required Snark]

What goes up must come down.

Segwit2x

[QlooQl]

Obviously no one around here cares about the reason bitcoin broke records and the massive developments changing its core software. Bitcoin is going to have its first major hardfork in a long time and become something much better.

Bitcoin Segwit2x is a proposed change which is intended to improve the speed and cost of Bitcoin transactions. The Segwit opens up new possibilities like the Lightning Network, Tumblebit, Schnorr Signatures, Confidential Transactions, Cross-chain atomic swaps, and so on.

I don't think any of those crazy terms are the important part. What most people don't seem to get around here is that bitcoin and blockchain technology evolves and changes like any other piece of software, so your complaints today could be gone tomorrow by writing a few lines of code.

Re:"worth". | Also: Goldman Sachs == criminal, to

[sabri]

PROTIP 2: Just because there's no law against it, doesn't mean it's not a crime.

Wrong.

Any basic principle in every criminal code is that no person shall be punished for an act or omission that is not prohibited by law.