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Researchers Find That One Person Likely Drove Bitcoin From $150 to $1,000 (techcrunch.com)
An anonymous reader shares a report: Researchers Neil Gandal, JT Hamrick, Tyler Moore, and Tali Oberman have written a fascinating paper on Bitcoin price manipulation. Entitled "Price Manipulation in the Bitcoin Ecosystem" and appearing in the recent issue of the Journal of Monetary Economics the paper describes to what degree the Bitcoin ecosystem is controlled by bad actors. To many it's been obvious that the Bitcoin markets are, at the very least, being manipulated by one or two big players. "This paper identifies and analyzes the impact of suspicious trading activity on the Mt. Gox Bitcoin currency exchange, in which approximately 600,000 bitcoins (BTC) valued at $188 million were fraudulently acquired," the researchers wrote.
"During both periods, the USD-BTC exchange rate rose by an average of four percent on days when suspicious trades took place, compared to a slight decline on days without suspicious activity. Based on rigorous analysis with extensive robustness checks, the paper demonstrates that the suspicious trading activity likely caused the unprecedented spike in the USD-BTC exchange rate in late 2013, when the rate jumped from around $150 to more than $1,000 in two months." The team found that many instances of price manipulation happened simply because the market was very thin for various cryptocurrencies including early Bitcoin.
"During both periods, the USD-BTC exchange rate rose by an average of four percent on days when suspicious trades took place, compared to a slight decline on days without suspicious activity. Based on rigorous analysis with extensive robustness checks, the paper demonstrates that the suspicious trading activity likely caused the unprecedented spike in the USD-BTC exchange rate in late 2013, when the rate jumped from around $150 to more than $1,000 in two months." The team found that many instances of price manipulation happened simply because the market was very thin for various cryptocurrencies including early Bitcoin.
this is a disingenuous post. It doesn't mention the analysis is about the 2013 mt gox event until the second paragraph yet somehow infers during the first paragraph that bitcoin is a highly manipulated market subject to the whims of 1 or 2 individuals.
i don't believe that's the case in 2017. the market is completely different in 2017 vs 2013 yet a naive reading of this post may infer conclusions are being drawn about 2017/18.
Plenty of people have avoided flocking to bitcoin. Myself included. And the reason you gave is just one of many reasons why.
Once upon a time, I was also upset that so much of the world's wealth was concentrated among the top 1%. I thought long and hard about what I could do about this, and came up with a plan. It involved getting an education in a high-paying field that had a low labor supply. And subsequently, a job.
Now, I am a member of the 1%, and much less upset about things.
If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.
Oh please, not this again.
The minimum amount of money required to be successful at life varies per region, and must be sufficient to buy a modest 2-3 bedroom family home and car, while being able to raise a small family in modest comfort without incurring massive debt, while still having enough for retirement and unforeseen medical issues.
In the San Francisco Bay or Vancouver BC area, not even $100k per year is enough for this, due to massive home prices.
I've always thought that study, and the theory behind it is something cooked up by MBA types to justify not handing out raises/bonuses
"See, we'd pay you more -- but we care too much about you and your emotional well being to give you more money."
The corollary is that the C levels and board members are so lavishly compensated out of deep seated feelings of self loathing.