Bitcoin Plummets Below $8,000 For First Time Since November (axios.com)

Bitcoin's value dipped $8,000 this morning -- the first time since November 24, according to CNBC -- just hours after the cryptocurrency made news after going under $9,000. From a report: After the news that Bitcoin had headed south of $9,000, CNBC branded the range of $9,000 to $10,000 as "a difficult one for bitcoin to break below" after its surge over $10,000 last year.

Comments

Random number generator

[DrYak]

I think it's time that we categorize the "BTC to USB exchange rate" officially as a "strong random number generator" and call it a day ~
 
:-D

(NOTE: Jokes aside, that doesn't preclude that idea of the cryptocoins' decentralized protocols can be useful).

Re:Random number generator

[PopeRatzo]

There's nothing special about 8000. It's just another 10% decrease below 9000.

^^Slashdot math^^

Bummer

[110010001000]

I invested a lot of money in Bitcoin when it hit $10k. I better just hold onto it until it goes over $10k again, then I will sell. Until then, I'll just sit back and collect the dividends from it.

Re:Bummer

[110010001000]

What is the actual value of a bitcoin? It will go back up. Things always continue upwards.

Re:Bummer

[sjames]

And there's the issue. The bubble has to pop. The entire basis of bitcoin retaining value was that it would become an everyday currency used for buying and selling goods and services. It's current value and volatility preclude that, so it's valueation (not value) is supported primarily by investors running around like chickens looking for the next kernel of corn. Let someone yell BOO and it all goes to hell.

Re:Bummer

[tbannist]

What is the actual value of a bitcoin?

The actual (intrinsic) value of a bitcoin is $0.

The only reason it's valued above $0 is the perception that it has more value than that. I can't tell you whether Bitcoin will ever be valued above $10k in 2017 equivalent dollars, again because that's mostly down to the actions of speculators and possibly currency manipulators. There's also the small problem that there isn't really anything special about Bitcoin that make it inherently more valuable than Litecoin, Namecoin, Swiftcoin, Bytecoin, Peercoin, Dogecoin, Emercoin, Feathercoin, Gridcoin, Omni, Primecoin, Ripple, Nxt, Auroracoin, BlackCoin, Burstcoin, Dash, NEO, MazaCoin, Monero, NEM, PotCoin, Titcoin, Verge, Stellar, Vertcoin, Ether, IOTA, Sia, sixEleven, Decred, Waves, Lisk, Zcash, Komodo, Ubiq, EOS, Electroneum, TRON, Cardano, or Petro. It's value is basically based on speculation and name recognition.

Note, I left Tether off that list because Tether is inherently more valuable than Etherium because it is tied to $1 USD, but because it's tied it's value shouldn't fluctuate making it speculative value approximately $0.

It will go back up. Things always continue upwards.

As a warning, it's been almost 400 years since the peak of Tulip mania and looking at a Dutch flower exporter, the highest price is approximately $2 per bulb, but the high price in 1637 was reported to be around $100 guilders. That means the current price is approximately 3.6% of the peak value (using today's exchange rate). At that rate, the price will have fully recovered in approximately 10,000 years. Now inflation will surely cause it to reach $100 sooner than that (using historic rates, it would still take over 100 years), but the point is it could take a very, very long time to recover.

Re:Bummer

[110010001000]

I am using the tried and true method of dollar cost averaging to buy Bitcoins in this market. Now is a good time to buy. I believe that Musk will make Bitcoin his official currency for his Mars colony. They are launching Falcon Heavy soon and that is the first step.

Re:Bummer

[Aaden42]

The difficulty balancing algorithm prevents that from happening. The amount of computing power needed to solve each block is variable based on how much real time it took to solve the last block. The algorithm adjusts the difficulty (how much of hash has to be zeros in Bitcoin) to keep the solve time relatively constant.

If lots of people turn off their rigs for any reason, the current block will take a long time; but the next block will drop its difficulty to compensate based on available mining resources. If the difficulty gets high enough that cost of power exceeds the value of the coin mined, some people give up, and the difficulty falls accordingly until it reaches equilibrium.

Balancing should ensure that people who mine make a modest profit. It's only mad money for miners when the coin they mine is in the middle of an asset bubble that balloons its value almost before they've finished earning it. The bubble has to deflate eventually (I believe I hear a leaking sound now...), but mining should continue to stay profitable as long as people are interested in using coin.

Bubble Economics.

[jellomizer]

Products that are getting more expensive because they are expected to be sold for more money later. Is often creates a bubble condition.

The Bit Coin price kept on going up, so people wouldn't spend them, thus cause the price to go up further. Until they hit a peak were they decided to sell them. Then the market gets flooded with bit coins who's guaranteed value to increase is no longer expected. So they will sell them for less to get as much as they can out of it.

This happened with the Housing Market
This happened with the Tech Market
This happened with the Comic Book Market

  Lucky for us, the Bit Coin Bubble wasn't a big part of the economy, so the looser in the Bit Coin Gamble arn't bringing the rest of the economy down.
 

Re:Bubble Economics.

[vtcodger]

NY TIMES Nov 18, 2005 ... THERE is a venerable Wall Street joke featuring an investor who, having accumulated a large position in an illiquid stock, decides it is time to get out. "Yes, sir," replies the broker when he is told to sell. "To whom?"

On what logic?

[chill]

CNBC branded the range of $9,000 to $10,000 as "a difficult one for bitcoin to break below" after its surge over $10,000 last year.

Based on what reasoning? There is no price support for BTC. There is no equity or guarantor behind BTC at all. Control is centralized in a small handful of "owners". They could make it go from zero to 100,000 in a day, if they decided to.

So what genius pundit decided there was a floor to the price, and how much does he get paid to make shit like that up?

Re:Below $8000

[Mr0bvious]

A boy asked his bitcoin-investing dad for 1 bitcoin for his birthday.
Dad: What? $12,250??? $19,350 is a lot of money! What do you need $8,800 for anyway?

Still Much Too High

[StormReaver]

Bitcoin's actual value is under a dollar. Until its price crashes down to that level, it is vastly overvalued. The word, "bubble" doesn't even come close to describing Bitcoin's current price.