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Is there a reason a lot of these cryptocurrencies have suddenly started to skyrocket all at once?

jbpetersen 9y ago
Network effects of people who held one that skyrocketed then diversifying into others and news around any given one skyrocketing drawing people to the space in general. Not to mention that every single one is an experiment that feeds back into the collective knowledge of what makes a good cryptocurrency, even as any individual one can only choose a single set of all the known tradeoffs.
RexetBlell 9y ago
I think that more and more people are learning about cryptocurrencies and it hit a critical mass.
andy_ppp 9y ago
There was something like ¥30bn (£200m+) of Bitcoin traded in the past 24h, seems very very high but I guess it happened. Anyone have details?
- RexetBlell 9y ago
  The total 24h volume for Bitcoin is over 650 million USD: https://coinmarketcap.com https://coinmarketcap.com
RandomInteger4 9y ago
World tensions are high. Apparently whenever there's bad news, the cryptocurrencies spike? It's kind of like a safety net similar to gold. The current thing driving it might be a combination of factors, among which is the North Korea situation with chinese investors moving funds into cryptcurrencies?
- i_cant_speel 9y ago
  Are people honestly that concerned about North Korea?
  - SirensOfTitan 9y ago
    I doubt it. If you want to blame geopolitical factors at all for the recent investment in cryptocurrency: 1. Chinese investors see crypto as a way of moving currency outside of China. The Chinese government has recently cracked down on movement of money outside of the country. 2. The rise of populism could drive people into crypto. The rise of actors like Donald Trump, Marine Le Pen, Geert Wilders (although defeated) implies major currency instability, especially around USD, EUR. On (2), from what I understand Gold has become less of a good hedge against world economic stability as well.
    - splintercell 9y ago
      Can we at least track the usage of a cryptocurrency by IP address? Is there a site which analyzes them?
ForHackernews 9y ago
Almost nobody (except criminals) actually uses any of these purported currencies to exchange for goods & services. They behave as speculative investments, so they're prone to the same kind of price swings and overheated group-think as other such assets.
cdrark 9y ago
My understanding is that Bitfinex (a major exchange) can't process USD withdrawals so people are buying up cryptocoins with their balances, driving up prices. It is being compared to the situation at MtGox. Many of the other alts have most of their volume on the exchange Poloniex which claims to be US based but offers no transparency on their operations. They offer margin trading. The fincen registration number listed on their terms page is not valid. The office address listed is for a corporation registration company in Delaware. IMO the whole thing is a powder keg. At least it's exciting to watch.
SirensOfTitan 9y ago
1. BTC has been increasingly acting unstably: transactions cost a lot and take a long time to confirm. The BTC core development team has proven itself incompetent and unable to handle the situation properly. 2. In Litecoin's case: its activation of Segwit may attract BTC core and other BTC enthusiasts. 3. Ethereum's recovery from DAO hack. I personally think the swift hard fork in this scenario was a great call, and it really convinced me of the leadership at the Ethereum Foundation. 4. Second generation proof-of-stake systems are increasingly looking like they'll work. A movement away from proof-of-work as a consensus algorithm I find crucial to the long term success of any cryptocurrency. 5. BTC ETF (and Ethereum ETF certainly also going to be denied by the SEC) application and the Winklevii garnered cryptocurrencies a lot of attention. Overall, I think people are finally metaphorically grasping the concepts around cryptocurrencies. As a result of this, several currencies are coming out that are rapidly outpacing BTC in innovation, especially Ethereum.
- sayurichick 9y ago
  regarding #1, Core isn't incompetent; This is currently the exact situation they want to hold (preventing a hard fork and block size limit increase). They have nefariously manipulated media communications for years to fool people into only accepting a soft fork because they've convinced people a soft fork is somehow safer and any hard fork is automatically contentious. As long as a hard fork is never initiated, they retain write access to the github repo and therefore maintain control of the "default" Bitcoin client. And as long as Greg Maxwell is in charge, he can continue to receive funding for his startup (blockstream). But yea, crippling layer 1 intentionally and misleading people for their own benefit is incredibly fucked up.

Network effects of people who held one that skyrocketed then diversifying into others and news around any given one skyrocketing drawing people to the space in general. Not to mention that every single one is an experiment that feeds back into the collective knowledge of what makes a good cryptocurrency, even as any individual one can only choose a single set of all the known tradeoffs.

RexetBlell 9y ago

I think that more and more people are learning about cryptocurrencies and it hit a critical mass.

andy_ppp 9y ago

There was something like ¥30bn (£200m+) of Bitcoin traded in the past 24h, seems very very high but I guess it happened. Anyone have details?

RexetBlell 9y ago
The total 24h volume for Bitcoin is over 650 million USD: https://coinmarketcap.com https://coinmarketcap.com

RandomInteger4 9y ago

World tensions are high. Apparently whenever there's bad news, the cryptocurrencies spike? It's kind of like a safety net similar to gold. The current thing driving it might be a combination of factors, among which is the North Korea situation with chinese investors moving funds into cryptcurrencies?

i_cant_speel 9y ago
Are people honestly that concerned about North Korea?
- SirensOfTitan 9y ago
  I doubt it. If you want to blame geopolitical factors at all for the recent investment in cryptocurrency: 1. Chinese investors see crypto as a way of moving currency outside of China. The Chinese government has recently cracked down on movement of money outside of the country. 2. The rise of populism could drive people into crypto. The rise of actors like Donald Trump, Marine Le Pen, Geert Wilders (although defeated) implies major currency instability, especially around USD, EUR. On (2), from what I understand Gold has become less of a good hedge against world economic stability as well.
  - splintercell 9y ago
    Can we at least track the usage of a cryptocurrency by IP address? Is there a site which analyzes them?

ForHackernews 9y ago

Almost nobody (except criminals) actually uses any of these purported currencies to exchange for goods & services. They behave as speculative investments, so they're prone to the same kind of price swings and overheated group-think as other such assets.

cdrark 9y ago

My understanding is that Bitfinex (a major exchange) can't process USD withdrawals so people are buying up cryptocoins with their balances, driving up prices. It is being compared to the situation at MtGox. Many of the other alts have most of their volume on the exchange Poloniex which claims to be US based but offers no transparency on their operations. They offer margin trading. The fincen registration number listed on their terms page is not valid. The office address listed is for a corporation registration company in Delaware. IMO the whole thing is a powder keg. At least it's exciting to watch.

SirensOfTitan 9y ago

1. BTC has been increasingly acting unstably: transactions cost a lot and take a long time to confirm. The BTC core development team has proven itself incompetent and unable to handle the situation properly. 2. In Litecoin's case: its activation of Segwit may attract BTC core and other BTC enthusiasts. 3. Ethereum's recovery from DAO hack. I personally think the swift hard fork in this scenario was a great call, and it really convinced me of the leadership at the Ethereum Foundation. 4. Second generation proof-of-stake systems are increasingly looking like they'll work. A movement away from proof-of-work as a consensus algorithm I find crucial to the long term success of any cryptocurrency. 5. BTC ETF (and Ethereum ETF certainly also going to be denied by the SEC) application and the Winklevii garnered cryptocurrencies a lot of attention. Overall, I think people are finally metaphorically grasping the concepts around cryptocurrencies. As a result of this, several currencies are coming out that are rapidly outpacing BTC in innovation, especially Ethereum.

sayurichick 9y ago
regarding #1, Core isn't incompetent; This is currently the exact situation they want to hold (preventing a hard fork and block size limit increase). They have nefariously manipulated media communications for years to fool people into only accepting a soft fork because they've convinced people a soft fork is somehow safer and any hard fork is automatically contentious. As long as a hard fork is never initiated, they retain write access to the github repo and therefore maintain control of the "default" Bitcoin client. And as long as Greg Maxwell is in charge, he can continue to receive funding for his startup (blockstream). But yea, crippling layer 1 intentionally and misleading people for their own benefit is incredibly fucked up.