5 ms·

Bitcoin hits $15,000

30 points by karimf 9y ago

paulpauper 9y ago
man..many Bitcoin websites and APIs lagging and timing out big time
- bhouston 9y ago
  Just wait until it drops, most people will not be able to cash out until it is likely worth nearly othing. There will be no automatic breaks (I think) that usually happen on large stock market drops. I think it may be technically possible for Bitcoin to drop 90% in a single day and with most people unable to sell at any price if they want it settled on the block chain. It could be Armageddon with nearly everyone holding bitcoint getting wiped out. That MtGox guy should sell his billion of bitcoin soon, like right now. It is a hot potato right now and I wouldn't want to be left holding the bag with things go south. I was a student in the first dotcom bubble and it was similar to this. And people predicted it would drop and then it did drop and basically wiped out the whole tech sector for nearly 3 years.
  - laichzeit0 9y ago
    > There will be no automatic breaks (I think) that usually happen on large stock market drops This is a very, very good thing. There are no breaks going up, therefore there should be no breaks going down. What's even better is that Bitcoin is 24/7 so there's not even the option of "waiting for the train to stop" when you're trying to get off.
    - bhouston 9y ago
      The breaks are there to stop panic selling. That is something that was intensional and learned from the 1987 stock market crash.
      - laichzeit0 9y ago
        Then there should equivalently be breaks to stop panic buying, not so?
        bhouston 9y ago
        They are for both directions: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trading_curb https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trading_curb The trading curbs are incredibly important because if there is false information and everyone rushes to the exit, people can be wiped out in the panic and then find out the next hour that nothing was true. With bitcoin there will likely be settlement issues for days after a crash. It will be messy as hell.
  - paulpauper 9y ago
    I would love to buy at a 90% discount. I have some cash on the sidelines for that reason
bhouston 9y ago
Hmm... if I owned any bitcoin I guess i would sell at this point. I can not imagine it just rising like this for much longer, but honestly I do not understand the dynamics of why this is happening so I am just defaulting to "what goes up must come down" type reasoning. Random non-technical people I know are just getting into the cryptomarket this week and last as they have heard it is a good must win investment. But is that really driving up the prices?
eterm 9y ago
> On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity. Whereas this article is the opposite, it has no content. It's just trivia. There's nothing special about crossing $15k, particularly since most trade isn't even denominated in USD.
- bhouston 9y ago
  The story is that it has risen 50% in less than a week. That is an insane rise, and it isn't even fundamentals driven for the most part.
paulpauper 9y ago
No one disputes that it will fall at some point, but obv. no one knows when . All it takes is for some of the major holders who accumulated before 2016 or so to unload and the price will fall a lot.
- nindalf 9y ago
  It would correct a lot quicker if it was easy to short it.
Unknoob 9y ago
I wonder if now would be a good time to invest in ethereum or litecoin. I mean, when the bitcoin bubble burst, will it drag down the price of other cryptocurrencies or cause a mass migration to them?
- kypro 9y ago
  I recently got out of ETH despite being bullish on it longterm because Bitcoin is almost certainly going to crash soon, and I personally believe it will almost certainly add uncertainty into the legitimacy of the entire sector.
- singularity2001 9y ago
  many people will run from bitcoin to ether. many people will run away from cryptocurrencies all together . which crowd is bigger determines the price.
pi-err 9y ago
If you love market panics, you're going to love this one. So many just bathing there with no swimsuit whatsoever.
nindalf 9y ago
At this point its no longer a currency. Steam stopped accepting it, and I doubt anyone wants to buy anything with it. Its just a commodity, but one with no underlying value, perhaps like tulip bulbs. I don't think this is going to end well. Which is a shame, because the blockchain is amazing technology.
- pmlnr 9y ago
  > Which is a shame, because the blockchain is amazing technology. Apart from wasting space (e.g no cleanup even after years), energy, and calculating the nothing, sure, it's amazing. (I might have a different opinion, let the proof of work be calculating SETI, math questions or science problems)
- water_badger 9y ago
  Not trying to disagree with you overall, but the thing that always bothers me about the tulip bulb analogy specifically (or beanie babies, comic books in the 90s, etc.) is that tulip bulbs and beanie babies did have underlying value. A lot people wanted to own them because they were in some sense fashionable objects. The demand brought in speculation and when it faltered because of changing fashions the bubble burst. No one is buying bitcoins to put them on a shelf because they're pretty. As long as Bitcoin goes up or serves in some sense as a financial reserve it's probably not going to "go out of fashion." Of course Bitcoin may still be a bubble, but it would be a bubble for different reasons.
- LyndsySimon 9y ago
  > I doubt anyone wants to buy anything with it I don't understand this sentiment. I bought a new gaming PC last week and not only did I use Bitcoin to do so, but I specifically chose Newegg because they supported Bitcoin payments.
cs702 9y ago
Many are scratching their heads: "WTF? When will Bitcoin come crashing down?" The thing is, if individual and institutional investors decide, in the aggregate, that Bitcoin is a new kind of asset in which they want to have a tiny amount of exposure, the price could still go up much higher. Investors worldwide currently own around $300 trillion in financial assets.[a] If as a group they decide to hold, say, 2% of their wealth in Bitcoin, say, to diversify away from all countries on earth, then Bitcoin's marketcap would go up 30x, from around $200 billion to $6 trillion. The number of bitcoins is fixed, so the price would go by a similar multiple. Note that before Bitcoin it was impossible to diversify away from all countries on earth. [a] http://money.visualcapitalist.com/worlds-money-markets-one-visualization-2017/ http://money.visualcapitalist.com/worlds-money-markets-one-v...
- xiphias 9y ago
  From what I see with my friends (regardless of whether they are rich or poor), most of them want a high exposure compared to their current wealth, not a tiny amount (there are a few exceptions only). They're thinking a lot, then pull the trigger.
- c54 9y ago
  Interesting analysis! Question-- has gold been a way to diversify away from all countries in the past?
jenkstom 9y ago
I think we're beginning to see the end of bitcoin, as much as I love the technology. It'll be a few years (maybe), but it's just too inefficient from a power standpoint. If the protocol is changed to a memory intensive proof-of-work rather than power intensive, or perhaps to a proof-of-stake or other means, then it may survive.
thisisit 9y ago
Another fluff piece about - Bitcoin hits $x. Given the price now on coinmarketcap, we might as well post - "Bitcoin hits $16,000" in couple of hours. What I seriously want this guys to write about: Where is the volume coming from? Bitcoin has crossed 20k on the Zimbawean exchange Golix. So what is happening now?
singularity2001 9y ago
people thinking " Oh I just get out when the price starts falling" are utterly mistaken: Transactions now taking several hours might then take several days. Already getting Error 520 on Kraken
- c0nducktr 9y ago
  Yeah when the price starts falling, the first thing that'll go down is the exchanges, causing more panic. It's not like these sites don't go down all the time anyway now, just wait until there's an actual panic.

30 points by karimf 9y ago

paulpauper 9y ago

man..many Bitcoin websites and APIs lagging and timing out big time

bhouston 9y ago
Just wait until it drops, most people will not be able to cash out until it is likely worth nearly othing. There will be no automatic breaks (I think) that usually happen on large stock market drops. I think it may be technically possible for Bitcoin to drop 90% in a single day and with most people unable to sell at any price if they want it settled on the block chain. It could be Armageddon with nearly everyone holding bitcoint getting wiped out. That MtGox guy should sell his billion of bitcoin soon, like right now. It is a hot potato right now and I wouldn't want to be left holding the bag with things go south. I was a student in the first dotcom bubble and it was similar to this. And people predicted it would drop and then it did drop and basically wiped out the whole tech sector for nearly 3 years.
- laichzeit0 9y ago
  > There will be no automatic breaks (I think) that usually happen on large stock market drops This is a very, very good thing. There are no breaks going up, therefore there should be no breaks going down. What's even better is that Bitcoin is 24/7 so there's not even the option of "waiting for the train to stop" when you're trying to get off.
  - bhouston 9y ago
    The breaks are there to stop panic selling. That is something that was intensional and learned from the 1987 stock market crash.
    - laichzeit0 9y ago
      Then there should equivalently be breaks to stop panic buying, not so?
      - bhouston 9y ago
        They are for both directions: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trading_curb https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trading_curb The trading curbs are incredibly important because if there is false information and everyone rushes to the exit, people can be wiped out in the panic and then find out the next hour that nothing was true. With bitcoin there will likely be settlement issues for days after a crash. It will be messy as hell.
- paulpauper 9y ago
  I would love to buy at a 90% discount. I have some cash on the sidelines for that reason

bhouston 9y ago

Hmm... if I owned any bitcoin I guess i would sell at this point. I can not imagine it just rising like this for much longer, but honestly I do not understand the dynamics of why this is happening so I am just defaulting to "what goes up must come down" type reasoning. Random non-technical people I know are just getting into the cryptomarket this week and last as they have heard it is a good must win investment. But is that really driving up the prices?

eterm 9y ago

> On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity. Whereas this article is the opposite, it has no content. It's just trivia. There's nothing special about crossing $15k, particularly since most trade isn't even denominated in USD.

bhouston 9y ago
The story is that it has risen 50% in less than a week. That is an insane rise, and it isn't even fundamentals driven for the most part.

paulpauper 9y ago

No one disputes that it will fall at some point, but obv. no one knows when . All it takes is for some of the major holders who accumulated before 2016 or so to unload and the price will fall a lot.

nindalf 9y ago
It would correct a lot quicker if it was easy to short it.

Unknoob 9y ago

I wonder if now would be a good time to invest in ethereum or litecoin. I mean, when the bitcoin bubble burst, will it drag down the price of other cryptocurrencies or cause a mass migration to them?

kypro 9y ago
I recently got out of ETH despite being bullish on it longterm because Bitcoin is almost certainly going to crash soon, and I personally believe it will almost certainly add uncertainty into the legitimacy of the entire sector.
singularity2001 9y ago
many people will run from bitcoin to ether. many people will run away from cryptocurrencies all together . which crowd is bigger determines the price.

pi-err 9y ago

If you love market panics, you're going to love this one. So many just bathing there with no swimsuit whatsoever.

nindalf 9y ago

At this point its no longer a currency. Steam stopped accepting it, and I doubt anyone wants to buy anything with it. Its just a commodity, but one with no underlying value, perhaps like tulip bulbs. I don't think this is going to end well. Which is a shame, because the blockchain is amazing technology.

pmlnr 9y ago
> Which is a shame, because the blockchain is amazing technology. Apart from wasting space (e.g no cleanup even after years), energy, and calculating the nothing, sure, it's amazing. (I might have a different opinion, let the proof of work be calculating SETI, math questions or science problems)
water_badger 9y ago
Not trying to disagree with you overall, but the thing that always bothers me about the tulip bulb analogy specifically (or beanie babies, comic books in the 90s, etc.) is that tulip bulbs and beanie babies did have underlying value. A lot people wanted to own them because they were in some sense fashionable objects. The demand brought in speculation and when it faltered because of changing fashions the bubble burst. No one is buying bitcoins to put them on a shelf because they're pretty. As long as Bitcoin goes up or serves in some sense as a financial reserve it's probably not going to "go out of fashion." Of course Bitcoin may still be a bubble, but it would be a bubble for different reasons.
LyndsySimon 9y ago
> I doubt anyone wants to buy anything with it I don't understand this sentiment. I bought a new gaming PC last week and not only did I use Bitcoin to do so, but I specifically chose Newegg because they supported Bitcoin payments.

cs702 9y ago

Many are scratching their heads: "WTF? When will Bitcoin come crashing down?" The thing is, if individual and institutional investors decide, in the aggregate, that Bitcoin is a new kind of asset in which they want to have a tiny amount of exposure, the price could still go up much higher. Investors worldwide currently own around $300 trillion in financial assets.[a] If as a group they decide to hold, say, 2% of their wealth in Bitcoin, say, to diversify away from all countries on earth, then Bitcoin's marketcap would go up 30x, from around $200 billion to $6 trillion. The number of bitcoins is fixed, so the price would go by a similar multiple. Note that before Bitcoin it was impossible to diversify away from all countries on earth. [a] http://money.visualcapitalist.com/worlds-money-markets-one-visualization-2017/ http://money.visualcapitalist.com/worlds-money-markets-one-v...

xiphias 9y ago
From what I see with my friends (regardless of whether they are rich or poor), most of them want a high exposure compared to their current wealth, not a tiny amount (there are a few exceptions only). They're thinking a lot, then pull the trigger.
c54 9y ago
Interesting analysis! Question-- has gold been a way to diversify away from all countries in the past?

jenkstom 9y ago

I think we're beginning to see the end of bitcoin, as much as I love the technology. It'll be a few years (maybe), but it's just too inefficient from a power standpoint. If the protocol is changed to a memory intensive proof-of-work rather than power intensive, or perhaps to a proof-of-stake or other means, then it may survive.

thisisit 9y ago

Another fluff piece about - Bitcoin hits $x. Given the price now on coinmarketcap, we might as well post - "Bitcoin hits $16,000" in couple of hours. What I seriously want this guys to write about: Where is the volume coming from? Bitcoin has crossed 20k on the Zimbawean exchange Golix. So what is happening now?

singularity2001 9y ago

people thinking " Oh I just get out when the price starts falling" are utterly mistaken: Transactions now taking several hours might then take several days. Already getting Error 520 on Kraken

c0nducktr 9y ago
Yeah when the price starts falling, the first thing that'll go down is the exchanges, causing more panic. It's not like these sites don't go down all the time anyway now, just wait until there's an actual panic.