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1 Bitcoin Worth 10 USD
- drivebyacct2 14y agoMuch better than the $3 a while back, but still not close enough to the $14 I paid for mine. (Not very many, just for fun).
- throwaway54-762 14y agoThanks, I placed a sell order at $13.99
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- pizza 14y agoThis won't last; is a bitcoin at least as valuable as 10 USD for people who use BTC?
- Permit 14y agoMost vendors simply convert their USD prices to BTC during the day so anyone who uses them gets ~10USD out of them for the time being.
- mrb 14y agoAs long as its crypto primitives remain secure (SHA-256, Elliptic Curve crypto, RIPEMD), if the Bitcoin economy continues to grow 5x, 10x, 20x, etc, then its value should increase 5x, 10x, 20x, etc, because there is a fixed number of coins available. Both of these assumptions are likely. So I would say, yes, this exchange rate should last (of course there will be some bumps on the road, bubbles, crashes, etc).
- mtgx 14y agoThat's exactly how it should grow - in relation to the growth of the economy. But I worry all these posts about the latest Bitcoin price will push it again on the speculation train.
- btilly 14y agothere is a fixed number of coins available. Not necessarily true! There is slow growth in coins. But if it takes off then we know all of the primitives to make a second bitcoin. Establish one with a price peg to existing bitcoin. If you maintain it long and well enough, it will become accepted as equivalent. Once that happens you've done a big one-time increase in the supply. In fact I would recommend doing this at some point. Because otherwise bitcoin has built-in deflation. That is bad economically because it discourages investment in anything else, like building businesses.
- jimktrains2 14y agoIt's asymptotic growth of coins. There will never be more than x number of bitcoins. (I forget the value x is exactly, but it is a finite, pre-definded number).
- mrb 14y agoCorrect. The fixed number of coins I referred to is 21 million. https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Controlled_Currency_Supply https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Controlled_Currency_Supply
- rictic 14y agoHow would one peg the price to existing bitcoin (honest question)?
- btilly 14y agoSee https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Contracts#Example_5:_Trading_across_chains https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Contracts#Example_5:_Trading_acro... for how to verify trades across currencies without trust. So what you would need to do is have an account in both currencies with large amounts of currency in it, and publicly advertise that you will trade across currencies in some predetermined ratio. If your account has enough currency to succeed in handling people who might deliberately try to trade against you, then you will successfully peg currencies. Admittedly an attempt to provide a peg like this might fail. But what is in it for the entity trying to do it? Quite simply, that entity presumably starts with a much larger amount of the new currency than they used for establishing the peg. If you can successfully create the peg, your net worth decreased by the amount of bitcoin you had to accumulate to create the peg, and increased by the amount of other currency that you had. So you make a handsome profit. (Conversely you have the risk that people will set about mining your new currency and converting it all to bitcoin through your peg, then when you have to abandon the peg you've lost the bitcoin you had to purchase to try to establish said peg.) There are a number of tricks that can improve your odds of establishing a successful peg. But that's the principle.
- waterlesscloud 14y agoThe "market cap" is a hair under $100 million now. I don't see that it's current economy justifies that, it all looks like speculation to me. I've got some bitcoin, a token amount I bought to have some, but I'm skeptical that it's anywhere near being an actual economy yet.
- btdd 14y agoSERIOUSLY, WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU EVEN SAYING? Who are you to make a claim as to if it will last or if it won't or how valuable bitcoins are. >This won't last We have no evidence to the contrary, and in fact, bitcoin being a deflationary currency by definition means it will likely increase in value and, what's more, if you look at the trend it has been increasing in value. If you were to use a single shred of logic then your conclusion would be "it might or might not last", but that's hardly a useful post. >is a bitcoin at least as valuable as 10 USD for people who use BTC? Well, since people are RIGHT NOW paying over 10 dollars for a bitcoin that indicates that yes, yes it is. Seriously, this comment says nothing, provides no useful information, and is also probably wrong. It's one of the worse comments I've seen in my life. Please please please delete your account. Please don't buy a renewal for your internet connection. Please never interact with me, or anyone with an appreciable amount of intelligence, again.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- polshaw 14y ago>We have no evidence to the contrary except the previous mega-crash. >bitcoin being a deflationary uh, no, it's not yet. Masses of new bitcoins are being created every day. That is inflationary (and much more so than USD). @greg_bt: it matters little how you frame it, but the supply of bitcoins is increasing. It will gradually reduce and stop, all of which is predetermined, yes. Today it is inflationary (IIRC its about 15%/y currently, but don't hold me to that), eventually it will be deflationary.
- greg_bt 14y agoI don't know if 'bitcoins are being created every day' is the right way of looking at it? Bitcoins are more discovered as opposed to created. It would be like if every USD ever was buried and people were gradually digging them out of the ground and everyone knew exactly how many were buried? The amount of bitcoins in circulation is increasing but the total amount of bitcoins that will ever exist isn't increasing at all.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- technotony 14y agoIf you look at this data over the max range (http://bitcoincharts.com/charts/mtgoxUSD#tgSzm1g10zm2g25zv http://bitcoincharts.com/charts/mtgoxUSD#tgSzm1g10zm2g25zv) then it looks a lot like the Gartner Hype cycle (http://bit.ly/N1XCnb http://bit.ly/N1XCnb). I wonder if Bitcoin is past the trough of disillusionment and ready for a serious explosion?
- Zombieball 14y agoThis is exactly what Wired magazine pointed out last year: http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/11/mf_bitcoin/all/ http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/11/mf_bitcoin/all/ And this was before the big rally that occurred around New Years.
- sp332 14y agoDid you shorten a link to a Google Images search result? Here's the actual page with the image in it: http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=1447613 http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=1447613
- gwillen 14y agoI'm a strong supporter of bitcoin, and I have a bunch of it, so don't get me wrong. But I suspect we may well be seeing a second big bubble here. Only time will tell.
- ewillbefull 14y agoThis isn't necessarily a bubble, but market reaction to the block reward halving later this year. The decreased inflation will double the value of bitcoins, and this trend was anticipated well in advance.
- jimktrains2 14y agoWhy use a url shortner and/or why not link directly to the article or image?
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- taligent 14y agoI really don't get Bitcoin. What is the point in a currency that ranges from $2 USD to $12 USD in a year ?
- xSwag 14y agoIt seems that people enjoy making a quick buck
- streptomycin 14y agoCommission-free electronic transactions with anyone in the world?
- taligent 14y agoSo it is free to convert from USD to Bitcoin and vice versa ? Because clearly I wouldn't want to hold anything in Bitcoin for a long period of time due to its instability.
- delluminatus 14y agoIt's quite cheap depending on the service. I use bitfloor, which charges some very small commission ($0.01 on a $40 deposit)
- Retric 14y agoSo, there is a transaction fee...
- ghshephard 14y agoNot for the transaction. The fee is for currency exchange. Should BitCoin be used for more than just purchasing products from Silk Road, it's conceivable that people might one day be prepared to use Bitcoins as a standalone currency.
- ghshephard 14y ago
- xSwag 14y agoDamnit I remember when they were less than $1 and thinking to myself "this will never take off". If I had invested $100, I could have sold today for $1K.
- polshaw 14y agoOr $3K last june. It's easy to make great investment decisions with hindsight.
- Symmetry 14y agoAnd I wish I had invested $10K instead of $1K in ARMH back when it was $5. It's easy to see missed financial opportunities in retrospect.
- taligent 14y agoAnd likewise if I had just picked the numbers 2,5,6,7,11,20 in last week's lottery I would have been an overnight multi-millionaire. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.
- sylvinus 14y agoAm I the only one to think Bitcoin is just a big Ponzi scheme benefiting the first users/creators who got all the first ones?
- ghshephard 14y agoBitcoins are used quite a bit for buying/selling goods. I think the latest round of currency increases is mostly a function of people wanting to purchase goods, and needing to "bid up the price" in order to make their purchase. As vendors receive bitcoins, they usually immediately sell them to get back local currency. In the last 6 months, I've never held onto a bitcoin for more than about 30 minutes. Strictly use them for their utility as a currency.
- drivebyacct2 14y agoIf you don't mind me asking, what do you buy with them? I know of only a few things that are only acquirable via Bitcoins, or that couldn't be acquired more cheaply using dollars.
- redthrowaway 14y agoLots of online services, from hosting to DNS to VPNs accept bitcoins. Several online stores accept them, and they're a good way to donate to, eg, Wikileaks or the Manning Defense Fund. As far as the cost of using them, while it is non-zero, some of us just want to do our part in establishing a currency and surrounding ecosystem that is free from gov't, corporate, and other meddling. Thus we accept the small hit in price.
- ghshephard 14y agoMy guess is that 99% of the non-speculative drivers for BitCoin currency are purchases from SilkRoad.
- drivebyacct2 14y agoI lack the courage or foolishness to make such purchases.
- davidklemke 14y agoThis is exactly the last thing BitCoin needs to be successful as a currency. After the speculative bubble last year it started to make some headway as the price remained relatively stable. Now in the past 2 weeks we've seen its value appreciate by 50%, something that just doesn't happen with traditional currencies. It's dangerously reminiscent of what happened last year and shows that the BitCoin economy is still very susceptible to manipulation. If it was just organic growth in the currency I wouldn't say there was an issue but if you look at the transaction volume it's clear that the surge in trading that occurred both a week ago and just recently is what is responsible for the latest increases in value. I don't have enough evidence to say that the price has been deliberately manipulated upwards, and indeed the increase could just be a reflection of the higher demand, but it does call into question how stable BitCoin can be. I'm not an advocate against BitCoin, far from it, but I honestly believe that a highly valued BitCoin is the worst thing it can have as a fluctuating value doesn't benefit users of the currency. The only people who benefit from a high price are the speculators and investors, those who are at odds with BitCoin being a proper currency.
- Alex3917 14y ago"Now in the past 2 weeks we've seen its value appreciate by 50%" Wouldn't surprise me if it crashes again after Burning Man.
- blhack 14y agoWhat do you think burning man has to do with this?
- sliverstorm 14y agoAllegedly people do a lot of drugs at Burning Man, and one of the popular uses for Bitcoins is purchasing drugs without the traceability of a credit card.
- blhack 14y agoI think that you're dramatically overestimating the amount of drugs that people do at burning man. On top of that: if you're bringing drugs to Black Rock City, you probably do drugs in default world anyway, and have a dealer back there for them.
- 32i4jklnflnfljk 14y agoThis won't last, they'll still be worth money, but there is a pretty big security hole in SilkRoad. Once that wallet is emptied the crash is near.
- cs702 14y agoIn the view of many HN members, Bitcoin is a Ponzi scheme. In the view of other HN members, Bitcoin is an experimental crypto currency, the use of which is unlikely ever to expand beyond idealistic hackers, online gamblers, and underground characters. In my view, Bitcoin is likely to gain wide adoption worldwide over the long haul -- that is, over a period of many years or even decades. Its price is therefore bound to rise far above current levels over time. I've laid out my reasoning here: http://cs702.wordpress.com/2011/05/29/on-the-potential-adoption-and-price-appreciation-of-bitcoin-in-the-long-run/ http://cs702.wordpress.com/2011/05/29/on-the-potential-adopt...
- moonchrome 14y agoMany people don't realize how small Bitcoin is. It's trading in the $1M range. That's like few hundred people playing with their savings - low liquidity = high volatility - talking about this as something significant/newsworthy is silly.
- ewillbefull 14y agoBitcoin trading volume over a 30 day period is more than $20 million dollars, which is incredibly notable for an open-source currency which isn't managed or operated by anybody. The technology involved and the implications of its growth are very significant/newsworthy. The fact that it's trading at $10 again is also very significant to the Bitcoin community, it hasn't done that in more than a year. And it'll probably reach 12 by the end of the year before it stabilizes again.
- moonchrome 14y ago>trading volume over a 30 day period is more than $20 million dollars Again - as a currency this is insignificant. I agree that bitcoin is a great technical accomplishment but talking about it's price as it has any meaning outside of a few hackers playing traders is not realistic.
- Unoeufisenough 14y ago
- greyerzer 14y agoOne problem that I have with Bitcoin is its complete dependence on the strength of its crypto. While breaking it may seem impossible at the moment, advances in computation speed and cryptanalysis may one day lead to it being broken. This would basically make Bitcoins worthless overnight. Of course traditional currencies can be forged as well, but printing huge amounts of forged bills and bringing them into circulation involves all sorts of logistical challenges that don't apply in a digital world. Moreover, forged bills are typically not absolutely perfect and can be distinguished from genuine money, this is not possible with a purely digital currency. The fact that paper currencies can be forged is incorporated into the design of the system, whereas the Bitcoin system is based on Bitcoin's crypto being unbreakable.
- jimktrains2 14y agoIt's not just speed, but number of nodes. If someone could, lets say in 10 years, build a block-chain of equal length to then-current one, they would still need to control > 50% of the nodes a significant portion of the network sees.
- csomar 14y agoI'm still convinced that the reason for that is the death of Bitcoinica which offered shorting. Without shorting, the only way to make money on Bitcoin is to go long. That is, the price will keep going up until investors thinks it's too much overvalued and BitCoin will crash again to 4 or 5 USD; the value that shorting stabilized it at.
- bsphil 14y agoThe difficulty in mining a block of 50 BTC is far higher than it was the last time 1 BTC was worth $10.