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It's literally doubled in a month. This is out of control.

patejam 14y ago
And it is terrible for legitimizing them. Why should someone adopt Bitcoins as a currency if there's not a stable value? Bring in all of the security issues that have been popping up as its popularity has increased and I see a decline in Bitcoin adoption coming soon. I don't think Bitcoins are the answer to the problems they are trying to solve.
- Helianthus 14y ago
  Bitcoin hasn't been legitimate for a long time. The last boom-bust they went through proved that and nothing has changed since. If you still have Bitcoins, sell'em and don't buy more, except as an intermediary exchange for your discreet transactions.
  - zwtaylor 14y ago
    If everyone took your second piece of advice and only used it for discrete transactions, then Bitcoin would be worth exponentially more than it is now, which would invalidate your first piece of advice. The number of bitcoin users is still exceptionally small.
    - Helianthus 14y ago
      Implicit in the advice is the (strong) assumption that not everyone's going to take it. -_-
- oscilloscope 14y ago
  Because the cost of accepting them and converting them to currency is less than the transaction fees of credit cards or PayPal. If you don't need to convert to cash right away, then the transaction fees are very low indeed.
  - citricsquid 14y ago
    Not for reddit: So far we're spending more money on accountants handling the non-trivial reconciliation of our BTC transactions than revenue we're making in Bitcoin, haha. Hopefully it will get better. http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/19t3uq/hey_rbitcoin_you_asked_for_some_stats/ http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/19t3uq/hey_rbitcoin...
- rnbrady 14y ago
  And what problems are they "trying" to solve? This is what traction looks like, sometimes it's messy. That doesn't mean it's not legitimate. What does legitimising a currency mean anyway? It's already used as a medium of exchange and a store of value, that's legitimate. But if you are going to try and compare it to the "legitimacy" of fiat money, you're not going to find what you're looking for. Bitcoin is an anarchist concept, it does not seek to be legitimised. It is achieving exactly what is set out to do. you could just see the fluctuations as the currency being honest about its value as opposed to fiat money which is just as vulnerable yet artificially stabilised (legitimised?).
shredfvz 14y ago
Facebook's market cap is $63,000,000,000. If the market cap of Bitcoin were just 10% of Facebook, each Bitcoin would be worth about $500. 1% and it's about $50. Can a global financial system conceivably give the world just 10% of the value of Facebook? Because just ten percent ... and one BTC is $500. Oh, but clearly society demands Farmville, you say? Clearly we don't need a new financial system ... more than we need to know who Joe Bob hooked up with this weekend. As if there's no pain being solved here by Bitcoin. As if there are no problems with USD or the EUR. As if Cypriots are just pissed off over spilled milk right now. After all it's only a "haircut". It's so funny to see how most people on HN are here to make businesses that scale infinitely. What could possibly, POSSIBLY, scale faster and more widely than an open source global currency? The price increase in the last month represents a trickle of people around the globe exchanging fiat for BTC. Just a trickle. Whereas most people are obviously hesitant to invest. That would include most people on HN. The supply of Bitcoin is ridiculously tiny. Only 11,000,000 in total are in circulation today, let alone available for purchase on the market. Sellers wanted. I acquired enough BTC to make me happy without being over the top - and I'm not ever exchanging it back into any other ass backwards asset class, gold and silver (and USD) included. Early adopters of BTC are from what I can tell mostly the same way, if crazier than I am. Bitcoin is valuable because the world desperately needs to escape the current financial system. Individual sovereignty and financial privacy are the most scarce resources on the planet, bar none. It's not too late to acquire BTC, put it in a brainwallet and carry around $10k at all times. Now let's all go back to flinging monkey poop at consumers over the Internet.
- joezydeco 14y ago
  The supply of Bitcoin is ridiculously tiny. Only 11,000,000 in total are in circulation today, let alone available for purchase on the market. Bitcoins can be divided to 8 decimal places at the moment (it could be expanded). So instead of 1.1e7 units, isn't it 1.1e15 units?
  - wmf 14y ago
    Yes, but the exchange rate is quoted in BTC.

And it is terrible for legitimizing them. Why should someone adopt Bitcoins as a currency if there's not a stable value? Bring in all of the security issues that have been popping up as its popularity has increased and I see a decline in Bitcoin adoption coming soon. I don't think Bitcoins are the answer to the problems they are trying to solve.

Helianthus 14y ago
Bitcoin hasn't been legitimate for a long time. The last boom-bust they went through proved that and nothing has changed since. If you still have Bitcoins, sell'em and don't buy more, except as an intermediary exchange for your discreet transactions.
- zwtaylor 14y ago
  If everyone took your second piece of advice and only used it for discrete transactions, then Bitcoin would be worth exponentially more than it is now, which would invalidate your first piece of advice. The number of bitcoin users is still exceptionally small.
  - Helianthus 14y ago
    Implicit in the advice is the (strong) assumption that not everyone's going to take it. -_-
oscilloscope 14y ago
Because the cost of accepting them and converting them to currency is less than the transaction fees of credit cards or PayPal. If you don't need to convert to cash right away, then the transaction fees are very low indeed.
- citricsquid 14y ago
  Not for reddit: So far we're spending more money on accountants handling the non-trivial reconciliation of our BTC transactions than revenue we're making in Bitcoin, haha. Hopefully it will get better. http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/19t3uq/hey_rbitcoin_you_asked_for_some_stats/ http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/19t3uq/hey_rbitcoin...
rnbrady 14y ago
And what problems are they "trying" to solve? This is what traction looks like, sometimes it's messy. That doesn't mean it's not legitimate. What does legitimising a currency mean anyway? It's already used as a medium of exchange and a store of value, that's legitimate. But if you are going to try and compare it to the "legitimacy" of fiat money, you're not going to find what you're looking for. Bitcoin is an anarchist concept, it does not seek to be legitimised. It is achieving exactly what is set out to do. you could just see the fluctuations as the currency being honest about its value as opposed to fiat money which is just as vulnerable yet artificially stabilised (legitimised?).

shredfvz 14y ago

Facebook's market cap is $63,000,000,000. If the market cap of Bitcoin were just 10% of Facebook, each Bitcoin would be worth about $500. 1% and it's about $50. Can a global financial system conceivably give the world just 10% of the value of Facebook? Because just ten percent ... and one BTC is $500. Oh, but clearly society demands Farmville, you say? Clearly we don't need a new financial system ... more than we need to know who Joe Bob hooked up with this weekend. As if there's no pain being solved here by Bitcoin. As if there are no problems with USD or the EUR. As if Cypriots are just pissed off over spilled milk right now. After all it's only a "haircut". It's so funny to see how most people on HN are here to make businesses that scale infinitely. What could possibly, POSSIBLY, scale faster and more widely than an open source global currency? The price increase in the last month represents a trickle of people around the globe exchanging fiat for BTC. Just a trickle. Whereas most people are obviously hesitant to invest. That would include most people on HN. The supply of Bitcoin is ridiculously tiny. Only 11,000,000 in total are in circulation today, let alone available for purchase on the market. Sellers wanted. I acquired enough BTC to make me happy without being over the top - and I'm not ever exchanging it back into any other ass backwards asset class, gold and silver (and USD) included. Early adopters of BTC are from what I can tell mostly the same way, if crazier than I am. Bitcoin is valuable because the world desperately needs to escape the current financial system. Individual sovereignty and financial privacy are the most scarce resources on the planet, bar none. It's not too late to acquire BTC, put it in a brainwallet and carry around $10k at all times. Now let's all go back to flinging monkey poop at consumers over the Internet.

joezydeco 14y ago
The supply of Bitcoin is ridiculously tiny. Only 11,000,000 in total are in circulation today, let alone available for purchase on the market. Bitcoins can be divided to 8 decimal places at the moment (it could be expanded). So instead of 1.1e7 units, isn't it 1.1e15 units?
- wmf 14y ago
  Yes, but the exchange rate is quoted in BTC.