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As an established currency we can only assume it'll become as largely uninteresting as the others (major economic events aside). Of course, we need the infrastr

As an established currency we can only assume it'll become as largely uninteresting as the others (major economic events aside). Of course, we need the infrastructure and diversification of exchanges etc. etc. I for one will be pretty disappointed if in a few years people can still make money shorting BTC and DDoS'ing exchange front-ends.

brador 13y ago
A flash crash will be caused by panic selling. And it will happen soon after average joe gets a way to sell his bitcoins into traditional currency, reliably, within an hour or a day. And it will be unstoppable. The current stability/rise is from a reluctance to sell, which dissapears fast when markets are falling. This is why Bitcoin is essentially a pyramid scheme. People are gonna get burnt. The Vancouver ATM shows the authorities still don't know what they're dealing with and how to apply the laws already in place in this area.
- asciimo 13y ago
  How did "average joe" purchase the the bitcoins that he is unable to sell? When this hypothetical selloff occurs, who will buy his bitcoins? How is this hypothetical selloff different than those that have already occurred in the bitcoin markets? Why will it be unstoppable? Please explain the "current stability" of bitcoin that you referenced. How is bitcoin like a pyramid scheme (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyramid_scheme http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyramid_scheme)? What are the laws that the Vancouver ATM is circumventing? Thank you in advance.
  - betterunix 13y ago
    "How did "average joe" purchase the the bitcoins that he is unable to sell?" The same way he purchased stock he could not sell of. Time elapsed between the buying and the selling. "When this hypothetical selloff occurs, who will buy his bitcoins?" Who buys stock during a sell-off? There will be people who believe that Bitcoin will rise again, and who see a chance to profit from that.
- xixi77 13y ago
  "slow boom, fast crash" is pretty much a property of any financial investment of any kind. Most assuredly, it will be the case with bitcoins as well. It hasn't destroyed stocks, it hasn't destroyed bonds (which not very easy to sell btw, but crash just fine), it won't destroy bitcoin either. It's exactly the opposite -- it's lack of an ability to quickly turn bitcoins into regular currency, and slowness of transaction processing, that has a chance of dooming the whole enterprise. As it stands, these are constraints on growth, and an incentive to develop and use alternatives. BTW, the "flash crash" term is usually used to refer to transitory liquidity events followed by equally fast recoveries, rather than regular busts after which price tends to stay depressed for a while, which seems to be what you are talking about here.
- BTCatFidorBank 13y ago
  Hi Brador, here i can give more infos on that: Our partnerplatform Bitcoin.de will enable near-relatime trading & settlement of Bitcoins for German customers. And with realtime, we are talking about seconds to max. a few minutes. Regards from Munich, Florian

brador 13y ago

A flash crash will be caused by panic selling. And it will happen soon after average joe gets a way to sell his bitcoins into traditional currency, reliably, within an hour or a day. And it will be unstoppable. The current stability/rise is from a reluctance to sell, which dissapears fast when markets are falling. This is why Bitcoin is essentially a pyramid scheme. People are gonna get burnt. The Vancouver ATM shows the authorities still don't know what they're dealing with and how to apply the laws already in place in this area.

asciimo 13y ago
How did "average joe" purchase the the bitcoins that he is unable to sell? When this hypothetical selloff occurs, who will buy his bitcoins? How is this hypothetical selloff different than those that have already occurred in the bitcoin markets? Why will it be unstoppable? Please explain the "current stability" of bitcoin that you referenced. How is bitcoin like a pyramid scheme (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyramid_scheme http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyramid_scheme)? What are the laws that the Vancouver ATM is circumventing? Thank you in advance.
- betterunix 13y ago
  "How did "average joe" purchase the the bitcoins that he is unable to sell?" The same way he purchased stock he could not sell of. Time elapsed between the buying and the selling. "When this hypothetical selloff occurs, who will buy his bitcoins?" Who buys stock during a sell-off? There will be people who believe that Bitcoin will rise again, and who see a chance to profit from that.
xixi77 13y ago
"slow boom, fast crash" is pretty much a property of any financial investment of any kind. Most assuredly, it will be the case with bitcoins as well. It hasn't destroyed stocks, it hasn't destroyed bonds (which not very easy to sell btw, but crash just fine), it won't destroy bitcoin either. It's exactly the opposite -- it's lack of an ability to quickly turn bitcoins into regular currency, and slowness of transaction processing, that has a chance of dooming the whole enterprise. As it stands, these are constraints on growth, and an incentive to develop and use alternatives. BTW, the "flash crash" term is usually used to refer to transitory liquidity events followed by equally fast recoveries, rather than regular busts after which price tends to stay depressed for a while, which seems to be what you are talking about here.
BTCatFidorBank 13y ago
Hi Brador, here i can give more infos on that: Our partnerplatform Bitcoin.de will enable near-relatime trading & settlement of Bitcoins for German customers. And with realtime, we are talking about seconds to max. a few minutes. Regards from Munich, Florian