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I don't pretend to know anything about how bitcoin works but it seems to be very volatile. The stock market is bad enough, but this fluctuates wildly just on sp

I don't pretend to know anything about how bitcoin works but it seems to be very volatile. The stock market is bad enough, but this fluctuates wildly just on speculation and seemingly nothing more.

rhizome 13y ago
Hey, just yesterday it was the same price as a share of Apple stock, which is very stable! Now it's even higher, so, maybe think about converting those Standard Oil shares.
hnha 13y ago
What really grinds my gears is that you have to assume that everyone who talks positively about it, just does so to make his bitcoins "worth" more. For that reason alone I hope that it will fail. Speculation and hype should not be rewarded.
- blake8086 13y ago
  I guess by the same token, everyone who doesn't have any has to criticize it to justify their decision not to buy.
  - rsynnott 13y ago
    Nah; some of us are just amused.
  - hnha 13y ago
    well, I have 1.something bitcoins which I once mined because it seemed like an interesting idea for "pseudonymous" online.payments. What it primarily has become utterly disgusts me. I always felt (yeah, it was uneducated) that bitcoin would be something opposed to our financial system with all its unsocial speculation, lies and deceit.
- polarix 13y ago
  Oh, but in this case, they really really should be rewarded. The point is that military might has floated fiat for millenia. Pulling that down will require a lot of mindshare, and it's going to be damn hard without a lot of hype and projection. Luckily we have that power.
  - Brakenshire 13y ago
    In other words, it's an ideological project for Ron Paul types. The rest of us are not interested in going back to a rebranded gold standard
    - gnaritas 13y ago
      One wonders why all this nostalgia for gold, as if it were in any way a better currency than fiat dollars. It's like they don't even acknowledge how terrible gold was as a currency before we finally smartened up and went fiat. The gold economy was a terrible boom/depression continual cycle time and time again; it took fiat currency to end that and stabilize the economy to mere boom/recession cycles that are far more mild.
      - jpadkins 13y ago
        citation? Since fiat in the US, we have the two worst economic crashes (great depression and great recession). Under gold standard, recessions were more common and smaller in impact. To my layman eyes, it looks like we are just smaller, more frequent adjustments for fewer, bigger adjustments. the fiat system allows the central bank to 'kick the can down the road' and hold off economic re-alignment for awhile, but it hasn't shown that it can completely eliminate boom/bust cycle.
        dragonwriter 13y ago
        > Since fiat in the US, we have the two worst economic crashes (great depression and great recession). Under gold standard, recessions were more common and smaller in impact. The US -- and most of the world -- was still on the gold standard at the time of the Great Depression, and in fact some economists have blamed the length and depth of the depression on the gold standard.
- SwellJoe 13y ago
  I have such a tiny holding of BTC that I don't have much of a monetary interest in seeing it explode like it has (I bought 1.5 BTC when it was trading at $200, and 1 more when it was trading at $516), but I do have an interest in seeing the old banking and finance model fail (I might like to see some of the banksters rotting in jail, also, but I'm unlikely to get that dream fulfilled). So, I want BTC to succeed because the world would be a much better place without the old monetary middlemen. Without credit cards taking exorbitant fees from both vendors and consumers. Without banks charging fees to hold your money. Without banks socializing losses and privatizing profits. All of those things become a possibility (not a certainty, but a possibility) with an alternative worldwide currency like Bitcoin.

I don't pretend to know anything about how bitcoin works but it seems to be very volatile. The stock market is bad enough, but this fluctuates wildly just on speculation and seemingly nothing more.

rhizome 13y ago

Hey, just yesterday it was the same price as a share of Apple stock, which is very stable! Now it's even higher, so, maybe think about converting those Standard Oil shares.

hnha 13y ago

What really grinds my gears is that you have to assume that everyone who talks positively about it, just does so to make his bitcoins "worth" more. For that reason alone I hope that it will fail. Speculation and hype should not be rewarded.

blake8086 13y ago
I guess by the same token, everyone who doesn't have any has to criticize it to justify their decision not to buy.
- rsynnott 13y ago
  Nah; some of us are just amused.
- hnha 13y ago
  well, I have 1.something bitcoins which I once mined because it seemed like an interesting idea for "pseudonymous" online.payments. What it primarily has become utterly disgusts me. I always felt (yeah, it was uneducated) that bitcoin would be something opposed to our financial system with all its unsocial speculation, lies and deceit.
polarix 13y ago
Oh, but in this case, they really really should be rewarded. The point is that military might has floated fiat for millenia. Pulling that down will require a lot of mindshare, and it's going to be damn hard without a lot of hype and projection. Luckily we have that power.
- Brakenshire 13y ago
  In other words, it's an ideological project for Ron Paul types. The rest of us are not interested in going back to a rebranded gold standard
  - gnaritas 13y ago
    One wonders why all this nostalgia for gold, as if it were in any way a better currency than fiat dollars. It's like they don't even acknowledge how terrible gold was as a currency before we finally smartened up and went fiat. The gold economy was a terrible boom/depression continual cycle time and time again; it took fiat currency to end that and stabilize the economy to mere boom/recession cycles that are far more mild.
    - jpadkins 13y ago
      citation? Since fiat in the US, we have the two worst economic crashes (great depression and great recession). Under gold standard, recessions were more common and smaller in impact. To my layman eyes, it looks like we are just smaller, more frequent adjustments for fewer, bigger adjustments. the fiat system allows the central bank to 'kick the can down the road' and hold off economic re-alignment for awhile, but it hasn't shown that it can completely eliminate boom/bust cycle.
      - dragonwriter 13y ago
        > Since fiat in the US, we have the two worst economic crashes (great depression and great recession). Under gold standard, recessions were more common and smaller in impact. The US -- and most of the world -- was still on the gold standard at the time of the Great Depression, and in fact some economists have blamed the length and depth of the depression on the gold standard.
SwellJoe 13y ago
I have such a tiny holding of BTC that I don't have much of a monetary interest in seeing it explode like it has (I bought 1.5 BTC when it was trading at $200, and 1 more when it was trading at $516), but I do have an interest in seeing the old banking and finance model fail (I might like to see some of the banksters rotting in jail, also, but I'm unlikely to get that dream fulfilled). So, I want BTC to succeed because the world would be a much better place without the old monetary middlemen. Without credit cards taking exorbitant fees from both vendors and consumers. Without banks charging fees to hold your money. Without banks socializing losses and privatizing profits. All of those things become a possibility (not a certainty, but a possibility) with an alternative worldwide currency like Bitcoin.