Bitcoin sell-off

[anonymous-user]

Digga said:

I guess it is possible that some government or central bank somewhere might take exception to the bicoin and attempt sabotage.

My guess is this may be happening, there is a well known website who are selling naughty things using bitcoins. Latest estimates are £1-£2 million worth of transactions, per month, every month

[hairykrishna]

I don't really know how they'd sabotage it. The actual per bitcoin value is irrelevant if you're doing a 'normal currency'->bitcoin->goods transaction. Silk Road is hedged so fluctuations are irrelevant to the sellers too.

[130R]

In hindsight it would have been a good idea to build a mining rig back in 2009. I think it's a waste of time now though unless you have an ASIC (and who is going to build a money making machine and sell it to you?)

[Oakey]

[DonnyMac]

...and can triple your money in 24 hours

[Oakey]

They're at $95 now... they were $157 about an hour ago.

I read a great comment elsewhere along the lines of

"Bitcoin, the only currency that can significantly change in value between clicking 'buy' and the 'Are you sure?' prompt"

ETA: $92 now

[Otispunkmeyer]

hornet said:

Be interesting to know who is behind the attacks on Bitcoin - Government action to destroy confidence or organised crime engineering bubbles and dips to cash in? Certain people in the alternative media and blogosphere and been crowing about Bitcoin lately, so I wonder if this is a reaction to that?

I did read an article that discussed those possibilities. They argued that the way bitcoin is set up, it favors those with the most computing power. In essence a group could club together to pool their resources and end up harvesting more than they would have normally affecting supply/demand.

The key with money is trust. From what I read it seems the trust in Bitcoin could be eroded very quickly if a group of hackers can rob you blind in an instant.

it also sounded a bit Ponzi in the sense that existing users required a decent supply of new users.

[Magog]

I too don't really get it, whats to stop the Bitcoin being superseded in the future by Bitcoin 2.0 or something else?

[iphonedyou]

PugwasHDJ80 said:

but to be fair all our cash is money for nothing- it has no tangible value, it just has the value that everyone "accepts" it has. You can't eat it, cook with it, make shelter out of it etc

its only safety is that our cash is a scarce resource- you can't easily make it yourself (the same as gold in most respects).

There's no reason why Bitcoin couldn't be accepted, any more than you accept the digits on your internet banking mean you have money!

Oh, digits - plural. Check you.

[anonymous-user]

Simblade said:

This is the third thing I've heard about this in a week. I'll admit I'm intrigued! You got a link to more info suitable for posting here?

The Wiki page is a good read gives a nice overview. To be fair googling the name won't bring you any naughty or troublesome results just more info.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silk_Road_(marketpl...

[Gene Simmons]

I dd umm and aaaaah about buying some a while back. As touched upon earlier websites like the Silk Road accept them , however it all seems a bit pie in the sky to me and I don't want to get turned over.....

I am a Luddite though :-)

[gamefreaks]

I think the fundamental concept of of BitCoin is sound. Given time, the exchange rate vs tangible items will settle down and acceptance will increase.

I bet the EU couldn't snatch 10% of your BitCoins, and I'd rather have currency supply controlled by an algorithm than the BOE.

The only problem I see is that the BTC algorithm seems to slow supply over time but the world population is growing. (and hence mining and making more tangible goods to buy!) The algorithm doesn't seem to match the supply of stuff to buy!

[Ozzie Osmond]

The words "Bitcoin" and "Bubble" both start with letter "B".

It's no co-incidence.

[DonnyMac]

gamefreaks said:

I think the fundamental concept of of BitCoin is sound. Given time, the exchange rate vs tangible items will settle down and acceptance will increase.

I bet the EU couldn't snatch 10% of your BitCoins, and I'd rather have currency supply controlled by an algorithm than the BOE.

The only problem I see is that the BTC algorithm seems to slow supply over time but the world population is growing. (and hence mining and making more tangible goods to buy!) The algorithm doesn't seem to match the supply of stuff to buy!

can purchase .0000000 of a bit coin, you'll be fine.

[Oakey]

Just purchasing Bitcoins goes against everything you've ever learned you shouldn't do the internet.

[limpsfield]

It's like the NASDAQ boom and bust on crack cocaine. Fascinating week so far.

[Digga]

Oakey said:

Just purchasing Bitcoins goes against everything you've ever learned you shouldn't do the internet.

I think I'm a bit like Buffet - if I don't understand it, I'm not going to put any of my capital into it. I probably miss at least as many opportunities (I'm not that bright, so there's plenty that perplexes me) that way as I do disasters, but I'm happy with that compromise for now.

[speedy_thrills]

What's fascinating is to see if in the long term the price becomes more stable. I've always wondered if markets where inherently irrational or come to be stable without intervention as Friedrich Hayek might have predicted.

I suspect the former to be true and the inherent instability of BTC will mean the currency gets replaced with something better and somehow more complete. The idea of one global currency without a central issuing authority has significant appeal however.

[Digga]

There was an article in the Economist's weekly roundup last night: http://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economic...

The Economist said:

New Bitcoins have to be “mined”, meaning users can acquire them by having their computers compete to solve complex mathematical problems (the winners get the virtual cash).

Now I'm still none the wiser. Do all bitcoins get 'mined' first, before you can use them, or can you accept a bitcoin 'payment' from someone and then you go and 'mine' that?

[speedy_thrills]

Digga said:

Now I'm still none the wiser. Do all bitcoins get 'mined' first, before you can use them, or can you accept a bitcoin 'payment' from someone and then you go and 'mine' that?

Mined. I suppose you could sell a future by paying a margin to bridge finance it.

I'm surprised no one has started a Bitcoin Bank yet given it would avoid many constrains placed on banks currently.