Cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, etc)

[landstuhltaylor]

My buddy told me about this when it was in the low double digits.

I feel like a ****ing idiot.

Even after them grabbing Silkroad guy the prices have tripled.

 

[H382]

Man... I heard about this a couple years back, didn't think twice about it. Should have thrown a few hundred bucks its way..

 

[TheLeastOfTheBunch]

Tripled in value in 2 and a half weeks..

 

[Unaffiliated]

Hindsight is 20/20.

 

[La Cosa Nostra]

It won't last. Even in the long run paper money is worthless so of course an imaginary currency is worth less then money because with paper bills you can still use it. Money is only worth what we believe it to be. Paper money is a promise by the issuing country/government that it will honor the value.

 

[Michael Gary Scott]

Some guy at my school is saying he traded 4500 bitcoins and made just under 3 million USD this morning. At first I cried foul, but this dude is some crazy computer genius so I really am starting to believe it.

Added pic guy posted on FB. Craziness.

 

[TheLeastOfTheBunch]

So bitcoin price doubled again..

 

[beowulf]

A British man inadvertently threw out $7.5 million worth of bitcoin when he tossed his obsolete hard drive in the trash last summer.

 

[Fixed to Ruin]

A British man inadvertently threw out $7.5 million worth of bitcoin when he tossed his obsolete hard drive in the trash last summer.

Don't you hate when that happens

 

[beowulf]

Don't you hate when that happens

Tell me about it.

 

[Kane One]

So can someone tell me what the point is of Bitcoin?

I don't understand the point of using this is over more traditional currency.. All this just looks like a hassle to get into unless you are trying to invest in it.

But to use it to buy and sell things, I don't see the point.

 

[Hurt]

Newport Lamborghini offers cars using Bitcoin as currency...

First person buys a Tesla S.

http://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-purchased-with-bitcoin-2013-12

Is Bitcoin (or something similar) going to be the future of currency or is this a fad that is extending its shelf life?

I think we will see Bitcoin or a similar product in the future become more prominent over the coming years. With ATMS dedicated to bitcoin appearing and now this, who's to say if many more percentage of transactions will occur with bitcoin.

 

[Knave]

Isn't there a limited supply based on computing power or something?

So in the future assuming bitcoin stays relevant won't it become a tool for the rich, companies, governments only?

An alternative to bitcoin for regular people simply becomes a solution looking for a problem - easier to just let paypal, credit cards, banks, financial institutions do the work for you in exchanging USD/EUR/CAD/YEN/RMB (etc....).

 

[Captain Awesome]

I think it's a fad, the market is too volatile for it to be of any use to anyone who wants to invest large amounts of money into it. Give it some time and you'll see a 1930's like market crash on bit coin because it doesn't have the checks and balances of most popular currencies around the world. Once that happens I'm not really sure how excited people will be about accepting bit coin anywhere.

 

[Do Make Say Think]

http://www.economist.com/news/techn...cally-elegant-increasingly-popular-and-highly

The system is now straining at the seams. Its computational underpinnings have collectively reached 100 times the performance of the world’s top 500 supercomputers combined: more than 50,000 petaflops. Bitcoin’s success has revealed three weaknesses in particular. It is not as secure and anonymous as it seems; the “mining” system that both increases the Bitcoin supply and ensures the integrity of the currency has led to an unsustainable computational arms-race; and the distributed-ledger system is becoming unwieldy. Will Bitcoin’s self-correcting mechanisms, and the enlightened self-interest of its users, be able to address these weaknesses and keep Bitcoin on the rails?

For those who aren't familiar with the currency

I think it's a bust waiting to happen

 

[Defeatist*]

Man it's too late to jump on it now, but I wish I got in on this back in the day. It may be a fad and die off, but if you trade it in for cold hard cash today like that one guy who made 1 million off it, then it makes no difference if it's a fad once you cashed out for real money.

 

[SniperHF]

Merged with the general bitcoin thread since discussion veered that way.

 

[Hurt]

How dare you.

 

[Captain Awesome]

Yeah I remember hearing about bitcoin a few years back. If I had taken it seriously I might be a millionaire by now. Oh well, who knew some person's unofficial currency would be worth anything at all a few years later, it sounded stupid at the time (it still does).

 

[beowulf]

http://247wallst.com/banking-financ...rrency-bitcoin-just-get-a-terminal-diagnosis/

The phenomenal move in Bitcoin has been monumental, but a serious dose of reality is now hitting the virtual currency. Having risen from less than $100 to more than $1,200 made Bitcoin the new virtual gold trade, but on a parabolic basis. Now the currency has received a crushing blow from China, and the currency was called a bubble by former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan.

24/7 Wall St. has been more than puzzled by the rise of Bitcoin. It is a virtual currency, limited to 21 million full units, and you cannot ever physically hold a bitcoin. There is no nation behind it that can levy a tax, there are no physical resources behind it and there is no armed forces system that can defend its interests.

China looked as though it would endorse Bitcoin, but the Chinese dealt the currency a reversal of fortune. The People’s Bank of China announced that Bitcoin was barred from use in all of China’s financial institutions. The good news is that individuals and non-financial companies can still use Bitcoin. The bad news is that the bank says they do so at their own risk.

 

[TheLeastOfTheBunch]

Lost ~40%-50% of its value overnight

 

[flyersguy33*]

Lost ~40%-50% of its value overnight

Down to $550 a share. Buy now!!!!

 

[Do Make Say Think]

Down to $550 a share. Buy now!!!!

Do you know WHY it lost so much value?

http://www.economist.com/blogs/schumpeter/2013/12/bitcoins-collapse

To be fair, the Chinese cannot really be blamed for the collapse. It has been clear for weeks the currency is in the midst of a huge speculative bubble. Speak to Bitcoin enthusiasts and it soon becomes clear that they while they think that Bitcoin will revolutionise online payments, they are mostly buying it in the hope of selling it off for a profit later. A few drug users aside, no one appears to be buying it as a way to buy things. Such demand could only reverse.

Unless an actual, popular use for the currency is found it's not going back up to where it was a month or so ago

 

[Ceremony]

Lost ~40%-50% of its value overnight

Blame the Chinese: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-25428866

 

[flyersguy33*]

Do you know WHY it lost so much value?

http://www.economist.com/blogs/schumpeter/2013/12/bitcoins-collapse



Unless an actual, popular use for the currency is found it's not going back up to where it was a month or so ago

Was aware. Only making a joke.