Bitcoin surges to all-time high above $1,700
The bull run going on with Bitcoin right now is very concerning to me. There's been no recent improvements to the utility of Bitcoin, instead there's been scaling issues and an ugly, contentious civil war over how to solve it. It's utility if anything has dropped considerably, as mining fees have become far higher than traditional methods and more unpredictable, leaving smaller transactions to sometimes take 16+ hours to confirm, even with the default fees set by the wallet.
Historically, a lot of this activity tends to be from unregulated exchanges in Asia, many of whom could be engaging in some form of price manipulation (it wouldn't be the first time - google for Willy Bot). My Bitcoin friends in town have started to joke that the reason it's going up is just the word "China", because it tends to be a repeated explanation of why the price is increasing, suggesting to me that nobody really knows what's going on or even where the demand is coming from.
I'm not anti-bitcoin, but I'd vastly prefer to see a slow, stable increase in price based on the currency improving in utility, not these giant blasts of speculation that, IMHO, only work to discredit Bitcoin as a serious instrument for financial systems. An extreme example of how bad this is getting right now that I seriously hope is just a joke: https://np.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/6a3lvd/today_i_took...
Currency isn't SUPPOSED to be this volatile.
Currency is NOT supposed to be an investment mechanism in and of itself.
If I buy a loaf of bread for $1 now, I should be able to buy a loaf of bread for $1, 10 years from now.
Currency inflation is BAD, and so is currency deflation.
Stability is GOOD.
The fact that bitcoin's value keeps skyrocketing proves that it is a speculative currency which is too volatile for use. The only way I would trust bitcoin for anything would be for short-term holding to transfer value from point a to b, and then convert it back into a stable currency.
The only way I would invest in Bitcoin is if I was totally okay with potentially losing every penny I invested. It could literally drop to zero tomorrow if something happened to it (like a major country making it illegal, for example).
Interesting to note that at the same time bitcoin's dominance in the cryptocurrency market is down to 55.5%, hugging historic lows. http://coinmarketcap.com/charts/#dominance-percentage
Still remember when it was $7 per bitcoin and sort of a joke. Hard to believe it's worth over $1700 now.
The reason BitCoin has spiked is because it is the most supported crypto currency and the easiest to get hold of when setting up your wallet with a bank or exchange.
There has been and influx of people trying to buy Etherium but first they need to buy BitCoin.
Where does the $52 billion market valuation come from? All BTC ever created or those traded recently?
Any evidence of the # of coins lost forever? I know I had one or two from the early days that got forgotten and lost with a hard drive wipe.
Also, do BTC disappearing from circulation affect the currency differently than a fiat currency?
I'm still waiting for my MtGox coins to be returned :_(
It's not just bitcoin. ETH and LTC have both spiked in price recently as well - ~2x for ETH, and ~3x for LTC, vs. prices 30 days ago.
For anyone who is interested in looking at some growth data take a look at this chart showing the worldwide value transfer of Bitcoins through localbitcoins denominated in USD:
It's amazing to me how many people on HN don't really get why Bitcoin is valuable.
The simplest way of putting it: if one doesn't believe gold is going to imminently plunge in value, then there you go. That's why Bitcoin is valuable. It's digital gold. The analogy isn't perfect, but as far as analogies go, it is a very good one.
It's killing me too because I'm waiting on the next correction to come before buying any more, but I thought that was going to happen earlier and I'm kicking myself for not buying some a week ago.
The future looks bright for cryptocurrencies, but I don't want to buy some at 1700 and feel like a fool when it crashes back down to 1100
Of course the price of Bitcoin is going to keep rising due to the fixed amount of coins that can be mined and all the long forgotten stale accounts with coins just sitting in them. There will be a real issue with the velocity of coins exchanged decreasing over time as they're horded in this fashion.
Some of these exchanges have come a long way and the volatility makes it great to trade cryptos. I still view it as the wild west, so scammers everywhere, but where there is chaos there is profit!
TL;DR: "sky is the limit", "this is not a bubble but a new paradigm", "the price is going up because of China", "buy before it gets too late", etc.
It's not just Bitcoin. I see most cryptocurrencies going up in recent months. Probably people and organizations pouring money from other assets into cryptocurrencies, as these are not taxed and not subject to state/central bank control.
For speculation on short term direction, current price of BTC which is above $1,750 is a SELL. This move is parabolic and looks to be complete. I'd put a stop loss for a short trade at $1,875.
Went to a bitcoin conference recently and met a plumber who had quit his job to margin trade altcoins. I think a lot of his positions would have been wiped out in the beartrap 12 hours ago.
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I'd like to understand where the trade flow is coming from, it may have something to say about other, legitimate markets. That's way more interesting and valuable.
Anyone know a creative way I could go short bitcoin over a long time period? eg. >5yrs
its clearly going up now because... its going up. its a cycle.
I can't tell you that Bitcoin is a scam, but I can tell you that if I were going to devise a Ponzi for the 21st century, Bitcoin is what it would look and feel like.
Historically, as soon as bitcoin makes national press, it drops. Amateur investors jump on without the stomach for the hiccups, leading to the subsequent virtual "bank run"
I think I can claim that I wrote the 1st academic paper on Bitcoin in early 2011. Anyone else trying to claim that title? :)
Unfortunately I was broke in school so bought and sold only a few coins. Asked my lawyer dad for money, he laughed, just as all my Wharton finance friends did.
https://www.scribd.com/document/86764784/Diepenbrock-Bitcoin...