Bitcoin Surges Past $11K. Is It Finally Gaining Acceptance? (cointelegraph.com) 182
The price of Bitcoin surged past $11,000 today -- less than 24 hours after surging past $10,000.
Ars Technica points out Bitcoin's price has tripled in less than six months, "after crashing from an all-time high around $19,500 in December 2017." And as the price of Ethereum rose above $300 for the first time in nearly a year, Mashable writes that the total value of all cryptocurrencies is now over $300 billion, and suggests the new price milestones may indicate a broader awareness: The $10,000 and the $300 price levels for Bitcoin and Ethereum, respectively, are important psychological barriers, and not only because they're nice and round. Last time, those levels were when the 'cab driver' effect was in full swing: Everyone was talking about Bitcoin; Coinbase was adding hundreds of thousands of users on a weekly basis. People who'd never even considered stocks were suddenly stocking up on Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies.
"Details about Facebook's long-awaited cryptocurrency brought significant attention to the industry as a whole," reports the Street, "and created anticipation that markets could move higher." Not only will Facebook's cryptocurrency, Libra, introduce the platform's 2.5 billion users to cryptocurrencies, but the project doesn't take direct aim at bitcoin. Rather than striving to supplant the first and still-most-popular digital currency, Libra caters to the 1.7 billion unbanked around the world by striving to provide a fast, affordable and reliable way to send and receive money...
There is growing evidence that investors view bitcoin has a hedge against global instability, and several factors are creating FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) in traditional financial markets.
To that point, Forbes reports that "Bitcoin's growing reputation as a 'digital gold' could mean it becomes treated as a safe-haven asset in times of crisis, and the U.K.'s looming Brexit might demonstrate that." Nigel Green, chief executive of the financial advisory group deVere, tells them that "One such way that many are looking to diversify their portfolios and hedge against legitimate risks posed by Brexit is by investing in crypto assets, such as bitcoin."
Ars Technica points out Bitcoin's price has tripled in less than six months, "after crashing from an all-time high around $19,500 in December 2017." And as the price of Ethereum rose above $300 for the first time in nearly a year, Mashable writes that the total value of all cryptocurrencies is now over $300 billion, and suggests the new price milestones may indicate a broader awareness: The $10,000 and the $300 price levels for Bitcoin and Ethereum, respectively, are important psychological barriers, and not only because they're nice and round. Last time, those levels were when the 'cab driver' effect was in full swing: Everyone was talking about Bitcoin; Coinbase was adding hundreds of thousands of users on a weekly basis. People who'd never even considered stocks were suddenly stocking up on Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies.
"Details about Facebook's long-awaited cryptocurrency brought significant attention to the industry as a whole," reports the Street, "and created anticipation that markets could move higher." Not only will Facebook's cryptocurrency, Libra, introduce the platform's 2.5 billion users to cryptocurrencies, but the project doesn't take direct aim at bitcoin. Rather than striving to supplant the first and still-most-popular digital currency, Libra caters to the 1.7 billion unbanked around the world by striving to provide a fast, affordable and reliable way to send and receive money...
There is growing evidence that investors view bitcoin has a hedge against global instability, and several factors are creating FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) in traditional financial markets.
To that point, Forbes reports that "Bitcoin's growing reputation as a 'digital gold' could mean it becomes treated as a safe-haven asset in times of crisis, and the U.K.'s looming Brexit might demonstrate that." Nigel Green, chief executive of the financial advisory group deVere, tells them that "One such way that many are looking to diversify their portfolios and hedge against legitimate risks posed by Brexit is by investing in crypto assets, such as bitcoin."
Didn't you ask that last time? (Score:5, Insightful)
And the time it hit $N, and $M, and $X, and, well, any time it hit any number at all, really.
The answer is still the same.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
There is, and it’s called gold. Like Bitcoin, it no longer serves as a national currency because its supply grows more slowly than the asset base of any modern nation, and so it is now used purely as a store of value.
But unlike BTC, gold is recognized as a being a valuable commodity by all cultures, and has been since the beginning of history. If you buy some and store it in a physically safe place, you’re not going to wake up one morning and find out that some hacker has walked off with all you
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Gold worked as currency in the millennia when the world ran on a zero-sum economy, when the amount of wealth in the world changed little with time. But with the invention of industrial technology in the early 19th century, the annual increase in net wealth began to consistently outpace the added supply of gold. In the US, 19th century banking was constantly short of money, leading to pressure for ‘bimetallism’, or including silver as a monetary base in addition to gold so that more money could b
Re: (Score:2)
If you don't think an inadequate money supply is an issue, you have no understanding of money. It causes the price in terms of goods of money to rise (deflation), making the currency less useful as money. In addition, a steady price rise causes people to hoard the money in speculative of still higher prices, rather than keep on exchanging it for goods. When deflation occurs the currency disappears from circulation. That is exactly what happened to gold in the 19th century.
Re: (Score:1)
Only Bitcoin fits that description.
What about the myriad of alt-coins? Bitcoin's value is based on name recognition, and there's absolutely no reason people couldn't suddenly decide to bail on it and go all in on Etherium, Litecoin, or that even that shit Facebook is launching.
That's the problem with crypto - the value hinges on the will of the mob, and the mob doesn't always behave rationally.
Re: (Score:1)
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: Didn't you ask that last time? (Score:5, Insightful)
Effectively Bitcoin is a pyramid scheme...
If a few owns a huge part of the bitcoins then they can play the market and reap a huge profit from the swings.
Re: Didn't you ask that last time? (Score:2)
A wildly swinging exchange value shows bitcoin to be a speculative vehicle, the opposite of a currency. More of a tulip bulb, beanie baby, or Magic the Gathering Card thing.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Not only that, but each swing becomes less and less risky, because the original capital has been made back thousands of percent so even if towards the end of the scam before people permanently lose interest, it costs more actual cash to drive the price in any direction due to higher (lol) volumes, they can afford to lose it ALL and they will still be coming out way, way, way ahead. The thing about greed is that if they can push the price up a significant amount - sell orders dry up as greedy fuckers want to
Re: (Score:2)
where I have seen some analyses that its a very small number of accounts causing the big swings.
And you bet your ass those accounts are tied to cartels and money laundering.
Re: (Score:2)
Effectively Bitcoin is a pyramid scheme...
If a few owns a huge part of the bitcoins then they can play the market and reap a huge profit from the swings.
Only for people who don't understand what a pyramid scheme is or how it works. No Google is *not* a pyramid scheme. It does not rely on a mechanism of spreading in order to get rich.
Concentrated wealth at the top before initial issue is not only not what defines a pyramid scheme, it's not actually a component on a pyramid scheme at all since pyramid schemes rely on continuous expansion in order to generate wealth. Bitcoin is fundamentally deflationary which is the exact opposite to the core mechanism of a p
Re: (Score:1)
Only for people who don't understand what a pyramid scheme is or how it works.
A pyramid scheme is an investment scam where people joining the scheme are told they'll receive profits from later investors to the scheme (who are also promised the same thing). The scheme rapidly collapses, as it becomes mathematically impossible for all but the earliest "investors" to actually make a profit.
Bitcoin is an investment scam where people joining the scheme expect to be able to sell their Bitcoin to someone else for more than they originally paid for it. The scheme rapidly collapses, as the
Re: (Score:1)
It has been the best investment over the decade for anyone.
Except for the people who lost money, which is precisely where those profits came from. Call it what it really is: gambling
Re: Didn't you ask that last time? (Score:5, Insightful)
Ponzis do not go up in value. They only go one direction and that is to the higher ups. Money is never returned.
You clearly have no clue how ponzi schemes work. Ponzi paid off the early investors with money from the new investors, while promising higher and higher returns. In fact, THATS THE FUCKING DEFINITION of a ponzi scheme.
Stop being idiots /. AND GET WITH THE PROGRAM.
The program of being a dishonest ignorant fuck while calling people idiots?
Re: (Score:2)
Bitcoin is the least like a pyramid scheme. It has been the best investment over the decade for anyone.
Actually, no. Here's a simple mathematical fact: The money paid to investors (and scammers) is exactly equal to the money paid by unsuspecting victims, minus the cost of producing bitcoin, the cost of trading, and the cost of running all the infrastructure. And that cost is substantial. So there has been a lot more money paid in than money paid out. And it doesn't matter one bit how much a bitcoin is worth on the paper, this will never change. All current bitcoin owners added together have suffered a major
Sure (Score:4, Insightful)
For criminals and drug addicts.
NO IT IS NOT GAINING ACCEPTANCE!!! (Score:1)
Bitcoin price had risen above $19K before & it seemed unstoppable to many but what happened later???
IMHO, this is just whales doing another huge pump & dump cycle!!!
IMHO, all cryptocurrencies are just a new kind of scam, similar to Ponzi Scheme!!!
Isn't printing & issuing your own currency and/or stocks illegal & for really good reasons???
But isn't that what exactly cryptocurrencies really are doing???
Why do you think "Satoshi" took first 1 MILLION BITCOINS for himself & disappeared into
Re:NO IT IS NOT GAINING ACCEPTANCE!!! (Score:5, Interesting)
IMHO, this is just whales doing another huge pump & dump cycle!!!
Quite possibly. Probably, really.
Why do you think "Satoshi" took first 1 MILLION BITCOINS for himself & disappeared into hiding???
Maybe he's dead or the wallet is lost otherwise he's got the patience of a saint. None of them have been touched since the inception.
Bitcoin passes $1, net worth $1M. Does not cash out.
Bitcoin passes $10, net worth $10M. Does not cash out.
Bitcoin passes $100, net worth $100M. Does not cash out.
Bitcoin passes $1000, net worth $1B. Does not cash out.
Bitcoin passes $10000, net worth $10B. Does not cash out.
What person, unless they were already born into ridiculous wealth, would not start dipping into these funds? Not even 1% so they can buy a mansion and a sports car? Nobody knows for sure, but we can speculate based on how long it's been since they've been in a transaction. I bet lots of people have lost Bitcoins due to neglect or lack of backups and how many people have a plan to tell the next of kin of their wallet and password? I have the feeling a lot more Bitcoins are dead than anyone imagines. If they had some kind of expiry date like bank notes where you have to 1:1 swap them for new coins every X years or they become invalid the pool would shrink considerably.
Re: (Score:2)
Not even 1% so they can buy a mansion and a sports car?
How do you know he didn't ?
Re:NO IT IS NOT GAINING ACCEPTANCE!!! (Score:5, Informative)
Not even 1% so they can buy a mansion and a sports car?
How do you know he didn't ?
The public ledger. :-)
Re: (Score:2)
The public ledger. :-)
But do you know all of Satoshi's addresses to check ? :)
Re: (Score:2)
The ledger is public so all addresses with large balances are well known.
Is it possible that Satoshi has little pockets left in individual wallets? Yes. But even then he'd have to have bought them back via means that couldn't be linked to his original wallet. It is even possible that he, she or they, bought bitcoin at a later date on an open exchange and are still holding next eggs.
There are several problems attached to Satoshi's wallet.
It is well known, so any transaction would probably immediately trigger
Re: (Score:2)
Let's say they already have a comfortable tech salary. Dipping into their bitcoin stash would let them buy some fancy things, like cars and houses, which would let them live more nicely but which they don't really need. That sounds enticing until you realize the alternative: Hold onto the bitcoins until they possibly become worth not $10 billion, but $1 trillion. That wouldn't make them just wealthy - it would make them powerful on the level of the dictator of a mid-sized country. Wouldn't it be worth savin
Re: (Score:2)
I have no problem admitting that if I had an easy means such as a stash of 1 million bitcoin, I would choose to be obscenely wealthy.
But I would choose the certainty of cashing out half and be happy with 5 Billion worth of luxury and influence while still enjoying the outside chance of becoming 10 times more rich.
Personally, I think whoever in in control of that wallet knows that if they make even a single transfer is made, a lot of powerfull people will start searching and following the trail and not quit
Re: (Score:1)
Why do you think "Satoshi" took first 1 MILLION BITCOINS for himself & disappeared into hiding???
And you have proof of this? How did you arrive to this deduction? Especially since no one even knows who s/he is. And you yourself were definitely the first bitcoin adopter AFTER Satoshi that you checked the logs and know exactly that everything owned before you joined are only owned by a single person, who can only be Satoshi? People have been MURDERED for money and nations thrown in RUINS. But you think someone will draw the line at, maybe, lying a little. Online?
Re: (Score:2)
Not in the US. If you want to publicly sell your stock to general public, there are a lot of rules regarding disclosure, shareholder rights, etc. but you can totally make a company and start selling shares right now. It'll just take a lot of compliance fees. (A lot of those fees go away when you're not SEC-compliant, but that means only employees/qualified investors can own equity.) In the meantime, you
Re: (Score:2)
I don't know a single place I can spend bitcoin (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
You can use bitcoin at overstock.com, Newegg, Microsoft's store, the Xbox store, Expedia, Dish Network to name a few. It's out there, you're just not paying attention to it.
Few actually "accepting", don't really touch BTC (Score:5, Informative)
You can use bitcoin at overstock.com, Newegg, Microsoft's store, the Xbox store, Expedia, Dish Network to name a few. It's out there, you're just not paying attention to it.
Few vendors "accepting" bitcoin ever touch or even see a bitcoin. If a customer wishes to pay in bitcoin the transaction is handed off to a bitcoin payment processing service. This service will be given a fiat price (US Dollar, Euro, etc), they will do a real-time conversion into bitcoin and present the customer with that bitcoin amount and a payment address. If and when the payment shows up at that address and is verified the original retailer is notified and their account is credited with the exact fiat amount they originally specified. The retail never saw nor touched a bitcoin, their pricing and accounting is purely in fiat, they were never exposed to any bitcoin price volatility, their tax reporting was not complicated by trading is assets (bitcoins), etc.
.. oh wait .. they dropped bitcoin in December.
You left Steam off your list
Re:Few actually "accepting", don't really touch BT (Score:4, Informative)
Few vendors "accepting" bitcoin ever touch or even see a bitcoin
Right, and if I buy something from a vendor in the US or China, they never ever touch or even see a Euro.
Re: (Score:2)
Few vendors "accepting" bitcoin ever touch or even see a bitcoin
Right, and if I buy something from a vendor in the US or China, they never ever touch or even see a Euro.
An international vendor in China that only sees or touches a renminbi (yuan) would be quite the rarity.
They may need USD or EUR for some of their suppliers, parts, materials, etc. To pay for local shipping, local support, etc. They likely do some pricing and accounting in USD or EUR, and have accounts with those fiat currencies, as a convenience and to avoid exchange or processing fees. For business to business transactions they may very well be wiring USD or EUR from one account to another. Its a comple
Re: (Score:1)
Vaporcoin
Re: (Score:2)
To be fair the same can be said about nearly every online payment service. That's not to say that Bitcoin isn't still useless as a transaction tool due to volatility, but companies fundamentally often are completely isolated from the payment type and mechanism. I pay for something worth 20 pounds, my bank shows that 22.40 Euros was deducted from my account, and that the bank did not do any currency conversion.
Bitcoin via payment processor is no less abstract than any current via payment processor, or any cr
Re: (Score:2)
If the GP wants to refer to a situation where bitcoin is endorsed then an individual transferring value globally to another individual is a better example. Even there the endorsement is rather mild given that sender and receiver will both typically not hold bitcoins, rather buy and transf
Re: I don't know a single place I can spend bitcoi (Score:2)
Not a safe haven (Score:3)
A currency with a wildly fluctuating price relative to goods and other currencies, and which requires complex distributed infrastructure for transactions, is exactly the opposite of a "safe haven".
Re: (Score:2)
Plenty of people who buy gold as a "safe haven" just get it virtually. No really safe either.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Except you're basically betting on a World War 3/ end of the world type scenario for a major bank to suddenly stop honoring gold certificates.
Or a major depression: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] or market manipulation in gold.
It seems to me that doomsday for Bitcoin happened only a year or so ago
I think you mean 2011, when it crashed -93%.
Re: (Score:2)
Tether Pump (Score:2)
See the NY AG's complaint about how Tether is not 1:1 backed, how they're gambling with users' funds, and how they are printing up phoney money (and then using it to pump BTC).
They minted a hundred million new Tether yesterday (and then the pump began):
https://twitter.com/whale_aler... [twitter.com]
Re: (Score:2)
They minted a hundred million new Tether yesterday (and then the pump began)
The rise started in April, actually. Was that also pumped with fake Tether or was that real ?
CoinTelegraph hyperbolic even by crypto standards (Score:5, Insightful)
nonetheless the usual mechanism is at work here, in that the only story Bitcoin has left (or perhaps had, ever) is "the price goes up," which makes it an existential imperative that the ecosystem be nudged by its 0.01% ("decentralized!") such that this happens repeatedly, visibly, and spectacularly. The bubble script is a proven cash cow, and the fintech press (to say nothing of the crypto press) takes the bait every single time.
Play it for what it's worth, but this market cap is held up by the highly constrained float gated through a tiny sliver of large stakeHODLers who all know one another, and even if they are in some cases frenemies at best, all interests ultimately align on goosing the speculative animal instincts again and again.
Re: (Score:1)
VaporCoin
Is Bitcoin Finally Gaining Acceptance? No. (Score:5, Insightful)
Is [Bitcoin] Finally Gaining Acceptance?
No. The owners are largely the same speculators as earlier this year.
... then bitcoin will be gaining acceptance. Seriously, in the US and some other jurisdictions bitcoins are an asset like stocks and subject to the same gain/loss reporting requirement when sold/traded. They are not a currency you simple exchange for goods and services according to the tax reporting agencies. When that changes we can talk again. Or when your wallet software does much of the preceding for you (and can export the info to you tax software) we can talk a bit more too.
When there are stories of a large number of people buying a cup of coffee with bitcoin, recording the market coin price at the time of the transaction, comparing that price with the price(s) of the coins spent when acquired, computing the capital gain/loss on the coins just spent and recording the identity of the recipient and gain/loss for asset sale tax reporting purposes
Re: (Score:2)
When there are stories of a large number of people buying a cup of coffee with bitcoin
Nobody's buying a cup of coffee with gold either, and you wouldn't argue that gold has no acceptance.
Re: Is Bitcoin Finally Gaining Acceptance? No. (Score:3)
Gold had no acceptance as a practical currency.
Re: (Score:2)
Gold had no acceptance as a practical currency.
But something can have 'acceptance' without having 'acceptance as a practical currency'
Re: Is Bitcoin Finally Gaining Acceptance? No. (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Then quit promoting is a currency
I didn't do that.
Re: Is Bitcoin Finally Gaining Acceptance? No. (Score:2)
Fear of missing out leads to holding not spending (Score:2)
I have an ATM card linked to a crypto exchange I have an account on, and I can buy anything anywhere that accepts major cards.
And very few holders of bitcoins would make any such purpose since the vast majority of holders are expecting massive and rapid appreciation compared to fiat currency. Mention that first purchase of pizza for 10,000 bitcoin and people won't be thinking wow bitcoins have been used in commerce for a long time, they will be thinking OMG what a waste, what a foolish thing, if he held those 10,000 bitcoins he could exchange them for over $100 million today. Spending bitcoins on regular goods or services is disco
Bitcoin more like tulip than gold coin (Score:2)
When there are stories of a large number of people buying a cup of coffee with bitcoin
Nobody's buying a cup of coffee with gold either ...
Until 1971 in the US, yes they were. :-)
... and you wouldn't argue that gold has no acceptance.
While both gold and bitcoin can both be speculative investment vehicles, gold has industrial applications that provide it with a bit of stability in price. Bitcoin has no underlying support. The only thing that has "industrial application" would possibly be the blockchain. However bitcoin is just a user of blockchain, an entirely replaceable user. Bitcoin is merely the first user of blockchain to get a lot of public awareness. Much like the Ford Model T was the first
Re: (Score:2)
gold has industrial applications that provide it with a bit of stability in price
So ? Steel has more industrial applications, but is less valuable than gold. Only something like 10% of the yearly mined gold is used for industry. The rest is for storing wealth, and that's what determines its price.
Bitcoin is far more like the tulip
Except for the fact that you can grow as many tulips as you want.
Re: (Score:2)
gold has industrial applications that provide it with a bit of stability in price
So ? Steel has more industrial applications, but is less valuable than gold. Only something like 10% of the yearly mined gold is used for industry. The rest is for storing wealth, and that's what determines its price.
I think a large portion of the rest is used for jewelry which is also an industrial application of sorts, or maybe artistic application would be more accurate. The product being jewelry rather than a cell phone.
Bitcoin is far more like the tulip
Except for the fact that you can grow as many tulips as you want.
Not quite. You have to have access to soil, water, nutrients, etc. And with bitcoins you need to have access to mining hardware, electricity, etc.
Re: (Score:2)
Jewelry use for gold is mainly storage of wealth. If you just want something pretty and durable, there are many cheaper options available. The main reason for buying gold jewelry is because it has value.
You have to have access to soil, water, nutrients, etc.
Well, we have plenty of that.
And with bitcoins you need to have access to mining hardware, electricity, etc
This is only profitable for very large operations, with access to the lowest electricity and hardware costs. For most people, it's cheaper to buy bitcoin on an exchange.
Re: (Score:2)
Jewelry use for gold is mainly storage of wealth. If you just want something pretty and durable, there are many cheaper options available. The main reason for buying gold jewelry is because it has value.
The main reasons for buying jewelry are ornamentation and artistic and "pissing contests". Yes there is a resale or salvage value for jewelry but that is not the main reason.
You have to have access to soil, water, nutrients, etc.
Well, we have plenty of that.
In theory, just like we have plenty of renewable electricity for mining in theory. A commercial tulip farm is a bit of work and expense. Now if you want to talk a potted plant or two on the window ledge or in the garden then we can talk about an ASiC or two in the garage. :-)
And with bitcoins you need to have access to mining hardware, electricity, etc
This is only profitable for very large operations, with access to the lowest electricity and hardware costs. For most people, it's cheaper to buy bitcoin on an exchange.
Many thousands of home GPU miners beg to differ, and thousands
Re: (Score:2)
VaporCoin, not goldcoin.
Re: (Score:3)
Gold has no acceptance ... as currency. Sure people quite like it, but that's neither here nor there as to whether gold is money.
All the GPs points about Bitcoin apply to gold. Nobody denominates the price of goods or services for sale in grams of gold. Sure you can arrange to *trade* gold for such things, but by that argument *anything* is money because you can arrange to trade it for other stuff. At the very least prices for stuff needs to be routinely specified in a thing before you can begin to consi
Re: (Score:2)
'.. then bitcoin will be gaining acceptance. Seriously, in the US and some other jurisdictions bitcoins are an asset like stocks '
Except for the fact that there's no orderly, regulated or transparent market to trade it. Regardless of whether or not [or how] it can be exchanged for fiat currency, the markets are so fragmented that buyers or sellers aren't ever secure that the transfer has provided the best available pricing at the time of transfer.
The same is not true with listed or transparent marke
Re: (Score:2)
additionally.. this little detail assures that the market will never have a spread that feeds specialists or marketmakers from the churn or order flow.
Re: (Score:2)
Of course nobody does all that specious gymnastics at every cup of coffee
Its not "specious" when the IRS expects that sort of reporting when selling or trading an asset. Again, as far as they're concerned you might as well be selling a stock. They will want a basis, gain/loss, short/long timeframe, etc.
Instead the trend is for bitcoin to go through a brokerage which of course has the transfer information available for the bitcoin holder to use on a quarterly basis if required.
The brokerage statements I've seen have no more information than your wallet. Amounts in and out with dates. The user is still on the hook for calculating the gain/loss on every sale/trade. This deters using bitcoin on everyday normal purchases.
Aren't you the same guy who pointed out that coins go through brokerage rather than vendors actually handling the coins. What's with the HUGE intellectual dishonesty on your part.
You misunderstand the merchant examp
No it is another pump and dump (Score:5, Insightful)
All BT is good for at the moment is : money laundering and bypassing local laws. Oh and yes pumping and dumping to suck money out of suckers.
Re: (Score:2)
All BT is good for at the moment is : money laundering and bypassing local laws. Oh and yes pumping and dumping to suck money out of suckers.
Don't forget: collecting ransoms from cities and companies whose computer systems are pwned by hackers.
Re: (Score:2)
You want to know when bitcoin will get acceptance ? when it is *stable* as a commodity
No. When it's as stable as a commodity it will be an indicator that it has gained acceptance but it's not a precursor for it. Stability comes with trading volume which pegs value of individual transactions. There are many unstable financial mechanisms that have general acceptance.
Re: (Score:3)
Stability comes with trading volume which pegs value of individual transactions.
Correct, and precisely why BTC will never be stable. In order to achieve stability, you need volumes which BTC's design is incapable of supporting. At best it might be possible to have a system which is backed by BTC, but which carries out nearly all transactions in traditional ledgers which are periodically summarized to the blockchain at (long) intervals. BTC's design simply cannot support the transaction volumes required to enable its use as a stable currency if all of the transactions have to be done
Re: (Score:2)
Stability comes with trading volume which pegs value of individual transactions. There are many unstable financial mechanisms that have general acceptance.
No, stability for any currency comes only when the supply of that currency matches changes in the total value of assets it can be exchanged from.
Re: (Score:2)
Indeed. The very /. article is obviously part of the current pump & dump cycle.
Re: (Score:2)
OK, there's a huge discrepancy of the use of the word 'instability.' USD is considered unstable where it's price fluctuates by more than 5% on an annual basis where Bitcoin has dropped 83% in a single year and that's not even the biggest drop in history [coincodex.com], just since it got really big.
A currency has two uses that give it acceptance (Score:2)
One is medium of exchange, one is store of value. Anything else is just speculation, which can go up or down as it pleases by as much as it pleases.
We already know from an article here a few days ago that the first use of the bitcoin is practically non-existent. Since there is no backing by any major player with money, it is also quite risky as a store of value.
So all you' re left with is speculation. So, the answer is, as usual, "no".
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, you're speculating about anything - it is a probabilistic world. But there are things like the dollar that have, in a reasonable time frame, something like a definite expected value, and there are things that are only made from volatility, like the "coinage"
Re: (Score:2)
But there are things like the dollar that have, in a reasonable time frame, something like a definite expected value
Yes, it always seems that way, right up till the moment it no longer doesn't.
Re: (Score:2)
They could do the same thing for Bitcoin.
Of course. And when they do, you'll get the "acceptance" that EditorDavid is dreaming about in TFH.
"Price" vs Acceptance (Score:2)
I don't believe the reported price has anything to do with general acceptance. I suppose in order to have some value, some people have to accept that value, but that doesn't mean the general public consider it acceptable in everyday transactions. If anything the price volatility goes against it for that purpose. Beyond that, what is this price based on, individual trades, if so what market is this in? Who trusts the people that manage the market? Do we know they are reporting things properly? What price con
Re: (Score:2)
It is pretty clear: A currency needs stability to be usable. Hence bitcoin "surging" (probably yet another pump & dump in progress) is the very reason it is not acceptable.
This time's gonna be different (Score:2)
Did I ever tell you what the definition of insanity is?
https://youtu.be/OIfXdtml2gU [youtu.be]
Acceptance? No. (Score:2)
It's merely in the pump phase of "pump and dump."
$1.00 to $0.17 to $0.56 is still a 44% loss (Score:2)
Although it is good news for the recent wave of investors, the Wall Street / home investors, who entered at the $6,000 to $8,000 plateau as it lets them exit intact. For the more typical geek / true believer older waves of investors, the 12 month decline from $19,500 to $3,300 was just a normal retraction after the 20 month rise from $400 to $19,500. Nothing new, just "business" as usual, the same acceptance as before, for Bitcoin.
surge and crash (Score:2)
This is simply more pump-and-dump in action. There will be no long-term gains to be had.
Oy vey! (Score:2)
How many time are people going to fall for this nonsense? It's getting pumped, in a month or two it will be worth less than the flash drive you stored it on - again. If anyone hasn't figured it out yet, *this is what it is for*, it is intentionally without regulation or standards, so it permits or encourages every age-old scam in the book. And the same bunch of naifs fall for it every time.
If I say yes... (Score:4, Insightful)
Will Slashdot editors stop promoting bitcoin stories? Or at least can the editors have the decency to let us know at what price they bought BTC at, $18k, $22k, so we know how much longer we have to endure BTC stories?
Re:If I say yes... (Score:4, Interesting)
That is probably it. The headline is so wrong, it is staggering. The main reason bitcoin is not useful as a currency is its lack of stability.
The only reason this crap gets pushed seems indeed that somebody at /. has a stake in the game.
No (Score:2)
"Greater Fool" not "Ponzi" (Score:2, Informative)
Headlines with questions to which the answer is "No". Bitcoin is and always has been a ponzi.
No, it has always been a "Greater Fool" scheme not a "Ponzi" scheme. Very different mechanics. There is no mechanism of using recent investors to pay older investors their dividends. All investors are seeing the same "gains", the mechanism is one of exciting speculators to invest (don't "miss out") to drive the price up while letting them think they can time their exit to avoid a downturn/loss. To find a "greater fool" to sell your coins to.
If the headline is a yes or no question... (Score:2)
Stupid rich bro's trying to steal money from each other = Bitcoin.
Re: (Score:2)
Stupid rich bro's trying to steal money from each other = Bitcoin.
It's like the US crack wars of the 90's: Let them kill each other.
Continuing Inflation (Score:2)
The continuing inflation in value maintains the perception of Bitcoin an a non-currency, since a stable value is a necessary part of any accepted currency.
Re: (Score:1)
Is that what it says about this Slashdot account on your spreadsheet?
You have way too much free time. Why not log in and become one of us? We won't make you wear women's clothes (or men's clothes, if you happen to be female) as an initiation rite.
Betteridge's law (Score:3)
of headlines gives the answer "no".
https://medium.com/@straumli/n... [medium.com]
LOL (Score:2)
Worthless garbage for suckers (Score:2)
Feel free to waste your money speculating on a currency backed by nothing. If I want to gamble I'll go to the casino, or buy stocks in the stock market.
No (Score:2)
No
This is _why_ it does not gain acceptance (Score:4, Insightful)
In order to be "accepted" as a currency, it needs to be _stable_ . A high volatility disqualifies any thing of value (or no intrinsic value at all as bitcoin) for use as a currency.
The headline is either demented with its writer understanding absolutely nothing, or it is just another pump & dump attempt to rip of the clueless.
All the other alt coins are down (Score:2)
Look at the markets.
This is just people moving money out of the failed Ethereum ICOs back in to bitcoin - no one thinks bitcoin is doing anything
Re: (Score:2)