Bitcoins

[GP_Matt]

This doesn't seem like a very stable currency if it can lose and gain 40% of its value in a few hours.

[Daradon]

As the one article stated, it's behaving more and used more like a commodity than a currency.

And even then, it wouldn't be a very stable commodity.

[Hack&Lube]

WTF, it's $155 again, down from $220 in the past 30 min HAHA!

[Thor]

This is great fun to watch!

[Azure]

Who knows, maybe next time it'll go up to $300 before it crashes.

Pretty fun to watch though.

[Mike F]

And that's why you don't invest in internet currencies!

[Cowperson]

Originally Posted by Daradon

As the one article stated, it's behaving more and used more like a commodity than a currency.

And even then, it wouldn't be a very stable commodity.

Commodities don't rise and fall 40% in a few hours, day after day.

There is no relationship in what bitcoin is versus what gold is either.

If you sell imaginary stuff for real money though, make it so. Just make sure you're not the last fellow holding the bag. I knew a guy, just deceased, who made and kept a million Bre-x bucks, out before someone was shoved out of a helicopter. It's real if you can turn it into Yankee dollars.

Cowperson

[Azure]

Well you know what, those Bitcoins sure cash out for real dollars too if you sell them at $250 a piece.

[Cowperson]

Originally Posted by Azure

Well you know what, those Bitcoins sure cash out for real dollars too if you sell them at $250 a piece.

That's what I said.

Cowperson

[rubecube]

I still have half a bitcoin in my...uh...shopping account.

[Daradon]

Originally Posted by Cowperson

Commodities don't rise and fall 40% in a few hours, day after day.

There is no relationship in what bitcoin is versus what gold is either.

If you sell imaginary stuff for real money though, make it so. Just make sure you're not the last fellow holding the bag. I knew a guy, just deceased, who made and kept a million Bre-x bucks, out before someone was shoved out of a helicopter. It's real if you can turn it into Yankee dollars.

Cowperson

Thanks Tips. That's what I was saying. It's behaving more like a commodity than a currency, but not even very much like a commodity.

And yeah, there have been a few wacky days in commodities throughout history, though very few, and obviously brought on by extraordinary circumstances.

[Diemenz]

As of 20 minutes ago all my bitcoins are now sold. I was unsuccessful in selling the whole group but after hack said selling in smaller amounts might be a better idea i did just that.
Long and short my average sell price was $131 when i divide the entire amount sold by the money earned. The majority of them sold tuesday night and i was stuck with 20 till this evening. Overall extremely happy with the result, so much that i will never check the prices again for fear i jumped to early

[Daradon]

^^^ Well done!

I think you'll be good. As they are at the halfway threshold of the amount of coins, I can't really see it spiking huge again. Maybe for a day, but not for long. People are keeping them, or trading for them or to get rid of them. No one actually wants them, for them, if you know what it I mean. It's just being traded for profit now.

That's when a stock starts to crumble. No one wants bitcoins for bitcoins. They want them for their elevated value. It's all but over. If there was a bunch left, maybe it could still go up, but there isn't. I was actually going to post this yesterday.

It's like playing that currnecy game with doughnuts in JR high school. As the donuts near the halfway point of scarcity, shortly after really, price gets high as people figure out they want to stock up. They can have a few and trade the rest. But eventually the price gets too high, people with the caches don't know what to do with them. As much fun as having a doughnut in the middle of class is, it really isn't worth it.

Bitcoins are at that threshold. And the product/currency has no value outside of it's specualtion. It's not like gold which may eventually rebound of a crazy drop. Or a stock in a good company.

Like anything, getting in at the beginning is the best. Once it gets to the 50% mark, you better start liquidating.

[The Yen Man]

Hmm, interesting thread. I read up on bitcoins the other day and had no idea what it was. I still don't really understand it.

One question though. So how I understand it, as computing power goes up, they will increase the difficulty in the mining. Isn't that just a huge waste of electricity? People are just using electricity needlessly to mine an artificial currency. Isn't there better usage for all that wasted computing power?

[Daradon]

Originally Posted by The Yen Man

Hmm, interesting thread. I read up on bitcoins the other day and had no idea what it was. I still don't really understand it.

One question though. So how I understand it, as computing power goes up, they will increase the difficulty in the mining. Isn't that just a huge waste of electricity? People are just using electricity needlessly to mine an artificial currency. Isn't there better usage for all that wasted computing power?

Heh, I asked the same thing a few pages back. Short answer is, you've got it.

[Regorium]

The only value I can see in bitcoin is that they have a relatively strong ecosystem for which to trade to USD. Regardless of how worthless bitcoins actually are, as long as people can obtain hard currency from them easily, I don't think it will crash to zero.

That could change rapidly though, as the companies that are doing this exchange might take some pretty large losses if the volatility stays like this and go bankrupt.

I think a new name needs to be given to this scam. I don't think it's a Ponzi scheme or pyramid scheme or anything like that. But now that there's more and more "crypto-currencies" popping up (litecoin, namecoin etc.), it's pretty obvious there really isn't significant value of bitcoins as a currency. Attract some computing power and people with dreams of being the early adopter with 10000 coins when it's worth $0.01, then pump/dump and move on to the next.

However, as people say, there's a lot of money to be made and lost in these bubbles. If you're brave enough I'm sure you can make a killing timing the markets.

[Flames89]

What about ripples?
http://www.businessweek.com/articles...itcoin-copycat

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by Regorium

But now that there's more and more "crypto-currencies" popping up (litecoin, namecoin etc.), it's pretty obvious there really isn't significant value of bitcoins as a currency. Attract some computing power and people with dreams of being the early adopter with 10000 coins when it's worth $0.01, then pump/dump and move on to the next.

The alternative crypto-currencies are not new. They came out 1-2 years ago and none have managed to catch on and hold significant value like Bitcoin. They were simply alternative currencies started by people who wanted a bigger piece of the pie for themselves or were disgruntled with the architecture of Bitcoin but all are mostly worthless compared to Bitcoin.

I don't think anything that comes out is going to rival Bitcoin barring a major crash/failure of the entire underpinning system.

[Hack&Lube]

$85 now and I predict it will go further down.

I bought a bunch at $150 yesterday and sold them at $200 last night for a tidy profit of $50 per BTC. If you wait until it hits the bottom of today's price crash (usually late afternoon) and wait for it to go up a bit today, you could stand to make a pretty penny.

[Thor]

Ouch, feel bad for guys like this

April 11, 2013, 10:22 a.m. 80.0000/80.0000 105.99000 8479.20 CAD

I would hold rather than sell at that price, seems like the MTGox issues started a panic, included in that fact that with the very high prices a lot of people dumped coins to cash in.