Virtual currencies recovering!

[BoberFett]

That's because you don't understand how bitcoins work. You won't negotiate your salary to be 100BTC, you will negotiate your salary to be $10,000 USD to be paid out in BTC.

Which is exactly why Bitcoin will fail. It's not currency. It's a wildly fluctuating commodity. Not many people would put up with their salary being a random number on a check every other week.

 

[KlokWyze]

I hate Bitcoins because I wasn't an early adopter!

 

[Chiropteran]

The dollar didn't drop 80%. Bitcoin did.

Face it, bitcoin is gambling and used to buy drugs. It's volatile and practically worthless unless you find another sucker.

The dollar has dropped 96%

Inc: but that chart is over hundreds of years! Well, give the bitcoin 100 years. It's unstable now because it is new and the true value hasn't yet been found and current mining rewards are very high compared to what they will be in just 4 or 6 years. As market cap increases bitcoin value is harder to push around and the value will become more stable over time.

The US government backs the dollar. "This note is legal tender for all debts, public and private." In addition if you put it in the bank it's backed by the federal reserve.

Backed by the government, with what? You realize that doesn't actually mean anything? The government hasn't promised to give you anything for your dollars, should you try to redeem them.

Also note that FDIC insurance only applies to $100k, and doesn't protect against loss due to inflation.

 

[chimaxi83]

All the crybabies in here are clearly mad that they didn't get in on Bitcoin

 

[Phokus]

The dollar has dropped 96%

Inc: but that chart is over hundreds of years! Well, give the bitcoin 100 years. It's unstable now because it is new and the true value hasn't yet been found and current mining rewards are very high compared to what they will be in just 4 or 6 years. As market cap increases bitcoin value is harder to push around and the value will become more stable over time.



Backed by the government, with what? You realize that doesn't actually mean anything? The government hasn't promised to give you anything for your dollars, should you try to redeem them.

Also note that FDIC insurance only applies to $100k, and doesn't protect against loss due to inflation.

Since the US dollar is so worthless, do you mind giving me all of yours? You libertarians are batshit insane.

 

[mizzou]

How is bitcoin any different then me in grade school saying coffee beans were real money and pretending to trade it for goods during recess?

 

[etrigan420]

How is bitcoin any different then me in grade school saying coffee beans were real money and pretending to trade it for goods during recess?

The only difference is that you couldn't convince others to value your "currency".

Bitcoin has value only because people *believe* it has value.

I think they're suckers, but I suppose time will tell.

 

[mizzou]

The only difference is that you couldn't convince others to value your "currency".

Bitcoin has value only because people *believe* it has value.

I think they're suckers, but I suppose time will tell.

Gold at least has an intrinsic value to it, people love to wear it and design it into art, and it's RARE! you have to fucking mine it by destroying landscapes lol

"Bitcoins" are digitally created, and have zero value. nothing. At least our national currency is backed by the federal government, which has an army!

Shit. At least a few Linden's can get you some digital real estate

 

[randomrogue]

Dude you're crazy.

 

[ultimatebob]

Gold at least has an intrinsic value to it, people love to wear it and design it into art, and it's RARE! you have to fucking mine it by destroying landscapes lol

"Bitcoins" are digitally created, and have zero value. nothing. At least our national currency is backed by the federal government, which has an army!

Shit. At least a few Linden's can get you some digital real estate

Hey now... Don't forget that anything is worth what someone is willing to pay for it! I cashed out my meager stash of Bitcoins the day before they crashed, and got myself a really cool high power flashlight that's worth about $70.

I don't think that they'll spike up in value again any time soon, though.

 

[cubby1223]

Relevanta AMA on reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1ch7wb/starting_with_almost_nothing_i_made_almost_500000/

Sad to see people lose so much. Always do your due diligence before you invest in anything!

He didn't do it as an investment, he did it as gambling.

I actually know someone who purchased $10k in bitcoins, though I am not sure when he bought in and if/when he cashed out. I also know he runs two successful businesses and his father has just shy of a billion dollars in net worth. If you are gambling on money you went into debt to obtain, competing against people who have billions in assets, you will be ruined.

 

[cubby1223]

For those who want to be all prissy in their bitcoin love and apparent discrediting of the U.S. Dollar and the backing of the government - one of the things the government actually does is implement mechanisms that stabilize the value of the dollar, something bitcoin cannot do. U.S. Government can tax and redistribute, it can set interest rates, print more supply, a range of tools to keep the dollar stable and keep the economy flowing.

Bitcoin as a currency is and always will be a farce. As a commodity it will never be more than a short-lived novelty. Gold and silver are great commodities (1) they are physical objects that people want in luxury items, and (2) these metals are very useful in electronics manufacturing. Bitcoin is just a virtual number, nothing more, nothing less, it has no use, no purpose, other than it's own existence.

But having said that, it sure would have been very sweet to have been one of the initial miners years ago who cashed out with millions in their pockets.

 

[LegendKiller]

Gold at least has an intrinsic value to it, people love to wear it and design it into art, and it's RARE! you have to fucking mine it by destroying landscapes lol

"Bitcoins" are digitally created, and have zero value. nothing. At least our national currency is backed by the federal government, which has an army!

Shit. At least a few Linden's can get you some digital real estate

Gold is just as worthless as bitcoins. Its "intrinsic" value is far below its market value. Jewelry and designing art is not intrinsic, it is an externality assigned to it. Industrial purposes is intrinsic value and gold is rarely used for that, even when it was far cheaper.

The dollar also has no intrinsic value in and of itself. However, it has 11 supercarriers, thousands of nukes, chemical/bio weapons, dozens of submarines, ICBMs, hundreds of thousands of soldiers, thousands of tanks, 300mm people and the world's largest economy, IP portfolio and capital markets.

What the fuck does Bitcoins have? A small cluster of pimply faced geeks who like to brag about their video card.

Wow. I am impressed.

 

[randomrogue]

Intrinsic value is the value of something as the sum of its parts. So the intrinsic value of a dollar is the paper it's printed on or the metal the coin is made out of. Generally this is always less. Those rare cases where it was more caused problems such as people melting down nickels.

Gold is gold. It has a market value since it's traded as a commodity but its intrinsic value is the same thing. Whether you choose to buy it at current market prices is one thing but that doesn't change its current intrinsic value. When Nickel and Titanium shot up in price manufacturers chose to not use it in many cases. They replaced high nickel stainless steel on things like coffee makers with stainless steels that had either no nickel or very little. If you go to China you can clearly see this since they plated many of their buildings with stainless steel and when it has no nickel it rusts.

 

[PrototypeZ]

The dollar has dropped 96%

Inc: but that chart is over hundreds of years! Well, give the bitcoin 100 years. It's unstable now because it is new and the true value hasn't yet been found and current mining rewards are very high compared to what they will be in just 4 or 6 years. As market cap increases bitcoin value is harder to push around and the value will become more stable over time.



Backed by the government, with what? You realize that doesn't actually mean anything? The government hasn't promised to give you anything for your dollars, should you try to redeem them.

Also note that FDIC insurance only applies to $100k, and doesn't protect against loss due to inflation.

You summed up the dollar fairly well. Don't forget that the government is robbing their citizens blind with these low interest rates and the other invisible tax known as inflation.

With that being said, I think Bitcoin will be the Napster of the crypto coins. Something will come along whether a crypto or something else that is adopted as a medium for trade. However I am not sure how long it is going to take to replace the US dollar as the most widely accepted medium.

 

[Chiropteran]

The dollar also has no intrinsic value in and of itself. However, it has 11 supercarriers, thousands of nukes, chemical/bio weapons, dozens of submarines, ICBMs, hundreds of thousands of soldiers, thousands of tanks, 300mm people and the world's largest economy, IP portfolio and capital markets.

The "dollar" doesn't really have any of those things. USD are needed to pay taxes, period, nothing else. The US government can't force a merchant to accept USD, and they can't force people to give it a set value. Too bad, because if they could they could control the economy even more than they do.

Now, most merchants are rational and know accepting USD will increase business, and thus do so. Many merchants also accept Mastercard, VISA, and AMEX, even though they are not official currency of the state, because it increases business to do so. For that same reason, some merchants now accept bitcoin- it increases business to do so.

And while US taxes must be paid in USD, taxes are a relative figure and thus being forced to pay them in USD becomes irrelevant.

one of the things the government actually does is implement mechanisms that stabilize the value of the dollar, something bitcoin cannot do. U.S. Government can tax and redistribute, it can set interest rates, print more supply, a range of tools to keep the dollar stable and keep the economy flowing.

That isn't an inherently good thing. In fact the fact that USD can be printed and created at will is one of the big factors driving people to alternative stores of value, whether it is gold, silver, or bitcoin. While you might thing it's great, some people don't like to see their hard-earned money inflated away from it's original value.

 

[yhelothar]

Gold is just as worthless as bitcoins. Its "intrinsic" value is far below its market value. Jewelry and designing art is not intrinsic, it is an externality assigned to it. Industrial purposes is intrinsic value and gold is rarely used for that, even when it was far cheaper.

The dollar also has no intrinsic value in and of itself. However, it has 11 supercarriers, thousands of nukes, chemical/bio weapons, dozens of submarines, ICBMs, hundreds of thousands of soldiers, thousands of tanks, 300mm people and the world's largest economy, IP portfolio and capital markets.

What the fuck does Bitcoins have? A small cluster of pimply faced geeks who like to brag about their video card.

Wow. I am impressed.

The military does nothing to the worth of the currency. If the US continued to print money to continue living well beyond their means, all those bombs aren't going to stop their currency to lose its perceived value.

 

[Doppel]

As market cap increases bitcoin value is harder to push around and the value will become more stable over time.

Why are you still saying this? You know that if it were actually used widely as a currency there would be major price deflation. I can only assume you're willfully lying at this point.

Backed by the government, with what? You realize that doesn't actually mean anything?

SO ignorant.

How is bitcoin any different then me in grade school saying coffee beans were real money and pretending to trade it for goods during recess?

It's only different because coffee beans have actual value, bitcoin is literally worse than trading coffee beans, clearly, and its market will never even approach the money used trading coffee beans, in fact.

 

[Doppel]

All the crybabies in here are clearly mad that they didn't get in on Bitcoin

This makes you sound like a child, FYI.

If Bitcoin is so good we can still get in on it.

 

[FelixDeCat]

This makes you sound like a child, FYI.

If Bitcoin is so good we can still get in on it.

Unfortunately its going to cost you $120 to buy one, as of now. You could have picked one up for $50 a few days ago.

:'(

 

[randomrogue]

If I'm reading this right it's trading today at a 30% swing. That's nuts.

 

[Pr0d1gy]

Since the US dollar is so worthless, do you mind giving me all of yours? You libertarians are batshit insane.

Yeah and you Progressives are so enamored with the system now that you have the power that you cannot smell the shit on your knees. Grow up.

How is bitcoin any different then me in grade school saying coffee beans were real money and pretending to trade it for goods during recess?

The same logic applies to FIAT currency, which is what we're using now. It is nothing but paper.

 

[Chiropteran]

If I'm reading this right it's trading today at a 30% swing. That's nuts.

It's about normal for bitcoin right now. It's part of the necessary growing pains. In order to be a useful global currency, it's market cap needs to be much higher than it is. But the nature of bitcoin is that you can't just inflate it by making more at will, they are only produced gradually through mining. So to get from 1 billion market cap to 10 billion, bitcoin value has to increase by approximately 10X. But this encourages speculation and hoarding, up until the speculators are happy with the profits they can make by selling, at which point the value has a correction (or crash if you prefer).

Some of it is actually caused by people intentionally attacking bitcoin, thinking they can kill the currency by buying up a lot of coin and dumping them at once. This will become harder and harder to do as bitcoin grows though. It's easy for a billionaire to manipulate bitcoin today, but when the market cap reaches 100 billion it won't be so easy anymore.

Despite all the volatility and crashes, overall bitcoin value has increased tremendously over the last 4 years since it's inception. From $.01 to $1, to $31.90, to $266, what will the next high peak be? Who knows.

 

[randomrogue]

Yeah nobody with any reasonable financial sense will buy into this. This is good for you and some guys who drive M3's. It's just not reliable, stable, or recognized. Nobody wants this kind of volatility. Let me know when it has things under control.

 

[darkewaffle]

In what way does this chart make sense? I'm not sure if it's trying to say $100 USD circa 1900 is worth $3.48 in 1900 USD or 2010 USD in 2010, but either way that's way way wrong.

Unless it's saying $3.48 in 2010 USD would have been worth $100 2010 USD in 1900, I guess that would kind of fit. In which case it's just representing inflation, which is already well established, normal, and healthy. Pretending that represents some massive 'failing' of the dollar is just plain foolish.