If you mean for the Bitcoin detractors, I think it’s a little bit early for “I told you so’s.” This train wreck is far from over. It is however yet another massive red flag that anybody with real money at work should take a long hard look at. It’s times like these where investors should really try to separate their preconceptions from their observations and re-evaluate…
Still though, it looks right now to have shaken this off like water on a wet dog. It’s impressive.
Too interesting not to pass on… pure speculation, of course!
reddit.com/r/BitcoinMarkets/ … l_of_goxs/
wow … freaky. Wonder if some reasons will emerge later, or if it’ll all go quiet and we’ll be left to assume it was the CIA.
With the vast sums of money that have been robbed recently, it must have attracted gobs of organized crime.
I’ve been impressed with bitcoin’s resilience to date. Although it can be stolen it can’t be printed to oblivion. That’s the key. These ‘mishaps’ may result in the major players finally getting their act together.
I was under the impression that bitcoin transaction chains can be traced. So anything that was stolen could (in theory) be identified as such. Or am I thinking of something else?
I think there is some level of tracing that is possible but who has the authority to prosecute and return coins to their rightful owner?
This is one of the consequences of having a non-regulated and barely controlled currency. There is very little buyer/seller/theft prevention.
People keep ignoring that it is being printed to oblivion. Bitcoin itself is limited but there are an unlimited number of cryptocurrencies that can be created. And there is no reason why only one will be adopted.
Interesting point. In several countries, it’s already a crime to steal digital data, but if that data represents “money”, as defined by someone other than the state … what then? I’m guessing it’s possible, but the lawyers would have an awful lot of fun figuring out how. You can’t very well create something that’s intended to stick it to The Man, and then go crying to The Man when it all goes wrong.
I was thinking more in terms of taking out of circulation whatever has been stolen - the digital equivalent of a dye pack. All currencies allow old notes to be destroyed and replaced with new ones. You would think a stolen Bitcoin could be destroyed (or marked as invalid for transactions) and a new coin issued back to the rightful owner. Obviously, such a mechanism could itself be exploited for theft, but without it, you’ve got a big problem.
It was a mistake to have bitcoin’s value predicated on the expenditure of computing power. Nothing of value is been brought into existence by this act - in fact, the entropy of the universe is increased by some small amount. It’s an act of consumption, of waste; not creation. Therefore there is no debt, and the coin represents nothing. If a currency emerges that can solve this problem, I think it’ll be halfway to being successful.
Bitcoin has an excellent chance of success because it is the most famous and is an early entrant and through these incidents it can get its shit together now. The network effect is extremely powerful. Other currencies can come and will come along aswell but to my mind they would not replace Bitcoin but reinforce and validate it.
That’s not my point. Other currencies will come and also succeed if Bitcoin succeeds. The overall effect is like printing currency (dilution) and not terribly different than what people are ‘thinking’ is happening with fiat currency.
Bitcoin succeeding? It’s like my big toe is ever going to get on the moon!
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People forget that a currency is a means of exchange. If Bitcoin is widely available and well known and accepted as an easy means of exchange, they will use it. They don’t particularly care about how it was created etc,just as long as its liquid.
Look at how it’s price has held up remarkably well through the major issues its experienced. What’s the percentage of people who have ever used this kind of currency? Tiny right? And yet it is already becoming fairly aell know with massive publicity. So the more people who hear about it and try it (and other currencies) the more embedded it becomes in the financial system. They need to work on increasing their userbase size more than anything.
And the point about being extremely difficult to inflate away its value is sound. Inflation robs value from all currency holders but its needed by central banks to counter their debt holdings.
True that. There are plenty of countries that have had half their national reserves stolen (usually by an outgoing president) and the currency becomes even less worthless than it already was. Bitcoin has taken a right pounding, but it’s still there.
That’s an interesting one. A currency that isn’t created from debt is highly unusual. Maybe it can’t be expected to function in the same way as debt currencies.
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I’m going to start a new one called Titcoin.
It will have a picture of a bluetit as the logo.
All very tasteful, like.
How can it ever be a global means of payment when there is a limit of the above … explain please!
It’s not going to be the ‘global’ means of payment. There wont be one single method. But it looks like it’ll be around for quite a while yet!
How can it ever be a global means of payment when there is a limit of the above … explain please![/quote]
Bitcoins can be split into very small pieces so the theory is that Bitcoin will go to 1M (or something ridiculous) so everyone continues to hold it.
I would be neither encouraged or discouraged by Bitcoin holding its ground pricewise at this point. The entire thing is being held up by speculators looking to get rich quick. Let’s see how long they stay if the price goes sideways for 6-12 months.
So in this alternate universe where there is no money debasement / inflation, are you also ok with no interest rates? Because it’s pretty hard to separate them you know. Often times it just doesn’t occur to people that most currencies haven’t lost any value over the last 100 years when priced in terms of interest rates. Yes if you put your money in a shoe box it would have lost a lot of value, but who does that? All that had to be done was for that person to take 5 minutes and open a bank account to deposit money in and boom, your money holds it’s value just fine. And wouldn’t you know it, if you take an extra 5 minutes and actually selectively invest in some ultra safe and fully insured government products, you can actually grow your money, FOR FREE !
Of course people want to keep the half of the system that nets them free money (interest rates) but they want to nix the other half that devalues the money (inflation / money debasement) I understand most people feel somehow entitled to the free money growth factor provided for you by the current system, but don’t want to be bothered with that other pesky part of it where money gets devalued over time to partially offset some of those free rates people are so willing invest in. A system of one without the other would collapse in no time…
Exactly right. One of the foundations of a currency is that it has to be widely held and readily tradable. Few people except some early adopters have Bitcoins, and even fewer then that are willing to part with them. It’s nothing but hoarding on the anticipation of higher prices. The only part about Bitcoin that even removely resembles a currency is the fact that it has coin in it’s name. Other then that, it’s a tulip. Oh excuse me, a “digital” tulip (like that makes it so much more clever to invest in 
)