Bitcoin Is Back: Online Currency Gaining Traction

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
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If you thought the last surge in Bitcoins was a fluke, well then, here’s another fluke for you to contemplate. Since this article on CNBC was written on Thursday, Bitcoin has surged once again. Bitcoin has risen from a pre-$300 start early in the week to almost breaking the $400 barrier on Friday.
 
It's back down to $276. I watched it drop $60 in an hour, it's so volatile and too speculative.
 
The most alarming issue is that the average joe, the people that help build and push bitcoin into the lime light can no longer afford the mine bitcoins. The difficulty is such now that it makes the investment of any type of hardware, especially the new asic based solutions a money losing proposition any way you cut it. Just go read the treads. The only people making money are the people who can afford to throw $50,000 - $100,000 into hardware and even that window is closing super fast.
 
It's these kinds of fluctuations that makes it bad as a currency.
 
SixFootDuo said:
The most alarming issue is that the average joe, the people that help build and push bitcoin into the lime light can no longer afford the mine bitcoins. The difficulty is such now that it makes the investment of any type of hardware, especially the new asic based solutions a money losing proposition any way you cut it. Just go read the treads. The only people making money are the people who can afford to throw $50,000 - $100,000 into hardware and even that window is closing super fast.
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It's not alarming if you realize that the original concept had people only using their CPUs to mine Bitcoins. It wasn't anticipated that ATi cards had an edge that allowed for high mining possibilities. From there, the fervence pushed the technology and offset the entire project.
 
Bitcoin was a major win 3-4 years ago when everyone was able to mine them and you hoarded the hell out of them. I envy those people... But getting into the business now is a huge money pit and completely pointless.
 
When I got my 7950 I tried it just for giggles for like half a day. I had to undervolt the card and run it at stock clocks to get the best hash rating/acceptable temps and I made an estimated 20 cents. It seemed like I probably used twice that in electricity. Clearly the scaling goes way up with any thing resembling strong hashrates and wide grouping. I don't really understand how bitcoin took off but my guess is it was for drugs or guns.
 
here is an article with quite a bit more meat to it

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/...-laugh-Bitcoin-is-making-a-serious-point.html

tulips? we shall see

Legitimate institutional investors, themselves exasperated at QE, are getting involved, taking small “pilot positions”. The big development for me, though, was the publication last week of a “Bitcoin Primer” by the Chicago branch of the Federal Reserve.

“Should Bitcoin become widely accepted,” opined the world’s most powerful central bank, “it is unlikely it will remain free of government intervention … That said, it represents a remarkable conceptual and technical achievement, which may well be used by existing financial institutions (which could issue their own Bitcoins) or even by governments themselves”.
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I paid for books one semester with them. When I cashed in 3 bitcoin for $70 each. I mined those in June & July 2011 at a rate of .1 a day. Kicking self for stopping. After the price went up I mined at a rate of .01 per day until the ASIC's started to come out in May. I'll hold my last .5 bitcoin for awhile. Hoping for $1,000,000 per bitcoin.:rolleyes:
 
I sold 10 coins about 4 weeks ago so I could buy my R9 290x's, a pair. I quickly turned around and sold them but a few days later bought my friends pair of R9 290x's and gave him an extra $50 for what he paid for them on Newegg.

I used a site called localbitcoins.com

I was given the option of western union or bank transfer. I think I sold them to an individual but I am not sure. As soon as I received payment, I sent his wallet the coins.
 
Bitcoin has surpassed silver... it will surpass gold and some of you guys will still cry tulips. Encrypted money has massive value. To be able to exchange it into any form of currency without govt interference is an idea whose time has come. The US dollar is failing like.... monopoly money
 
celeron300 said:
Bitcoin has surpassed silver... it will surpass gold and some of you guys will still cry tulips. Encrypted money has massive value. To be able to exchange it into any form of currency without govt interference is an idea whose time has come. The US dollar is failing like.... monopoly money
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If that's the case, then why are countries still buying Tbills with virtually no return? I don't know the future of Bitcoin, but when a currency (or investment) is this volatile, the only thing it's good for is speculation (from an investment POV). It's great if you bought it for 100 and sold it at 300-400, but not so much if you bought it at the top a few days ago.
 
nilepez said:
If that's the case, then why are countries still buying Tbills with virtually no return? I don't know the future of Bitcoin, but when a currency (or investment) is this volatile, the only thing it's good for is speculation (from an investment POV). It's great if you bought it for 100 and sold it at 300-400, but not so much if you bought it at the top a few days ago.
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Actually if you look at the numbers, China, Russia, Japan(not because they don't want to but because their economy is tanking), and many other nations are slowing or stopping their purchases of Tbills.

Right now the biggest buyer of Tbills is drum roll...The Fed Reserve, up to 60-70% on the short end. In other words they are printing fiat to buy debts aka monetizing the debt.

However having said I am not about to jump on the bitcoin bandwagon. It has Ponzi like feel to it. What I mean is that the first dozen people who started this owns something like have of all bitcoins in existence. They are the ones who profit massively from other people jumping in to the speculative fray. Also there is nothing backing its valve, its based on faith just like paper money. Anyone can start their own bitcoin copycat. Add to that if it does become popular enough, gov will regulate and tax it, therefore robbing it of its current value.
 
OlIv0rIolI said:
However having said I am not about to jump on the bitcoin bandwagon. It has Ponzi like feel to it. What I mean is that the first dozen people who started this owns something like have of all bitcoins in existence.
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However having said that I am not about to.....owns something like half of all
edit for grammer:
 
Stiletto said:
Existing financial institutions are going to start producing their own Bitcoins?

It's so much fun reading articles written by people who don't know what they're talking about.
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That was a quote from the white paper from the Chicago Fed, of course they are using the term generically, they mean that existing institutions could issue their own similar cryptocurrencies.
 
jojo69 said:
That was a quote from the white paper from the Chicago Fed, of course they are using the term generically, they mean that existing institutions could issue their own similar cryptocurrencies.
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They might be using the term generically, yes. However, considering the content of recent discussions involving Bitcoin, even four years on...most seem to still have a lack of fundamental understanding. The Fed's printed so damned much of the dollar they probably think they can produce any currency they like.
 
I share your disdain Stiletto, though it seems that some at the fed, and FinCen, are waking up and doing their homework.

With most casual commentators the lack of fundamental understanding is willful, I look forward to the gnashing of teeth and tearing of hair about how "unfair" it all is when we cash in.
 
Whether it is Bitcoin or Litecoin or Bitcoin 2.0... the idea (of defeating capital controls) on who you exchange currency with globally is born.

Goverment has already tried to demonize it, stamp it out (silk road) and it will amount to the same result as defeating a torrent site.
 
There is money to be made but wow does it constantly go up and down. Its just hectic at this point.

Once you can actually use Bitcoins easily for everyday transactions it'll really take off. But having to transfer coins to a "wallet" then have that transferred to a local retailer where you can give them a printed piece of paper with a barcode to scan on it.. is a pain in the ass.

Bitcoins are still very much in their infancy.
 
c0re said:
Can i use bitcoins to buy a soda or pay for the toll ?
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No but you can use it to pay the ransom if you get infected with CryptoLocker. Unfortunately it makes a good tool for allowing criminals to get away with such things.
 
I think it will be kind of funny and ironic if all the positioning China has tried to do for many years now to try to assert itself in Asia and eventually the world as a standard currency ends up being beat out by a random crypto currency.
 
I keep wanting to get into it, but also know I'm late in the game. Some people must be making a killing selling them now though. I really like the idea of a currency that is "off the grid" though. We need more stuff like that these days.
 
Like many other things...

Money that falls off trees will destroy you.

You might have to watch the parade a long time to understand.
 
I've mined since 2006. Bitcoins have been good to me.

I don't mine much anymore, because its rather pointless on a GPU. On the recent price jump I sold 20 bitcoins. I purchased them at around 125$ a piece. I sold for 350$

Bitcoins are a risky investment, but like other risky investments they can pay off in a large way.
 
I mined a bot over a single coin a few years ago. Ended up not using it until recently and cashed it in @ bitcoinstore.com for a hard drive. My minted bitcoin was worth ~$5 back when I mined it. I decided to sit on it because it was essentially too small an amount to really so anything with anyhow. I traded it in at about $130usb/coin. I should have hung on to it longer, lol.
 
extide said:
I mined a bot over a single coin a few years ago. Ended up not using it until recently and cashed it in @ bitcoinstore.com for a hard drive. My minted bitcoin was worth ~$5 back when I mined it. I decided to sit on it because it was essentially too small an amount to really so anything with anyhow. I traded it in at about $130usb/coin. I should have hung on to it longer, lol.
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*Mined a bit over a single coin.
 
extide said:
I mined a bot over a single coin a few years ago. Ended up not using it until recently and cashed it in @ bitcoinstore.com for a hard drive. My minted bitcoin was worth ~$5 back when I mined it. I decided to sit on it because it was essentially too small an amount to really so anything with anyhow. I traded it in at about $130usb/coin. I should have hung on to it longer, lol.
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you may well regret that hard drive

it is by no means certain, but a coin may represent generational wealth one day
 
I'll buy a few once they dip to < $50/share. I expect a few more big cycles in price before the whole thing blows up in investors' faces.
 
Joseph F said:
I'll buy a few once they dip to < $50/share. I expect a few more big cycles in price before the whole thing blows up in investors' faces.
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I was going to buy $500 at 7$/coin 2 years back but couldn't be bothered to setup an account, was just too much bullshit to deal with. Boy was that a mistake :/
 
So many regrets now after all these news headlines, especially the guy who unknowingly turned $25 into $800k. Maybe someday soon values will drop a bit to where more people can invest in bitcoin with its unpredictable values. I enjoy a non government regulated currency that will hopefully become more widely adopted whether it be bitcoin or something else.
 
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