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Re:Bitcoin Gets Close to $5,000 by grizzles on Friday September 01, 2017 @08:45PM (#15153466)
It's kinda cool to be living in a tulip era like this. I wish there was some way I could make a long term bet against the the price of bitcoin, say it's price 10 years from now.

Of course, this is impossible. If there is anything we have learned, and I can demonstrate that I predicted 5 years ago, it's that the definition of bitcoin is infinitely divisible. I could claim a bitcoin fork in 2027 is the true bitcoin, and price it at $1M a coin.

Re:Bitcoin Gets Close to $5,000 by Meekro on Friday September 01, 2017 @09:02PM (#15153516)
I've been into Bitcoin since 2011, and it's interesting that people are still making tulip comparisons 6 years later. Tulip mania itself only lasted about 9 months. I wonder how long Bitcoin will have to hold out before the tulip argument could no longer be made.
Re:Bitcoin Gets Close to $5,000 by Alex3917 on Friday September 01, 2017 @09:09PM (#15153555)
> I wonder how long Bitcoin will have to hold out before the tulip argument could no longer be made.

Until the end of the infrastructure phase at least. A lot of folks are going to get hauled off the prison, which will create new opportunities to challenge the dominant existing players. At this point the value being ascribed to the different blockchain assets is pretty arbitrary.

Re:Bitcoin Gets Close to $5,000 by kwelstr on Friday September 01, 2017 @09:43PM (#15153708)
To me the true crypto tulip mania is the proliferation of worthless altcoins and tokens that all of a sudden get millions of dollars in marketcap.
Re:Bitcoin Gets Close to $5,000 by tunetine on Friday September 01, 2017 @09:09PM (#15153554)
Probably when it is used mainly as actual currency, not for speculation or black market exchanges and laundering.
Re:Bitcoin Gets Close to $5,000 by throwaway0255 on Friday September 01, 2017 @09:37PM (#15153683)
To what extent do you think the value of bitcoin is driven by its use as a black market exchange / laundering tool?

I suspect virtually all of it. People dismiss this viewpoint because they attribute it to Silk Road type activities, which can't explain the scale, but what I'm talking about is millionaires and billionaires funneling wealth out of China etc.

One thing that's certain is that bitcoin isn't really a currency. When you pay with bitcoin, the value is tied to and converted to USD, and the price paid is tied to USD. Bitcoin isn't the currency in those transactions, USD is. Bitcoin is more like a decentralized anonymous Western Union than it is a currency.

I also don't understand what proponents think the endgame is for bitcoin as an investment-grade asset. Everyone who buys some just becomes the world's first trillionaires, and we become a 2-tiered society of people who bought bitcoin and people who didn't?

Bitcoin might have some serious world-changing implications, but I seriously doubt it being an investable asset is one of them.

Re:Bitcoin Gets Close to $5,000 by booleandilemma on Friday September 01, 2017 @09:13PM (#15153578)
I was skeptical of Bitcoin for a long time, but the other day I was on a (legal) website and they had it listed as a payment method, right next to Visa. Seeing it there really showed me how far it's come.
Re:Bitcoin Gets Close to $5,000 by tunetine on Friday September 01, 2017 @09:32PM (#15153667)
Are you for real? I feel like we're being trolled by Bitcoin holders who want to keep the value propped up.
Re:Bitcoin Gets Close to $5,000 by tehlike on Friday September 01, 2017 @09:44PM (#15153716)
they probably couldn't hear you over the price of their coins.
Re:Bitcoin Gets Close to $5,000 by MBCook on Friday September 01, 2017 @09:24PM (#15153632)
It's not that hard to add to a real website, but what percentage of transactions are conducted in it?

I mean if some big retailer like Amazon or BestBuy or Walmart to accept it, but only 0.02% of their daily transactions involved bitcoin would that be a success? It's a lot of money in absolute numbers, but it's minuscule as a percentage.

If it were 5% that would certainly be something to look at.

Re:Bitcoin Gets Close to $5,000 by notsofastbuddy on Friday September 01, 2017 @09:14PM (#15153579)
How is DNM usage not an actual currency?
Re:Bitcoin Gets Close to $5,000 by tunetine on Friday September 01, 2017 @09:26PM (#15153646)
DNM is something I had to look up. I don't have to explain why going to the store and being able to purchase something with Bitcoin is not the same as buying drugs on the black market.
Re:Bitcoin Gets Close to $5,000 by sillysaurus3 on Friday September 01, 2017 @09:06PM (#15153536)
BTC's graph is hilarious: http://i.imgur.com/IWwOgm9.png
Re:Bitcoin Gets Close to $5,000 by lojack on Friday September 01, 2017 @09:18PM (#15153596)
Indeed it looks like a bubble, but at this point I've seen it happen so many times and not actually been a bubble. Every time is settles down to a point significantly higher than it started. At this point I've accepted these are all price corrections that over compensate and then drop back down to it's true value. Maybe this time it's truly a bubble this time, but I tend to think just repeating history.
Re:Bitcoin Gets Close to $5,000 by c0nducktr on Friday September 01, 2017 @09:17PM (#15153594)
It looks a little less ridiculous a log scale but still pretty odd.

https://i.imgur.com/tIyvGFs.png

Re:Bitcoin Gets Close to $5,000 by solotronics on Friday September 01, 2017 @09:28PM (#15153656)
Mr Satoshis wild ride
Re:Bitcoin Gets Close to $5,000 by jah6q on Friday September 01, 2017 @09:03PM (#15153524)
And no one would buy that theoretical forked $1M bitcoin, so it would have no real impact on the price of the dominant coin.

But to your other questions, check out: http://longbets.org/

Re:Bitcoin Gets Close to $5,000 by drizzzler on Friday September 01, 2017 @09:12PM (#15153570)
can we please have a bitcoin thread that doesn't mention the stupid tulips
Re:Bitcoin Gets Close to $5,000 by farnsworth on Friday September 01, 2017 @09:14PM (#15153580)
I'm kind of glad I didn't buy a lot of btc earlier - I would be a lot more stressed out about the right time to sell. Then I'd sell at just the wrong time and beat myself up for it. Then I'd probably get audited...
Re:Bitcoin Gets Close to $5,000 by matt-attack on Friday September 01, 2017 @09:03PM (#15153521)
Are you saying I should sell?
Re:Bitcoin Gets Close to $5,000 by Temasik on Friday September 01, 2017 @09:05PM (#15153532)
yes while it's high
Re:Bitcoin Gets Close to $5,000 by andy_ppp on Friday September 01, 2017 @09:14PM (#15153581)
For all you know in 10 years it could be worth $50000. For me it’s simply a hedge against real currency the same way gold would be. How many people hold gold for the same reason?
Re:Bitcoin Gets Close to $5,000 by ekianjo on Friday September 01, 2017 @09:11PM (#15153565)
its been getting higher and higher for a while its not like it keeps crashing.