The previous high of $31.91/BTC was set back on June 8, 2011. As of this posting, it is trading for over $33/BTC. Some good sites for charts and order books are:

http://bitcoin.clarkmoody.com/

http://mtgoxlive.com/

http://bitcoincharts.com/

http://bitcoinity.org/markets

First of all, I'm a fan of bitcoin and I do wish it becomes successful. Having said that, can someone explain to me why bitcoin folk watch and cheer on when BTC/USD goes up? It seems like a terrible metric to watch. This figure going up is not necessarily indicative of bitcoin's success and may in fact impede it.

In my mind, the question "what is the size of the bitcoin economy" is a far better question and will give you a much better indication of what's actually happening to bitcoin. BTC/USD * # of bitcoin will not.

In startup terms (ie, "You make what you measure"), it seems like the bitcoin community is optimizing the wrong metric.

Probably because it makes them richer.

How do you determine the size of the bitcoin economy without using relative terms?

I wonder how much of bitcoin's value is related to it's ability to buy illegal drugs?

I posited a similar question on a previous BitCoin post and received this response: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5189994 "but odds are that the vast majority of Bitcoin usage still isn't on the Silk Road."

Even if this was true, does it matter? At the end of the day, value is value. I know there's a lot of fatigue on HN about bitcoin stories from the initial spam when it first broke into the mainstream (well, the tech mainstream at least) but it really is a game changer IMO.

By the way, I have never owned any bitcoin. I just find it fascinating.

It might matter. If the main incentive to buy bitcoin is to buy drugs and there is suddenly a crackdown from law enforcement you can expect the value to tank pretty fast.

Actually, I think law enforcement backing off of drugs (decriminalization, etc) would hurt bitcoin more than the opposite.

Sure, but which is more likely to happen?

I was wondering if this is a reaction to the whole 6 strikes thing, and the desire to avoid detection with a seedbox or VPN. Of course, which you would want to pay for anonymously.

I would say a lot.

If you think - why would you use anonymous and basically untracable currency for?

Turns out it is used mostly for drugs and anonymous online services. And a little for online casinos.

Large value movements, up or down, are not a good thing.

Can you explain why? Maybe give some historical examples?

If I want it to be a useful currency, I want it stable and predictable. Otherwise I have to mitigate my currency risk by hedging or taking out forward exchange contracts (assuming that I can find someone prepared to offer that service for bitcoins)

Highly useless link. The post linked to consists of no more text than three graphical emoticons.

Flagged.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is just the beginning.