I was always skeptical of this thing, which I always took as pseudo-currency, not much different than Monopoly money only with a cyberworld value. Mainly, I was skeptical of all the hype that it was getting over recent years, and how it was supposed to replace real world currency someday. Quite frankly, I never saw the bitcoin as worth any more than the borrowed credit that we are slowly but surely turning the foundation of the Federal Reserve into, in that we already owe so much debt to the Federal Reserve that our government has long ago resorted to borrowing from other countries to pay off that debt. Much akin to using one credit card to pay off another. The bitcoin, or virtual money, had all the worth of the Microsoft Points system. And really, what happens to all of your bitcoins if the Internet crashes worldwide via a cataclysmic solar flare or EMP terrorist attack on our infrastructure that cuts our access to the Internet via a massive power outage? You can't "plug in" as long as the power is out, which also cuts off access to simpler things like your ATM machine. Sorry, but I'll take my chances with real world currency, or even just plain old gold, over these virtual bucks any day. ------------------------------------------ Bitcoin crashes again: Is it over for the cryptocurrency? Bitcoin Value Crashes as Mt Gox Exchange Blames Withdrawal Delays on Currency Flaw There are at least a dozen ways we can zap money to folks from our smartphones, maybe more, but almost all remain tight in the grip of the existing banking system, with its fees and delays and myriad regulations. Bitcoin, the digital currency based on computer encryption techniques, was supposed to cut out all the horse-drawn-carriage-and-buggy-whip overhead of the current system and provide a sleek, cheap, speed-of-light payment network. But as the cryptocurrency faces its third mega-crash in the past three months, it’s not working out that way. It now seems the dream of a frictionless, unregulated virtual currency may end up just that — an unattainable fantasy. The latest embarrassment for bitcoin proponents began four days ago when its largest exchange, Tokyo-based MtGox, suspended customer withdrawals. The exchange said a flaw in the bitcoin standard allowed fraudulent cancellations of completed transactions. Some bitcoin proponents said the flaw was in the way MtGox and other exchanges chose to confirm transactions. The move set off a wide-ranging debate that has yet to be resolved but had a more immediate impact on the price of bitcoin: It plummeted. After holding in a range of $900 to $1,000 for most of 2014, Bitcoin prices dropped as low as $500 before recovering slightly to around $700 on Monday. The crash was so severe at one point it prompted Joey Kunkle, founder of OptionsHawk Research, to tweet:If BitCoin were a stock you would be running for the hills pic.twitter.com/qbiSTF8TWE — Joe Kunkle (@OptionsHawk) February 10, 2014 Technical analysis of market prices isn’t always dead on, of course. “Whether this means that bitcoin has crashed once and for all and that a bubble has popped remains to be seen,” writes my colleague, Yahoo Finance interactive editor Phil Pearlman. It didn’t help matters on Sunday when news hit that Russia had prohibited the use of bitcoin, or any other unregulated digital currency. "Systems for anonymous payments and cyber currencies that have gained considerable circulation — including the most well-known, bitcoin — are money substitutes and cannot be used by individuals or legal entities," the Russian Prosecutor General's Office said. The Russian announcement follows similar moves by Chinese authorities to crack down on the use of bitcoin, a shift that instigated another crash back in December. Ultimately, the question is whether an unregulated currency lacking centralized authority and control can exist amid powerful nation states and their financial regulatory regimes. It’s not that bitcoin can be used to facilitate money laundering, blackmail and drug dealing – that’s also true of paper money. It’s that the authorities charged with stopping those kinds of criminal transactions, not to mention collecting taxes, will inexorably seek to impose on bitcoin the sames kinds of costly rules and limitations it was invented to disrupt. http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/the-...rdTJ1BHNlYwNzYwRjb2xvA2dxMQR2dGlkA1ZJUDA3N18x
More doom-and-gloom based upon media sensationalism. This particular "bug" is already known to the lead Bitcoin programmers, and it only effects a narrow subset of Bitcoin transactions (mostly those transactions occurring through the Mt. Gox exchange). This is actually a good time to buy a little Bitcoin because you'll be getting in at a low point. Sorry to burst your bubble, Bitcoin-haters, but this will not do anything to effect its longterm viability as money.
Bitcoin isn't money, it's a commodity. Not a bad thing in itself though it's nature gives it a very volatile value, as this incident shows. All the people trying to treat it as money rather than a commodity remain it's biggest threat (though I'm sure there are smart people treating it as a commodity and making plenty of actual money). Effective currency needs a relatively stable value and some form of guarantee it will maintain it, at least in the short-to-medium term. That's why people in countries with unstable governments and currencies often use US dollars, Sterling or, these days, Euros. Bitcoin doesn't have that and any practical benefits it does have are minimal for most people. It might evolve in to something more practical in the longer term but it will never be a currency.
I remember when bitcoin was like $9 ... of course monetary values are used for profit and what else would you expect?
Bitcoin itself will likely fail sooner or later, but it has opened the doorway to exploring the possibility of creating a "digital dollar" that has the benefits of bitcoin but still retains the legitimacy (and stability) of a federally-backed currency. My biggest problem with bitcoin advocates today is that the more businesses choose to accept it for payment, the easier it is for criminals to run their businesses through the bitcoin exchange and come away with lots of real money, which is what they're really after.
Yeah, I think Bitcoin took a real hit when China wouldn't allow it on it's stock exchange. I wonder if others will follow suit. I am curious to see where it goes though, it may still have legs.
I have a feeling with the power of people like NSA , America could close down bit coin at will. We know they hate it. It side steps everything they are trying to do to control our money which in turn controls us. It avoids taxes and IRS laws on transporting money and many other laws
It's a nightmarishly volatile fiat 'currency' and currently unsuitable for anything besides speculators and gamblers, er, day traders. It's hard to imagine commerce using something with no stability. Generation 2.0 of bitcoin mught be viable. This one is not.
You hit the nail on the head, Cubed. And the Bitcoin ambush was orchestrated by the controlling central banks, all over the world. They will never permit a "new currency", whether or not it's a "commodity". The central banks have been running the economies of nearly all countries based on imaginary "bank money/base money" for decades. Their power and influence cannot be underestimated... which is why you see all the stock market gamblers chewing their fingernails off this morning, waiting to see what Janet Yellen, the new Fed. overlord, will pronounce about the economy. Nothing else matters, really. The best way to determine if Bitcoin is on its death bed is to watch the price of a certain ATI (AMD) Video Card (for computers), called the R9 290x. The price shot up a couple of months ago because it provided a relatively inexpensive way to more efficiently mine Bitcoins. You can check the prices for these cards at places like Newegg.com, TigerDirect.com, and others. When these prices start falling, and they surely will, then you will know that Bitcoin is on the ropes.
Bit coin will have it's ups and downs. It's bought and sold on it's highs and lows which will make the price move in both directions. I ask myself why is China and Russia affairs of bit coin? Because it's good for the people and allows us to have control of our purse. Not the IRS or other countries
Money is any abstract or tangible thing that serves as a medium of exchange, a unit of account, and a store of value. As Bitcoin serves all these functions, it is therefore "money", which was the opinion of the federal reserve system, who, I may remind you, are not in the business of promoting monetary competition. The two are not mutually exclusive. Many commodities, most notably, gold and silver, have served as money throughout all of history. It already is a "currency", and shortrun volatility does not preclude the possibility of longrun stability. It will take some time for the market to wrap its head around a novel monetary system like decentralized, digital currencies, and there will be some volatility as a result, but the longrun viability of the monetary system is not threatened.
Wish I had a Bitcoin for every time I heard that... US Dollars will never be able to adopt the novel and unique properties that make Bitcoin valuable. Decentralized, digital monies like Bitcoin and FIAT monies like US Dollars are inherently contradictory. What sorts of crimes are you referring to and how have they become "easier" with the advent of Bitcoin?
Bitcoin was designed to be immune to being banned by central governments. That's why people in China, Russia, and India are still using them: http://fiatleak.com/
As long as there are libertarians, there will be bitcoin... The government cannot take that away -- after all, it's just "information"....
One of the problems with bitcoins is as the price grows higher, the use of it for transactions becomes less likely due to the high value of the coin. Since many people can not afford to buy items that cost 1000 and above, I think that will be one of the problem that sticks.
Bitcoin is just the same as the US dollar and all other fiat currencies in most regards... It is subject to people's views of its viability and stability. The dollar is just more stable because the government has forced everyone to use it and banned any competition. I know I wouldn't use a currency that's lost 97% of its purchasing power in the last 100 years if I had another option. At the same time with the help of the media, the financial big wigs who make fortunes through controlling and manipulating the dollar continue to bash bitcoin. Of course I would too if I were in their shoes, don't want a different option for the plebs to use... would make them harder to control.
The bitcoin market is simply a modern day Ponzi scheme and living proof that a sucker is born every minute. Like any Ponzi scheme, the ones who got in and out right away made money, and everyone else will be left holding the bag.
That is not correct. Bitcoins are divisible into smaller units, so people will always retain the ability to obtain smaller fractions of Bitcoins to engage in everyday transactions.
So when can we finally add Bitcoins to Tulip Bulbs and the South Seas Company Stock in the "How did anyone fall for that ?" cabinet? - - - Updated - - - So when can we finally add Bitcoins to Tulip Bulbs and the South Seas Company Stock in the "How did anyone fall for that ?" cabinet?
I know we never agree on anything, but I must admit, your comment is right on target! You get a rep point for this! Beck pisses me off, even though I'm a right-wing Conservative. He blows around and pontificates about the economy and what the stock market is going to do, and lots of other stuff he obviously knows next to nothing about. I can still remember him assuring us all back in 2008 that we must buy gold because the stock market was going to go under 5,000! Today? It's nearly triple that much. It might have gone under 5,000, but Beck completely ignored the fact that the Federal Reserve Combine was about to move heaven and Earth to save investment banking houses and the stock market. I don't fault him for being wrong -- I fault him for holding himself up as being a great, wise, know-it-all "expert" about these things, telling other people what to do. He needs to get himself some kind of weepy, "feel-good" TV show to be the thematic opposite of "Dr. Phil" or one of those unutterably maudlin daytime TV piles of **** that so many Americans seem to like (but NOT me.).
