Bitcoins in 2014?

[Edwin]

Can I ask why you're so interested in this thread and BTC in general if you're sure it's a doomed project both from an investment and currency standpoint? What's the point in even giving it a second thought?

Why not? It is an enormously "topical" topic - the startup/VC sites that I read regularly seem to have a new Bitcoin-related venture going live on pretty much a daily basis. So it's something I've been following quite closely (just like I follow developments in solar, wireless tech, robotics, etc. etc.). There's certainly plenty of information out there!

 

[retired_member33]

Bought a few more today, if anyone wants to sell their coins please get in touch.

 

[Edwin]

Hope nobody's been storing their coin with Neo & Bee
http://www.coindesk.com/neo-bee-share-price-plunges-trading-resumes/

 

[retired_member33]

It's very interesting to watch http://fiatleak.com/ for a few minutes. It's super obvious that most of the Bitcoin are being bought by China.

For example, I've run it for just over 4 minutes and the breakdown I am seeing:
US$: 6.4 Bitcoin
CAD: 0.4 Bitcoin
CNY: 1,163.4 Bitcoin

That's the actual trail left by Bitcoin transactions in real time (and nothing whatsoever to do with whether I happen to like it or not)

NOTE: You will always see different numbers, because the counter starts for you when you load up the http://fiatleak.com/ site.

This is pretty cool, wonder how accurate it is.. Had it on for 3 minutes and 350 btc moved into China, looks like a constant stream of coins going into China.

I wonder why.. Could it be the closed economy of China and BTC enabling Chinese people to trade in a currency which is not controlled by their government and which is globally accepted?

 

[Edwin]

I wonder why.. Could it be the closed economy of China and BTC enabling Chinese people to trade in a currency which is not controlled by their government and which is globally accepted?

That's pretty much it - it was covered in the article I linked to a few posts back...

 

[retired_member33]

Bought 2 more and I am still mining, if anyone wants to sell their coins... I Pay up to 75% of the current value and I can pay via bank transfer / international bank transfer / Paypal / Cash payment as long as your currency is listed on Cryptsy.

 

[websaway]

Bought 2 more and I am still mining, if anyone wants to sell their coins... I Pay up to 75% of the current value and I can pay via bank transfer / international bank transfer / Paypal / Cash payment as long as your currency is listed on Cryptsy.

Obvious question, why would anyone want to sell for three quarters of the value ?

 

[RobM]

I'll also buy all your useable fiat money for 75% of the value. Please PM.

 

[DaveP]

If anyone wants to sell me £10000 for £7500 I'm very interested too.

 

[Murray]

One thing I've wondered is say you buy 10 for £270 ish or whatever they are now

In two weeks somehow they're at 1k each

How easy are bitcoins to sell? could you easily cash out your 10k on the same day you decide you're happy to sell or.

 

[timter51]

One thing I've wondered is say you buy 10 for £270 ish or whatever they are now

In two weeks somehow they're at 1k each

How easy are bitcoins to sell? could you easily cash out your 10k on the same day you decide you're happy to sell or.

Yep very easy to sell, if you're happy to sell to the current cheapest buy order on an exchange, then it's a guaranteed instant sale. Or you can set the lowest sell order and wait for a buyer which, in a bull market, you shouldn't have to wait long for. An alternative to an exchange is localbitcoins where you'll find buyers easily, but it's a bit more faffing around as payment / btc transfer isn't automated, it's manual (e.g. bank transfer followed by manual btc transaction from your wallet).

 

[websaway]

More bad news out of China.
Looks like banks are distancing themselves from any involvement.

 

[boxerdog]

£228 give or take as well, up and down like a yo-yo

 

[websaway]

someone done well bitcoin dot com dot au sold for $23000 according to dnj

 

[bonusmedia]

I keep an eye on the price for entertainment purposes.

Must admit I heard of them early on and considered dabbling back when they were $15 but never bought any. Was a bit green when they hit $1000.

I think of it a bit like folding a poker hand and then seeing the perfect flop - it doesn't mean the decision was wrong with the information at the time.

Maybe the price will shoot up again, maybe it will collapse completely, but it's pure gambling on the 'bigger fool' principle. Far too volatile to be an investment.

 

[boxerdog]

I think its fine for a bit of fun, if you can afford to lose then why not otherwise i really cant see enough people/businesses ever taking it seriously

 

[Edwin]

It's a pity the Bitcoin algorithm is so specialised that it doesn't "do" anything computationally useful, since at the current price you've got what amounts to a distributed super-super-super-computer that costs about $1,600,000/day to run (= 164 blocks of 25 Bitcoin "handed over" in the last 24 hours as a reward for mining)

I wonder if there's a potential future business model there for a cryptocurrency variant where the "proof of work" is something incredibly useful and therefore worth funding.

 

[Edwin]

Some giant transactions going down. In the last minute I've seen one for $250,000 and another for over $150,000
http://blockchain.info

 

[retired_member33]

Interesting day, lost a bit of money here.

Still confident that things will pan out and pick up.

Keeping an eye on things and might buy a few more

 

[Edwin]

Wow, a transaction just scrolled past for $721,000! To put that into perspective, some days recently only $60,000,000-100,000,000 in trades took place in 24h.