Bitcoin hits $100
- Thread starter lcver
- Start date
Adoption by world governments and not a hive of reddit users in it for the novelty and speculation.
But for the record, I'm not a complete skeptic. I play both sides. :tongue2:
What is "viable"?
It's just another made up currency. An abstraction, since there is nothing actually behind the currency units.
Here is the deal though, and this is a huge deal breaker for long term adoption.
All of these currencies, except for (potential) hard money or sound money currencies, are a liability held by someone else.
So the question comes down to, who is it better to have on the other end of that liability? MtGox or the USG? Who is more likely to be around in 20 years? Who has more at stake to prevent non-payment of liabilities?
I get people's enthusiasm, but it's very very naive. What Amazon does is irrelevant. Amazon does what the USG tells it to do.
I'm in it for neither novelty nor speculation. I'm in it for utility.
Banks suck, paypal sucks, visa sucks.
Settle in a year? Nothing is settling in a year with programming like this.
I regret using the word guaranteed - so I'll take that back. Barring any significant undermining of the technology or mass exodus away from it, it has no choice but to increase in value as the number of users increases.
Indeed. But as it is now, liquidity for services and goods is superior with banks, paypal, and visa as the payment methods.
For bitcoin to become utility, there are two options that I can see:
1. Either bitcoin replaces these other institutions (impossible)
2. More likely, bitcoin works in tandem with those institutions*
But in the more likely case of #2, what's the benefit in using bitcoin when you could just use the institution as it is?
*In fact, this is pretty much the status quo now... people ARE moving money from their banks to BTC, and vice versa.
BTC would be fucking useless without the banking system as it is. Unless, of course, you want to buy drugs off Silk Road. But then, why the fuck would drug dealers sell their drugs for BTC with no way of turning it back into cash? Oh, by transacting with other individuals? Have fun, that's an underground system.
Plus this shit about BTC and freedom is fucking BULLSHIT. It will not reach mass adoption just based on "freedom".
Fuck, the majority doesn't know about or understand or care about privacy and security and freedom like technologists. That's why people are still on Facebook even after major news outlets report their creepy privacy violations every fucking week!
They want whats easy for them. And buying and selling Bitcoins right now is more of a hassle than anything when you can just use the methods in place.
Fuck, the majority doesn't know about or understand or care about privacy and security and freedom like technologists. That's why people are still on Facebook even after major news outlets report their creepy privacy violations every fucking week!
They want whats easy for them. And buying and selling Bitcoins right now is more of a hassle than anything when you can just use the methods in place.
* Realistic exchange rate stability to avoid speculation, manipulation, hoarding, acceptance risk. etc
* More exchange liquidity, ie quicker exchanges, no limits, etc
* Guaranteed contractually obligated acceptance for universally useful goods/services by committed merchants.
There are more, but these would be a great start for me at least.
Sure, but are the number of BTC users really increasing? I think the number of speculators is definitely increasing, not sure if actual "use" of BTC is increasing.
you're right, but I'm counting on utility increases as adoption increases. If there is enough adoption, you don't have to turn it back into cash.
Now, that's going to take years to reach the point where there is mass adoption, but these boom and bust cycles bring media attention, which raises awareness.
If there is a major bubble burst and recovery (similar to what happened in 2011), then 2 years from now, btc will be worth 10x what it is today and everyone will know what it is.
yes, it is. Many merchants like e-gov link and amagimetals are stating that they have 20x (or more) new customers because of their btc adoption. Then there is also this
https://blockchain.info/charts/n-transactions
These figures seem like bullshit to me. I couldn't increase my customer base 20 fold by integrating Paypal, let alone Bitcoin.
Are these transactions based on people trading Bitcoin themselves or purchasing consumer goods. I can guess its not the latter.
Speculation is not a stable base for any kind of mass adoption. No one really gives two shits about spending Bitcoin right now. This could change but I seriously doubt it.
Number of Total Transactions is much different than the Number of BitCoin-for-Product Transactions.
Guerilla types the words out of my fingers again.
A simple money and banking class explains the massive issues with bitcoins right now.
I have no idea where the bitcoins intrinsic value is and nor does anyone else (by a long shot) which is why this an obvious bubble based on pure speculation and "want".
Bitcoins have their advantages/disadvantages but the belief that USD is less stable as currency is asinine. Bitcoins are not purchsed right now because their exchange value, rather the opportunity of the exchange medium (short-term) future. No bueno
You know that System-D you guys like to talk about nowadays? About 80% of my daily transactions go through system-d people, so when my veggie lady at the market starts accepting Bitcoin, I'll take it more seriously.
Honestly, even then I wouldn't take it seriously. Know why? For example, take a stock like ExxonMobil. If that stock goes into free fall for whatever reason, you know it's going to stop at some point. You know this because ExxonMobil has tons of refineries, wells, offshore rigs, mineral rights contracts, tens of thousands of employees, offices across the world, etc. This gives it tangible value.
Bitcoin has absolutely nothing backing it though, except 100% pure speculation. That means when this thing ends up in free fall, there's absolutely nothing there to stop it from dropping to $0 in no time flat.
That's completely false. Bitcoin cannot go to $0 because there is real demand for it outside of speculation. Silk Road and Bitpay process at least $10 million per month in sales.
When the last bubble burst, Bitcoin lost about 90% of its value, but it always stayed above $2. I'd say that $20-$30 is the absolute floor today.
That previous bubble, by the way, went from $0.05 to $30. Comparably we are about 5% of the way there this time.
Bubble or not, I wish I would have dropped $500.00 on Bitcoins about 2 years ago for shits and giggles, LOTS of others are feeling the same feels.
To bad someone didn't post about them in this thread, it would have made them a modern Nostradamus.
http://www.wickedfire.com/shooting-shit/111840-whats-best-way-make-500k-2011-a-8.html
To bad someone didn't post about them in this thread, it would have made them a modern Nostradamus.
http://www.wickedfire.com/shooting-shit/111840-whats-best-way-make-500k-2011-a-8.html
No, because for example, gold is actually useful and used in loads of different applications throughout our daily lives. Randomly generated computer hashes just aren't quite as useful though.
A currency that's accepted everywhere in the world, and backed by a 350 million person nation that has a GDP of $15 trillion, and 9.1 million square kms of land. I can go to any country in this world with a $100 USD bill in my pocket, exchange it at a currency counter, and rent a hotel plus buy dinner.
No, I don't. But now you're getting into stupid black and white arguments that anarchists use to try and validate their view point. Just because I disagree with the way the US govt spends money, doesn't necessarily mean I need to readily support Bitcoin.
It's been the world's reserve currency for almost a century now. Just a tab more reliable than a computer hash, I'd say.