Amazing Bitcoin performance the last few months

[indigopete]

Hi

It's difficult not to be impressed by how robust BCT has performed over the last 4 months of political and financial manoeuvrings.

It's outperformed all known investment stocks and commodities over the last 6 months and the longer this goes on the more it will surely consolidate. For example back in April, all the gold bugs over at Zerohedge could not pour enough contemptuous rhetoric on it's viability as a currency / investment vehicle / whatever.

Now they're all standing with their pants around their ankles having lost over $300 an ounce on their beloved 'tangible' rock, meanwhile BCT's accrued another 30% in a space of a couple of months.

Then, the other week when the Silkroad raid took place, there was another round of apocalyptic BCT commentaries which drew the usual dismissive cliche's such as "enjoy catching the knife".

10 days later, BCT bounced back and has since added $10 to it's pre-silkroad high (notwithstanding the April bubble).

The other day, "Bitpay" the BTC commercial merchant clearing house, registered it's 10,000th merchant. All in all, the longer this goes on, the more BTC and cryptocurrencies in general will consolidate. I think there are interesting times ahead for this financial phenomenon.

[Nanoo Nanoo]

In essence Bitcoin is good however unless you have really good security and are aufait with computer speak and saving your crypto key login info you are a sitting duck.

Bitcoin does not offer very good after sales service , in fact a whole bunch of people got ripped off and Bitcoin insta wallet have not done anything .. instead they have delayed and delayed and not responed to emails etc ...

its not all bad , but just make sure who you use in bit coin land ... research them well

N

[sigma6]

Karen Hudes has given it a fairly positive nod...

[pyriel]

just another stupid money idea that's corruptible, controllable, etc. humans and they're love of currency in 1 form or another. just sad all around. amazing how ppl want to continue to enslave themselves to money regardless of the form it comes in.

[indigopete]

just another stupid money idea that's corruptible, controllable, etc. humans and they're love of currency in 1 form or another. just sad all around. amazing how ppl want to continue to enslave themselves to money regardless of the form it comes in.

Actually it's not very stupid at all.

And if the last few week's events have demonstrated anything, they've at least shown how difficult Bitcoin it is to corrupt. There's been legislation, market scaremongering, hacks on exchanges and attempts at monopolising the mining capacity through colossal computing power. None of this has disturbed a feather on the integrity of the currency.

Even the FBI has been unsuccessful in trying to launder the takings from their raid on Silkroad's millions.

As for your remark regarding "humans and they're love of currency", I think you're alluding to "greed" rather than "currency". They are two very different things. A currency may be the subject of greed but it is not the cause of it.

Without currencies we'd all be dead because it's a well established fact that - despite all the corruption - the modern financial system supports thousands of more people than could be supported by a direct barter method, so we've got to use something.

Cryptocurrencies show huge promise in being able to play a big part in recovering from the rot ! :)

[RMorgan]

I'm still not sure about what will be the future of Bitcoin.

So far, it's been used mostly as an investment asset, not currency. The vast majority of people just buy Bitcoins looking forward to achieve financial advantage in the future. Most bitcoin users never even tried to use it as a proper currency.

So, I think there's still a long way to go until an acceptable volume of stores and business start to accept Bitcoin regularly...We'll only be able to analyze its efficiency as currency when or if it reaches a stable value that discourages the greed and speculators. Then we'll know if it will stick as an alternative currency or not.

[risveglio]

just another stupid money idea that's corruptible, controllable, etc. humans and they're love of currency in 1 form or another. just sad all around. amazing how ppl want to continue to enslave themselves to money regardless of the form it comes in.

Bitcoin seems pretty hard to corrupt and control, can you share with us how it is a stupid idea and how it is corruptible and controllable? But don't worry, DHS is on top of it and will be sure to try to shut it down shortly. Oh look, it bipartisan so it must be good.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/peterferrara/2013/08/25/the-federal-governments-reaction-to-bitcoin-is-an-acknowledgement-of-the-dollars-vulnerability/

[RMorgan]

just another stupid money idea that's corruptible, controllable, etc. humans and they're love of currency in 1 form or another. just sad all around. amazing how ppl want to continue to enslave themselves to money regardless of the form it comes in.

Bitcoin seems pretty hard to corrupt and control, can you share with us how it is a stupid idea and how it is corruptible and controllable? But don't worry, DHS is on top of it and will be sure to try to shut it down shortly. Oh look, it bipartisan so it must be good.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/peterferrara/2013/08/25/the-federal-governments-reaction-to-bitcoin-is-an-acknowledgement-of-the-dollars-vulnerability/

As long as bitcoins are treated as a stock, they're very controllable.

I mean, groups of people with enough bitcoins may influence its value by buying or selling great quantities...This happens all the time in the official financial market and it's even easier to do this with bitcoins, since transactions are theoretically anonymous and unregulated.

It's also important to be aware that most bitcoin movements happen through a single exchange, which is Mt.Gox. This puts a lot of power and influence on the hands of an unregulated agency directed by god knows who...

Just my two cents.

[risveglio]

just another stupid money idea that's corruptible, controllable, etc. humans and they're love of currency in 1 form or another. just sad all around. amazing how ppl want to continue to enslave themselves to money regardless of the form it comes in.

Bitcoin seems pretty hard to corrupt and control, can you share with us how it is a stupid idea and how it is corruptible and controllable? But don't worry, DHS is on top of it and will be sure to try to shut it down shortly. Oh look, it bipartisan so it must be good.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/peterferrara/2013/08/25/the-federal-governments-reaction-to-bitcoin-is-an-acknowledgement-of-the-dollars-vulnerability/

As long as bitcoins are treated as a stock, they're very controllable.

I mean, groups of people with enough bitcoins may influence its value by buying or selling great quantities...This happens all the time in the official financial market and it's even easier to do this with bitcoins, since transactions are theoretically anonymous and unregulated.

It's also important to be aware that most bitcoin movements happen through a single exchange, which is Mt.Gox. This puts a lot of power and influence on the hands of an unregulated agency directed by god knows who...

Just my two cents.

Thanks, I don't have a great understanding of bitcoin but I see it as a much better option than the USD, seems one of my favorite living economist is not a big fan, but I hear good rebuttals, even in this video.
http://mybitcoinhardware.com/dr-walter-block-on-bitcoin/

[indigopete]

I mean, groups of people with enough bitcoins may influence its value by buying or selling great quantities...This happens all the time in the official financial market and it's even easier to do this with bitcoins, since transactions are theoretically anonymous and unregulated.

That's very true. For example the Winkleviss Twins could dump all their stock of BCT on an exchange and totally crash the price.

However, I wouldn't say that was "controlling" the market - it's just making a lot of them available again and the price reflecting that availability. Then people would buy those BCT and the price would go back up again. Even in that circumstance, Bitcoin would be functioning with total integrity as a currency - it's price / value reflecting a true supply and a genuine demand.

On the OTHER HAND. What WOULD be "controlling a market" is if some entity had a unique monopoly on creating the currency at a rate of their choosing and at quantities of their choosing. Because in that case they could definitely be said to be "controlling" the market in that they can artificially synthesise any supply - demand scenario they like and thereby the price / value of that currency.

Central banks anyone ?

[sheme]

As some guy said when the SHTF how do you buy bread with a bitcon?

[risveglio]

As some guy said when the SHTF how do you buy bread with a bitcon?

Well that is not fair, are you going to be able to buy bread with any paper money?

[indigopete]

As some guy said when the SHTF how do you buy bread with a bitcon?

If the SHTF then you're not going to be buying bread with fiat money, nor gold nor oil.

On the other hand you MAY be able to buy it with a crypto-currency since it's not based on debt as fiat money is. So even in a disaster type scenario where there are massive defaults on debt and currencies collapse, cryptocurrencies are likely to be more robust and still work IMO.

Maybe you're talking about some meteorite or thermonuclear war scenario where the actual physical infrastructure is blown away. In that case, good luck in finding a working cash machine or a lump of gold :)

If you want a currency that's optimised for such disasters it won't be much use for the regular world.

[risveglio]

As some guy said when the SHTF how do you buy bread with a bitcon?

If the SHTF then you're not going to be buying bread with fiat money, nor gold nor oil.

.

Well gold has been used for food when the SHTF in the past.
7ubJp6rmUYM

[indigopete]

Well gold has been used for food when the SHTF in the past.


As I say, Gold might be useful after a thermonuclear war, but we're not going to be buying airline tickets with it :)

[sigma6]

just another stupid money idea that's corruptible, controllable, etc. humans and they're love of currency in 1 form or another. just sad all around. amazing how ppl want to continue to enslave themselves to money regardless of the form it comes in.

Actually I would say it is the exact opposite, like the internet itself the new model is not only to make it not centralized, which is the hallmark of the controllers, but it is designed in such a way that it can never be controlled by a centralized agency. I have been saying for years the internet will become the organizational model for everything in the future... It just hasn't "impressed" itself on human consciousness yet (ironically) So powerful is the current "imprint" i.e. everything has to be in the form of a corporation... (which is laughable... but unfortunately we weren't taught anything else were we?... until the internet came along... )

I still believe the interpretation that the internet is ultimately derived from alien technology... the aliens duped the dupers... the genie is out of the bottle... all this fear about shutting down the internet is false... can't be done in a way without hurting commercial interests... and of course technologically it can't be controlled by any central agency either ..."by design" it is going to become the organizational model for everything in the future, if we want to live in a stable and free society.

[sigma6]

As some guy said when the SHTF how do you buy bread with a bitcon?

If the SHTF then you're not going to be buying bread with fiat money, nor gold nor oil.

.

Well gold has been used for food when the SHTF in the past.
7ubJp6rmUYM

With all that labour, they are putting in, why not farm instead? what does it take for the people create farm communes, wth? panning for gold? someone has pulled the wool over their eyes... they are living in falsehood and denial if they think shovelling for gold when they could be turning soil... bloody shame... heartwrenching... look how lush that land looks, look at the vegetation!?

[risveglio]

Seems someone else believes bitcoin can work.

http://www.businessinsider.com/chinas-google-is-now-accepting-bitcoin-2013-10

[EYES WIDE OPEN]

There are pubs in London where you can pay using bitcoins. This thing is only going to get bigger I think.
Check this out:


Man buys $27 of bitcoin, forgets about them for 3 years, finds they're now worth $886k
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/oct/29/bitcoin-forgotten-currency-norway-oslo-home

Im buying my first Bitcoin tomorrow.

[risveglio]

There are pubs in London where you can pay using bitcoins. This thing is only going to get bigger I think.
Check this out:


Man buys $27 of bitcoin, forgets about them for 3 years, finds they're now worth $886k
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/oct/29/bitcoin-forgotten-currency-norway-oslo-home

Im buying my first Bitcoin tomorrow.

I have been considering mining for a while. This video gives a decent introduction.
E_PeYgMbiVk

[RMorgan]

There are pubs in London where you can pay using bitcoins. This thing is only going to get bigger I think.
Check this out:


Man buys $27 of bitcoin, forgets about them for 3 years, finds they're now worth $886k
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/oct/29/bitcoin-forgotten-currency-norway-oslo-home

Im buying my first Bitcoin tomorrow.

Actually, the first hundreds of thousands (I forgot the actual number, but it's something big) were first distributed for free, and a few millions were quite easily mined by just a few in the first year.

This is one of the reasons which make a lot of people suspect that bitcoins are a very clever pyramid scheme, because whoever was involved with it since the begining, had made an astonishing amount of money out of thin air, thankfully to late adopters, just like a pyramid scheme would work.

Another fact that makes people suspicious is that 97% of all bitcoin owners have made fewer than 10 transactions each, while only 75 owners use the network very often and are affiliated with at least 5,000 transactions, according to the following article...This indicates that the bitcoin network is mostly used by a tiny minority moving bitcoins very frequently.

The article also indicates that the vast majority of bitcoins are actually in the hands of a very few people, called hoarders.

(This is a very good article. I recommend anyone interested in bitcoins to read it)

On the fact that Bitcoin has a Kill Switch; and how to disconnect it. (http://www.loper-os.org/?p=1009)

According to table 7 of the above article, one single person, named "A", owns 2,886,650 bitcoins, which is more than Mt.Gox, the biggest bitcoin exchange, holds in its accounts. You'll see, in the same table, that just a few other individuals also have incredible amounts of accumulated bitcoins.

The main points of the article are:


Most bitcoins are, in fact, in the hands of a very few people.


...of the approximately 9 million bitcoins which currently exist, less than 2 million actually circulate


...most of the non-circulating coins are in the hands of a very small number of people – who, one may reasonably suspect, were involved from with building and propagandising Bitcoin from its very beginning.


...the most damning fact revealed in the paper is not the extreme top-heaviness of the Bitcoin ownership pyramid, but rather the elaborate lengths to which the hoarders went in order to conceal their existence from “rank and file” users. Think of it! Hundreds of thousands of shill accounts, with vast rivers of wealth moving back and forth


Bitcoin turns out to be something other than the fully-decentralized, unkillable network which so many imagined it to be.


The total number of bitcoins in actual circulation is much smaller than previously believed. If the early adopters were to cash out and place their hoards on the market, the exchange rates (as denominated in anything) would dive through the floor, never to recover. The hoarders, in effect, possess an off switch for Bitcoin.

Don't forget about the fact that no one knows who is Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator (or creators?) of bitcoin is, as well...

So, read as much as you can if you're really interested. Get informed and then achieve your own conclusions.

Cheers,

Raf.

[Anchor]

Saw this today

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2013/11/15/bitcoin-companies-and-entrepreneurs-cant-get-bank-accounts/


Bitcoin is booming, but many start-ups can’t get or hold onto bank accounts for their USD.

In the first week of July, Jay Shore got bad news. U.S. Bank and Chase informed him they were closing the accounts for his company, Coinabul, a San Diego-based precious metals buyer that sells silver and gold for Bitcoin. They didn’t want to house his half-million dollars. Chase was mum on the reason but Shore says a U.S. Bank compliance officer told him it was shutting down all small Bitcoin clients.

“They tried to force me to take a cashier’s check but I refused,” said Shore who worried he wouldn’t be able to deposit it elsewhere. He made a dozen trips to U.S. Bank because they wouldn’t give him more than $30,000 at a time. “The money is now sitting in our corporate vaults along with our metals.”


“Saying Bitcoin in a bank is like yelling fire in a theater,” says Kinnard Hockenhull, the 23-year-old founder of Bitbox.

Citibank, Bank of America, J.P. Morgan Chase and Wells Fargo declined to speak on the record about the issue. U.S. Bank didn’t respond to a request for comment. Steve Kenneally, VP of government relations at the American Bankers Association, says the banks are wary following two prominent pieces of government guidance this year. In March, the Department of Treasury’s FinCEN said that businesses doing Bitcoin exchanges were classified as “money services businesses,” meaning they need to be registered as such and conduct due diligence to know who their customers are and prevent money laundering. But for banks, having a MSB customers entails enhanced monitoring. On top of that, the FDIC issued guidance saying that banks face heightened responsibility around high risk businesses — such as those dealing in guns, fireworks or Bitcoin.

[risveglio]

Jeffrey Tucker on bitcoin, I think worth the quick read.
http://www.dailyreckoning.com.au/bitcoin-has-the-federal-reserve-met-its-match/2013/11/16/

[bearcow]

The price action on bitcoin has been amazing this past month. 30 days ago the market price was $183, now it is over $600. If you decide to get in now be careful, invest slowly at the beginning, buying in small batches that you can afford to lose. Long term upside is fantastic, i still think it can reach a market cap of 1 trillion over the next few years, which would constitute a +1000% return on your investment. for the short term, be careful. it has moved so quickly so there may be a 20-50% reduction in price over the next month.

Why is it raising in price so much?

The chinese are starting to buy, trying to corner the market and possibly start the process of pulling their capital out of US bonds. No need to panic as this will take many years to unfold.

It looks like China is starting to lay the groundwork for bitcoin to become the new world reserve currency. Im amazed this is happening already

Early days yet, it may not unfold, but ill tell you one thing, the US Government cannot stop it by any legal course of action, they can only keep US citizens from investing in it.

[william6565william]

I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, the increase of value in BitCoins in undeniable, regardless of whether anyone thinks its a ponzi scheme or otherwise. Those who managed to earn BitCoins early are surely very happy now and whatever criticism is given falls on deaf ears.

On the flip side, having it regulated by a governing body kills off BitCoin's original purpose - as a virtual, peer-to-peer, untraceable form of currency not influenced by a central banking authority.

[risveglio]

On the flip side, having it regulated by a governing body kills off BitCoin's original purpose - as a virtual, peer-to-peer, untraceable form of currency not influenced by a central banking authority.

If you read the Tucker article, I think he is optimistically predicting the Fed won't be able to regulate bitcoin.


But no, this is what the Fed says of Bitcoin, an open-source protocol that anyone can download, examine, and critique, a currency that has its every single transaction logged in a public ledger in the cloud. Never in history has there been a more transparent money.


It was an invention of one person or team that wrote up the protocol for a perfect money and dumped it on an obscure internet forum. Eight months later, it obtained a market value. Since then, it has grown and grown and is now being used all over the world.


In contrast, Bitcoin keeps going up in value relative to the goods and services it buys. That's a pretty weird and unprecedented thing. In other words, if you hold Bitcoin, you actually see your wealth grow even without investing. That is the way sound money works. It is what the Fed decries as 'deflationary', a word that only means it gets more valuable.


Yes, a quasi-monopoly. Maybe that should be considered better than the full-blown monopolistic cartel that the dollar represents. What's next? The Federal Trade Commission needs to get in there and break it up? That would be a very amusing thing to watch.

There has never been a currency more resistant to control by government than Bitcoin. It lives on a distributed network. The feds could take down a trillion copies of the ledger, but it could live again as long as one copy survived. It is exchanged person to person, with no third-party involvement, making it even more resistant.

Plus, the use of cryptography to guarantee the integrity of transactions makes it almost impossible for outsiders to access the identity details behind transactions.

Indeed, this is the whole reason for the structure of Bitcoin. It was made to be state resistant. It was made to thrive without the intervention of a central bank. It has no single point of failure. Therefore, of course, it is driving the elites just about bonkers.

[EYES WIDE OPEN]

Im buying my first Bitcoin tomorrow.

Don't invest more than you can afford to lose. I am a happy bunny right now with the price going up almost 4 times in 10 days since I bought my coins but my feet are firmly on the ground. I am well aware it could all fall apart tomorrow.

[risveglio]

I don't know what to make of this one.

BERNANKE: Bitcoin 'May Hold Long-Term Promise'
http://www.businessinsider.com/ben-bernanke-on-bitcoin-2013-11

China Loves Bitcoin
http://money.cnn.com/2013/11/18/investing/bitcoin-china/index.html

[Cidersomerset]

Bitcoin skyrockets to $900 amid Senate scrutiny

-9hU7GJyDwI

[Cidersomerset]

This is a preditable the Banksters & politicians are worried
about Bitcoin hiding drug deals. Because that's their job
to launder drug money with the $....LOL


http://media.yourdailymedia.com/4/money_laundering.jpg

http://www.yourdailymedia.com/post/banks-launder-billions-of-dollars-with-no-repercussions/

Bitcoin = Drug trade? Angry US govt seeks to curb alternative currency

s1fe4L2OiRU

Published on 18 Nov 2013


The renegade crypto-currency that's used to avoid the watchful
eye of financial authorities, has made history yet again. Bitcoin's
value surged past 500 dollars this weekend after months of steady
growth. But as the currency is scoring more and more points it
keeps raising eyebrows in Washington, as Gayane Chichakyan reports.

[SHAPE]

any of you know what MONEY is ? In case you don’t know MONEY is illegal in our current system.

BITCOIN offers a solution.

The video below explains what MONEY is.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxZhtGeRa-M[/url]


rxZhtGeRa-MDo

[SHAPE]

The video below explain what Bitcoin is. Any Computer Scientist in this forum ?


gQoykhNoBbY

[risveglio]

I am a computer scientist but don't know too much about the inner workings of bitcoin. I am listening to this video and will agree with him that most economist are not economist but that is because most economist are taught a form of Keynesian economics that would make Keynes puke.

Bitcoin is doing something that can't be done with any other form of currency in our controlled world, showing that money, left on its own, would usually appreciate which is a good thing. Some would say, well then people would hoard it but that's silly because hoarding money has no benefit (unless it depreciates and you have enough to earn interest to keep up with its depreciation). The money itself is useless whether its bitcoin, paper, tulips, credit in your bank account or even gold (because once you use it for something else, its not really money anymore).

Now is bitcoin itself the answer? Is crypto currency the answer? I don't think so but until we are allowed to have competing currencies we will never have the answer. The answer is simple. Free, sound money. It should not cost you more money than the product you are buying to use money. It shouldn't cost you money at all when you are not using your money. The answer is really that simple, fix money and you will fix many of the world's problems.

One thing you learn when you write code is that usually even the most difficult and complex problems, when you finally get the right answer, you look at it and say, "I can't believe it was that easy. I spent all night at this damn keyboard and it was that easy?". Someday we are going to say that about money.

I am going to try to find his bitcoin video and he does expose some of it's problems. The beauty of bitcoin is that you can learn these problems and still make your own decision about this. Him exposing these problems may be making the next crypto currency safer. For example, I would be interested in his video on LiteCoin

http://www.coindesk.com/litecoin-spikes-200m-market-capitalization/

I'm a half hour in but need to stop, will watch the rest later.

[SHAPE]

MATH never lies this is what BITCOIN offers. NO BELIEF only THRUTH.

And for those that might find the video above too complex, the one below covers the basics.





http://vimeo.com/63502573

Here in reality MONEY is not what you think is watch money as debt 3.

[SHAPE]

Please keep in mind BITCOIN is only a BETA test and was only supposed to work for 90 days and look where we are at. The real thing will collapse the system.

[SHAPE]

To make it easier.

Banks do ONE THING ONLY: Act as a currency exchange. So what would BITCOIN fit in this situation. MONEY is not what you think it is.

[SHAPE]

In essence Bitcoin is good however unless you have really good security and are aufait with computer speak and saving your crypto key login info you are a sitting duck.

Bitcoin does not offer very good after sales service , in fact a whole bunch of people got ripped off and Bitcoin insta wallet have not done anything .. instead they have delayed and delayed and not responed to emails etc ...

its not all bad , but just make sure who you use in bit coin land ... research them well

N

Leave your wallet at a park and see what happens, how is this BITCOINS issue ?

[SHAPE]

There are pubs in London where you can pay using bitcoins. This thing is only going to get bigger I think.
Check this out:


Man buys $27 of bitcoin, forgets about them for 3 years, finds they're now worth $886k
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/oct/29/bitcoin-forgotten-currency-norway-oslo-home

Im buying my first Bitcoin tomorrow.

Actually, the first hundreds of thousands (I forgot the actual number, but it's something big) were first distributed for free, and a few millions were quite easily mined by just a few in the first year.

This is one of the reasons which make a lot of people suspect that bitcoins are a very clever pyramid scheme, because whoever was involved with it since the begining, had made an astonishing amount of money out of thin air, thankfully to late adopters, just like a pyramid scheme would work.

Another fact that makes people suspicious is that 97% of all bitcoin owners have made fewer than 10 transactions each, while only 75 owners use the network very often and are affiliated with at least 5,000 transactions, according to the following article...This indicates that the bitcoin network is mostly used by a tiny minority moving bitcoins very frequently.

The article also indicates that the vast majority of bitcoins are actually in the hands of a very few people, called hoarders.

(This is a very good article. I recommend anyone interested in bitcoins to read it)

On the fact that Bitcoin has a Kill Switch; and how to disconnect it. (http://www.loper-os.org/?p=1009)

According to table 7 of the above article, one single person, named "A", owns 2,886,650 bitcoins, which is more than Mt.Gox, the biggest bitcoin exchange, holds in its accounts. You'll see, in the same table, that just a few other individuals also have incredible amounts of accumulated bitcoins.

The main points of the article are:


Most bitcoins are, in fact, in the hands of a very few people.


...of the approximately 9 million bitcoins which currently exist, less than 2 million actually circulate


...most of the non-circulating coins are in the hands of a very small number of people – who, one may reasonably suspect, were involved from with building and propagandising Bitcoin from its very beginning.


...the most damning fact revealed in the paper is not the extreme top-heaviness of the Bitcoin ownership pyramid, but rather the elaborate lengths to which the hoarders went in order to conceal their existence from “rank and file” users. Think of it! Hundreds of thousands of shill accounts, with vast rivers of wealth moving back and forth


Bitcoin turns out to be something other than the fully-decentralized, unkillable network which so many imagined it to be.


The total number of bitcoins in actual circulation is much smaller than previously believed. If the early adopters were to cash out and place their hoards on the market, the exchange rates (as denominated in anything) would dive through the floor, never to recover. The hoarders, in effect, possess an off switch for Bitcoin.

Don't forget about the fact that no one knows who is Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator (or creators?) of bitcoin is, as well...

So, read as much as you can if you're really interested. Get informed and then achieve your own conclusions.

Cheers,

Raf.

This is all gravy. It was ONLY built to PROVE THE CONCEPT, not have a ****ING BILLION DOLLAR MARKET CAP!

That is SO unexpected. Wait until the ACTUAL crypto-currency comes out.