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Comment by Akujin | Hacker News Reader

Tulipmania lasted 6 months. Bitcoin is now 8 years old.

Stop comparing Bitcoin to flowers. It's not even close to the same thing.

Tulipmania lasted 6 months. Bitcoin is now 8 years old.

Tulipmania includes the time it took for the belief that tulips were special and valuable to take hold, and the time it took for merchants to cross breed specific colors for the Dutch nobility. When you include the history behind the bubble and why it happened, tulipmania took decades.

That's not to say that Bitcoin will end the same way, but it is to say that bubbles don't start and end within 6 months.

The South Seas bubble is a more apt comparison. Many of the ICOs that are springing up are exactly like the fraudulent companies that arose in that era (some of them even sold tokens like ICOs!)

Believe it or not, tulip bulbs existed for a reaaaaaally long time before tulip mania. For the vast majority of Bitcoin's history, it has been known by virtually no-one outside of the tech circle, and its price was relatively stable/low [1]

[1] https://www.xe.com/currencycharts/?from=XBT&to=USD&view=10Y

If you chart them, they're actually right on top of each other.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-12-12/its-official-bitcoi...

This chart shows nothing interesting and is hardly scientific. Of course by lining up price charts of various speculative bubbles they will roughly line up. The chart also intentially discards the first 4 years of Bitcoin trading data (2010-2013) where Bitcoin has actually gained the most. None of the other assets in the chart even remotely compare to Bitcoin's gains in these 4 years. Also, it should really use a log scale: http://bitcoin.zorinaq.com/price/

> The chart also intentially discards the first 4 years of Bitcoin trading data (2010-2013) where Bitcoin has actually gained the most.

Sure, just like the comment being replied to discards several hundred years worth of tulip sales to say "Tulipmania lasted 6 months. Bitcoin is now 8 years old."

Bitcoin has, until this year, largely escaped widespread public notice beyond "isn't this odd/interesting" pieces in the media.

You’re making a false comparison between the period of mania in tulips and the entire lifespan of Bitcoin.

Comparing two financial instruments during their lifetimes is now a false comparison apparently.

But the bitcoin mania has only been going on within the past year.

There were at least two previous Bitcoin manias and bubbles. I remember a lot of hype when it hit $70 (from single-digit prices), and then again when it hit $1000. Both times people said it was a bubble, and then the bubble popped.

The worst part of all of this Bitcoin speculation is that you have someone like the person you're replying to get on and talk out of their ass. Literally. And then they are the ones getting upvoted cause all the haters love to talk to trash with zero intellectual honesty.

This is actually bubble #4. Here's an analysis of the previous 3: https://steemit.com/bitcoin/@huku/bitcoin-bubbles-a-brief-hi...

tulips had existed for quite a long time before they became the object of a speculative bubble.

Reading comprehension is hard. I know.

(No where did I say Tulips)

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