BitCoin almost doubles previous peak.
bitcoincharts.com
bitcoincharts.com
I feel like if I were to do business with an exchange, I'd need to start a whole new bank account just to do it to keep my real account info hidden away from exchanges and potential bad actors. Is this a completely irrational feeling to have?
Even if you do want to use an exchange in order to rapidly trade your coins and profit from price dips, depositing coins into an exchange is a lot easier and possibly more anonymous than depositing dollars.
Then if you decide to sell the coins, you can move them off the exchange and offer them on localbitcoins.com for physical cash.
There's enough liquidity in the top exchanges that discrepancies in sell-prices from one exchange to another are indicative of people's trust in being able to withdraw their money from that particular exchange.
1) buying
2) holding (exchanges are targets for hackers whereas with a private wallet you can be hacked, or you can be virused, or you can lose it of your own fault)
3) selling & withdrawing
Edit: What I mean by "commitment" is that you absolutely won't invest in Bitcoin during that time no matter what happens to the exchange rate.
So to actually cash out you need to visit that one ATM in Vancouver, which gives you access to $1000/day if there's money in it. Or you need to sell your Bitcoin to someone or buy something with them.
None of these are good reasons to buy Bitcoin.
Mt.Gox is not the world's largest exchange: most would agree that BTC China is, and possibly Bitstamp is coming in second.
Mt.Gox is called Mt.Gox. It used to stand for Magic the Gathering Online Exchange. It does not anymore. Whatever your thoughts on the site, you have to at least give them the fact that you can no longer exchange MtG cards on the site, so that is no longer their market. They kept the name and pivoted what they do. If you can't handle people pivoting on HN of all places, good luck. Or maybe you're the kind of person that refers to LG as "that cheap ass Lucky Goldstar" too?
Finally, Mt.Gox is definitely experiencing delays for North American withdrawals, and to a lesser (?) extent Europe. However they're not 'not allowing' anyone to cash out. I have no doubt, for example, that in Japan it's all good... their problems are with their bank.
Anyway, hate on BTC and Mt.Gox for whatever reasons you want... but surely if your going to use reasons to persuade people away from something, you should at least use truth?
I didn't say that you didn't like LG, I asked if you still referred to it as Lucky Goldstar? My point was that LG used to stand for 'Lucky Goldstar'. Now, it is the actual name. QANTAS used to stand for 'Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services'. Now, it is the actual name. In the same vein, Mt. Gox used to stand for 'Magic the Gathering Online Exchange'. Now, it is the actual name.
Further to that, you referred to the site as 'the magic the gathering online exchange'. This is obviously not true anymore: it literally cannot be used to exchange MtG cards anymore. You cannot deny that they pivoted from exchanging MtG cards to exchanging Bitcoins, and calling it something that it obviously is not anymore is wrong.
Finally, when you said that "when you try to withdraw funds you are prevented from doing so and put on a waiting list" that is not correct. You are not prevented from doing so. Your request is processed and queued... just because that queue takes way too long for a lot of people doesn't mean it was prevented. Just like when I transfer money from one account to another and it is queued and processed over night doesn't mean it was prevented. Thankfully, however, that overnight queue is processed a lot faster than a transfer from Mt. Gox. But again, there was nothing stopping me from initiating it.
Also, just to add to what I said in my original reply, there are no doubt a lot of people in the world that are not having delayed processing at all... they just don't happen to live in the USA.
Don't get me wrong: I definitely think that there are issues with Mt. Gox in particular that are worrying. However, I would point to those things instead of mentioning things that actually aren't true. And when I point to them, I would point to them as problems with an exchange itself, as opposed to using those points to say "None of these are good reasons to buy Bitcoin".
As Mt.Gox users have difficulty cashing out dollars, the only option they have is to convert those dollars to bitcoin (buy bitcoins on Mt Gox), or risk loosing all the money. At the same time spread they spread panic on forums, so a large quantity of people who have funds in MtGox in form of dollars, is currently trying to buy bitcoins on Mt. Gox, making the price raise.
That is also the reason Mt. Gox bitcoin price is much higher than other markets.
It seems like the huge spike in Bitcoin trading in China (Btcchina just become the biggest exchange by trading volume) and the usual story of speculation is probably more likely.
12 months from now, what will I say? Maybe $459 per bitcoin will look insanely cheap in hindsight.
Or maybe it will be seen as an unsustainable speculative mania.
With the benefit of hindsight, it's very easy to see which happened, but this doesn't necessarily make something a good investment if you think it is volatile.
If there was no risk associated with buying Bitcoin, its value would have already stabilised.
PayPal USD: http://bitcoincharts.com/charts/bcmPPUSD#czsg2010-01-01zeg20...
LibertyReserve USD: http://bitcoincharts.com/charts/bcmLRUSD#czsg2010-01-01zeg20...
EDIT: Also check the date range, Bitcoincharts has almost all historical data.
So you were only asking for extended data? Does the all time option have enough for you? I don't think Gox traded back past the data bitcoincharts have on record.