Bitcoin Boon | Hacker News Reader

Bitcoin Boon

blog.alexsmith.io

24 pointsaosmith44 comments

I personally feel this is another BTC holder trying to raise the value of his investment by attracting more attention to Bitcoin and crypto currencies.

At this point I really don't think a single blogger has all that much effect. What's going on here is being driven by forces much larger than this blog post.

Nope, and that's not my intention here. I want market prices to stabilize. Trying to artificially inflate the rate is counter-intuitive.

the ~1,000,000,000 usd worth of bitcoin transactions (https://blockchain.info/charts/estimated-transaction-volume-...) that happened today alone should be evidence enough that you would have to be stupid or ignorant to think you can move the price of bitcoin with a blog post like that

Thanks, I thought this was an extremely obvious assumption as well.

um it wasn't a billion it was 147 million.

(S)He's talking about an intraday total, not a single transaction.

I don't hold that much BTC (<100 BTC). Honestly think the best uses are in the third world where "bad" money is more prevalent.

Since you said <100 BTC and not <10 BTC I'm gonna assume you have at least 10.

Which is a lot.

It's much closer to 10 BTC right now than 100. I am a miner who liquidates frequently.

Doesn't that show your Bias? If you are a miner you have huge amounts of money invested in sha-256 specific ASICs. Perhaps ten of thousands of dollars worth.

Also by inflating the value of btc you hope to gain more money per liquidation.

Most of my hardware is already paid off. My effective cost per BTC has been well below market prices. Sure I have continued revenue to gain, but I'm only in this position because I believe in bitcoin and want to see the world become a better place.

The bitcoin mania is starting to freak me out. Maybe it feels fleeting and manic because it's truly indicative of a powerful change, but it also seems so desperate.

I felt the same way for a long time. I first became interested in bitcoin about a year ago. Eventually you will accept it. This is the future, it just makes too much sense.

Deleted comment

And how many naysayers are recycling the same tired old objections right now and for the entire history of bitcoin and probably well into the future of either bitcoin or fiat currency proper?

Bearish sentiment in the run up to a massive surge is no evidence that there are not hurdles to overcome, Bullish sentiment in the run up to a massive crash is no evidence that everything bitcoin has to accomplish has already been accomplished.

I agree, banks have their place in the world but should I use bitcoin to buy a coffee and a paper, maybe.

> Recent volatility is almost entirely related to external market factors [sic: externalaties] and not underlying changes in valuation

You can't separate out causes of volatility like that. A crash because of a massive bitcoin theft is no different than a crash for any other reason. The long term success of bitcoin depends on the perception of value, and if people believe bitcoin is liable to crash for any reason it will hurt it's chances.

Moreover it's not even true that the bitcoin market is just reacting to trading-related issues. For example the congressional hearing had substantial effect.

This is true. That is a gross over-simplification. I'll work in some edits here, thanks!

Made an edit here, perhaps not the best but... Please let me know if you would like credit and I'll toss a back link in!

No need. Like most people I just post on hn to make myself feel smarter. ahem I mean to make the world better.

I am really not convinced of the argument that bitcoin will help in third world countries. There are so many places in the world that neither have internet nor computers, how should they use bitcoins? I'm also convinced that those people will not just "believe" in some "invisible" money. They will always prefer real money or goods to trade, not some virtual number on the internets.

Bitcoin isn't "invisible" money. It's money that is secured by cryptography. A printed bitcoin wallet, a $1 bill and a $100 bill all have the same inherent value. Almost a third of the "developing world" has internet access [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Internet_usage]. Even if individuals lack access there's no reason bitcoin can't be made accessible to them through public access points.

"Richard Branson announced that Virgin Galactic will accept bitcoin"

Everybody missed another big news about another company... you can buy plane tickets with Bitcoin! Online air travel agency, cheapair.com, announced today they accept Bitcoin: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6784265

This is also cool, and probably a lot more practical!

IMO it's not a real currency until the value gets a bit stable. Currently it's all over the place.

Are Sudanese Pounds and Iranian Rials real currencies in your mind? Agree 100% that bitcoin is not currently comparable to any first world currency.

Could not find your pounds. http://www.xe.com/currencycharts/?from=USD&to=IRR&view=5Y they did do something nasty in 2013... But it's just double. With bitcoin we are talking factor 10 and atm is increasing in value exponentially. But all of them are currencies really, I'm just scared :)

http://www.xe.com/currency/sdg-sudanese-pound

Bitcoin isn't perfect yet, just saying it is getting close to becoming a suitable replacement for the "worst" money in the world.

THERE ARE NOW in this moment many bankers thinking in bunkers mmm some thing very big is going

tHIS is the true money some ancient text inform about other very different culture before we are in slavery

How could anyone actually use bitcoins to buy anything? With this volatility, how can you settle on a price for actual merchandise or services?

> The assumption is that bitcoins must be sold immediately to cover operating expenses. If the shopkeeper's back-end expenses were transacted in bitcoins as well, then the exchange rate would be irrelevant. Larger adoption of Bitcoin would make prices sticky. Future volatility is expected to decrease, as the size and depth of the market grows.

> In the meantime, many merchants simply regularly pull the latest market rates from the exchanges and automatically update the prices on their websites. Also you might be able to buy a put option in order to sell at a fixed rate for a given amount of time. This would protect you from drops in price and simplify your operations for that time period.

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Myths#Shopkeepers_can.27t_serious...

Couldn't agree more. Mass adoption would absolutely stabilize prices. Even without mass adoption merchants can exchange similar to foreign atm transactions.

It's not going to be useful as a currency for a while. Nor would it be if its market cap was only $10 billion. For it to be a currency it has to stabilize sufficiently. In that case the boom-bust cycles will have to stop, which means speculation will have to slow down. As soon as BitCoin becomes old news - that's when the rate of appreciation will slow down. But since in the long run, potential growth is the market cap of all the existing currency in the world - meaning, (unlikely) we could potentially get to the point where all currency is replaced by BitCoin - then who knows? We might have to wait until BitCoin units have saturated every corner of the Earth before it becomes rational to spend even a little BitCoin. In which case a satoshi will be worth a dollar and those of us with one or more BitCoins will be multi-millionaires.

If only...

I don't ever see bitcoin replacing first world currencies. In places like Sudan and Iran however it presents a seemingly more viable alternative.

Real time exchangers [sic: merchants] will settle on slightly less than normal exchange rates. This will ultimately help to close spreads and decrease volatility.

what is this use of sic, i thought sic was for when you are knowingly mispelling / misusing something?

"Sic" generally means thus or therefore: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sic

If wikipedia is wrong here please correct me!

As maxerickson said, the common English use is not the literal Latin translation. "The man came crauling [sic] down the hallway." The [sic] means that the misspelling or error has been left in for some reason. Other ways to express what you intended:

Original: Real time exchangers [sic: merchants] will settle on slightly less than normal exchange rates.

Alternative: Real time exchangers (e.g., merchants) will settle on slightly less than normal exchange rates.

Alternative: Real time exchangers, such as merchants, will settle on slightly less than normal exchange rates.

This was bugging me too, so now it's fixed. Thanks!

The meaning in modern English is not the same as the Latin. It is well explained at your link!

To be clear, it does not simply mean 'thus' when it is used in English text.

It's fixed, thanks for pointing this out.

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