What are your thoughts on BitCoin?

[Kaitzilla]

Eep! $79 for a bitcoin now

 

[Mise]

I'm thinking of doing some exchange arbitrage.

https://www.bitstamp.net/ <--- as of right now, this one is selling for $65
https://bitbargain.co.uk/buy <--- as of right now, the cheapest on the marketplace is around £75. Thats GBP. Seems like a no brainer?!?!

EDIT: Actually I should look at the ask price on the site I plan on selling on, which is £50 ($75). So I'd make $10 per BTC. Not sure if that's worth the risk of catastrophic meltdown between the time I buy a BTC and the time I sell

 

[Mise]

Online dating site OKCupid to start accepting BitCoin

Notably it said this:

&#8220;Our plan is to liquidate our holdings daily and turn them into US dollars,&#8221; Yagan said. &#8220;There's an open question as to how much liquidity there is. I think there's going to be a tremendous amount of volatility. One of the reasons why we want to be early in the mix is so we can learn.&#8221;

Which got me thinking. If more and more real-world companies, with real products and real bills to pay, do start accepting BitCoins, won't this actually make the currency less valuable, because they will be dumping all those BitCoins on the exchange in order to get hold of some $$$ to pay their bills and salaries? Of course, more people accepting BTC means more people buying BTC with USD, so it might even out over time. However, if you buy BitCoins now, with the expectation that you will be able to buy valuable things in the future, you will probably end up paying over the odds for your stuff in $ terms.

 

[Kaitzilla]

I'm thinking of doing some exchange arbitrage.

https://www.bitstamp.net/ <--- as of right now, this one is selling for $65
https://bitbargain.co.uk/buy <--- as of right now, the cheapest on the marketplace is around £75. Thats GBP. Seems like a no brainer?!?!

EDIT: Actually I should look at the ask price on the site I plan on selling on, which is £50 ($75). So I'd make $10 per BTC. Not sure if that's worth the risk of catastrophic meltdown between the time I buy a BTC and the time I sell

Currency arbitrage sure does seem like a money maker. But the risk...
And who knows how long it takes these mom and pop exchanges to actually execute orders. Maybe experiment with 1 bitcoin

I wonder why people buy Bitcoins in pounds anyway when its cheaper to buy in dollars and just switch dollars into pounds at a later date.
Isn't most all Bitcoin to real money exchanges done in US dollars?

 

[Zelig]

Which got me thinking. If more and more real-world companies, with real products and real bills to pay, do start accepting BitCoins, won't this actually make the currency less valuable, because they will be dumping all those BitCoins on the exchange in order to get hold of some $$$ to pay their bills and salaries? Of course, more people accepting BTC means more people buying BTC with USD, so it might even out over time. However, if you buy BitCoins now, with the expectation that you will be able to buy valuable things in the future, you will probably end up paying over the odds for your stuff in $ terms.

No, liquidating daily isn't even close to liquidating continuously.

 

[Cutlass]

The problem with the type of currency arbitrage they are talking about is that it adds a cost to all of their transactions. And because it adds a cost, no matter how small, but magnified over a very large number of transactions, the business will have to eat that dead weight loss. Now they must think that they can recoup that cost. But that is speculation. And whenever you are basing your costs on speculation there is the chance that you will be the one eating the loss.

 

[Zelig]

Yes, but presumably it adds less to the cost than CAD->USD.

 

[Cutlass]

Maybe. CAD->USD is a very common conversion. So economies of scale. And it doesn't need to be done at the level of every firm. Only at the level of large banks.

 

[Mise]

I lose like 2.5% when I convert to GBP to EUR and back again. It's a bloody rip off.

 

[Kaitzilla]

An interesting interview with a bitcoin scientist.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323809304578429142650304564.html

It's almost time for Mr. Andresen to get back to work. He shares some useful advice about Bitcoin: "I tell people it's still an experiment and only invest time or money you could afford to lose." If only investors could as easily follow that advice with fiat currencies.

As of right now, one Bitcoin is $113 if you are trying to keep track.

 

[Antilogic]

As of right now, one Bitcoin is $113 if you are trying to keep track.

Is that a local high or low? It's so hard to keep track nowadays.

 

[Kaitzilla]

Bitcoin is now worth $1100 each!
https://www.mtgox.com/

That's like 10x more than earlier this year.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-11-28/bitcoin-parabola-continues-10-12-hours-hits-1170

 

[madviking]

 

[Wrymouth3]

I'd like some Reddit and anime girls wrapped in gold bacon with my bitcoins please. Ron Paul 2016.

 

[downtown]

This was awesome. I bought some BTC for my work at around 120 two months ago, and sold my remaining pieces at 780.

Course, as soon as another drug lord gets popped, or somebody crashes one of the exchanges, it'll all come crashing down again

 

[Terxpahseyton]

I once considered buying a coin for 26€....I didn't, of course. But it is fun to see how virtually out of nothing this new investment market materialized. Imagine, if you had tanked 1k some time ago into this you now would be able to gain enough to never work a day again. Unreal

 

[Borachio]

Here's a man who though bitcoins weren't up to much.

http://metro.co.uk/2013/11/28/man-loses-4m-bitcoin-fortune-after-chucking-out-digital-wallet-hard-drive-4205600/

A computer hard drive holding a Bitcoin virtual fortune of £4m has been buried under tons of rubbish after its owner accidentally threw it away.

The hard drive, languishing on a landfill site, has on it a digital wallet containing 7,500 Bitcoins &#8211; an online virtual currency.

The Bitcoins were worth almost nothing when they were created &#8211; but the cryptocurrency&#8217;s value has since soared.

James Howells bought and stored them on his laptop in 2009. However, a year later he spilled lemonade on the computer, which he then dismantled to salvage some of the parts.

He placed the hard drive in a drawer and completely forgot about it until he had a clear-out this summer.

It was with horror he realised last week that the cryptographic &#8216;private key&#8217; needed to access and spend the Bitcoins was on the lost hard drive.

 

[Archbob]

Isn't it above $1000 now? What is driving the price so high? And could you actually cash them out if you wanted to?

 

[Kaitzilla]

Isn't it above $1000 now? What is driving the price so high? And could you actually cash them out if you wanted to?

With every central bank trying to outprint each other, maybe people are just scared and want out of fiat money before the whole system blows up.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-...ion-new-liquidity-blew-bernankes-qe-out-water

But why buy bitcoins instead of gold or silver?
Did India outlaw importing gold coins or something?

 

[Cutlass]

Isn't it above $1000 now? What is driving the price so high? And could you actually cash them out if you wanted to?

It's a bubble, like any other. Trying to make rational sense of it won't work.