USD Bitcoin Exchange Rate
April 8th, 2013Update: Bitcoin Crash
The correct answer was that it hit $100 first, after reaching a high of $266.
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Current Bitcoin Rate: Mt. Gox (USD)
Going forward, Bitcoin will first hit...
- $300 (62%, 161 Votes)
- $100 (38%, 97 Votes)
Total Voters: 258
Loading ...Related: Bitcoin.org
I’m guessing $100, but it is hard to say where a bubble may go…
IMHO, bitcoins aren’t money. They can act like money and maybe represent some form of meta-money, but cannot be money unto themselves as they have no physical existence. They will work fine for transactions, but how does this work for savings?
They have an advantage over your local fiat currency in that the fiat belongs to the holders of the coin and one would think the supply thereof cannot be tampered with… and the coin is not representative of debt and the required exponential growth to keep the Ponzi going.
So it is incredibly portable, knowing no boundaries, and makes for a great transactional medium, but what about store of value and this lack of physicality?
Precious metals became money because they have the slowest declining marginal utility of any available commodity. That is, they provided the ability of the holder to hoard the metal without concern that he is forgoing some better immediate use. Gold doesn’t deteriorate with time and there are few uses for it better than its use as money.
I don’t believe that bitcoins share the same features.
Bring the internet down for a month or two and then let’s see what the demand for bitcoins is.
The dotcom bubble bursting took down two prior digital currencies, Flooz and Beenz.
Encryption is a moving target. Electronic surveillance and control develop new technologies yearly.
If any of those things become a concern, holders will dishoard bitcoins faster than you can say, “a penny saved is a penny earned”.
Bitcoin broaches $200 today. If this has caught the fancy of a large enough sentiment of the public, $300 will be no problem as demand can easily overwhelm the controlled supply.
That should be segment above, not sentiment, lol.
The Bitcoin Saga continues… Shortly after hitting a high of about $266 yesterday, the value plummeted down to as low as $133 in a matter of hours.
Zero Hedge alleges that hackers have made Bitcoin their bitch by destabilizng the market through DOS attacks. See:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-04-10/bitcrash-continues-down-40-and-dumping
If that is the case, one has to wonder if these are government hackers whose mandate is to destroy confidence in the “currency”.
As I stated in my OP, I doubt that Bitcoin is a legitimate store of value due to its electronic vulnerabilities and thus does not qualify as money.
Maybe it’s best everyone realizes that sooner rather than later. Buy gold.
Bitcoin now halted till Apr 12, 2:00AM UTC. Reasons given are to allow a market cooldown due to the drop in price and to upgrade the database to handle higher than expected trading volumes.
“Maybe it’s best everyone realizes that sooner rather than later. Buy gold.”
There is no “silver bullet” so to speak—gold definitely isn’t it.
If you had followed your own advice on gold back in September 2011, near the top, your position would be down about $300 per ounce right now. (I say that as someone who holds gold.)
Also Bitcoin is not halted.
Trading on the Mt. Gox exchange is halted. Bitcoin is operating fine. That’s an important point that I suggest you, and everyone reading, take the time to understand. At no point do the woes of any of the exchanges affect anyone’s ability to make or receive payments in Bitcoin.
Yes, sorry, should have said exchange trading in Bitcoin is halted. Thought everyone would understand that as it is within the context of the article. My bad.
As for gold, I don’t recall any recommendation to buy near the top, but I may have made one as I generally advocate adding to gold at all times. I certainly don’t remember making any call at USD$ $1900+.
To be transparent, I buy myself, but usually only when I can get a price point around CAD$1700 from the dealer (usu spot about USD$1650 depending on the exchange rate.) Note that this point may change if the trading range changes.
And, to be perfectly clear, I do not recommend buying physical gold (and that is all I ever buy) as any sort of short or medium term investment play or trade. If you want to play the ranges and volatility there are smarter ways to do it than physical.
“Buy gold.”
Gold
1,476.10
-88.80
-5.67%
haha. It’s another blinking number that updates in real time.
To borrow some of your words:
“Maybe it’s best everyone realizes that sooner rather than later.”
As always, diversification is key.