We gonna talk about BitCoin?

Captain

Captain

Final Approach
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Now that its around $1100 per coin any thoughts? I bought in a few months ago at $125. I'd have 3.5 coins now except I've tried the art of buying high and selling low and have managed to turn my 3.5 coins into .75 coins. Still worth more than I've put in, just pains me to think I could have three and a half coins if I had just done nothing...
 
Get out now and stay out. The hollow walls are bound to crumble.
 
Currency trading (even with real currencies) is fraught with perils. BitCoins are even more volatile.
 
I know people who around 10 years ago bought 1,000,000 Iraqi dinars for $1000 hoping the value would rise after the war was all said and done and the Iraqi economy got big with all the oil they would put on the market. They are still waiting.
 
Captain said:
Now that its around $1100 per coin any thoughts? I bought in a few months ago at $125. I'd have 3.5 coins now except I've tried the art of buying high and selling low and have managed to turn my 3.5 coins into .75 coins. Still worth more than I've put in, just pains me to think I could have three and a half coins if I had just done nothing...
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What's your reasoning behind buying bitcoins instead of any other tradeable item (i.e. stocks, ETFs, gold, etc.)?
 
Never buy collectables you aren't willing to be stuck with :)

Hey you could broker forever stamps or perhaps even IRC coupons :)
 
I take the rise in BitCoin value is a real indicator of worldwide inflationary pressures (QE ∞). However, the risk profile is still too high for my taste, not the least of which is recent government action that severely hampers the ability to convert bitcoins to US currency or goods and services.
 
I always kick myself for not buying in when my friend said "hey do you want to buy some of these bitcoins I will sell you a thousand of them for $5" and I laughed and said "who wants to buy internet money"...

and there goes the day that I could have became a millionaire for $5

--

I do view bitcoins as a decent investment, but not right now... if you look at the charts it very clearly is a bubble. The bubble will burst. Will it drop below $150... probably not.
 
teamcoltra said:
I always kick myself for not buying in when my friend said "hey do you want to buy some of these bitcoins I will sell you a thousand of them for $5" and I laughed and said "who wants to buy internet money"...

and there goes the day that I could have became a millionaire for $5

--

I do view bitcoins as a decent investment, but not right now... if you look at the charts it very clearly is a bubble. The bubble will burst. Will it drop below $150... probably not.
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There's a famous story of a guy who bought 2 large pizza's for 10,000 BitCoins. Today those pizza's are worth over 5 million dollars each.
 
Captain said:
There's a famous story of a guy who bought 2 large pizza's for 10,000 BitCoins. Today those pizza's are worth over 5 million dollars each.
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Though without people adopting bitcoin as a true currency and using it... it would have never had the value it has today. People who get rich now should really be thanking these guys...
 
Of course, trying to trade in a $1M of bit coins for hard currency or something tangible will certainly drive the exchange rate back the other way.
 
flyingron said:
Of course, trying to trade in a $1M of bit coins for hard currency or something tangible will certainly drive the exchange rate back the other way.
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Not so. China is eating these things up. The Chinese Government hasn't officially endorsed BitCoin, but they haven't rejected it either. The US government has ruled BitCoin currency and that's driven the exchange rate up wildly.

To your point, a withdrawal of $1M dollars wouldn't even dent the exchange rate. Someone just made a $150M purchase last week and that's a single buy. Right now there's north of $14B market value of BitCoin.
 
Bitcoin is just another fiat currency, without even a nation's army to back it. It is going to crash hard.
 
Bit coin is now facing competition from other internet currency providers. Since we are talking about it I think we missed the opportunity to get rich quick.
 
frfly172 said:
Bit coin is now facing competition from other internet currency providers. Since we are talking about it I think we missed the opportunity to get rich quick.
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Not really. The problem with digital currencies is how to convert them to "real" currencies. The government has squashed a lot of the places you used to be able to cash in, and those few that remain charge large fees and/or limit the amount of Bitcoin you can cash at a time.

It's like having millions in stock certificates that no broker will cash for you.
 
bullwinkle said:
Not really. The problem with digital currencies is how to convert them to "real" currencies. The government has squashed a lot of the places you used to be able to cash in, and those few that remain charge large fees and/or limit the amount of Bitcoin you can cash at a time.

It's like having millions in stock certificates that no broker will cash for you.
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It's not hard to convert. I use Mt.Gox and can simply transfer the money to my bank account (BoA). There is a wire fee but that's how life works.
 
flyingron said:
Of course, trying to trade in a $1M of bit coins for hard currency or something tangible will certainly drive the exchange rate back the other way.
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You don't "trade them in", you sell them. There is a Bid and an Ask on the exchanges, if you have XX of Bitcoins, you put an order in, and if there is demand on the other side, they are sold.

The only way your offer of $1M of bitcoins would "drive the exchange rate back the other way" is if there was no offsetting offer to purchase them. Same as with IBM stock, or secondary market Treasury Bonds, or Euros.

Supply, meet Demand. Demand, meet supply.
 
Captain said:
It's not hard to convert. I use Mt.Gox and can simply transfer the money to my bank account (BoA). There is a wire fee but that's how life works.
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I heard MtGox was shut down for conversion.
 
I just read an article about a guy who held up a sign that was shown on ESPN, "Hi Mom, send B" with a QR code of his acct and the bitcoin symbol. People enlarged the QR code and he quickly got $24K in donations. The kid is a genius.
 
Gerhardt said:
I just read an article about a guy who held up a sign that was shown on ESPN, "Hi Mom, send B" with a QR code of his acct and the bitcoin symbol. People enlarged the QR code and he quickly got $24K in donations. The kid is a genius.
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THATs an awesome idea!

17DDCgymsJJE1ewPFhx4wcRcFfRqbP71pR
 
Captain said:
To your point, a withdrawal of $1M dollars wouldn't even dent the exchange rate. Someone just made a $150M purchase last week and that's a single buy. Right now there's north of $14B market value of BitCoin.
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Who did that $150M go to???! A Nigerian "prince"?
 
If you're looking at it as a pure speculative play, it's probably better than the national currency markets, if for no other reason than the big boys don't play in that market, at least not yet. You may have some issues getting your bitcoins into another currency, the exchanges have been unstable.

I don't see it getting far as a useful currency. Since there is a hard limit at 21 million bitcoins mined, most holders of bitcoins will expect them to appreciate, and will most likely not spend them. If money has no value for transactions, it really has no value at all, and you could then expect the value of a bitcoin to plummet to near zero.

In any case, like all speculative instruments, don't put in more than you can comfortably afford to lose in this market.
 
My instructor just said today that he is now accepting his flight training fee in bitcoins. Oy! I guess China said they won't accept them now. Overstock.com accepts them as payment as well.
 
The Sacramento Kings announced a day or two ago, that they now accept Bitcoins.
 
Captain said:
There's a famous story of a guy who bought 2 large pizza's for 10,000 BitCoins. Today those pizza's are worth over 5 million dollars each.
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I had a neighbor back in 1991-92 that worked for Home Depot, he cashed in HD stock to buy 2 new Taurus's. At one time we calculated the cost of those two cars, I think it was between 1/4 and 1/2 million bucks. :mad2::mad2:
 
N747JB said:
I had a neighbor back in 1991-92 that worked for Home Depot, he cashed in HD stock to buy 2 new Taurus's. At one time we calculated the cost of those two cars, I think it was between 1/4 and 1/2 million bucks. :mad2::mad2:
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I dropped AAPL at $13.00 to buy a $7,000 Ford Ranger. :mad2:

Apple had switched to OS X(and I was a Unix Guy) and the iPod's they were coming out with looked neat. Then, I needed a truck. :mad2: That was 2003ish.
 
bartmc said:
I dropped AAPL at $13.00 to buy a $7,000 Ford Ranger. :mad2:

Apple had switched to OS X(and I was a Unix Guy) and the iPod's they were coming out with looked neat. Then, I needed a truck. :mad2: That was 2003ish.
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I guess that's probably worse, do you still have the Ranger? :rofl:
 
What is the allure of BitCoin? Are you concerned about a government or agency tracking the source of your income like this $128MM holder?
http://www.forexlive.com/blog/2014/...cated-29655-currency-bitcoin-19-january-2014/
Guess he or the gooberment may be a seller now.
Some one has stated there will only be a limited amount; has anyone else ever done that (like a government). And when it came to need, did it change?
How do you know there will ever be someone there to redeem that when you want/need it?
Yes, the Dollar is a fiat currency, but it has the taxing power, assets and military of the US behind it and a very proven redemption record.
I would like to see something like this for many reasons, but have no idea how credible the issuers of this are or how long they'll be around. Many of us are VERY concerned about what's going on with the US deficit and irresponsible actions of elected representatives. We would like to move some assets out of this country: the problem seems to be where. Every other credible country has the same problem or a worse one.

Best,

Dave
 
N747JB said:
I guess that's probably worse, do you still have the Ranger? :rofl:
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Airbag deployed going over a rail road track. Someone broke the back window out and stole the radio. Decided to move to Alaska and sold it for what I could short sell it for.

When Google IPOed, I thought "What do they sell? How do they make money?" and didn't bite. I bought the AAPL because I thought their desktops were going to make a comeback…. oh well. I think I held the stock for a total of 6 months or so.
 
When google had its IPO I knew what they sold and I would have invested heavily...unfortunately, regional pilots don't have much to invest.
 
Dave Siciliano said:
What is the allure of BitCoin? Are you concerned about a government or agency tracking the source of your income like this $128MM holder?
http://www.forexlive.com/blog/2014/...cated-29655-currency-bitcoin-19-january-2014/
Guess he or the gooberment may be a seller now.
Some one has stated there will only be a limited amount; has anyone else ever done that (like a government). And when it came to need, did it change?
How do you know there will ever be someone there to redeem that when you want/need it?
Yes, the Dollar is a fiat currency, but it has the taxing power, assets and military of the US behind it and a very proven redemption record.
I would like to see something like this for many reasons, but have no idea how credible the issuers of this are or how long they'll be around. Many of us are VERY concerned about what's going on with the US deficit and irresponsible actions of elected representatives. We would like to move some assets out of this country: the problem seems to be where. Every other credible country has the same problem or a worse one.

Best,

Dave
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It's no different from the US$ in that it is a belief based currency, but it is not backed by 'the full faith and credit of the United States"; in fact, I have no idea what it is backed by. Last I heard the Chinese banned it.
 
Henning said:
It's no different from the US$ in that it is a belief based currency, but it is not backed by 'the full faith and credit of the United States"; in fact, I have no idea what it is backed by. Last I heard the Chinese banned it.
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It's backed by math! There's a decent video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ultLPNj-a8Y

They don't really get into it, but the same mathematical principles behind public/private key encryption are what keeps bitcoin secure. Your wallet file (private key) allows you to draw upon your balance, and must be protected.

Basically, there are only 3 ways someone can steal your bitcoins. They can (1) hack your computer or trick you into providing them your wallet file, they can (2) forge transactions in the block chain if they can take over 51%+ of the network (unlikely), or they can (3) find a method of deriving the prime numbers used to generate the private key from the public key (also unlikely).

Along with bitcoin, there are several other popular coins out there such as litecoin and dogecoin.
 
lionclaw said:
It's backed by math! There's a decent video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ultLPNj-a8Y

They don't really get into it, but the same mathematical principles behind public/private key encryption are what keeps bitcoin secure. Your wallet file (private key) allows you to draw upon your balance, and must be protected.

Basically, there are only 3 ways someone can steal your bitcoins. They can (1) hack your computer or trick you into providing them your wallet file, they can (2) forge transactions in the block chain if they can take over 51%+ of the network (unlikely), or they can (3) find a method of deriving the prime numbers used to generate the private key from the public key (also unlikely).

Along with bitcoin, there are several other popular coins out there such as litecoin and dogecoin.
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That's not a backing, a backing establishes and secures a value for exchange into real goods rather than simply an existence. That they exist and how to secure them is again no different than a US$ only using a different data system.
 
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