BITCOIN as an alternative to regular currency

[Zenyatta]

Falling commodity prices are usually the pre-cursor to a recession. But of course nothing has really made any sense since 2008. Ideally we don't want a deflation led recession at this moment in time. Deflation isn't a good place.

Interesting. I'm no expert but it certainly seems that deflation is what's happening? We know that since 2009, the US Federal Reserve embarked on the program of massive quantitative easing (QE), which everyone said was supposed to result in inflation, but we never saw that. And we see the falling commodity prices.

Did you see the plunge on Copper yesterday?

No, well again, adds to what I've been saying, another data-point suggesting deflationary pressures?

[marksmeets302]

Did you see the plunge on Copper yesterday?

Maybe more important: the spike in swiss francs.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/102340182

Just shows you never know what will happen next. While I agree deflation will probably be on the menu for years to come, I also think many countries will eventually see a bout of severe inflation. Personally, I'm happy to buy more gold on the way down. Just because I know I can't predict the future and I'd rather get the stuff cheap.

[Zenyatta]

Article mentioning Bitcoin, the Swiss Franc and Gold:
http://insidebitcoins.com/news/bitcoin- ... -cap/28805

The interesting point here is that Bitcoin price movements appear to roughly track gold price movements:


"Both gold and bitcoin spiked on the news coming out of the Swiss National Bank, which follows a trend of bitcoin tracking gold during certain events in global markets. Although bitcoin has followed gold’s lead in the past, it is uncertain how the digital currency would act in a true economic crisis."

So Bitcoin behaves like a commodity, and in fact, quite like Gold.

Bitcoin miners say that $US 200 is the threshold Bitcoin price below which mining would cease be profitable. So Bitcoin dies if the price falls below $US 200 for any extended period.

At the moment Bitcoin has rebounded somewhat and is hovering just above the US $200 threshold. So this is about as low as Bitcoin can get and still survive - so now is the time to get in and buy if you bet that Bitcoin will survive!

[Zenyatta]

Well, well, well...Bitcoin says 'rumors of my demise are greatly exaggerated'

Yup, my guess is that the bubble did pop and Bitcoin hit bottom, but now the price discovery is over and its reached fair market value. Fair value is in the range $US 200 - $US 220 it seems. I don't think it's going any lower.

[Zenyatta]

Greeks now rushing to Bitcoin in large numbers...the situation with banks there is so bad, Bitcoins are actually a stable choice by comparison...

http://money.cnn.com/2015/06/29/technol ... e-bitcoin/

The price of Bitcoin does seem to have stabilized over the last few months, and there is a lot less volatility than there was. The market appears to price the 'fair value' of a Bitcoin as being roughly equal to the cost of mining one. So in effect, the market is saying that the 'value' of a Bitcoin is in its security (the 'mining' cost is really the cost of validating transactions).

[Archangel]

Value seemed to spike in 2014 and is declining the last year. Maybe if the whole world used one electronic currency we would be spared these constant financial crisis

[Zenyatta]

Value seemed to spike in 2014 and is declining the last year. Maybe if the whole world used one electronic currency we would be spared these constant financial crisis

Bitcoin was in a bubble in 2014, but the bubble had popped by the end of Jan '15, and there has been no further decline in price since then. In fact, Bitcoin has mostly been in a stable trading range of $US 220 - $US 260 for the last 3 months.

[Euler]

Japanese police have arrested the CEO of the failed company MtGox, which was once the world's biggest exchange of the virtual currency, bitcoin.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-33745611

[marksmeets302]

Interestingly this happened just after the deadline for bankruptcy claims (12 noon, july 29 2015, japan time).

[Euler]

The future of cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin and beyond

http://www.nature.com/news/the-future-o ... nd-1.18447

[Zenyatta]

'Mark Karpeles spent missing Bitcoin from Mt Gox on Prostitues'

http://siliconangle.com/blog/2015/10/29 ... ostitutes/

Disgraced former Mt Gox Chief Executive Officer Mark Karpeles was rearrested on fresh charges in Japan Wednesday with reports that that at least some of the stolen Bitcoin from the exchange was spent on hiring prostitutes.

Karpeles had been previously arrested by the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department in July on charges of “fraudulently producing and using private electromagnetic records,” specifically that he had fraudulently manipulated Mt Gox’s cryptocurrency system and inflated the Bitcoin balance in bogus accounts, and then later arrested again in August on embezzlement charges, specifically that he misappropriated $2.6 million of deposits from the trading accounts of Mt Gox customers.

According to The Japan Times the new charge relates to Karpeles moving ¥20 million ($166,000) in client money to his bank account, with at least some of this money being spent on “an unspecified sum on prostitutes” that involved “several women whom he met at venues that offer sexual services.”

[Dallas]

Peter as your on a steep learning curve with Bitcoin Just wondered if you seen this recent article on it by the great Eugene Fama? - Incidentally did you ever get a reply back or anywhere with meeting with him or one of his underlings while you where in the states?

http://cointelegraph.com/news/115593/no ... on-bitcoin

[Euler]

They were not interested in meeting.

My Bitcoin education continues. I think I'm more interested in the process and decentralised nature of cryptocurrencies than Bitcoin itself. It may be that Bitcoin is the pioneer of the movement than the eventual benefactor.

[Zenyatta]

Big new WIRED article claiming to have un-masked the identity of the creator of Bitcoin:

"The 44-year-old Australian, Skyping into the D Hotel ballroom’s screen, wore the bitcoin enthusiast’s equivalent of camouflage: a black blazer and a tieless, rumpled shirt, his brown hair neatly parted."

http://www.wired.com/2015/12/bitcoins-c ... an-genius/

Within hours of publication, the Australian Federal Police raided the guys house:

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2 ... ian-police

The guy has apparently vanished without a trace. It appears he's left Australia:

"The house was the only one on the street with a rubbish bin still outside, six days after the weekly Thursday collection, and the letterbox was full, indicating that the house may have been empty recently."

"A neighbour said a huge container arrived about a month ago, followed by a small remover’s truck in the first week of December."

It appears he has also erased all electronic presence of himself from the internet:

"As soon as Gizmodo began its investigation into evidence that shows Craig Wright, an Australian academic and serial entrepreneur, claimed to have invented Bitcoin, he started to cover his tracks. After Gizmodo and Wired published separate stories yesterday, Wright’s digital existence has almost completely vanished."

http://gizmodo.com/craig-wright-the-man ... 1747137188

SENSATIONAL

[Zenyatta]

Update to the story that Craig Wright could be Satoshi ; serious doubts have been cast on it, and WIRED have posted another article suggesting that it could well all be an elaborate hoax orchestrated by Wright himself. All very odd.

http://www.wired.com/2015/12/new-clues- ... -a-hoaxer/