HOLY CURRENCY: Bitcoin Up 1500% In 9 Months!
Update - Bicoin price hits $100
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Bitcoin's 2,000 PERCENT Rally Frightens The Fed
CHART OF THE DAY: Is Bitcoin A Bubble?
Here's what the chart looked like just 2 months ago on January 27. A nice move off the collapse lows of $2, some stability at $5 for several months, then a comfortable ride to $16 over a six-month period.
Now check out the price action since January 27.
Behold the spike below -- from 16 to 72 in less than 2 months, and from 2 to 72 in 18 months.
CHART: Bitcoins Priced In U.S. Dollars
Bitcoin has surged in the past 24 months, recently peaking at $72.50 after a 2011 low of $2.14, according to data from Mt. Gox, the world’s largest Bitcoin exchange. The money, a virtual currency issued by a decentralized network of computers, has shown new strength and acceptance since collapsing in vallue from $30 to $2 in 2011.
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And the Fed and ECB are getting nervous.
Bitcoin’s Gains Fuel Central Bank Concerns
Bloomberg
An increase in the value of bitcoin, the world’s largest online currency, may fuel concerns that virtual money could undermine the role of central banks.
Greater demand for virtual currencies could have a negative impact on the reputation of central banks, according to a report published by the European Central Bank in October last year. Since the report was released, use of the currency has surged.
Bitpay Inc., a bitcoin payment processing company that recently raised $510,000 in an investment round, this month announced that the number of companies using its services has increased almost 50 percent to more than 2,000 since November, when blog management firm WordPress.com said it would accept the digital currency.
“I think the ECB obviously is concerned, and it’s not reputational,” said Steve Hanke, a professor at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore who helped to establish new currency regimes in countries such as Argentina and Bulgaria. “I think it’s a competitive threat. Maybe virtual currencies will be so convenient that they will pose a threat because of their ease of use.”
Virtual currencies “could have a negative impact on the reputation of central banks” if their use grows considerably, the Frankfurt-based ECB said in its research paper. “This risk should be considered when assessing the overall risk situation of central banks.”
Both great links:
More Bitcoin Charts (Showing volume and transaction growth...)
Background - How Bitcoin Works
Reader Comments (24)
The more you talk about Bitcoin, the more valuable it will get. More vendors will accept it.
That being said I think it's more profitable in the long term to get a Bitcoin "Miner" than to purchase virtual Bitcoins directly. Most likely even if Bitcoin were to fall of the face of the earth, it would be possible to reclaim the investment in hardware by re-purposing it.
It seems that many people are thinking the same way, take a look at a few of the pre-orders on EBay. The price is skyrocketing for the right to an early spot in line:
http://www.ebay.com/sch/makerofthings7/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=25&_trksid=p3686
http://bitcoin.org/en/
On 12 March 2013, a bitcoin server (also called a "miner") running the more recent "version 0.8.0" of the bitcoin protocol created a large record in bitcoin's transaction log (called the blockchain) that was incompatible with earlier versions of the bitcoin protocol due to its size. This created a split or "fork" in the transaction log. Users ran the more recent version of the protocol while accepting and building on the diverging log as other users ran older versions of the bitcoin protocol and rejected it. This split resulted in two separate transaction logs being formed without clear consensus, which allows for the same funds on both chains to be double-spent. In response, the Mt.Gox bitcoin exchange temporarily halted bitcoin deposits.[38] The price of a bitcoin fell 23% to $37 on the Mt.Gox bitcoin exchange as this event occurred but subsequently rose most of the way back to its prior level of approximately $48.[29][30]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitcoin
Complicated enough? It just goes on and on like this.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitcoin#Bitcoin_mining
http://www.ebay.com/sch/makerofthings7/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=25&_trksid=p3686
This link you posted is for physical creation of the coins I assume, and is different from Bitcoin software mining...? Help us out and explain this.
http://spectrum.ieee.org/img/06Bitcoin-1338412974774.jpg
Good infographic
http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2013/03/bitcoin-ring/
Another good read.
http://www.theverge.com/2013/3/8/4080160/hackers-steal-over-12000-of-bitcoins-from-bitinstant
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jonmatonis/2013/03/08/first-bitcoin-hedge-fund-launches-from-malta/
Is Bitcoin Money?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/max-keiser/is-bitcoin-money_b_2849031.html
http://www.finextra.com/News/FullStory.aspx?newsitemid=24665
http://www.online-casinos.com/news/news2412020.asp
http://betabeat.com/2013/03/bet-bitcoins-on-whether-or-not-a-girl-will-show-up-at-the-next-montreal-bitcoin-meetup/
http://betsofbitco.in/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/saranyakapur/2013/03/05/bitcoin-ready-to-go-mainstream-with-first-u-s-exchange/
http://money.cnn.com/2013/03/06/technology/innovation/bitcoin/
Best link I've found so far.
http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/a-guide-to-bitcoin-mining-why-someone-bought-a-1500-bitcoin-miner-on-ebay-for-20600
A Guide to Bitcoin Mining: Why Someone Bought a $1,500 Bitcoin Miner on eBay for $20,600