Bitcoin Forum

http://bitcoinme.com/index.php/bitcon-2011/

I can see three positive effects:

1) Lots of publicity.  Quoting the page:

Some of the media outlets who have said they will be here include:

    * CNN International
    * Al Jazeera English
    * Blomberg Television
    * Wall Street Journal
    * The New York Observer
    * BusinessWeek
    * Wired Magazine
    * SmarterMoney
    * NPR
    * Forbes
    * Fortune
    * CNN / Money
    * The Atlantic
    * Radio Australia
    * Freedomain Radio

2) People who attend the conference will reinforce each other convictions about the value of bitcoin.  This will generate a lot of enthusiasm that will spread out.

3) There will be probably announced many new bitcoin related projects.

Against the background of traditional markets collapse bitcoin will become even more visible.

The question is - will that be enough to spread bitcoin outside of the geek ghetto?  If this happens the price will skyrocket, but even without this it should grow in the next weeks during the build up to the conference and later when the news hit the media and more people start speculating.

1.5 weeks away
will be interesting to see what if any will be an impact on exchange rates

Good thought, I didn't even think how the conference could affect price.... I can't see how it would hurt it.  Perhaps if there is no rally people will see it as weakness and sell.

I will be overjoyed if it at least goes to $20 again

Don't expect much. Everybody in finance has bigger issues to deal with right now.

I'd be happy if it limped back up to $15. My guess tho is that it is a dribbling downward trend from scammers getting out, being slapped up once in a while by a couple of rich playboys.

I'm not even thinking about exchange rates, or at the very best, it's on the back burner so to speak.  I'm more excited about the prospect of Bitcoin becoming accepted by mainstream merchants.  Hopefully we'll see new products and technologies that can help merchants adapt the BTC as a viable currency without the hassle and fear that has been associated with transactions up to now.  We desperately need an escrow/Paypal-like service to make this happen though, and whoever steps up to the plate will probably make bank off it.  I'm anxious to know who is going to first to market with such a service!

Exchange rates are neat to look at, but it's a tertiary aspect of Bitcoin IMHO.

+10 to Mousepotato. Indeed it is the development of Bitcoin as a currency that matters. If more adoption is achieved by better services, a higher exchange rate is also bound to follow.

The 2 are correlated, though.  The value of Bitcoin will have a psychological impact on potential merchants.  If they see Bitcoin value is growing, that has a more positive psychological impact than if they see that the value has been on a steady decline since the middle of June. 

+1

I think the price will trend up as the market has not yet priced in this event. The free press
will bring in new people and cash causing more of a demand. I am definitely not selling my mined
coins at the moment because of the potential of this event.

There is very very little downside to holding versus selling right at this moment. I am hoping to
sell above 15 in the next couple of weeks.

I think the conference will be beneficial for Bitcoin but no investor in his right mind is going to invest in Bitcoin when he sees its value is falling and has been falling steadily for several months. That's not to say they wont invest once the value starts to rise again. To say we're going to have this conference and suddenly millions of $$ are going to be dropped into Bitcoin is just pure fantasy and wishful thinking. Its all about momentum and no-one's going to bother getting on a merry go round thats coming to a stop.

You tell 'em old man.

If no investor in his right mind would invest in bitcoin right now, then why are we all here. Looks like old miner wants to pick up some extra coins before the run up.

"I'm more concerned about the return of my money as opposed to the return on my money." - Will Rogers

+1

I am so easily influenced - maybe it is really better to wait for the weekend with any decision, a next weekend dip can erase all gains.

i think the timing of the economic downfall with the conference creates an enormous potential.
If everything continues as the last 2 weeks, by next week even "Joe Sixpack" will acknowledge fiat money is failing.

After reporting the same News for 2 weeks (yet another black Friday,Friday gonna get down on Friday) news outlets will be eager to report what alternatives exist.

Myself, Just hoping to grab the next Weekend dip to buy some more from the stocks i sold :)

BTC are so volatile, that going to ~0 should be a significant factor in any risk/reward profile.

While you re technically right, my guess is that there is less than .01% of that any time soon. If is was going to 0 it would have gone there back on the 7th of the month. JMHO

My above comment was more pointed to these online wallet guys that keep popping up in different guises.

With good coverage I think it might help the price go up. Hopefully this dumper(s) won't be ruining the party like they are doing it now :).

+ a lottttt

Well from what I'm seeing the pumpers are holding in there for now.

Definitely appears to be a large underlying bid right now... Maybe mtgox buying back all of the bitomat coins? Haha

Well I just got back to the farm. It looks like they are both a bit punch drunk. The dumpers have a slight advantage @9.67, but it looks like it's too early to call.

Wow! Couple of jabs then a solid body blow from the Dumper. Down to 9.0

Weekend effect kicking in.  Time to kick back and wait for Tuesday if you want to sell.  Another "buying opportunity" may present itself as people seeing a 20-30% profit in a week decide not to see it go negative.