Well, Bitcoin isn't really that popular as people think.

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Many bitcoin enthusiasts are biased, but the numbers tell another story.

Take a look at the number of people online on btc-e. We aren't even getting anywhere near 1 million users... And... There are many billions of people in the world. Anyway, the bitcoin block system can't cope with 1 million users anyway.

I guess more people know what a selfie is than a bitcoin.

Ouch, that's still quite a lot... Looks like 1/3 of SecondMarket's Bitcoin Investment Trust or another huge fund. That means more selling may come.

Even if you don't short, the fact that dollars are worth more after tapering will lead people to not pay as much for a bitcoin. Dollars would purchase more of other assets. It's going to be problem regardless, but I think one of the large hedge funds dumped a lot of BTC yesterday. I saw an order for a 30,000 BTC sell yesterday. Right after the FOMC minutes came out... Co-incidence?

The USD is rising in value against many major western currencies such as the AUD and CAD and GBP...

Waveaddict, what do you think the implications of a U.S. taper will have on the value of bitcoin?

Asset prices are falling, Gold, Stockmarkets are falling. Bond Yields are rising sharply.

Bullard came out and said there will be a taper. Bernanke quoted indirectly that a taper was coming.

U.S. debt is being reduced to serviceable levels. Government programs are being cut in the U.S. Defence spending down 30%. Food stamps being cut and more.

Looks like we will all be praising the central banks for reducing dollar money supply whilst bitcoin's supply keeps growing as people mine more.

It's all relative, but it looks like a good time to short bitcoin, either through lending schemes or funds like bitcoin investment trust.

Anyone up for some activist investing?

Never because of the limitations in the blockchain, block size and more.

Just do some research on the maximum number of transactions per day allowable on bitcoin.

Could this be a hint that the U.S. is about to reduce money supply and taper?

The deficits are shrinking, debts are being repaid.

Tapering would lead to less total dollars in the market. Thus ridding the need for bitcoin and gold holdings.

Take a look at how stockmarkets worldwide are trending down... QE isn't a one way street.

U.S. Defence spending is down 30% this year. Food Stamps being cut. Everything is being cut to repay the debt so that they can taper.

Onto bitcoin:

Flaws with bitcoin's block sizes being discovered.

Large flaws in exchanges matching orders, e.g. Gox.


All on our favourite bearish website, zerohedge.

You realise the idea that bitcoin subject to a different style of manipulation is actually not such a big deal.

I bet you weren't saying "well done to the central banks when they were raising interest rates and removing money from the economy"

It's a basic economic problem involving open market operations.

So, tell us, were we all rooting for the central bank when they were raising interest rates, making it effectively a better investment than bitcoin? Rather than a fixed amount of bitcoins, there would be a reduction in the amount of dollars in the system.

I'd choose a reduction of dollars. In fact, many countries are looking to raise interest rates now!

Long term bond yields are rising... It doesn't make bitcoin look any better for the speculators.

In the long run, interest rates go through mean reversion, i.e. return to the average. So, it's up to you to decide whether bitcoin really is an optimal investment. You are trading one type of manipulation for another. Bitcoin is artificial, it's not even natural.

If the hedge funds are using the fool.com method, then they are probably getting ready to dump large quantities of bitcoins.

They should have come to the realisation that there won't be enough market share taken away to justify the current price of bitcoins.


In the annual report Western Union conducts 2.5 million transactions a day. According to the blockchain size the maximum transactions per day should be 360,000. So we should go back and look at this chart and revalue bitcoin as $100 as it can only capture 10x less market share.

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2013/11/17/bitcoin-bubble-or-value.aspx

$100 price target sounds about right considering bitcoin can't capture the market that people believe it will and the developers of bitcoin are unable to address this issue as the onus lies with the mining pools.

Some people state that consider the transaction fees on bitcoin are 10x less than traditional means. This means they can only earn 10x less revenue. The price target can now only be $10 in the long run. These are good valuation methods proven by "value investors" such as Warren Buffet, undoubtedly also fool.com.

However, we also know the maximum block chain for most mining pools is around 250kb which means only 90,000 transactions a day can be completed. This means that there is no way bitcoin will capture any of the money that western union makes and believe me Western Union Charges Ludicrous Fees to gain the amount of revenue that they do!

Thus we have to take one quarter of the price target due to the 250kb limit, which now values bitcoin at $25 or $2.5 each using modern portfolio valuation methods. I'm guessing the hedge funds are waking up to this, after all they all use these methods.

I haven't taken a look at the latest client, but you could run it in sandboxie if you are worried.

Try redownloading the client and comparing the md5 signature.

I'm sure we will all get paid soon. It also looks like it might be affordable for BardanDoyle to retain the current payout. The BTC price looks like it's going to be trending down for some time to come.

Buy a bit of everything.

Remember that guy who turned $27 into $1 million.

That only works if you buy the coins when they are like fractions of a cent.

Just expand storage using RAID...

This is another reason why we should have bigger block sizes as it will benefit the uptake of bitcoins. Everyone seems to be scared of huge blockchains, but I don't think it's anything to be scared of.

Hmm... This looks like the same meshnet technology used in "TinCan"...

They finally caught onto the wealth transfer scam and have become paranoid.

They even think that their stockmarket is controlled.

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB124414565463186247


The chinese believe their housing market is also rigged as well. The government basically promises a certain rise in house prices. It's implicit. Ask some of your chinese friends.

Alternatively, it could be that some huge chinese billionaire has finished transferring Yuan to a basket of currencies, CAD, AUD, USD, RUB. Thus there is no market for the coins anymore and the downward pressure is from the billionaire selling back out. Who knows... We can only make up stories, but yeah the chinese are a paranoid bunch when it comes to money. I don't see them speculating again in the long term.

The problem isn't whether they know or not.

Even if they did know, I don't believe it would affect their decision to purchase coins.

Think about how one would feel about owning 1 millionth of an ounce of gold. Not worth much at all. They wouldn't be very happy with using those small amounts of gold either.

Mathematical trickery won't make the bitcoin price skyrocket, in fact people will see past the illusion and send the price crashing down to earth as they see your manipulative techniques. To assume people are just going to play dumb is a stupid theory.

Buying fractions doesn't help anyone. Anyone who wants to buy products because prices are already seeing fractional amounts quoted as prices. We can't magically turn to satoshis think everyone will begin to think like pennies. In fact when you believe there are so many coins around, it destroys the fact that the coins are actually rare.

Two Words:

Vested Interest.

It's like how Max Keiser all of a sudden started to hype litecoin after being on bitcoin.

I wouldn't be surprised if he caused a movement of funds towards litecoin and away from bitcoin.

Don't trust anyone. Furthermore, Winklevoss wants to create an ETF which allows others to short bitcoin.

You do realise the problems we have already with the shorting of GOLD via ETFs? There would also be a futures market created which could lead to the problems we have seen with gold being settled in cash rather than physical delivery of gold because they shorted gold but cannot deliver it.

The same thing will happen, we can't let them do this if we want bitcoin at a high value.

This is a dud article, and is actually value destructive. If the Winklevosses are smart, they won't call for an ETF or futures market.

Then again they did sell out to Zuckerberg, that wasn't very smart of them.

Why don't we just leave it the same as it is now...

Just use blockchain's $ figure to trade and purchase items...

Click on the green BTC button and it turns to USD$.

The least we can do is get him the views so he makes some money.

You guys remember Patrice Wilson?

Poor guy, the media are like scoundrels.

What a person does in their private time shouldn't be of our concern.

.... I upgraded the wrong market. It seems like I need to build another police station at the bottom rather than the top along with the market at the bottom. I built the police station at the top... x_X!

YWE*(!