I'd rather wear a burka than a nationalistic clown costume as well. But yeah I think your assessment of Slate is probably spot on

No.  There was a speculative bubble, and it popped. It's okay. Expect many of them.

I think it's proven that. Millions of dollars of business are being done every month in Bitcoin. And I'm talking about business, not just speculative day trading.

LOL damnit I was just about to post this!

This is excellent! Too bad it had to be just after a price slaughter but whatever

Okay this kind of sentiment needs to go away.

While MtGox can and should be blamed for having a crappy trading platform, it is NOT correct to blame the deflating of bubbles on them. Speculative bubbles are a part of a normal, healthy market, and in something as wild and revolutionary as Bitcoin bubbles should be expected every so often. It's not Gox's fault that the price bubble occurred, and it's not Gox's fault that the bubble popped.

If you want a culprit to blame, it is this: price discovery. The market is trying to figure out how to price this amazing new invention. It's a dirty process, but we will tend to find the right price over time.

I suppose this thread is called speculation, but really you should offer at least a shred of evidence for wild claims.

And tell me, just where/how would gox "cash out their personal BTC"? Do you have any idea how much they have?

It would be absurdly foolish for Gox to destroy its own platform, and the BTC price, just for some quick gains (if gains by doing so were even possible).

Hello,

The April 4th version of the Financial Times had Bitcoin featured on the cover. If someone can find me a copy and send it to me, I'll pay you 1 bitcoin. Doesn't need to be perfect condition, just needs to be the real print copy of the front page.

Please contact me via skype: evoorhees

Thanks!

Taken care of, thanks! Mods feel free to delete.

Anecdotally I've heard they process about 1000 people per day. I have no idea if this is accurate.

Who would dare? Me. I've bought lots of stuff with Bitcoin, though I believe it'll be worth far more in the future.

Does the appreciation make people more careful about what they spend BTC on? Yes. And this is a good thing. Does it stop all purchases entirely? Not a chance.

In fact, let's look at this anecdote. I recently sold a few coins to buy a new LCD TV. I know (or think I know) two things:  1) the BTC will be worth far more in the future and 2) the TV will be worth far less in the future (or I could get far better one for the same amount if I wait).

Even though BOTH parts of the transaction are encouraging me to not spend, I still spend. This utterly disproves the argument that deflation causes all spending to stop. It's a ludicrous theory. Appreciating currency simply makes people more careful with their money. They will still eat. They will still buy televisions.

For the record, I find all the alt coins pretty silly, with the exception of namecoin which actually has interesting features to it. The rest is just the frothy wake of Bitcoin, but hey, I have nothing against competition and I'm glad that alt coins exist.

Let me refute that for you.

A merchant who uses Bitpay to accept Bitcoin and convert into dollars is just as legitimate as a merchant who accepts Bitcoin directly and keep it as such.

The reason is this: Bitcoin's value grows in proportion to the number of places, and ease with which, one can spend it. If every merchant on earth accepted Bitcoin, but converted into USD via Bitpay, then the following fact would be true: Every merchant on earth accepts Bitcoin. At this point, fewer and fewer people would decide to convert to dollars at all. The fact that we aren't there yet doesn't mean the steps to get there are invalid.

And sure, it's true that those who accept Bitcoin "suffer" from volatility. But they've been suffering all the way up to $190. Give me a volatile currency that appreciates over a stable currency that depreciates any day of the week.

And no, taking away Gox and Bitpay would not make Bitcoin collapse, I assure you. Within 3 months, it'd be like nothing happened at all. Why? Because as a trader, it is very easy to switch exchanges. And as a merchant, it is very easy to switch processors. Bitpay's client's do not have to spend months of integration time, and thus if Bitpay disappeared an alternative would be swiftly found. Same with Gox.

Do not confuse a few points of market-based economic concentration (Bitpay/Gox/etc) with rigid centralization.

I already cashed out. I cashed out of dollars into Bitcoin.

I happen to have written one:  http://evoorhees.blogspot.com/2012/04/bitcoin-libertarian-introduction.html

Well, holding bitcoins in any quantity for any reason is "very risky" in my opinion. But those who do it simply because the price is rising (without understanding the fundamental reasons why Bitcoin is valuable) are both risky and incredibly foolish.

This morning, a family member of mine asked me to write up my opinion of the Bitcoin price movement recently. For those who don't know me, I've been heavily involved in Bitcoin since May 2011. It is my full time life, my career, and my passion. The price in 2013 has been wild, and here's what I wrote to my family member.

-----------

Unfortunately, while I'm certainly an insider, not even I know if the price will rise or fall tomorrow, or next week, or next month, or next year. Guessing short term price movements is a fool's game.

My sentiment is the same today as it was a year or two years ago: either Bitcoin is worth zero, or is worth thousands of dollars each. It will take years for the market to figure out which it is. If you believe in the Bitcoin story, that it may revolutionize the world of finance, then it's a good idea to hold on to some Bitcoins. If you think it's just too risky, or are unconvinced of the narrative, then it's best to sell. As stated many times, Bitcoins are incredibly risky and volatile. The whole thing is one grand experiment. Don't ever hold more money in Bitcoin than you can afford to lose, and in general you should assume the whole thing will go to zero.

Now, if you're curious why this price may be going crazy right now, it's a few factors:

1) A handful of "respectable" online merchants are now accepting Bitcoin, this proves that real businesses see the value in it. It's likely that others will follow.

2) Cyprus scared the hell out of everyone (and rightly so). While a few Cypriots may have bought some Bitcoin, the bigger influence is a world of onlookers who are all thinking, "well that could happen to US!" and "look how Bitcoin solves the problem of trusting banks." It's not so much that Cypriots are buying bitcoins now, but rather that the world realizes that as this euro (and soon dollar...) crisis continues unfolding, a greater number of people will seek some degree of refuge in Bitcoin. Speculators, seeing this possibility, are buying up Bitcoins.

3) Venture capital (and private investor) money is moving into Bitcoin. A small handful of VC firms putting in a small handful of their money could explain the entire current price rise.

4) An increasingly wide swath of the libertarian/gold & silver "hard money" types are buying into Bitcoin. They were very skeptical at first, but are coming around. There are probably a few hundred thousand people like this in America who are deciding to put a few grand into Bitcoin.

5) The FinCEN ruling clarified the government's stance on Bitcoin about 3 weeks ago. The good news is Bitcoin is very much legal, and will be treated basically like money. People don't need to worry that the government will come down on it any time soon.

6) The press attention gained from all of the above real-world events is fueling a huge amount of hype (justified or not).

7) Ignorant, foolish people are buying bitcoins simply because the price is going up and they think (consciously or unconsciously) that this means it'll go up tomorrow. Maybe 1% of the buying interest is from people like this, or maybe 99%. Such people may get really lucky, or impoverish themselves, but either way they're in it for the wrong reason.

All of the above have combined over the past couple months to cause this price rally. It may well be a bubble, and could fall back down to $20/coin. Or, it could be the "new normal" and a new stable price between $100-$300 will be found. Or, it could be the start of a mega bubble that drives prices over $1000 before they come crashing down somewhere and cause widespread misery and chaos. The price right now could be the highest Bitcoin will ever be from now on, or the lowest. Nobody knows!

My advice... don't obsess over the fluctuating price on any given day. The market will figure out the value of these coins, and there ain't a damn thing anyone can do to prevent this from playing out.

But certainly, Bitcoin is the most important thing happening on the planet right now... and it has nothing to do with the price.

-Erik

Tax evasion is absolutely morally justified. What is not justified, is theft.

People are justified in doing what they can to avoid wanton theft of their property by violent gangs calling themselves government. The fact that a group of people around you have voted for you to surrender your property is not moral justification for the taking of that property.

Unfortunately I still have to file as an American citizen, and I do it because otherwise I'll be thrown in a cage.

People forget that the "proper price" of Bitcoin does not equal it's "transactional value" but rather transaction value + NPV of future transactional value. 

It is correct that the current transactional value of Bitcoin does not justify the $130 price.

BUT that is only half the equation, for the future transactional value discounted for the present must be factored into the correct price.

Or in other words, if the "proper price" for Bitcoin based solely on its transactional use in five years time is $500, then the proper value today is probably about $250, discounted both for time and for unknown risks (the whole thing could fail tomorrow, and this should be priced in).

Nobody knows what the proper transactional value in the future will be, but whatever it is, the proper price today is based in part on it.

LOL +1

Things look good on our end... these still haven't returned to you? Feel free to PM me.

Saying that "nobody should ever use ewallets" is foolish.

There are many reasons why it's good to use ewallets. The guiding rules should be something like this:

1) Realize that funds stored with an ewallet have counter-party risk (though it removes some of the "user-risk" which is worth considering).
2) Some ewallets have more counter-party risk than others (based on design, reputation of owners, history, etc)
3) In general, it's not a good idea to store large amounts of funds at an ewallet for extended periods of time.

Ewallets can offer great advantages in certain circumstances, people just need to know how to use them intelligently.