Yep. My brother-in-law is a VC. Extremely low success rate (single digits), and winning investments take FOREVER to pay out. Incredibly stressful work.

LOL. Childish nonsense. Look at the countries that the United States has wrecked in the immediate past (Iraq, Libya), and is currently rattling its sword against in one form or another (Iran, Syria, Russia, China, Venezuela). All have either attempted to start their own oil bourses, or have threatened to begin transacting for oil in other currencies. The only exception to this rule in recent history is Afghanistan, which is not a major oil consumer/producer, and was invaded for other geopolitical/strategic/economic reasons.

Military might and nuclear arsenal aside, the petrodollar is the engine of America's global economic domination. It essentially creates an endless loop of demand for U.S. dollars and U.S. debt, which allows the United States to print money endlessly, export its inflation abroad, and smash foreign economies on a whim by tinkering with oil prices, interest rates, and the overall U.S. money supply. Foreign countries, with no other choice but to obtain U.S. dollars in order to purchase the world's most precious commodity (oil), are forced to play this hopelessly rigged game.

Same here. I poked some rather large holes in one of his posts regarding 9/11... my post was deleted I was banned from the site. Can't handle a little legitimate criticism? What a fucking pussy.

One word: manipulation.

It's beginning to look like all of the weak hands have been shaken out... Good riddance. Bubble time soon.

Hmmm, very interesting. While your analysis certainly makes sense fundamentally... never underestimate speculative mania.

I don't know jack about traditional Wall Street mumbo jumbo, but I read today that the Winky ETF is modeled after the GLD fund – which set records by attracting over a $billion in new investment in just 3 days. Obviously that's a pretty lazy comparison, but consider this: Bitcoin represents an entirely new asset class. Lots of institutions and investors will want to get in on this on the ground floor, whether they support or even understand virtual currencies at all. Once the general public sees how much easy money can be made, money will start pouring in. IMO the ETF is the next big step for bitcoin and it will likely be the spark for the next bubble...

Shhhhh.... don't tap the aquarium.

Alt coins are products. Copying some code is merely the first step in the long process of creating a viable product; it's meaningless without marketing, distribution, market penetration, consumer adoption, etc. Litecoin is light years ahead of its competition in all of these areas. This is the real world, not some college tech lab.


There's nothing to "save." Litecoin is perfectly fine. Being so price-obsessed misses the point. Litecoin will rebound, skyrocket, and then wither again... rinse, repeat. Not an interest/investment for the faint of heart, or for short-term thinkers. Price matters, but we're in the early days of a paradigm-shifting technology – shit's going to be uncertain, and extremely volatile, for a long ass time.

Ummm... so what are the USD withdrawal options, my friend?

Sounds to me like you'll do just fine, smalltimer. Just keep in mind that your target price might prove to be a bit conservative, and use your analysis to find the best cash out window. Because that bubble peak will come and go so fast it'll make your head spin. 

I'll take litecoin's market cap, liquidity, name recognition, and availability on multiple exchanges over any alt coin, regardless of its bells and whistles, EVERY DAY OF THE WEEK (and twice on Sundays). From a business/market perspective, these traits are a thousand times more important than the latest "innovation" of the day.

It's, uh, a metaphor.


I don't think you quite understood that chart, lol. It precisely defines the current relationship between the two coins. They follow each other, but the ratio of relative values changes over time – it's not a simple constant relationship.

It tells me they can't find a counterparty they trust enough to regularly supply them with enough litecoin to get that segment of their business running. Lee has openly admitted that they're still two years behind bitcoin, development-wise – obviously this includes exchange infrastructure.

Exactly. All of these people talking about "innovation" are just clueless, they're enamored with shiny new toys rather than business fundamentals. In order for mainstream adoption to happen the masses first need to understand bitcoin. They don't yet. Any and all alt coin "innovation" outside of the simple elegance of bitcoin is completely lost on the vast majority of people who might eventually propel cryptos into the mainstream. At this point any innovation above and beyond the block chain and the bitcoin protocol is simply pretty packaging to lure pump and dumpers.

Litecoin has name recognition, market penetration, and superior liquidity due to its market cap and its availability across a wide variety of exchanges. This puts it in an infinitely more stable place, from a business perspective, to succeed than any shitcoin. It's years ahead of the competition. But more importantly, LTC IS THE NATURAL TRADING PARTNER TO BITCOIN, which is the market leader in a completely brand new tech space.

You wanna make real money trading cryptos? Ignore the shitcoins and focus on understanding the relationship between BTC and LTC. There's a shocking amount of money to be made there if you're smart and patient and don't get caught up trying to day trade your way to riches.

Hey dirkk, thanks for the TA. Just out of curiosity, what do you make of that massive volume spike on Huboi that barely budged the price?

There appear to be some rather large players on BTC-e who are constraining the range of LTC price movements – there's that massive $100k floor that's been slowly eaten away at .0171 (LTC/BTC), and there's also been another whale holding a semi-permanent ceiling at 11.2 (LTC/USD). My initial impression is that price is being capped so some big players can accumulate without moving the price... What's your read on the situation?

FWIW I was able to withdraw LTC just last week. I got a pop-up that said "withdrawals are disabled" (or something to that effect), but when I checked my wallet later the transaction had actually gone through.

If memory serves all USD withdrawals have been suspended for a while now, and wire or ACH deposits (can't remember which) have been promised but never delivered. It's too bad these guys can't get their act together because the U.S. market is ripe for a decent exchange.

I think you're getting warm... pure speculation here, but let's piece together the available information:

Dwolla – BX's primary method of deposit – has been gone for nearly 2 months, and with it, likely a huge percentage of their transaction fees (revenue). They've got to be hurting pretty bad financially.

However, despite deposit options drying up, we've seen the BTC price on BX rise to the point where it's nearly on par with other exchanges (a rarity), along with a noticeable increase in transaction volume and market depth. And yet, we're hearing story after story about delayed/missing deposits/withdrawals. How is all of this trading occurring on BX if everyone's money is in limbo?

On its face, this makes no sense... unless you consider this angle: Perhaps the folks running BX – and not these mysterious "beta-testers" (who may or may not actually exist) – are using this new ACH deposit system TO ARBITRAGE THE HELL OUT OF CUSTOMER FUNDS in order to stay afloat? This explains everything – the stall tactics, the missed deadlines, the delayed deposits/withdrawals, the price/volume oddities...

Tread carefully, folks.

My understanding is that they operate outside of the traditional banking system – they're essentially in the process of setting up their very own financial payments network. Not sure of the actual nuts and bolts, but part of their mission is to provide super-cheap transactions, because in their most basic form, financial transactions are simply exchanges of data. Anything under $10 is free, and anything over – even millions – is only $.25.

This is really a bummer for those of us in the States. Dwolla rocks.