Both Bter and Excoin exchanges have been hacked recently. That caused a direct downtick but it on the long term it also means a sustained drop in trading volume for BLK.  

Bter had it coming but Excoin is a blow. That one was part of the Black network. Apparently they got a lead on the suspect though so there's a chance of Blackwavelabs being back in business eventually.  

But yeah, there's your explanation for the drop. The price is down to external culprits but still ones that weigh very heavily.

Ha I could've told you in advance how difficult India can be, didn't want to begrudge you a nice trip though.

Crypto-prices rarely correspond to real-life progress in value. This is usually due to the low volumes being extremely easy to manipulate. As a coin distributes further and is held by more hands however, this becomes more difficult to sustain and you'll see a coin's price assume a more accurate presentation of it's value.

That's a valid downside to smart contracts. You need to posses a certain level of liquidity before you can engage them. This is also why escrows are usually only implemented professionally.

Then again, this may only take a culture shift before it hits the mainstream. I don't think people have truly considered the scale on which the sharing economy could take place. No trades, just lending items to locals. That's where smart contracts for small scale thirds really starts to shine.

Knowing that there are existing holders locked in makes it more attractive to buy more as it means you're not going to get your investment dumped on your head the moment you do it.

Hedging can be done in several ways. The least intrusive way is to make it voluntary for the individual. If these hedges are publicly known then that boosts the stability of a coin. The liquid part of the coin can drop zero but the hedged part of the coin will retain it's value until it's free again.

This means that investors that have coin development as a priority over price increase can draw a line in the sand and show other investors how serious they are about it.

I see it more as existing holders making an unbreakable pledge to hold it for a certain amount of time. It breaks the prisoner's dilemma that most coins are held hostage by. That alone is enough to at least attract new investors.

Having existing exchanges offering the 'Bitbay Contract' as an optional security layer for trading is going to be great. You negotiate the trades on Ebay, Craigslist and whatnot and you secure it through Bitbay. Beautiful.

There's a few fundamental things about BTC that I don't like. And I think that BTC is more fragile than most us dare to admit. We like to pretend it's the gold standard to Crypto because we all depend on it being that solid. The weaknesses however, they won't disappear. So things are going to change. Crypto will stay but BTC is running on it's last legs. There's going to be alts that exist right now that are going to fill that gap and do it better. My bet is on the coins that will solve BTC's issues the best. And Bitbay is one of them.


Well Blackcoin does. Bitbay and BC both have something the other is missing.

Yes, it also invalidates the 'nothing at stake' criticism on PoS. Blackcoin already has this for a while now.

The coin hasn't spread enough for it's price to be meaningful yet.

David's reputation is worth more than the whole IPO combined.

Some mod get this blatant FUDer out of here!  

It really wouldn't surprise me if this stuff will end up in a movie similar to The Social Network.

The PoW era will end eventually.

The impatience comes from people trying to coordinate that first pump bubble that comes with a promising new coin. If the devs are being too exact with their ETAS then people will end up trading on the news which compromises the coin's stability.

I'm not really interested in discussing short term price. 

BUT I suspect that the resistance around 300 sat will remain for a while. People know that many folks have bought their coins to sell them again around that point again. They just don't know how many of them are still left in that pool.   

It's a bit of a game being played right now but eventually that will pass.

Intensifies

Smart contract functinality for coins is currently like having a Facebook timeline without friends.

You need more than just the option for a smart contract. The contract itself is pretty basic functionality compared to what it takes to make people use it. That's why coins like Blackcoin and Bitbay are offering platforms for people to engage these contracts on.

I agree. This stuff could flop or it could be the most disruptive thing in society since the invention of the steam-engine. If it flops it'll just be the same old story we've seen with many coins. Could happen but, yeah, yawn, boring.

The potential however, that's worth discussing. I'm not talking about it's price or it's market cap. I'm talking about the way people will start using this. The online community is still very infantile in the way it trades it's goods and services. Yet at the same time more people's livelihood depend on it. Most of our economy will eventually be about strangers doing business with other strangers online. There's no adequate infrastructure for this yet. It's messy and people on both ends are constantly getting screwed over.  

Bitbay may (or may not) become the foundation for this. -I still believe Blackcoin has a better chance but that aside-. If we're going to take that direction then I truly believe that we haven't even scraped the surface of what may be possible. People talk about gambling but that's frivolous nonsense compared to how this may facilitated freelancers, copywriters, traders and consultants. We haven't even broached the subject of automating smart-contracts or figuring out in what templates can be deviced to suit different needs.  

Bitbay is still a white canvas, let's not waste it by just scribbling satoshi predictions on it.

No worries. It's simple but it can be a mind fuck the firs time you hear about it. 

This is also why it's important people keep trying it out with really small stupid trades first before they dig in with serious money.