FYI

1. When the FED would dump high volumes and create crashes there is also an effect of market capitulation.
This market capitulation would effectively destroy the Bitcoin.
http://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/189.asp

2. Here the FED is accused of lowering the gold price
(Fortunately, with Bitcoin we  do not have "paper BTC" ... like gold has paper gold)

http://www.thenewamerican.com/economy/markets/item/15116-after-gold-crash-experts-point-to-central-bank-manipulation

After Gold Crash, Experts Point to Central Bank Manipulation

In the wake of gold prices cratering in recent days, more than a few prominent experts have already started pinning the blame on Western central banks — especially the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank (ECB). According to numerous analysts, the central bankers are desperate to salvage their fiat currencies and eliminate competition as "monetary authorities" continue to create ever-greater quantities of euros and dollars out of thin air.

Some experts, whistleblowers, traders, and former officials say the Fed dumped as much as 400 or even 500 tons of “paper gold” on the market — metals that it might not even have — as part of a naked short sale aimed at driving down the prices. Other analysts, especially among the establishment, pointed to the ECB chief’s recent suggestion that struggling European authorities in countries such as Cyprus would have to sell their precious metals to keep receiving bailouts.

Economist Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, assistant treasury secretary during the Reagan administration and former editor of the Wall Street Journal, is one of many experts who argue that the recent collapse in gold and silver prices was carefully orchestrated by the Fed and a coalition of allied mega-banks. In a widely cited analysis of the recent plunge in precious metals entitled “Assault On Gold Update,” he said the U.S. central bank was “rigging all markets” — bond prices, interest rates, and of course, the bullion market.

"WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH YOU??? HOW IN THE NAME OF CHRIST CAN YOU BUY $40 Billion of bitcoins at $900 each??? Hahahhaaaaa you are hilarious. I don't know if you are just trolling or you really have no idea that there are buy and sell orders for limited amounts of bitcoins on the exchanges. I would guess trolling..."

:-) I did not say that they would buy 40 bln in one time.
They could buy slow in low volumes and then dump it all at once.
Again and again.
Each time causing a small crash.
This is how you could manipulate a price in all kind of markets.

All, as OP thanks for feedback and discussion.
I am less worried now on my long position on BTC :-)

It is not about buy it all, but to manipulate the price.
They buy on current prices and then dump it with large volume and take losses (since they can afford to).
This will scare most investors who will leave.

Actors with unlimited purchasing power can determine prices fully:
http://stocks.about.com/od/gettingstarted/a/041711-How-To-Legally-Manipulate-Stock-Prices.htm

"so i am not selling mine until price gets to 40000$, because who knows it might be FED buying..."
"If someone started buying continuously the price would go insane, easily going into 10s of thousands very quickly."
- not true, if they would slowly buy 100.000 bitcoin in a batch and then dump all of it for 0.0001 USD, bitcoin would crash ... if they then would do this in cycles.

"these graphs are exactly why we're doing this."
- i know and i agree

In this scenario they would.
If I would give you 40 bln, you could :-)

It would not be worth to create more cryptocoins.
Every miner would stop.

-> "alot easyer just to ban it, not to buy it."
i think it is much, much easier to just change a number on a system somewhere to create 40 bln easily and get rid of the BTC in a few hours. no effort needed on politics, legal stuff, etc etc

-> "How would this destroy Bitcoin? Bitcoin existed long before there was any analog-money numbers associated with it."
they would buy it for 900 USD and then sell it for 0.000001 USD on large volumes at once, in cycles, creating crashes, this would effectively destroy it. all miners would stop, etc etc

** I am LONG on BTC, but want to understand if this scenario would work **

The current market capitalization of crypto currency is about 13 bln.
See at footer / bottom of page of: http://coinmarketcap.com/

WHAT IF they would create/print some dollars, slowly buy significant amount of crypto currency at current market prices and then dump it all at once. They would do this in cycles, each time creating a crash.

The FED has about 4000 bln outstanding.
If they would just create 4 bln USD, buy BTC and dump it, it would already probably work.
But ok, let's suppose they do this (in cycles!) with 40 bln (who cares anyway..it is money out of thin air).
This 40 bln would represent only 1% of their current balance.
And this is only the FED.

Here is size of printed money from the 4 big central banks right now...


Source: http://www.economicpopulist.org/content/bis-says-party-over-quantitative-easing

And here is projected increased size for the FED only...


Source: http://blogs.ft.com/gavyndavies/2012/12/16/a-major-change-in-bernankes-policy-reaction-function/

Hi all,
Cryptorig did refund my money properly on my request, very trustworthy for me.
Regards, Michiel

Seriously. I kid you not.
Article: http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-01-09/bitcoin-mining-chips-gear-computing-groups-competition-heats-up

O no.. Actually the designer was looking for dolphins ?! ? WTF ?  What did he take?

Cover with unicorn:


Why unicorn:
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-01-09/bitcoin-dreams-bloomberg-businessweeks-cover-with-unicorn

Somebody created this comment on http://rt.com/business/alibaba-bitcoin-ban-taobao-353/

Greg Smith 09.01.2014 08:56
Decentralisation is the problem. The answer is HYPAY Money, which will guarantee traders up to £1m ($1.6m) against loss, fraud and or theft. Mark your calendars for 24 February 2014 - the day HYPAY Money starts trading.

See http://www.wirenews.co/global/miscellaneous/6483/move-over-bitcoin-trading-in-hypay-money-starts-in
"Move Over Bitcoin, Trading In HYPAY Money Starts In ...
BITCOIN, currently the global leader in cryptocurrency, faces stiff competition in early 2014 with the anticipated launch of HYPAY Money ™.
Cryptocurrency is a digital medium of exchange; an alternative, if you will, to the traditional fiat currencies used by every nation around the world.
HYPAY has set mid-night, 24 February 2014 as the time and date to launch the "start of trading" via its secure platform.
Plans are to operate a secure web wallet system, including mobile, iPhone and Android Apps that will allow users the opportunity to buy, sell and trade HYPAY units. Send HYPAY Money, receive payments, earn commissions. The sky is literally the limit with HYPAY.
The service will be offered free of charge with a number of different methods for funding accounts, including bank wire, PayPal and payment by mobile account.
To protect users' details, upon registration, HYPAY traders will be given an email address @hypaymoney.com so that their details remain confidential.
Merchants will be paid to accept HYPAY and applications are being invited from 'real world' and online business operators, everywhere.
A lucrative Affiliate scheme has also been devised that will allow anyone to earn HYPAY Money for Tweeting positively about HYPAY, or by updating their status on Facebook or LinkedIn with a positive word or two about HYPAY or by simply providing a link back from any personal or business website to HYPAY's website.
'The world is changing, shouldn't you?' is one of HYPAY's trademarks. Isn't it time you considered a change in the way you make payments and receive money? HYPAY Money ™. Make the change ™.
For more information or to get notified when trading begins visit http://www.hypay.org."

This is on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/5023479
About HYPAY Money LLP. HYPAY Money LLP (HPM) is a global cryptocurrency exchanged via a secure web wallet platform. There are three primary ways to obtain HYPAY Money: (1) Buy upon issuance; (2) Earn through marketing and promotion on our behalf; and (3) Trade with someone who has HYPAY Money. Merchants are paid H5000 (or more subject to guidelines) upon sign-up as an incentive for accepting HYPAY Money. Anyone can earn HYPAY Money by promoting the currency through their social media accounts.
HYPAY Money ™, The World Is Changing, Shouldn't You? ™  and HYPAY Unit Payment System ™ are trademarks owned by HYPAY Money LLC

Here is profile from creator of this linkedin page:
https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=210754643

Hi all,

It is hard to grasp the exact basis of the real economical value of bitcoin and the bitcoin currency.
This author has an interesting statement with some good arguments.
      Bitcoin is the Linux of payments. And its killer apps will be for US dollars
      http://www.valuewalk.com/2014/01/bitcoin-is-the-linux-of-payments/

Basically, he expects that the bitcoin methodology/protocol/technology will be a succesfull transparant layer without the necessity for the bitcoin currency to be fully explicit available to consumers. If this is true, then some BIG questions (for investors) are:
A. Scarcity: Does scarcity of bitcoin matter? (this layer can be used with transactions of 10 BTC each, but also of 0.00001 BTC each?)
B. Fiat rate: can the layer be succesfull with ANY fiat rate of the BTC currency? Does it matter if BTC has value of 1 USD or 1.000 USD ?
C. Invest: If A and B do not matter, then 1 BTC could also be valued at 1 USD?

The above may be true, however, what is not includes in this analysis, are the following 3 arguments/factors:

*** Revenge of the nerds - Why one Bitcoin will be valued 40.000+ USD ***



1. Revenge of the nerds.
A. Imagine all the hours spent on open source projects / peer to peer (distributed stuff).
B. Image all the effort to commercialize part of these efforts.
C. Now imagine how economical succesfull companies these efforts have been (napster, kazaa, bittorrent, wikipedia, linux, mysql, android, apache, etc)
D. Now image all the money consumers have paid for this.
Now image if all effort at A could be directly funded by D.
This is what I call: "Revenge of the nerds", cut out the middlemen, etc.
Of course, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs immediately got paid for their efforts and were able to go from D to A instantly.
But for the other 99,9999% of all nerds, they are not rewarded for the creativity and value they bring to society.
With Bitcoin we close the loop from D to A :-) !
=> this will create an explosion of commercially viable innovations with a large demand for the bitcoin currency!

2. Significant investment has been done and will be done by entities with deep pockets:
- Bitcoin Price Could Reach $98,500, Say Wall Street Analysts / http://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-price-reach-98500-say-wall-street-analysts/
- Wall Street Will Put 'Hundreds of Millions' Into Bitcoin / http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/230346

3. This is the best quantified argument:
Bitcoin can compete with 3 current products / services with a certain value: 1. foreign exchange, 2. protect inflation, 3. asset/gold
  - See: http://www.streetinsider.com/Analyst+Comments/Bitcoin+Could+Be+Worth+10-100x+Current+Price+-+Analyst/8936836.html
  - See: http://www.scribd.com/doc/188644617/Bitcoin-Intrinsic-Value-Wedbush-Report-December-2013
If Bitcoin in 10 years will capture 1% of this value, the value of 1 BTC is projected at $1,041.
If Bitcoin in 5 years will capture 5% of this value, the value of 1 BTC is projected at $10,407.
( My expectation: for this factor, we will end up somewhere in the middle of the chart, that is: between $5k and $40k per BTC )



CONCLUSION:

If you combine factors 1, 2 and 3, my expectation is that we will reach a real economic value of at least $40k per BTC in 5-10 years.
We will predict this value within 2-3 years from now and hype it, companies will react to it and include it in yearly plans, build services, products with it, etc.

=> So in 2015 Q2/Q3 we will reach $40k per BTC

You can even include "steve" in your BTC address, see: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Vanitygen

Steve / OP,

Solution 1:
You can change your own name to Bitcoin in stead? :-) !
( Just like "Kim Dotcom" did? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Dotcom )

Solution 2:
Maybe you can tattoo a Bitcoin logo full size on your body?
( Just like this woman: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/07/01/casino_tattoos_womans_face/ )

Solution 3:
Sell some organs of yourself?

Solution 4:
Offer your body to clients per hour to freely (ab)use any way they like?

Solution 5:
OK, this suggestion is serious:
(the previous ones were meant as jokes)
Get inspired by: http://fiverr.com/categories/fun-bizarre/ and offer something unique for 0,01 BTC

Good luck with generating publicity, it will help all bitcoin owners, I guess.

Regards, Michiel

Here is press release: http://au.finance.yahoo.com/news/cloudhashing-com-announces-industry-first-080629423.html
"In the Bitcoin mining industry, where projections but not promises are the norm, CloudHashing.com's announcement could shake up an already extremely competitive industry at a time when Bitcoin is becoming more mainstream.
The company announced that customers can now pre-order cutting-edge Bitcoin mining contracts at a cost of just $9.49 per Gigahash/sec guaranteed to begin Feb. 15 or full refunds will be given. This cost-per-Gigahash is significantly less than anything announced, and CloudHashing.com's established track record of delivering cloud mining services since July makes the announcement a potential game changer.
Additionally, CloudHashing.com announced a reduction in its mining pool fee from ten percent to three percent along with the elimination of management fees. These fees are used to pay for electricity and maintenance in the datacenters."

You have to order 100.00 Gh/s for 949 USD minimum.

If we now calculate at http://bitcoinwisdom.com/bitcoin/calculator
(with hardware price 0, power 0, delivery cost 0, setup 0, maintenance 0, etc)

If start date = 2014-02-01, then in 1 year the return is 726.80 USD
If start date = 2014-02-15, then in 1 year the return is 539.30 USD
If start date = 2014-03-01, then in 1 year the return is 399.70 USD
Profit: 949.00 USD - 539.30 USD = 409.70 USD negative profit!

** CONCLUSION: this investment probably will return a loss with current BTC/USD rate and expected difficulty increases **

Alternative scenario: ONLY if we change BTC/USD to 1,317 USD, we will break even ... :-)

Hi Cryptorig,
OK, thanks for the update.
(I was hoping that the estimated date of Dec 18 should have worked before the Xmas period, but I fully understand)
I am looking forward to hear expected delivery date and the delivery itself.
Nice year ending!

Hi,

Does anybody have experience with this company?

See https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=385703.msg4150124

Hi all,

Does anybody has experience with CryptoRig.com?
They are late on a product and not very responsive.

Here is a post from this company: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=199913.0

You say on https://alpha-t.net/news/registration-open-updates/
"Registration is now open, you can register here and add your desired product and quantity to your Wishlist:
   https://alpha-t.net/login-register/  "

But there is no option to register.. ?

It is not a big problem, but it is strange if you, in this phase, already deviate from core values like "tell what you do & do what you tell".