Solar power is the most expensive form of energy generation as it stands now. It shouldn't be since sunlight is the most abundant form of energy in the world and a fraction of a percentage of the worlds sunlight could satisfy the entire worlds energy needs. Especially given the current economics, mining with solar power is just plain silly.

If GPU mining en masse becomes a thing of the past given current BTC prices then Bitcoin is dead. There is no way anyone would shell out the big bucks for a FPGA board if there is no return. With remaining FPGA boards doing the only mining then a 51% attack becomes a very real problem and then prices will be near zero. Maintaining a minimum $1-2 BTC is essential for the health of the Bitcoin community and centralizing the power in the hands of a few miners would go against everything Bitcoin stands for. This should not be anything anyone should be wishing for.

Not the first time that theory has been mentioned in this thread. I think this person is having too much fun manipulating the market to simply get out of it. My guess is a stock trader who can't legally do this in the real world or someone who has been watching too many 80's stock market movies. It is entirely possible bitcoin crashes down to zero but I do not see that happening. There is some stability point that will eventually reached and my guess is we are somewhere aroudn this area. Even just buying and selling a few thousand coins on these waves could make someone a lot of money.

As I said I think they are having too much fun to simply be cashing out. Of course the issue frequency won't drop until 2013 but once that does happen the price will increase significantly again. Wait to see another big bidwall within 6 hours, probably at 60k coins with all the extra cash he has earned from making people panic. The last time the wall disappeared was about this time of day as well.

There is a lot of movement going on right now so there is a lot of money changing hands. Look at the volume for today already. Maybe our manipulator has even taken down his bidwall to stealth buy a bunch of coins at the dropped price. $0.15 drop for the wall going down and the volume being traded is not that bad at all.

I certainly didn't buy any but perhaps he has taken down his bidwall to get some rest again. This is what seemed to happen the other day. Give it 6 hours and there will be another 50k coin bidwall. I noticed just before he got rid of it it was about 58k coins instead of 50k and it still hasnt dropped down near as much as the other day. He is trying to trigger a panic sell by some holders and they dont seem to be falling for it as much this time. 50k demand removed from the exchange is bound to drop prices a bit. I am still optimistic we will see the price climb above $3.50 in the next couple of days to a week.

I would have to agree. The paper was published on the 10th so if it was because of that they werent very quick at all. This is profit taking and market manipulation. That is all.

This is what I have been saying. This person/group is getting a lot more coins by causing these swift drops, selling at the higher prices and buying at the low. Either that or they are manipulating the market to get some money out while maintaining their coin levels. I do not think this is someone cashing out but rather skimming off the top.

The mainstream financial system is a crime purported on the bottom 99%. Fiat currency is hidden slavery and we should all be up in arms about it but it seems only a few are willing to protest. I agree though that crime should be dealt with by the legal system but I don't know if the police would even bother filling out a report for stolen bitcoins. From my experience cops only go after violent crimes and it seems the financial crimes by and large go unpunished. Its too much work for the police despite their excessively high salaries. Maybe we need a seperate police force just to deal with financial crimes?

Its about halfway through the 18 page document I was looking at. Didnt spend too much time interpreting it because it didnt seem like it warranted my time or effort

I read most of that paper and it sounds like an attempt to try and scare people out of bitcoins by microsoft. The likelihood of someone actually being able to explain said flaw is near impossible and the headline is rather misleading. I especially liked the 2 page long calculus calculation. Someone has put a lot of time and effort into this and one has to ask themselves why. Bitcoins will survive as you said because this is not near as severe as they are making it out to be.

Its illegal to destroy legal tender. Burning $1 million would therefore be illegal. Kind of like how you can be charged for drilling a hole in a penny (as stupid as it sounds). You may think its your money but its really the governments

Unfortunately this type of behavior is what makes it unattractive for vendors to accept BTC for purchases. Such volatility means they will not be able to accept BTC for purchases without say a 20% surcharge in order to hedge their bets against losses. You cannot pay your rent or taxes with Bitcoins. At least not anywhere I know. I bet this speculator is on this board and is one of the people trying to drive the price down to $1.50 or lower. Still based on previous data we could see a genuine increase back above $3 in the next couple of days.

I see they are back with 60k at 2.20. I wonder how long before they pull out this time if the trend continues?

Edit

Correction I see 50k

I have 0 invested but when I go to sell the coins I made mining it would be nice if they were worth something lol. Still lets see what happens over the next few days. Quite frankly Im surprised MtGox hasnt suspended this account for causing so much volatility but i guess they dont care since they get a cut off every transaction anyways.

Funny how you saw this before I could and I reloaded twice. Are you the manipulator?

I see now that they split the bidwall up but it is higher than 2.35 at the lowest. We are up to 2.488 now. I dont think they are trying to double down in coins but maintain coin volume and purely for profit taking. Whatever amount they buy at x price is the sell price-x times 50k in profit. Not bad for a days manipulating.

Wow, now back up to 2.45 in steps from the big 2.30 bidwall. Theoretically this could be the manipulator hedging his bets from his profits from the dive yesterday (still today here). Pretty good profit but it would be funny if they ended up losing money because of the price of bitcoins rising.

True I guess I was looking at the 24th but after the crash aon the 17th in 5 days it was back up around 3.50. For all I know it might be the same speculator or some sort of a BTC hedge fund. Good eye though.

Yes it can but 50k is a lot of coins and I believe the same number they were playing with earlier. My gut feeling is they think they have the market bottomed out. Interesting to note there are a few more buys around 2.35 too. Like I said in my last post should be interesting to watch the market for the next few days.

I am only suggesting that because if you look at the big sell off last month there was a big rally for the next 5 days afterwards up to $3.60. If you want to talk memories we could talk June although I feel the prices are much more sustainable now. Clearly this speculator believes we have hit the bottom of the market in the short term and believes it will go up from here. Should be interesting to see what happens over the next couple of days.