Some Perspective From Ancient Times

[n8rwJeTt8TrrLKPa55eU]

Netscape IPO.  Scheduled at $14.  Raised due to demand to $28.  Opened at $40.  Within 4 months, $174.

Bitcoin isn't Netscape.  But like Netscape, it has a large lead in a new field, and a story interesting enough to capture the public's imagination.  The chart we are seeing in the BTC price is not abnormal for these types of phenomena, and could go much further still, as the Bitcoin story becomes widespread.

The upstart Netscape (and its stock price) eventually got crushed by Microsoft.  The upstart Bitcoin, similarly, risks eventual attacks by a different kind of Leviathan with much more firepower: governments.

But I think that what Satoshi created is much more viral and resilient than anything Clark, Andreessen and Co. were ever able to come up with.

Place your bets accordingly.

[blackreplica]

Thank you for this. I recall someone asking in another thread if there was any case in history where a runup like the one we're experiencing now didn't result in a major correction. Guess this answers his question, and it wasn't too long ago either

Not to say a correction is out of the question but a good read nonetheless

[Severian]

What continues to amaze me about Bitcoin is that unlike Netscape, an application for the http protocol in which the company and the browser were monetized, Bitcoin incorporates the genius of just monetizing the protocol instead. You can't really monetize the Satoshi client but you can monetize services running on top of an already monetized protocol. It's like money**2.

All that aside, I still kicked myself in the butt when I didn't buy in on Netscape back in the day. I made up for it with RedHat later.

[conspirosphere.tk]

just for some bubblicious scheme of reference:

[piramida]

you should add bitcoin here, at 496,000% at this moment. would dwarf these little bubbles.

[n8rwJeTt8TrrLKPa55eU]

What continues to amaze me about Bitcoin is that unlike Netscape, an application for the http protocol in which the company and the browser were monetized, Bitcoin incorporates the genius of just monetizing the protocol instead. You can't really monetize the Satoshi client but you can monetize services running on top of an already monetized protocol. It's like money**2.

This is a very good insight.  If the 1995 IPO, instead of Netscape, had instead been for a hypothetical "HTTP Corporation" or "World Wide Web Corporation" whose revenue was essentially a royalty on Internet adoption growth, undoubtedly not only would it have exploded much higher than 4-fold, but also Microsoft wouldn't have been able to do anything about it, witness Compuserve, MSN, and AOL being left in the dust by HTTP and the WWW.  Bitcoin has the potential of 1000 Netscapes.

[lebing]

you should add bitcoin here, at 496,000% at this moment. would dwarf these little bubbles.

Well its not really comparable in that way as IPOs have strike prices, where as bitcoins were literally worthless when they came out.

[piramida]

you should add bitcoin here, at 496,000% at this moment. would dwarf these little bubbles.

Well its not really comparable in that way as IPOs have strike prices, where as bitcoins were literally worthless when they came out.

It was an early IPO. Not worthless, 1 cent per coin was a good price. There weren't many people who wanted to buy at that prices.

[myself]

Thank you for this. I recall someone asking in another thread if there was any case in history where a runup like the one we're experiencing now didn't result in a major correction. Guess this answers his question, and it wasn't too long ago either

Not to say a correction is out of the question but a good read nonetheless

website: http://www.terra.es/portada/
the move in a image

[Severian]

 Bitcoin has the potential of 1000 Netscapes.

When I first saw the http protocol in 91-92, I intuitively knew, like every good geek, that it was going to take over the world. I had the exact same feeling the first time I saw Bitcoin in action.

[lebing]

you should add bitcoin here, at 496,000% at this moment. would dwarf these little bubbles.

Well its not really comparable in that way as IPOs have strike prices, where as bitcoins were literally worthless when they came out.

It was an early IPO. Not worthless, 1 cent per coin was a good price. There weren't many people who wanted to buy at that prices.

You sure about that? What was the date of the first sale vs the date of the code release/ when mining started?

[bullioner]

This is a very good insight.  If the 1995 IPO, instead of Netscape, had instead been for a hypothetical "HTTP Corporation" or "World Wide Web Corporation" whose revenue was essentially a royalty on Internet adoption growth, undoubtedly not only would it have exploded much higher than 4-fold, but also Microsoft wouldn't have been able to do anything about it, witness Compuserve, MSN, and AOL being left in the dust by HTTP and the WWW.  Bitcoin has the potential of 1000 Netscapes.

Not sure the analogy with HTTP holds, as it apparently is not a protocol amenable to multiple implementations.  Rather, the existing implementation acts as the protocol spec, and a protocol spec can not have an independent existence from the implementation:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=134318.msg1430652#msg1430652

Unfortunately.

[Peter Lambert]

you should add bitcoin here, at 496,000% at this moment. would dwarf these little bubbles.

Maybe you should measure it from the downward side of the bubble? Like, the bottom was at 2 USD, but it was pretty stable for a few months at 5 USD, so you could say the 2011 bubble put bitcoin up 1600% (32 from 2), or right now we are up 1000% (50 from 5). That would put us somewhere in the middle of the pack on that graph.

[cypherdoc]

hey ribuck; do u remember u sent me like 0.1 BTC 2 yrs ago for me to play with?  i'll never forger that and thank you. 

i paid u back too. 

[blackreplica]

Nice story ribuck

[World]

A nice educational thread thx