Good Wife record beaten

[waspoza]

Looks like bullish signal to me. 

[phatsphere]

nice, but chart of the last 2 days looks like "upcoming shitstorm"

[maxme]

For those interested, here is the link to the Google Insights tool

http://www.google.com/insights/search/#q=bitcoin&date=1%2F2012%2012m&cmpt=date

[cypherdoc]

Looks like bullish signal to me. 

thanks for this.

[silverbox]

That is pretty sweet.

Too bad this pirate crap has to be f'n everything up atm.

[Matthew N. Wright]

Where is the chart that shows the "Bitcoin for Dummies" episode of Good Wife coming out, the producer downloading a wallet, then killing himself because it takes too long?

[cbeast]

Where is the chart that shows the "Bitcoin for Dummies" episode of Good Wife coming out, the producer downloading a wallet, then killing himself because it takes too long?

wtf? Scott did a lot more for Bitcoin than you ever will.

[Matthew N. Wright]

Where is the chart that shows the "Bitcoin for Dummies" episode of Good Wife coming out, the producer downloading a wallet, then killing himself because it takes too long?

wtf? Scott did a lot more for Bitcoin than you ever will.

Sorry if I offended. It was meant to be a joke, honestly. Probably really poor taste. That said, your statement is presumptuous and frankly we have yet to see.

[Stephen Gornick]

Looks like bullish signal to me.  

The media sure took that ball and ran with it.

If nothing else, think of all the people that also just learned that there is a BitInstant, and that you can buy bitcoin with cash because of them.

Here's my take on why the bitcoin-denominated debit card concept is significant:

1.) This allows for a very cheap international remittance network.   It gives the ability to transfer purchasing power from people in developed countries (who hold bitcoins) to their relatives back home (who use the cards for purchases or withdrawals at ATMs, in whatever currency).

With a card that can be loaded using bitcoins, you can add funds to anyone else's Paycard.


2.) This becomes an easy to use point-of-sale terminal for a merchant.

A merchant processing company, BitPay.com, offers a very similar service already, but they work with your bank account (e.g., ACH transfer).    

This lets the merchant spend the funds wherever Mastercard is accepted and for use when withdrawing cash from an ATM.

Faster access to the cash is important to many merchants.  [Use as a point-of-sale terminal assumes that there is some notification to the merchant, such as an SMS text message, each time a payment is received.]


3.) This makes it easier to get by without having a bank account.

I can store my wealth in bitcoins, but spend in dollars when that method is more convenient or less expensive.

Sure, long term it would be nice to not even do any payment card transactions and to pay for everything using bitcoins but we are a long way from that.

This is like a bridge that helps get from here to there.


Even though there have been other methods to load/reload a debit card using bitcoins that have been offered already, the details on this one were sweet.  $10 to get the card and a 1.5% cash out fee.  That's a much better deal than any existing alternative (e.g., OKPay, ArumXChange's reloadable card, self-managed method where you register any reloadable prepaid card and buy MoneyPak at $5 per load and a conversion fee.)

Here are a couple threads discussing the Paycard:
 - http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=102613.0
 - http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=101838.0
 - http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=102494.0

[cypherdoc]

thanks for that review Stephen.  this could be big.  any further news or implications of the MC denial?

[damnek]

I just wish they would deliver first and then start the media hype. We've seen way too many big announcements never coming true already.

[Stephen Gornick]

thanks for that review Stephen.  this could be big.  any further news or implications of the MC denial?

Until there is ink on paper, there is no Paycard.  

I just wish they would deliver first and then start the media hype. We've seen way too many big announcements never coming true already.

To be fair, BitInstant wasn't the first to think about offering this. Mt. Gox described this over a year ago:

MagicalTux: for now we are working on debit card payouts (issuing debit cards with the bitcoin logo on it)
***C rubs hands togetther
MagicalTux: can’t promise anything yet, but we are in talks with various card issuers

 - http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=22018.msg277763#msg277763

The difference with BitInstant's Paycard as it is being described is that the load fee is so inexpensive and fast.  That isn't something normally that occurs in real-time.  But perhaps there are innovations allowing this to occur.  If Dwolla can build a system to essentially make a same-day wire transfer that is as cheap as ACH (FiSync), then there's probably some bank that figured out how to transfer money from BitInstant's account to and individual cardholder's account in under two hours.

It is hard to comprehend how in 2012 man can send a rocket ship to another planet, deliver a rover from a space crane supported by parachutes in a low density atmosphere, but we still can't get electronic bank ledger entries to occur in real time.   Truly bizarre.

[waspoza]

thanks for that review Stephen.  this could be big.  any further news or implications of the MC denial?

There is some info on Bitinstant blog: http://blog.bitinstant.com/blog/2012/8/22/public-statement-regarding-the-bitinstant-paycard.html

[niko]

Looks like bullish signal to me. 

If you take an honest look into data, you'll notice that "interest" (search volume) generally follows price, not the other way around. The Good Wife, and likely Paycard announcements are an exception, interest raises without the ongoing rally. I don't see how you conclude that it's a "bullish signal."  There was no increase in price after the January spike in your plot above. In fact, it kept going down for the following six weeks, then it stabilized for many months.

The only way this can be true is if it's a self-fulfilling prophecy (you convince yourself it's a bullish sign, start buying, price goes up, voila!).

[ElectricMucus]

Now if we move up in prices now that validates that there is no such thing as bad publicity quote since that this is obviously related to pirate.

I mean it does shorten the supply after all  
Personally I don't think we move up now only after this thing has been "officially" declared over. There is simply not blood on the streets yet to bring up another platitude.

[BCB]

I just wish they would deliver first and then start the media hype. We've seen way too many big announcements never coming true already.

Love Bitinstant and their efforts to popularize bitcoin but I've gotta +1 this.

Put your money where your mouth is.

[sunnankar]

I just wish they would deliver first and then start the media hype. We've seen way too many big announcements never coming true already.

Love Bitinstant and their efforts to popularize bitcoin but I've gotta +1 this.

Put your money where your mouth is.

Where is your bitcoin debit/credit card?

If BitInstant wants to pursue a particular viral marketing program to test and gauge market demand for an expensive undertaking then that is their business prerogative.

Sure, criticize BitInstant's low investment high yield marketing tactics, which have generated a ton of interest and press for free, while you armchair their business decisions without actually producing something yourself. Why don't you put your money where your mouth is? BitInstant's market research has shown the market demand so you can even free-ride off that work.

[enmaku]

Step 1: Find, by sheer chance, leaked IRC log on PasteBin, write up article and promote the hell out of it
Step 2: Get re-blogged by CNN without attribution
Step 3: ? ? ?
Step 4: CNN capitalizes on the biggest media frenzy Bitcoin has ever seen, reaps all the profit.

(Optional Step 5: Hang self in closet with belt?)

[bitcoinBull]

The most recent data point of the google insights tool is known to be imprecise (changes day to day or upon refresh). But the uptick on trends.google.com is also becoming more pronounced:

http://www.google.com/trends/?q=bitcoin&ctab=0&geo=all&date=ytd&sort=0

[apetersson]

the wikipedia traffic stats make it very clear:

http://stats.grok.se/en/201201/Bitcoin
http://stats.grok.se/en/201208/Bitcoin

the spike of 20000 is not reached. we are instead steadily accelerating towards sustained 6000 views/day