Greed will catch up with you.

[Jrock]

I don't get it..a lot of the new comers into Bitcoin are treating Bitcoin as a get rich quick scheme.

I've seen posts here (and other places) going on about how they're going to take out huge, huge loans to buy Bitcoin.

Why? Simply so they can hold, hold, hold, and resell at a higher price....

I also know a couple people personally that are buying to resell...One of them has 2.7 mill invested. He's going to dump as soon as his investment reaches 25%. I know someone else that doesn't even have a job and she put all assets into Bitcoin.

I feel like nowadays every newcomer is acquiring Bitcoins to get rich. They aren't here for anything else. This is a giant greed bubble IMO. Nothing else.

This isn't about currency revolution... It's all about investment/greed speculation now. It isn't about screwing over the banks or government or evolving anything, It's now about buying in and selling at higher prices and selling for a nice paper money increase.

Greedy speculators will be the death of Bitcoin.. If hacks and the government don't kill it first. This whole thing is becoming a joke really due to human greed.
You Idiots taking out a second mortgage on your house and living off ramen (I know several of you personally (4)) I will give you no sympathy when this greed raged currency crashes.

I will keep using Bitcoin if it = 1 cent or 100 bucks, It doesn't matter to me.

You people expecting an infinite price increase so they can sell out and retire, I will be here to laugh at you when it falls through the floor because of speculative greed.

[notig]

like it or not a higher price helps bitcoin

[Qoheleth]

People are going to speculate. In the late phases of a bubble, people without understanding of the asset are going to speculate wildly.

I've come to terms with that.

No, what really grinds my gears is that people who should know better are selling newcomers on Bitcoin by talking about its speculative upside, and that's a recipe for poisoning the trade ecosystem.

Real, sane money will see that kind of argument, immediately think "HYIP", and stop listening.
Naive optimists will see that kind of argument and buy in without understanding the asset or caring about what it does (and thus, without helping establish the Bitcoin economy, the only long-term driver of price and adoption).
And, worst, con-men will follow the optimists and stay because irreversibility makes their job so much easier, increasing the portion of the foetal economy that is made up of scams and shells and get-rich-quick sepulchers.

I don't think it will kill Bitcoin; if it didn't kill Bitcoin back in 2011, it won't do so easily now. But it's making it harder for the thing to be seen as legitimate by the outside world.

[Arzack]

I think the only people who'll make money are those who will get out in time and closest to the bubble.
Lots of people will loose money panic selling their bitcoins.

This is a great opportunity to make or loose lots of money. I don't think BTCs will became mainstream enough (it's too much of a "geek-thing" imho) to sustain this kind of growth, and when it will be clear to everybody that prices aren't increasing anymore, everybody will want to cashout but there will be no "new-geeks" ready to pay a shit-ton of money.

This doesn't mean that the price can't reach very high levels in the next few weeks/months or whatever.

[JimiQ84]

like it or not a higher price helps bitcoin

Yes, but people who are taking loans to get bitcoins are going to be dumping coins soon. To pay for the loan.

[Kluge]

This has always been the case for many, even when you could buy a Bitcoin for a couple bucks.

Don't matter none to me. Bitcoin-related infrastructure's improving rapidly. Use of these services will increase as number of users increase regardless of an increase in tag-along speculators. Bitcoin's getting press from just about everywhere these days, and so long as more people are becoming aware of it, it's good.

That said, I did like when BTC price could be converted to USD price by just adding a zero. 1BTC = $10. We held around there for a long time, and it was good.

[Rallye]

I cant help but agree with you a little.  I'm probably in the same category as the people you mentioned though.  I am living off of about 200 a month and spending the rest of my income on Bitcoin.  but does that really make me greedy, or does that make me smart?  I guess we will find out sooner or later, hopefully later.  But now that i think of it, looking at the people I've managed to coerce into using bitcoin, most of them think of it only as a way to make some money.  But I dont expect them to fully understand how bitcoin works, or what it could do for the world.  For now, It's good enough that they are simply using it.  Lets put it this way...  don't you think its better to have some non tech savvy people using bitcoin for their personal gains than none at all?  I mean if they can find some use in it, then good for them.  All in all, I think more users is a healthy thing, whether they use it for greed or for whatever else it is that floats their boats.   I do my best to teach them as much as i can about bitcoin, but many of them just dont have the capacity to really understand, but I think a broader understanding will come with time.

[4325tgdfdfg]

With bitcoin - only invest an amount you can afford to lose. It may end up $1000 a coin or $1.

[Jrock]

like it or not a higher price helps bitcoin

A higher price helps adoption, cause of exposure and greed, sure.

However, the massive price explosion we have had in the last couple weeks is not healthy. This whole thing is now induced on the idea of "If i buy now, my coins will be worth double what I paid in a couple weeks"

I know several people that are investing on the basis of this idea. I don't support it in any way, But greed is greed.

I think It's just leading to a major crash where all the weak minded investors that got in to get rich quick will sell everything (My friend with about 150k+ coins is just in to resell from where he bought in) He hasn't panic sold yet because we now have this perma bullish idea that if we crash 15$ dollars we're gonna go right back up 5 minutes later.

[Rallye]

Luckily I'm young, and if I lose 4 or 5 thousand dollars its not that big of a deal, I'll recover.  Looking back on my teenage years, I realize I've wasted thousands and thousands of dollars on worthless shits and giggles... If only i had put it into bitcoin.

[Jrock]

I cant help but agree with you a little.  I'm probably in the same category as the people you mentioned though.  I am living off of about 200 a month and spending the rest of my income on Bitcoin.  but does that really make me greedy, or does that make me smart?  I guess we will find out sooner or later, hopefully later.  But now that i think of it, looking at the people I've managed to coerce into using bitcoin, most of them think of it only as a way to make some money.  But I dont expect them to fully understand how bitcoin works, or what it could do for the world.  For now, It's good enough that they are simply using it.  Lets put it this way...  don't you think its better to have some non tech savvy people using bitcoin for their personal gains than none at all?  I mean if they can find some use in it, then good for them.  All in all, I think more users is a healthy thing, whether they use it for greed or for whatever else it is that floats their boats.   I do my best to teach them as much as i can about bitcoin, but many of them just dont have the capacity to really understand, but I think a broader understanding will come with time.

This is what annoys me. People put money into Bitcoin simply on the idea that it's a good idea cause it's going to make them more money down the road. This whole idealism will be the death of Bitcoin.

You are not supposed to make fiat money off bitcoin, the whole point is bitcoin is supposed to replace fiat.

[mp420]

I don't think the get rich quick crowd is going to kill bitcoin. If anything is going to kill bitcoin it will be the lack of consensus about the scalability enhancements.

I agree that most newcomers are greedy folks who buy BTC in order to sell it later to the next fool. So what? This can't be avoided if lay people try to be traders. We are going to have to deal with the high volatility and huge bubbles.

I'm expecting exponential growth for the medium term. While I'm going to be wrong at several data points along the way, I expect this to be more reasonable scenario than most that are thrown around these days:

end-2011: $5
end-2012: $10
end-2013: $20
end-2014: $40
end-2015: $80
end-2016: $160
end-2017: $320
end-2018: $640

If the scalability enhancements are in place around 2017, the growth can go on for a few years after that. If not, a price above about $400 can't be sustained. While there's no simple correlation between block size and price, there's necessarily some kind of relationship.

[piramida]

While I'm going to be wrong at several data points along the way, I expect this to be more reasonable scenario than most that are thrown around these days:

No, you got it completely wrong. It's very easy to see from historic data that minimum price of bitcoin so far has been quadrupling yearly. You think it will for some reason stop and start doubling now? No, sorry, that's some totally unbased conclusion. The actual minimal bitcoin price is more like
$1 for 2011
$4 for 2012
$16 for 2013
$64 for 2014
$256 for 2015 etc

[notig]

the deflationary aspect of bitcoin is absolutely necessary. It's what causes this "greed" and speculation. But it also solves the chicken and egg problem of money. How can money be born from nothing and serve to act as money when nobody uses it? Nobody uses it because it's valueless... and it's valueless because nobody uses it. So why would anybody use it when it is worth nothing? The deflationary aspect gives a first cause to use it... because whoever uses it earlier will be rewarded so in a way that gives it an automatic perceived value to some people... which gets things rolling.

[Jrock]

It could scale that high. There's no doubt.

But that all depends on how deep the greed is. If most of the new money coming in is in it only for quick cash..expect it to never even get close. If it's smart money coming in holding for Bitcoin to evolve then expect it to go up quite a bit.

Like I said earlier, Everyone I know personally that's in Bitcoin is in it for the short term to make a quick couple bucks. Obviously my friends are a small sample pool, but judging by this mega friggn' rally I'd say they aren't the only people getting a bit too optimistic.

I don't think a major crash will kill bitcoin. However, I think it's just going to put it another step back from being even close to the level of Paypal or something like it.

[Arzack]

Many people in this forum are miners and they'll find lots of arguments to convince you that there'll never be a bubble, but simple because they can get more profit mining if prices go up.

[Bit_Happy]

I don't get it..

Yes you do get it, Greed will catch up with people.

[drdanishkhan]

For all those speculating and coming out with numbers based on trends and what not..  the only reason bitcoin shot to fame was because people became aware of this as a revolution.. hell half of europe and us is rushing in to acquire more and more bitcoins. IMO the most imp factor affecting the prices is the eurozone crisis. Lets slovakia go bankrupt and u will probably see the value spiking again.. another short term factor are the massive DDOS attacks goin on. But since people have faith in the currency they are still buyin in. One big attack on an exchange like mtgox and the peoples trust takes a blow the rates go down.. so there are a lot of factors and it drives me crazy seein people coming out with rates out of thin air not knowin its because of them people are hoardin bitcoins which mite eventually lead to the failure of this revolution.. so stop the next year rates nonsense speculations atleast.. best u can speculate is the rate maybe 2 or 3 weeks from now..

[Le Happy Merchant]

With bitcoin - only invest an amount you can afford to lose. It may end up $1000 a coin or $1.

It would literally be impossible for Bitcoin to reach $1/BTC.

[zedicus]

Guys, when greed catches up to you just stop and sell him some bitcoins @ -10%... Works everytime.   

He catches on quick tho and starts coming back sooner and sooner.. greedy bastid!!