Another possible reason for the price run-up that we haven't thought of?

[NikolaTesla]

I'm wondering if anyone has thought of this yet? It occurred to me there could be another compelling reason altogether for the recent price run-up, which as of the time of this posting is around 163 USD = 1 BTC.

If some major player (such as Amazon, but could be anyone) is currently considering adopting Bitcoin as a payment system, they would be working on developing a prototype of that payment system now. Maybe they will end up using it, maybe they won't, but it is certainly something they would be dedicating research and development resources to. If next month they announce that you can now use BTC as payment, that means the payment system would have been in development for the previous few months and in testing, etc.

All that time, the programmers and testers would have had inside information that lead them to believe they should be investing in BTC. Insider trading, but legal and with currency.

[Elwar]

It would only be the people involved buying, not the company itself.

I believe Bitcoin is not yet ready for prime time when it comes to big businesses holding bitcoins.

No current software or services for handling private keys within departments (this year's budget mysteriously disappears from the accounting department). Though we are getting there.

[bitarrow]

i doubt Amazon workers have millions to pickup cheap coins on the sly.

[Frost]

Also the usability of bitcoin must be improved for the mass. Non-geeks would not understand how to setup a wallet and so on.

[alexh]

Also the usability of bitcoin must be improved for the mass. Non-geeks would not understand how to setup a wallet and so on.

So true. This is one of the negatives about BitCoin which really need to get solved somehow.

[Elwar]

Also the usability of bitcoin must be improved for the mass. Non-geeks would not understand how to setup a wallet and so on.

So true. This is one of the negatives about BitCoin which really need to get solved somehow.

It is called opportunity.

BitPay saw that the masses of merchants would not understand the bitcoin client and how to create a new address for each customer, etc.

So they created a service to allow a merchant to just throw a button on their website which allows them to "magically" accept Bitcoin that could then be easily transferred to their bank account in dollars.

Anything that makes Bitcoin more friendly to Joe Six Pack will make the service provider money.

[MiracleRiver]

I suspect that the main driver is Silicon Valley folks and tech investors world wide. They have the funds and they have the knowledge that Bitcoin is going to be huge. Plus they know that they are going to be developing the apps to make it all smooth.

Heck, it's like investing in email itself - and there are no banks taking IPO fees :-)

[sunnankar]

I suspect that the main driver is Silicon Valley folks and tech investors world wide. They have the funds and they have the knowledge that Bitcoin is going to be huge. Plus they know that they are going to be developing the apps to make it all smooth.

Exactly. That is Why Bitcoin Is Just Getting Started.

[ajk]

this shit is just ridiculous

its starting to turn into the digital gold rush

a race to the finish, there are only going to be 21 Million bitcoins to ever exist its going to be a worldwide contest/battle to the end where anyone who has BTC will be the winner

GET THEM NOW,

[Elwar]

this shit is just ridiculous

its starting to turn into the digital gold rush

a race to the finish, there are only going to be 21 Million bitcoins to ever exist its going to be a worldwide contest/battle to the end where anyone who has BTC will be the winner

GET THEM NOW,

I plan on getting all 21 million.

[Frost]

I suspect that the main driver is Silicon Valley folks and tech investors world wide. They have the funds and they have the knowledge that Bitcoin is going to be huge. Plus they know that they are going to be developing the apps to make it all smooth.

Heck, it's like investing in email itself - and there are no banks taking IPO fees :-)

Will this is one good argument. And I hope for it too.

[amencon]

Also the usability of bitcoin must be improved for the mass. Non-geeks would not understand how to setup a wallet and so on.

So true. This is one of the negatives about BitCoin which really need to get solved somehow.

I think this is where the higher valuation of bitcoins will really help.  Now there is more incentive than ever to build out and improve this infrastructure as well as more attention than ever of people that might help implement it.

Even if there is a crash back down, most of the people it's attracted to build out services for Bitcoin will likely stay and things will be that much better for the next run-up.  If things improve fast enough it might preclude any major correction downward.  Then of course maybe this spike up is an upward correction due bitcoins being undervalued after the last crash and then this attention and work will instead help us continue up even faster than we otherwise would.

As would be expected there seems to be much jealousy of early adopters becoming rich very fast off their bitcoin holdings.  However I would expect the early adopters to be the ones most likely to use this new found capital to re-invest in the currency.  If anyone in the Bitcoin world gets rich I hope it's the early adopters as they've not only earned it but will continue to help improve Bitcoin for the benefit of all.

[nobbynobbynoob]

And, lest it be forgotten, anyone involved with Bitcoin right now is certainly an early adopter.

[thoughtfan]

I suspect that the main driver is Silicon Valley folks and tech investors world wide. They have the funds and they have the knowledge that Bitcoin is going to be huge. Plus they know that they are going to be developing the apps to make it all smooth.

Exactly. That is Why Bitcoin Is Just Getting Started.

I was reading that about an hour ago just before this all took off.  Awesome piece.

Also like this one: http://chralash.wordpress.com/2013/04/07/how-everybody-can-win-with-bitcoin/

[bitarrow]

this shit is just ridiculous

its starting to turn into the digital gold rush

a race to the finish, there are only going to be 21 Million bitcoins to ever exist its going to be a worldwide contest/battle to the end where anyone who has BTC will be the winner

GET THEM NOW,

I plan on getting all 21 million.

lol, ill fight ya for them

[NikolaTesla]

And, lest it be forgotten, anyone involved with Bitcoin right now is certainly an early adopter.

I like to hope so. I only bought a week ago when the price was around 100. I'm quite happy with my gains so far, but I really wish I had gotten in a couple of months ago... I was seriously thinking about it too back in January.

[enquirer]

Remember it hit $0.001 when mtgox was hacked? It could hit $1,000,000 for 0.000001 bitcoin as well, when we run out of asks. It's just technical temporary liquidity squeeze. Hope no one is putting his life savings on it, it will end in tears.

[Cubic Earth]

Remember it hit $0.001 when mtgox was hacked? It could hit $1,000,000 for 0.000001 bitcoin as well, when we run out of asks. It's just technical temporary liquidity squeeze. Hope no one is putting his life savings on it, it will end in tears.

That reminds me, I should really put 1.0 BTC up for sale on Gox for $100,000 and another 1.0BTC up for sale for $1,000,000.  Then I'll just pray for that liquidity squeeze and an ill-timed, large market order.     Oh - and no stealing my idea.

[notig]

I think something like that inside knowledge is possible. What if google was working on incorporating bitcoin into their wallet for instance somehow?

I think the price rise though is simply from a standpoint of this... there are 11 million coins. Lots of people know about bitcoin now and know the price of each coin could get very high. For instance only 10 thousand people at the moment in the entire world can acquire 1100 bitcoins.. and that doesn't even count the ones that are lost or simply not for sale. A lot more than 10 thousand people want those bitcoins.

[Stephen Gornick]

Remember it hit $0.001 when mtgox was hacked?

Please don't continue that mistaken assertion.   Bitcoin was never trading for 0.001 at Mt. Gox.      There was never a seller willing (or needing) to sell below about $11 following that security breach.     That $0.001 number comes from when stolen coins were being sold.  Of course, since those were not real sales the transactions were cancelled.    Thus the value of bitcoin never dropped to a penny, or into the single digits even for trading following that June 20, 2011 incident.
 - https://mtgox.com/press_release_20110630.html

Some people and the media love to latch onto that false assertion though.  It makes for a great story, even though the facts are that it never happened.   Or if it did, then the spike to $1.4 million USD per bitcoin at Mt. Gox a few weeks later must have happened too:
 - http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=33185.msg415221#msg415221