Worst case scenario: gov/banking manipulation at the root of this "bubble"

[2x0ninja]

How feasible would it be for an establishment (i.e. the US gov.) or group (i.e. Int. banking cartels) to manipulate the price of bitcoin and engineer a crash or other event of some sort to discredit bitcoin in they eyes of the public or otherwise profit? We all know that bitcoin is based on solid tech, but one look at Fox news will tell you the majority of the public doesn't care about facts or educating themselves on something.

This isn't some sort of conspiracy theory thread, but a worst case What If? scenario. Bitcoiners seem to have a healthy amount of paranoia so it's probably a good idea to consider and discuss all possibilities.

What kind of scheme could this indicate?
Who stand to profit?
How feasible would it be for a group to artificially inflate the market? (buy up all the cheap coins and put progressively higher asks out on them until the public starts to take over for them?)
What's the worst thing that could happen to bitcoin if the bubble pops?
etc.

[superduh]

good? sell it back. and use the profits to fund gov programs that are being cut?

[darkmule]

By its very nature, Bitcoin is going to tend to be volatile in value.  This isn't a bad or a good thing, it's just a thing.  It's just an attribute of the currency, by the very characteristics with which Satoshi infused it.  It's not a bug, it's a feature.

If the banks want to "destroy" BTC by making it worth $200 a pop and beyond, I wish them the best of luck.  I intend to enjoy the ride in the meantime and enjoy taking profit from it.

[tutkarz]

Or maybe for a change you will describe best case scenario? Like all governments are happy to accept bitcoins because they will benefit from it too? And even banks joins us and we all live happy to the end of our lives because everybody will gain their profits and maybe we dont have to figh each other all the time?

[antibanker]

it's quite possible.

you saw it with the Simbabwe Dollars, the U$ Dollar and other currencies before.

they sure will try it.

[bassclef]

So governments would seek to destroy bitcoin by making it wildly successful?

[antibanker]

yup.

its kinda a pincer movement

[2x0ninja]

So governments would seek to destroy bitcoin by making it wildly successful?

Yeah, pretty much, then crash it. People lose tons of money and they run walls of negative media until decentralized currency is ingrained in the public's eye as worthless. If you grew up in america do you remember how they taught you about Communism? That it is flawed and can never work. End of story. No discussion. Next Subject. It would be worth the investment now to eliminate the competition further on down the road. You can't just print more bitcoins after all, and that's what governments love so much. You don't need a bank to store your money when you have an encrypted wallet in cold storage on a few PGP encrypted flash drives. Universal adoption would be the end of their business model.

There's probably flaws in that, but it's just a stupid idea running around my head that I don't know enough to disprove.

It could be something else besides banks too. Organized crime pulling a massive ripoff? Inflate the price by pumping high asks into the market then pulling out with a previously horded stash of coins. That might not cause a crash, but it would cause a drop in demand at some point. Again, just some fun little ideas to play around with.

[kerogre256]

good luck with kiling this market
http://bitcoincharts.com/markets/mtgoxUSD.html go look at bit and ask, there is 3x more buyers at 150 then sellers at 260

[HappyBitCoinUser]

It would be easy, since banks and government can throw away $1 Billion without missing it.

Mean while, some of us will profit 

[kerogre256]

If someone will drop 20k bitcoin on mtxog now it will drop price to 150$ max. The funny thing som one have to firts have so much bitcoin at mt.gox, just watch mt.gox wallet and you can predict crash if somone will deposit them there.

[HappyBitCoinUser]

Why would anyone want to deposit 20,000 BitCoins to sell on the market all at once knowing it'll crash the value, when they could sell little bit at a time for max value?

Unless they are already a millionaire and do it for the fun.

[kerogre256]

Why would anyone want to deposit 20,000 BitCoins to sell on the market all at once knowing it'll crash the value, when they could sell little bit at a time for max value?

Unless they are already a millionaire and do it for the fun.

read firs post in topic

[blockbet.net]

It would be easy, since banks and government can throw away $1 Billion without missing it.

No, $1 billion is not exactly small money to anyone. I don't think banks would want to spend that much of their own money on something that might not even work - they'd all wait for the other bank to pick up the bill. Governments, maybe, could do that.

And what would happen? People would just buy those cheap bitcoins in a matter of minutes, and people will go about their business, looking back that "some idiot just sold 1 billion worth of bitcoins for pennies".

[darkmule]

It would be easy, since banks and government can throw away $1 Billion without missing it.

Mean while, some of us will profit 

Yep.  If they want to try burying us under a gigantic pile of money, I guess I'll just manage to survive somehow, despite my broken heart.

[pretendo]

It's just an attribute of the currency, by the very characteristics with which Satoshi infused it.

You couldn't be more wrong. There is nothing inherently volatile about the bitcoin that was infused at all. The participants in the market make it volatile, not the thing itself.

[darkmule]

It's just an attribute of the currency, by the very characteristics with which Satoshi infused it.

You couldn't be more wrong. There is nothing inherently volatile about the bitcoin that was infused at all. The participants in the market make it volatile, not the thing itself.

A currency by its very nature only has meaning in its interface with the humans who use it.

Unless you're pretending Bitcoin is some kind of Platonic object that just sits in space with no interaction with humans, I don't get your point.