So, everyone knows about Bitcoin now... why isn't the price going up?

[SgtSpike]

It was fully my expectation that when "mainstream" news got out about Bitcoin that we'd see a lot more people buying in.  I see more and more people and companies wanting to use it, so why aren't we seeing a price increase?

I figure it's due to one of four reasons:
1) Lag time between hearing about it and actually buying some.
2) Difficulty in buying Bitcoins.
3) It was previously overvalued.
4) Many people have heard of it for the first time, and do not yet believe in it; they are waiting to "see what happens" before they dive in to the world of Bitcoin.

Thoughts?

[Mike Christ]

5) Talking heads spreading FUD

[Minor Miner]

It is nearly impossible to buy.
Mining is really the only way.   I wanted to buy 50k worth, you cannot.   The exchanges act like they are brokers also and none seem worthy of any trust whatsoever.   Most do not accept wire transfers (WTF???) and many suggest you go buy a money order??   What kind of legitimate business does that?
Basically, I would rather send $50k to that Nigerian General's wife that keeps emailing me.

[BitcoinAshley]

It is going up. We've seen a steady increase if you cut out the volatility "noise." When I bought my first bitcoins they were $12.50 each and now they're $90+.

Example of press coverage (for laffs):


A nice reminder from another thread:

Remember that the exponential trendline since January (cutting out the post-Cyprus bubble) has the price at around $70 now, with support more like $50. We could easily go that low. I'm only going to start worrying if we get below $30.

HOWEVER, a return to the exponential trendline at $70 may sound bad right now, but that same trendlime has us at $1,000 by September and $10,000 by Christmas. Try not to hate on it too much Wink

Patience.

Patience, young grasshoppa  

[simplydt]

It is nearly impossible to buy.
Mining is really the only way.   I wanted to buy 50k worth, you cannot.   The exchanges act like they are brokers also and none seem worthy of any trust whatsoever.   Most do not accept wire transfers (WTF???) and many suggest you go buy a money order??   What kind of legitimate business does that?
Basically, I would rather send $50k to that Nigerian General's wife that keeps emailing me.

Good point. But please don't send money to Nigeria. I did that once and never saw any ROI. I think there is a lot of scammers there.

[BitcoinAshley]

I wanted to buy 50k worth, you cannot.

Yes you can. OTC. Call up our friend the Reptilian Overlord or a similar bitcoin broker. There are plenty of OTC venues for buying amounts that large, and there are even a couple exchanges that have, say, $10,000 minimums (i.e. not for the faint of heart.)

I know everyone wishes the exchanges had such great liquidity that you could buy 50k in a heartbeat without any slippage, but we ain't quite there yet.

Now, you'll also run into the "occupy wall st. bears" who think it's perfectly OK to have $50,000 in a Fiat savings account, but once you try to buy $50,000 in bitcoins, you are an evil socialist, an evil market manipulator, a hoarder, a member of the "cargo cult," you don't care about bitcoins at all, you are trying to "get rich quick,"  you "have no interest in using bitcoin as a currency" etc. So try not to disrupt their socialist wet dream too much

Hey I have a bunch of money in my fiat savings account, i'm a "hoarder who doesn't care about USD is just trying to get rich cargo cult capitalist market manipulator" , yet I still manage to find ways to use it as a currency. These folks confuse me sometimes.

[SgtSpike]

It is nearly impossible to buy.
Mining is really the only way.   I wanted to buy 50k worth, you cannot.   The exchanges act like they are brokers also and none seem worthy of any trust whatsoever.   Most do not accept wire transfers (WTF???) and many suggest you go buy a money order??   What kind of legitimate business does that?
Basically, I would rather send $50k to that Nigerian General's wife that keeps emailing me.

What about Tradehill?  They're supposed to be catering to the wealthy, having a $10,000 minimum deposit.

[ElectricMucus]

People are annoyed by the cargo cult and they don't think of joining any time soon.

[adamstgBit]

It was fully my expectation that when "mainstream" news got out about Bitcoin that we'd see a lot more people buying in.  I see more and more people and companies wanting to use it, so why aren't we seeing a price increase?

I figure it's due to one of four reasons:
1) Lag time between hearing about it and actually buying some.
2) Difficulty in buying Bitcoins.
3) It was previously overvalued.
4) Many people have heard of it for the first time, and do not yet believe in it; they are waiting to "see what happens" before they dive in to the world of Bitcoin.

Thoughts?

the reason is simple....

Speculation!

a major reason people bought bitcoin before all the mainstream events, was only to SELL it once it got mainstream, and collect on a hefty profit.

this is what's happening now, the long shot bet has paid off! bitcoin is here! so stick to the plan and take your reward! $_$

get it?

[Minor Miner]

It is nearly impossible to buy.
Mining is really the only way.   I wanted to buy 50k worth, you cannot.   The exchanges act like they are brokers also and none seem worthy of any trust whatsoever.   Most do not accept wire transfers (WTF???) and many suggest you go buy a money order??   What kind of legitimate business does that?
Basically, I would rather send $50k to that Nigerian General's wife that keeps emailing me.

What about Tradehill?  They're supposed to be catering to the wealthy, having a $10,000 minimum deposit.

Did not like the looks of them.   They did not seem as credible as they made it seem.   And then when I searched for the background, I found some complaints.   If there was a ticket window at the airport (even with their rip off F/X rates) that had bitcoin on it, I would walk up and do an exchange.   Because let's face it, there is NO exchange for wheat (just wheat) -- what needs to happen is BTC needs to GET LISTED as a product on some other exchanges, not build its own exchanges to basically trade ONE THING.

[SgtSpike]

It is nearly impossible to buy.
Mining is really the only way.   I wanted to buy 50k worth, you cannot.   The exchanges act like they are brokers also and none seem worthy of any trust whatsoever.   Most do not accept wire transfers (WTF???) and many suggest you go buy a money order??   What kind of legitimate business does that?
Basically, I would rather send $50k to that Nigerian General's wife that keeps emailing me.

What about Tradehill?  They're supposed to be catering to the wealthy, having a $10,000 minimum deposit.

Did not like the looks of them.   They did not seem as credible as they made it seem.   And then when I searched for the background, I found some complaints.   If there was a ticket window at the airport (even with their rip off F/X rates) that had bitcoin on it, I would walk up and do an exchange.   Because let's face it, there is NO exchange for wheat (just wheat) -- what needs to happen is BTC needs to GET LISTED as a product on some other exchanges, not build its own exchanges to basically trade ONE THING.

I think we would all love to see that happen.  Maybe something is already in the works along those lines...

[cbeast]

Revolutions require a crisis to take hold. It's the Shock Doctrine. When the current system collapses, there will be a stable system already in place to take over. In fact, open source in general will replace disaster capitalism.

[adamstgBit]

Revolutions require a crisis to take hold. It's the Shock Doctrine. When the current system collapses, there will be a stable system already in place to take over. In fact, open source in general will replace disaster capitalism.

the current system isn't going down without a fight....
youtube would have you believe the dollar is about to collapse and the world is about to implode.
their is some truth to this, and the flaws of the current financial system are clearly being exposed, but it still works just fine, and it can continue to function indefinitely,  as long as the people do not vote for change by buying into things like bitcoin, gold, silver... or wtv alternative  system they chose to place their faith in, the current system will do just fine.


False: the system will crash and burn and bitcoin will save the day!
True: bitcoin will save the day and then the system will crash and burn.

[nwbitcoin]

Nobody knows about Bitcoins!

I remember visiting a seminar once hosted by a nationally recognised marketing guy who was explaining to a room full of businessmen how to grow their business in the shortest period of time, with the use of very high class marketing.

He went to the trouble of explaining every single thing a business would need to do to get themselves up a level on the media radar - and at the end he predicted that less than 5% of people in the room would follow the plan!

So, why would someone who just saw a news report between something about a celebrity and the sport about some risky business related thing (bitcoin) go to the trouble that you need to go to to just own one?

This really is a long game and we are only in the first half, of the first game of the season!

[batcoin]

I wanted to buy 50k worth, you cannot.

Yes you can. OTC. Call up our friend the Reptilian Overlord or a similar bitcoin broker. There are plenty of OTC venues for buying amounts that large, and there are even a couple exchanges that have, say, $10,000 minimums (i.e. not for the faint of heart.)

...

Now, you'll also run into the "occupy wall st. bears" who think it's perfectly OK to have $50,000 in a Fiat savings account, but once you try to buy $50,000 in bitcoins, you are an evil socialist, an evil market manipulator, a hoarder, a member of the "cargo cult," you don't care about bitcoins at all, you are trying to "get rich quick,"  you "have no interest in using bitcoin as a currency" etc. So try not to disrupt their socialist wet dream too much

Hey I have a bunch of money in my fiat savings account, i'm a "hoarder who doesn't care about USD is just trying to get rich cargo cult capitalist market manipulator" , yet I still manage to find ways to use it as a currency. These folks confuse me sometimes.

Ashley is referring to rpietila who has these threads:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=151800.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=174620.0


Also, I don't understand the occupy bitcoiners. They want people to start using Bitcoin, but then they attack you and cry foul and unfair once you do. Idiots.

[ElectricMucus]

If it weren't all make believe, rpietila is full of shit and most of the things he posts about could be made up on the spot.

And he is a major cargo cult shaman here, just read his posts, he acts like this is wall street and people believe him. There are others, he is just the most annoying example.
A part of is is due to bitcoins real success, the problem is these people are so out of place it looks comical.

[batcoin]

If it weren't all make believe, rpietila is full of shit and most of the things he posts about could be made up on the spot.

And he is a major cargo cult shaman here, just read his posts, he acts like this is wall street and people believe him. There are others, he is just the most annoying example.

Thanks for your opinion. We certainly wouldn't want anyone behaving professionally around here, would we?

[Malawi]

It was fully my expectation that when "mainstream" news got out about Bitcoin that we'd see a lot more people buying in.  I see more and more people and companies wanting to use it, so why aren't we seeing a price increase?

I figure it's due to one of four reasons:
1) Lag time between hearing about it and actually buying some.
2) Difficulty in buying Bitcoins.
3) It was previously overvalued.
4) Many people have heard of it for the first time, and do not yet believe in it; they are waiting to "see what happens" before they dive in to the world of Bitcoin.

Thoughts?

No price increase? Check the prices 1 month ago. Sheesh.

[ElectricMucus]

If it weren't all make believe, rpietila is full of shit and most of the things he posts about could be made up on the spot.

And he is a major cargo cult shaman here, just read his posts, he acts like this is wall street and people believe him. There are others, he is just the most annoying example.

Thanks for your opinion. We certainly wouldn't want anyone behaving professionally around here, would we?

That's the point. It isn't behaving, it's acting like it is and using magical thinking till you believe it is. Role-playing.
 Why do you think he posts on a webforum?
Just read it

[proudhon]

I'll keep posting these until everyone understands what it means.  It answers the question in the thread title.



So, yes, lots of people know about bitcoin, but enough people who know about them and own some don't want them anymore.  The ask depth on MtGox is the highest it's been in 6 months and is a little more than 5x what it was just before the crash.  People were fooled into thinking the supply of bitcoins was low relative to the demand.  It isn't.  And over time we'll see the price reflect this fact as more and more people internalize it.  We will see low double digits, and when people get sufficiently off-put by that, we'll see the price collapse into the single digits.