What is a bitcoin REALLY worth?

[timk225]

I see the whole thing that has been going on all year with the price of bitcoin, and how it was from way back when it started.

And I have to wonder, when will it end?  Will it keep going up and up, will it level off, or will it just one day suddenly crash and burn like HilLIARy Clinton on election day 11/8/16?

What sets the price?  How do we determine the price?  As near as I can tell, we get our belief of price from the exchanges.  The exchanges say a btc was worth 3000 last month, 5000 last week, 7000 today, etc, and we all just blindly go along with it and base our transactions off of that.  That's how many US Dollars you can get for a bitcoin, and really, what else matters?  Btc could be a million dollars or ONE DOLLAR tomorrow, and everyone would just be going "well, that's the exchange price".  And if that's the amount of money you can convert your bitcoins to dollars for, then that is it.  The exchange won't give you more.  A private buyer you meet in person won't give you more.

With institutional money, bitcoin futures, and hedge funds starting to invest in bitcoin, I think that'll bring more stability and a future to high bitcoin prices.  But we are still dealing with an intangible asset that exists only in computers, so there's no real reason to support these high prices other than "Well, that's what you can buy them for on the exchanges".  Or "That's what the futures market / hedge fund prices them at".  It is BELIEF of the price, and nothing else.  At least with a bar of gold, you can do something with it, no matter what its price is.

Will btc be around for a long time at big money, or will they be the Beanie Babies of 2018?

Will Antminer S9's still be sold on ebay for over $3000 by greedy bastards who were able to place large orders with Bitmain and are now simply reselling them for sheer profit?  Or will used S9's be going for $300 a year from now?

It seems that most of you don't remember me, or were not here in 2013 / 2014.  I repeatedly warned people over and over not to buy ASICs based on the btc price at the time.  And I was 100% correct in my assertions.  And even in 2015 - 2016, I was still correct that ASICs were a bad investment.  It was only with the huge rise in bitcoin prices this year that significant profits could finally be made, but where and when will it end?  Banks are beginning to understand the concept of the blockchain and how it can make their transactions more secure, but that means nothing for the price of bitcoin or any other coin.  Banks don't need any coin to be successful to implement the blockchain idea in their own transaction histories.

People say that bitcoin can replace cash.  Well, I wouldn't go that far.  I see bitcoin as a way to get more money, more US Dollars.  True, a piece of paper may not have much other than the US government backing it, but that's better than a group of coin exchanges, mostly based in other countries saying what my coins are worth.  Gemini is the only licensed, regulated, US based exchange that I would trust.

So what's in store for bitcoin prices in 2018?  And the question that should be placed above all others is, "How much money can I (and I mean ME, not you) get out of bitcoin?".

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[os2sam]

What sets the price?  How do we determine the price?

There this little known principle that doesn't seem to be taught any longer.  It's called Supply and Demand.  That is how Bitcoin price, and the price of everything else for that matter, is set in this place I like to call the real world.

[montefalco09]

Bitcoin doesnt have a price stability it depends on the movement of the market and also in Supply and Demand thats how bitcoin worth.

[davis196]

The value of bitcoin is determined by how desperate are the people,who want to buy bitcoins.
Other people are talking about supply and demand.They are right,but i have other point of view.
If there was only one buyer of the entire btc market and that buyer is willing to pay 1 million US dollars for one bitcoin,the market price of one btc would be 1M USD.Sound`s crazy ,but it`s true.
It`s like buying a rare painting.Some buyers are willing to pay 100$ ,others are ready to pay 10 million USD.

[meer45]

Also regarding the thought that bitcoin is something that doesn't exist in the real world and is simply "numbers on a screen", this is pretty much the case for any fiat currency as well. In comparison to the total market value, the amount of cash going around is so small that almost all of money transactions are being done digitally and no physical money switches hands, pretty similar to bitcoin.

[ChinkyEyes]

I see bitcoin as a store of value. The banks can easily make their own coins, which will definitely happen in the near future. But I believe there is place for bitcoin alongside the new currencies of central banks. A decentralized store of value in which you can safely put aside your savings. We have seen in countries that don't have a stable currency they often store their wealth in bitcoin. Bitcoin will replace gold in the future.

[monir34]

Bitcoin is most popular crypto currency in digital world. You can't touch and see that is Bitcoin. Reality that you can exchanged Bitcoin with doller or other currency. Bitcoin has an value. Those countries are already accepted Bitcoin you can exchanged with bank also. So the really Bitcoin is like doller or other currency.

[rayazasheva]

What is a bitcoin really worth?
The current 1bit is around $ 93000, and I expect it to rise above $ 10000 tomorrow

[Fasunathan]

What sets the price?  How do we determine the price?

There this little known principle that doesn't seem to be taught any longer.  It's called Supply and Demand.  That is how Bitcoin price, and the price of everything else for that matter, is set in this place I like to call the real world.

There is no specific amount or value of bitcoin that is why you can say that it is not stable. The more people will invest in bitcoin, the more its price will increase because the more people want to buy it. Of course, if things are in demand, you need to raise its price so it will not be easily sold out right? Just like bitcoin, since the number of people who want to invest in bitcoin increases, so as the bitcoin price.

[lizardbtc]

To be honest I am hearing from a lot of people that you shoudl "invest" in bitcoin and they act like they know something. I think that hype is what makes the price raise so fast as people feel FOMO but as you staited

People say that bitcoin can replace cash.  Well, I wouldn't go that far.  I see bitcoin as a way to get more money, more US Dollars.  True, a piece of paper may not have much other than the US government backing it, but that's better than a group of coin exchanges, mostly based in other countries saying what my coins are worth.  Gemini is the only licensed, regulated, US based exchange that I would trust.

Many people see it as a money making machine and they don't give a F*** about the technology and principles behind it. In my opinion goverments will create better algorythm to connect who owns what bitcoin address as you said banks won't like that some crypto currency take their spot. Also there comes the question about what happens when people start to get hacked/lose their private keys -- with banks its easy they simply go there and do a reverse transaction or they go with their ID and get new password and so on. But with bitcoin when coins are gone they are gone forever.

To many people see it as an assset and investemnt nowadays so from my point of view price should continue to raise even more in 2018 which will bring "more addoption" or it will go till one point when many people will want to get out and have their money. But other than that new all time highs are healthy for bitcoin as more popular medias are talking about it which causes people to seek and see what is it. As for now I can't see bitcoin as a currency becouse of these price swings so you get the feelling that if you don't buy something today you can buy 2x of those tommorow or even less - it needs stability if we will want to use it on a daily bases - also not to talk that not many bussinesses and wallets support SegWit atm and that fees are still high.

Other thing is what we saw that Japan and Russia are considering to create  their own cryptocurrency that is regulated so we might see other countries do the same.

[ujjwalsethi]

Yes according to me it worth having a bitcoin as it goes on increasing day by day with the companies growth. Most of the companies are introducing there bitcoins and giving there bitcoins for the promotional work done by the people as a gift.

[MoonIsBlue]

What its really worth!? Easy!!!

1 Bitcoin is worth 1 Bitcoin!

How much is a dollar worth?

[winspiral]

What its really worth!? Easy!!!

1 Bitcoin is worth 1 Bitcoin!

How much is a dollar worth?

1 dollar is 1 dollar worth... (lol)

[lani123lani]

Of Bitcoin's very valuable Bitcoin is crypto currency, the most popular in the digital world, besides bitcoin has a high value, as more and more people want to buy it.

[A Feeder]

Well as of now, it is worth 10000 USD. You heard me, and that is just a peak of the potential of the bitcoin.

[Yakamoto]

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Bitcoin is worth whatever people want to pay for it, as has been said in this thread and in other threads before this one. Go look at the "economics" section of the forum and you can see the same people saying the same things but in a bit more of a complex manner if you don't believe what we're saying. There is nothing that really defines a baseline or a maximum value, or even a "preferred" value, aside from maybe what the miners are able to sell their proceeds at in order to have a 0% profit margin. That's maybe the "real" price of Bitcoin, and everything beyond it is because of demand.

[lani123lani]

Of Bitcoin's very valuable Bitcoin is crypto currency, the most popular in the digital world, besides bitcoin has a high value, as more and more people want to buy it.

[leex1528]

It's worth what people are willing to pay for it.  Which at the current state of time is roughly 9,900 dollars, no questions.  I sort of want to know if mining is actual profitable now.

[13abyknight]

The basic factor in determining the price of Bitcoin is supply and demand. But I believe there is something more to this than just economic laws, I'm talking about time. When Bitcoin initially began almost eight years ago, it wasn't even worth a full dollar but today, it is worth five figure value. With sepculation that it will hit $40k by the end of next year, the growth possibilities seem endless and who knows it might be even worth a million dollar in a decade or so.

[btc-facebook]

Bitcoin is unique and it's fit for use as transaction & investation in this era so if bitcoin's demand getting increase recently , it's reasonable things !
No one able control bitcoin so their value are not affect on global issue so their value is volatile ( risky investation )

For me personally, I just keep my bits for main investation replace past one, gold.