[Forbes] The Bitcoin Crash

[TheMalon]

I wouldn't call it a Crash ... it's a Recovery.
I do think that the real power of a currency is given by the number of people who use it as a "medium of exchange". Thats why gold never was and will never be a powerful currency ... its too precious (ppl will try to keep it instead of use it). The Bitcoin have some unique qualities but this qualities are not enough to keep the Bitcoin alive, we need ppl to use them as a "medium of exchange".
I think Bitcoin is recovering from the "wanna be rich" folks attack. In the past 3 months Bitcoin was used a "medium for getting USD".
I do hope Bitcoin will get under 5$ (3$ is better) this way people will casually mine and start use the Bitcoin to buy things.

[molecular]

Or, in summary, once this unique event ends, the price of bitcoins will go up, go down, or stay about the same.

Joel, I usually enjoy your posts for their depth and insight, this one for it's humor.

[Cluster2k]

There are nearly 7 billion people in the world that do not use USD. Does this mean that the USD will soon be worthless? Probably so.

I would wager most people on this planet use USD.  Every day.  Indirectly.  Did they use any crude oil derived products?  Cook corn?  Bake bread?  Eat tofu?  All are priced directly in USD for the whole planet or tied strongly to US markets as market makers.

[joepie91]

There are nearly 7 billion people in the world that do not use USD. Does this mean that the USD will soon be worthless? Probably so.

I would wager most people on this planet use USD.  Every day.  Indirectly.  Did they use any crude oil derived products?  Cook corn?  Bake bread?  Eat tofu?  All are priced directly in USD for the whole planet or tied strongly to US markets as market makers.

This fact suddenly massively increases the Bitcoin userbase in the industry of Alpaca sock stores.

[cbeast]

There are nearly 7 billion people in the world that do not use USD. Does this mean that the USD will soon be worthless? Probably so.

I would wager most people on this planet use USD.  Every day.  Indirectly.  Did they use any crude oil derived products?  Cook corn?  Bake bread?  Eat tofu?  All are priced directly in USD for the whole planet or tied strongly to US markets as market makers.

All prices in are in USD for 3% of the world population. Sure, the commodity indexes are mostly gauged in USD for now, but they are traded in local currencies. China in fact, only pegs the yuan to the dollar as a convenience, but will not for much longer. Euros have long since drifted from the USD. I realize this is a very complex economic issue, but remember "past performance does not predict future results." The USD can go the way of the Confederate dollar.