Bitcoin prices falling!

[helloworld]

People will use it, once a huge mulch-national like eBay or Skype gets behind it watch out. it won't be Google prices but I can see $5-$10 average being the baseline

Woo yes! I would love to see a Skype type service, or any VOIP accepting bitcoins.

[barter]

Prices falling and climbing has happened a lot this year, it's normal.

[snugy_wumpkins]

My question remains is why haven't we told occupy wall street about bitcoins? Beyond that, the lorn and gambling industry would definitely help us flourish again.

[BadBear]

My question remains is why haven't we told occupy wall street about bitcoins? Beyond that, the lorn and gambling industry would definitely help us flourish again.

They do know about it, some of them are taking donations in it, they just aren't interested in it beyond that, like the majority of the world. 

[Immanual Stop]

My question remains is why haven't we told occupy wall street about bitcoins? Beyond that, the lorn and gambling industry would definitely help us flourish again.

Bruce is there every day talking to the 21 year olds about bitcoins.

[holosupplies]

just like the stock market you need to control your emotions when you see the prices going up and down.

[TheFutureIsInteresting]

This is actually around the price that I've expected bitcoin to be at.  That is, around $3 to $5 USD.  I don't think that any reasonable, critically thinking person ever expected them to stay at $20+ per bitcoin this early in its existence.  The fact that there are fluctuations around this price point really isn't concerning to me, because currencies fluctuate all the time.

What I do like is seeing are the new merchants pop up, like BitBrew and BitMunchies, in addition to online services like AirVPN using the BitCoins.  This keeps people spending, mining, and the services growing.  This is a good sign, in my opinion, that bitcoin is a healthy currency.

[factotumjack]

I was reminded about BitCoin at Occupy Vancouver yesterday, perhaps there will be another bump in interest now that Occupy has gone global.  Also, according to Option Stalker (link below), prices seem to be stabilizing. Of course that's really over a period of 7-8 days.

It's stable enough that I'll be offering statistical consulting for BitCoins in the next week, I hope.

http://optionstalker.com/index.php?range=672 (I looked at this graph 12:30am GMT -8, in case it shows something different now).

[S3052]

Exactly, even if it is difficult to predict the exact low short term, long term bitcoin prices are still in an uptrend.

And prices are the leading indicator, not news. this means prices will move up BEFORE you see more positive news. Regarding Occupy X, the people who got interested still first need to move funds to the exchanges, and this takes some time. The ones who are already having funds on bitcoin exchanges have an advantage.

[SippieCup]

I still don't think that the occupy movement will do much (if anything) to bitcoin in the long run.

[Erratic]

I still don't think that the occupy movement will do much (if anything) to bitcoin in the long run.

The more the merrier. It would be more people to spread the word about BitCoin, that may be good considering the occupy movement seems to consist of people that are mainly active within their movement, so therefore this can benefit similar like minded movements. It just depends whether the occupy movement would see BitCoin as a similar and like minded movement, I believe they would.

[robocop]

In my opinion it is healthy that the bitcoin is falling down because...

1. Some of the big speculators will kicked out of the market.
2. Some of the big bitcoinholder must be sold because the most of the small bitcoinholder bought bitcoins for a higher price than the current price and won´t sell the bitcoins and make loss.
3. The people who have no bitcoins have now a good chance to buy bitcoins for a better price.
4. The bottom of the pricecrash is near! Here an example,
1BTC => 1$ would mean that only 7.5mio.$ is needed to buy all bitcoins
OR
1000 people need only 7500$ to buy all bitcoins
OR
10000 peope need only 750$
;-)

I think that the high pessimism is the best condition for a next run of bitcoins and prices above 30$

My target for the next 2 years is 100$ per BTC in minimum becaus i believe that the bitcoin will be successful as facebook, twitter oder google.
 

[BrimStone]

The problem I see now is a vicious circle with miners shutting down due to the falling prices and new $$$ not coming in also because of the falling prices.

If you look at Bitcoins as a microcosm of a country and its currency you can see the parallels:

1) A country has a Fiat currency (with no backing)
2) The country has natural resources (Lets say bananas)
3) The world has a demand for bananas so they buy from the country
4) The currency is worth something due to the mercantile exchange (in this case trade)

In Bitcoins the same can be said.  The demand for the currency must be based on some type of mercantile exchange.  We mine the coins like you would gold or silver but you also need a reason for people to trade with us.

Everyone should be looking at how to provide "something" as part of the exchange if you want to see this work.  There are a great many merchants using BTC but we cannot let them walk away because of the unstable pricing or a feeling or loss of value.  If we were a real country the solution would be either to pin the value of BTC to another currency (like China does with the USD) or back BTC with something like gold or silver to stabilize the value.

[BrimStone]

The ultimate answer is to come up with a "killer app".  This would be something you would REQUIRE Bitcoins to do or purchase and no other options are available.

The example here is oil.  Oil is traded with USD only (even though that is starting to change now).  Since you can only buy with USD, that creates a built in demand for USD.

I would say the killer app in the case of BTC would be something which requires anonymous financial transactions due to any number of reasons.  (Not just the illegal ones)

[robocop]

@BrimStone

I understand you but i think that the independence of banks in combination with the human desire are the garantuee of success.

Look into the history of the web and new technologies for example...

Facebook (the first social network)
Google (on of the first searchmachine and the first simple-made searchmachine)
iTunes by apple (the first portal to buy mp3-music)
and a lot of more...

I think that the bitcoin has similar potential because the people of the world are searching for financial independence and an alternative to the old money and bank system.
In my opinion the bitcoin is only the beginning of a new financial system and a lot of more national regional similar systems will be born.

I see the future not in one two or three currencies in the world but in a lot of smaller local currencies which can exchange in other currencies as the bitcoin.

[johnj]

Facebook (the first social network) [NOPE]
Google (on of the first searchmachine and the first simple-made searchmachine) [NOPE]

[robocop]

@johnj

i mean that facebook is the first social network which hit the nerve of the time.
google is similar because google is the first engine which had only a text box without link lists and a lot of banner and pictures.

[forsetifox]

In my opinion mining will go CPU for a while now until someone gets the new algorithms working on GPUs. CPU mining is cheaper and uses less power.

[MadHacker]

In my opinion mining will go CPU for a while now until someone gets the new algorithms working on GPUs. CPU mining is cheaper and uses less power.

umm... we are already doing mining by GPU because CPU is to slow...
care to elaborate on this

[factotumjack]

The ultimate answer is to come up with a "killer app".  This would be something you would REQUIRE Bitcoins to do or purchase and no other options are available.

The example here is oil.  Oil is traded with USD only (even though that is starting to change now).  Since you can only buy with USD, that creates a built in demand for USD.

I would say the killer app in the case of BTC would be something which requires anonymous financial transactions due to any number of reasons.  (Not just the illegal ones)

A product that could only be purchased by BTC would be great for the currency, but would it be good for the product? Unless, as you mentioned, it would be something in which anonymous purchase was integral or an advantage already, it could cost the product maker a lot of sales by restricting its market.

One hazy idea I have is patent (or other IP) insurance. Patent applications can be expensive and time-consuming, and insurance that someone else doesn't beat you to it may not be ideal if you don't want to reveal that you have something.  I can see engineers wanting something like this if they were worried about lawsuits with their employers about IP rights.