why is price of bitcoin rising these last few days ?

[majamalu]

Again: Do you think the current price of gold is explained by an increase of merchants that accept gold in exchange for their products?

No, I think it's partly an increased demand for a non-fiat value store (which can also increase the fundamental price of Bitcoins - it's part of my formula).  It's also an equal or larger dose of speculative bubble.

I think the gold bubble has not yet begun. But thank you - no further questions.

[bitcon]

two words: Christmas gifts. 

many people bought bitcoins for friends and family over the holidays. i know i did.
kinda hard to giftwrap tho.

[edd]

two words: Christmas gifts. 

many people bought bitcoins for friends and family over the holidays. i know i did.
kinda hard to giftwrap tho.

I'm really surprised no one mentioned this earlier. I'd like to see a poll.

Right now is a great time to show someone who may have been skeptical a few months ago how well bitcoin is doing. Despite all the hurdles, it's value is growing and the btc based economy is flourishing.

[old_engineer]

Wow, has no one pointed out the obvious?  The rise can be clearly attributed to two big buys in the past week, where about 1/3 million USD in bitcoin were purchased, which cleared out the sells walls and made room for a rise:





I have a hard time believing that these are Christmas gifts to anyone besides bitcoin speculators.

[anu]

Wow, has no one pointed out the obvious?  The rise can be clearly attributed to two big buys in the past week, where about 1/3 million USD

How is this obvious? It looked more like a squeeze to me, plus a couple ppl who saw it coming.

[eldentyrell]

4. Anyone can see that this is a ... reversal pattern with bird entrail confirmations.

Holy shit I am sold.

[neptop]

Because the number of Bitcoin clients has nothing to do with how people value Bitcoins.

[ThiagoCMC]

I am glad to see that, but

when you go here :
http://bitcoinstats.org/count.html

doesn't look it should be rising at all

mining difficulty is rising, but not that much...

do traders have some inside info or what ?
only thing that I can use to explain this is that people are less afraid

EURO will fail.
Dollar will fail.
Real will fail.

Bitcoin will win!
Litecoin will win!
Namecoin will win!!

People are realizing that!!!

Best!
Thiago

[worldinacoin]

I sold off, too good a price to ignore.  If it continues rising I will be crying , but it seems to continue to rise!!

[Patrick||Rodgers]

EURO will fail.
Dollar will fail.
Real will fail.

Bitcoin will win!
Litecoin will win!
Namecoin will win!!

People are realizing that!!!

Best!
Thiago

Irrational exuberance much?

[Hunterbunter]

It's for the same reason that it started falling: sentiment changed.  IMO there hasn't been a change in fundamentals.  It's all psychological.

Someone with a good bit of money drew a line in the sand at $2.00, and successfully fought off all attempts to push lower.  Having achieved that, the wider market seems to have taken that as a sign that we've reached bottom.  The bottom was artificial, but hey, he convinced them, so now everyone's buying again.

This, completely and utterly. I also believe it might hit $30 again in the second bubble, but expect it to fall again after that. This'll have to turn into a boiling water analogy at some point.

There is no reason I need bitcoins for day to day living. Nothing I can buy with BTC that I can't buy with something else (except drugs/illegal things?). Until this changes, I don't think there is any value in BTC except in wealth storage via speculation...maybe a tiny bit in being able to transfer money overseas cheaply (although you still have to convert in/out of BTC locally which may have added costs, so in any case this is probably a marginal incentive), and of course doing things outside of the government systems, which will probably cause problems here and there when it's large enough.

[Crypt_Current]

and of course doing things outside of the government systems, which will probably cause problems here and there when it's large enough.

I wonder how many people are overlooking this as a factor? You could say governmental / banking, they are two peas in a pod in most cases.

I wonder as well.  The revolutionary potential for cryptocurrency seems so obvious to me.  I wonder if people that genuinely do not see the value of cryptocurrency are just not thinking on a large enough scale?

[Hunterbunter]

and of course doing things outside of the government systems, which will probably cause problems here and there when it's large enough.

I wonder how many people are overlooking this as a factor? You could say governmental / banking, they are two peas in a pod in most cases.

Yes you're right...especially the way they can inflate the money supply via loans. Bitcoins just cannot be inflated in this way, so they certainly won't like this...although if governments can make cash legal tender, can they make cryptocurrency legal tender, and give banks the ability to back their loans by bitcoins or similar anyway?

Do you think it's only a matter of government embracing it, and therefore legitimizing it? Or is control too important?

[Crypt_Current]

and of course doing things outside of the government systems, which will probably cause problems here and there when it's large enough.

I wonder how many people are overlooking this as a factor? You could say governmental / banking, they are two peas in a pod in most cases.

I wonder as well.  The revolutionary potential for cryptocurrency seems so obvious to me.  I wonder if people that genuinely do not see the value of cryptocurrency are just not thinking on a large enough scale?

Perhaps you have to be fed up with current systems and have a revolutionary mindset before this is apparent?

Where I live, a lot of people like to bitch about the government's use of their money, yet they continue to feed it. It baffles me. They act as if there was no other way.

Exactly.  I wonder where I'd be now if I didn't go spectacularly insane and quit my good-paying, respectable job back in 2004.  I might have a home of my own, and a car, and children, but I probably wouldn't know about cryptocurrency and if I did, I'd probably be too blinded by my mortgage and 2.3 children to give a shit.

[Hunterbunter]

Governments can indeed do what you say. But they cannot manipulate the supply in the ways they do today. If they can convince a Bitcoin using society to accept their fiat over Bitcoin, as they have done in the past with other forms of money, well... history repeats itself. I can only hope more people learn to appreciate money from this day forward.

Interesting...I agree, I believe there's a deeper fault on the government way of taxing which the repeating cycle doesn't seem to fix in each iteration. I personally think governments should be done with currency altogether as a means of taxation, and pursue other means, like time. This is a battle of the ages!

[Crypt_Current]

A fundamental feature of BTC and any cryptocurrency of this type is the ability for an INDIVIDUAL, to send money to another INDIVIDUAL, without anyone else finding out it happened (it would take a lot more work and resources than it would with our current monetary systems).
I can see government just becoming obsolete.  The Internet is making traditional methods of communication and obtaining goods and services more and more obsolete.  Cryptocurrency is just a further extension of this empowerment of the individual.
Of course, governments won't go down without a fight -- just like churches and religion didn't when governments took control.