Is 2014 going to be the WORST EVER year for Bitcoin in terms of valuation?

[thms]

We are past mid year and so far, this has been the worst year in Bitcoin in terms of price valuation.

[adamstgBit]

maybe the next half of the year will be more fun.

[Dread Pirate Roberts]

interested maybe end of this year will be grow amazing . i believe bitcoin can touch more than $5000 per btc . someday . when many country in europe . asian . and anywhere legalize bitcoin will be amazing
and maybe some altcoin will be like bitcoin later . interested to follow cryptocurrency world . and look millionare in crypto . 

[wachtwoord]

Patience

And year-over-year performance with January 1st as a base date is rather arbitrary.

[Benjig]

Stills there are more than 5 months to go!, a rally or any movement can be originated in weeks.. so we have enough time still.

[Tzupy]

The mania phase of a bubble needs new bagholders, a lot of them, and there are none to be seen yet.
OTOH: http://www.coindesk.com/perianne-boring-regulators-will-decide-bitcoins-fate-within-18-months/

A few excerpts:
There’s nobody else in DC that cares about bitcoin, bitcoin has a terrible reputation, people are scared to touch it, nobody wants to be involved with it, and a lot of it is a lack of understanding.
If I worked on the Hill and Western Union had come to me and said, ‘Bitcoin is terrible and we need to ban it’, and we needed to contact bitcoin to get their side of the story, who would I call?

[kireinaha]

Bitcoin has always risen over a 12 month period. If we reach November/December and are still hanging around this level, I would say that bitcoin is doomed to fail and we'd all be wise to rethink our positons. It wouldn't be the first or last time that a great idea failed to achieve mainstream acceptance.

The likelihood of that happening is still small, IMO, and we're currently consolidating for the new ATH, which should begin any day now...

[wachtwoord]

The mania phase of a bubble needs new bagholders, a lot of them, and there are none to be seen yet.
OTOH: http://www.coindesk.com/perianne-boring-regulators-will-decide-bitcoins-fate-within-18-months/

A few excerpts:
There’s nobody else in DC that cares about bitcoin, bitcoin has a terrible reputation, people are scared to touch it, nobody wants to be involved with it, and a lot of it is a lack of understanding.
If I worked on the Hill and Western Union had come to me and said, ‘Bitcoin is terrible and we need to ban it’, and we needed to contact bitcoin to get their side of the story, who would I call?

No Bitcoin does not need bag holders. It isn't a god damn ponzi scheme. Just wait.

[tabnloz]

loosely speaking, may - november 2013 was also relatively flat, hovering at around $120, then with the closing of the Silk Road & the hearings, the upswing began.

In my view the longer it holds steady the better.

However, I also think it was much "easier" for people to enter bitcoin when the price was $100, although it is less complex to enter now.

$620 (not during a manic run up) may make people think again. Kids, college students etc can probably rustle up $100 to get in the ecosystem but $620?

[wachtwoord]

loosely speaking, may - november 2013 was also relatively flat, hovering at around $120, then with the closing of the Silk Road & the hearings, the upswing began.

In my view the longer it holds steady the better.

However, I also think it was much "easier" for people to enter bitcoin when the price was $100, although it is less complex to enter now.

$620 (not during a manic run up) may make people think again. Kids, college students etc can probably rustle up $100 to get in the ecosystem but $620?

Ok, I'm going to reword your story to show the stupidity.

"I think it's easier for people when the price was 10 cents per mBTC. I mean 62 cents is a bit expensive with kids or with collage to pay."

what about:

"I think it's easier for people when the price was $0.00001 per Satoshi. I mean $0.000062 is a bit expensive with kids or with collage to pay."

[keithers]

The thing with BTC is that things can turn around in a matter of minutes and we could be at an ATH in days.  Not saying it is happening tomorrow, but 5 months is an eternity in the world of cryptos.

[thms]

loosely speaking, may - november 2013 was also relatively flat, hovering at around $120, then with the closing of the Silk Road & the hearings, the upswing began.

In my view the longer it holds steady the better.

However, I also think it was much "easier" for people to enter bitcoin when the price was $100, although it is less complex to enter now.

$620 (not during a manic run up) may make people think again. Kids, college students etc can probably rustle up $100 to get in the ecosystem but $620?

Ok, I'm going to reword your story to show the stupidity.

"I think it's easier for people when the price was 10 cents per mBTC. I mean 62 cents is a bit expensive with kids or with collage to pay."

what about:

"I think it's easier for people when the price was $0.00001 per Satoshi. I mean $0.000062 is a bit expensive with kids or with collage to pay."

It's not stupid, it's actually how people think, I think he was illustrating the point. Failing to understand how the average person think is also stupid by itself.

Here an example that was on Reddit's TIL today:

TIL A&W introduced a burger that was bigger and less expensive than McDonald's Quarter Pounder, but it failed because customers assumed 1/3 was less than 1/4.
link: http://jamesjchoi.blogspot.com.br/2014/07/why-third-pounder-hamburger-failed.html

So no matter how you reword it, people will still think that $620 is too expensive and they would buy it if it was $10 or something.

That's why I think the best option would be to shift the decimal point in BTC or else Bitcoin could become another 1/3 burger

[Bitcopia]

loosely speaking, may - november 2013 was also relatively flat, hovering at around $120, then with the closing of the Silk Road & the hearings, the upswing began.

In my view the longer it holds steady the better.

However, I also think it was much "easier" for people to enter bitcoin when the price was $100, although it is less complex to enter now.

$620 (not during a manic run up) may make people think again. Kids, college students etc can probably rustle up $100 to get in the ecosystem but $620?

Ok, I'm going to reword your story to show the stupidity.

"I think it's easier for people when the price was 10 cents per mBTC. I mean 62 cents is a bit expensive with kids or with collage to pay."

what about:

"I think it's easier for people when the price was $0.00001 per Satoshi. I mean $0.000062 is a bit expensive with kids or with collage to pay."

It's not stupid, it's actually how people think, I think he was illustrating the point. Failing to understand how the average person think is also stupid by itself.

Here an example that was on Reddit's TIL today:

TIL A&W introduced a burger that was bigger and less expensive than McDonald's Quarter Pounder, but it failed because customers assumed 1/3 was less than 1/4.
link: http://jamesjchoi.blogspot.com.br/2014/07/why-third-pounder-hamburger-failed.html

So no matter how you reword it, people will still think that $620 is too expensive and they would buy it if it was $10 or something.

That's why I think the best option would be to shift the decimal point in BTC or else Bitcoin could become another 1/3 burger

Exactly. The unit bias issue is a real issue. Because you and I are smart enough to understand it, doesn't mean the average person is, or even fairly well educated people who just don't know a lot about bitcoin. Services like Coinbase, blockchain.info, Bitstamp, etc. need to start showing prices in mBTC. Bitcoinity started doing so about 6 months ago, and I believe Coinbase has an option to display in mBTC, but it needs to be default.

[evansearle42]

Why is everyone so optimistic about bitcoin when more and more country is banning it.

[wachtwoord]

Why is everyone so optimistic about bitcoin when more and more country is banning it.

Because more and more countries are banning it. Anti-fragile anyone?

[BTCtrader71]

Exactly. The unit bias issue is a real issue. Because you and I are smart enough to understand it, doesn't mean the average person is, or even fairly well educated people who just don't know a lot about bitcoin. Services like Coinbase, blockchain.info, Bitstamp, etc. need to start showing prices in mBTC. Bitcoinity started doing so about 6 months ago, and I believe Coinbase has an option to display in mBTC, but it needs to be default.

I've wondered what would be the effect if a bunch of big players in the industry got together and made a big announcement that "Because of bitcoin's many spectacular successes over the past several years, bitcoin is going to do a 1 : 1000 split with one bitcoin divided into 1000 units that industry leaders will call Dorians. At the current price of $620 per bitcoin, the new Dorians can be obtained for only $0.62." Then go on to explain that people are already anticipating another 1:1000 split in 3 years or so, with various names being considered ...

[DavidHume]

Price stability is good.

If you are expecting to get rich holding bitcoin from this level, you may have better luck buying lottery ticket.

[Torque]

Price stability is good.

If you are expecting to get rich holding bitcoin from this level, you may have better luck buying lottery ticket.

The odds of winning a lottery say otherwise.

[Bitcopia]

Exactly. The unit bias issue is a real issue. Because you and I are smart enough to understand it, doesn't mean the average person is, or even fairly well educated people who just don't know a lot about bitcoin. Services like Coinbase, blockchain.info, Bitstamp, etc. need to start showing prices in mBTC. Bitcoinity started doing so about 6 months ago, and I believe Coinbase has an option to display in mBTC, but it needs to be default.

I've wondered what would be the effect if a bunch of big players in the industry got together and made a big announcement that "Because of bitcoin's many spectacular successes over the past several years, bitcoin is going to do a 1 : 1000 split with one bitcoin divided into 1000 units that industry leaders will call Dorians. At the current price of $620 per bitcoin, the new Dorians can be obtained for only $0.62." Then go on to explain that people are already anticipating another 1:1000 split in 3 years or so, with various names being considered ...

Haha Dorians. That would be funny. Bitcoin doesn't need to do a split. The units would just be displayed in mBTC instead of BTC as a default and could be adjusted to display in BTC if the user prefers. Just like the QT client. I have mine set to mBTC.

[HeliKopterBen]

I've wondered what would be the effect if a bunch of big players in the industry got together and made a big announcement that "Because of bitcoin's many spectacular successes over the past several years, bitcoin is going to do a 1 : 1000 split with one bitcoin divided into 1000 units that industry leaders will call Dorians. At the current price of $620 per bitcoin, the new Dorians can be obtained for only $0.62." Then go on to explain that people are already anticipating another 1:1000 split in 3 years or so, with various names being considered ...

Coinbase already allows users to choose to denominate their coins in bits (1/1,000,000 of a bitcoin).  The transition will probably happen slowly but surely.