[2014-12-25] After all the hype, Bitcoin’s value has shriveled

[zakoliverz]

http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2014/12/24/hype-fades-bitcoin-puts-down-roots/9kFWD62AsJDYIbXz9Xc5sK/story.html

Everyone is looking at this as the equivalent of the early days of the Web,” Allaire told me. He’s sure that in a few years, people will be spending Bitcoins as freely as we now count out $20 bills, or transmit text messages. With Bitcoin, buying and selling could become friction-free.

Remember when personal messages needed a postage stamp and an envelope, and took three days to get there? Our financial transaction systems today are hardly better. When you buy something with a credit card, the merchant pays a fee of about 3 percent — which gets passed on to customers — and waits days to get his money. Or how about sending $500 to a relative in Acapulco? The first $7 of it goes to the Western Union money transfer service.

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[kjlimo]

A good article.  I think the title is just a way to get more clicks.

Author is fair about how the price has fluctuated, but acknowledges how the prospects for the technology could have promise. 

Obviously, haha!

[tins]

A good article.  I think the title is just a way to get more clicks.

Author is fair about how the price has fluctuated, but acknowledges how the prospects for the technology could have promise. 

Obviously, haha!

Yet, like almost every article pointing out BTC is a losing investment or idea, he fails to mention the role of Gox's Willy bot as the reason Bitcoin had its once artificially inflated price.

[CoinMode]

http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2014/12/24/hype-fades-bitcoin-puts-down-roots/9kFWD62AsJDYIbXz9Xc5sK/story.html

Everyone is looking at this as the equivalent of the early days of the Web,” Allaire told me. He’s sure that in a few years, people will be spending Bitcoins as freely as we now count out $20 bills, or transmit text messages. With Bitcoin, buying and selling could become friction-free.

Remember when personal messages needed a postage stamp and an envelope, and took three days to get there? Our financial transaction systems today are hardly better. When you buy something with a credit card, the merchant pays a fee of about 3 percent — which gets passed on to customers — and waits days to get his money. Or how about sending $500 to a relative in Acapulco? The first $7 of it goes to the Western Union money transfer service.

Maybe if you live in NYC or LA it will cost you $7 to send $500 to Mexico. Anywhere else in the world, you will pay several times that amount to send the money, up to $200 at most, and usually around $50.

[kjlimo]

A good article.  I think the title is just a way to get more clicks.

Author is fair about how the price has fluctuated, but acknowledges how the prospects for the technology could have promise. 

Obviously, haha!

Yet, like almost every article pointing out BTC is a losing investment or idea, he fails to mention the role of Gox's Willy bot as the reason Bitcoin had its once artificially inflated price.

Touche, but I don't know what the Willy bot is.  Can you elaborate?

Why would people thinking they own more bitcoins than they actually do increase the price?