Bitcoin price skyrocket?

[spirates]

Hi. I never heard about Bitcoins before 1 week ago. Then a bitcoin costed around 6.7 US dollar, today it costs 8.3 US dollar. So if you want to buy 10 bitcoins for example, today you would have to spend 16 more dollars compared to 1 week ago.

Iam not a economic expert but this seems like a HUGEEEE increse in such a short time..

Anyone knows if the price is going to go down sometimes, or will it just continue to raise?

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[Taz]

I would love to know the answer to this also,
but I imaging the only true answer is:
"Nobody knows".

[mainichi]

Its true that no one knows where the price of bitcoins is heading.
Some posts on this forum claim that the recent price increase is due to the reward decrease for miners when block 210,000 is reached (in the next few months).
It makes sense, as a market will price in furture expectations ahead of time, and the reward decrease is a certainty.
As bitcoins become more scarce, they should become more valuable against other currencies.

[pekv2]

Hi. I never heard about Bitcoins before 1 week ago. Then a bitcoin costed around 6.7 US dollar, today it costs 8.3 US dollar.

Should have seen it last night! I seen it reach 8.9 and others say it topped off at 9.4 or so. Some made a mint if bought at 4-5 and dumped last night.

[StringTheory]

Ever since the initial double dip, BTC has always been rising in value.  Its true that the increase in the past few months is pretty staggering, and can send off red flags to some people.  But if you look at the rise in popularity of BTC, factor that with BFL's promise of new ASIC lines, and BTC in pop culture including "The Good Wife," and couple that with the halfing of blocks ~December, I think the increase in value is proportional to the change we are seeing.

[DannyHamilton]

Anyone knows if the price is going to go down sometimes, or will it just continue to raise?

Sorry.  You might as well be asking if the high temperature in Chicago on July 16, 2013 will be higher or lower than 84 degrees Fahrenheit (29 C).  Lots of people have theories as to what they think will happen and have reasons behind their theories, but it isn't really possible to reliably predict what is going to happen.  There are just too many variables that affect the price.

[Stephen Gornick]

Anyone knows if the price is going to go down sometimes, or will it just continue to raise?

Everyone can see that this rise in price is boosted by speculation.  But the saying is that nobody rings a bell at the top.  There are a lot of technical traders thinking there is room to go up to $12 though.

That being said, we're still down nearly 75% from 2011's high.

[DannyHamilton]

Everyone can see that this rise in price is boosted by speculation.

They can?  How can they see that?

There are a lot of technical traders thinking there is room to go up to $12 though.

A lot of people have theories as to what they think will happen and have reasons behind their theories, but it isn't really possible to reliably predict what is going to happen.  Excitement could push it WAY up, or disappointment could bring it crashing down. Some early adopters could decide they need fiat and need to convert their hundreds of thousands of bitcoin sending the price crashing down and instilling fear. A news article could go viral and catch the fancy of millions of people in the general public driving them all to "try this thing out" and driving the price way up.  Anyone who tells you they know what the price is going to do in the next few days or weeks is just guessing.  They might guess right, but that doesn't mean their predictive skills are reliable.

That being said, we're still down nearly 75% from 2011's high.

And up nearly 3,000% from 2011's low?

[Nomad Tom]

It's a new species, price changes are due to speculation. This isn't a derivatives market or a bond market or a national currency. It's still small and flys on word of mouth from forums to Forbes, Wired, bloggers, and random hype. I wouldn't advise speculation, judging by solicitations in these forums there's a thriving currency market.

Correct me as I'm learning, but is there a sharp drop in the algorithm to 1/2 bitcoins generated from mining or is there a half life of four years? Either way the long-term design is deflationary. Even with increasing efficiencies, more people, and greatly increased volume, the design is for less bitcoin blocks to be created.

This is stabilizing, unique and ingenious because blocks are nearly infinitesimal. There would be less units of currency but greater utility and value -deflation. Would you feel comfortable making .048BTC, then .045BTC, then .044BTC as you kept working the same hours? Assuming the currency stabilizes like familiar markets, there would be a downward decaying trend as data is lost and demand outpaces supply. It would be a psychological headache, especially to those speculators out there.

All the excitement is over something designed not to take off into the sky, but to nose-dive and survive.

[Kazimir]

Iam not a economic expert but this seems like a HUGEEEE increse in such a short time..

Correct
During the past few months, purchasing bitcoins would have been a better investment than pretty much any stock share or commodity (well, except going short on Facebook with some leverage derivate perhaps ).

Anyone knows if the price is going to go down sometimes, or will it just continue to raise?

Obviously it will continue to raise and drop over time. Remember, it's been over $30 in the past. But unless the entire Bitcoin concept somehow fails miserably (which I consider extremely unlikely), I am quite confident that in general (other than any small scale temporary ups & downs) we will see a huge, HUGE raise during the coming few years.

Which is one of the reasons why I converted a significant share of my savings (formerly in euros) and stock investments, into bitcoins. But not so much because the amount of EUR or USD they will be worth - I hope I'll never have to swap my bitcoins back to fiat money anymore, and at some point in the future I can just pay my living costs in Bitcoin.

[reg]

Iam not a economic expert but this seems like a HUGEEEE increse in such a short time..

Correct
During the past few months, purchasing bitcoins would have been a better investment than pretty much any stock share or commodity (well, except going short on Facebook with some leverage derivate perhaps ).

Anyone knows if the price is going to go down sometimes, or will it just continue to raise?

Obviously it will continue to raise and drop over time. Remember, it's been over $30 in the past. But unless the entire Bitcoin concept somehow fails miserably (which I consider extremely unlikely), I am quite confident that in general (other than any small scale temporary ups & downs) we will see a huge, HUGE raise during the coming few years.

Which is one of the reasons why I converted a significant share of my savings (formerly in euros) and stock investments, into bitcoins. But not so much because the amount of EUR or USD they will be worth - I hope I'll never have to swap my bitcoins back to fiat money anymore, and at some point in the future I can just pay my living costs in Bitcoin.

its probably unwise to put too much in at the moment- the market is small but growing. there are a few arbitrage operators trying (allegedly ) to move the market up then sell causing a fall and buy low!! however long term BTC can only increase due to the limit and increasing demand. when the authorities really catch on that its the end for their control over well everyone they will fight like cornered cats to stop it-but I do not think they can!. reg.

[Easy2Mine]

I hope the BTC price will go up a little bit more.
I will then sell a small part of my savings to do a small investment in another rig.
I am gambling that the asics from BFL will not ship on time.
I haven't ordered a product from them yet. I will order at the last moment.
Sorry for my English, my native language is Dutch.

[knight22]

I'll reply you after I check in my crystal ball.

No jokes, in short terms I don't know, but in long terms, you can be sure bitcoin will skyrocket

[finkleshnorts]

i see nothing in the way of bitcoin's ultimate success, save a cryptographic weakness.

Volatility due to LOTS of speculation may be bitcoin's biggest obstacle. If people can stomach that, volatility will even out as adoption spreads. Volatility doesn't bother me personally, I know it is to be expected. It is a small price to pay for what bitcoin has to offer the world.

I'd rather be paid in bitcoin.

TL;DR I say UP.

[mystery2048]

I wouldnt be so optimistic, and I dont expect it to stay up for long...

[capsqrl]

I wouldnt be so optimistic, and I dont expect it to stay up for long...

Some reasoning to go with that would be welcome.

[Buffer Overflow]

I wouldnt be so optimistic, and I dont expect it to stay up for long...

This is rather vague. What sort of time scale we talking here?

[Frankie]

There seem to be a lot of startups in bitcoins: Bit-Pay, Coinbase.  A little directional buying on top of startup and other publicity might propel speculation upwards.

I think long-term bitcoins will be considerably more expensive unless there is a catastrophe (regulatory crack-down, critical flaw discovered). This is necessary because the market cap is simply too small to support all of the likely transactions that will want to use the currency.  However, I suspect there will be crashes in the mean time, and the chance of catastrophe is non-zero.

I would not be surprised if there's a bit of crash in the near term after hitting a solid $10--a drop of a couple dollars at least.

FWIW (very little).

[RodeoX]

Unlike most currencies, bitcoin prices rise and fall with demand. The supply is fixed and no government can print extra coins to fix a budget.  Right now demand is high and the supply is expected to be halved late this year. That translates to increased value.
Your right that that is a huge jump.     Welcome to bitcoin.

[smithy]

It looks like the only way is UP! I would buy in big but I don't have the money. This is just the beginning.