Bitcoins

dryhat

Alex92 wrote: »

I remember a good friend of mine telling me to invest everything I owned in BTC at the start of the year but I ignored him, thinking it would crash soon .. lol. Could have probably retired if I did take his advice.

Seen that is has gone from $340 per BTC last night to $385 now.

Does anyone think this is still worth investing in now? Looking at the charts its spiked up massively over the last month or so. Will it continue to do so, or will it crash?

The current price rise is down to solid funfamentals and could have some way to go. Or could have peaked for now. Nobody knows.

Either way, if you are a "buy and hold" type, then it is still not too late.
My prediction is that in 12 months time the price will be a lot higher than now.

gb12345

dryhat wrote: »

Once again, this theft is down to poor security rather than an inherent weakness or flaw in bitcoin itself.

(assuming it wasn't an inside job, as some are suggesting)

But that poor security could be argued to be an inbuilt problem of the bitcoin model - lots of unofficial insecure websites holding other people's money.

If that money had been in a bank account with a legitimate bank then if a security breach (and it would have needed to be a major one to access multiple accounts) had occured then at least there would have been tracability of where the money had gone, plus the account owners would have been protected from the fraud.

All those poor bitcoin owners who were smugly thinking how clever they were and how much money they have made have seen their "investments" wiped out.

dryhat

gb12345 wrote: »

But that poor security could be argued to be an inbuilt problem of the bitcoin model - lots of unofficial insecure websites holding other people's money.

If that money had been in a bank account with a legitimate bank then if a security breach (and it would have needed to be a major one to access multiple accounts) had occured then at least there would have been tracability of where the money had gone, plus the account owners would have been protected from the fraud.

All those poor bitcoin owners who were smugly thinking how clever they were and how much money they have made have seen their "investments" wiped out.

No. The poor security is nothing to do with Bitcoin itself.

Holding your bitcoins in a hosted third-party wallet carries massive risks. And these risks are to do with the security measures (or lack of) employed by the host.

But you are of course right about the lack of redress.

Bitcoin allows you to "be your own bank" and having your money held by someone else sort of defeats the object and no serious Bitcoiner would entertain keeping large amounts in these type of wallets.

RobGuggle

Never even heard of bitcoin. I'm finding that a lot of investments that focus around the internet are not based on any factual evidence, purely hype. The Twitter IPO for example. A company who's losses significantly rose recently, have no significant way of making money and 1/3 of its registered users have never used the service - it's share price rose on the opening day by 73% !

It's utter madness and a new way of investing purely in hype.

JohnRo

gb12345 wrote: »

But that poor security could be argued to be an inbuilt problem of the bitcoin model - lots of unofficial insecure websites holding other people's money.

If that money had been in a bank account with a legitimate bank then if a security breach (and it would have needed to be a major one to access multiple accounts) had occured then at least there would have been tracability of where the money had gone, plus the account owners would have been protected from the fraud.

All those poor bitcoin owners who were smugly thinking how clever they were and how much money they have made have seen their "investments" wiped out.

Sorry, that's not how it works. Credit card theft and identity fraud are just as much a problem everywhere. The difference is that everyone else is made to pay for fiat banking systems security flaws and failures.

Everything negative you aim at btc applies at least in equal measure to fiat because that negativity is about people and what they're doing with it when something goes wrong. The weakness isn't with the btc technology it is with how people are using it and exposing themselves to the risks involved with that use.

At the end of the day some people have trusted an anonymous teenager to look after a substantial amount of money, and got burned. You wouldn't do that with the contents of your bank accounts so why are people doing it with btc?

The difference with btc is that no one else can be made to pay for the mess others get themselves into.

dryhat

RobGuggle wrote: »

Never even heard of bitcoin. I'm finding that a lot of investments that focus around the internet are not based on any factual evidence, purely hype. The Twitter IPO for example. A company who's losses significantly rose recently, have no significant way of making money and 1/3 of its registered users have never used the service - it's share price rose on the opening day by 73% !
.

Do some reading about Bitcoin and you should recognise that it has nothing to do with "shares" or "the internet".

Bitcoin is an innovative, brand new technology that allows digitally signed and time-stamped transactions to take place without the need for a third party.

This has never ever been possible before and although at the moment it is being used as a currency/payment system is can do so much more (see the video I posted earlier)

As a payment system, Bitcoin allows users to send money to anywhere in the world at anytime, securely, quickly and cheaply and without the need for a third party.

This has never been possible before and Bitcoin, or something similar, is going to change the world of finance in the coming years.

sabretoothtigger

It does rely on the internet, he is right on that. They need the comms but then so does your local atm

The twitter ipo is barmy but I thought the same of google and how would they make money. They do just fine, advertising counts for alot.
Because these companies only have to serve virtual workloads, they are quite cheap to deliver a message.
Twitter can make a profit but its the growth I wonder about - I was wrong about google obviously

BTC is not pure hype but it is virtual service much like the others. It still counts for useful
I sent some money yesterday, took about 30 mins. A bit slow but it cost me about 10p to send across usa. If I tried to send dollars like that, Im sure I'd get more bother

JohnRo

Obviously the surveillance state and NSA contracts help to underpin google and twitter et al.

paddyrg

Alex92 wrote: »

I remember a good friend of mine telling me to invest everything I owned in BTC at the start of the year but I ignored him, thinking it would crash soon .. lol. Could have probably retired if I did take his advice.

Seen that is has gone from $340 per BTC last night to $385 now.

Does anyone think this is still worth investing in now? Looking at the charts its spiked up massively over the last month or so. Will it continue to do so, or will it crash?

A year ago everyone was 'investing' in gold, with all the same 'fundamentals' as to why it was a sound bet. Loads lost their shirts.

Be clear - if you spend money on bitcoins you are *speculating* not *investing*. I personally can't help but feel $340 for a long number is completely insane, but we're apparently in the throes of an insane period of overvaluation (Twitter, Facebook, Square, instagram, etc). Will you win or lose? Personally again I can't help but see a long-term loss, but there we go, maybe you think it's a safe bet, your call.

Before you do, though, check out how easy it is to get back out of BTC if things start heading South

sabretoothtigger

Nobody has lost anything, that is the whole point. Buy a bond and it can go to zero because its promising sterling which is a piece of paper

The base worth of a cheque, promise or cash note is the worth of the paper. The base worth of gold ? You know why people value it if you know this, its utility can at times be higher then paper.

Now is that time quite likely and by now I mean a decade or so because thats the epic proportions enfolding.
Do we dismiss a mountain because it takes a century for continental drift to form it, we do not because its effects are undeniable and that is the weight of current events