Bitcoins

csm888

I believe the reason for the large price movements are traders manipulating the market, is essence.
1) Trader helps build a rally by buying large chunks of coin.
2) Trader waits for news (in this case the US senate hearings) and is first to dump large quantities at a significant profit.
3) This is the panic everyone fears and all the inexperienced holders also dump causing a free fall in the price.

4) Trader holds the price down by putting in large ask walls a little above the current price, there is too much fear for many to buy into the walls.
5) Price continues to slide, (goto 4 until satisfied price is low enough)

6) Trader re-buys at a cheaper price, massively increasing their Bitcoin holding.
7) repeat... every few 6 -12 months

There are a number of patterns that these experience traders use, unfortunately without access to significant capital (several million or more) you can't copy them, if you are brave you can try and predict whats going to happen, but many will get burnt, I prefer to hold and wait.

dryhat

Satoshi wrote: »

DryHat what point will you buy in at? I am seriously thinking about buying here, but will it go even lower?

I was thinking of buying more at £250, but it doesn't like it will go that low.

Who knows though?

csm888

dryhat wrote: »

I was thinking of buying more at £250, but it doesn't like it will go that low.

Who knows though?

I think the trend is reversing for a while, there are some walls below the current price, this will help raise the price in the dead cat bounce. I think we may see it go lower at the end of the day in the US (overnight for us).... but if I was sure I'd put my money where my mouth was

snowqueen555

I remember the US government seized a sizable amount from when Silk Road closed down. I think the market is easy to manipulate because it is still small, and a lot of people seem to be hoarding, which is creating a scarcity.

The exchanges in the UK seem to have very low volumes, and markups seem to be quite high. I think there are a lot of barriers for a normal person like me to try, it seems complicated to buy and keep.

dryhat

snowqueen555 wrote: »

I think there are a lot of barriers for a normal person like me to try, it seems complicated to buy and keep.

It's not that complicated to buy and hold bitcoins.

csm888

snowqueen555 wrote: »

I remember the US government seized a sizable amount from when Silk Road closed down. I think the market is easy to manipulate because it is still small, and a lot of people seem to be hoarding, which is creating a scarcity.

The exchanges in the UK seem to have very low volumes, and markups seem to be quite high. I think there are a lot of barriers for a normal person like me to try, it seems complicated to buy and keep.

I don't think the US Government will be able to do anything with those seized coins until after a trial.

An easy way to buy bitcoins in the UK is with bitbargain.co.uk but the premium is very high at the moment. It used to be a lot easier to buy coins in the UK, but nearly everything has been shut down. Any Bitcoin business in the UK keep having their bank accounts closed. I guess the banks want to keep their monopoly.

DominicJ_2

Swafe wrote: »

Bitcoin is reversible if enough computing power is put into unmining bitcoins than is put into mining them

You misunderstand "Reversable"
A BitCoin isnt a "Store of Value" in that it doesnt "Store" anything.
It took 100units of computing power to make, but I cant unplug my computer and power it on Bitcoins for 100units, or even 1 unit.

Grain has a value, because unless I eat it, I die
Sterling has a value, because unless I provide one thousand of them to my local government each year, I go to jail
Bitcoins?

BoracicLint

DominicJ wrote: »

You misunderstand "Reversable"
A BitCoin isnt a "Store of Value" in that it doesnt "Store" anything.
It took 100units of computing power to make, but I cant unplug my computer and power it on Bitcoins for 100units, or even 1 unit.

Grain has a value, because unless I eat it, I die
Sterling has a value, because unless I provide one thousand of them to my local government each year, I go to jail
Bitcoins?

So what is stopping Bitcoin being accepted as a store of value, in the same way gold is? It's only really Gold's wide acceptance, scarcity and tradition that give it value.

dryhat

DominicJ wrote: »

A BitCoin isnt a "Store of Value" in that it doesnt "Store" anything.

When someone says they "have a bitcoin", technically, what they are saying is there is an address on the blockchain with a balance of 1BTC to which they have the private key. In order to send or spend from that address, this private key must be broadcast to the network to verify ownership and update the public ledger (the "blockchain").
The private keys are really what the bitcoins "are" if you like.

This balance of bitcoins at each address is regularly kept up to date by consensus of a distributed peer to peer network and without the need for a third party. (made possible for the first time in history with the invention of Bitcoin)

Each transaction is digitally signed and time-stamped and these transactions are effectively what is being stored. The value assigned to each bitcoin is currently its market price but there is no reason why bitcoins could not be used to represent something else besides a unit of currency.

csm888

DominicJ wrote: »

You misunderstand "Reversable"
A BitCoin isnt a "Store of Value" in that it doesnt "Store" anything.
It took 100units of computing power to make, but I cant unplug my computer and power it on Bitcoins for 100units, or even 1 unit.

Grain has a value, because unless I eat it, I die
Sterling has a value, because unless I provide one thousand of them to my local government each year, I go to jail
Bitcoins?

I can trade a bitcoin for other currencies which you will not dispute have value, therefore it has value.
I can store my bitcoins and accumulate them for later use.
Therefore it is a 'store of value' look at the Wiki definition..