Posted on 04/12/2013 6:57:14 PM PDT by mnehring
The price of Bitcoins has plunged more than 70% in the past two days, sparking a rush of activity that overwhelmed trading platforms and suggested the bubble in the virtual currency has burst.
Bitcoins were down to $77.56 as of 3 p.m. ET Friday. Prices reached as high as $266 per Bitcoin around 7:30 a.m. ET Wednesday. But the price started to fall through the rest of day and Thursday morning.
At about 10 a.m. ET Thursday, trading was halted on Mt.Gox, a Japan-based exchange that claims to handle 80% of Bitcoin trade worldwide. The price at that time was already at about $123, down more than 50% from the peak.
(Excerpt) Read more at money.cnn.com ...
Gold and silver have also dropped.
I’m ruined. I’ve lost everything. Wait . . . what’s bitcoins?
>>> Wait . . . what’s bitcoins?
What does it look like? Do you have pics?
You can’t fix stupid, but it appears the bubbles that industrial strength stupid creates do eventually pop. Just like all the rest.
Its a panacea for people who complain about the imaginary value of fiat currency by creating something even more imaginary.
We need to go back to barter, I want to paid in cattle.
It's a shortened form of bullshitcoins.
That's, like, you know, easier to text in its stripped down form.
Barter makes a lot more sense. Trading actual value for actual value on your terms alone. Plus, nothing to stop you from doing that now. No legal loopholes.
>> I want to [be] paid in cattle
Fair enough, but how do we make change? I imagine that could get kind of gory.
We could make smaller animals change, like three pigs make one cattle. Or 500 chickens equal one cattle. etc.
All I know is bitcoins are a type of online currency used on the website The Silk Road. The Silk Road trades in illicit drugs and all types of products illegal to procure in the US.
Maybe menudo is the small change?
;)
Thinking of investing in chicken coops.
I’m not surprised. A lot of people bought into Bitcoin when it burst into the mainstream, and the price was inevitably going to come back down to Earth. I still think that Bitcoin will eventually become a viable, mainstream currency.
To oversimplify:
Bitcoins are a virtual currency with key attributes akin to gold.
They rely on a mathematical process which requires a consistent amount of computing power to calculate the next “coin” which is then registered with a central recognized authority. (This like the consistent amount of work required to mine & mint an ounce of gold.) They can be possessed in an anonymous manner assuring no copying occurs. Being based on mathematics, requiring hard work to create, supporting anonymity, and - best of all - having nothing to do with governments, it amounts to viable digital libertarian cash. Maybe hard to believe, but if you learn how it works you will be convinced.
Of late, the value of one bitcoin was about $250. That’s real world money.
Alas, like other hard currencies it too suffers inflation and bubbles. Yesterday the value crashed 70%, reason unclear.
For all the reasons to not like it, know it and get used to it. Just like tablets and e-books and other technologies are suddenly dominating, independent e-cash will someday be viable and commonplace.
They never seem to halt trading when it’s flying to the upside.
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