Digital currency Bitcoin hits new high before losing S$200 in value in one day

(11-04-2013, 10:51 PM)propertyinvestor Wrote: Hello, which world are you living in? People pay Huge money for virtual stuffs which they do not own. Take alook at companies like Facebook, EA Games, Blizzard Entertainment and Tencent holdings.

These companies make money by selling virtual currencies and items not backed by anything.

But surely these virtual stuff cant be sustained?
People will ultimately get tired of the games or even facebook in the long run and quit? And then the companies will have to come up with something new again.
I feel that companies owning all these virtual currencies can also shut down at anytime without the need to answer to anyone.

Also, how often is a new currency like bitcoin being created and can last?
Currencies like SDG or USD has lasted for so long, albeit deprecated, but still the world uses and trust it. It is also worthless as paper but people still trust it.

And as someone else mentioned, the users of bitcoin may most likely be those who are engaging in illegal activities and do not want to be tracked by financial intermediaries or the government.

Out of curiosity, will the people in this forum invest in bitcoins?
For me, perhaps I am old fashioned but I don't believe it will last.

(12-04-2013, 01:50 AM)TheMillennium Wrote:

(11-04-2013, 10:51 PM)propertyinvestor Wrote: Hello, which world are you living in? People pay Huge money for virtual stuffs which they do not own. Take alook at companies like Facebook, EA Games, Blizzard Entertainment and Tencent holdings.

These companies make money by selling virtual currencies and items not backed by anything.

But surely these virtual stuff cant be sustained?
People will ultimately get tired of the games or even facebook in the long run and quit? And then the companies will have to come up with something new again.
I feel that companies owning all these virtual currencies can also shut down at anytime without the need to answer to anyone.

Also, how often is a new currency like bitcoin being created and can last?
Currencies like SDG or USD has lasted for so long, albeit deprecated, but still the world uses and trust it. It is also worthless as paper but people still trust it.

And as someone else mentioned, the users of bitcoin may most likely be those who are engaging in illegal activities and do not want to be tracked by financial intermediaries or the government.

Out of curiosity, will the people in this forum invest in bitcoins?
For me, perhaps I am old fashioned but I don't believe it will last.

Bitcoins is old news liao...

Following their success, many competitors are sprouting out all over the place in the form of LiteCoins, SolidCoins, GeistGeld, 10coin, IXcoin, Tenebrix etc...

The trend looks set to continue and it seems anyone anywhere with knowledge in coding can set up shop with minimal investment.

(12-04-2013, 09:52 AM)mobo Wrote:

(12-04-2013, 01:50 AM)TheMillennium Wrote:

(11-04-2013, 10:51 PM)propertyinvestor Wrote: Hello, which world are you living in? People pay Huge money for virtual stuffs which they do not own. Take alook at companies like Facebook, EA Games, Blizzard Entertainment and Tencent holdings.

These companies make money by selling virtual currencies and items not backed by anything.

But surely these virtual stuff cant be sustained?
People will ultimately get tired of the games or even facebook in the long run and quit? And then the companies will have to come up with something new again.
I feel that companies owning all these virtual currencies can also shut down at anytime without the need to answer to anyone.

Also, how often is a new currency like bitcoin being created and can last?
Currencies like SDG or USD has lasted for so long, albeit deprecated, but still the world uses and trust it. It is also worthless as paper but people still trust it.

And as someone else mentioned, the users of bitcoin may most likely be those who are engaging in illegal activities and do not want to be tracked by financial intermediaries or the government.

Out of curiosity, will the people in this forum invest in bitcoins?
For me, perhaps I am old fashioned but I don't believe it will last.

Bitcoins is old news liao...

Following their success, many competitors are sprouting out all over the place in the form of LiteCoins, SolidCoins, GeistGeld, 10coin, IXcoin, Tenebrix etc...

The trend looks set to continue and it seems anyone anywhere with knowledge in coding can set up shop with minimal investment.

The norm of knowledge age we are in...

Bitcoin is interesting to me because like gold it is based on scarcity but like fiat it is based on faith

How it evolves into currency is a catch 22 thing like how our NS voucher only works when there are sufficient merchants accepting them. Nonetheless our NS vouchers are based on the faith that SAF would honor its obligation but not too sure what the faith in bitcoin comes from, since even the inventor is no longer involved and is effectively an enigma?

It is like people buying tulips believing others will buy it from them in future

Anyone care to explain on the logic of bitcoin?

I would say it's all based on speculations?
I don't see how I could do valuations on it based on speculations and trust. Especially since it's relatively new(started in 2009).
Furthermore I read that there is a maximum limit of Bitcoins that can exist?

(12-04-2013, 04:34 PM)TheMillennium Wrote: I would say it's all based on speculations?
I don't see how I could do valuations on it based on speculations and trust. Especially since it's relatively new(started in 2009).
Furthermore I read that there is a maximum limit of Bitcoins that can exist?

There might be a maximum limit to Bitcoins, but there sure are no maximum limits to create your own Bitcoin alternative.

This concept has only been around for a few years and there are already at least >10 platforms offering similar thing.

Bitcoin going up so fast to $200 is due to bank collapse in Cyprus. If you can't trust the banks anymore, where would you keep your money? Bit coin is a valid alternative as it is not in the banking system and no banks can close down your saving in bitcoin. As some establishments are not happy with bitcoin being an alternative and hence a lot of DOS attack on the bitcoin exchange website causing the price to fluctuate wildly as you cannot get a price quote for hours. This morning it jumped from $50 to $100.

If you ask me, I would rather keep money in bitcoin than in cyprus or shaky European banks. but since we are in Singapore, we will not likely to appreciate the risks of bank runs.

why not gold? at least gold can be sold in many more ways than bitcoin. There is a better and more transparent market for it. and you can actually see it and feel it if you own it.

(14-04-2013, 08:35 AM)freedom Wrote: why not gold? at least gold can be sold in many more ways than bitcoin. There is a better and more transparent market for it. and you can actually see it and feel it if you own it.

IIRC, base on documentary, illegal sales (weapon, drug etc) are paid in diamond, which is as liquid as money. Gold is heavier than diamond

(14-04-2013, 10:12 AM)CityFarmer Wrote:

(14-04-2013, 08:35 AM)freedom Wrote: why not gold? at least gold can be sold in many more ways than bitcoin. There is a better and more transparent market for it. and you can actually see it and feel it if you own it.

IIRC, base on documentary, illegal sales (weapon, drug etc) are paid in diamond, which is as liquid as money. Gold is heavier than diamond

Buy and sell firearms and narcotics using gold and diamond means the dealers need to have face to face. bitcoins are untraceable. Also more importantly many of the underground sites that deal in these things are also untraceable and undetectable by any telcos or law enforcement agency in the world allowing people to remain anonymous.

Just in case your are wondering what so special about the technology. It's called onion router not roti prata with onion in basic layman terms when a message is sent it is first encrypted then repeatedly sent and bounced around to computer terminals manned by anonymous volunteers on the global internet, these volunteers number in the thousands.

The technology used is very robust and it's the same as what Wikileaks is using and I heard is also used by FBI.

Till now every government in the world has bowed to US preassure and tried to get their ISP and Telcos and their experts to block access or try to shutdown Wikileaks all have tried and all have failed, even FBI also tried and cannot do it Wikileaks site is still running. To shutdown wikileaks would mean getting all the telco and isp in the world to shut down access to internet which is unlikely going to happen anytime soon.