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We thought Bitcoin's value would continue to collapse, but so far that hasn't happened. Instead, after hitting a low of $2, it rose back above $3 in early December, and on Monday it rose above $4 for the first time in two months. It's impossible to predict where the currency will go next, but at a minimum it looks like the currency will still be around in 2012.
This presents a bit of a puzzle for Bitcoin skeptics. The original run-up in prices could easily be explained as a speculative bubble, and the subsequent decline as the popping of that bubble. But if that were the whole story, then the value of Bitcoins should have continued to decline as more and more people lost confidence in the currency. That hasn't been happening.
This presents a bit of a puzzle for Bitcoin skeptics. The original run-up in prices could easily be explained as a speculative bubble, and the subsequent decline as the popping of that bubble. But if that were the whole story, then the value of Bitcoins should have continued to decline as more and more people lost confidence in the currency. That hasn't been happening.
Link: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/12/bitcoins-comeback-should-western-union-be-afraid.ars
They still deem Bitcoin a bad currency because of its volatility but they frame it as a possible metacurrency useful to transfer funds across countries, threatening Western Untion's business model:
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Western Union moved $70 billion across borders in 2010, earning about $1 billion in profits. There's no Bitcoin Inc. to compete directly with Western Union, but the owners of Bitcoins can be thought of as shareholders in a decentralized Western Union alternative. If the Bitcoin network captures a small fraction of Western Union's money-transfer business, the currency's current "market capitalization" of around $30 million could wind up looking downright puny.
Sounds good to me!
