Topic: Bitcoin Shrinking - The Long View - page 8. (Read 19400 times)

My take on this would be that the only reason bitcoin went up in value was because of the media coverage it got at one point. I agree with this because even though I heard about bitcoin earlier, I did not look into it in more detail until I saw an article on yahoo.com. I would also say that most of the hype and why the price shot to $30 dollars was all the media coverage around that time.

Now that bitcoin got media coverage and there is probably not many more reasons to give it as much media coverage it will just be an unknown hobby currency and die out. This is all speculation as who knows what media coverage it will get in the future.

I guess media coverage is a way of free advertising. Without advertising most products will go unknown and never sell. Same goes with bitcoin. You need to hype it, dump it, lol. 

But back to the question in hand.

What's the connection between the trailing off of the initial media coverage of Bitcoin and the long term prospects of Bitcoin?

I can't believe some of the things being said in this thread. OP makes a detailed explanation of what happened, is happening, and will happen to the economy and you guys are flaming/trolling his thread.

All of you guys need to stop living in your ideal dream world where Bitcoin will last forever. Fact is, it's not going to. OP is just pointing out the fact and bringing reality to us.

Why do the short term and transitory effects of news coverage affect Bitcoin's long term success?

Right. But which of those is a *technical* issue with bitcoin? You're too conflating fringe political motives of some forum members with the technical direction (and usefulness) of the project. No alternative software has to be introduced to tone down the loonies, as there is no license agreement that says "you have to be libertarian to use this".

It's not really your fault either. I really wish this forum was distanced from the project page somehow, and a simple "user/merchant/developer support" forum took its place. No political or economical speculation talk at all. Sometimes I feel fucked as a developer as I'm genuinely trying to help people and don't really want to be associated with the crap this forum has become.

+1

Overall, I agree with 99% of Synaptic's analysis, and I especially agree with a few of the other posters' comments about there not being enough criticism and dissent in these forums.  Right now, Bitcoins, for all their technical glory (which, truly, is admirable), don't seem to do anything useful to any appreciable extent other than allow earlier-fools to relieve themselves of their BTC holdings by selling them to incoming greater-fools...  That's true of almost everything I've read *except* for the international transactions part.  I'm sensitive to that part (having lived in or having family ties to four or five different countries and about to move again), and I can *definitely* see the value proposition in near-frictionless transactions across borders where you don't have to trust anyone along the way.  The fees and hassle to do this in the normal banking system nowadays are truly outrageous.  If no alternative to Bitcoin ever succeeds, international transactions are perhaps the only thing I'd ever use Bitcoins for (even then, I'd use BTC for the whole of 10-20 minutes as an intermediate currency, and it's not hard to see how having to go through a million intermediaries to do this might kill even *that* use case).  But I really hope that an alternative to Bitcoin does emerge, one that isn't drowning in libertarian/anarcho-capitalist kool-aid and does not shoot itself in the foot with fringe, unworkable economics.

Bitcoin already transacends geography and allows for transferring value without requiring the world to switch to a centralised command structure. This is already in place, and years ahead of anything global diplomatic committee can come up with.

You seem to see bitcoin as a company/entity that tries to displace all other currencies. That's simply not the goal. Don't believe the libertarian crackpots on this forum, this is *not* a political faction. This is simply open source distributed culture spreading to value exchange systems. Just like operating systems like Linux/BSD broke the Microsoft monoculture, systems like Bitcoin break the money transfer "monoculture".

For now I see Bitcoin as the perfect payment method for international online jobs. Someone in India could write a program for you, and you can pay for it instantly, without having to worry about banking options available for you/him and the fees associated with that. Internet connectivity is enough.

But if you rather wait for the "one global currency" that's OK too. But there's nothing wrong with kids being enthusiastic about it. They're usually more idealistic and sooner see the advantages of new technology even in its baby stages. And it's pointless trying to discourage them from that, they'll just see you as a old sob that defends the status quo. And they're not wasting their time, at least they're learning useful skills instead of watching tv...

so what you are saying is we should all sell,
and let the exchanges and GODMODE (the guy with 10,000+BTC) have the empty bag all to themselves?

seems like it could work.

Then shut up.

I really can't see the point of engaging with this kind of agenda driven dishonesty.

Side note: You ought to tone down on the use of "no-one", "nobody", "nothing". While you might have a point, using words like that just makes you sound like a frothing fanatic. And again to provide the minimum singular needed to defeat the "no-one" claim, I for one became interested in bitcoin precisely because of its anonymous nature. I'm sure I'm not the only one.


If only somebody could get some marketing material to a few mafia rings, drug cartels and such. It would probably be in their interest (and within their capabilities) to make bitcoin viable

Synaptic, great post, and you laid the facts out very nicely. There seems to be few on this forum who actually see the truth about what is going on with bitcoin.

The price just went into a huge bubble and is just deflating (or what you call bitcoin shrinking). There is really no reason why it should be vauled so much higher than it was just a few months back.

Anyway, my question to you is where do you see the price of bitcoin stabilizing at?

It's actually a well educated hypothesis; One that in all likely-hood will continue to bare out as I've laid forth. Look, even since I started posting BTC has lost 9.5% of it's 24hr value. There will of course be a bump, but then another gradual slow burn fall as has been happening ever since the Gox recovery.

The signs are there for anyone to see.  This market isn't really as volatile as the speculators would love it to be, at all.  At it's been predictable since the bubble began. It's really not a mystery to anyone that understands these basic truths.

Dude you nor anyone else can predict the future with 100%accuracy. Thus your claim although you cited sources is still S P E C U L A T I O N.

Is that why you take every opportunity to be the resident spell/grammar checker?

There are more useful pursuits, hombre.

Oh, of course someone can have something of value to say even if they aren't all that articulate, or even knowledgable. In this case, though, his/her information is useless (really, it's an opinion, not information in the strict sense), and my answer was to his/her suggestion that he/she was in any way capable of educating me or anyone else on this forum.

And, for the record, English is my second language - or at least my other language.

Cheers

Shhhh its a coded message. jk

if a person is not good at english (even if it is their first language) Doesn't mean they don't have useful information.  I'm not saying this post is accurate.

No one can know where the bitcoin market will go, I expect it will keep with the pattern pointed out somewhere, and spike again in a month or so.

Again, no bitcoin economy is coming because bitcoin serves no purpose that other services haven't already filled.

Bitcoin makes a cheap payment processor?  So does Dwolla, and there's 75% less bullshit involved.

Bitcoin is a hedge against inflation? No-one gives a shit. There's better stores of value in real tangible assets, like gold.

Bitcoin is secure/anonymous whatever other super-fantastic crypto-bullcrap? Again, no-one in the public gives a shit. There's zero value proposition relative to anything bitcoin is built on.

There's just simply no place in the real people's economy for this little hobby experiment.

It really depends on your POV, classic cup half empty or half full kind of thing. Your assumption is that nothing is going to change so yes, in that situation what you describe could happen.

While I agree it is a likely scenario, it also means ignoring the fact there are people, even as you mentioned some working on a Bitcoin ATM and such, trying to change the landscape and therefore the market. Once somebody puts something out there that is sufficiently attractive paid for by Bitcoins, the economy could get kickstarted properly. For example in your proposed scenario when the value has gone down that miners start selling off to recoup, they may end up spending it within the economy for things that are worth more than the cash they would get, especially after taking into account the charges in getting cash transferred back. In many cases, it just takes that one single change to tip the scales and make what looks like a dog become a star.

Furthermore miners who have no intention of spending originally, may be educated and convinced that by spending some of their hoard in the bitcoin market, they are only helping to drive up the value of their hoard.

Exactly.