anyone know how long https://bitcoin-24.com/ has been down?

This has the stench of dumb gimmick to it. And it's so 1970s. What's their backup plan, having Evil Knievel jump over a bunch of Bitcoin-themed schoolbuses?

I would enjoy seeing that.

but yes, that has dumb gimmick written all over it.

LOL @ major. And them accepting coins will do nothing but lower the price since you will see lots of rich early adopters with political leanings spending now, and the LP will surely cash them out instantly.

LOL @ the Blimp Pump and Dump idea too.

Out of all of the political parties..I would consider the Libertarian to be on of the major They are indeed the 3rd largest party... Sure, if you wish to continue with your two party system way of thinking, than there are no other political parties accept the Republicans and Democrats, which are basically one in the same anyway.

I guess this just highlights how much of a two party system the US has. They're the third largest party and they have nobody in Congress, nobody in state legislature and no governors.

That said I think any extra use of bitcoin outside of currency trading is a good thing, so this is a good thing.

If you are married, dont tell your wife you are investing in Bitcoins because of the blimp.

Don't get me wrong, when I actually vote (which is rare), I'll vote LP candidates. But to call them major is silly. They are completely irrelevant. Voting them is the equivalent of an old man yelling at the clouds. Which is why I no longer bother participating the process and instead support something like Bitcoin which has actual chances of forcing changes needed.

Two party way of thinking is reality. The system is designed in a way such that that is the inevitable result. Followed by both parties becoming incredibly similar on 99% of issues and bickering over the most insignificant of issues and driving people into a frenzy supporting one part over the other due to outrage over the other party's position on such issues.

If you want people to buy Bitcoins, make their life *better* by using them. Find something they couldn't do or is painful to do, and use Bitcoins to solve the problem. Not simply buy them with the hopes of pumping and dumping. If Bitcoin cannot legitimately make peoples lives better, then it surely will fail and only be a ponzi scheme.

That was the main idea behind bitcoin, until everyone realized how much money some were making. IMO, the reality for Bitcoin is that it will always be a bubble machine, filled with those who are looking to ride the bubble and hopefully make an extreme profit. I like where it is right now, currently at 72, and not really breaking through any walls.

It's far too early from the pop to claim stability now. Yes, it will certainly be full of bubbles until adoption goes up.

The main idea still remains and is completely unharmed. Profiteers will come and go, some will win, some will lose. The test comes down to the community making infrastructure and innovators to see the potential and innovate, and investors to see the long term potential and invest. The rest is simply noise and a sideshow. The sideshow has value in getting attention to people who could fill the above roles who might not have ever found out about Bitcoin. Hopefully a good number of them see the potential through what exists and invest their time and money into it. And hopefully a lot of them that might have been excited do not get scared now thinking it's worthless. A lot of people see the bubbles as valuable just for the attention. I think it works great when you are unknown, but now that a large number of people have heard of it, it does more harm than good. But it will continue to happen and I don't think it will have a big impact either way. It also may allow early investors and believers to cash out gains and fund things that might not otherwise have been funded. A gain allows some to cash out, and the drop does not impact them significantly since they got in so cheap.

Gavin (or maybe it was garzik) thinks there will be multiple more bitcoin bubbles before there is stability

well said. We can agree.

yeah, good post TOm

I think you will have catalysts that will make the value go up, which will inspire the bubble. Bitpay and other investments seem to have started it, followed by Cyprus, followed by mania. This will happen again. Hell, even rumors of a big player entering could mean a huge difference.

When the first boom happened, I thought it was Cyprus, but stats now show that they had little to do with it, and hardly anyone in that country was buying up coin. BUT maybe what happened there sparked people here to think "maybe that could happen here" and prompted some buy ups? I don't know.

I think for the most part the one theory I side with most is the Bubble rider theory, mainly from China.

The cyprus theory isn't people from cyprus buying btc, its people who had tons of money in cyprus banks; aka russians

I know absolutely nothing about bitcoins, but a couple friends were talking about the crash. I was wondering aproximately what % of the total number of bitcoins owned are actually used for transactions/payment on a given day or over course of a month? (Not counting people buying/selling bitcoins to each other, but like what % of them are actually used to buy stuff)

Edit: And I guess how does this compare to other currencies, I have no idea what % of the total number of US dollars are used in transactions in a day or month either.

I guess that is plausible.

Less than 1/10th of 1 percent of Bitcoins are used for actual transactions. Most of the real transactions are for illicit drugs. The rest of the bitcoins are traded or hoarded.

Legend has it that someone bought a pizza with a bitcoin 4 years ago. The status of the pizza is unknown, but it is believed to have been eaten.

Then why are people expecting this to catch on? I can't imagine any major corporations are going to want to be associated with this by accepting bitcoins?

The pizza story is real as far as I can tell. I can't agree with you on the SR though, we should really refrain from even discussing that here but for the most part, the SR traffic has been decreasing over time.

During the recent blow up, yes you are right, BTC was really just hoarded and traded back and fourth, but prior to that, bitcoin transactions were gaining traction. We have been hovering around 70 now and I think this is going to be the time we see more BTC being used for transactions before the next bubble hits.

His statement is false. The largest bitcoin payment processor alone did more business than Silk Road in March.

Have 100BTC I want sold at $82 (8% vig at current price)

Payment methods: Stars/FTP, MB, Neteller, Paypal (only if you are extremely reputable)

You will most likely send first, I have many refs and former trades.

First come first serve, PM.

CNBC has added Bitcoin to their ticker

http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/MTGOXUSD