How can you POSSIBLY determine this to be the "real value" when the most absurdly dominant exchange (mtgox) has not allowed trading for the last 10 hours and still is not.

Since everyone keeps talking about double spends, I did some more research for you guys. I was not aware that blockchain.info now alerts to double spending. The only site that currently has a double spend problem is SatoshiDice, due to the nature of their game. It is NOT easy to double spend on them at all, and they have modified it a bit to make it harder. Obviously it has not affected their bottom line, as the site earned $446k in february. BitPay has said they will implement merchant protection and offer insurance for instant purchases. The insurance will be negligible, given that double spending vs bitpay has never succeeded so they have a zero percent fraud rate. Green addresses can also be used to ensure zero percent fraud risk, but it is pretty darn close to zero percent the way the system is working now.

Bitcoin developer Mike Hearn recently said about an automatic double spend alert system:
256bit private keys are not crackable:
"If we built a Dyson sphere around the sun and captured all its energy for 32 years, without any loss, we could power a computer to count up to 2^192. Of course, it wouldn’t have the energy left over to perform any useful calculations with this computer. But that’s just one star, and a measly one at that. A typical supernova releases something like 1051 ergs. If all of this energy could be channelled into a single orgy of computation, a 219-bit counter could be cycled through all of its states. These numbers have nothing to do with the technology of the devices; they are the maximums that thermodynamics will allow. And they strongly imply that brute-force attacks against 256-bit keys will be infeasible until computers are built from something other than matter and occupy something other than space." -- Bruce Schneider
link to thread about it.

Bitcoin was never meant to be the best at POS purchases, and it is not faster than paying with cash. It targets distance commerce. However, it has the potential to turn into a good POS payment system with things built on top of it. Many people think Ripple will be great for POS, but I don't know enough about it to comment, and it is very difficult to understand at this stage.

I see a lot of people talk about bitcoin's value for microtransactions. This is not the case. Broadcasting every transaction to every user is optimal for security, but not for doing tiny low value transactions. The fees will get too expensive. Something will emerge to take over microtransactions.

DeathAndTaxes had this to say about it:
I also want to buy for stars/skrill/vegas cash. Lots of smart money on 2p2, so no one selling. Just wire money onto bitstamp.

hey, i already admitted i'm an idiot. thats why i asked if the low volume makes that much of a difference. also, because it is difficult to get actual usd on btc-e, it is always a little bit lower on there than gox. i imagine that you could cause a sizeable crash on there with a mere 500 btc sale, simply because nobody has the cash to buy, even if they are licking their lips, drooling over getting your bitcoins. perhaps this is the floor, then? people were willing to sell at 65, doesn't that mean something? i am a bitcoin supporter, so i'm not trying to say they are worthless. i certainly hope that they return to 200 asap.

Still want to buy $3,000 btc. Anyone selling?

All,

Interesting read: http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/04/...-its-close-up/

Im beginning to think people don't actually read this thread and instead just post anything and everything. Guess that explains why you have 41k posts. Wonder how many are re-posts.

Raine,

187 of them are reposts.

This is a pretty long thread ...

Dear TomCollins,

I was unfamiliar with your postings until I recently started frequenting this thread. I appreciate your unbiased and knowledgeable posts. When I say knowledgeable I don't mean specifically btc but using your knowledge to give us your perspective on it. I see you started posting right from the start.


Dear sethseth,

Thank you for your knowledgeable posts about btc. You are obviously a believer but do not give unrealistic visions of it's future which some believers are wont to do.


To all the trolls,

Thank you as your posts bring replies from good posters which enlighten those seeking understanding. I always try to stand under.

well, it looks like people got some cash onto btc-e. price at 74 and rising fast.

Bitstamp back up to $76. Ship it.

The article says "mainstream investors are getting involved" in reality, the winklevoss twins are the only mainstream investors actually buying bitcoins, the rest are trying to make money off of people trying to buy bitcoins, while others (like a professor of alternative currencies) say they wouldn't touch it with a barge pole.


Righhhhtt, so there's only two type of people ITT - those who are knowledgeable and agree with bitcoin being a good "investment" ... And trolls?

You don't actually fancy countering the hundreds of points ITT, and also from practically all economists, investors, and professors that say bitcoins are a bad investment, you'll just go on your gut-feeling?

love the imbalance

This is going to be very entertaining when mt gox opens.

Indeed. 2 hrs and 40 min

does anyone know who the owners of mt gox are? It sure looks some kids from basement playing "stock exchange" owners....

http://www.theverge.com/2013/4/1/415...ons-of-bitcoin

That really is a shame. I'd give you some pretty sweet odds though.

tnx

I'll be en route to a thing at 10, might leave an hour early so I have time to sit in my car at 10 and refreshrefreshrefresh
Opinions on what the price is going to do anyone?

There is a vast sum of USD on Mt. Gox. I'm looking forward to huge volume to see if the upgrades have reduced lag.

Thanks. Just sent wires to mtgox and bitstamp. I'll try to post lag times for both when they finally hit my accounts.

btw if you wanna see a shady as hell (imo) stock exchange setup, look into MPEX (mpex.co). It's literally a BTC stock exchange, that Satoshi Dice "went public" on. From what I've read, and I may be getting some stuff wrong, the guy who runs it has a history of some shady stuff involving black hat SEO or something and was (I may have this totally wrong, sethseth probably knows) pretending to be a girl on bitcointalk for a while and trying to get people to send him $50 of BTC to post topless photos.

Again, a disclaimer: I may have some details totally wrong, but that's my understanding.

I know a guy who has a bunch in Portland, but I don't know if he's willing to sell at the moment. I sent him a message and will PM you if he is interested.

Only idiots are saying amazon will accept bitcoins tomorrow. We are just pointing out the potential of a currency that has relatively low fees. BitPay says amazon pays 1b in fees and makes 1b in profit. There is obv some potential for disruption there. Bitcoin could eventually be it. You write pretty well and are making way better posts than some other bears, but some of the stuff you are saying is clearly wrong. Have you read the Bitcoin FAQ and Bitcoin Myths?

BitPay would not be able to process Amazon's volume. There isn't enough liquidity on the exchanges. The bitcoin market has to grow more.

A couple of people have told me it takes 30 days for dwolla to verify 1st timers.

Obv you are not aware that a hedge fund bought .73% of all the bitcoins.

Your MTgox wire should clear without verification, but you will need to verify to withdraw, and they might randomly freeze your account until you verify.