Bitcoin Breaches $1,000 Price Point, And Rising

[Karloff]

Bitcoin Breaches $1,000 Price Point, And Rising

Now that it's worth a mint, people are beginning to realize what Bitcoins are.

For the first time ever, a Bitcoin is worth over $1,000 per unit, on all exchanges. At time of writing bitcoinprice rates it at 1006.48, which means that 7,500 stash that some loon lost in a landfill [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/130045-Man-Throws-Away-7-2-Million-Bitcoin-Stash-Now-Buried-In-Landfill] is now worth over $7.5 million, and rising.

But he isn't the only one to have suddenly realized Bitcoins are worth real money. "Over the last few days, my friends, parents friends, and people that I never thought would buy Bitcoin have contacted me," says Dan Held of ZeroBlock [http://www.zeroblock.com/], "not asking 'what is Bitcoin,' but 'how do I get Bitcoin?'"

China [http://money.cnn.com/2013/11/18/investing/bitcoin-china/index.html] is driving the market price. The largest Bitcoin exchange in the world is Chinese, and Beijing-based Baidu is one of Bitcoin's chief boosters. Support for Bitcoin doesn't hurt China's US$ reserves, and Bitcoin's well regarded in Africa, where China's establishing strong trade relationships.

Just how high will it go? Well, look at it this way. Remember that story back in July, when someone used the ESEA [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/125688-ESEA-Faces-Lawsuit-Over-Bitcoin-Mining-Scandal] to put Bitcoin mining malware onto player's computers? The amount allegedly raised was something close to $4,000, at a time when Bitcoin was trading for about $75 a pop at its highest mark. That means the Bitcoin stash was probably close to 53 coins, give or take. The same stash would be worth over $50K today.

I really want a time machine right about now.

Source: Wired [http://www.wired.com/business/2013/11/bitcoin-one-thousand/]


Permalink

 

[synobal]

Ya I mined about 100 maybe 120 coins back in the day when bit coin first came out. I then forgot about it and lost my wallet information, they were worth next to nothing back then, so I try not to think to much about it. Stories like this make it difficult though.

I'm impressed though that bitcoin has stuck around and has been as successful as it has been. The idea seemed ludicrous to me and still does honestly.

 

[Genocidicles]

I don't like where the future is going with all this nonsense.

 

[Albino Boo]

Bitcoin is just another rerun of tulip mania. Bitcoins are not a widely used method of exchange, you can't walk into the average shop and spend them, neither can you pay your bills or taxes with them. They are not usable as collateral for a loan and their very design makes it impossible to be used in the banking system. Their primary use appears to be those seeking certain chemicals when purchasing online from people who have no desire to be traced.

 

[Worgen]

This is going to crash and crash hard. If you have any you might want to think about selling sooner rather than later.

 

[Jeroenr]

when they started i found them questionble.
I still do, i just don't belief in limitless growed.

And the way it is used bugs me to.
you just cant realy use it to pay as things are now.
If je pay $10 in coins today, tomorow you may have payed $15.
So its just not sesible to do.

Best thing to happen now is that it levels out, but i fear it wil freefall and kost a lot of people a lot of money.

 

[walrusaurus]

if i had bitcoins right now i'd be scrambling to dump them as fast as a possibly can. This level of exponential growth is totally unsustainable, bitcoins going to crash hard and fast, probably not to far in the future.

 

[Chatboy 91]

When Bitcoins first started I had looked into mining. But, since I've only used nVidia cards in all of my computers, there was no point in trying to mine them.

Now a days I work at a computer parts shop, and it's almost comical how many HD7900 and R9 series cards have flown out of the store with this news. You spend up to $600 on GPUs, ~$200 for a half-decent Mobo and CPU, and you make all of it back after you mine a single coin.

 

[synobal]

Ya I mined about 100 maybe 120 coins back in the day when bit coin first came out. I then forgot about it and lost my wallet information, they were worth next to nothing back then, so I try not to think to much about it. Stories like this make it difficult though.

I'm impressed though that bitcoin has stuck around and has been as successful as it has been. The idea seemed ludicrous to me and still does honestly.

better find your wallet info then...

Cant it is long gone.

 

[medv4380]

More bitcoin propaganda from Escapists snake oil sales man.
You know that Bitcoins were above 1000 with your last bit of bitcoin propaganda on the 27th.

How about you focus on Gaming News and not trying to sucker more people into the scam.

 

[medv4380]

More bitcoin propaganda from Escapists snake oil sales man.
You know that Bitcoins were above 1000 with your last bit of bitcoin propaganda on the 27th.

How about you focus on Gaming News and not trying to sucker more people into the scam.

yeah, because I'm still baffled. If something is valued at a 1000 it typically means that there is someone who will or has poaid 1000 realworld dollars for one... some how I doubt this.

This smacks of trying to create one's own bubble.

Mania is always baffling. There are people willing to spend the money. Not many, but they do exist. On the 29th someone was willing to spend 1242 per bitcoin, but today the last price was 1017 as of right now.

At a minimum this smacks of a conflict of interest that would get a real reporter fired. If this was a financial, tech, or investment web site it would be ok, but as a gaming website this story doesn't belong here.

 

[UNHchabo]

At a minimum this smacks of a conflict of interest that would get a real reporter fired. If this was a financial, tech, or investment web site it would be ok, but as a gaming website this story doesn't belong here.

The Escapist posts lots of news that's not gaming-related. Take Andy Chalk's series of John McAfee articles, for instance:

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/127611-John-McAfees-Death-Disappoints-John-McAfee
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/120607-Updated-McAfee-AntiVirus-Founder-Wanted-for-Murder
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/120938-UPDATE-Vice-Journalists-Reveal-McAfees-Secret-Location
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/125178-John-McAfee-Snorts-Bath-Salts-Uninstalls-McAfee-Anti-Virus
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/128265-John-McAfee-Reveals-Decentral-Anti-NSA-Spying-Gadget

 

[samahain]

YeuwH!

I always sneered at money without effort.
Seriously. This whole gimmick -and I never use this term lightly- spells fraud to me.

Yes, it practically generates money out of thin air.
Money most users are going to omit on their tax form,
because it is so cool that it's not monitored by "Eeeevil BankerZ"
and they believe that it's all theirs, and so forth.

If I told my grandpa that you could plug a machine that heats food in seconds, he'd have bought one for home.
If I told my grandpa that you could plug a machine that sends letters right away, he'd have bought one for work.
If I told my grandpa that you could plug a machine that is a world-scale database, he'd have wish to know more.
If I told my grandpa that you could plug a machine that makes money, he'd have called the feds.

 

[Xeorm]

yeah, because I'm still baffled. If something is valued at a 1000 it typically means that there is someone who will or has poaid 1000 realworld dollars for one... some how I doubt this.

This smacks of trying to create one's own bubble.

Mania is always baffling. There are people willing to spend the money. Not many, but they do exist. On the 29th someone was willing to spend 1242 per bitcoin, but today the last price was 1017 as of right now.

At a minimum this smacks of a conflict of interest that would get a real reporter fired. If this was a financial, tech, or investment web site it would be ok, but as a gaming website this story doesn't belong here.

This site posts news on random tech related stuff all the time, even things related to space. Anything that they deem "cool" and techy usually has a bid at getting posted, so I'd hesitate in accusing anyone for merely reporting on this.

But yes, this is a very weird currency, and rising too fast to be a functional currency for anything beyond buying things that one wouldn't want to be tracked. Or gambling that it will rise and make an investment that way.

 

[weirdee]

people think bitcoins are better than gold now, but

this sort of looks like a bubble...

 

[uchytjes]

I'm taking all bets on how long it'll take for this bubble to burst or otherwise crash horribly.

 

[Vaccine]

It's all well and good till you realize you can do almost fuck all with them.