Not sure where you're getting these prices from. Marketwatch says 15.5 now and a high today of 16.4.

I think GDAX just broke. They went into Post Only mode. It's been sitting at $16,299 for the last 20 minutes.

The trade history is stuck at 11:58am.

Saw a report on national news about these. Youngest Bitcoin millionaire (19) invested $1,000.00 seven years ago and now worth over $1,000,000.00. Warren Buffett was warning about them. Get out while you can kid!

BTC hit $19,600 on GDAX before the platform crashed along with parent Coinbase. This is VERY peculiar.

My Bittrex account is working fine and showing a 24hr high of only $15,825. Really, really strange.

And Mark Cuban called a bubble at $3,000. The market dipped slightly, he then bought into BTC claiming that he's always been a supporter of blockchain technology. So BFD what any billionaire SAYS, watch what they DO.

Warren Buffet is either playing the "Mark Cuban" game to get in at a lower price, or he's afraid that if this goes high enough, he'll lose his place at the top end of the billionaire's club. Soon to be taken over by a bunch of millennials wearing headphones.

As I've said many times before, I'm an idiot. Yet somehow I predicted (Post 354) the breakthrough past $10k, the rally to $12k (reached $11.6k), before my accurately predicted correction thereafter.

I also predicted the breakthrough past $15k.

But that doesn't make me a genius. I have no delusions of being some investing guru.

When you really boil it all down, whether it's trading stocks, options, or crypto currency, I'm just playing around with some electrons. Sometimes those electrons move in my favor, other times, not so much.

It honestly won't become real (to me) until it's cold hard cash/gold in my hands.

That's just my opinion, I could be wrong.... see post #354

the NiceHash hack has resulted in a hundred thousand noobs who can barely install a video card driver suddenly jumping into Monero pools, drastically raising the difficulty of the coin i've been happily mining for the last month!

I do agree get the hard cash or gold, etc in hand. Remember the dot.com of the 90's I'm sure they thought that would never end either.

Never mind. It's all gone.

Fuckin electrons!!!!

Anybody have a line on some cheap Ramen Noodles?

I'm cool with the expired stuff.

Hmmm... mining, none of the risk, all reward. Sorry bro, but your post regarding mining has actually inspired me to do the same...

Er, on a much larger scale.

Signed,

Noob

My GDAX sell executed at $16,985. Within 30 minutes, I watched it climb to $19,200 and then abruptly crash to around $14,500. I got auto-logged out and was frantically trying to log in and buy it back, but it kept throwing an error.

It seems to be behaving reasonably now, but it was pretty wild for a little.

I JUST got on GDAX. BTC shows a low of $13,500, and a high of $19,697.

Trading at exactly $17k right now.

Still trading at $15,500 on Bittrex.

Buy on Bittrex and sell on GDAX.

Too bad the transfer between wallets would take an hour. I moved some from my Trezor to Coinbase this morning and it took about 90 minutes for it to hit 6 confirmations. That was even paying the highest tier fee.

After dealing with Coinbase crashing, I now own some Bitcoin. Prepare for the nosedive.

meh, if i'd spent that money on XMR instead of XMR mining hardware, i'd be up 300% instead of still waiting to break even. i mean i WILL break even and then profit, since i'm accumulating coins steadily, but it takes time.

utlimately, compared to simply buying coins, i think there is less risk involved with mining, but it also takes a lot longer to pay off, and there is less upside.

Weird. I just checked Polonex, Kraken and Gemini and they are all around the $15,500 mark. GDAX is $17,200. What da' fu*k is going on here....??

It's broke again. The price is bouncing around like crazy and trades appear to be executing out of order. I've watched a trade for $17,000 get executed and then the next one is for $17,500. Then it goes back to $17,000.

They definitely have issues.

Edit -> I was able to grab a screenshot.

This shouldn't happen. $17,260 -> $17,395 -> $17260.

Capture.JPG

LOL....should we thank you now?

BTW...the price of Bitcoin will "correct"...might even overcorrect, and then it will march upwards once again...HODL! (Or sell and then buy at the correction if you're into that sort of thing). With my coins being held in self directed IRA I really can't move quickly...I can't just jump on Coinbase and buy/sell instantly. That's okay though...I'm holding at minimum through the end of 2018 into 2019 depending on what's happening. Like I said...I'm going big or losing it. I don't plan to cash out with just 2-4x what I put in (if that were the case I'd be cashing out already). Might sound stupid to some but that was my plan from the get go. Buy, hold, get a massive profit or a possible total loss.

I get the concept of "playing with house money" but I didn't put in just to cut some of the potential profits...even at the cost of losing my initial investment. So what price will I sell at? I currently have no idea (which probably isn't a good thing). I see potential of Bitcoin exceeding 100k. My thoughts right now is if it does hit 100k then at that point I might pull out 2x what I put in (which at that point would be less than one Bitcoin) and then let the rest ride.

If it really catches on as "digital gold" then I now expect the price to hit at least 400k. That's a massively big if though.

Either you're correct and Bitcoin will go crazy in the next 1-2 years, or you will be reading my viral article "How I destroyed Bitcoin with $400"

I'm already down to $377.98 SUCKERS
update: $370.84 and falling

Can I buy an autographed copy if that happens?

Trades happen when the buyer and seller criteria align... that doesn't necessarily result in a continuous line of prices.

I will scrape my final dollar out of that system and Sharpie "BITCOIN KILLER" on it for you.

I sealed the deal with a lunch money wager. No way it's hitting 20k now!

It will go crazy over the next couple years but I don't see 400k being that fast (but what the hell do I know). There will be many "peaks and valleys" along they way.

Well you did buy near one of the peaks....maybe...possibly (who the hell knows anymore?)

That’s the thing. It doesn’t matter where or when I buy. It tanks as soon as I buy it. That’s the whole point. I’m going to destroy Bitcoin and ruin lives for the cost of a ColorDMD. Let that sink in.

$360.24 and falling.

Is anyone still using Bitcoin as currency or is everyone just speculating? Steam just recently dropped Bitcoin as a mode of payment due to it's price volatility and the per-transaction cost.

Let's be honest here very few (if anyone these days) is going to be using Bitcoin as a currency in daily transactions (except maybe to speculate on other crypto's). It's just going up too fast.

That being said Bitcoin does not actually EVER need to be utilized as a currency to become even more valuable. It looks like it's literally turning into the de facto "digital store of value". I know many of you hate this but...... "digital gold".

From what I've read the last BTC will be mined in 2140. 2020 is the next halving. Though mining will get exponentially more difficult there will be new technology added to BTC to enhance efficiency, such as the lightning protocol beta tested yesterday.

Though I do think that power consumption is an issue, I think the creative minds at work will continue to improve the blockchain and find efficient solutions to improve mining profitability.

With all these articles coming out about mining consumption, I would like to see comparisons made for the total global energy drain for classes of consumer electronics, such as refrigerators, TVs, etc. My guess is that those statistics would help provide some much needed context here.

yep, i misread that.

What percentage of people who have invested in bitcoin truly understand cryptocurrency? I bet it's less than 1%.

I have a friend who is in on some Bitcoin. He has been enthusiastic.

It was an investment for him.

But he is enthusiastic. I'll get more details.

I don't have surplus cash, but I like learning. I appreciate the discussion here and with the guy.

The piece you are missing is those things provide something in return for their energy...

And let's be real... they are comparing the energy output of entire COUNTRIES..

But to spitball for you... a refrigerator made post 2000 should consume about 600kWh. In 2016, there were approx 126 million households in the US. If you assume 1 for a reasonable average.. That's 75.6GWh... compared to the 32.3TWh estimate from the source article. So Bitcoin is consuming 427 TIMES the amount of energy of all the fridges in the US. I considering the US probably has one of the highest rates of penetration for that kind of consumer good.. and the US is about 4-5% of the global population.. that means even at US rates (upper limit), Bitcoin is about 20x more energy than the thing that keeps our food safe at home... globally.

And Bitcoin does nothing.

Such a model always requires 3 separate parties to agree... The buyer, the seller, and the NEXT buyer. As such, the strength is only as good as the faith of the NEXT guy in the chain. Government backing works because the NEXT guy has faith in the government's willingness to trade him out... or if the thing traded itself has other uses, the buyer is confident they will be able to move it on again for value.

That's why having something BEHIND the unit is the difference that makes something stable or not. Bitcoin does not and is driven almost entirely by speculation. That means, as soon as confidence flops... so will any potential for trade value.

You don't need bitcoin to represent a verifiable token you can trade and pass along. Until someone with something of value is willing to stand behind bitcoin and garuntee its value to a commodity that makes sense outside of Bitcoin... it's value is only as good as the speculation that more people will get involved later.

Meaning.. it's just a time game. And there will be technical hurdle or pivot before the clock runs out anyway that will cause the shock.

holy crap, I just found out I have 13k in bitcoin! I had a little under one bit coin from a couple years ago that I forgot about, till my dad told me about bitcoin prices. I bought a few bitcoins, spent some and left the remainder in there because I was to lazy to mess with it, guess laziness paid off.

should I leave it in there?

cash out and offer 13k for for CCr on the marketplace

If I were in your shoes, I would leave it there. You already weren't missing it, so why not ride it out and see if Bitcoin goes 10x again? Worst case is you lose something you've already once forgotten you had.

Edit: Another option to consider is just taking half out. Then if the value doubles later, take half again, and if it doubles again, take half, etc. That way you're getting rewarded ~$6.5k each time Bitcoin doubles and you've offloaded some risk of holding, while at the same time you still have some skin in the game if the value really skyrockets.

True...but if "the next guy in line" involves the entire planet it could still serve that purpose for a long time (possibly).

It does have other uses. In the future (possibly even the near future with successful lighting network transactions having already taken place) it may very well serve as a useful currency once the volatility eases up (and as long as it doesn't completely crash beforehand). It's ultimate value as a useful currency (maybe) could push its value even higher than its usefulness as a "digital gold".

It's all extremely speculative...I've never denied or even shied away from that reality.

Easier said than done...but I'm with ya.

That’s what I’d do. $6500 is a lot of money. If you’re in the market for Pins, that’ll pay for 4-5 tidy SS pins! Or a new Stern Pro with change!

You can stare at those pins in your house, and say “look at my free pins!”

Then you can ride out the market with your other free $6500.

rd

Such logic assumes you have an audience that hasn't heard the bad news 'yet'. Not a theory to bank on in the world where social buzz spreads faster than actual news.

I might be banging a supermodel.. and get hit by a meteor at the same time. Maybe...

'once volatility eases up' - this is a misnomer in itself when there is nothing to stabilize it and its all fueled by speculation. That's why the issue is getting WORSE, not better.
The bigger the target it has... the more risk of government intervention or hacks or disruptors. The market isn't going to get better as it grows... it stands to get worse. Decentralized systems tend to get more chaotic/segmented as they grow... not settle down.

It's very hard to gain stability later when the system lives on 'ifs' and 'when'.

so your telling me (resized).jpg

If he invested $1000 seven years ago he'd have more like $15 million now.

Can you imagine? If that were me I'd cash out half right now and let the rest ride.

Nope, I was wrong. If you bought $1000 of Bitcoin 7 years ago and held it all, that would be worth over $100 million now.

And 7 years ago, I guarantee there were pundits calling Bitcoin a Ponzi scheme, a pyramid scam, and a tulip repeat, all while bragging how they weren't going to be the sucker who threw away $1,000 on this nutcase crap.

My big question is about fluidity of investing and cashing in. And in an environment not prone to hacking and identity theft. If I do my securities and investments though a "regular" bank can I include these? Can I just say put $5K into Xcoin an pull when it hits "x" or on this date?

I don't have CrapCoin cash machines or want to sit there every day watching. I guess the speculation stuff is coming up soon and people like me can suck the life out investing that way (sorry).

If you're investing anything through a "regular bank" you're doing it wrong...IMHO.

Most people use brokerages for investing.
For cryptos you need to use an exchange that deals in cryptocurrencies.

So guys, if somebody has a few expandable bucks to gamble at this thing, what do you suggest?
BTC because it's the big name in the game?
Some others because they have more room to grow and aren't as wildly volatile?

May I suggest splitting your bucks and getting a little bit of both?

1st. Do some homework so you know what you want to invest in and why.

Personally I'd stick with crypto's in the top 10 (by market cap).

Love to see people in this thread clowining on a self-made billionaire 80 times over. Of course a value oriented investor is skeptical of a 'digital promise to pay' system that is rising at an unsustainable rate

Allegedly Buffett made some of his early business money building and selling a small pinball route in the 40s in Omaha. As he is one of the original pinheads I have to side with him on this one.

Plan to just lose the money. I don't know how anyone entering the market now could throw major cash at this thing at its current price & feel comfortable. You're trading with a market full of gamblers that got in early and are as dumbfounded as everyone else at where this thing has gone. It's like Farmville currency being brought out into the real world and everyone that was just playing it as a game suddenly finding themselves overnight millionaires and billionaires. People sitting on tons of coins have nothing to lose & everything to gain by hyping it up more. They're trading between the cryptos to make money -- pulling out at the peak, buying back in when they (or others) cause a dip. Case in point, this morning around 6:30am Bitcoin dropped $2k for a bit. All the other major cryptos saw a spike. Then as Bitcoin was bought again, the other cryptos went down. Major players (maybe the miners) probably have this stuff automated. Buying low, selling high.. skimming off the top.

https://www.deepdotweb.com/2017/04/30/tutorial-altcoin-flipping-cryptocurrency-trading-strategies-always-win/

The good thing is the new tech coming out of this will be useful for a lot of things & blockchain tech itself is getting a lot of press. It's also highly interesting that something was created that flew under the radar long-enough that it's ultimately allowing for "the greatest transfer of wealth in history". Hopefully enough of the new-found rich will be doing good things for society.