Are we allowed to talk about Bitcoin?

RickStain · Apr 2, 2014

http://www.beepboopbitcoin.com/

Dick Whitman · Apr 2, 2014

http://blockchain.info/charts/market-price

Down to $457 from a high of $1,151.

They are just baseball cards now, traded among a diminishing bunch of hobbyists.

The Big Ragu · Apr 2, 2014

From the FT today: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ed3ee914-ba4f-11e3-aeb0-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2xkEporhg

Bitcoin set for fresh Chinese regulatory attack

By Simon Rabinovitch in Shanghai

Already reeling from a regulatory onslaught, Bitcoin exchanges in China are braced for yet another blow from the central bank that would imperil their survival.

The People’s Bank of China is considering whether to order the country’s banks to close Bitcoin trading accounts, according to people familiar with the matter. If that order goes through, it would eliminate the last major remaining channel by which people in China can buy the virtual currency.

Caixin, a local financial magazine, first reported the ban last week, saying it would come into effect by April 15. But the country’s Bitcoin exchanges say they have not yet received notices from their banks and that business continues as usual, for now.

“This would be a bad thing for the exchanges. But it is certainly within the realm of what the government is allowed to do. We are taking things one day at a time,” said Bobby Lee, chief executive of BTC China, one of the country’s top exchanges.

The price of Bitcoin in China has fallen to Rmb2,950 ($475), down 17 per cent since Thursday when the Caixin report was published. Bitcoin has fallen nearly 60 per cent from its peak in November, shortly before the Chinese authorities announced the first of their measures to rein in the virtual currency’s then-explosive growth in China.

Beijing ruled in December that individuals were free to buy and sell Bitcoin at their own risk. But after deeming it to be an online product rather than a currency, the government prohibited all Chinese financial institutions from conducting any Bitcoin transactions. It also barred third-party payment providers from serving Bitcoin exchanges.

China’s plucky Bitcoin exchanges – many of which are run by tech entrepreneurs who chafe against government regulations – thought they had found a way around the ban on payment providers. By accepting payment from customers directly in their corporate accounts, the exchanges themselves filled the gap left by payment providers and allowed people to continue buying Bitcoins.

The new central bank document threatens to end that, by preventing China’s Bitcoin exchanges from even holding corporate bank accounts.

Nevertheless, an executive with one of China’s leading Bitcoin exchanges, speaking on condition of anonymity, said he believed the new regulations were in draft stage and that they would not be as harsh as feared. He also said exchanges would still have workarounds if corporate accounts are closed
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“Our core concern is whether Bitcoin is legal. The PBoC notice, if it comes, might increase transaction fees and reduce trading volume, but Bitcoin would still be legal,” he said.

The regulations to date have already undercut the Bitcoin market in China, with daily transaction volumes down by as much as 80 per cent from their peak last year, according to industry estimates.

Bitcoin offered people an easy route around China’s tight capital controls, and many observers believe the central bank’s crackdown was aimed at reinforcing the country’s defences against cross-border capital flows.

Additional reporting by Emma Dong
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None of this should be surprising. China uses capital controls to manage its economy. Bitcoin's main selling point -- as a currency, as opposed to a payment system -- is that it is a way to get around capital controls. I am surprised the Chinese haven't squashed it already.

Dick Whitman · Jan 15, 2015

Down to $217.

Bitcoin Price Index - Real-time Bitcoin Price Charts

bigpern23 · Jan 15, 2015

Wonder if that's why "Bitcoin Jesus" wants so badly to be able to re-enter the U.S. to conduct business after he already renounced his citizenship to avoid paying taxes.

Addicting Info – Millionaire Renounces US Citizenship To Dodge Taxes, Whines When He Can’t Come Back

YankeeFan · Aug 11, 2017

Dick Whitman said: ↑

When do you guys predict BitCoin becomes essentially valueless? I say by the end of calendar year 2014.
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Dick Whitman said: ↑

Market Price (USD)

Down to $457 from a high of $1,151.

They are just baseball cards now, traded among a diminishing bunch of hobbyists.
Click to expand...

Dick Whitman said: ↑

Down to $217.

Bitcoin Price Index - Real-time Bitcoin Price Charts
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So, does anyone here own any Bitcoin?

Dick Whitman · Aug 11, 2017

It seems to surge when people have reason to think the world is coming to an end shortly.

cjericho · Aug 11, 2017

YankeeFan said: ↑

So, does anyone here own any Bitcoin?

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Songbird said: ↑

So I bought a little BTC today. It's in my BTC wallet. It's readily available currency. What I'll use it for right now, I don't know. Maybe I'll keep building it as a nest egg of sorts.

Or I could go to a coffee shop in NYC tomorrow and pay for a coffee and bagel with it, if the cafe accepts bitcoin, and more and more businesses are.

I'm also still trying to figure out the concept within the concept. There's definitely a stock market feel to it, if you buy and sell daily, which many BTC'ers do. For now I have about .060 in BTC. Right now that's worth about $57, give or take some pennies, depending on the volatility of it all.
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Dick Whitman · Aug 11, 2017

"Why does BitCoin suck now?"

Songbird · Aug 11, 2017

LOL. I had maybe 400 bucks in BitCoin as of that last post of mine. I basically dumped my account 3 years ago.

Stoney · Aug 11, 2017

Wow. A couple years ago I was certain bitcoin was doomed to become one of those tech words that once meant something but then disappeared ... sorta like Netscape and Alta Vista. Just add it to the long list of things I've been wrong about.

If nothing else, bitcoin is fascinating. The notion that a non-governmental entity can just make up a new currency and get the world to buy in ...who knew?

Buck · Aug 11, 2017

I had to look up bitcoin on Lycos.

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Are we allowed to talk about Bitcoin?

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